[Tom Matthies]

VPR? Video Press Release?

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[Tom Matthies]

You can try this. Sort the bin with all of your footage by timecode in point, going from the first to the last clip. Highlight all of the clips (Cmd A)and drag the whole lot of clips directly to the timeline. That should put all the clips on the timeline in the order they were shot based on the timecode. Is this what you’re looking to do?

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[Tom Matthies]

Blackmagic Designs makes a solution that is either a PCIe card to plug into a desktop computer or a USB device for use on laptops.
See the link below. It works pretty well.

https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/ultrascope

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[Tom Matthies]

Closed Captioning is a digital code inserted into a program file Oor tape) that can be read by a caption capable receiver. In the old days, it was a binary code that was inserted into the vertical interval of an analog broadcast signal. It “hid” just off the top of the screen on programming. Today, it’s most often a digital coded file that is inserted into a program file before distribution. The easiest way to do this is to simply send your project file off to a captioning service and let them deal with it. You can do it your self with the proper software and hardware, but this usually isn’t cost efficient for one or two projects. The software is not cheap and it takes a fair amount of knowledge to use it. In between the two there is a simi-do-it-yourself solution. You can still use a captioning service, but rather than having them do it all, you can just have then generate the captioning file, usually a .scc file, and insert it into your program yourself. This will work under the right circumstances. You send then a reference file, often a low quality Quicktime or Windows Media file and they will use it to generate the .scc file. That file can be easily emailed since it is basically a simple text file and is normally fairly small. Once you have the file, you can insert it onto your program. The process depends on what software you are using for editing or compressing. Compressor can do it in most cases. This will result in a file that can be read by most of the TV stations and the captioning info on your file will be used to generate both 601 and 701 type captioning at the station, depending on their equipment and workflow. Each facility is different so check with them as to what they can handle when they generate their file for broadcast. When in doubt, ask someone at the station where the spot will be airing. They should be able to answer your questions.
It’s not too difficult to do but is is tricky with lots of places for it to go bad. When in doubt, hand the job off to a professional.

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[Tom Matthies]

The phase scopes refer to a test instrument that will display the audio phase graphically on a screen, either an old style scope or on t newer rasterizer-type instrument. The purpose is to make sure that all of your audio components have a proper left-right relationship. If the phase of off on one of your channels, usually on one of your original clip elements, the two channels will interfere with each other and cause all kinds of weird audio problems, sometimes actually cancelling each other out completely. A good phase meter is needed to determine phasing errors. FCP does not have the ability to display phase errors. Scopes are readily available new and there are many good used units out there for pretty good prices. Look for Tektronics, Leader or B&K. There are many more, but those are the big players.
It’s not rocket science but is is important and your finished project can easily get flagged and rejected for noncompliance. When in doubt, get help and ask a lot of questions along the way.

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[Tom Matthies]

Amen to the “Engineering’s problem” comment. We run into this all of the time. If it’s not right when we get it, it’s our job to make it right and we’ve jumped through a LOT of hoops over the years to “fix” things that aren’t right. It’s amazing what kinds of stuff crosses our FTP site sent by people that, through no fault of their own, are just in over their heads. I like to refer to it as “they don’t know what they don’t know”.
The worst thing is that there just aren’t that many opportunities for people just entering the production business to learn things such as technical requirements or standards and practices. The solution is usually “what filter or plug-in do I use to fix this?” and the editor often has no clue as to what the filter is actually doing, if there even is one, or why there is a problem in the first place. It’s not the fault of the newer editors at all. There just aren’t a lot of ways to pick this stuff up anymore. Us “old guys” came up through the ranks, seeing an incredible amount of changes over the years. If we’re sharp enough, we keep current on what’s going on in the business. But it takes a lot of effort to do this. You do actually do need to pay attention is class. I started out editing by using Quad tape and doing machine to machine cuts on 2-inch tape. I still actively edit and engineer using today’s technology. Everyday, in fact. It helps that I’ve always found this business fascinating over the years. It makes it easier to keep up, but it still takes a lot of time to go to trade shows, read press releases and white papers, sit down and actually learn to “drive” a new piece of gear, pick up tips and actually enjoy doing it.
The old saying, “If it was easy, everyone would be doing it” kind of applies today. It’s much easier than ever before to turn out a finished project. Every high school kid can do it these days and some of them manage to turn out some pretty incredible stuff. But there is still that underlying, invisible layer of “getting it right” from the technical standpoint and that’s the stuff that isn’t getting taught in schools and isn’t getting picked on the job the way it was in the past. It still applies just as it did in the past. To make up for this lack of basic technical knowledge are those of us old guys that can fix things and also try to pass that knowledge down the line whenever possible. It’s working for now but years down the line…who knows.

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[Tom Matthies]

Also double check that the RAM cards are in the correct slots. I’m trying to remember, but I believe that some of the earlier MacPro machines had a different setup as far as which RAM card went which bank in the computer. I upgraded my old machine some years ago and had just this problem.

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[Tom Matthies]

Your switcher uses an open collector connection for tally so you will need to bias the connector with power to drive the transistor to conduct. See page 68 in your switcher manual.

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[Tom Matthies]

I’m not sure about a JVC deck, but when I used to use a Panasonic 750 to capture DV tapes years ago, I had to set the deck up, through the menu, to play DV formatted tapes. It didn’t automatically detect the DV format. The deck needed to be manually set to play back that format.
Check your menu setups to see if that might be the case.
Also, there was a plug-in that fixed a problem with Panasonic decks aborting capture after a few seconds. It sounds like it might be the same problem. JVC and Panasonic decks are often pretty much the same decks just with different names. I still have the plug-in on my machine at home. I’ll take a look at it and see what it was called. I admit that I haven’t captured tape for quite a while now, and I don’t remember the name of the plug-in.

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[Tom Matthies]

Can you provide a bit more information on your setup? How do you have the tally system set up? Cameras or just a tally light that goes on somewhere? You mention a wireless system. How is it set up? Need more info.

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