Benji's Scripted Episodic AE Guide

People & Roles

• Editor(s): Depending on the show, you may be assigned to one or multiple editors.

  • Propose a Project setup template.

  • Ask their preferences on color markers for Dailies.

  • Ask their preferences on script marker colors (if your show is using ScriptSync).

  • You and your editor should work as a team, and you can always defer to them for questions. They'll delegate tasks to you throughout the project.

• Post Producer / Post Supervisor / Post Coordinator / Post PA: "A top-to-bottom" hierarchy where lines blur between responsibilities. Quite often one of these roles won't be employed on the show - for example if a show doesn't have a Post Coordinator, then a Post Supervisor may split the Post Coordinator duties with the Post PA.

  • Post Producer: The top person that lives permanently in post. Often relies on the Post Supervisor to do most of the Post Production interfacing with Editors and Assistant Editors.

  • Post Supervisor: Your point of contact for reporting any issues and asking questions. If your Post Supervisor forgets to convey your messages to the Post Producer, you may wish to communicate directly to the Post Producer. Often it is best to loop them both into the email chain, or after an important discussion send a “discussion recap” email (or Slack). Maintain a paper trail of communication when asking questions about issues.

  • Post Coordinator: Acts as an assistant to the Post Supervisor and Post Producer. Communicate your office supply needs - example:

    • Two binders per episode (one for you, one for your editor) and tabs to go in them.

    • 3-Hole Puncher.

    • Notepad.

    • Sticky Notes.

  • Post Production Assistant: A general purpose post assistant that most often handles lunch orders and pickups / drop-offs. If you have crafty favorites, let them know.

• A note about Editors / Post Supervisors / Post Producers: It's best to ask them any questions you have before reaching out to anyone else (field, vendors). Get them to sign off on your ask to field or vendors to avoid any politics. They may give you good advice, prefer to reach out to field and vendors themselves, or they may be open about your reaching out freely depending on their comfort with your knowledge level. Either way, avoid diplomatic by keeping in tight communication before reaching out to others. The dynamic of every group of individuals is different so feel it out carefully.

• Dailies House: Your Post Producer or Post Supervisor should make contact about when and how footage will be delivered, but you'll want the details (what time of day dailies will be delivered, by drive or by secure internet download). This is an office that will process the raw footage and deliver to you dnx proxy media with mic iso’s already baked into the audio tracks. If media on the Camera Reports is missing from your dailies delivery, check with the Dailies House first. Dailies files:

  • Typically will be delivered in DNxHR LB (DNxHD 36) at 1920x1080.

  • Footage that might happen to be shot at the wrong frame rate (for example if a camera shoots in 29.97 when it's supposed to be 23.98) should be provided at source frame rate and additionally with a corrected frame rate, one clip in the bin for each version.

  • Master and Sub (aka "Sync") bins should arrive for all dailies. Sub clips will have only mix audio (you can Match Frame back twice to the full audio in the master clip). Also request dailies to provide Wild Lines in dailies bins as well - sometimes they won't, but it makes life easier.

  • Dailies clips should come named cleanly, an example naming convention is: 2A_1b for Scene 2A, Take 1, Camera B.

• DIT (on-set Digital Imaging Technician) / AC (Camera Assist): While these are two separate roles, you'll be reaching out to one or the other to troubleshoot if the Dailies House can't square up any media that is missing but is noted on Camera Reports. Get their answer in email form - a headache scenario would be if the director swears something was shot and is noted on the camera report, but you can't find the footage - have evidence from field that proves otherwise.

• Script Supervisor "Scripty": Will be providing you with important paperwork: Facing Pages / Lined Script, Editorial Report. Sometimes they'll ask for images or photos to match continuity on a partial scene - another good contact to ask if something was shot. As always, keep your Post Super / Post Producer in the loop and ask them for permission before sending emails to field. Should provide you with scripts in ScriptSync parsed .txt format (exported from Final Draft this way - do NOT convert from PDF or parsing will look bad) - your Post Coordinator may ask for you.

• Director: After wrap, the episode's director will come into the office for notes. Treat with utmost respect. Top boss.

• Executive Producer / Showrunner: Same as director for your purposes. Top top boss.

• Network: You are unlikely to communicate directly with them. Your Post Producer or Post Supervisor should be the one to contact them.

Server Setup

You’ll be working with other AEs generally, so it’s a good idea to get on the same page for how the Nexis server should be organized.

