The project I'm working on which I've posted several threads on has taken a new turn. I suggested transfering to DVCAM to offline and then we'll rescan at 1080 to HDCAM or DPX sequences (particularly now that metafuze is in the near future.) They went to telecine and I couldn't make it, but told them very specifically that I needed A-frame pulldown, a telecine log file as well as burn in time and keycode.

Well for one reason or another none of that happened. I got 2 DVCAM tapes with B-frame pulldown, no burn in, and no telecine logs. It was at least NDF timecode, I'll give them that. The point is that I currently have no way of going back to the film from my edit that I know of.

So that this point this thing might just end up staying SD, oh well, my only other idea was to rebuild the keycode for the used clips based on my punch frames from the camera rolls. Is this possible at all and if so what's the best way to do it?  This seems to me like a job for MichaelP. He seems to be the 24frame super hero around here.

Thanks.

Wow.... nice job on that transfer.... too bad they couldn't follow directions.

Was the transfer done in entire camera rolls? If so, it will certainly make it easier. You can add KeyKode at any time in the process. Just make sure you create a film project. Make sure you capture the punch frame. Avid can capture on any pulldown phase, just needs to be logged as such.

Enter The KeyKode for each camera roll. You can also create new master clips selecting the same tape name. When entering a KeyKode on those rolls, the other clips will inherit the KeyKode for all clips within that range. But if the transfer was done take by take, that will not work as well.

Then what I do is a confidence list. for each take on the camera roll, I add a locator - either the clap frame or some other uniquely identifiable frame. I then export a list with locators and have whomever is managing the negative verify the KeyKode. Any changes can be applied to the bin as needed.

Michael 

Yeah, I set it to B and that made everything work out in capture. It sure made me glad I ran 4 clips as a test before logging the rest of the tapes.

I have full roles with punches transfered to DVCAM. It's something like 22 rolls transfered to a 2hr and a 94min tape. There's a couple short ends too which I'm not sure where they go.  I already have everything logged, captured, sunk, and script sunk, plus a rough cut, so is it too late to add the keycode in there without it being a horrible pain? Also I have the tapes logged by DVCAM tapes, not by film roles, so I dunno if that's an issue, though the telecine guy did advance the hour for each flat so that might help. Is it something I can do once for each punch and then it will apply to all the children master and subclips or is it individual? I logged each take seperatly.

Thanks a lot.

Go to logging mode, select the same tape name as what has already been captured. Log the timecode for each camera roll making the punch of each roll the first frame of the logged clip. You do not need to capture the material.

Once these new master clips are created (22 of them), log the camera roll in the Camroll column and the KeyKode in the KN Start column. When you open your bins with the originally captured clips, you will see they inherit the Camroll and KeyKode from those 22 logged clips. Also, make sure you log the punch to have the same pullin as your other clips.

Very quick, and work great.

Michael

Wow, thanks a lot. I'm going to rewrite it just to make sure I have it. So I go back to my tapes and log each film roll on it as one 11ish minute clip starting from the punch, then find the key code for that frame on each roll and set that under modify and it will update all of my keycode from clips on the same tape? Is the modification automatic? Is there anything that could easily go wrong with that part or anything else to watch out for?

It'll certainly be a bit of work to do, but it's nowhere near as bad as I expected. Maybe if this turns out well I'll give it a go. Do clips have to be offline and unlinked to modify the key/timecode? I remember at one point before I figured out the ALE route to import metadata, I was trying to assign the proper timecode to clips after I imported them from files and it wouldnt work while they were online.

 You are not using "Modify" in any way here. Create new master clips as though you were logging them, but just make sure that when you give those clips a tape name, you select from the already existing tape names, so not give it a new name.

Log the ~11 min clips that represent each camera roll. 22 of them according to your past posting. Log the KeyKode into KN Start and a camera roll into Camroll and you are done. Save project. Open your original bins and you will see they have Camroll and KeyKode on them.

Michael

Oh so I can just set it from the column in the bin and it assigns that for the first frame? I've never had to work with keycode before so I didn't even know that.

Does that mean if I was starting a new project for matchback and had burn in but not a telecine log it would be easiest and best to log each clip ignoring keycode on the indivduals and the log the entire roll and set it for that?

 Correct! Assigning a KeyKode, timecode, etc, to the first frame creates the sync point for that clip and will count the offsets for every frame within that clip. Just make sure you have the right setting such as 35mm, 16mm, etc.

It is always best to get a log file from telecine, but logging it this manner is easy as long as you are sure that the entire camera roll was transferred without breaks - this is easier in 16mm, but in 35 you need to find out from the lab if they reset the negative becuase of reframing due to cleaning out the gate and such.

Michael