Expert Connections : Workflow Tips

Words of the Wise

Brad88 — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 10:05:00 GMT

Two weeks ago I was fortunate enough to attend an editing workshop with double Emmy award winning editor Kris Trexler where we looked at how he cuts the genre he’s most known for namely television comedy. Suffice to say I got a great deal from the two days he spent with us some of which I want to share with you today. But beyond that it got me to thinking... we may not all have Emmys, Oscars etc, which Kris himself says was a lot about being in the right place at the right time, but we do have hard earned experience on particular genres that surely is more valuable than any piece of silverware… so what about if we shared that?

There are many generic courses and workshops out there but in today’s fast paced high demand world we don’t have the time to plough through those copious materials to get to the 5% we actually need for our own projects. So with your permission here is what I would like to do... Let’s start creating our own volumes of wisdom genre by genre. The Avid community encompasses creative talents from around the world working on all sorts of programming be it for film, TV or other forms of media delivery. We each have faced and met different challenges either from a creative or workflow perspective the solution of which, while unique to us, could be of immense value to others in similar circumstances. So what words of wisdom would you share?

I can start the ball rolling with two, one of Kris’s and one of mine.

From Kris Trexler on television comedy: - To really sell the joke don’t cut away from the actors eyes until he has completely finished his delivery. I explored that idea while working with some footage Kris had for us to use and I found it to be so true. If I rushed for the reactions and laughter, even by a few frames, it really had a psychological impact on the line

And from me on editing in general: - Be very aware of when an actor looks at something because it effects what you can show next especially if he/she looks quickly.

I think this comes from thousands of years of not wanting our throats ripped out by wild animals in the jungle but when we see someone look somewhere, especially quickly, we want to know what they are looking at just in case its said wild animal. If your audience sees the eyes move they want to see what’s being looked at and if that desire is not satisfied they suffer which in terms of your edit breaks the dramatic flow. So watch the eyes.

Now I know I said specific genres but if you do think you have an overarching gem of wisdom we would love to collect those too. So please get writing. Send us your name, the genre, the insight(s) you wish to share down and any relevant details and let’s see if we can’t help each other to all collectively raise our games... And maybe one day be the right editor in the right place too.

Avid Workflow Expertise - an all round experience

balonso — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 14:47:00 GMT

Through my several years working at Avid as a workflow consultant, I have shared experiences with a huge variety of Avid users, from diverse backgrounds, with different goals and ambitions and with varying levels of Avid product knowledge.

To my surprise, one of the questions that I get invariably asked is: "in your experience, how have you helped others (other broadcasters, other production facilities, other users) go about addressing this challenge?" In other words, when it comes to implementing new technology, new products, new ways of working, users want to know how it is done elsewhere, how did we, Avid Consultants, go about working out similar conundrums.

It makes perfect sense that upgrading or changing technology should be taken up as an opportunity to re-evaluate the production processes, the way “things are done around here”, and to humbly re-assess what needs improving and what needs to be preserved in the new world. And this often happens in close collaboration with Avid Professional Services team: our project delivery team, trainers and workflow consultants.

Hence, an unexpected "bonus" that comes with being an Avid Workflow and Training consultant is that we are exposed to all sorts of practical situations both in broadcast and post-production environments. Either for news production, programme-making, high-end editing, material ingest, play out... you name it, we have probably been asked about it! It is a great satisfaction to work together with our users through the technological and workflow challenges that they may find, and agree on and implement a solution that makes everyone (or most!) happy. Not only that, but we know that workflows are organic and they evolve with time and as production needs change, so we are always prepared to review workflows and tweak them if needed.

As more and more users quizzed me about my recommendations based on “how others did it”, I gradually realised that such exposure was of huge value. Most end users do not get the chance to walk into another production or broadcast facility and spend time observing how they work, analysing their workflows and optimising them for efficiency. Avid Workflow consultants do! We gradually collect an invaluable set of tools, tips and tricks, which we can then pull out and apply at the relevant moment with whoever we work with next.

