EDL and subclips

[Walter Soyka]

I think the EDL should still be ok.

When you make a subclip, it inherits the reel from the master clip, and it uses the master clip’s original timecode. From a reel/timecode perspective, the EDL will carry the same information as it would have if you used the original master clips.

If you want to carry the filename through into the EDL instead of the clip or subclip name, you can check the “Use Source Filename” option in the EDL Export Settings dialog.

Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events

[Gabriele Cannizzaro]

Hi Walter, thanks for your answer.

We shot about 25 rolls, but the lab that developed the film cut them and put them back together into 4 big rolls. Also, for some reason, they joined the pieces in what seems to be a semi random order. So now we have Lab Roll 1 with lots of takes from different rolls in it. They telecined it and produced 4 files, one per roll.

We turned those files into subclips, synched them and edited them. Now we want to rescan those 4 rolls at 2k, and the lab requested an EDL, which should reference the 4 big rolls (ie the files before they were trimmed, not the subclips). Having the filename in the EDL would solve the problem, but I didn’t find that option you mentioned. I’m using CS6. Am I missing something?

Cheers

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Gabriele Cannizzaro

[Walter Soyka]

[Gabriele Cannizzaro] “Having the filename in the EDL would solve the problem, but I didn’t find that option you mentioned. I’m using CS6. Am I missing something?”

Yes — you’re missing Premiere Pro CC 🙂 I just checked, and the feature I referenced is new in CC.

Did the lab not put a reel or tape name on the files they sent you? Does the timecode re-start for each file, or do they all have different start times? If they have do have different start times and unique timecode (i.e., file 1 timecode starts at hour 1, file 2 timecode starts at hour 2, etc. with no overlaps), then you should be already good.

If they all have the same start time and you want to stay in CS6, you can manually group your subclips by reel, then select all the subclips from file 1, modify the metadata, making the “Tape Name” 1, then move on to file 2, etc. When you export the EDL, the file name will not appear as the clip name, but the file number will appear as the reel/tape name.

The easier solution might be upgrading, or at least downloading the Premiere Pro CC trial, importing your CS6 project, and exporting the EDL from there.

Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events

[Gabriele Cannizzaro]

It’s amazing that a feature that would seem so basic had to wait for CC…

Here’s a line of my EDL:

030 time V C 00:11:44:24 00:11:53:14 00:07:10:10 00:07:19:00
* FROM CLIP NAME: LR12_SL30_TK02

The first two timecode entries refer to the original file, IE the lab roll. So that’s sorted. What’s wrong is the clip name. [b]LR12_SL30_TK02[/b] is of course the name of the subclip. I need it to be the name of the original file (which has the reference to the lab roll number) or a way to be able to force it. I tried changing the Tape metadata but it did nothing for the EDL.

I can solve this problem editing the EDL manually and changing all the clip names with the appropriate lab roll number, but I was looking for a way to avoid it. The Tape metadata would have been great but it doesn’t seem to be working.

Thank you

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Gabriele Cannizzaro

[Walter Soyka]

[Gabriele Cannizzaro] ”
030 time V C 00:11:44:24 00:11:53:14 00:07:10:10 00:07:19:00
* FROM CLIP NAME: LR12_SL30_TK02“

The clip name may not matter to the lab if the reel and timecode are correct.

Here, the tape name is “time” — is that not correct?

The subclips will inherit the tape name from the master clip at the time they are created, but are disconnected thereafter. Changing the tape name on the master clip will not change the tape name in existing subclips. You have to multi-select the subclips, then with that selection, change the Tape Name field in the Metadata panel. This will then flow through to the EDL. I’ve just confirmed this works in CS6.

Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events

[Gabriele Cannizzaro]

Even though I’ve changed the “Tape name” in every single clip, something strange is happening. I tried re-exporting the EDL and now some clips have the tape name correctly, others (60%) still show “time”. Looking at the properties for every single clip the Tape Name property doesn’t show up. Instead, there’s a Reel Name, which is set ti “time” for every clip, even those that show the right value in the EDL. Again, in the project panel there’s no “time” string anymore. Is there a way to “refresh” the metadata?

I’m downloading the CC on a separate machine just to be safe, but I’d really like to sort this out in CS6 because that’s still my main suite.

Thanks again for your help!

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Gabriele Cannizzaro

[Walter Soyka]

[Gabriele Cannizzaro] “Even though I’ve changed the “Tape name” in every single clip, something strange is happening. I tried re-exporting the EDL and now some clips have the tape name correctly, others (60%) still show “time”. Looking at the properties for every single clip the Tape Name property doesn’t show up. Instead, there’s a Reel Name, which is set ti “time” for every clip, even those that show the right value in the EDL. Again, in the project panel there’s no “time” string anymore. Is there a way to “refresh” the metadata?”

Strange!

Can you find one of the clips that is not being correctly identified in your EDL on your timeline, then right-click and “Reveal in Project” to ensure that maybe there aren’t multiple copies and that the reel has been changed?

Another gruesome option might be to move your Scene and Take metadata into Scene and Take metadata columns (manually, I’m afraid), then rename the subclips in the project panel.

If the filename in the clip field will get you what you need, I do think that doing a CC trial, even if just for this EDL export and nothing else (though there are a lot of worthwhile improvements in CC), may be the fastest solution.

Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events

[Gabriele Cannizzaro]

I think what we’re experiences comes from a number of bugs in CS6. First of all, the “Reveal to project” only works if in the subclip in the timeline the video is linked to the audio. If not, nothing happens. There are no multiple copies in the project, and I’ve checked all clips and they all spot the right tape number. Now, after a few Quit and reopen, the Reel Name in the properties of the clips in the timeline are all set to the right number. Still, the EDL shows “time” as the tape number, but only for half of them! Go figure.

In the end I did use CC to export the EDL, only to be told by the lab (after 6 e-mails and 2 phone calls) that they didn’t care about the clip names, they only wanted the timecodes to start with a value corresponding to the lab roll (01:00:00:00 for roll one and so on). I don’t know if this is standard practice, but it would have saved me a lot of time and trouble and an installation of the CC.

Thank you very much for your help Walter.

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Gabriele Cannizzaro

[Walter Soyka]

[Gabriele Cannizzaro] “In the end I did use CC to export the EDL, only to be told by the lab (after 6 e-mails and 2 phone calls) that they didn’t care about the clip names, they only wanted the timecodes to start with a value corresponding to the lab roll (01:00:00:00 for roll one and so on). I don’t know if this is standard practice, but it would have saved me a lot of time and trouble and an installation of the CC.”

This is a totally reasonable way to work, and I asked you if they were working this way, using different hours for different rolls above — but I re-read it and I was dreadfully unclear. I am sorry I didn’t help you save that time.

Glad to hear at least that the problem is sorted now. Good luck with the project.

Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events

[Gabriele Cannizzaro]

When I say “I don’t know if this is standard practice, but it would have saved me a lot of time and trouble and an installation of the CC” I was referring to the lab not being clear with what they wanted from the EDL, not to you 🙂

Thanks again for your help, it’s been a nice learning experience.

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Gabriele Cannizzaro