macOS Filemaker Film Database

[sarge]

To all you database modelers out there I'm hoping to get a little advice.

I'm building a new Filemaker database of film elements that have been transferred to various tape formats over the years. So far I have diagramed it with 2 tables - a MediaID table (with attributes such as location, title, etc.,) and a MediaAsset table which describes all the iterations possible for the aforementioned MediaID (Negative, Print,VHS, Beta, DVD, etc.) My question is do I create another table for the timecode or is the timecode an attribute of the MediaID table?

Timecode needs to be described both in foot length (35mm negatives and prints are usually described in linear feet) as well as a IN and OUT timecodes for the tape and file based assets. I was hoping to use the TC field to generate a total run times from the in/out TC fields.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

 

[larswik]

To all you database modelers out there I'm hoping to get a little advice.

I'm building a new Filemaker database of film elements that have been transferred to various tape formats over the years. So far I have diagramed it with 2 tables - a MediaID table (with attributes such as location, title, etc.,) and a MediaAsset table which describes all the iterations possible for the aforementioned MediaID (Negative, Print,VHS, Beta, DVD, etc.) My question is do I create another table for the timecode or is the timecode an attribute of the MediaID table?

Timecode needs to be described both in foot length (35mm negatives and prints are usually described in linear feet) as well as a IN and OUT timecodes for the tape and file based assets. I was hoping to use the TC field to generate a total run times from the in/out TC fields.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Are you writing a program to help you or are you just wondering what you should do? I wrote a program and update it from time to time to archive and add meta data to clips to better find them as I need them in the future for projects. The program scans a folder or hard drive looking for the file extensions I tell it like a .mov and then it returns a tableview with snap shots of the clips and the meta data like fps, trt, size, aspect and so on in the table it creates. I then go back and add keywords to the clips to better help me find them later.

Are you writing a program or just info for a spread sheet on what you should do?

 

[sarge]

Are you writing a program to help you or are you just wondering what you should do? I wrote a program and update it from time to time to archive and add meta data to clips to better find them as I need them in the future for projects. The program scans a folder or hard drive looking for the file extensions I tell it like a .mov and then it returns a tableview with snap shots of the clips and the meta data like fps, trt, size, aspect and so on in the table it creates. I then go back and add keywords to the clips to better help me find them later.

Are you writing a program or just info for a spread sheet on what you should do?

No I won't actually be coding anything (yet). I pretty much inherited a database from an existing project (although I hesitate to call it a database since it is only a single table which is just really just a spreadsheet no?) I've been trying to read about modeling databases and resolving all the many to many relationships. Perhaps I'm overthinking this and don't actually require anything other than a single spreadsheet but I want to approach it right from the start. At the moment, I am only working with framegrabs - tying this DB to an online video asset is down the road at some point. Right now I have footage that was shot on 35mm/16mm and a single spreadsheet with metadata fields that describe the footage. I'm hoping to improve upon that by listing all the copies that have been transferred to various analogue tape and digital file formats. There is currently no timecode field in the spreadsheet that I am working off of.

 

[larswik]

No I won't actually be coding anything (yet). I pretty much inherited a database from an existing project (although I hesitate to call it a database since it is only a single table which is just really just a spreadsheet no?) I've been trying to read about modeling databases and resolving all the many to many relationships. Perhaps I'm overthinking this and don't actually require anything other than a single spreadsheet but I want to approach it right from the start. At the moment, I am only working with framegrabs - tying this DB to an online video asset is down the road at some point. Right now I have footage that was shot on 35mm/16mm and a single spreadsheet with metadata fields that describe the footage. I'm hoping to improve upon that by listing all the copies that have been transferred to various analogue tape and digital file formats. There is currently no timecode field in the spreadsheet that I am working off of.

I understand what you are saying. I don't think you will get to much help in this forum since it is specific to programming. People have problems programming post their code and we try to help them. Yours sounds more like a general kind of database / spread sheet problem your trying to figure out. I'm sure you will be more successful posting for help in other places for this type of help.

 

[sarge]

OK thanks - wasn't sure where to post this one. Will look elsewhere

 

[steve123]

To all you database modelers out there I'm hoping to get a little advice.

I'm building a new Filemaker database of film elements that have been transferred to various tape formats over the years. So far I have diagramed it with 2 tables - a MediaID table (with attributes such as location, title, etc.,) and a MediaAsset table which describes all the iterations possible for the aforementioned MediaID (Negative, Print,VHS, Beta, DVD, etc.) My question is do I create another table for the timecode or is the timecode an attribute of the MediaID table?

Timecode needs to be described both in foot length (35mm negatives and prints are usually described in linear feet) as well as a IN and OUT timecodes for the tape and file based assets. I was hoping to use the TC field to generate a total run times from the in/out TC fields.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Seems to me that you should use TC as a key field in the MediaAsset table. That is, a particular asset clip could exist in multiple formats and the asset info would be specific to the clip. Thus a one to many relationship. If there was a many to many relationship where an asset could have multiple descriptions, then you could also make TC a key field in the MediaID tabLe as well.

 

[sarge]

Seems to me that you should use TC as a key field in the MediaAsset table. That is, a particular asset clip could exist in multiple formats and the asset info would be specific to the clip. Thus a one to many relationship. If there was a many to many relationship where an asset could have multiple descriptions, then you could also make TC a key field in the MediaID tabLe as well.

Right, sorry. I meant to say should TC be a Foreign Key to MediaAsset and not the MediaID since the descriptions/date/location info would never change across the different media types (35mm/16mm/VHS/DVD/ProRes etc,etc). The timecodes for each media asset would differ for each format though since they may have been put onto VHS at 00:00:00 while the DVD version might start at 23:59:59. I gather you are recommending a separate table for TC or do I have that confused?

 

[steve123]

Right, sorry. I meant to say should TC be a Foreign Key to MediaAsset and not the MediaID since the descriptions/date/location info would never change across the different media types (35mm/16mm/VHS/DVD/ProRes etc,etc). The timecodes for each media asset would differ for each format though since they may have been put onto VHS at 00:00:00 while the DVD version might start at 23:59:59. I gather you are recommending a separate table for TC or do I have that confused?

No, I with your clarification, I think you have it right.

 

[sarge]

No, I with your clarification, I think you have it right.

Many thanks!