Syncing audio/video & Working with Premiere Pro and Pro Tools

[millsi]

Hi!

I have been searching around the forum and the internet but to no avail…

I've been using PT extensively for music production however I am now involved with making a film! Does anybody have any experience with a situation like this…

I will be recording the sound separately to the video. The video will be edited using Adobe Premiere Pro, I will be editing & mixing the audio (once the video edit is complete) using PT LE8.

The first issue is syncing the audio to the video (in premiere)- there will be a great deal of takes and manually syncing would take an age.

Secondly, once the editor has finished, I need to be able to have the audio region edits done in Premiere match up with my audio in PT.

I was thinking about EDL's and OMF - but I don't have PT9 or DVToolkit2 so OMF is out of the window…

Can anybody help?

Thanks a lot!

Harry M

[millsi]

has anybody got any ideas or thoughts on this?


Or please, re-direct me to a post if this has already been answered


Thanks

[HD2]

Originally Posted by millsi

Hi!

I have been searching around the forum and the internet but to no avail…

I've been using PT extensively for music production however I am now involved with making a film! Does anybody have any experience with a situation like this…

I will be recording the sound separately to the video. The video will be edited using Adobe Premiere Pro, I will be editing & mixing the audio (once the video edit is complete) using PT LE8.

The first issue is syncing the audio to the video (in premiere)- there will be a great deal of takes and manually syncing would take an age.

Secondly, once the editor has finished, I need to be able to have the audio region edits done in Premiere match up with my audio in PT.

I was thinking about EDL's and OMF - but I don't have PT9 or DVToolkit2 so OMF is out of the window…

Can anybody help?

Thanks a lot!

Harry M

Your situation is not uncommon.
Regarding the first issue. It is up to the editor or assistant to sync the dailies audio and video and lock them together. Now depending on how they shot the film and what was used for the audio, this could be an easy process or a time consuming laborious one. If they used timecode and jam synced the separate units and kept good notes all should go reasonably well. If they didn't...well someone is going to be having lots of sleepless nights.

On the second issue, you should get an OMF from the editor and then open that in Protools and all the audio files should all be in place just as they were laid out in the editing program. if it is a full length movie you may need to break the OMF up into reels as there is a 2gb limit.
Oh I see you don't have PT9 or DvTk.
Well you will need to step up and buy the necessary tools if you want to play with the big boys, or you could always find someone that does have the tools and pay them to import the OMF and send you the Protools session already created. Actually come to think of it, that would not work that well as you are going to need timecode in your PT session.

[tom_lowe]

The number of people who think they can work to picture without OMF import and Timecode (OK, you can do without timecode, but it's a headache) is ridiculous.

Some ads on low/un-paid job sites now speicify people must have Digitranslator. That said, it would help if productions would actually get the money together before making a film, so they could employ someone with the necesary skill and tools in the first place, rather than a bedroom musician who thinks doing film sound is the same.

Just my thoughts on the subject.

[Gary Nattrass]

I have to agree with Tom and to add you need to get your workflow sorted out before you even start shooting as you will spend a lot of hours just trying to get everything in sync never mind getting any dubbing done.

I am always amazed at how the lo/no gigs want to play at being feature film makers but then use a canon 5d or a RED camera with sep sound with little or no consideration to how it will be edited or dubbed.

I'm off now to see if my wife's 1.3litre car can be modified so I can get it to do 0-60 in less than 3 secs, I am sure there must be something on e-bay that will allow it to be done if not I am sure the local mechanic will modify it for free!

[tom_lowe]

Gary, I think that has to be the best analogy I've ever heard for this situation.

[millsi]

Hey, thanks for reading!

Thanks HD2 for your constructive reply, I have subsequently done a little more research into the topic and have my workflow sorted now. So I should be fine come the shoot!