Avid Community

Media Composer Cutting Edge - Read Audio Timecode

Avid Community Team — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 15:35:00 GMT

Gain more flexibility during production with Read Audio Timecode, a feature in Avid Media Composer that allows you to capture audio and video separately and then automatically synchronize the sources together as you begin editing. During production, you use an external timecode generator to sync the internal clock of the sound recorder, while feeding the same timecode signal as an audio channel to the camera. When you’re ready to edit, Media Composer decodes that camera audio back into timecode that it can read. Used in conjunction with the AutoSync feature in Media Composer, your audio and video sources can be rejoined automatically, in perfect sync. See them both in action in this Cutting Edge video.

Download the Podcast: Media Composer Cutting Edge - Read Audio Timecode (MP4) Running time: 4:09

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Media Composer Cutting Edge - Speed Up Your Editing with Mix and Match

Avid Community Team — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 16:30:00 GMT

When you need to cut together multiple video clips from a variety of sources in mixed resolutions, nothing gives you the speed or superb image quality of the new Mix and Match features in Avid Media Composer 4. Forget hardware transcoding; with Media Composer 4 software, you can freely mix and match HD and SD formats, frame rates, and resolutions right in the open timeline. Gain real-time editing and master image quality, as Media Composer automatically configures each clip with a Motion Adapter effect for optimal playback, with audio and video in perfect sync. Or dictate the look of each clip by adjusting the interpolation.

Download the Podcast: Media Composer Cutting Edge - Speed Up Your Editing with Mix and Match (MP4) Running time: 4:24

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Media Composer Cutting Edge - Avid Media Access: AMA and Media Management

Avid Community Team — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 16:30:00 GMT

While you can greatly speed up your tapeless workflows with AMA (Avid Media Access), there are times when you’ll want to move that source material to Avid storage. For high production projects, you can easily consolidate and transcode file-based footage to your local drive or Avid shared storage in DNxHD format for better real-time performance, color correction, and compositing. If you have to redo an edit, simply remount the original XDCAM, P2, or GFPAK volume and re-link your sequences. And if your camera team is still in the field, you can jumpstart the editing by having the team send you low-res proxies of the footage to work on offline, then re-link your work to the high-res material once you have it. Learn more about AMA and Media Composer media management in this video.

Download the Podcast: Media Composer Cutting Edge - Avid Media Access: AMA and Media Management (MP4) Running time: 3:03

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Media Composer Cutting Edge - Avid Media Access: Working with AMA Virtual Volumes and Metadata

Avid Community Team — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 16:30:00 GMT

The key to a successful project is organization. With Media Composer, you get unmatched media and metadata management to keep your projects on track. The same holds true for native XDCAM, P2, and/or GFCAM source material housed on an external hard drive. With AMA (Avid Media Access), not only can you access and edit video on the local storage drive directly using the AMA Virtual Volume feature in Media Composer, you can organize your project assets the way you want without transcoding, rewrapping, or copying media. And you can view shot information and other metadata to speed through your edits too. See how AMA volumes and metadata can benefit your tapeless workflow in this video.

Download the Podcast: Media Composer Cutting Edge - Avid Media Access: Working with AMA Virtual Volumes and Metadata (MP4) Running time: 2:25

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Media Composer Cutting Edge - Avid Media Access: An Introduction to AMA

Avid Community Team — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 16:30:00 GMT

When you're working with tapeless, file-based digital video codec formats such as Sony XDCAM, Panasonic P2, or Ikegami GFCAM, nothing gives you the fastest route from shoot to edit to output than AMA (Avid Media Access). With AMA, an innovative plug-in technology found exclusively in the Media Composer family of products, you can instantly access, edit, and play back material directly and natively from a connected camera disc or card without having to transcode, rewrap, copy, log, or transfer media first. You also have access to all camera metadata, making media and project management simpler and more efficient. Discover the waitless workflow in this video introduction to AMA.