Your server workspaces will be named starting with the Show Code (an abbreviated version of the show. For example, if your show was named “Wild Nine” you might use “WILD” or “WN” as your show code. You can also ask your Post Supervisor if a Show Code has been unofficially decided upon and use that.

Workspaces (the system I've found best):

• WILD_201 - Dailies mxf footage for Episode 201. 1 TB

• WILD_202 - Same as above, except for Episode 202. 1 TB

• WILD_CTM_VAM - A workspace for incoming CTM and VAM MXF media. 1 TB

• WILD_MIXDOWNS - Having a workspace dedicated to mixdowns makes it easier to locate media for purging should your shared storage be getting full. 1 TB

• WILD_MUSIC - Where you’ll import the music for the show. 500 GB

• WILD_PROJECTS - 500 GB

• WILD_RENDER_ALEX - A render workspace for the editor Alex. 500 GB+

• WILD_RENDER_BEATRIX - A render workspace for the assistant editor Beatrix. 500 GB+

• WILD_SERIES_CTM - Avid Media of final CTMs for previous seasons live here.

• WILD_SFX - Where you’ll place your SFX. Size will depend on if you are importing your SFX piecemeal or if you have a bin/mxf library to load coming in. 500GB or 1TB+ for big boys.

• WILD_SOURCES - Where you’ll put the raw audio, and Source files before its converted into AVID, including VFX revision files. Additionally, I organize digital "paperwork" here, put Outputs here, and keep a backup of the Turnover media here. It's a catch-all location for non-Avid Media files. This goes without saying, but stay organized. 1 TB

• WILD_STOCK - Where you'll store stock / broll for past seasons and media manage stock / broll footage into for future seasons. 200 GB

VFX Workspace? It's common to have a dedicated workspace for incoming VFX (such as "WILD_VFX"). I prefer to import VFX into episode-specific media workspaces - into the dailies workspaces (such as "WILD_MEDIA_201"). The reason I do this is because it makes it easier for future-season assists to rebuild past episodes (often used for flashbacks, etc).

Additionally, if your Dailies are being delivered by the Dailies House directly onto your server, you'll want a work space dedicated to that - for example "WILD_DAILIES_INBOX".

Project Setup

Consult with your editor about project setup, but I recommend doing the setup first, then asking what they want to change.

Example project setup:

• 01_CUTS

• 02_SCENES

• 03_MUSIC

• 04_SFX

• 05_ELEMENTS

• 06_BROLL_STOCK

• 07_ADR

• 08_DAILIES

• 09_OUTPUTS

• 10_TURNOVERS

• 11_VAM_CTM_MIX

• 98_DAILIES_WORK

• 99_AE

If your editor prefers, you can also create a Sequence Template and assign track naming, example:

• Tracks 1-4 "DIA" (mono)

• Track 5 "ADR" (mono)

• Tracks 6-12 "SFX" (mono)

• Tracks 12-13 "MX" (stereo)

Talk with your editor about their preferences, they might not want a Sequence Template at all!

ProTip: For SFX I go all Mono. You can Modify Stereo SFX to make them Mono, this keeps the sequence much cleaner without having to worry about needing additional dedicated stereo tracks for SFX.

Dailies Paperwork & Binders

As your Dailies Paperwork is sent to you from various sources (Script Supervisor, Dailies Lab, DIT, Camera Team, Audio Team) you'll want to be sure to keep your files organized on the Avid Server (or if you prefer - Google Drive). If you're nice and organized, the Editor(s) and/or Assistant Editor(s) might prefer not to have a physical "Editor Binder" after all - ask the expectation. Depending on your project, your Post Coordinator or Post PA might make the binders, otherwise the task falls on the Assistant Editor(s). Below is a full range of "Binder Tab Categories", ask your Editor(s) which of the categories they would like in their binder (they probably won't want them all).

Hardware:

• 4” thick 3-Ring Binder

• Binder Tabs with Labels

• 3-Hole Punch

Binder Tab Categories (Label Names in quotes):

1. “Continuity” - Put the Continuity Breakdown in here.

2. “Script”

3. “One Liner”

4. “DPR / Edit Log”

   • DPR = Daily Progress Report = Bird's eye overview of what scenes were shot that day, lists which scenes are Partials and Completes.

   • Sometimes ‘Edit Log’ is referred to as ‘Edit Report’ or ‘Shooting Log’ = Clip-by-clip breakdown of what was shot.

