REEL Text Annotation - best practices?

[Schmidt]

Hi everyone,

What are best practices as far as REEL Text Annotation goes?

[Carsten]

Can you explain what you mean?

[Schmidt]

Annotation per Reel.

Example. Let's say I have a film called Terminator, 3 reels total.

Reel 1, Reel 2, Reel 3

Should the annotation for Reel 1 be Terminator_Reel1?

[Carsten]

The term 'Annotation' has a special meaning within DCP metadata - it doesn't exist there for reels. So, I assume you mean filenames of reels/assets?

As reels and reel names are not intended to be manipulated or visible to the projectionist, you are completely free to use whatever you like. Some companies use fully opaque UUIDs only for file names. Some use title references and numbers. Some use 'strange' names. E.g. this is a reel file name from an official Star Wars trailer:

266053_SpaceBear_iop_unenc_51_R001_snd.mxf


DCP-o-matic has some options in advanced prefs. Now that I look at them, I guess I would like another option - to use the current film/project name, not just source file name. %f is available for KDM file naming, it should also be possible to use it for CPL/PKL and asset naming.


- Carsten

[Schmidt]

I did a quick test with EasyDCP (not DOM) and sure thing, there is annotation for reels. My annotation was Blah_IOP_REEL_1. It did not affect the mxf filename. Scratching my head a bit about this, as reel annotation is not something I have read much about. Maybe it is only seen in XML for facility use?


From the CPL:

<Reel>
<Id>urn:uuid:45e06f8a-0b47-4cb4-8dd0-4bfd2f7c9f06</Id>
<AnnotationText>Blah_IOP_REEL_1</AnnotationText>
<AssetList>
<MainPicture>
<Id>urn:uuid:35468c0b-e1c0-4b33-9d31-0a249d11ce99</Id>
<EditRate>24 1</EditRate>
<IntrinsicDuration>5853</IntrinsicDuration>
<EntryPoint>0</EntryPoint>
<Duration>5853</Duration>
<Hash>nf49mqU7qVApPcp0fHLSLQG6sSM=</Hash>
<FrameRate>24 1</FrameRate>
<ScreenAspectRatio>2.39</ScreenAspectRatio>
</MainPicture>
<MainSound>
<Id>urn:uuid:c8274091-520b-47da-b089-9fbd0de92faf</Id>
<EditRate>24 1</EditRate>
<IntrinsicDuration>5853</IntrinsicDuration>
<EntryPoint>0</EntryPoint>
<Duration>5853</Duration>
<Hash>Tm+6zCT7EztcV7i2CEYUHLIRVi4=</Hash>
</MainSound>
</AssetList>
</Reel>

[Carsten]

Hmm. Interesting. DCP-o-matic does it slightly different, so attaches the annotation text to asset:

Bildschirmfoto 2022-03-24 um 13.29.42.png

Which makes a bit more sense, establishing an annotation to an actual file. A reel is sort of a virtual construct - a reel as used in the CPL e.g. does not necessarily need a distinct file reference. e.g. multiple reels of a CPL could use the same asset. And an annotation to such a virtual element - I don't see a good reason for that.

Whatever - currently, DCP-o-matic creates the annotation text in the code by itself, it is not configurable, and it seems to take the annotation from the asset file name, and THAT is configurable. And I wish we could set it to create the asset/reel file after the project name, e.g.

mymovie_reel_1_j2c_<UUID>

As long as that it not possible, one would have to set useful content/source file names. I also do not like to see source file types in the annotation text, like mygreatmovie.mp4

[gunnar]

I did a quick test with EasyDCP (not DOM) and sure thing, there is annotation for reels. My annotation was Blah_IOP_REEL_1. It did not affect the mxf filename. Scratching my head a bit about this, as reel annotation is not something I have read much about. Maybe it is only seen in XML for facility use?

Since you mentioned EasyDCP...
The annotation text there is actually coming from the source material.
If you create a trailer from a prores file and the prores of the trailer is named trailerv2-51.mov then the annotation text for that reel will be "trailerv2-51"
Other softwares like CineAsset hide away all info about the name of the source material that was used to create the DCP.

Each software are different in one way or another and this is just how EasyDCP does it