
That way during the editing process all the cameras will reflect the same same thing. If your cameras offer this feature you can set your cameras electronically to the same timecode. If you are working on a video production with multiple cameras timecode is invaluable. However for most corporate, marketing or training video of short duration the style timecode you choose in your recording device is not really significant. As you could imagine for broadcast networks selling ad time, accurate time is very important. Non drop frame timecode counts every single video frame and doesn't re-label any frame to account for the 29.97 fps.Ī program using non drop timecode is approximately four seconds shorter per every hour. The difference between the goal and reality is what this is all about (30-29.97=0.03 or 24-23.976=0.024).ĭrop frame is a standard for broadcast networks using NTSC (North American Standard) due to this correlation with real time. Video footage is really either 29.97 or 23.976 frames per second. The common logic is video is either 30 or 24 frames per second in North America. It's all about how your recording device counts video frames. Types of timecodeįor a deeper dive- there are 2 different types of timecode. But it is a missed opportunity to organize the clips for the editor or viewer. We often get footage from other video prodution companies who appearantly never reset their timecode. But if you know the Mayor cut the ribbon around 10am you could skip forward in your video editing timeline to 00:10:00:00 to begin looking for the clip you want. We might shoot b-roll of the event before and after the ribbon cutting too. real life.Īn example would be if we were hired to shoot video of a ribbon cutting. This is especially helpful for "day in the life" recordings, so you can later match up with events that happened in the recording vs.
FILM TIMECODE CALCULATOR FREE
Free Run timecode is a continuious counter that goes up and is recorded to the video clip only when you start and stop your recording. Now with electronic files it's not as important.įree Run (time of day) is what you see in the example above. This would help us to sync up items in our video editing system. Years ago, when recording on videotape with a thirty minute duration we'd record the first tape with a timecode of 01:00:00:00 (hour 1) and the second tape with a timecode of 02:00:00:00 (hour 2) and so on. With this mode your starting timecode can be reset to whatever number you want. Record Run is a mode set to count up when the record button on the camera is start and stopped. "Record run" or time of day ("freerun") smpte timecode. When setting timecode in the camera your videographer has 2 options when recording. Timecode = efficiency designed for the video editing suite. Timecode is an exact address that allows the editing process to move more smoothly. If you took the raw camera footage to any post-production facility worldwide to edit and asked the editor to cue up to 14:34:00:02 they would go immediately to the frame at the beginning of the clip.


It's not an arbitrary time, it's an exact time. Since timecode is a digital address the numbers are "fixed" to the footage whether from old video tape or more mondern file based codec's. (Pro Tip: When taking notes skip the frames, since they are 1/30ths, or 1/24ths, of a second - way too fast to be accurate at this point). Timecode allows video producers to take meaningful notes. Why is Timecode significant when editing video?
