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%20 : COMSUMER WHORE : WANNABE CULTURAL CHIMERA
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Files mentioned below available at: Process Files & Spreadsheets

Explanation of the Process of Resorting a Video File

SWSELT00-Explanation.txt
- this file -

[General Note : if you attempt this yourself these files are guides. You'll need to replace various pieces to get them to work on your system. File names and locations for example.]

SWSELT01-ShotList.xlsx
File contains the Shot Start/End points for the Star Wars Special Edition LaserDisc Lee Thorogood capture. Shot length data originated from negative1's GOUT analysis. %20 confirmed and expanded where things went off or shots were missing. Then the data was expanded to the Special Edition's formation.

Believe I have found an automated solution. There is an After Effects' plugin called 'Magnum - The Edit Detector', have run it on part of The Phantom Menace and it worked extremely well. Haven't thought up / figured out a way to export the edits Magnum would find to a spreadsheet or text file. Hopefully it'll be as easy as processing the .aep file or a modified export.

SWSELT02-XML-PreSort.xlsx
File contains the Shot List and the conversion/re-organization tab, which in later versions is sorted to produce AARRSSTW and WTSSRRAA. The later two tabs are the partial XML conversion, one for video, one for audio.

Note: When transitioning from step to step, formulas of the previous spreadsheet version are often removed. In later steps the resorting would not work 100% if the formulas are left intact.

SWSELT02-XML-PreSortBasicXML-ProRes4444-25to24.txt
File contains the basic .XML structure and the two zones in which the reorganized video and audio will be dropped in the next step. The header information is specific to the video file type your files are saved as. (in this case ProRes4444 with the conform 25 fps to 24 fps) To figure out your header information, create a video editing file with your unedited video in it, then export as .XML. I cut out sections of the .XML code to get as bare bones a file which could accomplished my goal.

SWSELT03-XML-AARRSSTW.xlsx and SWSELT04-XML-WTSSRRAA.xlsx
Files contain the resorted/reorganized shot data. Ascending and Descending. In descending not just by shot length but by reverse original order.

SWSELT03a-XML-AARRSSTW-4csv.xlsx and SWSELT04a-XML-WTSSRRAA-4csv.xlsx
Simplified version, removing extraneous columns not required for .CSV (Comma Separated Values) export which is to be used for the JavaScript with After Effects in Step 05.

SWSELT03a-XML-AARRSSTW-4csv - AARRSSTW-4csv.csv and SWSELT04a-XML-WTSSRRAA-4csv - WTSSRRAA-4csv.csv
The raw exported .CSV data which will be used to fill out the text fields in After Effects. (Errors will return if there is a blank field, especially in the 'text' columns.)

SWSELT03b-XML-AARRSSTW - AARRSSTW-XML-Audio.tsv and SWSELT03b-XML-AARRSSTW - AARRSSTW-XML-Video.tsv
SWSELT04b-XML-WTSSRRAA - WTSSRRAA-XML-Audio.tsv and SWSELT04b-XML-WTSSRRAA - WTSSRRAA-XML-Video.tsv
The google spreadsheet exported text version of the .XML data for Audio and Video. Data needs to be cleaned up to removed extraneous spaces. File location needs to be find/replaced. And if you are using a Stereo Mix you'll need to create Audio Left and Right possibly.

Data from SWSELT03b and SWSELT04b can then be dropped into SWSELT02-XML-PreSortBasicXML-ProRes4444-25to24.txt and the file renamed to .XML. Import the .XML into the video editing program of your choice.

SWSELT05-AfterEffects-CSVtoTextLayers-mod-inPointoutPoint.jsx
This is the JavaScript to insert spreadsheet data (Step 03a) into existing text objects in After Effects. The script was found online but was modified so that the new objects would act similar to a subtitle. The script was modified to add inPoint/outPoint data, pulled from the spreadsheet. The script finds a text object with the same name as one of the columns in the .CSV file, each spreadsheet row becoming a new composition element.

Found that my system would greatly slow down the importing of data when the entries passed the 200 count. So split the .CSV into 10 chunks and saved each one individually. Then imported the .AEP pieces into the final After Effects file.

This is probably not the most efficient way but it did the job.

SWSELT06-XML-AARRSSTW-CompMarkers.tsv and SWSELT06-XML-WTSSRRAA-CompMarkers.tsv
SWSELT06z-XML-AARRSSTW - AARRSSTW-XML-Compression Markers.xml
Turns out multi-angle DVDs require extremely similar GOP (Group of Pictures) information. This option is typically used when a movie wants to change a shot. In this case the entire two movies are dissimilar. But we can make them similar by inserting Compression Markers. (just about everywhere) These files take the inPoint data and sets a Compression Marker in .XML. When the Compression Markers from each film are applied to each video file, the hope is that the DVD making program will consider them as having the same GOP structure. Luckily Compression Markers can be unlimited, in this case the two movies each have 2291 scene changes so these files insert 4582 Compression Markers.

SWSELT99a-Subtitles-Converter.txt Not completed in this version of AARRSSTW-WTSSRRAA. Couldn't find a working subtitle track or convert an existing one into something which conformed. Got many of the spreadsheet reconfiguring math to semi-work, but not sure if the problems were with the frame rate calculation.

Other issues along the way.

Originally imported the .XML for AARRSSTW and WTSSRRAA in different Final Cut Pro files. But even with the same compression markers this returned different GoP structures which didn't convince DVD Studio Pro that they were similar enough. So eventually dropped everything into one FCP file and this worked. Also since there was a compression marker a couple frames from the end of the file, added 12 frames of blank.

Had difficulties with video compression. Compressor I think would run out of memory towards the end of some of the processing so multiple versions would be the wrong size or had artifacting towards the end. Specifically WTSSRRAA which is more active at the end. Also when the compression lowered below the 3.85 threshold that also gave WTSSRRAA bad renders. Needed to delete programs to clear out about 9gb of free space, to get everything to work.

The Chapter Markers turned out to be a waste of time. Typically set up 50-99 chapter markers so there are places to jump to. (two groups which remained were for the Title and Copyright shots [which happened to be back to back] and the flip over point for the DVD9 disc) Had set up markers at the first time a shot jumped tens, same with the defending. DVD Studio Pro to get the main feature to have active buttons requires special button highlight markers and as the HD HVDVD_TS format limits to 48 buttons, during the video, to have the buttons constantly active you are limited to the number of Chapter Markers. So ended up deleting many markers.

The HVDVD_TS format is the betamax of the high definition DVD wars. Using this format was another happy accident to reinforce the shit nature of technology at this time, society is inventing new techniques to make things obsolete and to make sure things are difficult for the next generation to view. Were also make new tech which doesn't work with the older formats.