Timecode at beginning of tape

[Scott Davis]

15 frames??? Why in the hell do you do that? You need a certain amount of pre-roll for FCP/deck to capture. Give yourself a minute. This is one of my all time pet peves with camera people when they give me no pre-roll.

[Spencer Schilly]

you have to have like 5 seconds of pre-roll on the head of the tape. do you have that?

[David Roth weiss]

[Scott Davis] “15 frames??? Why in the hell do you do that?”

Give Alexander a break, he’s still in school.

Meanwhile Alexander, how come the good folks at USC that are taking so much of your parents dough aren’t telling you these important things? You’re probably learning more for free right here on the Cow, right?

David

David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los Angeles

POST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY

[Alexander Gao]

🙂

Thanks for the break, I’m just about to start at USC tomorrow as a freshman, so I assume that my parents’ dough will start workin’ soon. But yes, the COW plays a vital rolein teaching me!

Thanks,
Alexander Gao
USC School of Cinematic Arts
John C. Hench D.A.D.A.

[Bouncing Account needs new email address]

[thewanggao] “Hello, I recently batch captured about 3 hours of footage for a documentary I’m working on. I shot NTSC DV on MiniDV tapes, all blacked before shooting. “

Add to your free education that there is no good reason to pre-black camera tapes.

[David Roth weiss]

[thewanggao] “Thanks for the break, I’m just about to start at USC tomorrow as a freshman”

Congrats Alexander!!! I hope you become the next Francis Speilberg. Lets us know anything you think we need to know about.

David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los Angeles

POST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY

[Andrew Kimery]

Just to expand on the concept of pre-roll and post-roll, it’s not just for the beginning and end of tapes. Anytime you are shooting always give 10 seconds of pre and post roll at the beginning and end of each shot. And if you are doing a camera move, a pan lets say, hold at then beginning position of the pan for 10 seconds, execute the pan, hold at the ending position of the pan for 10 seconds. Not only does your deck need pre/post roll but your editor does too. You have to give your editor breathing room to get into and out of a camera move. I get tapes back from the field way too often that look like someone strapped a camera onto the head of a Jack Russell Terrier because the camera ops aren’t holding the beginning and end of each move (resulting in typically unusable footage).

-A

[Alexander Gao]

Ok, thanks for the tips. I have to ask about pre-blacking tapes… isn’t it easier this way, just so there are no accidental timecode breaks? It’s not hard to do, and it seems to make things smoother because after reviewing a shot, I don’t have to go back and worry about starting to roll again before timecode breaks… and apparently some people think it can get rid of any little dust particles, etc. that MIGHT happen to be in the fresh, new tape… I’m not questioning your authority, I highly respect what you are advising me on and I kow you are a professional, I’m just trying to iron out the discrepancies between what you tell me and what I have read online elsewhere. Thanks for keeping me thinking!

Thanks,
Alexander Gao
USC School of Cinematic Arts
John C. Hench D.A.D.A.

[Alexander Gao]

Thanks for the kind words, it really means a lot to have the support of such a great commmunity. Oh, and I’ll make sure to share any must-know tricks I might pick up… after all, that’s what I’ve been getting from the cow all these years!

Thanks,
Alexander Gao
USC School of Cinematic Arts
John C. Hench D.A.D.A.

[Andy Mees]

pre blacking a tape only helps avoid timecode breaks when doing an “Insert” edit

when you button on/off on a camera you are doing an “Assemble” edit … timecode will be regenerated from the in point but WILL be broken at the outpoint.