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EDL/XML shots 1 frame too long
I’m coaxing a RED project through the online phase. At the moment, I’m trying to get shots to our VFX team. I pull all the component shots for a given composite into a timeline, make an XML -or- EDL for Monkey Extract to pull high resolution copies of the shots, and then I lose. It appears (both via the results of the new transfer and by scrutinizing the XML/EDL files) that FCP is specifying the out point of every shot as one frame later than it should be according to the edit. A 40 frame shot is returned 41 frames long. If I lop off the last frame, everything matches up just fine. But that’s an unacceptable procedure for these 50 VFX sequences, let alone a 100 minute movie.
I’ve confirmed that the error is happening before I go to monkey extract, and yes I’ve rebooted, trashed prefs, repaired permissions, and eaten lunch. If not for this speed bump, the whole RED thing would be pretty smooth and delightful, I think. (Not to even say that it’s a RED-based problem) The issue occurs with creating XML or EDL, for various FCP project files.
Any ideas? I’m fully prepared to feel silly for not unchecking the ‘bonus frame!’ box or something, so I can get on with it here.
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4 Replies
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Frame rates the same between the clips and the sequence settings, and the R3D files? If so ya got me… sounds like a bug… and you already know the workaround…
Jerry
Apple Certified Trainer, Producer, Writer, Director Editor, Gun for Hire and other things. I ski. My Blog: https://blogs.creativecow.net/Jerry-Hofmann
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[Rob Schultz] “‘m fully prepared to feel silly for not unchecking the ‘bonus frame!’ box or something, “
Dude, that’s totally control-option-command-shift-function-tilde. You didn’t know about that?
Besides Jerry’s frame rate advice, my thought is that when you originally marked 40 frames, you really marked 41. You forgot to back up a frame, then mark out. If you don’t back up a frame from the end of the clip, you are including an extra frame. The out marker includes the frame you are seeing. For example, if you put two 2-second clips on a timeline, then mark in at the beginning on the sequence, hit down arrow to go the end of the clip, then hit out, the duration will be 2 seconds plus a frame. Or if you manually mark an in, type in +2. and move ahead two seconds, the duration will be 2 and a frame as the out point includes that next frame.
If this post offends you because you already know all this, then I apologize.
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EDL’s have always displayed an extra frame at the end of each event. This is normal. It is also normal for software that reads an EDL to realise that the actual last frame ends on the start of the displayed frame in an EDL.
Make an EDL of any timeline and you will see that this is how they display. Don’t know about an XML however, but I wonder if the problem is with Monkey Extract.
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Thanks Michael (and everyone!). I kind of came around on this, since I’ll be passing clips with some handles to the color guys anyway, and will have the software to assemble the cut according to plan.
In this particular case I was (perhaps needlessly) curious about why things weren’t appearing just as I’d attempted to make them, since I don’t want to damage the timing for the VFX stuff (or the copious amounts of retimed shots).
Sounding out this project by myself, it’s sometimes tricky to tell when something’s a legitimate issue, since we have had a few of those as well. Now then, onward into the night until these vfx plates and elements are DONE!
Rob Schultz
–This post, like so much of Creation, is notArt.
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