# First Feature Film



## careyford (Apr 10, 2009)

Hello everybody! 

I'm gearing up to start scoring my first feature film. It's a thriller and the director is envisioning a lot of music and an eclectic mix of styles. What I'd really like help/advice on is "how do you approach file/cue management, workflow, naming, versions of cues, and organization on a feature project?" 

By the way, I read the article in VI Mag and I'm still digesting it...

I'm planning to do the majority of my work on the computer with 3 live musicians on top. I'm using VSL SE+extended, EWQLSO PLAY, SD2, True Strike 1, Omnisphere, and my trusty JV1080 :o on Mac with LP8. Also Altiverb with the factory and Samplicity verbs. 

On smaller projects I've composed on paper, entered into Finale and then fleshed pieces out with LP8. I don't really have an existing way of organizing everything that is real effective. Even at only one version per cue I end up with at least 2 files (notation and Logic). 

It's not a super rush job, but I don't want to have to retrace my steps a lot, either. Any suggestions/tips greatly appreciated.

Thanks!
Richard


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## groove (Apr 11, 2009)

Richard,

That question covers a lot !!! but I'd suggest some reading : "On the track" by Fred Karlin
"Complete guide to film scoring" by Richard Davis and finally "The reel world" by Jeff Rona.

You don't have to get all of them, they are all three very useful for what you are looking for, check them out on Amazon or even better at your local library so you can see what's covered.

As a general approach to your question I'd say that 3 live player on top is a bit small ! 
I'm about to score my first feature film to this year and I'll mix real and sound libraries because of budget issue but I'll try to go for a 20 to 35 piece of orchestra (it's a kind of thriller to...) mainly strings even if I have a bit of every library on the market.

Also I'll go to a real studio to do the final mix in 5.1 with a sound engineer so I can concentrate on the music and not technique !!!

It's all a question of priority on how you manage your budget but real musician and a good mix will sound like a feature film is expected to sound like from a director and producer perspective ! and then also somehow by the audience...

as for naming cues etc...you probably already know the 1M1 1M2 2M5 etc...technique ! that's what I use and be organized and do triple backup of everything you do !!!

hope it helps

good luck !

stephane


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## careyford (Apr 11, 2009)

Hey Stephane,

Thanks for the response. I'll have to revisit the Davis book. It's been so long since I read it I don't really remember it. I've been meaning to get the Rona book for a while.

I do have access to some good engineers and studios. I'll have to think about how to get them involved since there's not a lot of money. I was thinking primarily soloists with the rest samples.

Other than a hard drive crash, are there other pitfalls I should look out for?

Thanks again,
Richard


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## JohnG (Apr 11, 2009)

time management is very difficult. Make sure you add up all your cues, divide by the number of days you have to work, and don't fall behind. And be sure that your frame rates and sample delivery format are clear so you know whether there will be any additional steps at the end.

As you described your process of writing, I couldn't help wondering how fast you can move like that. Writing on paper, then transferring to Finale, then into Logic or another sequencer sounds hugely time-consuming to me. Most feature-length thrillers need 70-plus minutes of music and the paper-Finale-sequencer process sounds perilously slow. I would skip the Finale part, personally, and just play it into the sequencer. That said, it's great when you have a lot of music to write to have pencil sketches, even if it's just main melodies / motifs plus bass plus any major counter-melodies or counter-motifs and chord symbols, whether or not the chords are non-standard. (Even if you write out, or print out, just melodies and chords with the rest in your head, sketched themes can be useful). 

Depending on what kind of parts / charts you are going to prepare, make sure you have enough time to make legible parts that include dynamics, articulation and tempo indications; create click tracks with a version of your cues that has the sampled/ synth version of the part being recorded as a separate split (so the player can hear it or not hear it as he or she requests); and record. Leave at least a day or two to mix at the very end. That entire process -- parts, recording prep, recording, and mix -- can take a whole week with that much music, depending on how much of the music has live players.

Labeling cues according to which reel, using a title to help you remember what it's about (1M1 Death Trap v4) and saving frequently, each time with a new version number, should cover your question about version management. Some people use the starting time code in the title -- 2 04 33 16 5M3 Slasher Surprise v5. This is very useful if they are not re-editing while you work, which is, sadly, all too common nowadays.

Good luck!


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## gamalataki (Apr 11, 2009)

careyford @ Fri Apr 10 said:


> What I'd really like help/advice on is "how do you approach file/cue management, workflow, naming, versions of cues, and organization on a feature project?"


