Turnover Specifications
Picture
1080p QuickTime Apple ProRes proxy is my preferred working picture. 4K is not preferred, until we final mix on a dub stage and want the full res, color timed picture to mix to.
A QuickTime H264 or H265 .MOV is acceptable for a smaller file to upload, and I can convert on my end.
Please, NO .MP4 files, QuickTime .MOV only.
Preferred picture and AAF/timeline start times:
Television or short form - 00:59:52:00 picture start, 2 POP at 00:59:58:00, FFOA at 01:00:00:00
Feature films - Reels start on the hour, i.e. 01:00:00:00, 2 POP at 01:00:06:00, FFOA at 01:00:08:00
When working on my own side projects I am very lenient with this, all I ask for is consistency. If you want your picture and 2 POP to both start at 00:59:58:00 with FFOA at 01:00:00:00 for your feature film, that’s fine, as long as we’re consistent. Don’t want to use a 2 POP at all, and just start everything at 01:00:00:00? Probably fine if you’re not expecting any edit changes, just have a chat with me first.
If you need an Academy Leader, you can download one here: https://f.io/hcYyi-ug
Audio Guides
Guides are the audio as it exists in your timeline, the mix created by the editor. We use guides as a reference point when working to hear what was intended before the project was turned over to sound, and to compare versions when new edits are turned over. Sound effects editors will work to the dialogue guide when dialogue editors are working, and the foley team will use the dialogue guide when spotting and recording.
Good: Just the audio as is on the QuickTime reference. This is usually good enough and I can get by with just this, at least when I’m not working with a team and we don’t expect many new versions to be coming in.
Better: When exporting your QuickTime ref, having the dialogue panned hard left, with music and effects panned hard right, so I can have a separate dialogue guide. This can be helpful when editing.
Best: Exporting separate dialogue, music, and sound effects .WAV files from your timeline. Mute the sound effects and music and export just the dialogue as a wav file, same for sound effects, then music. Having these separate audio files can be very helpful.
AAF
General Settings (skewed toward premiere users)
24 bit, 48k, Broadcast WAV.
Keeping your timeline organized with production sound/dialogue, sound effects and music on their dedicated tracks is very helpful.
If using audio effects on your timeline, I prefer to get one AAF with un-rendered audio effects, and one with rendered audio effects, rather than selecting “include clip copies without effects”. If just choosing one option, please stick with un-rendered (or rather, don’t select “render audio effects”).
Choosing “Embed Audio” is usually good for short form content, especially if all mic channels are present in your timeline. For long form content like feature films, if I need to re-link to production sound rolls, or if I specifically ask for “copy complete audio files”, choose “separate audio” instead. This will create an audio files folder in addition to the AAF, send both.
Handle frames: Minimum 240 frames of handles.
Do not check “Mixdown Video”
Muted clips on your timeline will not be exported in an AAF, so if there is anything you specifically want us to have even though you’re not using it in your edit, just turn the volume on the clip all the way down.
If you would like to run a test, export a couple minutes of your timeline and I can open it and see if everything worked as expected.
Sound Rolls
For certain projects I will need all the sound rolls/audio dailies turned over to me as well. This is the case if you edited with only the mix track and I need to relink to the boom and iso’s, but also for searching for necessary alternate words in a take to avoid ADR, or looking for additional production effects. As a rule I like to receive the sound rolls whenever possible, but feel free to check with me if you think it’s not necessary for your project (i.e. a documentary that has an incredible amount of raw audio, etc).