automatting TC information?

I'm an assistant editor on a reality series and one of our deliverables is a time-coded script. This is the first time I've dealt with the time-consuming chore of typing in every damn TC for every new line of dialog. Is there any way to automate this? I understand that flagging the in-points for the dialog is an unavoidable process, but typing in those numbers--well, there's got to be a work around, right?

I imagine there's a way to get FCP markers out of FCP as a text file OR a plug-in that will export that info...something!

If a time-coded script is a common deliverable for a reality series, then how do you all do it? What's the easiest way? I'm open to any suggestion.

Thanks!!

Sorry man, no magic plugin for that. It is just one of the TEDIOUS tasks they assign to the assistant editor. I've done it, my assistants do it. Assistants are there to do all the tedious stuff, so that the editor is available to create.

The way I always did it was me, the assistant editor, at the controls of the machine would go to the location where the dialoge started and verbally say the timecode to the associate producer who sat behind me taking down the information.

Part of your job man.


www.shanerosseditor.com

Listen to THE EDIT BAY Podcast on iTunes
[itunes.apple.com]

Well, time code logging hardware/software has been around for a very very long time. RS-422 or LTC into some device attached to a computer, hit keys to insert code. I had one working on my Amiga way back when... I have one for my Palm Pilot which I can't name 'cause it's been on the shelf so long.

Some softwares you can use with QTs outside of FCP: InqScribe, QTMovieNoteTaker, MovieLogger. Some limitations in each as to support for source TC. Inqscribe works best for me for general-use transcripts and closed captioning prep.

Wasn't somebody working on a way to usefully export marker lists?

Wouldn't it be faster to just jot down the timecode as you go, rather than have to make FCP markers, then type the line?

Two tools that can make this easier:

1. SHIFT-Left/Right Arrow to jump one second back/forward on the timeline, when pinpointing the exact line.

2. View - Show Overlays, View - Timecode Overlay. Much easier to look at the picture when logging rather than going to that tiny timecode window way off to the side.

And you can always not write the hour/minute codes until they change. Just have a four-column sheet made in Word or Excel, update the first two numbers only when they change.


www.derekmok.com

At the risk of taking this farther from what you're actually looking for, I now remember what the device used on Amiga and then DraCo many years ago was. The concept is ingenious and cross platform. A little time code reader plugs in between the computer keyboard and the computer. It of course has an LTC input.

Every time you type a hotkey, it literally types the current time code... whatever software you're using receives it as standard keyboard input.

I think it was from Horita but I don't find it there now.

Obviously it never became Big, but kind of a classic ingenious solution. It's basically the same as what you would do with something like InqScribe, except you can use it in any computer or software, while viewing anything you can tap LTC from.

later: yes, it's there: [horita.com]

Jerry Hester of Horita was one of the "inventors" of time code.

there may be an XML solution for this.

check out Spherico Filmtools and see if anything there helps.
XML2text looks like it might do the trick:
[www.spherico.de]

otherwise this sounds like the perfect job for QuicKeys
[www.cesoft.com]

this is a macro programme that will execute any number of commands with one simple keystroke.
once you've learnt it, which is easy, it will take a fair bit of tweaking to get your macros perfect,
but you will then save so much time it's well worth it.

another thing that could help is if you have a dialogue mix.
with the track size made huge in the timeline, and waveforms turned on, you would be able to "see" the dialogue.


cheers,
nick

Our logging software (pilot ware) takes a timecode signal from a deck over RS-422. Therefore, any entry is "tagged with timecode" with a single key stroke.

If you're manually typing in TC numbers, you're living in the stone age!

Mark

digital heaven make a great logging software called movie logger for clips that are already captured, and another product called final print for printing out a list of markers