Some Clips Won't Play in Color

[Ravi Kiran]

Our colorist is currently grading a feature in Apple Color 1.5 using the R3Ds. Some of the clips in the timelines (divided into ~20 minute reels) are not playing properly. They'll basically be stuck on the first frame of the shot. Has anyone encountered this? Here's what we did:

-Edited on previous version of FCP, exported XML
-Imported XML into Monkey Extract to copy R3Ds
-Link to R3Ds using Clipfinder/Color Fixer routine
-Open FCP project linking to R3Ds (on editor/colorist's machine using new FCS)

We were having some problems this way, so we saved the FCP projects on our colorist's machine with the new FCP. Then we re-exported XMLs and did the whole Clipfinder/Color Fixer routine again.

My guess is that something screwy happened because we edited using older FCP, and even though we re-exported from the new FCP and created new Color 1.5 projects (instead of opening in Color 1.5 the projects created in the old Color), something's still not right. Any guesses?

 

[Ben Brainerd]

I had a similar problem not too long ago. What made it even weirder was that the clip would play the first time I sent the project to Color, then lock at the first frame of the clip (Not the shot. We're talking a lovely freeze frame of the slate) on all subsequent playthroughs.

Colorfixer didn't solve the problem. I fixed a couple of the problem shots by rebuilding the proxies using the old color science in Clipfinder. It was suggested somewhere around here.

Never really did fix all of them. We decided we needed to use the new color science, so we rendered everything out as ProRes and never ran into the problem again. I'd be curious to see if anyone has a fix, though.

 

[Ravi Kiran]

BUMP

Any solutions? Is there anyone I could send my footage, XMLs, FCP projects to so I can fix this?

 

[Ido Karilla]

Once again! Clipfinder!!!! Fix color span files bug!!!!!!!

 

[Scott Mason]

I have this challenge with clips that roll across midnight. The tc jumps to zero and freaks out color. No great workaround. I edit the clip back into color and it works, but I have to do this every time I open it. Another fix is to render those clips to dpx or QuickTime depending on your flow and send those. You can use edgecode for the qts but conform is manual.

Color looping bug fix usually works for me on all other cases of still frames.

Good luck
Scott

 

[Ben Brainerd]

Once again! Clipfinder!!!! Fix color span files bug!!!!!!!

This is not a spanned files bug. The OP and myself pretty explicitly stated that we'd already run colorfixer on the projects.

Don't mean to come off snippy, but while Clipfinder's pretty rocking, it's not the solution to every little problem. And assuming we're all idiots and haven't tried it is kinda annoying.

</rant>

The whole rolling over midnight thing is interesting. That may, in fact, be a reasonable explanation for my problems, given that I've only had the issue crop up in my night shots. I'll go back and check the timecodes on the problem clips and see if that was it.

 

[Ben Brainerd]

I have this challenge with clips that roll across midnight. The tc jumps to zero and freaks out color.

DING-DING-DING! We have a winner!

I went back and check out the problem files, and at least in my case, the two that were causing issues do, in fact, roll across midnight. It's good to know what's causing the issue, even if there's no real solution at the moment. I'll add "Take 5 at midnight" to my list of handy RED-Shooting tips.

 

[Ravi Kiran]

Okay, I fixed the problem, at least in our project!

In Color, I right-clicked on the clips that were stuck on the first frame, clicked Relink Media (which will find the RDC folder for that clip), click Load, without selecting any of the proxies. For some reason the scale of the clip becomes 4 in the Geometry tab (when it should be 2), but the clip plays, and I just have to adjust the scale. Currently we're relinking all the clips that are doing this to see if there are any hangups, but I think this is the solution.

 

[Nook Kim]

I was just going to write that Good thing you've found the solution (temporary).

 

[Ben Brainerd]

So I'm sitting here theorizing about what might cause this problem. Got an idea, but it's based on a couple assumptions:

Assumption #1: The clips that have this issue were all shot across a day-shift (AKA Were rolling at midnight). Could some of the other folks who have the problem check their problem clips and verify whether that's true?

Assumption #2: Problem clips are all using internal TC, not Edge-Code.

Given those assumptions, I'm guessing the XML/whatever that's going on behind to scenes for Apple to import non-DPX files into Color is losing track of the TC in the Clip.

Something like this:

-I decide I want to use the middle of said clip, which runs from 23:58;XX to 00:01;XX. (Whether that's actually a midnight span depends on how accurately the camera's set, obviously. All the more reason to set it to local, instead of GMT or whatever)
-Having finished my edit, I do whatever conform I need to and send it off to Color.
-Color, on importing the XML goes "Hey, they want 00:00;01 of this clip. It must be at the beginning!" <Rewind, Rewind> "Hey, there's no 00:00;01 at the beginning of this clip. I'm confused...."

As to why doing a relink solves the problem... Um. That's where I have no idea. Maybe once it's past the XML processing stage, Color doesn't have any problems with TC resets?

 

[Ravi Kiran]

Only one clip still gives us the problem, but I just threw that onto a separate timeline and conformed through Clipfinder to send to Color. After it is graded, we'll send that back to FCP and re-insert it into the graded timeline for that reel.

 

[Julius Jockusch]

Bump! :yesnod:

I had the same issue with clips freezing in color! I followed went with the right click and relinked them without selecting anything and just pressing load. All the clips work now.

Thanks guys!

 

[RickyH]

I have this midnight issue as well. I could not get the files to render from Color, even if they showed the right frame. I could not get it to even render the entire clip in a separate project from the R3D.

DPX files in a new project, rendering out, and re-conforming manually back in FCP worked for me, but it's annoying needing a separate project just for 2 shots, and having to match the DPX files color to the R3D's color.

Also, is this just a Color problem? Does Scratch have a problem with the rollover?

Is RED aware of this midnight issue? As an onset presence I have to make productions aware of it, knowing how much it sucks for Post.

Any answers would be awesome.

 

[James Milner-Smyth]

We discovered this on the occasional shot that makes it into the final film where the camera started rolling before midnight and the edited part of the shot starts after.

Nearly all timecode systems have this issue. That is the reason we master tapes here in the uk starting at hour 10, and other countries hour 1, because many tape playout systems couldn't handle pre-rolling from before 00.00.00.00. Remember that Millenium bug?

The easy way around this is to only use edgecode, or as above, to run a separate conform switching to edge-code for the shots that fail.

I would have thought statistically this will only occur very occasionally but i still remember to mention it when I'm on a shoot that looks like it is going to run late.

Best

James