Why You NEED Timecode to Make Filmmaking Easier

octopus sink I mean squid I mean tentacle sink who named this I have no idea a bunch of little cables connecting to one timecode one little brain I guess that could work let's talk about timecode what it is and how to use it and how we use it tentacle sink this is our timecode device so there are a lot of ways you can do timecode and this is a really affordable way to get timecode in to your cameras especially using mirrorless camera like we are we shoot on the GH five we typically shoot three camera when we're doing interviews or if we're shooting an event that's where these particularly come in handy so you can buy one tentacle seat device for about two hundred fifty bucks and you need one for each of your camera sources unless your source can actually hold its own timecode so let's get in here I'll show you what I mean and I'll show you with our zoom recorder when you're thinking about getting into timecode it's really important to consider first the cost and you also need an audio recorder that can actually receive jammed timecode at first when I got into using timecode it was a really confusing thing I really didn't quite understand what it was how it worked and it's actually a lot more simple than you might think so when you use a timecode device it's important to kind of understand what timecode is and it's actually fairly simple it's a central device that is creating Universal time for all the other devices that are used in the shot but in our case for doing a multi camera video shoot we actually provide timecode to each of our camera devices so typically we shoot with three cameras but in this case one camera is above you our one camera there so we're just going to show you with what we have here on the desk in front of us so the things you're gonna need first you're going to need a timecode device and you're actually gonna need more than one of them unless you're doing a centralized timecode today we're not talking about genlock or the type of timecode that you'll be running cables to each device we're talking about a small standalone timecode generator that ends up sharing a timecode with many devices and I'll show you how that works so to get started you need a tentacle sync and in our case we actually have three of them reason being is we have one for each camera and one of them will as the primary source and that one actually provides time for all of the other devices so let's start with one tentacle sync we will turn it on by holding the power switch on the side you can see it here and when we turn it on you actually hold it down the light will go from red and it'll turn green so now we've identified that this device as our timecode source it's started timecode and I can actually show you using the tentacle sync app you can see right here this is our red 10 total sync and it's got timecode running so we are actually going to now pair our other timecode devices to this source clock so essentially what you're doing let me see if I can draw it with our graphic here you have your primary timecode device that starts your source timecode and then you can have multiple devices from there that share or read that time and you jam that time into the other devices typically like with an audio recorder in our case we're using the zoom f4 you only need to jam timecode once and the internal clock here then reads that timecode and continues running very nicely and very accurately for a long period of time so now that we have creative timecode on this let's set up timecode on the other tentacle sync devices so we'll just go ahead and turn these on but in this case we're not making this a source device so all I need to do is turn it on till the light turns red okay so and then we'll take our mini jack cable these come with your tentacle sync when you buy it plug it into the headphone jack of your source device and in the moment now I want you to see this it's really important the moment you plug in the other headphone jack the other tentacle sync is going to see what's going on flash and now it's blinking green and when you unplug this jack you can see that they are flashing in sync if you want to confirm that even further you can look on the the app for tentacle sync and you can actually see that they're running exactly the same time code now these are generating really fast I can't see them in sync with my naked eye however if I were to pause the video pause you can see that there are exactly in the right time so now let's jam the time code from our source device into the third ten of those things so again we just turn it on wait a moment it's on we'll take our mini jack cable just like we did before plug it in wait just a moment it flashes and now it's green it's received timecode from the source device we can unplug that and now you can see that they're all flashing in sync I bet you're wondering how that works with your audio recorder well it's actually very simple now we need to get timecode in to our zoom recorder by jamming it so I'm gonna unplug this headphone jack we don't need this for right now remember red is our source grab our zoom and I want to show you on the back of a zoom f4 it says timecode right here on the back and this time code is your timecode in and your timecode out so you could actually generate time