[Glenn Sakatch]

You are coming up with a more difficult way of doing this I think. If you have new media you need to copy to a second drive…I’m assuming the audio files you were consolidating were newly created by you, and needed to be shared to everyone else…I would have simply gone into my Avid Mediafiles/mxf/1 folder where those files were created and copied them across to the new drive. Sort the folder by date modified, and you should be able to find your relevant media pretty easily. Yes some of those mxf names can be daunting, but for the most part transcodes are pretty obvious what they are.

Another method is to rename your mxf folders each day so that the next days media I super easy to find…its the only stuff in the “1” folder. Copy it across to the transport drive, and then rename it with the project and the date.

The process of creating new media, then deleting the clips for that media and having 1 project reference the original media, while the other version references new media is too confusing to keep track of…especially if there are 3 of you trying to use the same process.

To check, I would always unplug one of the drives to ensure Avid isn’t being confused as to which drive it should be looking at.

Glenn

[Glenn Sakatch]

you’ve stated that none of the tutorial you’ve viewed can show how to make a basic edit in Resolve. What tutorials have you looked at?

I just a google search of “basic editing with Davinci Resolve” and was presented with various options.

Glenn

[Glenn Sakatch]

If you can upgrade to the newest MC version, i would recommend it. I’m not sure when it started, but it is pretty easy now to switch your project from 1080 to 4k and back again if you wanted to.

In your situation, you said you have a 4k 29.97 project setup…is your footage at 29.97 or 23.976?

If 23.976, than set your project to that….either 4k or HD…your choice.

If you think there is a chance of a 4k output, then i would link to the footage in 4k and transcode to a lower res for editing.
Keep your original links in their own bins…you will want them later.

At this point you can then switch to HD, or simply monitor HD and edit in 4k, or edit in 4k proxy mode (which is essentially HD)

If at the end of it all they want a 4k master, relink your sequence to the original 4k links and re-transcode your show to high quality footage, or simply create a list from the links and send that list to your color program (Resolve?) along with the original footage. (The online process should be discussed now as well…test your workflow now, not in 3 months)

Yes you can use 4k material in an HD project and have it maintain its original size, but be aware this is also a good way to see that the focus may have been a bit soft during the interview. Sometimes it works great…sometimes you go “hmmm that shot is soft)

When you say your laptop isn’t powerful enough to handle the transcode, what do you mean by that? Is it crashing or just taking a long time? What is your drive setup that you are transcoding to and from…that could be where your bottleneck is occuring.

Consider background transcoding with Avid. For larger jobs i set up the transcodes, exit Avid and let it run all night.
You get a nice view of any clips that may have failed, and you can setup a nice batch that spans several bins, so you can organize your project as you go.

As for transcoding in Resolve and editing in Avid, that is certainly an option, and typically way faster. Test your workflow, before getting carried away. (can resolve relink your timeline out of Avid back to the original files in Resolve)

The AAFs that are created are simply there to bring into avid to help your identify where all your clips are. Of course you have to put your resolve created media into the AvidMediafiles/MXF/ folder structure in write enabled folders, for Avid to be able to use those aafs properly. From there import the aaf into avid and organize your bins.

Can’t speak to a7s footage. Never seen it.

Glenn

[Glenn Sakatch]

No need to delete. This allows the next person with this question to find a quick answer

Glenn

[Glenn Sakatch]

I find many spec sheets are out of date, as they become more of an “add this to it” scenario rather than starting fresh. Unfortunately many of the people in charge of handing them out dont kow what they are asking for inside the specs anyway.

Glenn

[Glenn Sakatch]

This goes back to what you need Resolve for at this point in the show.

As i said, i don’t need the ability to do much of anything with the audio when i’m in Resolve. I just need to be able to play the piece down, get a feel for mood changes that might affect how the color session goes.

Typically you would have a reference movie to make sure your working on the correct shots(in the correct order) If that reference movie has sound…which it should…then just use that audio as your mixdown audio.

It is simply a version of what the editor is listening to. Not necessarily a perfect mix…doesn’t have to be. Just lets you know what the feel is of the piece. For the most part, once i’m familar with the program, i usually listen to music for much of the session anyway, but the show audio is there if i want to double check something.

Another option would be to have the editor output a wave file from his timeline. He or she simply takes their timeline, as it currently stands, and spits out a stereo wave file. That is your mixdown/offline wave file. Bring that into Resolve, and put it on your timeline. I do this if i’m both the editor and the colorist, as i’m pretty good at spotting if the file in Resolve isn’t correct. If you are not the editor, or just not comfortable, then make sure you have a reference movie with sound.

If you want to do your final finish in Resolve, which i honestly don’t do, then yes, you could get the final sound mix as a stereo wave file, and put it on your timeline instead…but as Marc said earlier, most times the color and sound are happening at the same time.

Glenn

[Glenn Sakatch]

i just output a mixed down wave file of what ever audio is currently in the offline program.

I hate bringing in 23 tracks of audio into Resolve so i can colour the show. All i need is to hear the intended moments. Timeline real estate is too valuable to waste it on a bunch of audio tracks i don’t even want to look at.

If your audio mix isn’t done, you might as well keep it in premiere until it is complete…or as many of us do, send it to a sound person.

Glenn

[Glenn Sakatch]

Here is how i’ve done it for years…bit of a PITA, but in reality, it takes about 5 to 10 seconds total.

mark an in/out point on your timeline to get a duration of 1 frame at the point you want to freeze.

Then create a video mixdown of that section (because its only 1 frame it takes up hardly any space, and is instantaneous)

load that video mixdown in the source viewer

create a freeze frame of that

Glenn

[Glenn Sakatch]

what did you use for your shortcut for the zoom..the magnifying glass? Its function is to zoom in and out of the viewers.

To zoom into and out of the timeline you need to use the show more/less detail zoom. Which I believe is ctrl { and ctrl }

I have these mapped to my Artist Control panel, and to my mouse wheel, using a third party macro program.
To map them to a different button, you’d have to use the other mapping option in the command palatte…not the button to button, but the command to button (or what ever it is called)

Good question about the timeline switcher…I’m not sure about that one either. It may only be that button. I don’t think there is a drop down command for that switch.

Glenn

[Glenn Sakatch]

Total half ass’d answer, cause i can’t really tell you how to do it, but i recently saw an old eyeon tutorial where Eric mapped (with an expression) the rgb value from one item onto a second item. (i think it was an Eric tutorial). Anyway, my point is an expression should be able to point to rgb values from a solid, and then remap those to the rgb values of your light color.

Glenn