Change clip metadata: camera names, scene and take, start timecode, frame rate, resolution

Eddie keeps two kinds of information about every clip you import:

• Technical facts that it reads from the file at import: codec, resolution, frame rate, length, audio tracks, original file name, start timecode and the recording device.
• Descriptive notes: who is on the camera, the shot type, scene, shot, take, reel name, shoot date, location, the people in shot, lens, focal length, a rating, keywords and notes.

You change them by asking Eddie in the chat. Eddie can change many clips in one step, and it keeps every earlier version.

What you can change

What	Examples	Where it takes effect
Camera name and shot type	"Sam", close-up	The names in the source list, and which camera Eddie cuts to in a multicam edit
Scene, shot, take, reel name, shoot date, location, people in shot, lens, focal length, rating, keywords, notes	Scene 4, take 2, rating 5	Eddie reads them when it chooses shots
Start timecode	14:22:05:11	Files you export to an editing app
Frame rate	23.976	Files you export to an editing app
Resolution (frame size of the original)	3840x2160	Files you export to an editing app

How to ask Eddie

Type what you want in plain words. For example:

• "Label camera A as Sam and camera B as Priya."
• "Set the shot type of the B camera clips to close-up."
• "Mark A001_C003 as scene 4, take 2, and rate it 5 stars."
• "The start timecode of the A camera clip is wrong. It should be 14:22:05:11."
• "These Sony clips were shot at 23.976, not 29.97. Correct the frame rate for my export."
• "I uploaded 1080p proxies. The originals are 4K, 3840x2160. Set that for my exports."
• "What start timecode and frame rate do you have for each clip?"

Eddie tells you what it changed. When you ask what Eddie has for a clip, it shows the value it read from the file beside your correction.

Correct a start timecode or a frame rate

Use this when a timeline you exported from Eddie opens with offline clips, or will not relink, because Eddie read the clip's timecode or frame rate wrongly. For example, some cameras write their timecode where Eddie cannot read it.

The rules

• Write a timecode as hours, minutes, seconds and frames: 01:00:00:00.
• For drop-frame timecode, which exists only at 29.97 and 59.94 fps, put a semicolon before the frames: 01:00:00;00.
• The frames must exist at the clip's frame rate. At 23.976 fps the frames go from 00 to 23. Eddie refuses a timecode that the clip cannot have, and tells you why.
• The frame rate must be one of these: 23.976, 24, 25, 29.97, 30, 47.952, 48, 50, 59.94 or 60.

What changes

Export again after the change. The new file declares your values:

• Final Cut Pro (FCPXML) and DaVinci Resolve (FCPXML or .drp): the start timecode and the frame rate.
• Premiere Pro XML: the start timecode and the frame rate. A Premiere project (.prproj) declares the frame rate; Premiere reads the start timecode from the file itself.
• OTIO: the start timecode and the frame rate.
• EDL: the source timecodes of every event.

A file you downloaded before the change does not change. See Export to Premiere, Final Cut, Resolve, Avid & OTIO and Final Cut shows missing files after importing an Eddie export.

What does not change

• The player, the transcript, MP4 exports, clip lengths and your cut points. Eddie still plays the file as it is.
• The speed of the clip. A frame rate correction tells your editing app what the camera file really is. It does not slow a 59.94 clip down to 23.976. For slow motion, ask for a speed ramp.

Declare the resolution of your originals

Use this when you imported small proxies into Eddie (for example 1080p copies) and you will relink the exported timeline to your full-size camera originals (for example 4K) in your editing app. Without it, the timeline declares the proxy's size, and the originals come in zoomed in.

Example. You shot 4K UHD, made 1920x1080 proxies to upload faster, and cut with Eddie. Ask: "The originals of the A camera clips are 3840x2160." Export again. Your Final Cut, Premiere or Resolve timeline now declares those clips at 3840x2160, and a sequence that takes its size from them is 3840x2160 too. Relink to the originals and they fill the frame.

The rules

• Give the size in pixels, width x height: 3840x2160 (4K UHD) or 4096x2160 (DCI 4K). Both numbers must be even, from 16 to 16384.
• The size must have the same shape as the copy Eddie holds. A 16:9 proxy takes a 16:9 original. If your original really has a different shape (anamorphic, open gate), Eddie asks you to confirm first, because your editing app crops or letterboxes a clip whose shape changes on relink.
• Clips from a phone held upright (recorded with a rotation) cannot take a resolution.
• The notes that come with each export say "declared as 3840x2160 by your correction" for every clip you changed, so a wrong value is easy to see.

What changes

Export again after the change. The frame size of the clip, and of a sequence sized from it, changes in Final Cut Pro (FCPXML), DaVinci Resolve (FCPXML and .drp), Premiere Pro XML and the Premiere project (.prproj). OTIO and EDL files have no frame size, so only their notes mention it.

What does not change

The player, the transcript, MP4 exports and your cuts use the copy Eddie holds. Crops and reframes are kept as a share of the picture, so they land on the same part of the frame at the new size.

Undo a change

Eddie keeps every version of a clip's metadata. Ask for the version you want:

• "Clear the start timecode correction on the A camera clip." Eddie goes back to the timecode it read from the file.
• "Clear the resolution on the A camera clips." Your exports declare the size Eddie read at import again.
• "Put the metadata of this clip back to how it was imported." This clears every change on that clip, the camera name included.
• "Undo the last metadata change on the B camera clips."

What you cannot change

• Codec, length, audio tracks, original file name and recording device.
• The size of the copy Eddie holds. A resolution correction changes what your exported timeline declares, not the proxy you uploaded or the MP4s Eddie renders from it.
• The file itself. Eddie never rewrites your media. Every change is a note beside the file, so the value Eddie read at import can always come back.

Related: Multicam: the complete guide, How to prompt Eddie.