Blackmagic Video Assist User Manual  Entering Metadata

Metadata is information saved inside your clip, such as take numbers, lens information and other identifying details. This is extremely useful when sorting and processing footage in post production. For example, take, shot and scene numbers are essential organizational tools, while lens information can be used to automatically remove distortion or better match VFX assets to plates.

Blackmagic Video Assist automatically saves some metadata to each clip, such as timecode, date and time. You can use the digital slate to add many additional details.

Digital Slate

Swipe from the far left edge on the video assist to reveal the slate. The slate is divided into ‘clips’, ’project’ and ‘lens data’ tabs. The ‘clips’ tab contains information that may vary clip by clip, while ‘project’ is where you enter details common between clips, such as the project name, director, and camera and operator ID. The ‘lens data’ tab is where you can enter information about the lens in use.

Clips

Making changes to clip metadata works differently in standby mode to playback mode. In standby mode, when your video assist is ready to record, clip metadata gets saved to the next clip recorded, except the ‘good take last clip’ button applies a ‘good take’ tag to the most recently recorded clip. In ‘playback’ mode, when you are reviewing footage already shot, the ‘good take’ button is shown and clip metadata is always attached to the current clip being viewed.

When the video assist is in playback mode, ‘slate for’ displays the clip the slate applies to and shows the ‘good take’ button. In standby mode, the slate is for ‘next clip’ and shows the ‘good take last clip’ button.

Slate for

This setting shows the clip which the metadata currently displayed in the ‘clip’ applies to. In ‘playback’ mode it applies to the current clip. In ‘standby’ mode it refers to the next clip you record.

Lens Data

The lens data field displays the lens type information. To manually add lens data information, including lens model, focal length and filter, tap on the ‘lens data’ tab at the top. For information on entering lens data, see the lens data section later in this manual.

Reel

Displays the current reel. Adjust the reel number manually by tapping the arrow right. When you are moving to a new project and want to start from reel ‘1’ again, tap the arrow on the left until you reach ‘1’.

Scene

The ‘scene’ indicator shows the current scene number, and can also show the current shot number and type. The number on this indicator always refers to the current scene. You can adjust it with the left and right arrows on either side of the scene number, or tap the scene number to enter the scene number editor.

Scene numbers range from 1 to 999.

By adding a letter to the scene number in the scene number editor, you can also indicate the current shot. For example 23A indicates scene twenty three, shot one. If you have a shot letter added to your scene number, your camera suggests the next scene number and shot letter whenever you enter the scene number editor. For example, if your current scene number is 7B, the camera suggests ‘8’ and ‘7C’.

The scene number indicator can also show information about the current shot type in the top right corner. You can select these in the scene number editor at the right hand side of the shot keyboard.

The shot types available are:

When entering ‘scene’ metadata, the video assist prompts you with scene number suggestions to the left of the touch keyboard, and shot types to the right

Take

The ‘take’ indicator shows the take number for the current shot. You can adjust it by tapping the left or right arrows on either side of the take number, or tapping the indicator to enter the take number editor.

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TIP When the shot number or scene letter advance the take number reverts to ‘1.’

You can add descriptions in the take number editor. These are on the right of the take number keyboard and correspond to the following scenarios:

Tap ‘A’ to enable ‘auto take increment’ when in ‘standby’ mode. This will automatically advance the take number for each clip recorded. A small ‘A’ appears next to the take number on the slate when enabled. When entering ‘take’ metadata, prompts for additional shot types will appear to the right of the touch keyboard

Good take

Tap the ‘good take’ indicator to tag good takes for easy recall in post production. This button applies the ‘good take’ tag to the clip currently being viewed in ‘playback’ mode. If the camera is in ‘standby’ mode and ready to record, the ‘good take last clip’ button applies a ‘good take’ tag to the last clip recorded.

Interior / Exterior

Tap ‘interior’ or ‘exterior’ to add a tag to the next clip in standby mode, or the current clip in playback mode.

Day / Night

Tap the ‘day’ or ‘night’ icons to add a ‘day’ or ‘night’ tag to the next clip in standby mode, or the current clip in playback mode.

Project

Project metadata behaves the same way whether you are in ‘standby’ or ‘playback’ mode. This metadata always refers to your project as a whole and is independent of clip numbers.

Enter project details using your camera’s ‘project’ slate tab

Project name

Displays your current project name. Tap the pencil icon to change the project name.

Director

Displays the director’s name for the current project. Tap the pencil icon to change the director name.

Camera

Displays a single letter camera index. Tap the pencil icon to change the camera index.

Camera Operator

Displays the camera operator. Tap the pencil icon to change the camera operator name.

Lens Data

The ‘lens data’ menu contains the following information:

The ‘lens data’ menu showing information that has been manually entered

Lens Type

Shows the lens model. Tap this setting to enter the data manually. The video assist has an internal database stored for many commonly used lenses, so it will suggest names automatically as you type. This makes entering data much faster.

Iris

Shows the iris aperture setting at the start of your clip. This information can be displayed in f- or T-stops depending on the lens used. Tap this setting to enter data.

Focal length

Shows the focal length setting of the lens at the start of the recorded clip and is shown in millimeters. Tap this setting to enter the focal length manually.

Distance

Shows the focus distance settings of the lens for the recorded clip in millimeters. Tap to enter this data manually.

Filter

Shows the current lens filters used. Tap this setting to enter data manually. You can make multiple entries separated by commas.

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NOTE You can clear lens data at any time by tapping the ‘reset lens data’ icon in the ‘lens data’ menu. If you have manually entered any information into these fields, you will need to reset the lens data the next time you mount a lens, otherwise the manually entered value will remain.