To add to what JohnG said.

I would create a master folder with three sets of Reel folders inside. Reel 1,2,3,4,5 for writing, Reel 1.2.3.4.5 for stereo mixes and Reel 1,2,3,4,5 for final approved stems to go to the stage with.

The first set of Reels, for writing, will have all your midi and added live tracks and can be saved "As" incrementally, like John advised, 1M1 - 1M1.1 or 1M1 Alt, 1M2, 1M3, etc. Reel 2 - 2M1, etc.

The second set of reels, with the stereo bounces, can be used for quick opening for directors review, in your studio, or bouncing to qt mov to send for approval.
This gives you an easy way to open sessions that will contain all your rough mixes for easy review and to check the continuity of your cues as you progress.
Sometimes it helps to just sit back and listen to what you have done so far, without having to wait for instruments to load.

Once cues are approved, you can start bouncing your stems to the third set of reel folders and label them "dub stage" or something.

Then at the end of each day, you can just drag the master folder over to another drive for back up.

You may need to have a fouth set of reels, between the 2nd and 3rd, if you are sending your tracks to be mixed by someone else, with all the individual tracks for each instrument.

Once you set up this folder hierarchy, it's easy to find where everything is and jump around as you need to. And don't be afraid to jump around.
If there is one long cue in the middle of reel 3, that the director has concerns about, you might want to jump to that after laying some ground work, themes, motifs, etc, in the beginning of reel 1. Or if you simply get stumped on one scene, move on. Often, moving to the next cue can yield new ideas for difficult scenes.

Being organized from the beginning eliminates the "stop the workflow panic" of "where am I going to put this".

Here's a screen shot of my folder hierarchy. 

http://img165.imageshack.us/img165/9706/folderhierarchy.png (http://img165.imageshack.us/img165/9706 ... rarchy.png)

In the bg, you can see where I'm reusing part of 2m1 for my 2m20 ending. Don't be afriad to reuse parts of cues, esp if they were hiden by sound or such when originally used, - if it works it works. Having those stereo reels allows you to easily put up existing cues to other scenes to see how close they might work.
Sometimes just eliminating percussion or other instrument groups can give a cue a whole new feel, while maintaining the thematic material.

This is just one way to get organized and it works for me. Having a huge orchestra session, with many takes, would require a bit more.

Hope this is helpful.

Oh, for notes I started using CueChronicle, which isn't half bad and there's a free version to try.
http://homepage.mac.com/vcirilli/CueChronicle/Video/Video.html (http://homepage.mac.com/vcirilli/CueChr ... Video.html)


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## careyford (Apr 12, 2009)

JohnG — this is a great help. I've got a week or two to practice going from paper directly into Logic so I'll try it. 

With this much video, do you work with just the video you need for the cue in the sequencer or do you have the entire reel in the sequencer? The time code in the file name is a very good tip! Thanks.

It's exciting but scary to be doing this big of a score despite having done full-length musicals. Of course, those I worked on for years...

Richard


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## careyford (Apr 12, 2009)

gamalataki @ Sat Apr 11 said:


> Then at the end of each day, you can just drag the master folder over to another drive for back up.



gamalataki — I love this tip! How to back up the whole thing with little fuss is really helpful. I really appreciate that you step me through all of the naming of reels, etc. That's perfect. The screenshot is revealing. Do you deliver stereo stems for each instrument? Or does that vary wildly by project?

When you reuse cues, do you just Save As and then start changing? Is it that simple because I' d like it to be complicated and mysterious. :mrgreen: 

Thank you so much for your time and generosity!
Richard


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## JohnG (Apr 12, 2009)

careyford @ 12th April 2009 said:


> With this much video, do you work with just the video you need for the cue in the sequencer or do you have the entire reel in the sequencer?



With Digital Performer, I just sync to the entire film, but DP doesn't require one to incorporate the film into the sequence as such -- the video file remains in its location on (in my case) a separate drive. I don't know about Logic. 

Three reason for not editing the film's video. First, you never know how your starts and stops will alter as the filmmakers go through post. Sometimes they will re-spot a cue to start earlier or run longer. Often, this will add quite a bit to the beginning or end of the spotting while in mid-stream of your compositional process, so for that reason editing the film down cue by cue might constrain you unnecessarily.

The second reason is time / complexity. This is going to be a torrent of work, whether you have four weeks or ten, so taking the time to edit each scene is time you probably don't have. Moreover, then you might have 30 to 50 little bits of video to keep track of, with (in DP at least and I assume in Logic) little meaningful benefit.

