[Steven Gonzales]

I had some trouble with polyphonic BWF, and I used a tool called BWF Manager from Fostex. It ran in classic mode and was slightly buggy, but it worked for me. There’s a link here, and it’s free:

https://www.fostex.com/index.php?file=products/ppr/dv824

[Steven Gonzales]

You need to use Cinema Tools, which is a database of all your quicktimes, with timecode, reel and keycode information, and this database is linked to each individual quicktime that you edited with.

You can then produce your lists through this combined information (within Final Cut, File menu, export, Cinema Tools film lists) . If you don’t have a cinema tools database, you can export all your clip information from the FCP brower as a final cut pro batch list, and import that into cinema tools, add all the keycode information, and link all the quicktime files.

Usually the telecine facility provides a flex file, which has all this information, and is imported into Cinema Tools to create the database. Then this database info is exported as a final cut pro batch list, imported into FCP, and used to batch capture. Then the captured files are linked to the database records, and the information is linked both ways.

Since you’re near the end of the process, you can still accomplish lists, but you’ll have to build the info from Final Cut backwards.

This is a dated article, but it gives the basics:

https://www.editorsguild.com/newsletter/JanFeb03/tip_cinema_tools.html

[Steven Gonzales]

The editor’s knowledge these days includes a systematic understanding of editing systems. I find that people that can talk the strengths and weaknesses of systems are good sources of info, and those that are sure they don’t like one or the other are less useful.

An editor I know loved Avid. He bought a book, and the book suggested rebuilding the media databases. Well, he rebuilt them while the Avid application was running, and his project was opened. He then had all sorts of problems with audio disappearing. I fixed the problem for him, but the fault was not the Avid program.

So in the end, it is still the strength of the editor (which now includes being technically proficient and keeping up to date on application programs). Avid has a certain momentum in the high end markets, which may partially be due to the length of time it takes to amortize a big investment.

If you know what you’re doing, you can work around any system’s limitations (mostly because you’ll understand the weak areas). When we did the first film feature on Final Cut Pro in 1999, I was only confident because I had access to an Avid system in case things didn’t work out, and I knew enough to accurately move the project if necessary.

There’s not really a “better” system, there’s only better — for a particular set of circumstances, preferences and level of experience.

Michael Kahn does some fine editing on a Moviola.

[Steven Gonzales]

You mean companies will pay you to use their edit system? Where do you sign up for that?

Nobody I’ve ever heard of had that deal.

Read the book “Behind the Scene” by Charles Koppelman and you’ll understand that Apple didn’t overwhelmingly embrace Cold Mountain, nor did they pay anything.

[Steven Gonzales]

Also Undertow (2004), Bittersweet Place (2005), Chicks 101 (2004), Rhythm of the Saints (2003), The Rough South of Larry Brown (2002).

[Steven Gonzales]

Even if you have things split into different bins, you can do a “find” within Final Fut on a term you’ve used in naming, and all those will appear in a “find bin”, and be joined together temporarily for selection and sorting.

The “find” function might be helpful. Also, you could export bin data to a database, and relate things there.

[Steven Gonzales]

Final Cut Pro works great for feature films, but you need to understand the process and plan properly before starting, just as with any computer system.

The method described in Murch’s book about Cold Mountain is much different than the method used for Jarhead, as the tools keep advancing. To understand the Jarhead method so you can make a choice, you should get the DVD from LAFCPUG October 2005 where Murch and assistant Sean Cullen discuss Jarhead:

https://www.intelligentassistance.com/shop/

Also, if the production company uses Avid, and you have reservations about using FCP, then maybe you should use Avid. I’ve worked on films where there were producers who knew nothing about editing systems, and they were sure that all our problems were because we weren’t using Avid. (In fact, the issues were video card driver issues because they insisted on using a capture card that I argued against.)

Producers usually won’t tell a DP what camera to shoot with, but they don’t hesitate to tell an editor what system to edit with.

[Steven Gonzales]

Digital 8 records the same information as the DV format, but uses the 8mm tape. The digital 8 format has the main advantages that the tapes are somewhat cheaper than DV, the cameras are cheaper because the motor mechanism is the same components as regular 8mm, and many camera allow you to put in an analog 8mm tape, and play it out digitally through firewire (without timecode, of course).

It is really an upgrade format for analog 8mm users. If you capture to Final Cut, you can use the DV presets, because it’s the same data format.

[Steven Gonzales]

If I was to provide you with information on how to decrypt commercial DVDs with their CSS encryption, I would be liable under the Digital Millenium Copyright Act for “making available” a “circumvention device.”

Unfortunately, those actors don’t have the right to make reels from commercial DVDs, even if they own them, under the DMCA (actually, even under copyright law they would need permission of the copyright holder).

Under copyright law we can make archive copies of discs we own, in case they get scratched, but it’s illegal under the DMCA to do this because we circumvent a protection scheme.

So be careful what you post on this site. And support the Electronic Frontier Foundation ( http://www.eff.org )

[Steven Gonzales]

If you’re not using film, then who are you making the change list for? Are you making it for the sound department?

If the move was shot on mini-dv, it doesn’t seem that you need cinema tools, as it’s main purpose is to track the film edge codes for negative cutting.

More info on the nature of the change list would be helpful. There may be a solution to your problem with other tools out there.