Automatic Duck Somewhat-Almost-Best Practices

In my travels, I’ve had to do a fair number of Automatic Duck project conversions. While I was learning this process, I found that there wasn’t much good information containing tips and tricks about making this process smooth. Especially now with the exodus from Apple because of FCPX, streamlining this process is more essential now than ever. I don’t propose to know all the answers, but I thought it was high time somebody started putting down their experiences so that we can start working towards some kind of a “Best Practices” document. I’m humble about my experience here, but I will say that I’ve done it a fair amount and I think my tips are good. I’d love to hear what you think. Please leave a note in the Comments section and tell me what I got right or wrong. Quick note: What I’ll talk about here is transferring between Avid and Final Cut Pro, because that’s what I have experience doing. However, since Adobe After Effects workflows are prevalent nowadays as well, I’d love to hear about your experiences there. Please, leave comments.

WHAT IS AUTODUCK?

Automatic Duck is shorthand for a number of programs developed by Wes Plate as a way to move editor sequences between Avid/Apple/Adobe products. Now that Wes has joined Adobe, his programs are now thankfully free to download. The apps are basically plugins for Final Cut Pro 7 and Adobe After Effects, so you’ll need one of these apps (as well as Avid Media Composer, if that’s part of your workflow) in order to transfer your footage.

HOW AUTODUCK WORKS:

• You can only send footage between different programs via sequences. There is no way to transfer whole projects at one time.
• Automatic Duck will take your sequence (and if you choose, your media) and convert it into files to import into another editing application. It can retain many simple effect information and titles, but everything must be checked to ensure accuracy.
• You can send media as either sequence information alone (where you’ll import/relink media after), or you can have Automatic Duck convert your media during the export/conversion process.
• When it comes to exporting media, you should figure what stage you’re at in the post process. If you’re still in offline, you should maintain the resolution of something like DNx36/ProRes(LT), if you’re editing in 23.98 FPS. If you are ready to finish your project, I’d transfer at DNx220X/ProRes4444.
• Remember that for every sequence you send, you create new copies of the clips in that sequence. Your new clips will not reference any clip from other imported sequences, even if it's the same clip. So, if you add a locator to one copy of the clip, it won’t appear in another matching clip if it was brought in from a different sequence.

MAKING THE SMOOTH TRANSITION:

• Key to successful transfer: tape names and timecode. Make sure your clips ALL have proper tape names assigned. There is really no substitute for this. Your project HAS TO BE well-logged. The safest way to reconnected media is using the tape name and timecode metadata. This way, you will also associate new media you create with a tape name, so it becomes easier to relink to new imported sequences.
• If you have audio from a separate source, be sure that the proper tape name for the sound roll is assigned to those clips as well.

DEALING WITH SYNCED/MULTICLIPS/GROUP CLIPS:

• Multiclips aka Avid Multigroups are NOT supported via AutoDuck Pro Import FCP or Pro Export FCP. That means you must collapse/remove your multigroups in your sequence before you export your sequence.
• PROTIP: assign locators to the slate mark frames and sync points for multigroups. Locators will transfer over between sequences, so it will be easier to see where your sync points are for re-grouping everything. At least you won't have to actually resync everything.

DEALING WITH BINS OF MEDIA:

• If you are trying to send scene bins, you should take your synced clips and string them out in a sequence. If you have multi-clips, you should take your video with synced audio for EACH CAMERA and drop it into the timeline. Once you bring the media into your other editor, you’ll need to rebuild your group clips, so act as if you never had them in the first place.

ONE WORKFLOW THAT MAY WORK FOR YOU:

• Make a duplicate of your current sequence edit.
• At the tail end of that sequence, add a stringout of all clips from the scenes referenced in your cut. By sending all your clips in one sequence, you can maintain the links between the clips you sort into scene bins and the clips in your sequence. Your sequence will be hours and hours long, but then you’ll have clips that link to each other. Now, editorial tools like Match Frame will work.
• Don’t convert your media with AutoDuck. Just batch import the Quicktimes for your shots in Avid. Too many times I’ve found that AutoDuck crashed overnight while trying to move clips from FCP<->Avid.
• If you’re moving your project from Avid->FCP, you have three choices depending on how your media was imported. If your media was captured to tape, your best bet is to recapture. If your media was imported tapelessly into Avid via AMA, I’d probably suggest just using FCP’s Log & Transfer to convert your media to FCP-friendly flavors, then relink those clips to the clips brought in via AutoDuck. Lastly, if your media was simply imported from Quicktime into Avid, just relink to the original media files!

BONUS: EXPORT AAFS FROM FINAL CUT PRO 7!

