Cues for film

A film's score is a set of cues. In Blazar Core, one main session holds the whole film, its sound and a cue track. Each cue on the cue track is a range of the film and opens as a session of its own, where you write it. When you render a cue, the main session plays its mix at its place in the film, so you can watch the whole film cue by cue.

Set up the main session#

1. Save the session as a project (Save menu > Save as New Project...). Its cues are kept in the project's folder.
2. Import the film: drop its video on the arrangement, or click Import Audio or Video. See Import a video.
3. Click Add Track and choose Cue Track (Film Cues).

The Cues lane appears under the video lane. If you get the film scene by scene instead, skip the import and drop the scenes onto the cue track (see Scenes).

Spot cues#

• Add a cue: drag across the cue track over the stretch of film it scores. Blazar Core names cues by reel and number: 1M1, 1M2 and so on, in the reel of the cue before it.
• Move a cue: drag it. Change where it starts or ends: drag its left or right edge. Edges land on the film's frames, and on another cue's edge or a hit point when they come close.
• See where it lies: point to a cue. Its tooltip gives its start and end in the film's timecode.
• Rename a cue: right-click it and choose Rename....
• Delete a cue: select it and press Delete, or right-click it and choose Delete Cue. Its session stays in the project's Cues folder, and Ctrl+Z (Cmd+Z on a Mac) brings the cue back.

Each of these is one step for Undo. Cues may overlap, for a cue that runs on under the start of the next.

Scenes#

Drop a scene's video file onto the cue track. It becomes a cue as long as the scene, with that video as its picture (a small film icon marks it).

• If the file carries a start timecode (editors export one in QuickTime and MP4 files), the cue goes where that timecode lies in the film.
• Otherwise it goes where you drop it. Drag it to its place if you need to: the scene moves with it.

If the main session has no video yet, the first scene sets the session's frame rate.

Open a cue#

Double-click a cue, or select it and click Open in the cue track's header.

The first time you open a cue, choose what it starts from:

• one of your templates (see Start from a template);
• Empty Session;
• Copy of Another Cue, for example to try another version of 1M2 as 1M3.

Your choice is ticked the next time.

Only Empty Session shows until you have a template. A project saved the usual way isn't one: open the session that holds your setup and choose Save as Template... in the Project menu. It's on this menu from then on.

The cue opens as a session of its own, in a tab in the title bar. The main session stays open in its own tab, and you switch between them with the tabs. Inside a cue:

• Bar 1 is where the cue starts in the film, or the main session's start bar when you set another (see Timecode). The bars before it are its pre-roll: a few seconds of film to play into the cue, numbered 0 and -1. With a start bar of 4, the pre-roll is bars 1 to 3 and the cue starts on bar 4. The playhead starts where the cue starts.
• The picture shows only the cue's stretch of the film, from the pre-roll's start to a few seconds after the cue's end.
• Timecode is the film's, so hit points read as they do in the editor's list.
• The film's sound (the main session's audio tracks, such as the picture's sound and the dialog) is on tracks at the top, for the cue's stretch only. Rendering leaves it out.
• The main session's hit points in the cue's stretch are there.
• The cue has its own tempo. Change it as you like: the cue's first bar stays on the cue's start, and the picture, the timecode, the hit points and the film's sound move with it.

The cues around it#

Inside a cue, the cue track shows the cue you're in, outlined, and the cues around it, each with its render's waveform. When you play, their renders play too, so you hear the cue before running into this one. They're never part of this cue's own mix or export.

To open one of them, double-click it.

Instruments stay loaded#

Cues usually share one template. When you switch between cues, an instrument with the same patch in both is handed over as it is, not loaded again, and effects stay loaded too. With Satellite on, instruments also stay loaded while you're in the main session, so coming back to a cue is quick.

Render a cue#

In the cue, click Render Cue in the cue track's header. Blazar Core renders the cue's mix from its start to its end, ringing out for up to 10 seconds, without the film's sound or the Polaris guide. The render goes into the project's Media folder, named after the cue: 1M2 render.wav.

Blazar Core never renders on its own: only when you click Render Cue. Rendering is an export: after the trial it needs a license key.

Watch the film cue by cue#

Click Main Session in the cue track's header (or the main session's tab). Each rendered cue plays at its place in the film, from the Cue Previews track. It's an ordinary audio track: set its level, mute it, solo it, or include it when you export the whole film or use Bounce to Picture. Cues that overlap take turns on Cue Previews and Cue Previews 2, so one cue's ending runs on under the next one's start.

On the cue track, each cue shows its render's waveform and where it stands:

• Not rendered: the cue has a session but no render yet.
• Changed, with an amber edge: you changed the cue since its last render. Open it and click Render Cue again.

Move a cue you've written#

In the main session, move or resize the cue on the cue track. Its render moves with it. The next time you open the cue, the film moves under its music: the cue's first bar is on its new start, and the hit points and the film's sound move with the picture. Your music stays where it was in its bars.

Where cues are kept#

The project's folder holds:

• the main session;
• Cues: a session for each cue, named after it (with continuous saving on, its numbered versions);
• Media, shared by the main session and every cue, with the cues' renders (1M2 render.wav);
• Mixdown, shared too.

Bounce to Picture works in the main session, where the whole film plays with every cue. A cue's session shows only its stretch of the film.

Agents can do all of this too: list the cues, add and change them, open a cue, render it and go back to the main session (see Agents).