Download the Podcast: Media Composer Cutting Edge - Avid Media Access: An Introduction to AMA (MP4) Running time: 2:11

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16th Annual Bronx Community College Film & Video Festival a Huge Hit!

gklippel — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 20:29:00 GMT

Bronx, NY – Students in the BCC Media Technology and Film Society Clubs along with The Media Technology Program of the Communications Arts and Science Department were working late hours to complete their films for the Sixteenth Annual BCC Film and Video Festival, which took place on Wednesday, June 10th at Cablevision’s Chelsea Clearview Cinema in NYC. This was the night when the five-minute original movies that they have been working on this semester were shown in a movie theater and their names were outside on the marquee. Motion Picture, Television representatives and potential employers were in the theater that night, checking out talented filmmakers to watch, provide scholarships to, and maybe hire.

The annual Film & Video Festival creates an exciting atmosphere for students to show off their work and a group of film industry representatives to see it. Special thanks to Dr. Debra Gonsher, Chair of the Communications Arts & Sciences Department for her continued support for this year’s festival. The festival would not be possible without her leadership and guidance said Professor Wisotsky. Production executives from the Eastman Kodak Company, Cablevision’s Clearview Cinema, Avid Technology, The Independent Film Channel, Panavision, Barbizon Lighting and many other companies were on hand to screen the films and present awards.

Last but not least, the BCC Film & Video Festival was also the setting for the Sixth Annual Peter J. Rondinone Memorial Awards. Professor Rondinone had his first teaching assignment in the BCC English Department. He died at the age of 48 five years ago. The Peter J. Rondinone Memorial Awards were established by the Media Technology Program to recognize students who have demonstrated the capability to make a positive difference at Bronx Community College and their community. This years awards presenter was Michael Arena, CUNY University Director of Media Relations. Michael and Peter were colleagues and editors of THE OBSERVATION POST while students at The City College of New York. The 2009 Peter J. Rondinone Memorial Award Winners were: Olimpia Liranzo, James Felipe, Juan Ortiz, Richard Ventura, Issy Andujar, Tyrone Rosmond, Arthur Jones, Arnaud Kabore and Wilfredo Suarez

The AVID TECHNOLOGY EDITING AWARD was presented to Media Technology student, Wilfredo Suarez for excellence in Television Non-Linear Editing. The award was presented by Mr. George Klippel, Avid Technology Educational Sales Manager, East Region.

The Media Technology Program at Bronx Community College prepares students for entry-level employment in production support and selected technical areas of video, film and associated media production. The first year students content includes exposure to the entire production process. Students are taught by industry professionals who provide extensive hands-on instruction. In the second year, students perform in various crew positions on actual production projects. Graduates may find employment as entry-level crew and/or production assistants in feature and short films, commercials, and industrial, educational, and documentary productions or employment inpost-production houses for video and film. Other students go on to receive BA’s or BFA degrees at a four-year college.

Left to Right

Mary Healey, Director of Development, Rita DiMartino, CUNY Trustee, Curtis Jewell, BCC Foundation, Dr. Debra Gonsher, Chairperson, Dept. of Communication Arts & Sciences, Professor Jeffrey Wisotsky, Director, Media Technology Program and student honorees pose under the Clearview Cinema marquee.

Photo courtesy of Thomas Donley.

Left to Right

Professor Jeffrey Wisotsky, Director, CAS Media Technology Program and Festival Director. Wilfredo Suárez, excellence in Television Non-Linear Editing winner for “Shades of Grey”. George Klippel, Education Sales Manager, East Region.

Left to Right

Michael Arena, CUNY University Director of Media Relations, Dr. George Sanchez, Senior Vice President of Academic Affairs, Rita DiMartino, CUNY Trustee, Dr. Debra Gonsher, Chairperson, Dept. of Communication Arts & Sciences, President Carolyn Williams, Prof. Jeffrey Wisotsky, Director, Media Technology Program, 2009 Avid Technology Editing Award Winner and 2008 Peter J. Rondinone Screenwriting Memorial Award Honoree, Wilfredo Suarez and George Klippel, Avid Technology Educational Sales Manager. Mr. Suarez received Avid Media Composer Software for excellence in television non-linear editing.

