Field recordings to audio post

[Ken P]

i have potential to audio post an indy where all of the elements will be handed to me from editors who are currently working on the film. one of the sets of elements would be DVD-Rom's of pro tools sessions where timecode dats where loaded into pro tools sessions at another facility. they will be giving me a pic and presumably an OMF with camera guide tracks along with an EDL. my big stupid question of the day is, how do i get the field audio in the DAT-to-PT sessions to the camera guide tracks? my initial reaction is by hand from the EDL. this is all new ground to me because everything i have worked with thus far has been audio recorded to camera via field mixers. is the TITAN software and other sw apps mentioned possibly the right tool(s) to aid with this process? i cain't quite grasp how field audio recorded to a different machine on production shoots gets married up with an edited picture in the audio post process, other than matching timecodes by hand. i feel like with all the different post jobs i've worked on i should've covered this already...

[Ken P]

Along with the OMF, ask for an audio only EDL.

I have had very good success with Final Cut Pro. Import the EDL, the dialogue box will ask you
if this is for batch or reconnect. Check the batch, and pop in the correct Dats when it asks you.


Initially the FCP session will have blank regions, after batch digitizing, the regions will turn green.
Then OMF to Protools.

thanks DIAFXMX for your reply. so it sounds like what should happen in theory is the picture editor batch captures the audio from tc dats and then should supply me with an OMF with all of the "good" audio. or, as you suggested if i understand correctly, i could rent a tc dat and do it on my end via final cut and export an OMF to myself.

with this being said, what if they supplied PT sessions with the "good" audio already xferred into PT sessions, and did their edits to pic using guide audio mixes printed to camera (essentially, no dats delivered, just PT sessions that grabbed them from a locked machine xfer)? it sounds to me like i answered my own question in this case, that is has to be done by hand, reading an EDL line by line, unless someone suggests otherwise. the good news is, i did find out that the editors are editing with the "good" audio already ingested.

[TVPostSound]

Hey what happened to my post???

If you have the Dats already digitized, there could be Software solutions, ou there, Im sure someone will chime in, as I
dont really do film.
Maybe not.
The EDL given to you will have reference to the tape numbers and timecodes, since the digitized Dats were done in a
PT session, I dont believe there can be a relationship to reconform via software.

Unless someone knows better, you would need to reconform from tape.

[Ken P]

Hey what happened to my post???

If you have the Dats already digitized, there could be Software solutions, ou there, Im sure someone will chime in, as I
dont really do film.
Maybe not.
The EDL given to you will have reference to the tape numbers and timecodes, since the digitized Dats were done in a
PT session, I dont believe there can be a relationship to reconform via software.

Unless someone knows better, you would need to reconform from tape.

that is bizzarre that your post disappeared...

thanks for the info. this at least helps me understand a little better.

[Stuart P.]

Hey what happened to my post???

Hey Folks,

General Hayden here, from the NSA. Sorry about the glitches.

[Ken P]

Hey Folks,

General Hayden here, from the NSA. Sorry about the glitches.

did you get prior authorization for this "glitch"? wait a minute... my mouse cursor just moved while i clearly have both hands on the keyboard...time for the tinfoil hat again

[Stuart P.]

time for the tinfoil hat again

We recommend Reynolds brand foil (subsidiary of Northrop since the middle of the Reagan administration). It amplifies the critical 15-18 gigahertz bandwidth. Above and below that is allocated to basic military communications and FOX.


GH

[h1ntOn]

my big stupid question of the day is, how do i get the field audio in the DAT-to-PT sessions to the camera guide tracks?

Does the TC of the picture edits match the DATs? And were the DATs imported into ProTools with that TC married to the audio? If so you should be able to conform from the EDL. I did a feature last year where production used time of day TC. This meant that when they gave me the DATs and EDL to conform I had to figure out how to record the TC into ProTools. My process was to slave PT to the TC DAT machine. This way when the TC jumped from two totally different TC location (this is what happens with Time of day TC) ProTools creates a new file for every jump. I then exported all these regions as files from ProTools and used TITAN to match the EDL to the files and voila you have your conformed PT session. Unfortunately it wasn't as simple as it sounds. At least as a first timer but this is one of the more complex workflows for sound and picture. Find out if they used Time-of-day TC if so be prepared for a few long nights.

Cheers,

B

[Ken P]

I then exported all these regions as files from ProTools and used TITAN to match the EDL to the files and voila you have your conformed PT session.

good info! i figured this could never really be a simple process, but one that software of some sort may ease the pain. TITAN so far seems to be the only software that i can find that fits this purpose - so far. my question now is, how does TITAN or any other sw look at the EDL and then match those files exported from pt to their proper places in the new picture timeline? if i read what you said correctly, once the files are exported from PT then there are no real timestamps on those files, right? i think i just need to research TITAN a bit more to understand exactly how it performs its duties...

[Ken P]

is there anyone who conforms field audio to pic on a PC - HD system? right now the only sw solution i see is Titan which is mac only.