Digitizing 35mm Telecine transfers into FCP/Cinema Tools

First my questions:

Each day of Dailies is on a separate tape designated by its hour. First day = Hour 1, second day = Hour 2 and so on....

What happens on the 25th day? Is there an hour 25? Or does it revert back to Hour 1.

And if there is a second tape of Hour 1, how does FCP distinguish between the two tapes which has the correct data?

It seems the Source TC is the only reference FCP uses when matching back keycode, CR, Scene & Take info when exporting film lists.

The current project I'm involved with has 2 tapes of Hour 1. Even though the camera rolls, scenes & takes, and Key numbers are totally different on each tape, FCP is spitting out the film lists with the wrong information. The only thing correct is the Source TC. Unfortunately, it's the wrong source Hour 1.

How can I fix this?

Any help in this matter will be greatly appreciated!!!!!

You revert to hour 1...but this happens on the 24th hour. Tape machines only go up to hour 23.

And if there is a second tape of Hour 1, how does FCP distinguish between the two tapes which has the correct data?

By you naming the tapes...REEL NAME. This is what you are supposed to do no matter WHAT edit system you are on.

It seems the Source TC is the only reference FCP uses when matching back keycode, CR, Scene & Take info when exporting film lists.

Incorrect...also refers to reel name.

DID YOU NAME YOUR REELS!?!?!


www.shanerosseditor.com

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> The only thing correct is the Source TC. Unfortunately, it's the wrong source Hour 1.

The art of assistant-editor work is rapidly becoming lost. Scary.

You never, ever, ever log a clip without a Reel Name. You never, ever start logging until you've gone through your tapes and made sure each one has a unique, systematic, logical name clearly labelled both on the box and on the tape itself (master tapes can easily end up in the wrong boxes especially if the director or producer mucks with the editing system while you're gone). And you never, ever start a capture without checking the Reel Name.

Go back and do that work now, and triple-check to make sure each clip does come from the tape specified in the batch list. It's dreadfully boring work which, as you're discovering, pays off in spades in the long run. You cannot rely on FCP to do this work for you, as Shane describes above.


www.derekmok.com

Yes. Hour 1 is listed as "001" in the "Reel" column, and the second Hour 1 is listed as "021"

(Just a quick FYI - I'm the 3rd Assistant Editor hired to fix this problem)

> (Just a quick FYI - I'm the 3rd Assistant Editor hired to fix this problem)

Ouch. I've done that before as well. Just don't forget to go to the source of the issue -- make sure the tapes are labelled properly. I don't think there's a fast way to do this other than elbow grease -- cross-checking the tapes and clips by hand. It's the only way to make sure all the clips are accurate. But at least the timecodes will help you narrow it down to two or three tapes that start on that hour. You're fortunate not to have to do this work on, oh, 120 DV tapes that all start at 00:00:00:00.


www.derekmok.com

I think I found it. Thanks everyone for your instant help!

Movie was shot last November/ December. They did re-shoots in May of this year and used the same Telecine house, yet, they logged the ALE as "001" also.

If I change that day's ALE reel name on each item to "026", create new a new datatbase, will I be able to simply change the Reel Name in the Reel column of FCP or will I have to redigitize with all the new clip information with the media?

> will I be able to simply change the Reel Name in the Reel column of FCP or will I have to
> redigitize with all the new clip information with the media?

When you change the Reel Name information on a clip, FCP should come up with a message saying the file on disk will be modified. So theoretically speaking, you should be okay. If you want to check the metadata of the file independent of the project file, close the old project file, start a new one and re-import the clip. Some metadata will be lost (Log Notes aren't saved as part of the clip -- they are part of the project file), but Reel Name should be updated to what you had changed.

Here's another way to tackle an issue like this. If the reel was misnamed, say, "001" when it should've been "027", instead of having to go through and do "001=027", "002=028" and so on, you could rename the reel to "1001". That allows it to have some semblance to the original wrong reel name while still making sure the reel name is unique. Unless you have over 999 tapes, you'll be fine. Also, you know that you can select multiple clips and change all their Reel Names by CONTROL-clicking on that column, right?


www.derekmok.com

Thanks for reminding about that control-click the clips tip!

I'll let everyone know what happens to put closure to this thread.

normal practice down here is to change the Hr number back to 1 after 20, not 24
so you roll back to 1 after every 20 tapes.


nick

But that hour-thing on the Dailies would have nothing to do with me. That would be the house that did the transfers. They don't seem to have a "system."