FCP - export with timecode and metadata

[noiseboyuk]

Hi all, most of the projects I get are from Avid which just works. I did a project a couple of years ago from FCP, and it had no original timecode passed on or metadata. We ended up conforming from EDL, which was a major pain (I used Pyramix for this). This time it will be even more of a pain, as each episode will be shot over many more days. It will be 100x easier if the clips in the AAF (or OMF) have embedded original timecode, reel number etc that I can make a Field Recorder track from in PT and link to the audio media.

Assuming I fail to convince them to edit on Avid, does anyone know if there's an FCP-based solution that will work? I've looked at XML Pro and Automatic Duck, not sure if either or both of these will work. Grateful for any help - thanks.

[José Luis Díaz]

Hi noiseboyuk,
The way of XML Pro will only work IF previously you extracted the iXML metadata from production sound AND IF the resulting XML file was imported in FCP.
In the hypothesis those conditions were positive FCP can export an XML file that will be translated to a ProTools session by XML Pro software.
If you have time you can read this article about this workflow.
It is my intuition that you arrive late to this workflow and can not guarantee both contitions.
If that is the case I suggest you ask for an EDL and go with TITAN or EDI Load.
Automatic Duck way is a good one also.
In such case, ask for an AAF NOT EMBEDDED. I mean, with referenced media.
If everything was well done metadata will not desapear.

[mr.armadillo]

Automatic Duck works like a charm, it's free and unlike XMLpro you can use it late in the process. Note that all except the "start timecode" metadata is gone, but that's enough to conform inside PT using it's field recorder functionality. I ran across a few problems when location sound was recorded as poly-files though - PT could not relink.

[noiseboyuk]

Thanks Jose and Mr Admadillo.

The good news is that there's a week til we start shooting, so there's time to come up with a plan all round. Sound will be recorded on Boom Recorder, which is very flexible with how it records the audio and data.

Jose - the article you referenced seems to be discussing using an xml file and relinking to the audio media directly. That would be one way to go, but I'm just checking its not an unnecessary complication. I'd quite like to use the media used in the edit for reference (the video originates on Red, and I found the edit audio invaluable to sort out minor sync issues last time - Red seems to drift relative to the lockit-generated timecode by up to a frame or two either way).

The only problem of course is that FCP strips the timecode and metadata from those files. So if there's no way of ever keeping that data intact on the media from the edit, I'll have to investigate this rather complicated route instead.

Mr Armadillo - that doesn't sound ideal to me, because I'll still get the critical other metadata stripped. I think the minimum I need would be roll number along with timecode. Thanks for reminding me about PT's issues with poly files - I'll set Boom Rec to record mono ones.

Sheesh, the Pro in Final Cut Pro is ironic, right?

[mfranken]

Originally Posted by noiseboyuk

Assuming I fail to convince them to edit on Avid, does anyone know if there's an FCP-based solution that will work?

As José has said you could use EdiLoad. Simply export an Audio EDL for each set of 4 audio tracks from FCP. EdiLoad can load one or more audio EDLs and clean them (remove dup monos etc) to create one list. Then export "Conform Ref Track(s)" which creates a PT session containing a Pro Tools track for each EDL track. Import this into your dial edit session and then you can use the field recorder/expand tracks features of PT to conform your location audio.

The only thing to check is that the Roll Names in the EDLs match the 'Sound Roll' names in the metadata in the WAVs. If they need to be updated EdiLoad contains powerful tools to batch update them (e.g. convert "DAY-01" to DAY_01").

Regards,

Mark

[noiseboyuk]

Thanks Mark - that could well be worth investigating. Pyramix has a good EDL system in it, it might be I could try that first and export a new AAF with all the right media in place, but if I get problems then EdiLoad should sort me out.

Now I'm wondering if I might see if the FCP editor can do the conforming himself, if that's easy in FCP?!