Slightly OT: Reel Numbers

Just curious-

How are you all physically labeling the reel numbers on your tapes?

Are you printing out labels - say, in something like filemaker with reel numbers assigned and automatically printed along with the other tape information?

Or do you guys have numbered stickers? (The kind that come in a roll and are sequentially ordered in pairs so one goes on the tape and one goes on the case)

The reason I ask is because I'm trying to decide whether to invest in filemaker or if I should get sequentially numbered stickers...

Does anyone know those stickers I'm talking about and if so, where to get them?

I use numbered stickers. In one workplace they have about a billion old SP sticker sets that have two sets of one to nine numbers on each of them, and I use these there. At other places, I just put a blank sticker on it and write the number on. Cheap, easy, fast and functional.

If you buy Avery stickers, Microsoft Word has label templates that would allow you to print a whole page of labels with the same information on them, if you need. In the case of reel numbers you'll still have to type them by hand. Or just write on them with a finer Sharpie. Labelling tapes in the exact same way as you call them in the FCP logs is an essential part of your editing prep work.


www.derekmok.com

I usually just write on them. Normally I put the client name, reel number and month and year. If the shoot was multi cam then i include the angel using Alpha so that i don't confuse it with another number on the same label. However, none of my clients have more than 12 tapes for a single project.

So i would have something like:

Mok/Cotter 1b 4/08

I also file by month and week. My insert orders / contracts corresponding blanks that are filed in a CRM and Billings. This electronic filing system is something else to think about because once you pass about 125 tapes its not fun or efficient to thumb thru.
With the electronic file you can do targeted searches that will tell you what tape to look for and where it is stored.

PS: when you go to buy a rack for those tapes to neatly sit in get the biggest one you can find..

""" What you do with what you have, is more important than what you could do, with what you don't have."

> > > Knowledge + Action = Wisdom - J. Corbett 1992 """"

We pre-print VHS face labels with the production name, and spaces for the date, subject, and camera. And we hope to GOD that the camera guys fill that information out...properly.

Then when they come back, we add tape numbers. Typically I just use paper tape, if it I am the one logging the tape it. But when at a production house, they print out stickers on some Avery sticker sheet.

When I assign tape numbers for a single show, I stick to the 6 character format...being a slave to the EDL for many years that is a hard habit to break. SO for Andrew Jackson, I would label them AJ001, AJ002. Mexican American War is MAW001, MAW002...etc.

Now that we are on a series, and the shoot might cover more more than one episode, se dont' stick to that format. And we know that we will NOT be using an EDL, so we aren't sticking to 6 characters. We label by season, city it was shot in, date, and camera. So Season 1, in Los Angeles on March 14, 2008, A camera is 1LAX_031408_A.


www.shanerosseditor.com

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

> And we hope to GOD that the camera guys fill that information out...properly.

I'm still stinging from an ongoing DVCPro HD shoot where they recorded to DAT mostly...but the camera department left the camera mike off. No scratch sound on 90 per cent of the footage. Now we gotta sync the entire thing before we can edit. Grrrr. Oh yeah, I also get multiple "Tape 1s" all the time. When that happens, I add a post-production reel name. It's never wise to wipe out the on-set camera department labels -- in case you need to ask them which tape is which -- but I add a label beside it which says the exact name used for logging. You have to organize well according to post-production protocols.

> SO for Andrew Jackson, I would label them AJ001, AJ002. Mexican American War is MAW001,
> MAW002...etc.

Prefices are our friends.


www.derekmok.com

I stopped using stickers and started writing directly onto the tape face label when one of my more brilliant tape numbering schemes was destroyed by a "helpful" PA who thought those stickers shouldn't be there, but didn't bother to ask anyone before removing them. I write neatly in the lower right hand corner of the tape face, the case face, and the case spine.

I go with the old-school EDL numbering system most of the time. 001, 002, 003, in order how they were shot for the project. If the project has only a few tapes, it's not too confusing, as long as the tapes themselves are labeled with the all the pertinent information like client name, project name & date on the label, which should have been done by the tape op in the field. When they are put into storage, they should all stay together.

