ALE’s

[Job Ter burg]

What do you need to do with them? It matters. ALE’s can be used for different workflows.

[Ricardo Maria]

Well, our crew is shooting in another country and sending me .ale files.

When they come back with the footage (shot on Cannon 7d) I will batch import it so that it will link with the .ale files previously imported. Am I right?

The purpose of the .ale files is to have the metadata with columns like director’s comments and which takes are the better ones.

Thank you.

[Michael Phillips]

How are they making these ALE files? In Media Composer or MediaLog? If so, then they should just send the project/bins. If in another product, then you need to merge the ALE into the media. If that is the case, then the following column headers need to match exactly:

Tape (or)
Source File
Start
End

Look for ALE and Merge in the Avid User Guide.

Michael

[Ricardo Maria]

The ALE files are made in an app called MovieSlate Shot Log.

I will try to merge the footage with the ALE’s when it arrives.

Thank you for your help!

[Michael Phillips]

I don’t hold out much hope for that to work. I love MovieSlate and own it myself, but in order for a merge or batch import to happen, having the filename of the camera and Start and End timecode match exactly for each clip doesn’t happen. You will most likely have to merge it my some other means in an application outside of Media Composer. I would start with the following step:

1. AMA to your camera originals
2. Display in bin the following columns: Source File, Start and End
3. Export an ALE
4. In Excel, FileMaker or such, merge, or copy/paste info from MovieSlate ALE
5. Save out as ALE format and merge again.

Also note that any locators/markers done in MovieSlate will not import onto source clips as Avid only allows Markers to be imported or exported with sequences.

Michael

[Ricardo Maria]

I don’t have the option to select Source File. Maybe because I’m running an older version of MC? (3.5)

[Michael Phillips]

Source File column was introduced with AMA which I believe came in a later version than 3.5. I am trying to remember how an in import is tracked in that version in order to enable a “merge”.

What I used to do in earlier versions, is first import the ALE, then do a “batch import” into the master clips created by the ALE file. But… unless the ALE reflects EXACTLY the START, END and DURATION, the import process will add or remove frames resulting in a wrong representation of the assets.

In your scenario, import the assets, and see what column are populated. One of then should be the file name. If it is not TAPE or SOURCE FILE, you will not be able to merge.

Michael

[Ricardo Maria]

Yes, I think I’m out of luck. There’s a column named Tape but it’s blank.. I can select the clip and choose modify and set the source to match the clip name… In that case in the Tape column it would appear the clip name. Then I would have to make sure that the .ALE have the same clip names. Will that help?

[Michael Phillips]

It’s a start, but unless the START and END match exactly, you’re still out of luck. A quick test would be to import the ALE for the same clip that should match it. If none of those fields match, you are better off logging by copy/paste.

Michael