Starting a project in SCRATCH, and providing dailies to an AVIDMediaComposer® for offline, works perfectly (see the Avid Round Triptutorials). However, there are cases when the job is actually started inMediaComposer® before sending it to SCRATCH for grading and then sentback to editorial in on-line quality.

SCRATCH is flexible enough to handle both workflows; however, dealingwith raw material in AVID MediaComposer® has implications on the way inwhich you’ll work.

When offline editorial is done on AVID MediaComposer® using rawmaterial, the editor needs to “index” the files instead of loading theminto his AVID project. To do so, the editor uses an AMA plug-in. TheseAMA plug-ins are available from the AVID website or from the Marketplacedrop-down menu in MediaComposer®.

WORKING WITH A RED AMA LINKED MEDIACOMPOSER® PROJECT

When the editor creates an AMA link to RED footage in MediaComposer®,the linked shots have a “Reel” shown as three digits (i.e: 004). Theshots do not have a “Tape” or “Tape ID.” Also, the shot file name isappended with “_001” as shown in the picture below.

Once the offline editorial is done, the editor should export thetimeline as an AAF. AVID MediaComposer® needs the “AAF Edit Protocol” tobe selected in order to export an AAF from AMA shots without the needfor transcoding.

On the SCRATCH side, as conform will be done using this AAF, there’sno need to load the original RED files into the project or Constructprior to do the conform: The AAF conform tool in SCRATCH offers toselect either Project, Group, Construct or Folder as the source. Notethat the “Match” options are greyed-out in this case.

EXPORTING BACK AND RELINKING IN AVID  MEDIACOMPOSER®

Once the sequence is ready for export, just proceed with an MXFexport from SCRATCH. In the example below we used a DNxHD 444 AMTexport.

The AMT plug-in used for processing DNxHD MXF files from SCRATCH usesthe AVID library. Note that the exported MXF files metadata areslightly different than those created by the AMA plug-in in AVIDMediaComposer®.

As seen before, the AMA shots only have a “Reel”, No “Tape”, or “TapeID” and the filename has “_001” appended, while the MXF exported fromSCRATCH has no “Reel” and no “Tape ID”.  Only the “Tape” is available inthe form of one letter followed by three digits (i.e: A004) by default.Note that this “Tape” format will follow the RED Tape Format selectedin FX Controls (4,8,16 characters).

In order to relink successfully once back in MediaComposer®, werecommend using #sname_001 in the “Shot Config“ file-mask line so thatit matches the AVID MC naming convention.

Once the MXF export is completed in online quality (.e: DNxHD 444),each MXF folder will contain an aaf, an xml, and the mxf files. The aafmust be dropped into a new AVID bin, while the mxf go in the AVID MediaFolder. MediaComposer® will then relink the files.

Next will be to relink the shots. Select the exported project in the“Bin Projects” window. Then select the new Bin containing the SCRATCHexported MXF files and use the “Clip” drop-down menu from the MC topmenu.

Scroll down to “Relink…” and set the matching options as in thepicture below. If “Name” option is not displayed, use the “More..”option at the bottom to look for it.

Hit “Ok”…..Done.

Original AMA MediaComposer® sequence vs. new relinked sequence:

WORKING WITH A SONY RAW F65 AMA LINKED MEDIACOMPOSER PROJECT

Import the files as AMA, selecting the Sony Raw option from the pop-up window.
See picture below:

The process is almost the same as RED. The differences for the F65are 1) when the editor creates an AMA link to F65 footage inMediaComposer®, the Source Name is exactly the same as the original namewithout adding any digits like in RED, and 2) the shots don’t have a“Tape” or “Tape ID”. See the picture below.

Once the offline editorial is done, the editor should export thetimeline as an AAF.  AVID MediaComposer® needs the “AAF Edit Protocol”to be selected in order to export an AAF from AMA shots without the needfor transcoding.

On the SCRATCH side, as conform will be done using this AAF, there’sno need to load the original F65 files into the project or Constructprior to doing the conform. The AAF conform tool in SCRATCH offers toselect either Project, Group, Construct, or Folder as the source. Alsonote that the “Match” options are greyed-out in this case.

EXPORTING BACK AND RELINKING IN AVID MEDIACOMPOSER®

Once the sequence is ready for export, proceed with an MXF exportfrom SCRATCH. In the example below we used a DNxHD 444 AMT export.

The AMT plug-in used for processing DNxHD MXF files from SCRATCH usesthe AVID library. Note that the exported MXF files metadata areslightly different than those created by the AMA plug-in in AVIDMediaComposer®.

As seen before, the AMA shots only have a “Reel”. There are no “Tape”or “Tape ID”. For the Sony F65 it keeps the original source file name.So in SCRATCH, you just need to export the MXF using the option SOURCEFILE NAME as shown in the picture below:

Once the MXF export is done in online quality (i.e: DNxHD 444), eachMXF folder will contain an aaf, an xml and the mxf files. The aaf mustbe dropped into a new AVID bin, while the mxf goes to the AVID MediaFolder. MediaComposer® will then relink the files.

Next will be to relink the shots. Select the exported project in the“Bin Projects” window. Select the new Bin containing the SCRATCHexported MXF files and use the “Clip” drop-down menu from MC top menu.

Scroll down to “Relink…” and set the matching options as in thepicture below. If “Name” option is not displayed, use the “More…” optionat the bottom to look for it.

Hit “Ok”…..Done.