strange/funny/new RD320GB behavior

[oliver imfeld]

yesterday morning we shot 1h of footage with drive A (slate A007_C001 till A007_C056), in the afternoon we changed the drive to B, backed up drive A, and shot another hour of footage (slate B008_C001 till B008_C063); this morning the drive A shows B001_C001 as its first slate although all the previous clips are still on the drive; this hasn't happened before and is no big deal, i was just wondering; by the way we're using build 21.4.1; but when i change the slate on drive A back to A, it immediately shows A007_C057 ! so every time you unplug and replug your drive, the slate actually increases one step.... ain't that funny and worth sharing ?
Anywayr, have a nice day all of you !
oliver

 

[Keith Putnam]

If I understand correctly, you changed the camera's slate letter to B when attaching the second drive (which you're calling the 'B' drive?). Unless you revert to slating your camera as A, any clips recorded to any drive while the camera is slated as B will be labeled "B00X_C00Y". Drive formatting has nothing to do with the slate letter attached to the clips.

 

[Tom Mitchell]

The A at the beginning of the file name is to lable the camera; camera A, camera B etc, this should stay the same throughout the shoot, and if the camera needs to be replaced then the new camera should be labled the next letter in the alphabet not A again.

only rolls should be adjusted during the shoot, if only to correct.

I must admit it is confusing the menu dose say SLATE but really its the camera identifier.

I think what you where trying to do was record the drive number (or mag no) the camera doesn't record this in the file name.

when I dump the rushes I make a folder labeled as follows Acam_Roll1_RD1 first part is the camera identifier it has come from. The second is the roll number which always counts upwards and never resets. and the RD1 says it comes from reddrive NO1(use tape to lable up your drives) that way you can keep track of any erro's and see if it is the same drive it keeps happening too.

So if you had two cameras on the shoot you would have Acam_Roll1_RD1 and Bcam_Roll1_RD2.

When you hit format the camera will automatically count the roll numbers upwards, there are occasions where you might format the drive more than once.

Then you go to the reset change the number to what roll you should be on then the camera will continue to count up from there.

Skipping a roll isn't the end of the world but might make people worried they have lost a roll down the pipeline. again with duplications its bad, but not the end of the world as the last few digits of the file name are random so that no two clips are the same.

in short the camera is behaving normally and correctly.

I hope that was helpful to you

 

[Paul Leeming]

Hey Oliver,

I had something weird happen the other day on a shoot:

Camera is set to 'B' (single camera shoot) with just one RedDrive attached all day. No changes at all.

Most clips are showing B011_etc but then strangely, in our second location I turn the camera on and record, only to find out at the end that the new clips are names as A011_etc.

VERY strange! Nothing wrong with the footage at all, just a weird random event that made me look twice in post!

Anyone else seen this?

Cheers,

Paul

 

[Nook Kim]

Hi guys,

I saw a few times this random naming thingy, and my client was very quick to say "why have you changed the file naming?" when I was onlining a music video for a color session. I told him that was how I got 'em from the set, but his face was in doubt.

Little thing's like this can also create enough problems down the line, I believe.

:frown2:

 

[Vico Martin]

Some random rename some times and...

not a funny thing!

V.

 

[Carlo Rho]

In my experience "funny" things happens when you don't format the RED Drive.
We always back-up twice each support (RedDrive or CF) and then format them in camera before shooting.
The problems behind the label systems are evident when you try to record different camera labels on the same drive without formatting.
Once I finish (last 2 days of 6) a short where the 1stAC with no RED experience decide (before meet us) to do not format the RedDrive and change the label every time they do back up, so we had to start shooting on something like "M001_C001".
Everything went fine 'till I receive a call from the editor going crazy trying to organize the material in FCP.
I think the RED label system is smart and efficient but there's some rules and do not respect them drives you to errors. Format the drives in camera every time I think it's a must and use 1 letter for each camera (and not for each drive) is necessary!

Ciao Carlo

 

[Tom Mitchell]

indeed, I agree with carlo. The only time i have seen this is when you put a drive back on the camera when not formatted. You should ALWAYS format the drive before use.

Just because it's digital doesn't mean you can be lazy or slack with how you treat the camera or rushes. as for Paul calling the only camera on the shoot B is poor practice too, if i was the editor i would be screaming wheres the A cam rushes. you have to think down the line, especially if you want to be employed more than once.

There is good reason why we all work the same way, and have systems in place. it's so easy to get in a mess otherwise.

 

[Paul Leeming]

....as for Paul calling the only camera on the shoot B is poor practice too, if i was the editor i would be screaming wheres the A cam rushes. you have to think down the line, especially if you want to be employed more than once.

Actually, the reason we did that was due to owning multiple cameras, we named the first serial number A and the second B. This way we could shoot both camera in separate locations on the same day and always know at a glance which camera the footage came from.

I'd love to have an extra field in the naming convention for Camera 1 or Camera 2 but alas, that doesn't exist yet, so that's the system we use to make sure we can always pin down a fault in the footage to a particular camera (without digging through the R3D with a hex editor).

Cheers,

Paul

 

[Martin Weiss]

I would use letters further down the (alphabetic) line to avoid future confusion. Y and Z should be safe

 

[Tom Mitchell]

Actually, the reason we did that was due to owning multiple cameras, we named the first serial number A and the second B. This way we could shoot both camera in separate locations on the same day and always know at a glance which camera the footage came from.

I'd love to have an extra field in the naming convention for Camera 1 or Camera 2 but alas, that doesn't exist yet, so that's the system we use to make sure we can always pin down a fault in the footage to a particular camera (without digging through the R3D with a hex editor).

Cheers,

Paul

I'm sorry Paul I don't mean to sound like I'm having a Dig (I'm really not) as you said it was a single camera shoot, so this other camera, i'm assuming was on another job the same day.

With all my rushes I note down (paper and text file) the camera number (reg) and MAG ID (just like you do with film), so finding errors is done with out confusion.

Also if you dealing with lots of rushes from different jobs, you should have a file structure like this Client/Project/Date/Camera(A-Z)/Roll

so even if you have both rushes back at the edit, you shouldn't get them mixed up. (should have a label on the physical drive too...funny enough like a film can)

I also wright down (on sheets, a bit like film)how many clips and the size of each roll, so should some baboon get hold or the rushes and by some sort of bad management get all the A-rolls mixed up you should have file size, and clip numbers to find out which one is which (oh and theirs the clapper board)

as I said a system we all know and are familiar with, that works.

 

[Paul Leeming]

Tom, don't sweat it, I don't mind any criticism as it helps us learn and grow our knowledge base.

I was just elucidating our reasoning for using that particular way of naming footage. Your archiving folder structure is pretty much what we do too. Ours is handled like this:

201004016 Client Name\Camera Name\Magazine (RDM)\Clips (RDC)

On a multi-day shoot such as a feature etc, we tend to drop the date at the beginning in favour of an additional folder with date name between Client Name and Camera Name.

Hasn't given us any problem yet in locating footage.

Thanks for everyone's input, it's the best way to learn and continually revise best practices.

Cheers from Tokyo,

Paul