   • Organize these by Shoot DAY for example first put DAY 01 DPR, followed by DAY 01 Edit Log, followed by DAY 02 DPR, etc.

5. “Lined / Facing”

   • Lined Script / Facing Pages go here. Organize so that Facing pages are hole-punched ‘backwards’ so they can “face” the Facing Pages.

   • Organize these by Shoot DAY for example first put DAY 01 Facing Pages (backwards), followed by DAY 01 Lined Script, followed by DAY 02 Facing Pages, etc.

6. “Script Notes” - A place for the Editor to put all the notes they’ve received for their cut.

7. “Cam Reports”

8. “Sound Reports”

End Notes:

• • For Episodic, each episode gets its own binder. Print the episode number on the front of the binder. A nifty show logo will spritz things up too.

Dailies & Scripting

ScriptSynch-ing aka “Scripting” is most common in projects with a lot of dialog - such as Comedies. The process involves adding a marker to the top of each line of dialog or action for a particular take.

You’ll receive text files from the writer's assistant to be imported into AVID as Scripts. If you receive the script incorrectly parsed, the source Final Draft file will need to be re-exported with the “Avid-Based Script File” setting.

From dailies, you should receive a bin of Master clips and hopefully a bin of subclips. The subclips will typically have 1 audio channel only - a mix. This is to keep things simple for the editor. To get "ISOs" or isolated boom and lavaliers - you can match-frame-back-twice to the master clip for all audio.

Dailies may have multiple cameras, in which case you’ll need to group them (by timecode, as the dailies house should have them properly timecoded). Double check, timecode should be accurate, but may not always be.

Organize the clips in a Scene-specific bin. Group if multiple camera angles - Group by Auxiliary TC1 (Dailies House will have populated this to match across cameras). In bin view option "Frame View" change the thumbnail of the clips and groups to a frame of action.

Next, you’ll need to watch down and markup your dailies groups (or clips, if just 1 cam was rolling). One system of doing this:

• Green on Action at the head of the take.

• Yellow on Resets for the rest of the take.

After marking up your dailies, you’ll need to put them in ScriptSync and manually “script” them. Commonly editors request Improv / Alt Lines to be colored BLUE.

Set the Squiggly "Set Offscreen" line if the Person Talking is off-camera in all cameras of the group or if the Person Talking's mouth is barely visible (such as single cam over-the-shoulder shots).

The thumbnails in ScriptSync will be taken from what you set earlier to the clips/groups in bin view. But if you need to change the thumbnail display, click the white box underneath the frame and “Step Forward” AVID Command (or better yet “Step Forward 8 Frames” in your command palette).

Hotkey your marker colors for quick scripting - example Green marker onto A key, Yellow marker onto S key. Hotkey 'Rewind', 'Add Script Marker', and 'Fast Forward' adjacent - such as keys J, K, L.

Additionally I have mapped 'Rewind', 'Add Script Marker', and 'Fast Forward' to W, E, R keys when I choose to work left handed.

Here’s a bird’s eye view at the workflow:

1. Sorting dailies:

   1. Sort dailies into scene bins.

   2. Arrange neatly in Frame View / change thumbnails.

   3. Group multiple camera angles.

   4. Mark up groups with Action and Resets.

   5. Update Frame View thumbnails to a frame of action.

2. ScriptSync:

   1. Breakdown your script into scenes.

   2. ScriptSync to dialog and action moments.

   3. Color your ScriptSync marks for Alts/Improv.

   4. Mark Off-Screen dialog with the squiggly "Set Offscreen" tool.

Temp VFX

• If your show has a dedicated VFX Editor, they should be doing the heavy lifting of Temping VFX shots.

• Common Temp VFX you should know to do: Screen replacements, Split screen combining two different takes into one (such as: combining two different actor takes with same camera setup because each actor performs better in one of the takes), and Painting out production equipment.

• When the most obvious VFX shots are identified, assign VFX IDs in a spreadsheet (see next section: "VFX Tracking") and place markers on the center of the clip with the VFX ID.

• At some point you'll review the episode with your Post Supervisor or Post Producer and Editor to identify additional VFX required.

