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[Snehal]

I am working with Bill Bennett, ASC today to test out a workflow for VFX where we would be able to get Lens Data and Tilt/Roll information from the Log-C Quicktime files coming out of an Alexa Plus.  

We knew that all metadata information is saved in the Quicktime video file including "per frame" info for things like F-Stop, Focal Length and Zoom data:
http://www.arri.de/camera/digital_cameras/technology/recording_formats/metadata.html

The problem was that there aren't meta data readers available for quicktime that spit out frame-by-frame info. Luckily Arri just released "Meta Extract" for both Mac and PC which is a software that runs in a terminal window (command line) and allows you to spit out a semi-colon delimitated CSV database file which you can open in Excel.  The database is organized by timecode and contains info for every frame in your shot.  Some info is static (exposure index, look file, etc.)  and other info changes line by line (f-stop, tilt, roll).

Here is the download page for both the instructions (release notes) and software for "Meta Extract":
http://www.arri.com/download_search/download_search.html?action=fulltext&suchoption1_id=&suchoption2_id=&suchoption3_id=&searchtext=meta&cHash=0798f1595e344d26be316135a88cfbb0

Read the PDF as it gives you precise instructions on how to extract the data.  For example, to extract the MetaData for a video file named "A002C016_110719_R33F.mov" on the desktop and make a CSV file called "A002C016_110719_R33F.csv" you would type:

./ARRIMetaExtract /Users/MyUser/Desktop/A002C016_110719_R33F.mov /Users/heugel/Desktop/
A002C016_110719_R33F.csv

This will also extract a look file, in .xml format, that was used for that shot (if you had a Look assigned in the camera) which you can run through the LUT generator to get an LUT without having to go back and find the original Look file.

When you want to look at the CSV file in Excel or another database viewer, make sure you open Excel and do an "import" of the CSV file as opening directly will give you an incorrect display.  During import, be sure to specify that the file is "semi-colon delimitated" and don't reformat the columns.  The database opens up and you can see your shot frame-by-frame along with all the MetaData that is recorded.  To get a list of extracted fields that will show up in the database, see the Meta Extract release notes PDF.  Here is a direct link to just the PDF:
http://www.arri.com/?eID=registration&file_uid=8075

I have attached a CSV file that we were able to extract from a Quicktime ProRes 422(HQ) file that came out of Bill's Alexa Plus which had an LDS UltraPrime 50mm lens attached.

Post any questions!

[Snehal]

For those of you without MS Excel, Bill Bennett, ASC has found a solution that can be found for $1.99 in the App store for your MAC:

I discovered a simple $2 Mac App that lets you see the contents of the .csv metadata file if you don't have Excel on your machine, which I do not have.  You get it by searching on the App Store on your Mac. 

It's called CSVEdit.  You launch it, then use the "Open" command to navigate to the .csv file you want to view.  It then asks you what the separator character is, but it had the semicolon as the default value.  I didn't change anything in the initial question window, clicked on the "Okay" button, and it opened the file properly in a manner that made it totally readable.    It then lets you delete columns that you don't want to see, like all the "future" metadata items, and then save the file.  Unfortunately, there is no "Export" feature, only one to Save, or Print.  Of course, you could select "Print" then use the "PDF" button in the lower left corner of the Print dialogue window to create a PDF that anyone can view. 

I thought I might be able to view a .csv file using "Numbers", which is Apple iWork version of a spreadsheet program.  Unfortunately, it does not recognize the semicolon as a separator, and does not offer a method to define the separator, so it can not open a semicolon delimited .csv file, which is what the Alexa plus creates. 

[Jonas Andersson]

I was able to open up the .cvs-file in openoffice.
It's free and you can find it here: http://www.openoffice.org/