picture UN-locked, reconforming work
 

This question is as old as the hills, but I'm looking for a fresh perspective. We're working on a feature and are mostly done with sound editorial but not yet into premixing. The locked picture has just been unlocked and we'll be getting a new picture next week. Here's my plan:

1. have the picture department import the audio guide track from their latest output, so they'll have all the dialog from the movie in one big audio file rather than individual clips
2. edit to their hearts' content, keeping all audio and video tracks locked together (wrong terminology, I'm sure, but I'm a sound guy) so all the audio, including the re-import from step #1, moves with the picture
3. output us an EDL of that re-imported audio track only

The way I see it, I'll be able to use that EDL to manually reconform all my audio tracks in Pro Tools.

I'm sure there's a more elegant solution (i.e. automated), but don't have it on hand. Mostly, I'm just curious how everyone else deals with this particular 2,000 lb gorilla.

TIA,
~ Tor

Re: picture UN-locked, reconforming work
 

conformalize it.
you can use the technique you outlined or could do a comparison of VIDEO EDLs (or FCP XML) from each of the two versions (if they don't stick reliably to the guide track idea)

conformalizer gives 6 days with full features so you should be able to get it done.

the advantage of doing it with the conform app (apart from being faster) is that you can check the change EDL against the two pic files before you start hacking away at your tracks and even make a few modifications to simplify things (think of all the unnecessary changes to you ambience tracks)

http://www.maggot.co.nz

Re: picture UN-locked, reconforming work
 

It's working like a charm on our other machine as I type. Thanks for the tip. "A few tweaks" turned in to about a hundred very small cuts, so you're a godsend.