Third, they may recut the film while you are working, no matter how much they swear they won't, so you'd have to slice it up more than once -- just too time-consuming for my taste.


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## gamalataki (Apr 12, 2009)

careyford @ Sun Apr 12 said:


> gamalataki — I love this tip! How to back up the whole thing with little fuss is really helpful. I really appreciate that you step me through all of the naming of reels, etc. That's perfect. The screenshot is revealing. Do you deliver stereo stems for each instrument? Or does that vary wildly by project?
> 
> When you reuse cues, do you just Save As and then start changing? Is it that simple because I' d like it to be complicated and mysterious. :mrgreen:
> 
> ...



Stems do vary greatly by project, but by definition they are groups of like kind instruments. For example, all your percussion tracks bounced to stereo would make up one stem. Strings and pad instruments might make up another stem, synth & fx another, etc. These stems are pre mixed by you or your mixer and delivered to the dub stage music mixer who will, if necessary, tweak the various stems to taste depending how the music is sitting with the other sound elements in the film. A director may feel a percussion track is clashing with the sound fx and ask if the percussion can be lowered or eliminated. Since the mixer has all the percussion on a separate stem, this is an easy fix.

You may have more or less stems, depending on the size of your ensemble for any given cue.

Reusing parts of cues is a time saving device used by all film composers at one time or another and many times work better for the continuity of the film than building a cue from scratch.

You wouldn't want to Save As one cue and build a new one from that, you'll be at the wrong place in the timeline for one thing. If you find yourself starting to write a cue and it's similar in character to something you've already written, you might want to import some tracks from that previous cue and build from there. Sometimes a slight tempo change or a change in instrumentation can make a fresh cue out of something already used. Why build another percussion track, for instance, when elements from an existing track will suffice to get you started.

You may only think one track out of 100 is appropriate to use. It may be that that one track or section of it works from a horizontal perspective, or maybe a section that includes all 100 tracks works nice for a sting or ending.

Necessity being the mother of invention, when you're pressed for time you'll find ways to get the job done. It's just getting experience and finding out what works best for you.

Best of luck,


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## moondog (Apr 14, 2009)

Hi,

My first post here!

I’ve just completed my first feature score for an independent film in Scotland. I didn’t know about this forum when I began but I wish I had some of the information posted here prior to starting!

By the end of my music production phase I was doing some of what JohnG and Gamalataki outline, but I’ll be sure to follow these tips more closely in future.

Due to budget restriction, the final deliverable was only going to be whatever I could produce, so I would be relying entirely on VSL Solo Strings, Extended Library, EW(Play) Pianos, Cubase5’s Synths and anything I could record myself – guitar, sarangi and general sound-scape.

I’ll try not to repeat advice already given, here’s an outline of how I approached it:

1.	I started as late as possible, to allow the edit mature, making for less conformation as time progressed. I had to re-conform the project 3 times in all, which took about an hour and a half each time.

2.	This left me with less time overall, but less time ‘chasing’ the edit. Conforming was done in Soundtrack Pro but wasn’t able to take advantage of the STP / FCP conformation workflow as the edit was being done in Avid.

3.	I began with a guide-track from pre-existing music/films – this was necessary as there were couple of directions it could have gone in and we all needed clarity before proceeding.

4.	I had a session with the Director to approve/amend the guide-track and refine what was suggested by it. Sometimes it was just one element that we wanted and the rest of the guide track just got in the way.

5.	From this meeting the pieces were prioritised, as we were uncertain that there would be time to complete all of them for the festival cut of the film. There would be more time for the distributable version.

6.	The guide track took a day and a half to produce (for an 85 minute feature)

7.	The guide track included the main themes for the characters and movements for the main transitions in story.

8.	From these elements and notes I produced a track list with durations – 40 separate pieces / 50 minutes of music in all.

9.	This was really useful as it felt great to knock out 5 pieces in one day, but terrible when other days I only managed part of 1 piece. The comfort came from realising that 4 of the 5 pieces were between 10 and 30 seconds long whereas the other piece was 10 minutes long.

10.	Then work on the original score began.

11.	Early on, the score took on its own life and it was necessary for me to depart from the guide track in most cases. It was good to have it there to refer to though.

12.	I assumed that I’d have time to 2nd pass everything, which would have included articulations, swells, expressions and rough mixing.

