ASK & DISCUSS
INDEXWhat to do with wrongly formatted camera files
11 years, 2 months ago - Stella Ramsden
I have an issue which I'd love some advice on.
I'm working on a feature which is shooting on the Arri Alexa. So far, I've been receiving cards with sequential roll numbers- A001 continuing up to A030.
Yesterday, 2 cards were not formatted before use, so they have come in displaying old roll numbers.
The file names on Roll 31 were fine (A031C001 etc) but three clips from this roll were labelled A029_C008 etc- following on from where the actual Roll 29 left off at A029C007.
Roll 32 came in with file names starting A030. The first three of these A030C001-A030-003 are old files from the actual Roll 30. The rest are new files which should have been labelled A032...
Roll 33 was all labelled as A032C001 etc.
I am wondering whether I should leave the file names intact, incorrect though they are, or if it would be safe to change them so they read A031, A032 and A033.
I am worried that if I change them, there will be problems in the grade if they don't match up with the data in the FCP.xml file.
If I don't change the file names I think I can still bring them all in to final cut, since they are still named differently to the existing files.
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11 years, 2 months ago - Andrew Morgan
Personally I'd rename them (and extensively went through the footage shot for my own film checking the naming) but one thing you should know is that if the Arri has embedded metadata into the takes, renaming them might create some confusion for the editor/colourist unless you explain/document what you've done.
11 years, 2 months ago - Stella Ramsden
I decided not to rename them, largely because I'm nervous, as you say, that along the line this could lead to confusion for the colourist and other parties involved in the online. It's one of those things where if I had more experience of these situations and knew what would arise from me changing it I'd give it a go, but I can't afford to experiment! Thanks so much for your advice all the same- it's very interesting to hear other takes on the issue.