Photo courtesy of Thomas Donley.

Left to Right

Wilfredo Suarez, 2009 Avid Technology Editing Award Winner and Prof. Jeffrey Wisotsky, Director, Bronx Community College Media Technology Program pose for a photo in front of Wilfredo's Eastman Kodak Student Award Winning Film Poster, "In Shades of Grey." Poster was designed by Media Technology graduate, Jamal Johns. Jamal is also an Award winning filmmaker and editor.

The Rough Cut - "Sex and the City" editor Michael Berenbaum and assistant editor Carrie Puchkoff

Avid Community Team — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 13:00:00 GMT

In this episode, Matt sits down with Sex and the City editor and three time Emmy-winner Michael Berenbaum (A.C.E.) and assistant editor Carrie Puchkoff to take questions from the audience at Broadcaster Education Association during during NAB 2009. Michael and Carrie discuss working as longtime collaborators and what it takes to survive and thrive in primetime television and feature filmmaking.

Download the Podcast: Episode 029 - The Rough Cut - "Sex and the City" editor Michael Berenbaum and assistant editor Carrie Puchkoff (M4V) Running time: 14:00

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The Rough Cut - "Chuck" assistant editor Scott Pellet

Avid Community Team — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 01:00:00 GMT

In each episode we interview directors, editors, producers, Ben Affleck (don't know how that happened) and talk about their day-to-day lives in production. We've done 24-25 of these so far, and they’ve been fun and informative, but we've yet to do one live. So for the very first time, we're going to do The Rough Cut live. To do that today our guest is assistant editor Scott Pellet from the NBC Show "Chuck".

Download the Podcast: Episode 028 - The Rough Cut - "Chuck" assistant editor Scott Pellet (M4V) Running time: 8:50

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Events Rewind - NAB 2009 - Avid Qualifies Final Cut Pro to Run on Avid Unity MediaNetwork and ISIS Shared Storage Systems

Avid Community Team — Tue, 05 May 2009 19:32:00 GMT

Avid has tools to help you get your best work done in a fast-paced environment, even integrating competitive products into open and flexible workflows. We recently announced that Avid has qualified Apple Final Cut Pro editing solutions to run on Avid Unity™ MediaNetwork and ISIS® shared storage systems. To prove it, application editors Corey Tedrow and Michael Krulik showed off the integration during "Television on a Deadline" main stage presentation at NAB. Here's a clip.

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Download the Podcast: Events Rewind - NAB 2009 - Avid Qualifies Final Cut Pro to Run on Avid Unity MediaNetwork and ISIS Shared Storage Systems (M4V) Running time: 02:39

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Events Rewind - NAB 2009 - Chris Dickens and A.R. Rahman the Film Editor and Music Composer behind Slumdog Millionaire

Avid Community Team — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 14:04:00 GMT

Joining us on the main stage late Monday were Chris Dickens and A.R. Rahman – Oscar®-winning Film Editor and Oscar-winning Music Composer behind the film Slumdog Millionaire. Together they presented an engaging look at their collaborative efforts and the creative process behind the film’s audio and video workflows. Here's a clip from the presentation.

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Download the Podcast: Events Rewind - NAB 2009 - Chris Dickens and A.R. Rahman the Film Editor and Music Composer behind Slumdog Millionaire (M4V) Running time: 24:13

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Events Rewind - NAB 2009 - How Avid is supporting the latest innovations in post production workflows

Avid Community Team — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 03:30:00 GMT

Running throughout the three exhibit days of NAB 2009 was our main stage presentation "Creative Tools". With help from Big Picture Post we demonstrated RED, XDCAM HD and P2 workflows, 3D stereoscopy and ICON surround sound mixing in post production workflows. Here's a clip from one of the presentations.