13.	After about 8 pieces in, this turned out not to be the case. I realised then, that I’d have to articulate and mix as I went.

14.	On average I got about 2min 30seconds per day for pieces that comprised combinations of – 4 string sections, 1 ensemble strings, Harp, Piano, timpani, percussion and drums – in some cases with recorded guitar too.

15.	My highest turnover in a day was about 3min 40 seconds. This was for fully articulated and mixed score with automation. Requiring maybe 3-4 hours more than usual to complete.

16.	At the end of each day I’d bounce out a mix, and this would be the first thing I’d listen to the next morning. If it wasn’t good, I’d keep working on it until it felt ‘done’.

17.	For computer side workflow, I set up a template file that had the movie, it’s audio plus guide audio already setup.

18.	All my instrument tracks were setup and focussed on my Fantom X6 with appropriate patches called up.

19.	I eventually ditched the X6 route and went directly for my VSL/Play template. This meant for longer initial loading at the start of the day, but all the instruments and articulations were consistent across all pieces.

20.	As much as possible, I’d try to nail everything in performance so that I wasn’t doing to much Midi editing – though it was impossible to remove this entirely.

21.	I had 1 reverb and delay send setup. The reverb was setup on the Lex PCM91 and had a great Brass – Strings setting that pretty much got me the range I needed for all pieces. The Delay was just Cubase’. These were all in the template that I’d call up for each piece.

22.	For deliverables, I’d name the files:
a.	[TrackNo.]_[TrackName][Version}_[Timecode] eg:
b.	04_TheHouse01_00.23.14.14 
c.	Note, I was working from a time coded reel so reel numbers weren’t needed in this case.

23.	I always provided a stereo mp3 (posted via web) for review. For final delivery it was Stereo Master, Group Stems + Reverb Stem, most pieces were arranged and performed to anticipate the final mix, but they had flexibility if they needed it.

24.	For backup I used time machine, filtered to look at my film project folder so it only backed-up any new additions.

Hope this helps, have a great and exciting time with it!
M


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## Ned Bouhalassa (Apr 14, 2009)

Great post Moondog! I wish I was as organised as you!


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## careyford (Apr 14, 2009)

Hey Moondog! 

Welcome and thanks for the great post/insight. The breakdown of the various steps is enlightening. It does beg the question, "how did the score turn out?"

Richard


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## jeffc (Apr 14, 2009)

A lot of interesting stuff here, although I have to admit I feel very disorganized after reading some people's methods. I got confused trying to understand how organized some people are. I'll throw a couple of ideas that have helped me:

