Time Code issue

D

devhaven

I am DOP on a short film. The director, the producer, and I have a little experience in production, but we are hiring other crew with expertise in their fields. We now have someone for sound. The person hired for sound has requested that the DOP know what to do for time code.

I know what time code is, however; i want to know what I need to do on my end of things to cooperate with sound. I am shooting with the Canon XL2.

Do I need to do something with the XL2 or with the tape?

I figured it's better to learn here than look like a fool on set. Thank you for helping.

Devon
 
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hi...i know this is an old post...but maybe i can help in the next time you get a call like this...

when ever i do a small student film to help them out, i ask what time code they want to use...and usually get silence on the phone for a few moments...then..."dont you know" ...lol

so my next call would be to the post house...in the low budget world...they dont usually have a post house already lined up...let alone an editor....so...call the DP..or whoever owns the camera...

i ask them what Timecode they are going to use in the camera...and from experience i then decide what code i will use to best suit them later...

so maybe this is what he was going thru...and yes..he was going to use a TC Slate...the slate has a timecode generator built into it and from the recorder (where the master timecode will be generated from) he would JAM the slate with that code so it would reproduce the same code on the numbers...and also show the USER BITS after the slate has been closed...

its really not your job to decide what code should be used...but more that likely in this case...no one knew and he turned to you, hoping you would...or at least try to get someone to make that decision so there is no confussion later on as to why a certain code was used...

it could make for quite a mess if things were done wrong here....it can be fixed later...but some missmatches in code would be very costly to fix than others...so its always good to talk to someone who really knows what to do before filming starts....

hope this helps

there are many ways to use timecode
 
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Dave Pastecchi said:
hi...i know this is an old post...but maybe i can help in the next time you get a call like this...

when ever i do a small student film to help them out, i ask what time code they want to use...and usually get silence on the phone for a few moments...then..."dont you know" ...lol

so my next call would be to the post house...in the low budget world...they dont usually have a post house already lined up...let alone an editor....so...call the DP..or whoever owns the camera...

i ask them what Timecode they are going to use in the camera...and from experience i then decide what code i will use to best suit them later...

so maybe this is what he was going thru...and yes..he was going to use a TC Slate...the slate has a timecode generator built into it and from the recorder (where the master timecode will be generated from) he would JAM the slate with that code so it would reproduce the same code on the numbers...and also show the USER BITS after the slate has been closed...

its really not your job to decide what code should be used...but more that likely in this case...no one knew and he turned to you, hoping you would...or at least try to get someone to make that decision so there is no confussion later on as to why a certain code was used...

it could make for quite a mess if things were done wrong here....it can be fixed later...but some missmatches in code would be very costly to fix than others...so its always good to talk to someone who really knows what to do before filming starts....

hope this helps

there are many ways to use timecode
Click to expand...

I'm glad I read this . I need to know about the different ways to use timecode . I know it is a digital mark used to sync sound , but what are the different types and are they file formats that are each better suited for different recording environments ?
 
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Coldhitz said:
I'm glad I read this . I need to know about the different ways to use timecode . I know it is a digital mark used to sync sound , but what are the different types and are they file formats that are each better suited for different recording environments ?
Click to expand...
If you upgrade to Premiere here, there is a detailed timecode tutorial by Dave in Sound Advice.
 
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