If there needs to be more detail because we are pulling tapes from more than one place, I'll add a identifiers. Like SOC08_001, for State of the County 2008, tape 1, and MW_003, for Mobile Workers, tape 3. Sometimes it's a hodgepodge, like I did GenWaste_001 and GlassRecyc_001 for a recycling video because there was a ton of different types of waste that was shot and I needed more than initials and numbers to keep it all straight.

I'm sure for nearly every editor out there exists a different tape numbering scheme!

But I almost always use 001, 002, 003 for single cam shoots. For multi-cam shoots, I use 101, 102, 103 for the A cam tapes, and 201, 202, 203 for the B Cam, and of course, 301, 302, 303 for the C cam, adding letters for identifiers as I see fit when the project is getting too unwieldy.

deb

> one of my more brilliant tape numbering schemes was destroyed by a "helpful" PA who thought
> those stickers shouldn't be there

Good heavens!
Young people on a crew should never assume they know what's going on.

> 001, 002, 003, in order how they were shot for the project. If the project has only a few tapes,
> it's not too confusing

I have no objections to putting certain details of the shoot onto the tape. As long as this is supplemented by a bone-headed, numeric-based approach (eg. 001, 002...) where keeping each reel's name unique is easy.

> For multi-cam shoots, I use 101, 102, 103 for the A cam tapes, and 201, 202, 203 for the B
> Cam, and of course, 301, 302, 303 for the C cam, adding letters for identifiers as I see fit
> when the project is getting too unwieldy.

For multiple cameras, what I do is actually give those tapes the same numbering scheme (ie. Camera A can be 001, but Camera B can be 002 or 006). However, I do put "Cam A" or something like that onto the tape itself (tape as well as the box -- tapes going into the wrong boxes is a common problem). Then while I'm logging, I either add a suffix "CAM A", or I do "XYZ Interview 041308 Clip 01A", "Clip 01B", etc. Using the 201, 301 method can fall apart if you have a lot of tapes, and the "101A", "101B" method, in my view, needs to be reserved for when a tape has timecode breaks. The single most important function of reel names is for capturing, to correctly identify which clip is on which tape, and "001", "0001", "LAX001" etc. are the best way of doing that.

And then there's the problematic situation when I'm not allowed to relabel tapes (eg. it belongs to another produciton company and we're just capturing footage from it). Then my FCP logging column becomes "Evans Group 4/11/2007 Generic WXRT" just because that's how the tape is labelled!


www.derekmok.com

For my work, it's rare that I'd ever have that significant a number of Cam A tapes. I think the most I ever had was 8 per camera. I can see if one was working on a series with 100s of tapes where it might break down. For the sort of work I do, it's always been a easy way for me to identify which angle I want to see. "305? That's the roving shoulder cam. That's over here."

I also put more detailed tape information in the Browser, either as I log or after, depending on the project. That's where I'd put "Camera A", or "Program Feed" or whatever makes the most sense for identifying that specific tape. Depending on the project, there can be loads of detail information in the Browser that identifies the tape, shoot date, interviewee title, etc.

deb

One of my annoyances with FCP is the reel number field in the Capture scratch window. I wish there was a way to pull down a list of previously used reels as there is in Avid. If you use a complex reel numbering scheme the chances of screwing it up when you need to reload a reel is huge. Having three or four similar but different names for the same reel is a pita.

-V

> I wish there was a way to pull down a list of previously used reels as there is in Avid.\

There is. CONTROL-click on a reel name for a clip entry and you'll get a drop-down menu of every reel name used in the Browser.

However, this feature leaves a huge amount to be desired. The reel names are arranged seemingly with no logic (and I always use an alpha-numeric system like "001", "002" etc. -- there's no reason they shouldn't fall in line), and they need an option to be able to access certain reel names without having to deal with all of them.

Oh yeah, and we need reel name and Log Notes columns that aren't restricted in width. With those very convoluted tape labels I mentioned, sometimes the reel name disappears offscreen and you can't drag that column wider to accommodate.


www.derekmok.com

(sfx hand hits forehead)

That is how I fix the problem. Never occurred to me to copy from the browser to the capture tool.

How about this idea. Have the reel name respond the way Excel does creating a list with the first letter you type, then reducing the subset with each matching letter or number typed.

Wider fields would be good, tho I try and keep my entries short.

-V

good info. thanks guys!