For example, whilst working at a start-up news channel in India, the library department had never worked with non-linear, digital archive systems. We spent a considerable amount of time exploring what their goals were, and agreeing strategies with the super users, to ensure that they had a reliable and effective archive workflow. This resulted in the creation of several custom metadata fields to their Interplay database (editable via Assist or Access), setting up of daily workflows to sub clip rushes with Assist, consolidate them with NewsCutter and then placing these archive compilations on an auto-archive folder which takes care of the actual archiving process.

I have also found that, during workflow discussions and workshops, my customers appreciate a session on “user cases” that describes how we helped broadcaster A, or post facility B tackle a particular workflow challenge. Or simply, to learn about alternative ways of ingesting, transcoding, editing, approving, sound mixing, archiving, etc. Obviously, we are extremely sensitive about how we share such information, and we will always discuss user cases as fully anonymous. The idea here is to learn about the processes and workflows, and not to share any “trade secrets”!

As another illustration, I recently worked with a large broadcaster in Central Europe, which produces programmes and promos for their national TV channels. Coming from an Avid MediaManager environment and upgrading to Interplay, they wanted a solution that allowed them to easily distinguish Interplay folders from checked-in MediaComposer projects within the Interplay database. This was easily achieved with a combination of folder colours and pre-fixing folders with special characters. A simple, but very elegant solution that suited all!

As you can see, Avid Workflow Consultants cannot only help our users understand more about Avid products and the processes that use those products, but we can also add that “all-round” experience that is so valuable in today’s content production industry. Ask us a workflow question: we have probably answered a similar one before… but, if not, rest assured we will reach out to the rest of the Avid Worldwide Consultancy team to offer you a variety of solutions. It’s in our inquisitive nature!

Bea Alonso-Martinez

Avid Senior Professional Services Consultant

The Avid GPS/SatNav

JGalui — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 06:12:00 GMT

I’m currently sitting in a hotel room in Odense, Denmark whilst visiting the TV news station, TV2 Fyn. Yesterday I was in Holstebro, Denmark to visit TV2 Midt Vest and the day before in Munich for Creation Club, Germany. 9 days, 3 customers, 3 flights, 3 hotels, 1 hire car and thankfully a GPS to find my way around. Last month I spent a great deal of time in Dubai at MBC, where again, thank goodness, the car I was being transported in was fitted with a GPS/SatNav system as well. For those of you who have ever visited, or read about Dubai, you will know it is a constantly changing and developing landscape, whereas Denmark has a long established infrastructure.

So, are there any similarities? Well, yes… all four of these customers produce news, sport, trailers, commercials and features. They shoot, edit, produce, transmit and archive video and audio, albeit in different formats and resolutions. They all strive to be the best they can be and to serve their audiences across multiple platforms. And, best of all, they all use Avid products to create, publish and archive their content.

All of these customers also made a move from a familiar landscape of Media Manager on Unity to ISIS with Interplay. Not as big a ‘leap’ as they initially made from tape to Avid, but nonetheless they were moving into new territory, and needed a guide who had been there before: enter the Avid Workflow Consultant, or the ‘Avid GPS/SatNav’.

‘At the next junction remember to delete unchecked-in avid assets folder contents. These will quickly fill with rendered effects not used in checked-in final sequences’

As you can hear, the GPS system keeps reminding me of what to do/say along the way…

Instinct features heavily in the MBC newsroom workflow, voice over is done at the desktop and the majority of the editing is done by the journalists, who in the past would have used Media Browse to prepare edits, which would be finalised by an editor using Avid NewsCutter.

‘In 1 mile, keep left and remember to duplicate an Instinct sequence in the NewsCutter bin before finishing it off’

Occasionally, Instinct edits are finished off by NewsCutter operators if effects are required, duplicating the sequence in the NewsCutter will break the link with the original iNews story and means that if the journalist were to open their original story from inside Instinct again, that they will not overwrite anything the editor has checked-in.

Yesterday, I had an editor capturing video at a central ingest point to a NewsCutter bin. They, of course had to wait until the 30 minute capture was finished until they could begin to edit. They have 2 x NewsCutter Nitris DX systems that they use as capture devices.

