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Alexa File Names and Edl
Hello
I recently did a spot where it was all Alexa footage at 29.97 and I was doing the finals. Most of the footage had matching time code or very close, some of it even overlapped (A whole other discussion). I imported the EDL marking the box of help find with file name in meta data on Resolve config page. I got all red x’s on my time line. I unchecked tried again and the footage came in but of course with conflicting shots which I had to go thru and pick out the right ones out of the 95 clips it was a pain. Also I had many shots that were only 10 frames long which those did show up with the wrong clip but no “C” on them to look for the right clip. One last thing, I had some of the shots with a red bar at the top after clearing out the conflicts? Does anyone know of an easier way to tell Resolve to look for clips by file name when this happens? The file name box where you can narrow your search I have never been able to effectively make work.
I did not have time to mess with this so I went thru the “C” shots made them right and let the 10 frame ones be what they were because they were slates only and were not used except for reference. -
7 Replies
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/%R_*_*.mov
That will strip everything not needed from the Alexa name and give you a proper ID
A010C002_110302_R1YM.mov
becomes
A010C002_110302and your edl line could look like :
000008 A010C002_110302_R1YM V C 13:05:31:03 13:05:34:02 01:00:16:21 01:00:19:20
*FROM CLIP NAME: 356-5B
*SOURCE FILE: A010C002_110302_R1YMBut you still need to know if its a an FCP edl or Avid one.
If its an FCP one, the setting should be on.
The one above is Avid and Resolve works like a charm with it.Hope this helps
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I will give that a shot and see what happens. One question? I don’t have my system in front of me but when you narrow the name down a box comes up that says “Test” or something similar, how does the test box work when checking file names? Here is one event from my EDL which was Avid based. Would your previous post work with this?
* FROM CLIP NAME: A001C002_110816_R1PQ.NEW.01
003 A001C003 V C 00:00:44:18 00:00:44:28 01:00:44:18 -
The format string doesn’t need to be that complex. Assuming the file is in the directory you’re pointing to, the only thing needed is “*/%R_*”. The string parses the name from the back, so that string will eliminate anything after and including the first underscore it encounters working backwards from the end of the file name. Similarly, if all you want to do is remove the .mov extension, you would use “*/%R.*”, which would remove the period and everything after it (i.e., mov). The formatting expression is described in the user’s manual.
As for confirming that it’s working correctly, you can check that by simply dropping one of the files in question into the media pool. Going back to to the Config page and changing the string will change the tape name in the media pool, and you can do that “live” to adjust the string until it’s correct.
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Thanks very much for the info, I will try that on Tuesday when I am in front of my system. One last quick question. I had red bars on top of some of my thumbnails which I have yet to figure out what they meant. I am almost sure it had something to do with the duplicate time code but was not a problem on render. If anyone could shed some light on this I would love to know exactly what those are.
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The red mark means you’ve used the same source clip in two (or more) different places. Since the master session only loads each clip once, the same color correction will be applied to all uses of that clip. The way around this is to either make local versions of the additional uses (right click on the VSR and select Local Version), or to use Split Clips when adding the clips to the Media Pool. You will need to add the clips to the Media Pool using “add clips by EDL” for this to work. Personally, I have a love/hate relationship with the default behavior, as it’s very convenient on dialog scenes with lots of back and forth cutting from the same shots, but it’s easy to forget about when you’re doing things like tracking windows (which need to be done for each clip individually).
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In the scenario I was in where there were shots with duplicate time code and overlapping time code if I check the box “Use Time Code Embedded in the Source Material” and then check the “Use reel numbers Embedded in The Source Material” does Resolve look first at time code and choose clips then reel names or should the box for time code be unchecked as there were duplicates but the reel names were all unique? Would resolve then bring in the right time code even though that box were left unchecked? Of course if all the material were correct up front this would not be a problem but as we all know that does not happen all the time. I am still stumped as to why when I did import that I had to resolve all the conflicts but the 8 and 10 frames clips were the wrong shots but did not give me the option of conflicts.
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The switches you mention are used to override default behavior. Resolve was originally written to deal with file sequences, primarily DPX sequences. In a DPX file, time code can be embedded in the header, or you can use the common convention of assigning the time code as part of the file name, usually done as a total frame count based on 24 frames per second. The switch forces the software to look at the header first, and I believe that works regardless of the actual source format. The Reel numbers switch does something similar in that it forces the software to look in the file for a reel name rather than use the directory name, which is a common convention when dealing with file sequences.
In linking material to an EDL, there is always more than one criteria because it is generally assumed that time of day time code – if used on the original material – will often repeat day to day, as will reel numbers if the production crew is not careful to update them. So in order to identify clips uniquely, more than one criteria is usually required. Conflict resolution is offered when all match criteria do not agree and an exact match cannot be found, or if there are duplicates in both reel and time code if both are available. Resolve, like most conforming programs, offers the operator the ability to specify different combinations of match criteria depending on the source files, their format, and how they’re organized in order to allow for successful conforms in different circumstances. Matching the right criteria with the project’s particular circumstances is part of the job of the conforming artist, as they can vary with each project.
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