[Steven Gonzales]

When I’ve done projects like this, I worked in this way:

Capture the clips into a 29.97 project, reverse telecine, edit in a separate 23.97 project.

If I need to recapture, I recapture from the 29.97 project, reverse telecine the file again, and put it into the 23.97 project.

But I wouldn’t have to do this, because I have a backup of the 23.97 files, so if I lose one I get it from the backup.

If I only had a 23.97 project and clips, I would drag the clips I need to recapture into a timeline, export the 23.97 EDL, convert that EDL in Cinema Tools to a 29.97 edl (File — Export — converted EDL — 30 FPS from 24FPS) and then import that new EDL into a FCP project, and catpure from that.

Is this close to what you want to do?

[Steven Gonzales]

Independent filmmaking is odd in how it handles editors. The Independent Spirit awards gives a best cinematographer but no best editor.

Sundance gives a documentary editing award, but no narrative editing award.

I think recognizing the editor competes with the “director as auteur” publicity machine.

But in my experience, most low budget independent films really need a strong editor, because they ride on the edge of cloying and trite. Usually the films have quite poor coverage.

[Steven Gonzales]

Yes. Usually the change is 1/10th of 1 percent, so it would take very sensitive pitch sense to perceive it.

[Steven Gonzales]

Audio speed is determined by sample rate and clock pulse source.

What machine was the sound recorded on, and what were the settings?

Drop Frame and Non Drop Frame is a timecode numbering scheme, and timecode is an addressing system. On its own, timecode setting should not affect sound speed.

On some audio recorders certain timecode setting will alter the sample rate.

If the camera and sound were running continuously, there’s an easy way to sync them up.

Put the video into the timeline, mark a sync point near the beginning (a loud footstep or door slam works great) with an IN mark.

At the end of the clip in the timeline, mark another sync point (another loud quick sound) with an OUT mark.

Now take your audio clip and open it in the viewer. Find the same sync point you used for the video in the timeline, and mark IN, find the other sync point in the audio and mark OUT.

Now drag that audio from the viewer to the canvas and drop it on “Fit to Fill”. Now audio should be in sync, having been speed changed to fit properly through the “Fit to Fill” function.

Drag out the ends of the audio in the timeline, to get the complete audio, and you should be in sync.

[Steven Gonzales]

Films have been completely successfully, and in sync, with Final Cut. I’ve done a few myself.

How was your sound captured? I helped on a feature last summer which used the Sound Devices recorder. That machine has a clever setting, which is 24F (for faux or fake). The machine records at 48.048, but tags the file as 48k. This makes the pulldown automatic when the files are brought to Final Cut, and the same data is played .1% slower.

I spoke with the sound man before shooting started, and informed him which recorder settings would be best going into Final Cut. I figured out the right setting by downloading the recorder’s user manual.

If you post some detail on what audio files you have and what machine they were recorded on, perhaps you’ll get some good hints on the best way to handle them.

Also, if you describe your keycode problem, someone may have a suggestion that could help there.

Don’t waste energy questioning your choice of edit system. I’ve seen plenty of sound screwed up with the wrong settings on an Avid. Better to put your mental energy into the best solution for your current situation.

[Steven Gonzales]

I found my more detailed instructions on this syncing technique:

My video and audio each had a marker at the slate.

Insert sound, click on sequence, hit home key
Overwrite video, hit home key
drag markers on video and audio to match up
down arrow to get to front of video, control v to cut audio, shift delete front extra audio
down arrow to get to end of video, control v to cut end audio, shift delete end audio
double click audio (opens in viewer)
make subclip (command u), double click new audio subclip to open in viewer
click to make sequence active, hit home key to get to beginning of sequence
F10 to overwrite audio
select all (command A)
link (command L0
drag to bin to make merged clip
delete sequence contents
delete audio subclip
repeat…..

[Steven Gonzales]

I had this issue while syncing also.

My work around was this:

1) Sync audio to video in sequence.
2) trim audio to same length as video.
3) double click timeline audio to open in viewer.
4) make subclip of audio (command u)
5) delete audio in sequence, overwrite new audio subclip, drag merge clip to bin.

Seems like a lot of steps, but once you get into a rhythm, it’s nothing.

[Steven Gonzales]

What type of footage are you editing, and what is your hard drive setup?

[Steven Gonzales]

Could you split the file, and reassemble at the other end?

3 small quicktimes should each be under the fat32 file size limit.

[Steven Gonzales]

All the audio source information is also in the XML export. Maybe some day I’ll try my meager PERL skills to parse the XML and pull desired information out.

Of course, once I found the simpler solution, my desire to write a parser program went away.

Sound finishers are the editors best friends.