- I always try to sit at the piano and come up with the main melody/thematic idea and write it in chicken scratch on score paper. Just to have the basic building blocks of a score. Lately, there's a free Iphone app that I sometimes will record rough piano ideas while theyre fresh. I find that trying to start a score at the computer always leads to a bunch of aimless, temp track òîÌ   œ÷5îÌ   œ÷6îÌ   œ÷7îÌ   œ÷8îÌ   œ÷9îÌ   œ÷:îÌ   œ÷;îÌ   œ÷<îÌ   œ÷=îÌ   œ÷>îÌ   œ÷?îÌ   œ÷@îÌ   œ÷AîÌ   œ÷BîÌ   œ÷CîÌ   œ÷DîÌ   œ÷EîÌ   œ÷FîÌ   œ÷GîÌ   œ÷HîÌ   œ÷IîÌ   œ÷JîÌ   œ÷KîÌ   œ÷LîÌ   œ÷MîÌ   œ÷NîÌ   œ÷OîÌ   œ÷PîÌ   œ÷QîÌ   œ÷RîÌ   œ÷SîÌ   œ÷TîÌ   œ÷UîÌ   œ÷VîÌ   œ÷WîÌ   œ÷XîÌ   œ÷YîÌ   œ÷ZîÌ   œ÷[îÌ   œ÷\îÌ   œ÷]îÌ   œ÷^îÌ   œ÷_îÌ   œ÷`îÌ   œ÷aîÌ   œ÷bîÌ   œ÷cîÌ   œ÷dîÌ   œ÷eîÌ   œ÷fîÌ   œ÷gîÌ   œ÷hîÌ   œ÷iîÌ   œ÷jîÌ   œ÷kîÌ   œ÷lîÌ   œ÷mîÌ   œ÷nîÌ   œ÷oîÌ   œ÷pîÌ   œ÷qîÌ   œ÷rîÌ   œ÷sîÌ   œ÷tîÌ   œ÷uîÌ   œ÷vîÌ   œ÷wîÌ   œ÷xîÌ   œ÷yîÌ   œ÷zîÌ   œ÷{îÌ   œ÷|îÌ   œ÷}îÌ   œ÷~îÌ   œ÷îÌ   œ÷€îÌ   œ÷îÌ   œ÷‚îÌ   œ÷ƒîÌ   œ÷„îÌ   œ÷…îÌ   œ÷†îÌ   œ÷‡îÌ   œ÷ˆîÌ   œ÷‰îÌ   œ÷ŠîÌ   œ÷‹îÌ   œ÷ŒîÌ   œ÷îÌ   œ÷ŽîÌ   œ÷îÌ   œ÷îÌ   œ÷‘îÌ   œ÷’îÌ   œ÷“îÌ   œ÷”îÌ   œ÷•îÌ   œ÷–îÌ   œ÷—îÌ   œ÷˜îÌ   œ÷™îÌ   œ÷šîÌ   œ÷›îÌ   œ÷œîÌ   œ÷îÌ   œ÷žîÌ   œ÷ŸîÌ   œ÷ îÌ   œ÷¡îÌ   œ÷¢îÌ   œ÷£îÌ   œ÷¤              òîÌ   œ÷¦îÌ   œ÷§îÌ   œ÷¨îÌ   œ÷©îÌ   œ÷ªîÌ   œ÷«îÌ   œ÷¬îÌ   œ÷­îÌ   œ÷®îÌ   œ÷¯îÌ   œ÷°îÌ   œ÷±îÌ   œ÷²îÌ   œ÷³îÌ   œ÷´îÌ   œ÷µîÌ   œ÷¶îÌ   œ÷·îÌ   œ÷¸îÌ   œ÷¹îÌ   œ÷ºîÌ   œ÷»îÌ   œ÷¼îÌ   œ÷½îÌ   œ÷¾îÌ   œ÷¿îÌ   œ÷ÀîÌ   œ÷ÁîÌ   œ÷ÂîÌ   œ÷ÃîÌ   œ÷ÄîÌ   œ÷ÅîÌ   œ÷ÆîÌ   œ÷ÇîÌ   œ÷ÈîÌ   œ÷ÉîÌ   œ÷ÊîÌ   œ÷ËîÌ   œ÷ÌîÌ   œ÷ÍîÌ   œ÷ÎîÌ   œ÷ÏîÌ   œ÷ÐîÌ   œ÷ÑîÌ   œ÷ÒîÌ   œ÷ÓîÌ   œ÷ÔîÌ   œ÷ÕîÌ   œ÷ÖîÌ   œ÷×îÌ   œ÷ØîÌ   œ÷ÙîÌ   œ÷ÚîÌ   œ÷ÛîÌ   œ÷ÜîÌ   œ÷ÝîÌ   œ÷ÞîÌ   œ÷ßîÌ   œ÷àîÌ   œ÷áîÌ   œ÷âîÌ   œ÷ãîÌ   œ÷äîÌ   œ÷åîÍ   œ÷æîÍ   œ÷çîÍ   œ÷èîÍ   œ÷éîÍ   œ÷êîÍ   œ÷ëîÍ   œ÷ìîÍ   œ÷íîÍ   œ÷îîÍ   œ÷ïîÍ   œ÷ðîÍ   œ÷ñîÍ   œ÷òîÍ   œ÷óîÍ   œ÷ôîÍ   œ÷õîÍ   œ÷öîÍ   œ÷÷îÍ   œ÷øîÍ   œ÷ùîÍ   œ÷úîÍ   œ÷ûîÍ   œ÷üîÍ   œ÷ýîÍ   œ÷þîÍ   œ÷ÿîÍ   œø îÍ   œøîÍ   œøîÍ   œøîÍ   œøîÍ   œøîÍ   œøîÍ   œøîÍ   œøîÍ   œø	îÍ   œø
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## gamalataki (Apr 14, 2009)

All really good ideas Jeff. 12 versions? Yikes!!


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## careyford (Apr 15, 2009)

Jeff— great. I really like the idea of roughing out the whole film. Hope I have the patience to do that. In your Logic session with the entire film, does Logic behave as JohnG described DP in that it allows you to just sync to the film? I've done this a fair amount but with shorts so I didn't really notice what it was doing. 

How do you organize notes? Do you use any of the software like CUEBA or CueChronicle or just a good spreadsheet?

