30 seconds countdown
- Thread starter dre83
- Start date
Richard Crowley
Veteran
I am not sure what you are asking here? What problem are you trying to solve? Are you trying to synchronize audio and video from separate recorders? Are you trying to provide a cue for where the program starts?
There could be many responses to your question, but it is not clear exactly what the issue is here?
There could be many responses to your question, but it is not clear exactly what the issue is here?
it's not a question...it's a sort of "information" about using countdown clocks.
But... not being enlish speaking as mother tongue.. I might use wrong words.
But here's an example what I mean: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TOsGAxFcYls&feature=related
although this one has beeps every second and another kind of beep on the 2nd second.
It's useful to use when sound is recorder separately
Actually it's better to move this to the "
But... not being enlish speaking as mother tongue.. I might use wrong words.
But here's an example what I mean: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TOsGAxFcYls&feature=related
although this one has beeps every second and another kind of beep on the 2nd second.
It's useful to use when sound is recorder separately
Actually it's better to move this to the "
Last edited:
Steve House
Veteran
In industry parlance that's called a "2 pop" because it occurs two seconds before the first frame of video or film.
What you are describing in whole is called a "countdown leader," "SMPTE leader," or "Academy leader" depending on the details of what else appears on it.
Noiz2
Sound Ninja
If were going to get picky it's FFOA (First Frame Of Action). The video or film started well before that.
And I'm not sure exactly what he (the OP) is talking about. It's sort of a combo of an Academy leader and video bars and tones. There are a lot of various line up tones and such for different types of projects.
I came out of 35mm film and have an affinity to two pops and tail pops, but that is a system that was designed for multi reel projects on film with separate audio playback. A much as I like them they are of limited use in todays film workflow, till you get to a mix stage With actual film. Bars and tones are of course pointless in film work, but really nice (or mandatory) in video. And start marks etc are pointless in video or any single reel project.
But most of this is a picture dept thing. It doesn't do you any good to ad them in sound if they are not there in the picture. So I'm not sure why this was a post in the audio section.
Last edited:
Richard Crowley
Veteran
The example you offered is the "SMPTE Universal Leader" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academy_leader) and was used back in film and analog TV days as an aid for cueing up playback or projection.
In the age of digital, it is rapidly falling out of use because it is easy to provide the "metadata" using internal file tags and to edit the file so that the program material starts exactly on the first frame of the video stream.
The Academy or SMPTE countdown sequence was NOT used for synchronizing audio and video recording. That was done with a clapperboard like this...(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clapperboard)
Some more modern versions have electronic readouts on the board with the SMPTE timecode. And most professional crews just use SMPTE timecode to automatically synchronize the picture recording with the sound recording. Although the clapperboard is still used for other reasons, not the least of which is tradition and production protocol, etc.
In the age of digital, it is rapidly falling out of use because it is easy to provide the "metadata" using internal file tags and to edit the file so that the program material starts exactly on the first frame of the video stream.
The Academy or SMPTE countdown sequence was NOT used for synchronizing audio and video recording. That was done with a clapperboard like this...(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clapperboard)
Some more modern versions have electronic readouts on the board with the SMPTE timecode. And most professional crews just use SMPTE timecode to automatically synchronize the picture recording with the sound recording. Although the clapperboard is still used for other reasons, not the least of which is tradition and production protocol, etc.
Last edited:
Noiz2
Sound Ninja
The example you offered is the "SMPTE Universal Leader" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academy_leader) and was used back in film and analog TV days as an aid for cueing up playback or projection.
In the age of digital, it is rapidly falling out of use because it is easy to provide the "metadata" using internal file tags and to edit the file so that the program material starts exactly on the first frame of the video stream.
Actually what's on YouTube is a film count down, or Academy leader. The "Start Mark" is for queuing up 35mm projectors for projection when you use two projectors. It's timed so that the projectionist flips the drive switch when the first mark shows up (that little mark, dod, donut, etc that appears in the upper right of the frame) and then throws the changeover switch when the second one shows up. If all is set up correctly the audience doesn't even know that the booth has switched projectors. This happen less these days because of what are called "platter" projectors. A normal 35mm projector can only hold 2000 feet of film (about 22 min) so a feature switches projectors every 20 min or so during screenings. With platter systems the entire film is spliced together (cutting out the leaders) and is put on a really big platter that is spooled through a single projector and ends up on another platter. That's how multiplexes get away with having only one projectionist for X# of theatres.
In the good old days when all dubbing was analog, every reel of mag had start marks and pops. I'm sure people are still putting pops on but everything is TC locked now and virtual so no start marks.
And Dre83:
Don't feel bad. They are not the necessities they once were but it is useful to have head (and tail) pops. It is a very quick way to tell if your out of sync and if you have tail pops also you can troubleshoot out of sync issues faster. You can tell instantly who's ahead of who and by how much. I love it when I get pops and a real count in leader. But it does have to be done (correctly) by the picture folks first to be of much use since that is what your checking sync against.
Cheers
SK