[Brian Berdan]

In MC 2021, I can’t seem to get an alpha channel to import. Just upgrade so dealing with QuickTime limitations, so I made an OP1a mxf is After Effects with alpha… still no go. Just comes into Avid as a plain clip.

[Brian Berdan]

Any improvements to alpha importing? I just made the mistake of upgrading to MC2021 and Big Sur… hate the QuickTime loss and there’s got to be a way to import alpha. Wow. Maybe when I wake up this will be a bad dream.

[Brian Berdan]

I’m using Dropbox right now- my assistant keeps my project updated from afar. As for media synchronization, I’ve done a couple shows using Chronosync and Slink. Slink allows Chronosync to see remote drives and do backups and syncs with them. Each editor has their dedicated renders and imports drives or partitions, and I set it to back up to each others systems overnight. Worked great… like Unity in slow-motion.

Brian

Brian Berdan
migrant filmworker

[Brian Berdan]

I’ll chime in here- Obviously, the best way to work with multiple editors is shared storage a la Avid Unity. But I’ve also done a few small features without it, where my assistant and I have duplicate drives. We found the best thing was to have a partition on each person’s drive that was dedicated to media creation by that person (renders, imports, etc.). Then there is a partition for the dailies. Assuming both machines are networked (we did it both locally and over the internet), we ran a file-synching program multiple times a day as we passed edits back and forth. And, yes, I agree that it’s important to both be on the same software version of Avid. At least the same base release number.
Kind of a pain in the neck, especially after using Unity, but it’s workable.

Brian Berdan
migrant filmworker

[Brian Berdan]

Sounds pretty good. I’ve been remote editing (assistant in another city, shoot in a third) on a few shows now, using both Dropbox, PIX, and a personal FTP site. We were sharing the entire dailies (30-60 GB a day) so were uploading/downloading fulltime. Dropbox (or something in the loop) got very slow at times so we switched to the FTP site. PIX is just more money. As long as you have reasonably fast internet, getting selects should be fine.

I don’t like doing consolidations as I hate relinking, so if your AE could just finder copy the media then you both have the exact same stuff, but that’s more trouble for him.

Another part of my system uses Chronosync and Slink to keep our harddrives in sync over the internet. We both have a partition/drive called “Dailies” which obviously has dailies on it, and then we each have our own partition for imports and renders. Chronosync is setup to sync each drive in the proper direction.

It’s not as good as mediashare and an assistant in the next room, but I get to work at home!

Brian Berdan
migrant filmworker

currently on a MacBookPro, Media Composer 5.0.3.5

[Brian Berdan]

would work better if it passed through 5.1 audio better.

Brian Berdan
migrant filmworker

currently on a MacBookPro, Media Composer 5.0.3.5

[Brian Berdan]

It’s such a shame… The Intensity Shuttle Thunderbolt is a great device, plugs into my laptop for Avid Media Composer and all is great—- except for multichannel audio. The Shuttle passes through the Avid’s 5.1 output, and sends them to my AV receiver and on to the correct speakers except for the center channel, Dialog… that gets send to the subwoofer (with everything above 100hz or so cut off). So close to being perfect!
Please BlackMagic Design, make this product (and the Hyperdeck Shuttle) play with 5.1 better.
THanks

Brian Berdan
migrant filmworker

currently on a MacBookPro, Media Composer 5.0.3.5

[Brian Berdan]

Oh, what if the DIT created DNx quicktimes for viewing dailies and editing… is there a way for my assistant and I to get those into the our separate Avids with the same filenames? I would think it would still be just a fast import in order to rewrap and I’d still have the same problem.

Brian Berdan
migrant filmworker

currently on a MacBookPro, Media Composer 5.0.3.5

[Brian Berdan]

Hey Shane,
Good to hear from you… son is not in college (but soon and I can’t wait!).

The killer issue is my assistant and I not having the same media filenames, so I’ll force production to create DNx, but I liked the idea of this… Tower of Babel, I”m sick of formats 🙂

Cheers

Brian

Brian Berdan
migrant filmworker

currently on a MacBookPro, Media Composer 5.0.3.5

[Brian Berdan]

Okay, a few months have passed… anyone else have experience with MXF-wrapped ProRes, especially in long form?

My producers wants the DIT to create only ProResLT QTs (shooting on Alexa in ProRes444LogC) that will be used for editing and for crew to view dailies. This need to be uploaded to an FTP so one flavor keeps things streamlined.

So first question- any problems in longform with the ProRes MXF? Renders in DNx? Quicktime exports (same-as-source issue?) EDLs? Linking back to the original Alexa files (ALEs should be provided).

Then, my assistant and I are in different cities so we’ll both be downloading the ProRes LT files and then fast-importing. I want us to both have the same media (same filenames)… so here’s the problem, we’ll have different filenames (random gibberish added to end of QT filename.

Is that the only problem you can foresee?

Thanks

Brian Berdan
migrant filmworker

currently on a MacBookPro, Media Composer 5.0.3.5