I have started to put the burden of capture on the editor in order to save myself hard disk space and time.If the project is edited on Final Cut, I have the editor render out a small 320 X 240 cinepak movie file which features a timecode burn (using a Final Cut plugin). I then ask them to export the program audio seperately as an Aiff of the same length. I recieve the files on CD or DVD, and plop them into my scoring template. The program audio is placed in track one, and the video file is imported and locked within the screenset. The only thing to watch for is that your project framerate (29.97 or PAL) is set properly before you import the video file. I also keep the video file on a seperate drive from my samples and my OS. The main thing to keep in mind is that newer compressors like Sorenson will greatly reduce file size, but demand more processing to decompress them. DV is processor friendly, but uses a large datastream. I have found the ancient cinepak compressor to be a good trade off of space/processing. ALso, stay away from algorithms that use predicted frames like MPEG. They are not as responsive in shuttling around the timeline. Upon finishing a que, I goto the beggining measure of my bounce, and read the SMPTE time displayed on the video file. I then incorporate the SMPTE time into the file name, so the editor can't screw up the positioning of the music. Unfortunately, they normally figure out something else to screw up. In summary, I remember what my Econ professor taught us. Should Michael Jordan mow his own lawn? Of course not, his opportunity cost is too high. Most of us are not on the level of Michael, but I think we need to outsource all of the burden we can. For a feature length project with multiple re-edits, the time it takes to fiddle with the deck, capture the program, and then encode it to a usable format can be considerable. Time taken away from actually being productive. The big catch is that your editor may feel his time is more valuable than yours, but I would at least put in the request. -Rob Bowlus