‘At the next junction, pin a folder in Interplay, and you can capture directly to that folder and return to your NewsCutter and frame chase edit’

Pinning the folder and capturing to it, allowed the editor to begin cutting from the ingested tape, as they would from an AirSpeed ingest, frame chase editing. They finished the story earlier than expected because of this and this allowed the news gallery a little more time for a rehearsal before they went live with their new programme using an Interplay workflow.

‘Turn right and you have arrived at your destination’

Last night TV2 Fyn went on air with their news programme using a full Interplay workflow. In a day or two we will be deleting media from the ISIS that is no longer needed for news using Interplay Access, so deletion and protection rules are very important. What if a master clip that was captured yesterday is going to be used again tomorrow? What are the rules, and who will protect the media? These decisions need to be made by the customer, with the guidance of a Workflow Consultant from Avid.

A joint decision was taken to permanently reserve all projects that get checked-in to Interplay. Deletion is then done on a project by project basis…

‘When clicking delete at the next turn, you should never override a reservation, as this will override all reservations for that clip’

If a newsroom journalist user creates a new NewsCutter project and bin from the NRCS tool and drags a master clip in to the bin from a project that is about to be deleted, and checks that bin in, it will be automatically permanently reserve the master clip again. Why? Well, the workflow for TV2 Fyn is that we have created a site setting for each machine that ‘points’ every new project created into a subfolder of ‘Projects’ called ‘Projekter’ (Danish for Projects). ‘Projekter’ is permanently reserved, which means they have a similar workflow to the one they had with Media Manager, in that association with a project protects the media, until the project is deleted.

We have also created a folder in Interplay called ‘Trash’. When a NewsCutter project has been checked-in and is no longer needed, the deletion cycle is 3 days here at TV2, then the project is cut and pasted into the trash folder, where the reservation is removed from the folder and the project folders and associated media is deleted.

Summing up, there are many considerations when designing a workflow with a customer, and for me workflow is not just about how the media gets from camera to screen to archive, that’s what I would call ‘media flow’. Workflow is about people; journalists, editors, designers, anchors, camera operators, librarians, viewers and advertisers. There are always two sides to every project; is this a technology project that involves people, or a people project that involves technology? My view is the latter. Technology may drive the change, but managing that change involves a symbiotic effort between the customer and Avid, this is why having been a customer and operator of Avid products (as well as ‘other’ providers), the Professional Services Workflow Teams can approach and work with customers and understand their needs from a real-life newsroom perspective.

Article by Richard Bentley, Avid Professional Services Consultant, EMEA.

One Avid Workflow and Training

JGalui — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 17:06:00 GMT

Pro Tools and Video work in tandem to deliver customer success at Channel 4 UK

Located at Channel 4’s offices in Westminster, London, the Red Bee Media Production centre provide post production facilities to the Channel.   Red Bee have a mixture of Media Composers, Symphony Nitris, Digital Tape suites and 2 Pro Tools suites, one housing a D-Command and the other a Command/8.

Although the significant change ahead for Channel 4 and Red Bee Media Production was the migration of playout from in-house facilities to an offsite facility – a more local challenge was to upgrade their current Avid installation to include an Interplay database and extend the viewing and logging application to production areas located elsewhere in the building.

The team were also adopting a new audio workflow – moving sequences seamlessly between the final picture edit and the final audio mix – and back again, with numerous versions to contend with.   All using Interplay with a Video Satellite in the dubbing theatre.   This required careful workflow planning with their senior operational stakeholders and entailed subsequent user training.

For the first time Avid presented a united workflow and training offering with Claire Humphries (EMEA, Training and PSG) providing workflow and training for all things video and Interplay and Andy Baker (formerly of Digidesign) providing workflow and training for Pro Tools 8.0, Media Composer Video Satellite and the Pro Tools/Interplay workflow.

Claire and Andy presented a united workflow session to the team which enabled a clear, transparent and efficient workflow to be designed across both departments. Editing stakeholders were encouraged to attend, and vice versa; the dubbing mixers had a say in the final edit preparation of the video workflow.

