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applescript/XML for reconnecting files by reel/TC
I would really like to know if anyone is able to write an applescript similar to those found on this page to help with FCP media management.
https://www.ridiculopathy.com/projects/flunky/fcp.php
As far as i understand it – and please correct me if I’m wrong – FCP is incapable of reconnecting media files based on the reel numbers and timecodes contained in those files. instead it simply looks at the filenames. But I am told that avid is able to do this.
If this is the case, it is a problem for me because I have a very big project which I need to reconnect to quicktime files on my system. unfortunately the project is looking for other files with different media start/end points and probably different names, but they actually cover the same source media footage.
I wonder if it is possible to make a script that does this:
1. takes an FCP sequence exported as XML
2. reads the reel numbers and timecodes of clips in the sequence
3. reads the reel numbers and timecodes of Quicktimes in a specified folder
4. modifies the XML file to reflect the filenames and in/out points of quicktimes that include the requested frames.I don’t know much about applescript but it doesn’t seem too complicated, after all I could do it manually but surely there’s a way of automating it? If so i think it would be a really handy tool.
I may be going about this the wrong way so please let me know if there is an established way of doing it. it’s just that i came across similar questions on this forum and no real solutions.
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2 Replies
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it doesn’t seem too complicated
oh man … its enormously complicated! even an Avid’s media management wouldn’t do this.
the major problem is not the file name, it is the fact that the Media Start and End points are different.
the clips in a sequence are handled by frame offsets from the media start, not by timecode, this is the same for Avid.if you try to reconnect a clip with a different Start T/C and Duration you will ‘hose it’. (very technical term)
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yeah but it’s just a matter of a few sums, all the variables are set. I could do it manually by loading each quicktime from a folder and recording the timecode and reel. Then I would refer to this information when going through an XML file and modify each clip to the matching filename and appropriate frame offsets.
….easy
…i think.
I know perl scripting fairly well but I don’t know how to deal with XML or how to extract timecode information from a QT file. although the flunky URL mentioned in my first post seems to have a method. his stuff uses applescript.
I have had several occasions recently where this imaginary process would have been very useful. Here is an example:
We started a project a while ago and captured around 80hours of HDV footage. unfortunately the drive went down and we lost the media, but the project files were backed up.
by this time we’d edited the project down to around 12hours so we exported EDLs of the cut down sequences and used these in a new project to recapture just this consolidated footage.
now we realise we need to reconnect media in another sequence that used footage on the original drive. I know that the media has already been recaptured in the 12 hour batch but there seems to be no way of reconnecting this sequence to these files as they have different media start and end times and possibly different filenames too.
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