[Rick Sebeck]

Mike, thank you so much. I think one of my other mistakes, was that when I exported to tape, I strated the insert at 58:30:00 – at the begining of the color bars. If I rexport the film starting at 1:00:00:00 do you think my EDL will match? That is does the conform EDL use hour one as the start of it’s offset?

-Rick

[Rick Sebeck]

Mike,

Thank you so much for your help. But I still don’t think I’ve figured everyhting out correctly – that is I still don’t have an EDL that matches my tape.

Again, here was my proccess so far –

35mm telecined to DVcam
ALE into CT exported a batch list
digitized in FCP reverse telecined in CT to 24fps
Cut the film at 24fps
Exported the entire film (90min – it’s not a short) as a 24fps QT movie
Changed the time base from 24fps to 23.98 in CT
Made a new 23.98 sequence in FCP
Exported via Kona2 to DigiBeta.

Made an EDL of the original 24fps sequence.
Converrted 24fps EDL to 30fps EDL with CT

The only time I can get the 30fps EDL to match anything is when I copy the 24fps edit into a 29.97 timeline – it matches except for the feild 2 edits that have a gap. That is why I am thinkiing of removing the gaps (extending the edits (which I have noticed always fall on a duplicated frame) and rendering out the dropdown in FCP. Of course, I haven’t even considered audio in the equasion.

What is the difference betwwen FCP pull down on the fly and rendering it out in a 30fps sequence?

All this work is to avoid the time it would take for the Davinci to run the scene detect – as we are trying save time for the colorist. And again, this is just a temp color until we actually get the neg cut.

[Rick Sebeck]

Okay, mike I think you are right. Here’s where I am at so far. Our color timming session got bumped so in the mean time I figured I could check the EDL with the Digi Beta – and as luck will have it IT DOES NOT MATCH.

So i started to do some experiments.

The first, was to take the 23.98 QT file and change the editing timebase in CT to 29.97. I then put this file into a 29.97 FCP sequence. The file plays back in real time – but it doesn’t match my EDL

So I then decided to paste the “edits” (from the 24fps sequence) into a 29.97 sequence. When you scrub, you can see FCP adding in the 2:3 pull down and if you render it out, it seems to play back okay. But to my suprise, the “flattened QT file” from above was REALLY SHORT! But here’s the strange thing – it matches the EDL! The only strange thing, is that every couple of edits have a one frame gap. I am asuming these are edits that are happing on field 2 like you say Mike.

So my question is – can I just fix these edits, render out in FCP, and export it that way onto my digibeta?

-Rick

[Rick Sebeck]

Thank you all for your posts.

Tony, you are right, this is just a “temporary” color correction for festival screenings until we either make a film cut, or do a DI.

Mike, yes it is going through a DaVinci, and that is why an EDL will substitute for the frame matching – thus saving us time and money.

Walter, I am familiar with Final Touch HD, but the colorist is a friend of the DP’s and this is a “favor” so begars can’t be choosers!

And finally, the answer to my question was much easier thaan I thought. I exported thee EDL from the 24fps sequence, then used CinemaTools to convert the EDL into a 30fprs EDL. (They think of everyhting!) I am taking the files in to the colorist tommorow, and I’ll let you know how it works!

-Rick

[Rick Sebeck]

This is the QC process for the lay to tape. It would kinda defeat the purpose if we DIDN’T WATCH IT! This is not the producers problem. Like I said, I have never seen this on any other deck, which makes me think there is a setting wrong on the deck. I was hoping someone on here would hae some experience with this deck that could point me in the right direction.

-Rick

[Rick Sebeck]

But my producers are freaking out because they are seeing things (like lights) that are out of TV safe and cyrons at the bottom of the screen are being cut off.

Is there anyway to adjust vertical timing? Is it because we are using a black burst generator? I don’t think so, because I have used the internal black burst and it produces the same effect. So does using the Black Magic’s composite output looped through the REF video. Picture locks, but is still vertically shifted down.

I realize my tape is being recorded correctly, but I want to avoid taping off my monitor during lay backs, and my producer’s are not comfortable with a “thats just a preview shift” or “oh, don’t go by THAT monitor” excuse.

I Never saw this shift on an A500 deck.

-Rick

[Rick Sebeck]

I’m glad were not the only ones. It is definetly the monitor, and not the Blackmagic card or the FCP playback offset (which is ussed to adjust sync with deck control not to split audio and video). I am sure because when we plug the composite output of the blackmagic into a chaep monitor it looks fine. What a bummer.

[Rick Sebeck]

Yup. Looks like your golden!

We have a couple of FCP stations. Some with Kona 2s some with i/Os and they all play together nice. Fortuently, we only do DigiBeta work, so its all SDI (with an i/O DA) but you should be fine in analog land.

[Rick Sebeck]

Isn’t that why you have the the iO LA?

[Rick Sebeck]

Thats why I am an editor.. the attention to details!

Hmmm. Maybe try re-installing the AJA drivers and flashing your firmware. Maybe even re-seating the PCI card. and re attaching the cables. Have you contacted AJA yet? Their tech support is top notch.

When you get it figured out, let us know.