code from the zoom but in our case we're gonna generate the timecode with the tentacles sync so now we've got this cable this is a cable you can buy on Amazon I'll put a link below you can also buy it directly from tentacle sync that's where I got it I'll probably link to that and this is a BNC type connector to a mini jack cable that is designed to send timecode to your audio reporters so you're gonna plug this ENC connector into the input timecode input on the back of the zoom recorder and this would be the same process for any type of recorder that receives timecode some of them is like a mini jack or headphone style jack or if you're using like a red camera or if you're using a Blackmagic camera each of those have their own kind of connector but they can all receive timecode directly in my case I'm using a gh 5 it does not have a timecode input so that's why I will use the technical C so let me just turn the light on here so you can see timecode is running right now B and let me show you quickly how to set up your settings in the zoom recorder settings are going to be fairly similar regardless of what recorder you're going to be using but you do have to tell your recorder to receive timecode externally so the way we do this we go into menu and we will go down until we get to time code inside of timecode we'll go to mode and under mode will want external Auto mute we don't need external auto click sync don't need external continuous on so again this is saying external continuous source we will receive any time I plug this in it'll change the timecode which is good and that's it we can go back out and I want you to see the moment I plug this in that this timecode syncs up so here we go and at that moment now timecode was received by the field recorder by the zoom and it actually matches the timecode here so what let me grab the after I'll fast will hold it right here next to our multitrack recorder now I'm going to just pause the video and you can see that every single frame is perfectly lined up so timecode is now in our zoom recorder and each of our tentacle sync devices and everything's in sync so it's pretty simple now getting timecode in to our th 5 cameras we're gonna grab one of these mini jack cables that comes with your zoom with your tentacle sync and you're gonna simply take this tentacle sink and this mini jack a well plug it into the mic input on your GH 5 and you can see that your left audio input is just steady and what is actually happening and I want you to hear this so I'm gonna go ahead and hit record on this camera for a moment what you're hearing is the audio that this camera is recording and the left channel is receiving time codon that's what timecode sounds like but what's happening is it's actually writing timecode through the audio channel to the left channel on the gh 5 so for any camera if you're using a Sony mirrorless camera if you're using something else you can actually through the audio jack do timecode so doesn't really matter the budget you're on as long as you can afford one of these or two you should be good to go okay so let's talk about the features of the tentacles name these are really incredible little devices and they pair with your phone so what you can see is the running time code as well as an indicator if any of them have come unplugged because if any time they come unplugged for example let me set this aside if this was to come unplugged from the gh 5 right now I've lost timecode so just keep that in mind it's definitely important to make sure this cable does not come unplugged I've actually in my case put a little piece of velcro here a little piece of velcro on the back of my tentacle sync and it lives right there on the back of my screen doesn't get in the way you know I can still flip out my screen and do everything I need but that's where my technical sink lives seems like a pretty nice spot out of the way so also with the app you can see the charge level of each of your tentacle sinks these little guys will run like something like 30 hours they charge with USB see don't worry about these ever not lasting a day on set you should have no problem at all and one of my favorite features if the headphone jacks are unplugged they actually turned themselves off so don't worry about them going dead in your bag as long as at the end of the day you just kind of make it a habit to unplug them from all the cables and put them back in the pouch you should be good to go and tentacle sync actually ships with a really nice really nice little bag it's not not super fancy but sure is useful it's got two little pouches on it and this is where I keep all my tentacle sink accessories okay so why timecode and how is it helpful the reason we use timecode is let me just give you a scenario on how timecode has helped us so immensely let's say we are doing a large event and you've got the zoom f4 back at the back of the auditorium maybe a wedding we don't do weddings but large event you've got this receiving audio from maybe your sound forward or something like that and this camera is roaming around that cameras on a tripod and maybe this camera ends up out in the lobby for a moment and then comes back in and we're all just shooting different b-roll items with the whole crew what's so amazing with timecode is in an instant I'll show you the