Page Break Problems

[rdenmark]

I have to create a video tape log with a very specific layout.

Imagine you have three fields: REEL#, TIMECODE and SCENE.

The report has to be sorted in this order: First REEL# then by TIMECODE. However, every time the SCENE changes from one record to the next, I need a page break. Like this...

REEL# TIMECODE SCENE

016 16:00:00:00 44

016 16:06:03:14 44

016 16:08:23:11 44

(page break)

016 16:11:33:13 78

032 02:14:32:11 78

(page break)

032 02:34:33:00 12

I've tried creating a SUB-SUMMERY WHEN SORTED BY SCENE (leading) and then page break before every occurrence. But, because I need to keep it in REEL and TIMECODE order, I have to include these fields in the sort order before scene. So it does the sort right, but breaks the page every time either REEL, TIMECODE or SCENE change. Of course, the TIMECODE changes every record so the report breaks the page after every record.

Any ideas?

Thanks in advance,

Ryan

[Raybaudi]

Hi

your way to solve your problem is correct, but you have to sort in this order:

SCENE

REEL#

TIMECODE

and rearrange the printed pages :)

[rdenmark]

Thanks! That works pretty well. Unfortunately, the report has to be page numbered in the proper order. Maybe I can get away with handwriting the page number.

Or maybe I'll print to Adobe Acrobat first and then reorder and page count in Acrobat.

Thanks again! :)

[Raybaudi]

Hi

I don't know exactly why**, but try this:

1) make a summary field: standard deviation of REEL# ( uncheck by population )

2) sort as I said before but apply to SCENE a reorder by that summary field ( this can be achieved selecting SCENE while into the sort window and checking the box: reorder by summary field )

So seems to work !!

**EDIT: no, I know now...it works because in your example SCENE 44 are 3, SCENE 78 are 2 and SCENE 12 is one !

BTW: there must be a correct way playing with this option.

Edited January 21, 2007 by Guest
see EDIT

[Raybaudi]

For example try to make that summary:

Average of REEL# weighted by SCENE

Seems to work.

[rdenmark]

I'm not quite sure what you mean. It may just be beyond my knowledge of Filemaker.

[Raybaudi]

... but you can always give it a try !

So:

1) make a NEW summary field: Average of REEL# weighted by SCENE

2) sort as I said before:

SCENE

REEL#

TIMECODE

but apply to SCENE a reorder by that summary field ( this can be achieved selecting SCENE while into the sort window and checking the box: reorder by summary field )

[rdenmark]

Tried it, but it didn't work. It puts the page breaks in the right place, but the timecodes are out of order, so the page # is of.

[Raybaudi]

I'm sorry for you...

BTW: I think that there must be a way playing with a summary field

[LaRetta]

Since you need a page break after each SCENE, the TIMECODE can be sorted last (because it will STILL be within the same REEL and SCENE). Remove TIMECODE from leading part and add it as third in sort order. Results would be:

REEL# 16 SCENE 44

16:00:00:00

16:06:03:14

16:08:23:11

(page break)

REEL# 16 SCENE 78

16:11:33:13

(page break)

REEL # 032 SCENE 78

02:14:32:11

[rdenmark]

I'm not sure what you mean by remove it from the leading part.

What I'm creating is a list of film clips in the order in which they appear on a tape. Each clip has a record. In that record I have a reel#, timecode start and the scene# which that clip belongs to.

The layout of the report looks more or less like this:

CLIP NAME

REEL

TIMECODE START

SCENE

The report then goes on to either print the next record, if it belongs to the same scene or page break before printing the next record if it doesn't.

If I'm understanding your version you've made the scene number sort of a header and then listed the timecodes that go along with that scene. I can't do that because of the layout requirement imposed by my boss.

Right now, what I have is sorted by REEL, SCENE, TIMECODE. This places the page breaks correctly, but, although the timecodes are in order within a single scene, they aren't in order for the tape. Like this....

REEL 1 - 01:05:03:00 - SCENE 4

REEL 1 - 01:07:23:00 - SCENE 4

(page break)

REEL 1 - 01:00:00:00 - SCENE 8

(page break)

REEL 1 - 01:09:00:00 - SCENE 10

I can print these pages and then reorder them, but the problem is I also have to have a page number for the report.

Thanks,

Ryan

[LaRetta]

The report then goes on to either print the next record, if it belongs to the same scene or page break before printing the next record if it doesn't.

I can't do that because of the layout requirement imposed by my boss.

What type of layout are you using? Is this a List layout? A Form layout? I take it you don't have leading parts then? Can you provide a GIF of the layout (while in layout mode)?

What you want is certainly possible. But I don't understand why you are printing page at a time. You can't have a page break if you don't have a part to break on.

[comment]

If I had to this, I would export the records with a calculated field marking the page breaks. Then I would replace the markers with page breaks in a word processor.

But there is something unreasonable in this arrangement. Consider a reel which contains 2 scenes that were taped in a checkerboard fashion. Let's say 50 shots, 25 shots per scene - this would be split into 50 pages. Who needs this?

If it were permissible to group clips of the same scene and reel, I think the internal order of the scenes in a reel could be solved - perhaps by creating a relationship and using the timecode of the first clip in a scene as the sort field (just thinking aloud here, haven't tried it).

[rdenmark]

Sorry, I might be explaining myself poorly. I'm very new to Filemaker.

This page shows how the pages need to be formated. Each box is a record. They have to be ordered by Reel, then Timecode, the scene number is in the lower left of each box. Whenever that scene number changes, then there needs to be a page break.

[rdenmark]

That's exactly right. There would be 50 pages, but that doesn't happen very often. The report is for the film's editor and director while they're screening footage. The editor writes notes in each box. The report has to be in the order in which they watch the footage (reel then by timecode).

The page break is because this report will later be physically reordered into a separate binder in order of scene, so records belonging to two difference scenes can't be on the same page.

The report needs a page count because the first binder gets very large and occasionally a director wants to jump around on the tape. I have to be able to quickly tell the editor which page to turn to.

[comment]

I don't think the problem is with page numbering. That only came up when the sort order was changed - but we have just established that you cannnot do that.

If you want to print this from Filemaker, I think you will have to generate one or two dummy records for those instances where the number of clips in a scene is not a multiple of 3. This is easier to do than to explain - take a look at a somewhat similar problem here.

[rdenmark]

Yeah, I know what you mean. I thought of doing something like that earlier, but I thought it was going to be too much trouble. But now, when faced with manual reordering, it's probably the lesser of two evils.

Thanks,

Ryan

[comment]

I think the other evil will bomb with my checkerboard example.