Not only did this engage both craft departments, ensuring that all technical and creative requirements were represented, but the customer was delighted to see Avid working as a team.    Formerly, customers saw Digidesign support and training as a totally separate offering to Video workflow consultancy and training. Now the customer sees a One Avid approach helping them to achieve success in their programme making.

Avid Interplay: Not For Just Your Avid Media

Anonymous — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 07:36:00 GMT

One of the overlooked features of Interplay is the ability to bring all sorts of "non-Avid" files under your control and make them available for all your users (or a select few) to collaborate on. That's right...the Interplay Access application can track any kind of file, in addition to all those Avid masterclips, subclips, sequences, effects, etc. Beyond that there is also native support for Adode Photoshop and the entire Microsoft Office Suite of products: you can actually check in and out files from these products, into Interplay, from their file menus.

Microsoft Word with the Interplay Plugin

The workflow for using these assets is simple:

Create the file on your local system.
Import the file into your Interplay database using Access or Avid Interplay plug-in for Microsoft Office or Adobe Photoshop.
When you want to edit the file, check it out of Interplay using Access, Office or Photoshop.
When you are done editing the file, check it back in to the database using Access, Office or Photoshop

At this point, other users on Interplay who have been granted the proper "roles" or permissions could view and edit the files. There are somewhat different rules for file assets as opposed to Avid assets in Interplay. For example, with file assets, a user can do an 'exclusive checkout' meaning no one else can open the file for editing. There are also features with allow for version control of the assets where you can look at the history and differences between different versions of a file, for example some color correction to a Photoshop file. There is actually one use of this versioning aspect which you could use for Avid assets. Different versions of Avid sequences get checked into Interplay and you can use this version control to view and rollback to previous version of a sequence.

For system administrators, there are some consideration for implementing use of this non-Avid assets workflow. First, you must get an idea of just how popular it will become once your users catch on. I've already mentioned Office and Photoshop files, which are supported natively, however MP3s and other audio files, QuickTime movies, Windows Media files, JPGs, GIFs, etc. can all be imported and tracked in Interplay. So, if you are going adopt Interplay for a 'graphics' workflow which may entail large files...where are these files going to be stored? By default, they go to Interplay Engine server and depending on whether you are on a single or clustered Interplay system and using an SR2400 or SR2500, the available space will range from 70GB up to a little over 900GB on the raid array that comes with a cluster. My recommendation for anyone who thinks they may want to use this workflow is go with the 'split database' method. It's easier to do this before your system has been installed and in use for awhile. So if you are just getting an Interplay system be sure to tell your Avid installer or reseller this is something you want to do. They will create a separate workspace on your shared storage system where these 'non-Avid' assets will get stored.

Administrators will also want to know how to configure certain types of assets to open up when launched from Interplay Access. You can do this from the Tools->Options->Asset Types in Access. For a .JPG for example, while you can view head frames in Access, you may want to have it open in a specific external application. That's configurable with Access. You can even chose different applications for viewing and editing.

You can play non-Avid Video directly in the Access window and play audio files there as well:

To use file assets, there are no special bits to run at install time. The Office and Photoshop plugins come standard as well with all Interplay systems. However, you do have to install the plugin. Not all sites and installers are aware of this. Make sure you do a custom install for Access from Interplay installation DVD and choose the plugins you want. After that, any future upgrades should automatically pickup the plugin from the local machine's registry and upgrade it accordingly.

Post by Stacy Saveall, Avid Training Services Instructor and Curriculum Developer

Improved Delete Behavior in Latest Interplay Release

Anonymous — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 06:52:00 GMT

Many editors are familiar with the “Lock Bin Selection” option in the editor to protect their media from being deleted.

For those that have adopted the Interplay workflow, however, locking clips in a bin is not the recommended best practice. Reservations are time-based permissions applied to folders in Interplay Access, and should be applied to protect media.

If a user locks a clip in his bin and forgets about it, Interplay doesn't have a way to delete the media file off the system. Media Managers would likely see the following error when trying to delete certain files off the system.

