Time code breaks

A

Anartiste

Well-known member
When acquiring the rushes of my 30 minute film (7 1/2 hours of raw material), I had to face the quite tedious experience of numerous time code breaks on the tapes.

Apparently, this occurred when the camera crew replaced the batteries (I guess without much consideration for the protocol to follow if such a thing exists), occasionning random TC breaks (one time in a direction, anoter time in the other)

Of course, this was very annoying for the digitization process as it prevented me from doing a full batch capture on FCP (especially when the TC breaks made the same time code repeat itself on the same cassette, you get the picture ?), so the operation lasted for several days with me having to be there all the time.

So I have two questions here for you, friends :

1/ Is there a procedure to follow in order to avoid this unpleasant situation ?

2/ Is it possible to stripe the tapes BEFORE shootingv and not to erase the striping WHEN shooting ?

Thanks to you, ô wizards of the digital era.
 
Re: Time code breaks

you can prestripe tapes and run the camera in the "regen" mode. Of course for some of the projects I've done we were running up to 4 cameras at the same time and used over 100 "rolls". We could ahve kept one person busy around the clock striping tapes for us. . .

I've found (as in most things) patience is a virtue. When changing batteries turn off the camera and wait, wait, wait for that last "clunk" and for the little red light on the back of the camera to go out. then proceed. Also the manual recommends leaving the camera connected to the poer supply but off for approx. 4 hrs. periodically, so the internal "memory" battery will be fully charged.

and look out for those gremlins. . .

;)

MR
 
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