Cinema Tools tracks the relationships between key numbers and timecodes and thus allows Final Cut to generate a wide variety of film lists, audio EDLs and 24P EDLs. It's similar to Avid's FilmScribe, but whereas FilmScribe simply plumbs Avid bins for information, Cinema Tools creates its own database. This means that much of your critical film information is not available in FCP and, as a result, using Cinema Tools means moving back and forth between the two programs regularly. Hopefully, future releases will integrate the two products more thoroughly.

No change lists are yet available in Cinema Tools, but because the system can operate at a true 24 frames-per-second, such lists are possible and Apple has implied several times that they are coming soon.

Pulldown

Unlike Xpress DV, Final Cut is capable of playing film or video-based materials at a true 24 frames-per-second. Most editors will digitize from a 30-fps tape, and the system will remove 3:2 and produce 24-fps media, which is then cut normally in a 24-fps timeline. There are two ways to do this. First, Cinema Tools can take your digitized media, and, using its "Reverse Telecine" feature, remove the extra frames in a render-like process (Figure 1). This is generally faster than realtime, and depending on the speed of your processor and the resolution of your clips, it can be many times faster than realtime. Alternatively, you can use one of two video cards, either the Aurora Igniter or the AJA Kona SD with its film option (Kona Film), and they will remove 3:2 on the fly during digitization, just like an Avid.

Figure 1. Cinema Tools' Reverse Telecine feature allows you to remove 3:2 from 30-fps digitized media and produce 24-fps clips for editing.

If you choose to remove pulldown with Cinema Tools, be aware that when you play out your cut material to tape you will see a slight jitter, because the FCP/CT combination does not add 3:2 during playback. Instead, it uses frame doubling, which isn't as smooth. For smooth outputs you must use one of the hardware cards, which do a proper 3:2 insertion on output like a Film Composer. You can also export your timeline and render it with 3:2 introduced in After Effects. In the After Effects Render Settings window select the "WWSSW" pattern to insert the proper pulldown.

Basic Workflow

Here's an overview of the basic Final Cut Pro/Cinema Tools process. Be aware that this is just an outline -- you should read through the Cinema Tools manual carefully in order to flesh out the details.

Import your flex file into Cinema Tools: The first step in using Cinema Tools is to import a flex file and create a database. Open Cinema Tools and create a new database, by selecting Database > New Database (Figure 2). Then select File > Import > Telecine Log and locate and select your flex file.

Figure 2. The New Database dialog box is used to create default settings for a Cinema Tools database. Note that information in the telecine log file will override these choices.

Export a batch capture list for Final Cut Pro: Be sure that the Cinema Tools list view displays all the database records that you want to capture. Then select File > Export > Batch Capture to generate a batch list.

Capture clips into Final Cut Pro: In FCP, select File > Import > Batch List. Select the clips you want in the Browser and capture as needed. Note that if you plan to use Cinema Tool's Reverse Telecine feature, all your clips must begin on an "A" frame (the timecode frame value should be a multiple of five: 00, 05, 10, 15, 20 or 25).

Sync audio in Final Cut Pro: If your audio wasn't synchronized in telecine, do it now. Load your picture and sound clips into the viewer and mark the clappers using the M key. Then cut both clips in their entirety into a timeline and align the marks. Select the clips and link them together using Command-L.

Once you've created a linked clip that is synced to your liking, you must export it and then re-import it to fuse the two clips into one (this is analogous to Avid's Autosync feature). Select the clip in the timeline and choose File > Export > Final Cut Pro Movie. This will produce new Quicktime media that you can then import as a new clip. You must then re-enter key number and other data in Cinema Tools and Final Cut. This is awkward, but it means that if you cut or move the clip out of sync in the timeline, you'll see a sync break.

For precise sync, Final Cut allows you to slip an audio clip with 1/100th of a frame accuracy. Double-click an audio clip (or double-click an audio/video clip and select the audio tab) to open it in the viewer. Navigate to the sound of the clapper and fully enlarge your view using the slider or Command-Plus. Now hold down the shift key and drag the playhead's shadow until the waveform of the clapper is positioned at the beginning of the playhead. With the Shift key down, you are moving in 1/100th of a frame increments. If you leave audio scrubbing on, you will hear the audio scrub as you do this. Click the Mark In button (I). Final Cut slips the audio from the beginning of your playhead to the beginning of the nearest frame and immediately shows you the adjusted waveform. You can use this technique to do a subframe slip on material that was synced in telecine, or you can use it to sync dailies precisely.