• For a long time, FCP7's support for normal ProTools workflows havs been sub-par. But by using AutoDuck's Pro Export FCP, you can now export new modern AAFs for your sound finishing needs. Since Pro Export FCP exports AAFs for Avid to import, and you have all the normal AAF export options available (consolidate whole clips, consolidate to folder, link to media, etc), you are now free from FCP's OMF 2.0 export function. Yay!

FINAL NOTES

• In my experience, transferring projects from FCP->Avid and relinking via AMA has rarely worked. Maybe you’ll get lucky, but I find that it just doesn’t always see the right clips. Your best bet is to batch import, since you can force Avid to recognize a certain clip as coming from a certain movie file.
• Automatic Duck is not a perfect app but it’s better than nothing. As with many “unsupported” workflows, GIVE YOURSELF TIME AND DO NOT EXPECT IT TO WORK RIGHT IMMEDIATELY. I can’t stress this enough. Run some tests. Decide what might be best. Don’t force it.LASTLY, and most importantly, please tell me about your experiences in the Comments section.

GOOD LUCK!

A quick follow-up...(Thanks Bruce Sharpe!)

Hey everyone.  First of all, a quick thanks to Bruce Sharpe, CEO of Singular Software.  His company made PluralEyes, the company I referenced in my previous Dear Production entry.  A few days ago posted my blog on his twitter feed.  That's big for someone like me who is brand new to this web 2.0 linked economy.  He also recommended a good story about I Love Lucy and how the show really innovated multi-camera production.  You can find Bruce on twitter and on blogspot, and probably at NAB this week.  From his twitter feed: Here's the video I recommended about his company: (I'm just learning how to embed video on Wordpress) [blip.tv ?posts_id=1129108&dest=-1]

Also thanks to Lindsey Rundell, my assistant editor amigo, currently working on .  She read my post and told me about Quickeys, a macros program which should make half of Avid Multi-Grouping easier.  The program allows you to program a series of keystrokes into one keystroke so that, in her words, "It does the F1-6 deal for you AND adds the Aux TC."  It looks like it would be a great help, but nothing is a replacement for proper production techniques.  Thanks Lindsey!

Dear Production: JAM SYNC YOUR DAMN CAMERAS!

Okay, I'm not one here to criticize people in production. Post-production is almost a completely different beast from production and I've walked very little in the shoes of the camera department (enough to know I didn't want to do it for a living). That said, DEAR PRODUCTION: JAM SYNC YOUR DAMN CAMERAS!!! For those unaware, jam syncing is a process used by productions when sound is recorded separately or when multiple cameras are shooting the same event. It's used in features, television, music videos, documentary, and especially reality television.  Simply put, the production team uses a machine to send continuous matching timecode to each camera.  Once the footage lands in my hands, that allows me to simply hit "Sync By Timecode", create synced groups with every angle's action lined up, and start editing immediately.  All production has to do is occasionally set their timecodes to match that machine.  Working with it is great...IF it happens.

What production doesn't understand is that if at any point the timecode drifts out-of-sync - at any point - then the amount of time I have to spend syncing clips increases exponentially compared to the amount of time they delay stopping to sync their cameras. And every camera has a tendency to drift out of sync. All too often, they decline to be diligent.  On one project, this showed up during a live-to-tape session where six cameras and an audio recorder were recording the same group meeting.  NONE of these cameras were synced.  Despite the fact that each camera was stationary and the location did not move, there was not even a slate to provide me with a point of sync.  Each clip had to be synced according to some random point in the action.  And that took over two days with a second-shift assistant editor working on it as well.  If they had simply jam synced, this would have taken us minutes, not days.  And I should say that while this was a bad experience, I'd be a rich man if I only had a dollar for every time I had to deal with timecode sync issues.

Here I'll post what some of you may be looking for: Tim Leavitt over at View From The Cutting Room Floor has a great blog post about fool-proof Avid MultiGroups.  That describes the process you have to go through if you're editing in Avid and you have the problems I describe here.  If you're working in Final Cut Pro, here's a great post from our dear friends at the Los Angeles Final Cut Pro User Group (who are totally awesome, let me just say) about syncing multicam clips.  As an added bonus, you should check out this little plug-in gem called PluralEyes.  It's a Final Cut Pro plug-in that scans your audio waveforms and aligns your all your clips in your sequence so that you never have to sync again! It's only in beta phase now, and I've downloaded it but haven't had the chance to use it yet.  I'm looking forward to the opportunity.  This video also has a great explanation of what I'm talking about as far as jam syncing.  Email me if you need any additional help.  I'll see what I can do.

Just to make a final point and show I'm not really just sore about my experiences but that this is really a good idea.  Imagine that this happens on a Michael Bay movie. There's some action sequence that has ten cameras covering some big explosion. Imagine getting all that footage and not having timecode to sync the entire action.  It would be hell to edit, right?  Well, my dear friends in production, please remember: jam sync your damn cameras.

-Rob