Setting up a shoot

After you open a project, Circle Take looks through it and shows what it found: camera clips, recorder audio and scripts, with the Options below.

Folder layout

• Any layout works. Camera cards, recorder files and scripts can sit anywhere inside the project.
• Circle Take skips folders whose names start with words like Render, Deliver, Export, Proxy, Cache, Auto-Save, Stock, Overlay, Graphic, Music, SFX, VO, Voiceover, Scratch, Library or Fonts, plus Premiere's Audio Previews and Captured and Generated folders. It also skips its own CircleTake output folder.
• Folders that look like B-roll, drone, aerial or timelapse are listed but start unchecked.
• If the project holds more than one shoot, a Shoot menu appears. Circle Take spots shoots from folder names like “Day 1”, “Studio” or a date.

Camera and recorder

• With a separate recorder, Circle Take lines each camera clip up to the recorder by matching the sound. You don't need timecode or a clap.
• That means every camera has to record its own sound too, even a rough scratch track.
• Clips that can't be matched stay in, using the camera's own sound. The Done screen lists them under Needs a look.
• With no recorder folder checked, the sound comes from the camera.

Scripts

• Circle Take reads .docx, .doc, .rtf, .odt, .pdf and .fdx scripts.
• Scripts inside the project are found for you. For one stored somewhere else, click Choose Script…, or drop the file on the Scripts box.
• Each script shows the spots it found. Circle Take uses the scripts that match what's said on camera and leaves out the rest.
• With no script, a run syncs the clips and writes a transcript.

Check it before you run

• Uncheck any camera folder, recorder folder or script it got wrong.
• In a cut, clips where nobody reads the script drop out of Selects, Lines and First drafts on their own. They still go through sync and stay in the synced timeline.
• All checked camera clips need the same frame rate. If they don't, the run stops and says which clips differ, so uncheck the folders that don't belong.
• Files marked “in the cloud” aren't on this Mac yet. They download as Circle Take reads them, which can take a while.
• Rescan (⌘R) looks through the project folder again, for example after you copy in more files.

Files it can't read

Blackmagic RAW (.braw) and RED (.r3d) files can't be read. Export proxies and use those. Folders it skipped for this reason, and others, show under “Found but skipped” when it finds no camera clips.