Re: Eclair Cameras: Timecode with ACL

[paul williams <pdpwilliams@yahoo.com>]

Whenever I shoot a clip I have the music track
transferred to a timecoded DAT with the first frame of
audio at 00H 01M 30S 00F.  Then on set when lip sync
is required, I playback from a DAT player that has
timecode OUT and run timecode out to a timecode slate
and shoot the slate at the head or tail of the take. 
I play back sound from the DAT so the band can hear
what point their song is at.

This way, every frame of the song has its own
timecode.

Then in post I digitise the DAT and lay the first
frame of audio up on the timeline at 00H 01M 30S 00F. 
I digitise the pictures which have their own timecode
from the digibeta or DVCAM masters ex 16mm telecine. 
Then it's a simple matter of matching up the visual
timecode of the individual shots that appears on the
timecode slate with the DAT timecode on the timeline. 
I lay up every take in one sequence and call it my
SYNC MASTER and start the proper cutting from there. 
I've always found it a foolproof system and it hasn't
failed me yet.

Speaking of sync issues I've been developing a system
for my documentary work that's kind of like poor man's
aaton timecode.  I've just had a video split put on by
AZ Spectrum in NYC but I haven't got the camera back
so the following is untested as yet but I am sure it
will work fine.

My plan is to run the video out from the video split
on the ACL into my DVCAM field recorder (Sony DSR
50P).  I will also record my audio onto this unit
(with a DAT or Minidisc backup) so effectively I will
have sync up field rushes (dailies) which can be
played back on set.  As long as the DSR 50P is running
before the ACL, everytime I button on the camera (with
the blooper switch on) I will see a "flash" on the
video track as the blooper light lights up for 8
frames.

In post I will digitise my DVCAM field rushes (audio
and vision) and lay this down on a single timeline.  I
will put a marker on each of the flashes where the
camera obviously started.  Next I will digitise the
telecined film rushes and simply line up each
consecutive camera flash with the flash on the field
rushes.  More or less instant sync with the sync point
visual-visual not visual-aural.

I'm anticipating it to be the solution to a couple of
problems not the least of which being having to
physically slate every shot with a clapper in
documentary situation where this isn't appropriate.  I
don't know about you guys but I always find that when
people see a slate they think "movie" and that's not
always the right frame of mind to have them in...

I'll let you all know how I get along.

Paul Williams

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