Recuts- analysing changes in aafs

[Moviesound]

Does anyone know of a program which can flag up where there are changes in two sets of aafs/omfs? It seems crazy to have to painstakingly go through aafs everytime you get a new cut to work out where a picture editor has changed something. Obviously Vk, conformaliser etc do their thing, but if this doesnt exist why doesnt someone write it!

[MIKEROPHONICS]

If your sequence comes from FCP it's called xml! (oh the joys of conformalizer and XML ;-)
or get your editor to put tracks called original - where everything starts, and then if it is new or altered it goes on to tracks called alt

or start using referenced AAFs

cheers

[garnoil]

Originally Posted by Moviesound

Does anyone know of a program which can flag up where there are changes in two sets of aafs/omfs? It seems crazy to have to painstakingly go through aafs everytime you get a new cut to work out where a picture editor has changed something. Obviously Vk, conformaliser etc do their thing, but if this doesnt exist why doesnt someone write it!

I am not sure if this is what you mean but you could "save session copy" and force all the files to be .wav?

[Moviesound]

Its not. I mean to work out the differences between two turnovers. For example, the editor might have chosen a different take in the new cut or moved a clip a couple of frames.
And as for getting the editor to tell you what they changed, thats never gonna happen!

[The Cargo Cult]

this is precisely the purpose of conformalizer.
get them to export audio and video EDLs for each handover.
normally, comparing video EDLs provides the best conform EDL but in your case it sounds like you want to compare the audio EDLs.

the caveat is that conformalizer looks for anything it can find that has NOT changed, rather than things that have moved with respect to other things.
so if there are two bits of audio playing at one point, and one has slipped 4 frames, conformalizer will happily match the one that didn't slip.

so ask for audio EDLs for all the production tracks only, music and FX will just confuse the process.

[Moviesound]

Well, I'll look into it. But it would need to work with music and fx too. If the cutting room change a gunshot or move a door slam 2 frames, choose a different dialogue take or added another layer of walla. You'd need to know about all those things

[mfranken]

Originally Posted by Moviesound

But it would need to work with music and fx too. If the cutting room change a gunshot or move a door slam 2 frames, choose a different dialogue take or added another layer of walla. You'd need to know about all those things

You'll never get an app that will compare two AAFs and tell you exactly what has changed in a meaningful way or automatically update your session as the AAF or Media Composer tracks don't match your session tracks one for one. Also, you'll end up replacing temp fx or changing music edit points or replacing music entirely between getting your first AAF and second AAF - then how is this magic app going to know what to do with the changes you made?

The best you can do is either import your new AAF into new tracks of your session and make the changes manually comparing waveforms (you can group our tracks, setup your session for 1 frame grid to fix the major changes) or you can compare vision EDLs with an app like EdiTrace which will then re-conform your tracks to match the picture changes. You will then always need to compare the new AAF or guide track to your tracks and tweak individual clips/regions as only you know what differences were made by the picture editor and what changes were made by you.

Hope that helps.

Regards,

Mark

[Moviesound]

I don't mean that I want an app to fix the changes. When I'm working on a reel I always keep an untouched copy of the aaf on inactive tracks. When we get the next cut of that reel I then import the new aaf and as well as reconforming the multitracks and using a program to recut my session via video edl, I also have to compare the two aafs. If there is a change, I will adjust my multitrack edit. The aafs themselves. Ever get edited, they are merely there to explain what the picture editor wants

[Frank Kruse]

Originally Posted by Moviesound

I don't mean that I want an app to fix the changes. When I'm working on a reel I always keep an untouched copy of the aaf on inactive tracks. When we get the next cut of that reel I then import the new aaf and as well as reconforming the multitracks and using a program to recut my session via video edl, I also have to compare the two aafs. If there is a change, I will adjust my multitrack edit. The aafs themselves. Ever get edited, they are merely there to explain what the picture editor wants

This might be an exotic work-around and I haven't tried it and I'm also not sure if a machine will ever be able to ID relevant changes instead of flagging any microscopic change like a different fade length or the same clip moving from track 1 to track 2 without any relevant change in the result etc but anyway:

How about exporting the old and new AAF tracks as text from PT and have a text app compare both exports and flag the changes. I'm sure there are some apps out there that can highlight changes a la wikipedia where you can select different generations of text-versions and the app highlights the changes?

I am sure with a little research you can find a text-program that can do this.

The first one is one of my favorite helpers: TextWrangler. It can compare two text-files and do what I wrote earlier.

Not sure if this will be faster than simply scrolling through the timeline and eye-balling the differences but you might want to try it and let us know how this works for you?

One problem you will encounter is that in order to do the compare you need to re-cut the old version first so it is in sync with the new version. The text program will then of course flag every single cut as a change because the re-cut is never going to match the new version 100% in every detail unless you spend hours re-creating every single transition first down to the single sample.

Below the line preparing the AAF for the comparison will take you more time than simply eye-balling through. Only someone who knows the film will be able to differentiate between relevant and irrelevant changes.

frank.

[Moviesound]

You're right Frank, yes you'd need to recut the old aaf, but thats fine, it can be cut when you cut the main session. Ill try text wrangler next time i get a recut.
Thanks