Using Zoom F4 Timecode

[IronFilm]

Basically, the Ursa follows the F4, whatever it's set for, when they are connected. I plan on leaving them connected for the majority of the shoot which is interior/dialogue work to give me an audio track. The Ursa TC will continue on if disconnected, and is now reputed to be quite accurate. I plan to disconnect the snake and let the 2 units run separately in parallel when shooting the action/outdoor stuff with a camera mounted shotgun for a scratch audio track as backup, and just reconnect the BNC/TC when doing a battery change on the Ursa to re-sync.

URSA won't hold sync for any extended period of time.

Thanks all. The Tentacle sync keeps coming up, and it sounds like a good product. Maybe next job (that pays). I'm really just shooting this short to help build a narrative reel and sort through this new gear. I always just did the dumb slate/audio sync in the past, but want to try TC out. I will have a scratch audio track on the video if the TC fails for any reason. They claim that, unlike the earlier Ursa cameras, the BM UMP 4.6K version will hold sync for a day or until the battery change. The TC route looks like it will be easier for matching up dailies (shooting RAW) and transcoding for the edit. Thanks again.

Don't believe it! No camera you can fully trust 100% to hold sync throughout the day.

Oh, and it isn't normal for a soundie to have a "narrative reel".....

Well, the idea(and correct way to do it) is that you have a sync box on every piece of equipment that needs to be/stay in sync. Unless it's something like a Sound Devices recorder with a high quality Ambient TC generator/reader built in, in which case you would be safe not having a sync-box on the SD, but jam all of the sync boxes to it and then put the boxes on the camera. That's how we usually do it.

ric8138, are you shooting this in NC?

Like Sound Devices / Zaxcom / Aaton / Sonosax / etc, the Zoom F4/F8 are perfectly capable of holding sync all day.

 

[IronFilm]

I found the Zoom recorders to have significant drift without the sync boxes attached. So my tentacles worked when left attached to the timecode-in BNC connectors, but I wouldn't just jamsync the recorder without leaving some kind of attached box.

That is wrong somehow. I wouldn't expect this.

Are you making sure to never turn them off? (that is the one flaw of the F8/F4)

We found that if we left the Zoom run without a box, after only 4 hours it was already off by at least one frame compared to two Alexa's minis (which remained perfectly aiigned). All three were jamsynced at the start of the day.

However, are you saying that the TC in is merely for the purpose of jamming and that it does not continue to read a sync box like the Tentacles in a continuous manner ?

What timecode box did you put on the Arri Alexa Minis?

If none..... then my bet is on the cameras being wrong, and not the F4 being wrong.

 

[Noiz2]

With how easy TC is to use, then it is very sad state of affairs indeed if post won't utilize TC at all.

Depending on who and the workflow they may well not use your TC. Other than for finding and rough sync post sound often didn't use source TC. Not really sure what the flow on a big budget film is today but only one post facility that I worked at used source TC, or had the ability (tape days...) to read it.

Now we used TC all the time for locking to video and TC or F&F for keeping track of changes etc. But for sound post there is so little benefit it just wasn't used.

I suspect for more ENG, low post/ fast turn around, types of shows that would change a bit and for picture editing especially with multi camera shoots TC could be a bit time saver.

For sound though 99% of your track is not production so even if it were a huge time saver it would be a drop in the bucket of the over all time.

 

[Noiz2]

Oh, and it isn't normal for a soundie to have a "narrative reel".....

Grrrr I hate that term... But you are quite correct (for film), though I think the OP is not a sound person.

Nobody I know in film has a "reel" unless they have also done ads. Agencies for some reason all want reels even completely useless one like for sound.

I have also been asked for reels from directors of no budget film. I used to explain why it was a complete waste of time, but then I did some ads so I had to have a reel.

The main point of a sound persons show reel is to demonstrate that you have worked on some quality shows. You can't really demo your "work" since a lot of people contributed to any big project, and the folks looking at the reel wont be able to tell what you did from what others did. Basically you want to toss as much impressive BS at them in an interesting visual way as possible in a minute or two. They have short attention spans. If you have any shows people are likely to have heard of make sure to get the title card in. You don't even need to have hardly any of your sound in the reel. I know of one very successful one that had music as 90% of the reel sound track. And the music was from a film not in the reel that the editor had not worked on, but worked really well for the montage of clips.

Think of it as a CV that they can watch, and get a decent picture editor to do the cut.

 

[GaryNattrass]

38 years in film and TV sound and I have never had a "reel"