Peak Film · pfGlass Timepiece
pfGlass Timepiece
A SMPTE timecode master, reader and distributor, built in house for the same reason as the rest of the pfGlass kit: the job needed one.
Timecode is the one number every department has to agree on. Two cameras and a sound recorder are only usable together if they are counting the same frames, and an edit that begins with a hunt for sync is an edit that has already lost a day.
How it works on a shoot
One unit is set as master and holds the clock. The others jam-lock to it and then run on their own, so a camera that walks out of range keeps the same frame count as the recorder that stayed behind. Each unit is named for what it is fitted to — PF-A CAM, PF-B CAM, PF-AUDIO — and assigned to a group, so a long list of units stays readable at a glance.
What the face shows
Hours, minutes, seconds and frames, with a bar running the frame count within the second, the running frame rate, whether it is drop frame, and the battery. A jam-locked unit also shows its offset from master in frames, so drift is a number you can read rather than a suspicion you act on.
- Master or jam-locked
- Any unit can hold the clock; the rest lock to it and keep running on their own.
- Named and grouped
- Units carry the name of the camera or recorder they are on, and belong to a group.
- Drop frame handled properly
- 29.97 DF is shown as drop frame on the face, not left for someone to work out later.
- LTC out
- Timecode leaves the unit as LTC on a standard audio output, which is what a camera or recorder expects.
Where it stands
The Timepiece is in active development and use alongside the rest of the pfGlass kit. If you shoot multi-camera, or run sound separately from picture, and it sounds like something you would want on a set, we would like to hear from you.
Get in touch through Peak Film.
The pfGlass Timepiece was commissioned by Peak Film and built by Paul Walster, who writes about the engineering behind it on his own site.
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