Best way to have client choose the clips

I've got 7 tapes and the client wants to choose the clips to be used in the piece. Is it silly to capture all 7 tapes, use the timecode generator, burn some DVDs and have him log what he wants? Will the TCG exactly match the TC of my tapes? What's the best practice?

Yes, but you want timecode reader, not generator. It goes on each clip (copy attributes) and will display actual source time code.

Timecode Generator can be used for a window burn of a sequence but not with source code.

have you thought about a DVD recorder?

you could play directly out of your deck / camera with TC display and record to DVD.
even do it while you're capturing.

of play the captured tapes out of FCP with the TC filter on.
depending on your system you might get pretty good Real Time on that

could save HOURS of export/ encode time.

a lateral approach would be to give them the actual media on a hard drive, and if they had FCP they could log the clips directly for you.
or how about a 3rd party Logging app (might easier to learn that FCP)
[www.digital-heaven.co.uk]


cheers,
nick

I like the idea of playing out of the cameara and displaying TC while I record, but I don't think I can get my lowly zr40 to do that. I know I can't get the TC to dsplay on a monitor. Am I missing something that this camera can do? And thanks above for clarifying TCG and TCR. Great stuff, thanks

It would absolutely be silly to burn that stuff in the Mac, I assumed he'd use a recorder.

Record to external DVD, even VHS. The numbers will be right as long as it's TC Reader attached to each individual clip.

Way way easier yet is to record from the tape deck, which hopefully has a TC burn feature. to the DVD recorder. No RT hassles, no rendering. It's old school but it works. Only good for giving them all the media ainstead of sliced and diced.

Other things to look at along the lines of Nick's suggestion: InqScribe reads source code from QT movies in its latest incarnation. MovieLogger from Digital Heaven. QTMovieLogger has PC and Mac versions but doesn't do source timecode - you'd have to do a burn for that.

Answer to the real question in your post title: the best way is to make the decisions yourself and get the client to think they made them.

i don't know the ZR40, but i;d be VERY surprised if you couldn't turn the TC display on in one of the menus.

look for something labelled "Display"
it;s probably not even a menu item, maybe a button on the side of the camera.
(that's what it'd be on a Sony)


nick

Well then it isn't really timecode but it should do the job. There must be a "display" button on the camcorder or in a menu. Just make the time readout show up on the video output. Or it may be an option to have the viewfinder display show up on the video output.

Don't try to use a FireWire transfer for this - use composite or Y/C (S-video).

If that doesn't work and they're making rough decisions you can manually jam sync a time code reader/burn device to overlay the code. Good to within a few seconds.

Nick, we're like, in tune here.

did i say that, or you?

I can't remember, but it's clear that Dotman has to do what both of us say.

Do you have to protect yourself somehow from the client taking your material or is that what the time code reader is for? I have a client also who wants to chose the clips but I dont feel comfortable giving him all the material unless he wants to pay the total up front plus putting 100's of clips on DVDs would take forever. What do you think? Jennifer