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Download the Podcast: Events Rewind - NAB 2009 - How Avid is supporting the latest innovations in post production workflows (M4V) Running time: 24:13

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Avid Media Composer - 14-day trial now available - download now

Events Rewind - NAB 2009 - A.R. Rahman performs Jai Ho at Avid Customer Event

Avid Community Team — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 21:04:00 GMT

The Joint at Hard Rock Hotel held our 2009 Customer Event on Monday night and it was PACKED to the rafters. Oscar®-winning Music Composer - behind the film Slumdog Millionaire - A.R. Rahman performed his original piece Jai Ho.

(Please visit the site to view this media)

Download the Podcast: Events Rewind - NAB 2009 - A.R. Rahman performs Jai Ho at Avid Customer Event (M4V) Running time: 4:17

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Featured Photos: Avid Booth at NAB 2009

Avid Community Team — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 19:04:00 GMT

A quick tour around Avid's packed booth (South Hall SU902) at NAB 2009.

Episode 027 - Ben Affleck on The Rough Cut with Matt Feury

Avid Community Team — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 19:07:00 GMT

In today's show Oscar-winning screenwriter, big-time Hollywood actor, and critically-acclaimed director Ben Affleck. Ben called into our studio recently to talk about his new documentary, 'Gimmie Shelter'. A film that focuses on the humanitarian crisis in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. You'll also meet Ben Affleck the DIY technologist as he tells us about how a broke actor can configured his own non-linear editor.

As always, we try to present you the best possible audio experience. But sometimes the phone company just gets the better of us. So please forgive some of the issues we had with Ben's phone. He has a lot of valuable information to share with you. So sit back and give it a listen. Here's Ben Affleck.

Download the Podcast: The Rough Cut with Matt Feury - An Avid Podcast - Episode 027 - Ben Affleck and Gimmie Shelter (MP3) Running time: 26:38

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Episode 026 - Battlestar Galactica editor and producer Andrew Seklir on The Rough Cut with Matt Feury

Avid Community Team — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 13:23:00 GMT

Andrew Seklir, Assoc. Producer and supervising Editor for Battlestar Galactica discusses the production workflow for the Sci-Fi hit, as well as the story telling techniques he’s learned to apply in the editing room.

Download: iPod (13MB) | MP3 (13MB)
Subscribe: The Rough Cut on iTunes | The Rough Cut on Vimeo

Episode 025 - Chris Dickens from Slumdog Millionaire on The Rough Cut with Matt Feury

Avid Community Team — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 03:39:00 GMT

In this episode, Avid's Matt Feury sits down with Oscar-winning editor Chris Dickens to take questions from a worldwide audience during a recent live web chat. Chris discusses his experience on Slumdog Millionaire.

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Download: iPod (12MB) | MP3 (9MB)
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Adobe After Effects and AVID Marquee reviewed at WNYPPG meeting

Anonymous — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 02:03:00 GMT

Kurt Murphy, Art Director, Animation Artist, Creative Cow Contributor and owner of Paws for Effect, presented to the Western New York Post Production Group on the fundamental understanding of Adobe After Effects. He demonstrated some of his current work and answered questions about basic and advanced Adobe After Effects techniques. His extensive presentation included the Value Home Center commercial spot “snow globe”, and a video clip of the reenactment of the storming of the Normandy Beach. This video was produced with a cast of 3 members and basic post production software. It really is amazing to see what they did.

Chris Thomas, Senior Editor at WNED presented a basic understanding of the Avid Marquee titling program. He was able to use WNED’s access to ALEX to expand the presentation and tailor it for the participants. You can check out ALEX courses on the web at http://www.avid.com/training/alex.asp.

The next meeting for WNYPPG is on April 22 at WNED-TV. You can get up to the date information about WNYPPG at wnyppg.org.

Episode 024 - Paul Harb on The Rough Cut with Matt Feury

Avid Community Team — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 22:00:00 GMT

In this episode, Avid's Matt Feury sits down with Paul Harb to talk about his experiences on-set directing music videos as well as his role in the editorial department for feature films such as Rambo and Rocky Balboa.

Download Episode 24 | Subscribe in iTunes

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Format: m4a
Duration: 32:05

Steve Audette Best Documentary Nomination!

