DIT Essentials: Metadata, Transcoding & Verifying Your Camera Files

Series	Essential Data Downloading Software

Essential Data Downloading Software: Part 2

Capturing On-Set Metadata
(And Delivering It To Postproduction)

In Part 1 of this two-part look at essential DIT software, DIT Rich Roddman C.S.I shared his core tools for downloading footage off cameras (and making several multiple backups… simultaneously). Those tools allow him to deliver Reports to clients about every clip he offloaded (even if they call 3 months later). In this Insight, Rich shifts gears to another part of the DIT’s job, metadata.

Handling metadata, checking File Integrity & Creating Transcodes

Pomfort Silverstack – Metadata, download, color grade, oh my!
VLC Media Player – A swiss-army-knife of media players. It plays practically every codec you might encounter.
Switch – Another versatile media player that prominently displays embedded timecode. It comes in Free and Pro versions.
Scratch Play – It’s free. It plays just about everything. And it has that impressive Scratch UI.
Premiere Pro CC – If you’ve got it, then it’s a good tool for checking the integrity of your images.
EditReady – This app is great to have in your data download kit for those days clients suddenly need to do transcoding, too.

Other apps mentioned in this Insight

Did Rich miss something here? Is there one tool you want to see in action and more fully explained? Use the Comments!

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Comments

Creator

Discussion
April 12, 2017 at 6:02 pm #33145

Richard Roddman C.S.I.
Participant

This is the discussion thread for the Insight: DIT Essential Software: On-Set Metadata
Creator

Discussion

Luca Enrico Canessa
Member

April 15, 2017 at 11:07 am

Hey Rich, thanks for this insight.
I just wanted to ask you how come you didn’t quote Resolve as transcoding software option. It’s that because there’s some kind of issue within the transcoding task in DVR?
Luca Enrico Canessa
Member

April 15, 2017 at 11:07 am

Hey Rich, thanks for this insight.
I just wanted to ask you how come you didn’t quote Resolve as transcoding software option. It’s that because there’s some kind of issue within the transcoding task in DVR?
Richard Roddman C.S.I.
Member

April 15, 2017 at 5:24 pm

Hi Luca,
I left Resolve off of this list primarily because I was just talking about programs that did straight transcoding and did not give you options for adjusting the colors to much. I do plan on creating another insight focusing on the tools that a DIT would use for handling color management which is kind of where this one leaves off of handling the data management and Resolve will be a big part of that. Plus I have found in my experience that once you open Resolve on the set, the DP or Director can not help themselves from making adjustments to the images which opens a grey area of when a Data Manager becomes a DIT and all the responsibilities that go along with that.

Thank you for the question and I hope you find the insight useful.
Rich-
Richard Roddman C.S.I.
Member

April 15, 2017 at 5:24 pm

Hi Luca,
I left Resolve off of this list primarily because I was just talking about programs that did straight transcoding and did not give you options for adjusting the colors to much. I do plan on creating another insight focusing on the tools that a DIT would use for handling color management which is kind of where this one leaves off of handling the data management and Resolve will be a big part of that. Plus I have found in my experience that once you open Resolve on the set, the DP or Director can not help themselves from making adjustments to the images which opens a grey area of when a Data Manager becomes a DIT and all the responsibilities that go along with that.

Thank you for the question and I hope you find the insight useful.
Rich-
R Neil Haugen
Member

April 17, 2017 at 1:03 am

Rich … great info. Like the Switch … quick query: for general player jack-of-all-codecs, have you tried PotPlayer? Curious as to how it compares to VLC for this work.
R Neil Haugen
Member

April 17, 2017 at 1:03 am

Rich … great info. Like the Switch … quick query: for general player jack-of-all-codecs, have you tried PotPlayer? Curious as to how it compares to VLC for this work.
Jelle Helwig
Member

April 18, 2017 at 10:48 am

Nice insight, I would’ve loved more info on how to get all the metadata from these programs into your NLE and also Resolve.
Jelle Helwig
Member

April 18, 2017 at 10:48 am

Nice insight, I would’ve loved more info on how to get all the metadata from these programs into your NLE and also Resolve.
Author

Replies

Author

Richard Roddman C.S.I.

Insight # ML 0616

Type Video

Duration 13:00

Skill Level Beginner

Skills On-Set

Categories DIT Utilities Pomfort Silverstack Premiere Pro CC Storage Video Compression Workflow

Series Essential Data Downloading Software

DIT Essential Software: On-Set Metadata

Essential Data Downloading Software: Part 2