Pro Tools Pointers #18 Fond Memories of Preview Codes by Dave Whittaker The Power of Timestamping If you worked on features in the time of ‘B.W.’ (Before Workstations), you probably have fond memories of the power of preview codes. By applying a set of matching codes on the work picture, predubs, masters, and individual track units, complicated conformations to tricky changes could be handled with relative ease – one simply followed the numbers. Trying to understand a convoluted change note was greatly eased by doing this coding process prior to a round of changes. By the early 1980’s no feature sound editing crew would have been caught dead without an Acmade coding machine cranking away all day long down the hall. But in this age of ‘A.W.’, there is no real workstation equivalent for preview coding. This hard reality makes sound editors highly dependent on the receipt of accurate and logical change notes. While the change lists from Avid and Lightworks have improved somewhat over the years, I think we all will acknowledge that they are still quite a ways from perfection (see Configuring Avid Change Lists and Dealing with Avid Change Notes for Fun and Profit in the March/April, 2000 issue of the Guild Magazine). Fortunately, Pro Tools always applies a ‘timestamp’ when anything is recorded, whether the system was chasing timecode or not. This basic feature of Pro Tools operation can be employed as a powerful tool for determining where a region used to be. If you get lost while conforming material that was recorded into Pro Tools as a continuous file you can use this feature to help you get your changes untangled. That is, it’s useful when you are conforming material such as predubs, masters or raw foley that was recorded continuously in Tape mode for the length of a reel, project or act. This example will assume you are working with a six-channel predub, and that some conformations have already been made. First, make a defined selection across all tracks of the ‘lost’ sound event in question. Then make a set of six working tracks, Group them together, and Option Copy the selection you just made into these working tracks. Switch to Spot mode and click on this six-track-wide region copy with the Grabber. Click on the Original Time Stamp button in the Spot mode pop-up. This will send the region in question to the exact spot in the reel at which it was originally recorded. Put up a video picture for the predub version and go to the spot where the region landed; the audio should play in sync with the picture now. Go to the first frame of the selection and locate the matching original editorial code number on the picture (ie. Acmade code or ink number – or use keycode if there were never any film dailies). This will generally be burned in at the bottom of the frame along with picture and sound source timecodes. Rename the topmost track of your ‘lost’ region so that the name includes this editorial code number. Switch back to the video picture for your new version and locate the frame with that same code number. Using Spot mode, move the ‘lost’ region in the working tracks to the new location. While holding down the Control key, click on the ‘lost’ region in the original tracks using the Grabber and, voila, it will move to the location of the region in the working tracks. You will likely find occasions when the shot in question has been trimmed in such a way that the frame with that original code number is no longer in the project, but part of the shot is still used. This just requires you to do some extrapolation, figuring the difference between the frame in question and the first frame of the new version of that shot, moving to where that frame would have fallen if it was still included, and moving the ‘lost’ region to that frame. Preview Codes, Avid Style Note that the Film Composer can track a set of preview codes through one set of changes and include this information in a change note. Too few picture assistants, and even fewer sound editors, are aware of this feature, but it’s simple to invoke – just ask the picture assistant to select ‘Preview Code’ as one of the data types you want displayed in your change list. You can make use of this feature by, prior to conforming, creating a region boundary in your predub at each preview code footage mentioned in the change note. Label each region with the corresponding preview code footage of the region’s first frame. Change by change, you can now move each chunk of material to it’s new home because the change note specifies the new location for each preview code. Unfortunately, the Avid software won’t track continuous preview codes through more than one round of changes, so you may eventually be forced to use the method above. ‘Hand-Coding’ Your Work Have you ever cut a complex sequence, such as a gun battle, only to get a new version that has been so re-arranged that the change note is useless and it seems the only way to deal with it is to start over? Building on the ‘grab the code number’ concept discussed above, there is an easy way to deal with these situations. Begin by making a track that will be dedicated to the creation of a template of the scene – there will be no usable audio placed in this track. Next, record a new audio file (with no input) in this new track that lasts at least as long as the scene in question. Then go through the scene and create a region boundary exactly where each new shot begins (just locate the Selector to the head of the start frame and type Command-E – no need to select the entire region). Once you have ‘regionized’ the entire scene, go back and name each successive region with the matching editorial (or key) code. Now you have a way to make sense of a sequence that got put through the recut blender. Work your way through the new version a shot at a time, finding the new location of a shot and using Spot mode to move the ‘Template Region’ and the audio regions that go with it to their new home. This procedure is useful for situations other than gun battles, of course. Off-stage added lines from group ADR can be a headache to conform when a scene is completely recut, especially if the conforming editor did not cut the original material. Applying a template before conforming can be a real lifesaver. If I hadn’t been using one, I might still be trying to figure out how to recut my 65 effects tracks for the flamethrower/machine gun/pistol battle that opens 'Lethal Weapon 4'.   Thanks to George Simpson for his contribution to this column. Tips and reader feedback are most welcome. Contact Dave Whittaker at (818) 980-1506 or via email   Reprinted from The Motion Picture Editors Guild Magazine Vol. 21, No. 5 - September/October 2000   Guild Home | Magazine Home | Top of Page   Copyright © 2000, All Rights Reserved by The Motion Picture Editors Guild, IATSE Local 700