The file gives an “access denied” message because it is in a “Read Only” state on the Windows level and even an Interplay Administrator cannot override this permission. We’ve seen several sites in the past that have hundreds of clips appear in the “Orphan Clips” folder in the Interplay database that could not be deleted because of this. The possible workarounds would be to drag the clips into a bin and unlock them from the editor, or to hunt through Windows Explorer to find the “Read Only” files and remove the flag. Both options could prove time consuming.

With Interplay 1.4.2, we have included a new Site setting called Delete Behavior.

This setting allows the Administrator to decide how to treat media that has been locked in the bin. As you can see from the setting below, Administrators can leave it up to the delete user’s discretion, or create a default setting for everyone.

Allow user choice in Delete dialog: Two options are available in the Delete dialog box: “Skip” and “Force delete.”
Always skip (default): In the Delete dialog box, the “Skip” option is shown but cannot be changed.
Always force-delete: In the Delete dialog box, the “Force delete” option is shown but cannot be changed.

Now when a Media Manager plans on deleting assets he or she will see the following “Delete Options” dialog:

Note that an Administrator will always have the option to Force-Delete or Skip locked media.

Remember, it is a best practice to apply Reservations through Interplay Access to protect media from being deleted. However, if media had been locked in the bin and was never unlocked, Media Managers now have a much easier option to purge that media from the system once it is no longer needed.

Post by Ryan Nadeau — Field Trainer, Avid Training Services

Run useful reports on your clips and sequences in Media Composer 3.0.5

Anonymous — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 00:36:00 GMT

Media Composer has some brand new ways that you can quickly look up information about your source material, clips and effects. By running reports on your metadata, you can easily find things as you edit, and prepare for finishing (online) or confirming sessions. These reports can be saved, searched or emailed. (This feature was introduced in Media Composer 3.0, but has received some user-interface enhancements in 3.0.5.)

These reports are:

Source Clip Summary: lists all tape sources used in a timeline, and all graphics used in the timeline with their original paths
Clip Summary: lists all clips in the sequence or subclip
Effects Summary: lists all effects in a timeline, including a list of Plugins used

There are two ways to generate these reports: via the Console or via the Report Generator window.

Console

To run an individual specific report on either source information, clip information or effects information, type one of the following commands into the console:

dumpsourcesummary
dumpclipsummary
dumpfxsummary

-dumpsourcesummary

-dumpclipsummary

-dumpfxsummary

To run a complete default report (that contains source, clip and effect information), drop a clip, subclip or sequence into the Console window. The default report will contain all information from the above separate reports.

Report Generator Window

In Media Composer 3.0.5, these reports can now be run from the new Report Generator window. This can be accessed from two locations:

From the Composer Window: Load an object (subclip, clip, sequence) into the Composer window and then right click on that wndow and choose "Get Info" to open the Report Generator window.
From the Bin: right click on an object in the Bin and choose Get Info to open the Report Generator window
Note: The Report Generator gives you several additional options,
such as using In/Out marks, showing specific types of effects,
showing offline sources only, etc.)

You can either send the report to an output file, or run it in the console, as above.

Creating the "Pleasantville" Look: Using the Color Effect and Chroma Key

Anonymous — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 09:33:00 GMT

The following post is provided by John Lynn of Genius DV. GeniusDV provides Avid Media Composer Training to many locations nationwide.

While secondary color correction is a specialty of Avid Symphony Nitirs, it can also be achieved in Avid Media Composer or Avid Xpress Pro. In fact, creating the "Pleasantville" effect in these applications is a fairly simple task.

For learning purposes, find a short clip that has a dominate object that contains mostly one shade of color. In this example, the orange flower.

Start by editing the same exact clip to V1 and V2 on the timeline as shown below. Make sure the starting and ending points and each clip match up exactly.

Then, navigate to the Effect Palette and place a color effect onto V1.

After you apply the color effect to V1, click on the Effect Editor button. Make sure that you're monitoring V1, so you can see that changes that you make to V1 while in the effect editor window.

