The enclosed 24fps silent QuickTime™ Movie is based on the ACADEMY countdown leaders used at the head of motion picture films. The sequence is ten seconds long. The movie begins with a "PICTURE START" frame that lasts for two seconds, followed by the familiar countdown from eight to two. Each of the numbered frames is on the screen for exactly one second with the exception of the "2" frame. In film usage, the "2" frame is a single frame placed exactly one second from the last "3" frame, and it should sync up with a single "pop"* frame on the audio track. I have also included a single frame 1kHz "pop" in the AIFF format if you want to play around with it. (I've also put a resource version of the sync "pop" into the CS Countdown movie itself. You can get at it with ResEdit.)
The reason I created this leader was to solve a problem that occurs when the audio portion of a QuickTime™ movie is edited or processed separately and the clips need to be synced-up again quickly. Although the AIFF** standard allows for the transfer of markers as part of the audio file itself (similar to the markers that can be applied in Premiere™), few if any software developers are including this vital component in the AIFF files. I admit that it's a bit much, but what the heck. What I do is place a sync "pop" at the head of the audio opposite the "2" frame on the picture, and export the audio track as an AIFF file to process or edit in other applications like SoundEdit Pro™. Syncing it back up is a piece of cake. After importing the sound file back into Premiere™ or a similar editor, I put a marker on both the "2" frame and the sync "pop" and line the frames up very quickly and painlessly. Obviously you can do the same thing with a single frame of picture opposite the sync "pop" instead of the whole leader, but this is more fun.
An important thing to note is that the aspect ratio of this movie is the same as the 2.35:1 anamorphic format or "CinemaScope™"*** format as it is more commonly known. In this case, the frame size is 160 x 68 or 2.35 times wider than it is tall. NOTE: the very last frame of picture should be cut off when you attach this leader to your movie. I placed the "REMOVE THIS FRAME" frame at the end to make it sure that the countdown was exactly the proper length. I hope you enjoy it!
Please send any comments or suggestions to "buzztrack".
THANKS!
*Typical sync pops are created by taking a single frame of a 1kHz tone and splicing it at the head of the soundtrack elements to assure that they play back in sync with the picture elements.
**AIFF is the Audio Interchange File Format in case you weren't let in on the secret....
***A LITTLE HISTORY: CinemaScope™ was developed by Twentieth Century Fox in the 50's as a response to the 70mm film format that was in wide use at the time. There is actually significant evidence that the anamorphic format was developed in France many years earlier....
