Michael Phillips
1
COW Coin
Forum Replies Created
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I just did a quick sync test in Resolve and as much a I love Resolve for everything it can do, and they have made huge efforts in the dailies side of things, there is still one important piece of metadata missing from the ALE file; namely the name of the original BWF audio file. I have brought this to Resolve’s attention, but has not yet made it’s way into a release. So that can have an impact on how audio will be conformed downstream. Should they ever need to go back to the original BWF for whatever reason, it will be a painful process. Which brings up another question – is the DIT/Data Wrangler syncing all audio tracks, or are they MIX + ISO tracks, and if so, how many? This is based on editor preference.
As far as REEL ID, you have to ask prducers, post super, or whomever is managing the conform and finishing process how they want to proceed. If it is to be done in an Avid via AMA then only the entire filename will work. If anywhere else, then they can use either embedded or filename.
Here is an ALE export from a single clip sync and you can see what is coming from a straight up timecode sync. Which raises another question – are they provided true sync dailies or just timecode sync dailies? If the latter, I have exact sync by timecode to be true, maybe 40% of the time depending on your definition of sync. This was covered in another blog I wrote: https://24p.com/wordpress/?p=16
Below is the ALE for 1 event with no additonal logging and syncing based on timecode only. Copy/paste into a new file which should retain the TABs. For easier column alignment, import into a bin (custom view to start so all columns are seen) or open in Excel.
Heading
FIELD_DELIM TABS
VIDEO_FORMAT 1080
AUDIO_FORMAT 48khz
FPS 23.976Column
Name Tracks Start End Take Tape UNC FPS Reel # Scene Shoot date Manufacturer Source Resolution Source Bit Depth DESCRIPT Comments Audio SR Audio Bit Depth Auxiliary TC1 Soundroll TRK1 TRK2 TRK3 TRK4 TRK5 TRK6 TRK7 TRK8 Circled TakeData
MVI_2550.MOV VA1A2A3A4A5A6A7A8 13:41:20:00 13:43:38:21 1 /Volumes/Macintosh HD/Users/michael/Desktop/Original Audio sync Test/MVI_2550.MOV 23.98 29 2010-08-05 DaVinci Resolve 1920×1080 8 Good take for Bobby 48000 16 13:41:20:00 08052010 MixL MixR Bobby_Lav Lucy_Lav Bobby_Boom Lucy_Boom Ambience_L Ambience_R TRUE -
And the previous response is not directed at Resolve directly, but any dailies service provider using whatever tool they choose to use, be it Resolve, Colorfront, MTI Cortex, Scratch, etc. I’ve just seen too many horror stories with dailies being provided by DIT/Data Wranglers that don’t have a lot of Post Experience and think it is only applying a LUT and transcode.
Michael
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Resolve makes ALE files that ay or may not include ASC CDL values is used. You will want to make sure that the DIT/DAta Wrangler is correctly applying the filename metadata to the clips before creating the DNxHD proxy as I have seen way too many posts on forums where the REEL ID was wrong or missing entirely. I blogged about it a few months back:
https://24p.com/wordpress/?p=24Are you providing specifications to the DIT/Data Wrangler? This would be specs for how things should be logged, burn-ins (which fields and where), camera reports, issues with framing and focus, etc. It seems more and more that the process is getting reversed and editorial is provided with whatever is the DIT/Data Wrangler is familiar with. Be sure to look at your clips when you get them and make sure you have metadata in either the TAPE or SOURCE FILE column. In this scenario, it will be TAPE. And because it is Alexa, you can have either the embedded REEL from the camera originals or the filename itself. This can impact how you do a conform downstream. If in Avid via AMA you will want one over the other. Is the DIT/Data Wangler familiar with the downstream workflows to ask and provide the proper REEL ID?
When working in this area, and all related to “what you pay for”, is that a “dailies” provider has a spec sheet they hand out for what is needed. And these systems usually have a Media Composer on them so that they can verify essence and metadata in the bin before handing over to the client and sending everything ready to be dropped in and opened.
In what I can interpret for the above scenario, you will have to do some ALE merging and such to ensure all the metadata is there.
Michael
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The debate is not with 4K acquisition, editing or mastering – it is in the distribution.
Michael
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The command-I (get info) got changed in v6 for both clips in the bin and for the sequence monitor to what it is now – in my opinion not for the better. If you command-I in the bin on several clips i tused to give you total number of clips and total duration in the console. Now it pops up an info window for each clip. Not fun closing all those down when you want to get a bin’s worth of counts and timing. And you can’t even change what is in the pop up window. If at least you could specify one of your bin views to the pop up it would be better. The whole concept of the original pop-up get-info window for was when you were in frame view or scriptsync view and you wanted to quickly get-info for that one clip as a temporary state pop up. A happy compromise in the new design would be pop-up clip info when one clip is selected, and when two or more are selected the same pop up window changes to total number of clips selected and duration and I would add in this world of file based workflows, total file size.
As far as changing timecode values, why not allow clicking in those boxes where the timecode displays already are and let the user change it there? There could be a lot of additional value in allowing that to happen and use the computer attached to calcualte offsets for audio syncing, multicam, as well as first frame of picture starts at this timecode “here” rather than always having to use the timecode calculator to manually calculate offsets. But we did get nice colors. 🙂
Michael
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That works too, as long as you understand that clicking the counterintuitive “cancel” button to get out of that dialog window once the new timecode has been applied will not undo the change. A horrible design from a logic standpoint.
Michael
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That should change it for all new sequences. For an existing sequence change it’s START time in the bin.
Michael
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I don’t know where you got the idea that ScriptSync can be used to indicate ad-lib lines, but the functionality does not do speech to text or create transcripts from dialog on media clips. Adobe Premiere can do that but accuracy is certainly an issue with current technology. ScriptSync takes an already created script or transcript and syncs clips based on what is said and what is written so that clicking on any line will load that clip and part it at the posiion. You can select multiple clips and have it play back any line or iines.
You could the trick where you use a program like Dragon Naturally Speaking and using headphones listen to the clip and repeat what you hear into the program. Once trained, you can get pretty good results that you can correct.
Michael
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You need to make sure the Avid MediaFiles folder in its entirety is at the root level of your media drive. Another thing to be aware of, and I don’t think they tell you this, is that the when files comes of optical media they are “read only”. Make sure that once you copy both folders to their appropriate locations that you set them to be Read & Write”. Especially the project and bins folder.
Michael
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And not just any .mxf can be dragged into the Avid MediaFiles/MXF folder structure. Those that don’t work can be access via the MXF AMA plu-in.
Michael