After reading our previous articles on choosing the right channel strip, the reverbs, and fine-tuning your routing, you should be ready for your first project. In this article, we will help you establish a checklist of what you will need and what you will be getting from the picture editor. And yes, new lingo will be introduced with the likes of OMF, AAF, BITC (TCBi), and much more.

This series of articles is written for the aspiring mix-to-pix mixer coming from the music mixing background. Tips and tricks will be given to help you get a hold with the ins-and-outs of audio post-production workflows. The tools are roughly the same, but their use has a slightly different interpretation than in the music world. Since you already know most of the tools, we will skip the baby steps.

Now you are all revved up to start your first project. You have a great template, you have chosen your EQs, compressors, channel strips and reverbs, then the picture editor’s assistant calls and asks: What Codec do you need? Where do you want the burnt-in timecode? OMF or AAF? Is a one second handle enough?

Here Are Some Answers

First of all, if you live in an Apple pre-Catalina era, you have many more options, but if you live in Apple’s Catalina era, the video import is a bit more… convoluted.

Let’s start with the pre-Catalina workflow as some concepts do spill over to the current Catalina version.

1. What Codec Do You Need?

This refers to the type of video you need for your system to run smoothly. The word Codec is the portmanteau of coder-decoder, and it comes in multiple flavors. The ones you are interested in are either: Avid’s own DNxHD, Apple’s ProRes, or the more general H264. The first two will create large files but should run smoothly, whereas the third one, although produces smaller files, might give you some frustrations, but all are viable.

Unfortunately, the “64 bit only Catalina” no longer accepts a regular H264 (circa 2003), and the workarounds use of third-party software, with added time-consuming tasks. The good news is once the video is taken care of, the rest is pretty much the same.

2. Where Do You Want The Burnt-in Timecode?

This refers to where on the screen do you want the burnt-in timecode (BITC) also called Timecode Burnt-in (TCBi). You already know what Timecode is, but the question is legitimate and if it’s not asked, you should insist: higher right-hand side. Because more times than not, if left to themselves, the picture editing team will put it in the centre in the lower quadrant, it looks better, but it is next to impossible for Foley to do the footsteps and such, the TCBi is hiding everything.

Wrong

Right

3. OMF or AAF?

You can answer: “Your choice.”

So that you know, OMF was developed by Avid to be able to exchange with other platforms - software, hence the name Open Media Framework or Open Media Framework Interchange. It’s an older technology (1990). If you have the choice go for OMF type 2, embedded, this way you will have the picture editor’s timeline ready for you. To note: the OMF must not contain the video, and cannot be bigger than 2G, so it is customary for them to output multiple OMFs for a project.

Don’t let them convince you to split it midway, sync troubles and other issues are sure to pop up.

Also, the fact that if it is embedded, you are 99% sure that it won’t backfire on you.

In our example:

The first one contains the picture editor’s track 1 of his timeline

(FUHDT-Beland_OMF-T1_22092015_003.omf)… hum the third attempt!

Then, his second track

(FUHDT-Beland_OMF-T2_22092015_001.omf)

And so on.

You will notice that the last files contain multiple tracks, but still under the 2GB mark.

When the picture editor’s assistant is outputting the OMF for you, like all of us, he clicks faster than lightning and the default values get to be… your output.

Asking for embedded is a double safety net, they have to pay more attention, and if there’s a problem while embedding it will just abort, signifying that something went wrong and that they have to spend time investigating the troubled file(s).

As for the AAF, it’s a more recent file format interchange, it stands for Advanced Authoring Format and is being standardized by the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE).

This one should also not contain the video file, and sometimes they are not embedded. Meaning you will get a folder that contains all the files needed. It’s chancy but works great when everyone involved is disciplined in their workflow.

To learn more about OMF and AAFs check out our recent article AAF And OMFs - Post Audio Expert Panel On The Good, The Bad And The Ugly

4. Is A One Second Handle Enough?

What this question pertains to is how much “leeway” would you like, specifically, when the picture editor is cutting away, where he starts or stops his picture edit does not mean you should too and handles make it possible to access to the underlying sound, beyond the picture edit point, where room tone and that missing syllable resides.

So the question is, how much of that extra underlying sound do you need?

Five (5) to ten (10) seconds is usually preferred. You can then use it to patch and smooth out the edits, don’t forget, a picture editor can only edit to the frame. Well, that’s not necessarily true, but no one has time to massage an audio edit, and besides, the audio guy (that’s you) will take care of it.

And when everything is settled, make sure you have all the necessary material you need to do your magic by following these easy steps.

Video

• Has an audio guide (1)

• Frame rate is the same as the burnt-in timecode

• Beep (or two-pop) reference is really two seconds before the first image

Burnt-in (Timecode

• Big enough to be seen from your position (2)

• Upper right corner (2)

• Time Code matches the video’s frame rate (3)

OMFi

• Type 2

• Embedded

• Matches the video guide

AAF Contains all relevant files:

• An AAF

• All WAV files

All you have to do now is to import everything in your template, and make sure everything is in sync, and “dispatch” all the sounds to their relevant tracks.

And there you have it! You should have a good grip on the transitional world of video to audio postproduction. It’s understood that we know our craft with all our bells and whistles, but it will give you an edge if you understand the needs of the editing team, the broadcasters and all the different platforms in between.

Next Episode…

Next time we will be importing tracks from all the departments (dialogue, backgrounds, foley, SFX, sound design, music, and narration) into one supersession. Don’t miss it!