Anonymous — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 03:18:00 GMT

The Boston Avid User Group is fortunate to have Steve Audette as one of their members. Steve is a long time Avid customer and advocate. For 15 years Steve has been FRONTLINE's Senior Editor; cutting two documentaries a year for the series.

Steve was just recently nominated by the American Cinema Editors for the best edited Documentary in 2008! He was nominated for his work editing the 4.5 hour documentary, “Bush’s War”. Steve presented at the Boston Avid User Group meeting in November and demonstrated how he created the opening montage for the series using 3,000 photos coming together to create one photo of George Bush. Watch how he did it.

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See all the nominees for the A.C.E. Awards at
http://www.ace-filmeditors.org/newace/eddieNominees.html

Horror film edited on Avid in tapeless environment

Anonymous — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 02:31:00 GMT

(Please visit the site to view this media)Iain Mitchell, Avid customer and member of the UK Avid user group, has been editing on Avid for over 15 years, with a mixture of film and television work on his resume. He recently took some time out to talk to Avid about his latest film, S.N.U.B.!, which was the first time he had worked on a totally tapeless project.

Avid: What is S.N.U.B.! about?

IM: It’s a horror/thriller about a nuclear attack on London – a group of survivors are trapped in a government bunker cut off from the outside world and they think they’re safe, but it turns out not to be the case….

Avid: How did you get involved in the project?

IM: I had worked with the director, Jonathan Glendening, about eight years ago when I edited his film, Summer Rain, and we kept in touch. When S.N.U.B.! came up he offered me the gig.

It sounded like a real challenge as this was the first film project to use the new Sony EX1 tapeless cameras (shooting HD), and it would certainly be my first all-tapeless film. I was working on a TV project at the time but decided I couldn’t pass up the opportunity, so I took this on in my spare time.

I have to admit that I was a bit skeptical that the EX1 would be able to cope with shooting for a film – it looked like a DV camera no bigger than a PD150! However, as soon as I saw the first pictures on screen I was proved entirely wrong.

The initial shoot was 12 days, using two of the EX1s and recording to DAT as the cameras were hand-held most of the time. They would shoot one card on each camera in the morning then replace them for the afternoon shoot, and in the meantime the rushes were transferred using Sony’s Transfer Tool to a quicktime .mov onto a hard drive – so I would receive a whole day’s rushes on a hard drive that same evening.

Avid: Was it a collaborative editing process with the director?

IM: Since I’d worked with Jonathan before, he knew he could leave me to get on with it. I would be editing during the day on a paid job, come home and import the day’s rushes then start editing until midnight! It was hard to edit after working all day on a TV programme and to switch editing style. Having no producers or directors for the first assemble made editing much quicker as I was able to get more done and to get a feel for the film. In fact the film changed radically because of this; initially the vision was for a slow-burning, tense thriller but once I had the pictures to work with it was clear that we needed to make it much faster and pacier.

Avid: Which editing tool did you use?

IM: Originally the director wanted to use Final Cut Pro as it was low budget , but I hate it. I’ve worked with Avids for over 15 years - I even used to install them, it’s like a second skin for me. I find FCP has too many ‘whistles and bells’ which properly trained, experienced editors shouldn’t need. I also find the media management tools within Avid are far superior.

I’d been using Avid Xpress Pro (previously Avid Xpress) for years at home and I loved having an industry standard! So I started the edit using that, transferring the material onto my Mac G5, and I finished the first cut and a trailer to take to Cannes where we were trying to sell the film.

By the time we returned Avid had released Media Composer 3.0 software and was phasing out Xpress Pro, so I decided I had to let my trusted friend go and install Media Composer. I made a back-up, expecting the transition to be a nightmare, but to my surprise everything worked perfectly! The interfaces are very similar but the little improvements between v2.8 and v3.0 make a lot of difference – for instance, I can move clips tracks individually now rather than two at a time, and generally everything is much more fluid. Also Avid seems to be much better for the OSX Platform than it has been for some years. With OSX 10.5.5 Avid was close behind with updates and more importantly it’s rock solid!