VFX Tracking

VFX tracking may be done very differently depending on your production. If it’s a light and easy show with few VFX, then your team may use Google Sheets. If your production has heavy VFX there's a good chance you have a VFX Editor who will handle these responsibilities. Here’s a tutorial series for VFX tracking etc for Google Sheets. Additional methods of tracking include FileMaker Pro databases of your own creation (often used in feature films) and ShotGrid, however these are most often used by VFX Editors on TV shows and Assistant Editors for feature films.

What kinds of things get VFX? The obvious such as greenscreens, stuff with explosions, gun shots etc. But also simple things like: stabilization, removing a boom shadow, combining two performances via split-screen, or a camera reflection in glass. All these things will need tracking.

For Episode 214, Scene 1 of Wild Nine, there are three shots needing VFX work. We’ll give them the following IDs:

• WILD_214_001_010

• WILD_214_001_020

• WILD_214_001_030

The pattern, as you have figured out I’m sure, is: ShowName_EpisodeNumber_SceneNumberAsThreeDigits_IncrementsOfTen

The IncrementsOfTen for the fourth part of the VFX ID will allow adding a new VFX shot in between two pre-existing ones. For example, if you notice there’s a shot that needs VFX work between WILD_214_001_010 and WILD_214_001_020, you can name the new shot WILD_214_001_015 and so on.

Your Post Supervisor and/or Post Producer will review the VFX shots at a given time in the production, with more complex VFX often sent off earlier. See the section "Turnovers to VFX" for what to do next.

Tracking: ADR, Stock Footage, and Music Cue Sheets

Sometime at or before Picture Lock, you’ll be tracking ADR needs, Third-Party Stock Footage in the edit (Getty, etc), and a music tracker. You'll need to make tracking sheets for each.

A music cue sheet will be a Google Sheet tabbed by episode. It will contain columns for Scene #, Timecode Start, Duration (mm;ss;fr), a Library column (for music libraries - for Needle Drops just type "Needle Drop") and a Notes column. Additionally, here's a workflow to generate a music cue sheet via an automatic process. “Needle Drops” are usually popular songs by known artists, but for building music lists you’ll want to include library music which also requires licensing (Extreme Music, APM, etc), as well as tracks by the composer. You'll typically update the music cue sheet when outputs go out, after a music supervisor or composer has started to see the cuts.

ADR lines are audio pickups often required to smooth moments of your episode. Your Editor (often with your help) will record audio of themselves or someone in the office, and put a “TEMP ADR” text in the timeline above the 'temp' read - with the purpose of having the actor record that line later. Your Post Producer or Supervisor will coordinate having those lines recorded, but it will be up to you to provide a tracking sheet which will include - Cast member, the line needed, timecode, and any relevant notes. You’ll provide reference video clips for these moments so the actors can match up recording the audio properly timed - coordinate with your Post Supervisor / Post Coordinator.

Sound Cleanup, Sound Design & Adding Music

Depending on your editor’s preference - you may do little or lots of sound design. For sound design, your show may have a SFX library loaded up and ready, but it’s always best to bring your own, in case there is none provided or if yours is lacking. Multiple people may bring SFX libraries to a project, so if you don’t have one going in, you can grab one going out from your fellow AEs. All sound design is “temp” and it is the responsibility of the Post Sound / Mixers to replace. Still, don’t use any blatantly noticeable or trademarked sound effects in case they leave it in the final mix. As an honorable mention - YouTube has a wealth of sound effects; even with my expansive SFX library I find myself often pulling sounds from there.

SFX are often colored AVID Yellow and Music often AVID Blue (light and/or dark). While this is not a hard-and-fast rule (and your editor might want different colors), I'm giving it a mention as a fan of convention.

Sound Design for:

• SFX for Actions: think of anything that happens in the shot that may make noise - footsteps, turning something on/off, squeaks. You’ll often need to combine sounds to get the desired, rich effect. Using fades on the heads and tails of the sound will help blend.

• SFX for Ambience: It's always good to have some ambient background, even if the scene is set in a quiet room (think what type of environment might be distantly heard from outside).

• Dialog/Nat Cleanup: Pull ISO mics as necessary and get familiar with Avid's audio suite (particularly 7-Band Equalizer and d-verb).

• Music: Often the editor cuts in music / requests specific things. If it's not a first-season show then prep past season music libraries for the editors to work with. You can also use music libraries like Extreme Music and APM Music for temp (ask your Post Supervisor for an account login) if your editor asks you to pull new music. Does your editor want a specific soundtrack to a movie or show? Acquire either via YouTube or have a conversation with your editor/post supervisor about buying the soundtrack. Avoid adding "needle drops" (popular songs) unless specifically advised to.

