reverse assemble

[Job Ter burg]

I don’t really get what you’re trying to do, but also: if this is HD, there would be no A-frame, would there? You would transfer at 23.976 or 24.

You can indeed use an ALE to break up a master clip into subclips with corresponding metadata. File-Import, Shot Log options, Merge with known sources and automatically create subclips.

[Joe Huggins]

Job,

I guess the concern is that the captured file is longer, from the head, than the TC stamp on the ALE file. Our tech said he did not know of a technique to take the ALE and break up the continuous camera roll into subclips. Maybe your reply will clear that up. Yes, 23.98 format.

The goal is to create an accurate ALE without going to tape, then digitizing each clip in from the tape. If I can make an Avid HD file on the fly, I save a digitize step, the use of an HDCam deck, and tape stock. I’m looking to save costs on film transfers for features and provide an accurate ALE file. We sync the audio after telecine in the Avid and that reduces time and costs too then make subclips from there. The start of a file, unlike tape, can not match to an exact frame TC where we pull an edit on tapes. Does this make more sense?

Joe

Thanks, Film Joe

[Job Ter burg]

Avid used to sell MediaStation just for that purpose, I don’t think that exists anymore. However, I think MC can be controlled over 9-pin as if it were a VTR (you will probably need a VTR control cable for that at least, which is different from the control cable you use for capturing), so maybe, just maybe, you would just be able to hook up the Avid as a deck, and then there would be no difference between TK to tape or straight into Avid.

Also, I did a film last year where there were digital dailies. The lab (Deluxe NY) had a virtual VTR capturing from the TK. They made DVD’s for the producers and DNxHD MXF files for the editing from that.

There’s also the Aja Ki Pro that you should be able to use as a RS422-controllable ProRes deck (haven’t done that myself, just saying it might be an option). You would then access the ProRes files through AMA, and transcode into DNxHD very quickly.

Either way, you’d need to do some serious back-ups, as you wouldn’t want to go back into TK hours once you lose a file.

[Joe Huggins]

Job,

Good feedback. I know Avid stopped supporting MediaStation long ago (ex Avid salesman here). But VRT control is only for playback, Avid can not be used as a Record deck and make an ‘edit’ and neither can AJA KiPro, only slam record or RS422 playback control.

Deluxe has a very expensive MTI control dailies system that is like a Bones or DVS Clipster, after it inputs a telecine file under frame accurate TC, it can make Avid or ProRes and match the ALE there as the frame count is the same. This is what I want to acheive with a manual record to Avid, only I can’t make the first frame of the file a specific 1 hr 00 (or similar) TC. Avid uses the first frame of video to count frames to match TC and KK, so we are looking for a way to trim that back or offset the ALE and make subclips.

Seems no other telcine house is trying this but we are looking for a tapeless workflow to be similar to Control Dailies without that high cost. Thanks for any other ideas. Joe

Thanks, Film Joe

[Joe Huggins]

Job,

Good news, we did make the reverse assembly work. Turns out Avid does cut the subclip based on the TC and not the first frame of the captured video.

Follow up. Do you work at all with FCP? We are looking for a similar technique that will allow the ALE imported to CinemaTools to reverse assemble a FCP 10 minute clip. Unless it sees a clip the correct size of the ALE take, it can not match the cuts and KK to any clip.

Thanks again for confirming our test findings.

Thanks, Film Joe

[Bouke Vahl]

I’ll answer that.
No, Job does not do FCP.
But you can matchback offline media to any online media using this:

https://www.videotoolshed.com/product/41/fcpreconnect

hth,
Bouke

Bouke

https://www.videotoolshed.com/
smart tools for video pros

[Joe Huggins]

Bouke,

We do have your wonderful reconnect software, but it will not work in this case. We need to reverse assemble a camera roll – 10min – using the ALE file to show clip duration. It’s not a matter of file name from offline vs TC stamps.

I also posted something similar on FCP’s site at this thread if you have any additional insight on reverse assemble and altering CTDB to ALEs.

https://forums.creativecow.net/thread/8/1117297

Joe

Thanks, Film Joe