Thanks!
Richard


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## moondog (Apr 15, 2009)

Thanks for the warm welcome!

I probably sound a bit more organised than i really was . This project had a very fast turnaround and the guide track replaced much of the musical searching and probing that might otherwise have been done at that stage. It wasn't the ideal approach, but it did help get things moving quickly and it got us all on the same page conceptually (there were several directions being proposed for the music). 

Many of the pieces were more soundscape-like and i initially had trouble getting into that kind of writing as I'm pulled more strongly toward melody. The guide track really helped get me out of my 'comfort-zone', got me using some of the instruments in ways i wouldn't have done and allowed me to make friends with dissonance.

I kind of glossed over the actual music-writing itself in my first post. For me, it's take after take of guitar or piano and linear all the way (though i might do a bit at a time if it's a long piece). I find it difficult to jump around within the piece at the start, though i'll happilly hop about when arranging the other instruments. I found it much easier to develop the themes working linearly through the film from start to finish.

When i realised that i'd have to work the list by priority, i had to jump back and forth along the timeline. In one case, producing a developed and contextually evolved piece for a theme i hadn't yet written. Ultimately, i had to jump back a few pieces, create a skeleton of the theme on piano (as with other parts), work it forward to the context i was at and just hope that when i got back to the theme proper, it would develop appropriately.

That piano or guitar track will be the backbone of the piece, which by the time the full arrangement is in, may have been 'cannibalized' by other instruments. For me the hard bit is getting that first piece in and good, once it's there though, things come together quite quickly.

The other midi instruments will go in the same way - played-in, but on this project, i ended up doing more midi editing than i would have liked. 

Something that i started doing this time around, was adding my swells etc. using the d-beam on the X6, either as i played or in a 2nd automation pass. This is saved a lot of time over the previous approach of drawing the automation in by hand and feels very natural too.

OT - this is an incredible forum, i've barely scratched the surface and the info and participants are truly amazing!

M


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## careyford (Apr 18, 2009)

Moondog— thanks for going into more detail on your process. I'm realizing that how I have been working on the short films has been adding extra work for me. 

Now if I can just get the video!

Richard


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## ozmorphasis (May 19, 2009)

JohnG,

How do you communicate syncing criteria with the client when using the entire film for each cue within DP? Hmm, not sure if I'm asking this clearly...let's see. I've always split each cue up, but I also had markers/bars or something that gave sync info. I'm not clear how to go about using the entire movie, creating many cues, and the telling the client where to put the cues. 

Damn, my question is making me feel very wet behind the ears when it comes to scoring to picture.

:oops:


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## JohnG (May 19, 2009)

Dear O,

With digital performer (or most other pro-level DAW software) your audio files should be time-stamped when created. So, if you're working to picture and the production company is using ProTools for the dub, your cues should fly right into the project, as long as the frame rate you're using matches that of the picture.

I find your question a little bit hard to understand. You can always PM me if you like. Please let me know who you are if you want to do that.

There are lots of things to know when planning out sync and making sure your files will work best. Most of my work requires that audio files be delivered 24 bit, 48k for the dub (other alternatives are 16bit and 44.1k, but I have never delivered in that format if I'm making underscore). 

Then there's the frame rate of the film -- there are many possibilities here but I find the most common to be 29.97 non-drop-frame or, if they are working in Final Cut Pro, 23.98 (it's actually 23.976 but people call it 23.98 or, occasionally, 23.97).


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## ozmorphasis (May 20, 2009)

Thanks JohnG,

I sent you a PM trying to clarify my question a bit. Thanks for taking the time.

Omid


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## JohnG (May 20, 2009)

Hi O,

I sent a PM but it didn't go through. Here you are:

In response to the question that it seems that "you are using the entire movie in each DP project file, and that each file is usually a separate cue. So, while the movie is synced to DP easily enough from the moment you open it within the DAW, let's say the cue you are working on is begins 40 minutes into the movie. How do you get to that part without having a ridiculous number of measures that are empty at the begin of that DP project?" 

Once you set the "movie start time" in DP, you simply go to "Set Start Time" for the music -- it's actually "Set Chunk Start Time" -- and have the music start when you like. That means you have an offset between the movie's start time and when the individual cue starts. It's very simple once you get the hang of it. 

And the movie isn't "in" your file as such; the DP file merely refers to the movie, which remains separate so that you aren't duplicating its information over and over. 

Cheers and good luck


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## ozmorphasis (May 23, 2009)

Thanks John!

Omid


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