OMFs with merged clips

[Michael Gissing]

One approach may be to duplicate the sequence, delete the video track and then Media Manage the audio. In Media Manager, you can choose to copy the project but you have a choice between the file name or the clip name. Do a short test and see if that gives you an new project sequence with the correct names in the clip.

The OMF software only takes the displayed clip name, so this might be a work around. Please let us know if this works. This is likely to become a common issue with file based double system shooting.

[Rob Schultz]

In my testing, with ‘make offline’ and ‘use existing’ flavors of media management, this method doesn’t help. I tested on an OMF sequence (I’ve kept 8 sequences of the splits used to make the OMFs in case I needed to go back to them, which now, I’d like to), so all the video components of the merged files were stripped out.

Item Properties>Format>Source lists the correct audio file, so FCP is certainly keeping the name I want associated with the given clip.

FWIW, we do have a painful workaround, which would be consulting a lined script for scene and take info, then matching that to audio clips via the spreadsheet the recordist kept, since his files aren’t named with scene and take info either.

Here’s a I’m-still-learning type question: I’ve only worked with RED previously as an offline editor. If the assistant had changed the clip names in FCP to include scene and take info, would that have disturbed the online process of matching back to RED files later? I’m guessing not, since the file names wouldn’t be changed.

[Michael Gissing]

So Media Manager is using the clip name rather than original file name regardless. That’s a problem.

Just curious as to what happens in the sequences without video, when you do a match frame on an audio clip. Does it bring up the original file? If so can you matchframe and replace? It would still be a painful workaround but maybe a bit quicker in the long run than constantly referring to a spreadsheet.

I don’t see any problem in adding scene & take info from RED files when converting to Quicktime for editing as long as the file names & clip names match. Might be worth a test. I am about to grade, online & sound post two short films with RED double system workflows so I might ask the editor to experiment.

One of the reasons I am keen to sort this is that my audio system, Fairlight, has a great new feature to find missing tracks. So if the recordist made a multi channel wav and the editor unlinks and deletes tracks, then Fairlight can find and reimport the missing trakcs, providing the name patch is maintained, so having original audio files renaming themselves because of clip merging requires a simple solution.

[Rob Schultz]

Match frame returns the merged clip.

My understanding of the file naming thing was that it would be okay to change the clip names to include info (which someone on the receiving end of an OMF could use) just as long as it did NOT match the file name, because that would be important to preserve in order to connect with the .r3d files in the online stage.

Rob Schultz
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This post, like so much of Creation, is notArt.

[Michael Gissing]

[Rob Schultz] “Match frame returns the merged clip.”

Shame as the clip name is important in sound post. If any one else has found any workarounds for this please post.

Sorry Rob, I was just thinking out loud and clutching at straws.

[Nick Meyers]

i got this to work a while back for a music-heavy show.
the original files were all neatly named Kick, Snare, etc

i *think* the process went something like this:

copy the sequence into a new project,
delete all video.
select the sequence in the browser and go to Tools > Create Master clips

you’ll get a new bin with all the audio clips.

select all of them and go to: Modify > “Change clip name to match file name”.

as they are master clips, the sequences version will also revert to the File name,
then you can make your OMFs

i sort of remember that Media Manager might have been part of it too.
with Audio files you should be able to use the “Create Offline” mode in Media Manager.
anything without a reel# will appear in the Media Managed sequence.

sorry to be vague it was a while ago.

nick

[Michael Gissing]

Thanks Nick. I will try and recreate your workflow.

[Rob Schultz]

Seems like this might be on the right track.

I gave it a try and it almost worked. Some clips appeared in the bin with proper names, but I only got 30-40 files from a sequence of hundreds. Too crushed under other deliverables (and the spontaneous death of the OS drive…) to properly investigate right now, but thanks for the advice.

Rob Schultz
–

This post, like so much of Creation, is notArt.

[Nick Meyers]

ok, i got this to work last week

now some of these steps may be redundant, or not necessary for your particular projects.
i was kind of working in a belts and braces AND elastic kind of way as i didn’t have time to test & fine tune.
but i’m pretty sure all these steps helped get the results we did.

============================

Copy Sequence to new project.

Delete all vision.

Select all audio, UNLINK ALL (Apple -L)

Create Master Clips (group if needed)
(this step was necessary for us, as the edit had been gong for a couple of years, and there were weird master / affiliate mismatches. it was better to GROUP all clips to ONE master file)

Media Manage
– create offline
– don’t delete
– base media file names on FILE NAMES

(“create offline” worked for us as the audio files had not been given reel#s, so carried though into the offline project)

new project will open
Sort Audio Clips by “Offline”
(as some may be audio from Video clips, they will be offline due to reel name. it was easier to see the results if i sorted them out)
Rename Clips to Match Files.

reconnect all offline clips. (camera sound)

check picture by pasting in pic from original seq, and checking sync TC

now make your OMF

============================

we had 5 spools in this project, so did this process 5 times, once for each spool.

hope that works for you-all out there.

cheers,
nick

[Rob Schultz]

Pretty cool, Nick!

On the current project, I’m onlining the final reel and hopefully the sound mixer is almost done, but I’m bookmarking this for next time. Thanks!

Rob Schultz
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This post, like so much of Creation, is notArt.