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Is it me or is the movie window mini-menu missing in DP 8? I do not see it in the upper right hand corner of the movie window like I used to. In fact, the only way to get to the movie commands such as Load, Clear movie or the audio output is to enable the new movie track in the Sequence editor and change it there. Or am I missing something?

Also , I'm a little disappointed that the movie audio, while it will come out of my monitor outputs along with everything else, won't bounce with everything when you do a bounce. Just like before, you still have to either import the audio or record it (which I find faster, especially for short cues). This just means you have to do the same as before, without saving a step as I was hoping, for QT demos mixed with movie audio. Oh well.

Correction: I just noticed that the mini-menu is only missing if you take the movie window out of the consolidated window. It is there if you open a movie in a new project. But since I always view the movie on a separate monitor, I don't want it in the consolidated window, which I do use. So I'll just have to learn how to choose the movie and the audio outputs, etc. before I pull it out of the consolidated window. That's not how it used to be, but then again the movie could never be IN the consolidated window before, which I liked better.

I believe you can right click or ctl-click on the movie window to get what used to be the mini menu.

Thanks, vsopord, you are right, control-clicking on the video works. Wish it said that in the manual. And I wish movie audio would be included with a bounce to disk.

Just copy the movie audio to your sequence. It'll be included. Most often I don't want raw movie audio in a bounce.

I'm only talking about recording the movie audio with the music when I'm submitting a QT file for the director. The problem with import audio is that you are importing ALL the audio from the beginning of the cue to the end of the movie. If the cue is only a few minutes, it means a lot of audio to cut off at the end, and it means a lot of files accumulating that you don't need. I find it easier to just record the movie audio into the cue. But you are right, it usually requires a lot of massaging of levels, editing, etc.

If you bounce a region it will only copy that region (if that's what you meant). As far as files "accumulating" unless you are edge edit copying the movie audio, you are only creating references to the master file. Not a big deal, IMO.

Most movies come in 20 minute reels so again, not all that much. It's just the price we pay for what we do....

I beg to differ about importing audio from a movie file. It will not just import the audio for the region you are working on. It imports all the audio from the beginning of the cue you're working on to the end of the movie. And it does that multiple times for multiple cues, if each cue is a new sequence or chunk. So that leads to lots of file accumulation.

Of if only the directors and editors I work with would send me 20 minute reels. It's almost always the complete movie these days, even if in compressed form. But even in 20 minute reels it leads to lots of excess audio files to import the audio for every cue. So I just record it for each cue.

You import the entire audio ONCE. Then you reference that for all cues unless you are using a project for each cue (which you are not).

That's just the way it is, but you do not need to import the movie audio every time for every cue. You open the movie and from the soundbites window import the audio previously imported.

Just trim off the tail of the movie audio and bounce away.

Thanks. That brings up one question. If I import the entire audio for a movie, these will be derived by editing the one long audio file. When I want to since it up to a chunk with different offset other than the beginning of the film, how do I insure that the soundbite for this chunk starts at the right place, other than trial and error? The timestamp for that long imported audio would be for a point in front of where the chunk starts. As I missing something?

No, you've got it right. What you're missing may be this.

Assuming you have visual code, set a counter to frames.

--> In the movie window:
• Drag the movie location marker (dot) to the beginning of the movie.
• Set the movie start time to that number.
• Set "use the same movie for all sequences."

-->Now go to the tracks window.
• Set the chunk start time to the start time of the movie (as in the movie window).

Your movie and sequence now start simultaneously from the start of the movie and will stay in sync (visual code and DP counter) as long as you have selected the same frame rate as the .mov file. That is a good template to have in every project. Here's why...

Duplicate the chunk you just sync'd. In the new chunk, locate to the visual start (in the movie) of your cue. Read the frames counter at that location and use that as the start time for the chunk (cue) in question. Name the chunk.

I generally set the chunk start time to 2 seconds earlier so I have a consistent lead in. [If the DP metronome countoff was reliable, I wouldn't have to do that, but it's not so I do.]

I also create a master chunk (with the start times as set above). No MIDI. No audio. When a cue is done, I bounce to disk using import soundbite, but not add to sequence. Drag the new bounced cue from the soundbites window to the master chunk, creating a new audio track (that should place the audio precisely at the location in the movie the cue came from). Bwave audio suggested.

If you want easy stems, be sure to name each instrument track exactly the same. If you link the cues (chunks) in the song window (stacking vertically, not horizontally) you can "flatten" all cues into continuous tracks in a new chunk. (Again, the track names have to match to do that).

At that point, in the resulting flattened chunk, you can bounce to disk, freeze, or do a realtime record of the entire score or reel (BTD always works perfectly in my system). From the master chunk (the one with just the audio) you can select areas to export a movie from (it's also a good place to keep the imported audio from the movie, BTW - in the cues just use the movie audio w/o importing it.)

I could go on, but I have work to do. I hope that helps.

Thanks for that. It seems like more work than simply finding an offset for each cue (which I sometimes like to change as I write the cue for pickups, etc. ) and just recording the audio for each cue, usually right before I make the bounce to a QT movie. But I also do that trick with the master chunk that has all the mixes of each cue checker boarded with time stamps so I can get a feel for how each cue relates to each other. Of course that means I have to go back to the original cue for changes and then redrag it to the master and use time stamps to line it up, but that's no great hardship.

Thanks for the other perspective.