manual conform

[Sorna]

Hello,

I couldn't find any thread where this is discussed before. Could anyone please refer me to a post for this or help with manual conforming?

I'm working on a couple of short films were unlike what I ever worked on in the past, I'm getting different cuts to work on.
I asked the picture editor (working on media composer) to send me AAF, CMX EDL and the video for any version they sending me. I did try Ediload / conformalizer trial editions to do auto conform or make change lists with no success. and since I can not at this point afford buying those software I decided on going manual conforming route.
I asked the editor to send me a change list created by MC's filmscribe and am going to give that a try. So, just checking if this is the way you guys are conforming (manually)? any tips/ advice I should know?

Thanks,
Sep

[C]

Take your time.

Extract Guidetrack audio from both versions of the project video

Group the old guide track with your tracklay remembering to show all tracks first.

Then either use the change note or match the guide tracks to reconform.

Check the guidetracks are matching as you go.

Good luck

[mfranken]

Adding to Ceri's list, you should also be able to set Pro Tools to a 1 frame grid. As the pictures can only make 1 frame changes it helps to put PT in 1 frame grid. This way you should be able to get the old and new guide tracks to phase.

Also, I listen to just the guide tracks during the main recon - New guide out left speaker and old out right speaker. This way you can easily hear how many frames you are out-of-sync when you get close. And of course make the height of the guide tracks large so you can see the waveforms easily.

Good luck.

Regards,

Mark

[mfranken]

Ooops, one more thing. You can also group the old pictures with the old guide and cut them as you go (another good reason to set pt to 1 frame grid). Then if you're wondering if the pictures match, or need to match something that has no sound in the guide, you can select a frame and toggle the active video track.

Regards,

Mark

[C]

good adds Mark!

:)

What he said

[edboy7]

yup using the guide track is the way go! it's tedious but worth it :)..Checking out the waveforms side by side then making changes as you see and hear it ....then making several passes to sweeten out those new edit points

[Sorna]

Thank you all for your responses. specially I liked the idea of panning guide tracks left and right. I guess that would work for me. So, do you guys just conform via guide tracks or you also make use of change lists? I got the editor to send me one, should I ignore it?

Thanks
Sep

[C]

Try it both ways. The change note should get you exactly where you need to be but may have events that don't need to be done (zero total change) or maybe you don't want to conform your dialog tracks where an effect has changed.

Everyone has different methods for doing reconforms, find what works for you. It may take some time and trial and error etc but eventually you'll find something that does work.

One other thing, try to not delete anything from the session. Use cut across a deletion and paste that section further down the timeline and then make it into a region group for easy reference later.

eg

#1 From 12+00 TO 18+00 DELETE <- select this area and cut material
Paste that material at 2700+00 and create a region group called Event 1

If you ever need material that was in that area then you can get back to it easily.

Good luck.