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  #1  
Old 06-12-2017, 04:06 PM
jeremiahmoore jeremiahmoore is offline
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Location: San Francisco
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Default Stems Labelling Conventions for No-Narrator Documentaries

Hi all -

Those of you who mix documentaries: How do you lay out and label your stems for delivery, for shows without narration?

Here's my current scheme for the tail of filenames on mix deliverables:
__Stem51-DX-A (primary interview, no overlapping voices at all)
__Stem51-DX-B (all other sync production sound and voice)
__Stem51-FX (all added sound)
__Stem51-MSX (music)

Obviously important to split the DX stem to give max flexibility for cutting trailers etc, as well as any international localizations. Also Language is never married to FX, better for localization or promos/trailers.

But I need to name these files in a way that make sense. Last time I delivered a doc using the name “PFX” instead of "DX-B", an editor at ITVS ignored those tracks and it was problematic. So I’d like to avoid it.

For TV-minded folks, D / M / E is typical, as is VO / D / M / E. The former loses flexibility, the latter labelling implies a narrator, and I don’t want to raise a red flag that there are mising undipped stems, etc.

Yes, good to "talk to the downstream folks" but sometimes it's just not possible.

Thx for whatever wisdom you all can provide.

-jeremiah
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  #2  
Old 06-13-2017, 07:57 AM
quadraphonics quadraphonics is offline
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Default Re: Stems Labelling Conventions for No-Narrator Documentaries

I think what you have is fine, just expect to get a call at some point about it.
I have sometimes labelled what you have as 'DX-B' as 'DX-B Roll'.

Quote:
Originally Posted by jeremiahmoore View Post
Hi all -

Those of you who mix documentaries: How do you lay out and label your stems for delivery, for shows without narration?

Here's my current scheme for the tail of filenames on mix deliverables:
__Stem51-DX-A (primary interview, no overlapping voices at all)
__Stem51-DX-B (all other sync production sound and voice)
__Stem51-FX (all added sound)
__Stem51-MSX (music)

Obviously important to split the DX stem to give max flexibility for cutting trailers etc, as well as any international localizations. Also Language is never married to FX, better for localization or promos/trailers.

But I need to name these files in a way that make sense. Last time I delivered a doc using the name “PFX” instead of "DX-B", an editor at ITVS ignored those tracks and it was problematic. So I’d like to avoid it.

For TV-minded folks, D / M / E is typical, as is VO / D / M / E. The former loses flexibility, the latter labelling implies a narrator, and I don’t want to raise a red flag that there are mising undipped stems, etc.

Yes, good to "talk to the downstream folks" but sometimes it's just not possible.

Thx for whatever wisdom you all can provide.

-jeremiah
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Starz Entertainment Group
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  #3  
Old 06-13-2017, 05:54 PM
jeremiahmoore jeremiahmoore is offline
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Default Re: Stems Labelling Conventions for No-Narrator Documentaries

Thanks!

I'm going to go with it, as no better ideas have come to the fore -

-jeremiah
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  #4  
Old 06-13-2017, 10:08 PM
Leverson Leverson is offline
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Default Re: Stems Labelling Conventions for No-Narrator Documentaries

I label my stems however the deliverables sheet says I should label them.

If there is no delivery sheet specification I've gotten into the habit of really spelling things out. I've actually gotten calls from production companies in the past that didn't know what DX and MX were, so now I'll write out _DialSTEM and _MusicSTEM just to be extra clear. It's a little silly, but I've never had a call about it since. When it doubt, spell it out.

As far as dialogue splits and sub groupings in a documentary mix, I usually have my tracks organized as follows:

Narration/VO

Sit-down interview tracks

Verite footage

Archival footage

Futz tracks (if needed)

And any non-dialogue production sounds goes on the Production FX tracks, which gets sent via the PFX stem to the FX stem.

Often I don't get asked to split the dialogue elements for delivery, other than separating out the Narration/VO. But I like to group my tracks in a way that if a distributor asks me for an archival-only stem I can easily do that as I've got it all organized that way anyways.

If you have a narrator-less documentary that is great, one less delivery requirement to split out.
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  #5  
Old 06-14-2017, 09:03 AM
philper philper is offline
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Default Re: Stems Labelling Conventions for No-Narrator Documentaries

I use more English friendly names, like NARR or VO, Interview DX, verite dx, verite BG or B roll, mono FX, etc. I too have had a lot of editors misinterpret stem names, so I try to make them as descriptive as I can (unless a network etc has a specific file naming convention to follow).
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  #6  
Old 06-30-2017, 11:29 AM
jeremiahmoore jeremiahmoore is offline
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Default Re: Stems Labelling Conventions for No-Narrator Documentaries

Thanks all!

Yes - I'm going w/ something more descriptive.

show_mixDateVersion_Stem-DX-INTVW-LtRt
show_mixDateVersion_Stem-DX-OTHER-LtRt

etc.

Film people: Nat? SOT?
TV people: Actuality? Pfx?


-jeremiah
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