FCP/shooting tip: Avoiding timecode breaks

Any chicken who uses Final Cut or is shooting DV should receive this important information.

1. Run tape before your first shot, or add bars and tone

2. When taping, make sure you record a few seconds after all the action you want captured has stopped

3. If you stop or take out the tape, make sure you roll back a couple of seconds and record over that extra few seconds of footage instead of blank tape. Recording over blank tape will cause your timecode to break.

4. Look in the viewfinder before shooting. If it says this: --:--:--;-- you're going to have a timecode break. If it has numbers, you're fine.

5. Some people like blacking out a tape before recording (recording through a whole tape with lens cap on to stamp timecode). I think it just wears the heads and wastes time - but it's an option

6. If you already have a problem tape, import the scenes in chunks into your editing system or you can turn off "Abort capture on timecode break" on Final Cut Pro

7. If it still refuses to import, get another camera and make a clone of your tape by playing on one and recording on another. This will give the new tape a fresh timecode

Excerpted from the DV guru's How to Avoid Timecode Breaks, http://www.dvguru.com/2005/11/08/tip-how-to-avoid-timecode-breaks/