Please help me figure out a solid workflow!

[JWalkerPostAudio]

Hello DUC community. I could really use your help, tips and suggestions on this one.

I'm about to get started on a project that requires a lot manual production audio assembly. The audio from the OMF that was delivered from FCP is mostly camera audio. Some of it is also roughly mixed audio sent from the mixer into the camera but needless to say it is all very rough and mostly all needs to be replaced with original production audio.

Since I also worked as a boom op on this project, I know a little bit of the projects history. We recorded the audio on a two track mixer and the original plan was to turn over our audio dailies to the editor who would be importing all the media and syncing audio via slate to the rest of the dailies. As enthusiastic as he was about this plan, he failed to do any of it and the prod audio was never synced to picture. Now the picture has been cut and pretty much all of the audio must be replaced. There is no scene and take meta data on any of the audio regions in my current OMF so I have no idea where to even start looking from my prod audio folders.

Here's what my current plan is: Get a new OMF with the largest handles as I possibly can; whatever it takes to ensure that I can pull audio out far enough to hear the slate and the 2nd AC calling out the scene and take (1,000 seconds?). Then I will look for that audio in Miniminer and cut to match. I am trying to get a copy of the linescript which should help me along the way.

Please lend me your suggestions and advice to finish this task as quickly and painlessly as possible. I really appreciate the help!
-Justin

[Dingo90]

damn, dude, sorry to hear that.
the only thing I can think of is, ask the editor for an EDL which should tell you which take of the video he used, so hopefully you can match his video with the same audio take...

good luck man!

[mr.armadillo]

Oh dear. I guess the "easiest" and cheapest way to do it is for the editor to hire an assistant who re-imports all of the production audio into FCP and hands you a new OMF.

[nucelar]

Have you considered PluralEyes? I'm not a user but I heard it does wonders. It works inside FCP though and aligns audio based on waveform.

[JWalkerPostAudio]

Originally Posted by Dingo90

damn, dude, sorry to hear that.
the only thing I can think of is, ask the editor for an EDL which should tell you which take of the video he used, so hopefully you can match his video with the same audio take...

good luck man!

I honestly don't think this info was even logged. I'll give it a shot though thanks for the suggestion!
-Justin

[JWalkerPostAudio]

Originally Posted by mr.armadillo

Oh dear. I guess the "easiest" and cheapest way to do it is for the editor to hire an assistant who re-imports all of the production audio into FCP and hands you a new OMF.

Great suggestion. Unfortunately there is limited time for completion because of a deadline created by the distributor who has already bought the film. Honestly I think I would rely much more on an sound assistant more so than any "assistant" from the pic department (whom got me in this mess in the first place). If I get behind schedule on this I have to get an assistant to help me out.
-Justin

[JWalkerPostAudio]

Originally Posted by nucelar

Have you considered PluralEyes? I'm not a user but I heard it does wonders. It works inside FCP though and aligns audio based on waveform.

This was suggested to me before and I did give it a shot. I even sat down in front of the full project on FCP and watched some plural eyes tutorial videos and I eventually determined that plural eyes couldn't do what I was trying to do on such a large scale. Pluraleyes is great for syncing multi cam takes and can sync audio channels to some extent but I believe it is counter intuitive for this larger task. I couldn't figure out a solid workflow to use it and just gave up but perhaps I just lack the knowledge and experience with FCP and pluraleyes to make that a viable option.
-Justin

[JWalkerPostAudio]

I try not to think that after all this assembly I have to do I still have to cut dx and cue and cut ADR!

[Roger Stauss]

Can your FCP Editor send you an AAF instead of OMF? It may contain the missing info you need in the regions to determine the takes used.

Good luck. It'll come together.

[JWalkerPostAudio]

Originally Posted by Roger Stauss

Can your FCP Editor send you an AAF instead of OMF? It may contain the missing info you need in the regions to determine the takes used.

Good luck. It'll come together.

I checked into it and FCP doesn't have the functionality without Automatic Duck, which goes for around $500 so I really doubt this group has it. I will check at today's spotting session. Thanks for the suggestion!
-Justin