Sound Cleanup: Additionally, you'll need to do sound cleanup such as: pulling ISO's, cleaning up tone (removing background sounds), matching lav to boom/mix track, and filling in dead air with room tone.

A few quick tips for Sound Cleanup:

• Pulling ISOs/Mics: Matching back twice from the subclip and cutting in the lav.

• Cleaning tone: AVID's 7 band EQ will come in handy - with trial and error remove the offending frequencies (usually high or low end).

• Matching lav to boom/mix track: in 7-band EQ dropping the lows and increasing the highs usually does the trick.

• Filling dead air with tone: find a good stretch of room tone, don't loop it or it will be distracting.

• Mix audio levels with normal talking between -15 to -10 (average of -12), shouting / yelling -3 to -6, music + nat sounds to -20, music without dialog -12.

• Add crossfades at cuts where tone changes. Experiment with lengths.

• Depreciated Protip: RX Izotope Advanced is an amazing plugin to make ALL things Sound Cleanup much better and faster - especially if the Showrunner is strict about sound quality. UNFORTUNATELY the only version that's stable and feature rich is RX Izotope Advanced Version 8 (Version 7 lacks the best features, and Version 9 crashes Media Composer constantly). If you're lucky enough to get your hands on a Version 8 (or can talk Izotope into selling licenses to your team) it can be well worth it. Here's a few of my favorite RX Izotope Advanced 8 tools:

  • Dialog Isolate - cleans out all random noises / ambiences from dialog. Can be too heavy handed sometimes removing mouth sounds that you might want to keep (example: breathing).

  • Voice Denoise: Great for cleaning out shots even non-vocals where you want to keep movement sound but remove tone/hum. Also good to use use instead of Dialog Isolate when Dialog Isolate does too much damage to dialog.

  • RX Connect: Will link your Avid clip to the standalone RX Izotope app to apply multiple effects - such as: Dialog Isolate to a Lav that you always want to EQ. You then "send back" to AVID. One important note: if you extend the clip in the Avid timeline with this effect, you will need to send the clip back to RX stand-alone app and re-render there. Any in-avid render after extending clips with this effect will not properly render and reset the clip's sound to have no effects at all.

Outputs

Outputs for watchdown (and notes) are made to specs provided by Post Supervisor via Network, or you may get the network specs directly.

Common features of Outputs:

• • 4 second Slate with Show Logo, Show Name, Episode Number, Cut Name, TRT, and sometimes Over/Under the network’s specified TRT. Example:

    • EP 301 “Episode Title”

    • [EPISODE CODE] (if applicable)

    • Cut Name

    • Date

    • TRT: 00:00 over/under: 00:00 (only include this if you are asked to)

  • Black for 2 or 3 seconds after Slate.

  • Timecode in the upper right hand corner, with picture start at 01:00:00:00.

  • “Property of [Production Company]” burn-in at the bottom center. This may vary from show to show, including placement. Only some cuts may get this (such as to Music). Additionally PIX can apply this automatically, so consult with your Post Coordinator / Post Supervisor / Post Producer.

Common technical specs of Outputs:

• • PIX recommended settings.

  • Mov container.

  • H264 video.

  • AAC audio.

Upload & Send:

• • Watch down the video in its entirety. Check for technical issues or any oddity - and if you notice something abrupt or incorrect, alert your Editor to fix it.

  • Your show will likely be using PIX or FRAME.IO. Your Post Supervisor etc will provide you with the login information.

  • Depending on the Cut, it will go to a specific distribution list - which will come from your Post Supervisor.

  • Ideally your Post Producer / Supervisor / Coordinator will send the link themselves to the distro list.

Cut Progression:

• Cuts for the director to watch and note:

  • Editor’s Cut (EC)

  • Director's Cut In Progress (DCIP1, 2, 3, etc)

• Cuts for the Producers (and sometimes Writers) to watch and note:

  • Director’s Cut (DC)

  • Producer's Cut In Progress (PCIP1, 2, 3, etc)

  • Network Cut In Progress (NCIP1, 2, 3, etc) - this cut is for Producers to watchdown the notes from the Editor before approving sending it back to network. It always comes after the NC cut phase.

• Cuts for the Network to watch and note (might be titled differently depending on the show):

  • Producers' Cut (PC)

  • Network Cut (NC1, 2, 3 etc)

• Locked: Self explanatory - the final editorial cut. Often is the final NC. At this point, Turnovers are ready to begin.