At this time we also started using version 2 of Sony’s Transfer Tool. Using version 1 had been OK but very slow and laborious as Avid didn’t have a codec that would talk to it. When we came to download the footage from an additional five days of shooting using version 2, it was unbelievably fast – almost instantaneous. I could import clips, go to Avid AAF and there they were in Media Composer, ready to go. This saved an enormous amount of time.

Avid: Did you have any problems working with HD resolution?

IM: Not at all – in fact I was able to cut at full resolution without any loss of power or speed, which was amazing. Drive space is so cheap these days, so I had 2Tb storage with everything uncompressed.

The only thing that was weird and slightly unnerving for me was the lack of tapes on my shelf! I was so diligent (or paranoid!) about backing up - that was a fundamental part of the project. It was also strange for me to present the final cut to the grader as a consolidated sequence at DNX185 on a hard drive – I didn’t have to reconform it, he just put it on a Nitris system and played out of the Nitris onto a Baselight system. It was an absolutely seamless process, not one frame out.

It was a similar story for the visual effects work. I just gave the VFX team uncompressed Quicktime sequences, either on iDisk or a DVD, they would do their stuff and give them back as a Quicktime. There were around 100 CG shots including one blowing up London, this wasn’t small stuff – but the transfers were so easy!

Avid: Were there any particular features in Media Composer that you particularly liked?

IM: I love the colour correction tool – if I had the time and patience I’d love to get into more grading. Jordan Cushing (the DoP) did an amazing job with the lighting so I didn’t have that much to do, except for a rudimentary grade on the trailer to crush the blacks and take the brightness down. There was also one major scene in the bunker that needed a red effect to imitate emergency lighting.

Being able to see the film at full res in Media Composer was great because I could really see what needed to be corrected. I have to say that it was shot beautifully, especially considering the Sony EX1 is such a small camera. I thought there would be gain or it would look crushed but the camera coped remarkably well.

Avid: Were you involved in the audio?

IM: I took on the role of post-production supervisor as well as editor, so I did get involved in the audio. Sound guys always want different takes, so recording to DAT meant that we could give them every DAT for the whole film. The files were transferred seamlessly onto a Pro Tools system at The Sound Design Company, a bespoke sound editing studio in Denham Media Park. The effects editor was Steve Felton, dialogue editor was Rick Dunford and Nicolas Le Messurier at Synxspeed was the re-record mixer. At this point I’ll hand over to Steve to tell you more…

Steve Felton: The Avid/Pro Tools integration was really easy, Iain brought his G5 to the studio and we fiddled about with his tracks to get them how we wanted them, then Iain made an AAF and we transferred it across. He also made us a Quicktime of the picture so we could work to his latest edit. Earlier we had copied all the DAT tapes onto a hard drive, which was great – if we needed an alternative delivery of a line we could just go back to the rushes and choose it. The tracklay took three weeks to complete including a day or two of ADR, and the mix took 3 days. Once we had finished we created a .wav of the 5.1 mix, which we gave to Iain to lay back into the main edit.

The version we have now is a temp mix, which is fine for preview purposes. Once the film is sold we’ll go back and add more sound effects, record more ADR and do a tidy-up for a proper feature film version.

The tapeless method worked well for us, we received what we needed quickly which allowed us to get on with the editing without waiting for copies or digitizing video tapes which is very important on fast-turnaround projects – it was all seamless and very easy.

Avid: What was the biggest challenge on this film?

IM: For me, it was just getting my head round being in a tapeless environment, and remembering to back up all the time.

There were no ‘challenges’ or problems as such, I still can’t quite believe how smooth the whole process was. With new technology you expect that there are going to be some issues or problems, but hand on heart we didn’t have any at all.

My biggest dread was that the picture would have slipped after consolidation but not a single picture was out of frame.

We did have one minor puzzle – when we came to consolidate we couldn’t find the OMF. We were confused for about 10 minutes then realised we should be looking for an AAF…. By the way, AAF is the way forward! I always thought OMFs were great but AAFs are fantastic!

