User Manual

Pro Tools Reference Guide1186
Film Workflow
This topic describes the film workflow from
shooting to the point where the Avid editor is
ready for editing, and is intended for the follow-
ing parties:
• Camera assistant
• Camera operator
• Production sound mixer
• Telecine operator
• Pro Tools editor
Overview of Film Workflow
The following describes an overview of the steps
necessary to a film workflow:
1 Set up before shooting.
2 Shoot.
3 Telecine transfer.
4 Batch digitize in Avid application.
Following these steps ensures that time code
metadata are preserved from the moment shoot-
ing begins to the final delivery of source files to
the Pro Tools editor.
Setting Up Before Shooting (Film
Workflow)
Before each day’s shooting begins, the produc-
tion sound mixer should decide on a unique
name—preferably ascending by day—and enter
that exact name in the Tape BEXT or iXML
metadata field inside the Broadcast WAV file.
For example, the production sound mixer might
use T001 for the first day’s shooting, T002 for
the second day’s shooting, and so forth.
Shooting (Film Workflow)
1 Shooting proceeds as follows:
• Film camera begins rolling.
• One or more field recorders begin record-
ing. The production sound mixer has desig-
nated one or two channels as a production
sound mix, which is a consolidation of one
or more channels in each multichannel re-
cording.
2 During shooting, the following time code in-
formation is captured:
• The camera captures images to film, each
frame of which is embedded during manu-
facturing with a unique identifying time
code position known as keycode.
• One or more field recorders simultaneously
make multichannel recordings that are em-
bedded with SMPTE time code based on
time of day (or longitudinal time code).
3 During shooting, the following information is
noted:
• The camera assistant keeps a written record
(called a shootlist) documenting each scene
and take with a corresponding keycode po-
sition.
• The production sound mixer also keeps a
written record (also called a sound log) doc-
umenting each scene and take with a corre-
sponding time code position.
4 The slate operator claps the slate to indicate
the beginning of the take. The field recorder re-
cords the audio of the clap, and the film camera
captures the following images:
• Scene and take number (written on the
slate)
• Exact moment the slate closes
• Time code position of the slate closing
5 Shooting ends and the take is complete.