process of how to sync the timecode in post using the tentacle sync app in a minute but the most amazing thing is instead of the standard way of using the audio to synchronize all three camera angles now we're using timecode so in an instant you can synchronize all three camera angles even if there was a gap in time so if you start stop your recording without a problem it's amazing to just in a click boom everything is lined up in a perfect multicam timeline ready to go into premiere or final cut that alone has saved us so much time and so much headache before when we would sync by audio in a situation like that the clean crisp audio that's coming into the recorder from the sound board is great but the audio that might be coming into the camera is depending on where you're at in the room some of it might be blown out because you're too close to the speaker somewhere else people are talking way louder than this audio coming from the sound system so that one doesn't work and you try to sync using audio and forget it just does not happen but when you've got timecode every camera is in sync down to the exact frame and in an instant it all synchronizes perfectly in post and you're ready to do your multicam edit in just a single moment that right there is why I love time codes we use it even for interviews say we're doing a three camera shoot for interviews you get your a cam slightly wide maybe be cam closer and then a C cam on a slider or something like that and most of us just use the audio to synchronize those camera angles to our audio recorder but with timecode it's just faster when we get into post say we did an hour-long interview we start stopped at the cameras and the audio a couple different times nobody had to awkwardly clap on set say take one no marker slate nothing like that you just literally have the timecode it goes boom and an instant it's all synched when it's doing it by audio it usually takes quite a while at least in my experience using final cut and sometimes it's just not accurate let's say there's a slight breeze you know one of the camera volumes is low or something like that and inevitably that one angle just doesn't sync up and then you have to manually go in there and do all of it with timecode that headache is over and now let's go over to the editing room and I can show you how timecode syncs up in the timeline so here's how it works I'm gonna grab my three audio files from my zoom f4 drag and drop them onto the pinnacle sync app it automatically reads the time code file timecode now I'm gonna jump over to camera one and in this case I'm just going to show you a single camera sync it works the same way if you bring in multiple sources but in our case we actually recorded off and on for the course of about 45 minutes walking to different locations on this property and we had our host stop and give us little interview bits and then continue on again we were in the outdoor environment so he was close to the camera far from the camera etc and so let's just drag in now the video files it's analyzing it and immediately it finds the audio timecode and now I want you to see this in a moment sync map BAM look at that timeline and I'll go ahead and mute the camera audio and play this back I'm in right through the correctional Department they'll need to come in on the front end so that they can avoid going I heard about the challenge and the benefit of been here so it's pretty amazing in just a single moment what that can do and now let's grab we did a two camera interview with this guy here so let's go to camera two here's his interview camera angle - I'm gonna drop it down on the timeline make sure that it automatically goes into another group sometimes it doesn't so we're gonna say this is a group three and I'm gonna hit sync map again and with an instant there's the other camera angle as a group work therapy individually and then we'll have a chance to read the Bible to listen - pretty amazing right what technical sync and you know needing to analyze audio and how long does it take just a single moment and now all we have to do is go file export XML and we're I'm in my case I'm going to say final cut but if you're using premier you can choose premier and it will make a multicam clip as well as it'll make synced clips as well and then you just import that into your NLE of choice but that is my quick how-to on tentacle syncs software I think that pretty much sums it up thank you guys for joining me if you haven't subscribed already subscribe we'd love for you to join us and if you like this video give us a thumbs up smash that bell if you want to see what we release at a moment we release it and if you've got questions please ask timecode is a really useful tool and if there are other videos that you like or want us to make please reach out to us we'd love to and of course we're on patreon if you want to support us there and again we love you guys Thanks [Music]

Channel: Setter Studios

Views: 2,849

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: tentacle sync, timecode, video timecode, filmmaking, videography, diy video, diy, how to, zoom f4, audio timecode, multicam, multicamera, audio sync, video sync, video and audio sync, tutorial, gh5, panasonic, mirrorless camera

Id: Eul1ArNHj1w

Length: 16min 47sec (1007 seconds)

Published: Sat Feb 16 2019