Reverse telecine the clips to 24 fps: If you don't have a video card that removes pulldown on the fly, you'll need to reverse telecine your media with Cinema Tools. Start with a single clip to make sure everything is working properly. Choose File > Open Clip and select Rev Telecine. Choose your options. If the first clip works properly, put all the clips that you want to process into a single folder. Select File > Batch Reverse Telecine and locate one of the clips you want to affect. Cinema Tools will process all the clips in the folder. When it's finished, your original folder will contain three new folders: Originals, Reversed, and Skipped, as well as a log file describing what was done.

Link the captured clips to the Cinema Tools database: Once the clips have been captured and reverse telecined, you must link them to the Cinema Tools database. In Cinema Tools, select the clips that you want to link. Select Database > Connect Clips. Navigate to any clip that appears in your list. Again, Cinema Tools will link up all other clips that appear in the same folder.

You must also relink the new media to the clips in Final Cut Pro. First select your clips in the FCP browser. Then Control-Click one of the selected clips and choose Reconnect Media from the contextual menu. Select “Offline” in the Reconnect Options dialog box and click OK. Final Cut Pro will present you with the Reconnect dialog box. Locate the reverse telecined clips (they will be in a folder called “Reversed.”). Make sure that “Reconnect All Files in Relative Path” is checked. Then select the first media file and click the Choose button. All the clips in the folder will be relinked to the reverse telecined media and your clips will be online again.

Identify and verify your data: This is a critical step -- problems solved now won't come back and bite you later on. Double click on a clip you want to verify in Cinema Tools' List View. This will open the selected clip in Detail View. Click on the Open Clip button in Detail View to open it in a large view window. Park the playhead on an A frame and click the Identify button. Check the timecode and keycode values in the Identify window against the burn-in of the frame you are parked on (Figure 3). If your negative has been punched, check all the punch frames and confirm with your negative cutter that the key numbers on those frames are correct.

Figure 3. Using the Cinema Tools Identify window, verify your data by comparing it to the telecine burn-ins.

Edit in Final Cut Pro: Edit normally, as you would with any other media.

Export your lists from Cinema Tools: Cinema Tools can make cut lists, pull lists, dupe lists, optical lists and scene lists (equivalent to scene pull lists and optical scene pull lists). Lists are exported from Final Cut Pro and reference the Cinema Tools database. To export a cut list, open the sequence in Final Cut Pro and select File > Export > Cinema Tools Film Lists. Choose the lists you'd like generated (Figure 4). Final Cut Pro will ask you to locate your

Figure 4. The Film List dialog box allows you to generate various kinds of lists and select list settings.

Cinema Tools database and will generate a single text file containing all the lists you selected. Cinema Tools can also generate a missing elements list. This describes all the clips in a sequence for which a database record couldn't be found. You should always make such a list and examine it closely for problems.

24P Video

From the point of view of the editing system, 24P video works like film. As a result, the Final Cut/Cinema Tools combination can do a good job of handling 24P-originated materials, removing 3:2 and creating native 24-fps media for editing.

But unlike the Film Composer, with the AJA Kona HD or Pinnacle Cinewave cards, Final Cut can capture 24P material directly from an HD deck and allow you to edit full-resolution, high-definition media directly. Of course, HD materials take up a huge amount of disk space and working with HD requires very fast disk arrays. But the ability to do this kind of work is one of the key benefits of Final Cut Pro's unique flexibility.

Whether you digitize from 30-fps downconverted tapes or work with 24P materials natively, Cinema Tools allows Final Cut to create proper, frame-accurate 24P EDLs from 24-fps sequences. This is much more accurate than taking a 30-fps EDL and having an online facility convert it, as many editors still do. Note that you must have Cinema Tools installed on the system in order to see and utilize the 24-fps EDL export feature.

Zed Saeed is the senior post production consultant at DigitalFilm Tree in Los Angeles.
He helped provide Final Cut Pro training and technical support for
Full Frontal and The Rules of Attraction and helped design
the digital workflow for the upcoming Cold Mountain.