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Batch modification of source clips.
Hey there,
I have done a bit of reading and searching in the forum, and gained a few ideas, but no real answers. Apologies in advance if I missed this as a previously discussed topic.
Here is the challenge. I need to batch re-ingest 40+ tapes of HD-CAM rushes. The tapes were shot with ‘Time-of-day’ timecode to match with Location Audio, so there are timecode breaks all the way through. The tapes were previously captured by an assistant but due to a technical issue, the captured files are no good for online so now we need to recapture properly.
During capture, the assistant stuck the tape in, labelled it, and hit capture now, allowing Final Cut Pro to handle the timecode breaks. Clip names and other metadata was manually added after the capture.
Due to the way FCP handles the timecode breaks, it has captured right up to the last frame before each timecode break, allowing no space for Post-Roll. This means that I cannot batch capture the files.
My current idea is to try and find some way of managing the 1454 source clips to shift the Media End point backwards by 3 seconds. This should enable me to batch capture the clips again, and keep the metadata. It also means that all of the editing work that relies on these files can be maintained.
i have had a look at media manager, but that is not much help. (I think I was looking for a way to add -3 second handles…) I also started looking at ways to try and get an EDL out to Excel to do database management and then back into FCP, but couldn’t really see a clear path for roundtripping.
So, does anyone have any clues on batch managing source files to change their collective ‘Media End’ points by -3 seconds or should I just open the project, and just start hacking away manually?
Cheers
Al
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19 Replies
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Don’t know if this will help you at all as I don’t think hyou can subtract 3:00 in Excel, but you can export a “Batch List” from FCP, then open that in Excel. Once you are finished editing in Excel, you save you as a tab delimited text file and then Import > Batch List.
Jeremy
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Cheers for the tip Jeremy. Greatly appreciated. I got the batch list into Excel, then quickly ran into that problem. No easy way to batch modify the Media End… Alas, I have just decided to do it the manual way for the moment. Whilst I am sure there is some automated way of fixing this issue, the basic truth is, I need this done quickly, so i may as well make a start on it…. urgh.
Thanks again,
Al
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If you send me batch list I could send you a formula for deducting advancing 03.00 from the in point. Meaning making the Media Start occur later so you have preroll.
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Neil Sadwelkar
neilsadwelkar.blogspot.com
FCP Editor, Edit systems consultant
Mumbai India -
Forgot to mention my address
neil
at
sadwelkar
dot
comAll in one line, replace the ‘at’ and ‘dot’
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Neil Sadwelkar
neilsadwelkar.blogspot.com
FCP Editor, Edit systems consultant
Mumbai India -
Cheers for that Neil. That is very kind. I am in the process of rebuilding a clean project as I have already started manually modifying the clean version I created. I will shoot it across to you shortly.
Thanks again,
Alister
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e-mail sent. twitter followed. thanks again.
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For the sake of anyone else in this dilemma, in Excel I would take the end media field, and create 3 empty columns to the right.
Then select the media end column, and use “text to columns”, with colon being the delimiter.
If you have drop frame timecode, you may have to repeat this step on the resulting seconds;frames column, using semi-colon as delimiter.
Now make a formula that takes 3 seconds from the seconds column. Of course, if that column value is less than 3, you’ll have to “borrow” from the minutes column, and maybe borrow from hours
Formula to subtract seconds in new seconds column:
=if(secondsCelladdress <3, (secondsCelladdress+60)-3, secondsCelladdress - 3)Formula to borrow from minutes in new minutes column
=if(secondsCelladdress <3, if(minutesCelladdress =0, (minutesCelladdress + 60) - 1, minutesCelladdress - 1), minutesCelladdress)Formula to borrow from hours in new hours column
=if(secondsCelladdress <3, if(minutesCelladdress = 0, hoursCelladdress-1), hoursCelladdress), hoursCelladdress)or something along those lines.
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It’s times like this I wish I were better with excel.
-mattyc -
That’s a good idea. But after the modification how do you get it all back from Excel into FCP?
Here’s what I did.
I took the batch list (Alister e-mailed it to me). Imported that into Neooffice (I’m MS-free). It came nicely as a table. I then wrote a formula to change the Media End timecode to 3 sec earlier. I also had to write a formula to change the duration to 3 sec less.
I then exported that out as a text tab-delimited file. Imported that into FCP to check if all clips were adjusted correctly. I then sent that back to Alister.
Its late night in his part of the world so he’ll be able to check only some hours from now. If it works, I’ll figure a way to do it automatically. Maybe an Applescript or something.
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Neil Sadwelkar
neilsadwelkar.blogspot.com
twitter: fcpguru
FCP Editor, Edit systems consultant
Mumbai India -
After you’re done in Excel, you recreate the media end field with text concatenation using & sign in a formula:
=hoursCelladdress&”:”&minutesCelladdress&”:”&secondCelladdress&”;”&framesCelladdress
Copy and paste the new column as “values”, get rid of the columns you used for working formulas, and save as tab delimited text file.
Import batch list into FCP.
Good note, that you also need to change the duration field properly.
All goes to show that there’s more than one way to skin a cat, which is the motto of post production (except cat lovers hate that saying).
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