elliotkelly

There are a couple things about Omf's in the type of workflow we have: Exporting demands time of the video editor Consumes additional disk space Audio rushes metadata is lost Video editors volume automation is lost Importing to PT demands time Many omfs have to be exported frequently due to size limit Limited handles at both sides of a clip Regions are not linked to the original material

Hi, does anyone have experience using Automatic Duck for converting FCP7 Projects to PT Sessions? I would like to know what are the differences between it and XML Pro by Gallery, and what makes one better than the other. Thanks

Martin, that letter was exactly what I was looking for. I will translate it to Spanish and pass it to everyone here.

As a dialog editor I really appreciate all the efforts done by every one in production in order to get the best sound possible on location. They really do their best everyday to provide us with decent material to work with in post. However, very frequently the results are not satisfactory, not as a fault of the sound department directly, but because some of the other departments are not conscious of the huge impact they make. Just as a boom op, whose work includes the effort to stay out of frame, everyone else shoud also do their best to make a positive impact in the recorded sound, be it keeping quiet on set, choosing better locations, or thinking on mic placement when designing costumes. I believe we should have a meeting with the crew to discuss this, so I would really appreciate if you can give me some general ideas on what things can be done by other departments to benefit the quality of the sound we get.

I forgot to say that these are additional duties to my current role as dialog editor.

The company I work for wants me to create a new position in the post team and be in charge of it. You tell me what could be its name since I am not sure yet. Let me explain you what it is about first. We are a big TV production company, and constantly there are 2, 3 or even 4 shows being produced simultaneously. Each production has its own audio post team, which includes 4 people most of the times: A mixer (who also selects and edits the music, that's why here we call him the "musicalizer"), a dialog editor, a foley editor and an assistant who does backgrounds, conforms, and various tasks (everyone has to do everything at certain point when deadlines are tough). The head of the audio team in each project is the mixer, he makes decisions, gives rules to the team, and organizes the workflow. However, he has a big amount of responsabilities and there is where the idea of creating a new position came from. My responsability would be to improve the quality of everything audio related in post, by being in constant communication with the production sound team and giving them feedback, giving advice about locations in preproduction, providing dialog editors with new tools and techniques to do their work better, being a support for the mixers by designing custom reverbs, telephone filters, and different patches for each project, and being a bridge between the director of postproduction, and the audio team. I don´t know if a position like this is usual in other companies, so let me know what do you think could be improved, and what would be the name of this new position. Thanks.

Thanks for your reply SENATOR, The whole audio team has always thought that the flaw you mention should be corrected, since it would certainly help if the sound mix was done after picture lock. However, clients, directors and producers want to watch the full episode after it is mixed, and then make their requests about audio and video. This is the way it has always been here, and I don't see it changing soon, but you have made me thought again about it. Maybe it is something that definitely has to be corrected in order to improve the workflow of the audio team.

I would like to know how do you use reverb on dialog tracks, mostly in TV series. Do you send to Mono or Stereo reverbs? How many reverbs do you start with in your mixing template, which ones? Do you design custom patches for specific locations through all the series? Which reverb plugins or hardware do you like to use for this purpose and why? Any tips and tricks related to the use of reverb in dialog tracks? Whatever information you want to share on this topic will be welcome and I'm sure it will result very, very helpful. Thanks for your time.

In the context where I work, the video editors send us a finished episode to work with. Then, the audio team will do the backgrounds, foley, dialogs, music, etc, and when the final mix is done, the episode is sent for review to the director, producers, and a group of people who will ask for changes in audio, and video. After the editor receives those requests, he will do all the video adjustments and send us back a new video and an .omf with a reference track to cut and assemble the Pro Tools session according to this new version. Now, here comes the problem: The changes made by the editor include opening space for new scenes and shots that were not in the previous version, changing the order of scenes, making a shot longer or shorter by adding or cutting frames, as well as deleting scenes and putting new ones, just to mention some of the changes they do. The consecuence is that once we reassemble the .ptf, everything is a mess, now the music, fx, backgrounds and dialogs will be cut at weird points, and we will have to manually fix every affected region (which is a process that will never be done right by any software). My question is: Are VirtualKaty and similar products reliable enough for the process of cutting and assembling a Pro Tools session in this context? Will they move every region and automation to their new location, delete the regions that were deleted by the editor, open space for new scenes, etc? Thank you for your time.

I know this one seems pretty obvious, but I would like to know what are the duties of a Supervising Dialog Editor. Of course he has the responsability to observe other Dialog Editors work and keep the quality as high as possible giving them advice, and providing them with tools and techniques that will help them to do their work better. I also understand that a Supervising Dialog Editor is responsible to be in constant communication with the production team in order to give them feedback and letting them know what are the needs at Post or what can be improved. However, I would really like to know with as much detail as possible about the specific duties of Supervising Dialog Editors at different Post facilities, and how is their Dialog Editing workflow (not in technical terms, but more about how they get involved in the production and their role in the overall process). Thanks for your time.