It’s been a great learning experience for me. I did miss the technical side of things a bit - the physical handling of tapes and the processes that go with it – getting my hands dirty and solving problems. But this is a fantastic new way to work and I’d certainly do it again.

S.N.U.B.! is in the process of finalising a distribution deal. S.N.U.B. 2 is already in the pipeline!

DC User Group Meeting at GV Expo

Anonymous — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 11:58:00 GMT

The DC Avid User Group held a meeting during the GV Expo on December 3^rd. The meeting was held at a function room at the Walter E.Washington Convention Center in DC. They had a good turnout with over 60 people attending. The FCP user group meeting was right next door – the Avid group had more attendees. It started off with a reception with good food, beverage, and conversations. It was great to mingle and network with colleagues and friends before the meeting.

The meeting got underway with Avid’s Bob Russo discussing the RED workflow. This is a hot topic that everyone seems to be interested in these days. But as Bob explained, technology and updates are happening so quickly that everything that he said today could be different tomorrow. Avid is a licensed R3D developer and continually working on improving the workflow and integration. Application Editor, Glen Seaman was also on hand to field questions. To get the step by step technical information on the RED workflow, download the pdf at: http://www.avid.com/RED/REDstepbystep.pdf

Next, Coby Rich from Sorenson Media introduced the crowd to Squeeze 5. It is crucial to be able to deliver your projects in a variety of different formats. All the different file and compression formats can be overwhelming. However, Squeeze 5 makes it seamless and transparent with single preset settings for your audio, video, filters and distribution. The software allows you to deliver the best quality in any format without needing in depth knowledge of compression formats. Coby showed how simply you can get your project from your Avid to DVD and the Web.

Coby then gave a quick overview of Squish® which embeds the power of Sorenson’s Squeeze® into any Web page on your site, allowing you to easily accept user-submitted video. Users can drag-and-drop video files onto the Squish applet or capture video streams from Webcams or camcorders, and have them be automatically encoded and uploaded to any network-accessible host.

Toronto - Best Meeting Ever!

Anonymous — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 04:58:26 GMT

Gordon Thorne, a long standing member of the Toronto Avid User Group, gave his take on the user group meeting on November 27th.

Toronto User Group’s Secrets of Doc Editing panel - “Best Meeting Ever”

How do you top some amazing meetings the Toronto user group has put on? You assemble some of the best, most passionate, most celebrated, documentary editors in town and let them talk about their craft. The November meeting at the Royal Theatre saw a panel discussion entitled, “Secrets of Documentary editing” and the response from the over 100 members who attended was that it was the “best meeting ever”.

Veteran editor Gordon Thorne moderated a five member panel that included: Cathy Gulkin (“The Four Seasons Mosaic”), Craig Webster (“Just Watch Me: Trudeau and the 70's Generation”), Gerry Banning ("For Rent"), Lorenzo Massa ("Mayday") and Michele Hozer (“Shake Hands with the Devil: The Journey of Roméo Dallaire”). Each editor presented a short clip from their work and then talked about the unique challenges of each. The range was incredible; from arts docs to reality TV to docudramas to feature length “personal journey” and issue docs. The panelists were all incredibly generous with their knowledge and passionate about their work.

Some of the subjects included: tips on structuring in the different genres; advice on the challenges of taking over from another editor; overcoming the dreaded first act; maintaining emotional intensity; and when not to overcut. The panelists even gave their favourite “AVID” tips; using the interface to create and organize. A personal favourite was the “conjoiner bin” in which you place harvested ands, thens and of courses that are used to bridge two dialogue thoughts that might not have been joined. The panelists also stressed the importance of organizing material in the documentary edit and gave examples of how each achieved that.

Thanks again to the staff at the Royal Theatre in downtown Toronto for providing a wonderful venue and projection quality that certainly has to be the best in the city for video playback.

One audience member commented the next day: “I came away from it so inspired. I stayed up half the night thinking (about it).” One of the panel members commented, “It was such a pleasure…that the only thing that would have improved it for me was if it went longer!” It seems that the Toronto Avid Community loves to share their craft.

