Time Code output to D-5 and DigiBeta

Hello,

I'm required to output my film to a D-5 tape and/or Digibeta and I have never done this.

The Post person who is going to help me was able to tell me a bit about it on the phone but I will not be able to talk to him again until Wednesday and this is an urgent matter. I need to be clear on my workflow so that I don't waste any time, and that's why I need your help!

I cut my film on FCP 6 and my movie file is an Apple ProRes HQ file. He told me this is fine and that I should go to D-5 and then go to the other formats.

But then I got confused when he told me I needed to adhere to certain standards (which are not really standards, apparently, as each film festival and TV station has its own rules) for black screen, SMPTE bars and tone, title slate, etc. He gave me this quick list of Time Code points I have to do (at 58:00 black screen, 58:30 - 59:45 SMPTE bars, etc.) I don't understand how I can start my film at 58 minutes. I'm guessing I just have to change the Time Code start point but... How do I do that? I'm just guessing, which means I'm probably totally wrong.

This is the table he gave me:

58:00 - 58:30: Black screen
58:30 - 59:45: SPMTE bars and tone
59:45 - 59:50: Black screen
59:50 - 59:58: Title slate
59:58 - 1:00:00: Black screen

My film has subtitles and they are necessary. However I will be submitting it to France and so I have to change the subtitles. He also suggested I do a clean tape and then send them a separate file with the subtitles. Any help on this would be great too!

Thanks a lot for the help, I hope I can clarify this because I'm very anxious about these things.

1st frame of picture should be at 01:00:00:00. You start your timeline timecode before that (00:58:00:00) and put those elements in so that 01:00:00:00 is your first frame of picture (this includes the black if your picture opens on black).

First backup your project file. Then open your Sequence and press APPLE-0 (Sequence Settings). Go to Timeline Options and change your start timecode there.

If you don't know how to do this, though, any post house should be able to set it up for you.

> However I will be submitting it to France and so I have to change the subtitles.
> He also suggested I do a clean tape and then send them a separate file with
> the subtitles. Any help on this would be great too!

Not much help to give here. You make a version with no subtitles at all (what's called "generic". Make sure you put something in the file name so that you can distinguish your subtitled copy and the generic copy with one look. It saves oodles of time later on.


www.derekmok.com

Wow that was quick! Thanks a lot Derek.

I guess I can ask the festival which file format they need for the subtitles. But I'm hoping there's a standard format so I only have to do it once.

Now I have one last question: What is the Title slate supposed to show? As in, what specific info should I put there?


Thanks again!

Title of the film, production company, date of the tape output, version number, film version (eg. language), running time, audio format...any information pertaining to accurate projection/broadcast of the show in question.


www.derekmok.com

Again, thanks a lot Derek.

Thanks to you I was able to prepare everything tonight and now hopefully everything will be on time.

>make a version with no subtitles at all

Even better, do what we call a submaster. Basically clean visuals including clean background plates for graphics elements and titles, and for audio, it's usually SOT on tracks 1&2, and M&E on tracks 3&4.

So you have a Master, which has all the subtitles, and full mix, then a submaster with clean background plates for graphics, no subtitles and clean audio in case overdubs are required for certain broadcasters.



www.strypesinpost.com

This is to notify this problem/question was successfully solved!

to strypes: Yes, we did a variation of your suggestion. Keeping a clean video with a separate subtitle file. Also having a separate M&E on A3&4. Afterwards we found out this is exactly what the requirements were, so everything worked perfectly.

Again, thanks to both of you.