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Timecode EDL problem : Time of Day and Edge Code problem in offline AVID to online Final Cut Pro with RED footage for feature film
Hi to all AVID and Final Cut Pro post-production workers,
I’m an editor currently working in a post-production house working on the post-production of a feature film shot entirely in RED, edited offline on an AVID. For the online of the feature film, the company wants to use Final Cut Pro. First there is a TC problem with the clips after importing the EDL that was exported from AVID and relinked the offline RED clips with their original RED clips (the clips that end with “…_F” 2K). The problem is when we take the offline project previously processed using MetaFuse footage to convert the clips into offline media, in FCP after importine the EDL, and opening the sequence, then righ-click on a clip > Item Properties > Timing > checking the Media Start and Media End timecode, it shows the TOD (Time of Day TC correctly), but after reconnecting the RED data footage (2K) with their corresponding clips- the TOD TC turns into Edge Code TC! To understand and check if this is really the case, we checked the footage of a clips’ media start-end point in RED Alert. In RED Rushes on the bottom righ, there are 2 TC, one shows the Time of Day TC, the other Edge Code. We checked the indeed, after reconnecting the RED footage for online editing in FCP, the TC Media Start and Media End changes from TOD to Edge Code!!!
Now is there a problem with the timecode transcription prior taking into FCP when the RED footage was converted to MXF files for offline editing in AVID, or is it something else? Is there a way to solve this TC problem without having to detiously re-Mark In/Mark Out the in and out points of each clip according to their TOD.
Another problem is, but not as important as the latter, ususally the RED footage clip, the name of the clip are the same name as the converted offline clip (except for the “*.R3D” extension). In AVID, there is an option when exporting the EDL, to export the clip names either the beginning-middle- or end of the clip name. For no reason the clip names of the RED footage, after opening the EDL file in FCP, comes truncated. For example, if the clip name folder is “A001_C038_09254A.RDC”, and the clip name is “A001_C038_09254A_H” (2K footage), when reconnecting with FCP, the names are truncated, thus making it to “A001_C038_09” omiting the “254A_H” of the clip- nevertheless this does not affect the linking of the clip- just the name.
Please anyone help is needed! We’re on a very tight schedule trying to reach the delivery date!
Thanks,Ozan.
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3 Replies
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Wow. Long and dense post. Your main issue is that FCP is not reconnecting to your media based on your Avid EDL. Right?
Sounds like you need to back into the Avid and get a cleaner EDL.
FCP has AUX TC, you could try employing it to reconnect to the proper TC.
Just some ideas for you.Kevin Monahan
60 Blu-ray Templates for Final Cut Studio 2009
http://www.fcpworld.com
Author – Motion Graphics and Effects in Final Cut Pro -
Who was the brainiac who suggested this workflow?
Going cross platform with any project is problematic at best. Throwing RED into the mix is a guarantee for confusion. You’re not going to get any simple answers from here. There’s no substitute for doing exhaustive tests on the process BEFORE you actually need it. If you had done tests, you would have identified these issues and either found a workaround that’s acceptable or abandoned this plan.
I would have stuck with ONE NLE. Start in Avid, finish in Avid. Or, stay with FCP the whole way. As you’ve noted, anything else is just a world of hurt.
Good luck.
Mark
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I am working on a translation and looking for the common/technical term used by pre-digital film editors to indicate the physical distance from the last clapperboard sound. In French, this is/was called piétage (footage), because the distance between marks was one foot. An editor would (apparently, I have just learned this) write in, for example, 012 006 to show that at that point you were 6 feet (of film) from the 12th clapperbord sound.
In the translation, the film editor is talking about how much easier it was to locate things back in the pre-digital days because of these. She speaks of the “rapports de piétage” which seems to mean footage ratios, but that does not sound to me to be the appropriate term.
Many thanks for your help,
ag
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