That’s a Wrap

E.Selby — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 14:19:49 GMT

Avid’s New Thinking tour made its last and final stop on Thursday, October 30^th. Media professionals and enthusiasts from surrounding areas made their way to the Marriott in Baton Rouge. Glen Seaman and Kevin Camoosa took center stage giving a combined presentation showing Media Composer Nitris DX. Also on site, Derek Benton and Ian Marge demonstrated Avid’s Symphony Nitris DX and Avid DS systems.

From coast-to-coast, across numerous countries, we traveled far-and-wide and had some great events. We’d like to give a special thank you to everyone who contributed to this year’s road show. Without you, it wouldn’t have been possible.

Here are a few shots from Baton Rouge.

MultiCam Rocks Florida

Anonymous — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 15:36:36 GMT

Mitch Jacobson, an Avid editor who specializes in multi-camera productions, presented to the Tampa Avid user Group meeting on October 20^that Osceola Fundamental High School. Mitch, who's productions have been nominated twice for national Emmy Awards™, talked about his work and showed multi-camera clips from the concert film Aerosmith: You Gotta Move. Mitch has over 25 years experience cutting network TV programs and concert films for A&E, PBS, CBS, Discovery and E! He is the author of an upcoming book published by Focal Press entitled: Mastering Multi-Camera Editing. Mitch gave practical advice such as the importance of organizing and clip-naming workflows. He talked about some common ways of syncing cameras such a source timecode and in-points. Imagine trying to organize and edit with 18 different camera views. With Media Composer, you can view and edit multiple cameras in real-time "on-the-fly" or by starting and stopping the action to carefully chose the shots. You can group them together so it's easier to find the exact angle that you want. Working on rock concerts has its own special challenges as Mitch explained. Not only did he have to handle 18 different camera angles but also add in footage from multiple concert nights. The audio might be better on one of the concert evenings while the lighting may be better on another night. Mitch's presentation was captivating and appealed to the students and the professionals in the audience. We especially enjoyed the Steven Tyler impersonations.

On Tuesday, Mitch presented to another group of over 80 students and professionals in Orlando. Full Sail Universisty and Avid hosted a mini workshop featuring Mitch's multicamera workflows. Mitch spoke for over 2 hours and spent extra time fielding questions regarding sync issues, audio and codecs. The group was especially interested in dealing with music concerts and working with inexpensive cameras that are problematic for timecode sync. Sync issues are a staple of Mitch's presentation but, this time he shared some additional ways to sync cameras like: handclaps, flashlights and digital camera flash's. For hard to sync cameras he stressed the use of Lock-It Boxes which send timecode to auxilliary audio tracks or external sync inputs. The Avid can translate audio timecode to SMPTE Timecode for an easy way to group multiple cameras. Because the group was interested in music projects, Mitch shared a preview from his upcoming book Mastering Multi-Camera Editing that deals with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra performing on PBS Great Performances. The director of the TV program uses the music score as a script for the concert. He puts all of his camera notes directly into the music sheets, notating things such as instrument solos and big composer movements. The score is shared by the assistant director with non-music reading crew members with camera shot sheets. In post, editors and producers refer to "The Book" as a reference to the director's notes to edit the show.

Avid New Thinking Tour lands in Denver

E.Selby — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 22:32:00 GMT

The Comcast Media Center hosted Avid’s New Thinking Denver tour stop on Wednesday, October 22^nd. Despite the threat of a winter blizzard (first for the season), Avid enthusiasts joined Rich Griffin, Avid VP of Sales, as he gave a warm welcome and described Avid’s new direction.

Applications Editors, Corey Tedrow and Kevin Camoosa stole the show as they showcased Avid Nitris DX editor. Also on site, Mike Hale, Senior Systems Engineer, drove the DS demo – another popular pod.

We’d like to give special thanks to those who stopped by and to Digital 5280, out local reseller, who helped make this event a success.

See you in Nashville TN.