Cuts may be sent named differently, check with your Post Supervisor / Producer.

Continuity Sheet

Accompanying your Outputs to the network (Producer's Cut, Network Cuts, Locked) will be a Continuity Sheet. The goal of the Continuity is to give timings for scenes, and very succinct descriptions (even if they don’t tell the entire purpose of the scene - usually just the main idea, or a sentence teasing the main event). The scene description should not give details, just one-or-two easy-to-read sentences. You can often find these descriptions on White One Line or Call Sheets, and you can repurpose them from there.

Your Post Producer or Supervisor will tell you what to do with the Continuity - you may email it to them, or they may want you to include it to the export upload location such as on PIX. Often you are provided a template in Google Sheets or MicroSoft Excel format by the Post Producer / Supervisor / Coordinator.

Promos

Sometime during the network cuts phase, you’ll be requested to send materials to Promos Department of the network. This usually consists of a video (at the specs they require - often DNxHR LB / DNxHD 36 mov or ProRes HQ mov), split audio, and sometimes an EDL for them to add cut points.

When exporting the video, you place a Red X at the bottom right of the frame for any shots that will require VFX work. The purpose is to flag Promos not to use those shots in their materials. If the episode has not yet had a VFX spotting pass, you may need to review the edit with the Editor, the Post Producer, and/or Post Supervisor to make sure no shots slip through that the Promos Department shouldn't use in their current state.

Lock & Turnovers

Sometimes you'll need to start turnovers before your episode locks. Often you'll send a "Prelock" EDL and BIN to Picture / Online. Otherwise, with any luck, your turnovers won't begin until Locked Cut phase. When an episode hits Locked Cut - it's off to the races! You'll typically be turning over the following:

• • Upload a watchable output to PIX, etc.   

  • Continuity.

  • Sound / Mix turnover.

  • Picture / Online turnover.

  • Music turnover.

  • VFX turnover.

  • Closed captioning turnover.

Turnovers to Music

The music team (Score Composer and Music Editor) is one turnover. The turnover specs can vary from show to show, but here are the basics for Lock:

• • Reference video: Ask what resolution and format they want, for whatever reason Music often wants lower resolution videos. Splitting the audio in output is common, with Dialog / Nat and SFX on Channel 1 and Music on Channel 2 (or if requested in stereo - Dialog / Nat and SFX on L and Music on R).

  • AAF of all music used.

  • Guide tracks WAV - requested sometimes if the reference video is not split audio.

Typically music editors prefer any production (cast) singing to be included in the music aaf and wav guide track. This is the only difference in audio splits vs the Sound Mix turnover.

Turnovers to VFX

When your Post Supervisor / Post Producer gives the greenlight - it's time to send off for VFX. Often your show will use multiple Vendors in which case you'll prep separate EDL/Bins for each Vendor (your Post Supervisor / Post Producer will tell you which VFX go to which vendors). When prepping EDLs and Bins, remove color effects and collapse your multigroups.

• • Materials

    • EDL - only include elements on the timeline relevant to the VFX shots (also remove audio tracks).

    • Bin - only include elements on the timeline relevant to the VFX shots (also remove audio tracks).

    • Reference QT of the episode with Timecode and VFX ID burn-in (you can automate this process by generating SubCap text for your makers - see section "C" here). Generally send a dnx36 and h264 output.

    • VFX Tracking sheet (sent by Post Supervisor / Post Producer).

  • VFX vendors will send you the replacement VFX files to cut in for review with your Post Supervisor or Post Producer. There are often multiple revisions which need approval from your Post Supervisor or Post Producer before being considered "final".

  • Often you'll send "Drop-In" Bin to Online before VFX are completely finished. A "drop-in" bin is just the final VFX video track from AVID MC sub-sequenced out. The Post Supervisor or Post Producer will let you know when to send.

Turnovers to Sound Mix

Prep your working sequence - Example layout:

• • Sequence start 00:59:52:00 starts with a 5 second slate.

  • 00:59:27:00 to 01:00:00:00 is black except for a 2-pop single-frame at 00:58:00:00.

  • Content from 01:00:00:00 through end credits and end title.

  • After End title - 2 seconds of black.

  • After 2 seconds of black -  2-pop single frame.

