[Charles Fairview]

I just want to thank you people for all the great advice. I really, really, appreciate your kind and thoughtful answers. I take your advice to heart and thanks for all the links and opinions.

Muchas Gracias

Whatever you do will be insignificant,
but it is very important that you do it.

Mahatma Gandhi

[Charles Fairview]

Thank you guys for the great advice. Are there any non-sennheiser mics that are cheaper but not terrible? Is that kind of stuff covered in your book?

Thank you again.

Whatever you do will be insignificant,
but it is very important that you do it.

Mahatma Gandhi

[Charles Fairview]

Thank you
Aaron and Sean for your replies. Sorry for the timelapse.
here are the answers to your questions (I hope)

“Is the 10 bit footage an already cut movie?”
Yes, The 10 bit was from a feature film that didn’t quite make it. It was shot in film then transferred to tapes then made into 10-bit uncommpressed files.

“Are you cutting on a 10bit timeline or DV?” yes we are cutting on a 10-bit timeline.

“Do you have a TV monitor that you’re working with, or just looking at the computer screen while editing? ”
We only have a computer screen and a actual tv to view it on. We do not have access to a TV Monitor because there are no rental houses in town here.

Thank you Aaron for helping with your good advice.

Now for Sean

“1. What frame rate was your source footage originally shot on?” 24for the film and 29.97 for the DV footage.

“2. What frame rate was it converted to when you captured it? The DV footage is probably 29.97. So if it was shot on film, then some form of pulldown was added. There are different types and you’ll have to identify what it is. It could be 24pA “Advanced Pulldown” which if it is then you’re very lucky because it would be very easy to convert that footage back to 23.98.”

I am not sure how to find out what kind of pulldown was added but it was done by a profesional post house. Is there a way to check?

“3. What format is your sequence? ”
10 bit uncompressed at 29.97

“4. Are you mixing different frame rates in the same sequence? Note, I’m not talking about the frame rate FCP thinks it is. I’m talking about the original frame rate the footage was shot on.”

The frame rate off all the footage is 29.97

“5. What format are you delivering on? Film, tape? ”

We will be releasing it on DVDs to Film festivals as well, then we will be transferring it to film.

“6. How is this going to be shown? Broadcast, DVD, web, theatrical?”

Potentially all of them and we are planning for all of then.

“7. Are you using this online facility to re-assemble your footage, or are they just color grading it?”

We attempted to have them do the offline and it went kablooey so we got all the footage off the tapes in 10-bit and are now just finishing reassembly over the original timeline.

The post house will be doing the color correction as well as transferring it to film

When I am finished tweaking every clip, we are supposed to provide them with a 10-bit uncompressed file and an EDL and then they will use the EDL for the Davinci.

That is about all I know and I think you immensely for your advice.

Charles

[Charles Fairview]

Thank you for your reply. I am not that knowledgeable about these things so bear with me.
We have 10-bit uncompressed and dv footage on the timeline. When we went down to have it color corrected they noticed the ghosting on frames relating to the 10-bit which was originally shot on film. I had never heard about the necessity of cutting on A-frames so we have some interlaced final frames which I guess causes mucho problems. Now my boss wants me to go through the 1 hour and 40 minute project clip by clip making sure that the in and out edit points fall on an A frame. To make things infinitely more complicated we have a full mastered sound lock in which much of the footage is timed to beats and dialogue.

The post house says we need to have the A frames dealt with before going out to color correction. There tech guys are quite knowledgeable but couldn’t definitely tell me if I had to do EVERY single clip or just the obvious ones.

As for the color correcting. We have hand conformed the 10-bit uncompressed ourselves because there were some weird timecode sync problems. As far as I can know, we are to provide them with a final 10-bit movie file and an EDL and then the divinci knows about the cuts using the EDL.

That is about it.

Thank you for your time Aaron