"Has anyone got any ideas how to get Vegas to play nice with the other programs?"

Your best shot is a tool from SSL called Pro Convert PC.

I would very strongly recommend you stick to a cuts only edit. Your chances of getting ANY two NLEs to understand one anothers trnasitions such as iris and page peels is zero. On top of that trying to colour grade content with such transitions would be a nightmare.

"The title program is a nightmare."

If you're having a movie graded don't worry about titles at this stage. They should be added after the grade.

"The transitions don't seem to work well, a page wipe will not render clean,"

What did you render them to i.e. which codec?
Also H.264 is a quite lossy codec. Taking something recorded with it then adding transitions such as a page wipe is inviting even more artifacts.


If you need other people to work on your project doing sound and vision post work then Vegas is simply the wrong tool. It is missing every feature you require in that world. The most basic, fundamental thing that glues everything togther is timecode. Vegas is a complete bust when it comes to timecode, sorry.

Bob.

I have had good luck converting EDLs in vegas by exporting an EDL thru the script and then using the Avid EDL program to clean it up. I transferred some projects to FCP this way.

A few caveats though.

1) If you have more than one track of video, the CMX EDL will only contain the events for the top video track. So what I do is create a new EDL for each track, but you have to delete the unwanted tracks, not just mute them.

2) You have to go into the properties of each video source and give it a reel name/number. Otherwise, it thinks all reels are called untitled and the EDL will be worthless.

3) SMPTE standard transitions are normally supported, but don't expect them to be. Also, speed variations sometimes get wonky so the new editor may have to fix those manually.

4) Audio fades are not supported in CMX.

5) Specific timecode has to be entered in manually in the Properties window of each video source. So you need to know which frame you started capturing your video from if you are using tape sources. File sources almost always start at 0 anyway, but be sure to adjust for Drop frame if needed.

It has been a while since I have had to do this, but if you need more information, I can run a test next week and give you specifics. The AVID EDL manager only comes with AVID software, but if you can find someone with an AVID, you can sometimes copy the EDL manager install and install it without AVID software or hardware.

Well, I've been through some of this on two feature films. There are always workarounds.
Once picture is locked:

First, forget the XML. I found the best bet is to split up the video timeline to A and B tracks, so that no transitions (dissolves, fades) happen in Vegas - leave that to the colorist or editor. Where a transition would happen, there needs to be the tail and head ends of the scenes. then render the A and B tracks to Avid DNX HD (HQ) (free, high quality cross-platform codec which Avid and Final cut love). Deliver these rolls to the colorist.

For your sound mixer - render the entire timeline to a Microsoft .wav file with a low-res video file for him/her to reference. They won't have your edits, but most sound guys have probably worked with the situation and can make it work. If you are looking for someone, our sound editor works out of LA / NY but we're based in San Diego and he had no problem delivering everything online and/or on drives through the mail. Let me know if you're interested and I can put you in contact with him.

Editing in Vegas for a feature is not impossible. Trust me. It's been done. Paranormal Activity - the first, for example, was edited in Vegas.

"Editing in Vegas for a feature is not impossible. Trust me. It's been done. Paranormal Activity - the first, for example, was edited in Vegas."

Paranormal Activity never left Vegas. It was totally produced in house by a couple.
The distributors thought about doing some more work on it to smooth off the rough edges but thought better to leave it alone to preserve the home movie feel of it.

Deuce Of Spades is a pretty decent effort done in Vegas that did go outside for a final polish.

The real world problems that I ran into just trying to handle the audio side of a feature in Vegas were considerable. Everyone wanted to send me / get sent BWF files. Industry standard audio files which Vegas really doesn't support. Thankfully the production hadn't double headed the location audio and the location dialog in the reference video file was as good as it was going to get. When I was handed over the project I was faced with around 6,000 files. Add to that all the files from the composer, I was doing the music mix as well, and things got gnarly pretty quickly.
Thankfully vision was almost locked apart from two edits so we already had an EDL for the online and grade.

One of my biggest frustrations just doing a feature length mix with Vegas was how easy Vegas is to do things with. Truly great for my daily fare, a nightmare with 40 tracks and zillions of tiny files. Way, way too easy to accidently bump something with the mouse when clicking around the T/L. Some form of "lock everything but this event" feature in Vegas would sure have helped.

Where Vegas did shine through was doing ADR, for that it is a dream. The talent got all that they needed quite easily.

For the final mix I handed the post house 24/48K audio files, one per buss with pips at the head and tail. It was quite rewarding hearing my work, especially the ADR in a real preview theatre, no one could pick where ADR had been used so Vegas, the talent and I got it done right.


Again though based on my experience Vegas is just not the right tool for the job of editing a narrative drama. Not when you've got a script, foley artists, composers and a director whose idea of "locked vision" is quite rubbery. Of course it can be done, I've used a chisel to drive a screw into a piece of timber, not something I'd recommend though.

Bob.

If I was doing a feature length film in Vegas I would do it chapter by chapter, then nest the small chapter VEGs on the overall movie timeline.