From this sequence you will want to split your audio - DX (Dialog), FX (Sound Effects), MX (Music) on the timeline. You'll mixdown these individual stems as well as make wavs and aafs of them. Additionally you'll make EDLs of the DX tracks. Here's an example of deliverables for a show to sound mix:

• • DX mono wav guide track, 24bit 48kHz.

  • FX mono wav guide track, 24bit 48kHz.

  • MX mono wav guide track, 24bit 48kHz. Sometimes stereo is asked for as an alternative.

  • DX aaf.

  • FX aaf.

  • MX aaf.

  • Reference video of a mixdown of your video work in DNxHR LB / DNxHD 36 in a mov container with "Direct out" audio of Dialog mixdown on A1 and FX/MX mixdown on A2. Be sure to put necessary burns onto your work sequence before mixing the video down.

  • EDL - Sound TC.

  • EDL - Start TC.

  • EDL - V1 (video track 1 only).

Your Sound / Mix house should provide deliverable specs - you'll likely have to "ask sound mix for sound turnover specs" or ask your Post Producer / Supervisor / Coordinator to do it. Above is an example of turnovers, but your sound mix house may vary requirements.

You'll do a "picture" turnover to Online at the same time so Mix/Picture have the same working sequence (hopefully everything is just "locked" for the sake of harmony by the time you're turning over) - so you'll be able to reuse some of your Split track work.

Turnovers to Picture / Online

Continuing your work from Mix, carry over the sequences and splits into your picture turnover work bin.

Here's a list of deliverables you're likely to need for Picture/Online turnover.

• • DX mono wav guide track, 24bit 48kHz. (Reuse from Mix turnover.)

  • FX mono wav guide track, 24bit 48kHz. (Reuse from Mix turnover.)

  • MX mono wav guide track, 24bit 48kHz. Sometimes stereo is asked for as an alternative.  (Reuse from Mix turnover.)

  • Reference video of a mixdown of your video work in DNxHR LB / DNxHD 36 in a mov container with "Direct out" audio of Dialog mixdown on A1, FX mixdown on A2, and MX mixdown on A3. Be sure to put necessary burns onto your work sequence before mixing the video down.

  • EDL.

  • Avid Bin.

  • Avid MXF media for Video and split audio mixdowns (used in making your reference video).

Making the bin / edl:

• • I make the EDL and bin last, taking my work sequence and putting it into a brand new bin, then stripping out all the crap - remove audio tracks, remove muted video clips, remove color correction done in Avid, remove black slugs + temp text, collapse multigroups, un-nest nested clips - and - anything else your vendor's turnover guide requests. Additionally - if you haven't done it yet - simplify your sequence by removing / overwriting unused video clips that are hiding under active video clips - just be sure not to overwrite any necessary layers of temp vfx splits etc you have done. Then cut in audio mixdowns into A1-A3 (1 DX, 2 FX, 3 MX). You're re-using your mixdowns previously made for your reference video. Make sure a clip for each of these is in your turnover bin as well - so the turnover bin will have 5 items in it - sequence, video mixdown clip, and audio mixdown clips.

  • Now generate an EDL (using your vendor's requested settings) and use this same bin as the turnover bin.

VAM & CTM

After a period of QC and some time in the online bay between the online editor and the Post Supervisor and/or Post Producer, a VAM will be produced and sent to you. This flat-profile-looking video file (often prepped as AVID mxf + bin) will be used by you to compare with your locked edit timeline to see if anything was messed up in Online.

Overcut the video file over your edit timeline and animatte a shape to see through the layer below, this allows you to see if the VAM footage lines up to your edit footage, or if something has been improperly placed (therefore not lining up).

Report issues back to the Post Supervisor if any exist.

Eventually a color graded file - the CTM - will arrive. It should contain all final VFX. When you receive it, watch it down - similar to the VAM for issues. Report back promptly.

Wrap-Up

Consolidate ("Copy" option - not delete option) all the Production BRoll shot that season onto the "_STOCK" workspace. This will allow for the next season to have all this footage easily available to them if they just copy over your "STOCK" workspace.

For your backup drive, you can partition the hard drive to match the series’ media on the server and copy the contents over to match. This will allow next season's editorial department to easily access all the media from the drive in an organized manner.

Additionally your Post Supervisor may request a drive for master files may also be prepared, dedicated for deliverables such as the final master video files (presuming you received them) - and perhaps they'll add their paperwork deliverables onto it as well.