Now, drag the (sat) slider to -100. This should make the clip that is on V1 turn to black and white. The composer window should now display the clip as a black and white video image.

Go back to the Effect Palette and apply the Chroma key effect to V2.

Enter the Effect Editor on V2. Make sure to monitor V2 so you can see the changes that you make in the Effect Editor window. Before moving forward, your timeline should like like the example below.

Within the Effect Editor, you need to specify the color that you want to key out. In this case, the orange color. You can click in the key color box and drag your cursor to the composer window to pick the color you want by using the eyedropper. This will give you a good start to matching the color.

Make sure you click on (Invert key) to see the black and white image underneath V2.

The controls can be finicky. It will take some experimenting to find the correct value. Normally, it is a fine mix between the Hue, Gain and Softness controls. Once you get the correct mix, the result can be spectacular.

"Stylish" Deko tips

Anonymous — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 01:52:00 GMT

Avid Deko trainer Shirley Oxendine offers helpful advice about how to create a text layer that contains two styles. This is one installment in a multi-part series of Deko related tips by Shirley.

You’ve all seen it. An anchor’s first name is in one style and the last name is in another.

JAMESsmith

avid-DEKO-

BOSTONred sox

How can you create this in a MOS template in Avid DekoMOS?

The challenge is that DekoMOS relies on the layer style to display any automated text. A layer can have only one style. So, how do I display multiple styles in a single text layer of a template?

A workaround is to create the first name in one layer and the last name in another. If you use this workaround, the journalist/producer must not only input two different layers—which wastes precious time and risks typo errors—but the two names must be aligned properly for a variety of name combinations. Sure, you can right justify the first word (or layer) and left justify the second word (or layer). However, this requires the layers to "meet in the middle" and doesn’t insure that the placement of the first character of one word matches the first character of a different word. (i.e. a short name, ‘Bob,’ begins in one position and a long name, ‘Charmayne,’ begins at a different position.)

Here’s a way to insure the words align exactly and only requires a single keystroke from the journalist/producer:

The technique described in this article requires you, the template designer, to setup the text sets that contain words in more than one style in advance and assumes you have a working knowledge of creating templates and Custom Typefaces.

Creating the image as a Custom Typeface character:
1.    Create the text sets in the combination of styles you need.
2.    Center the text and the layer in an otherwise blank graphic. When you import this into a Custom Typeface, each text set that you create is positioned and sized relative to other text sets that are used.
3.    Create a new Custom Typeface and assign it to a displayable character using the "Import Character From Current Graphic" import designation for each text set
4.    Save the Custom Typeface

Creating the template:
1.    Create the template as usual
2.    Set the text layer in the template to your Custom Typeface Style and size appropriately. Since the text sets were all created exactly in the same position and style, one size should work for them all. It’s a good idea to create the template placeholder with a text set that is clearly not something the journalist would use normally. This makes it clear in the Preview mode which layers have been updated.
3.    Communicate to the journalists/producers which keystrokes to use for each image.

NOTE: The 2nd line of this lower third is just one character – a capital A of a Custom Typeface.

Below are the links to the current Avid Deko and Avid DekoCast User Guides. The User Guides contain lots of practical step-by-step examples. Also, check out the Help menu in the applications for a quick reference when you don’t have the User Guide handy or just need a quick answer.

Avid Deko User Guide
Avid DekoCast User Guide

For a comprehensive learning experience on the Avid Deko or Avid DekoCast, consider using the new e-learning ALEX courses. To browse the complete Avid ALEX course list or register for any of the courses follow the link below.

http://learn.avid.com/alex/lms

If you are interested in making a guest appearance to this blog site, please send any On Air Graphics blog articles to Shirley_Oxendine@avid.com. Your interaction and input is important.

Post by Shirley Oxendine

How To Create an Offline-Online Workflow with Panasonic P2

BobRusso — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 15:16:00 GMT

One of the most popular emerging workflows in today's post-production world is the Offline-Online workflow with the Panasonic P2 camera. Watch this video to learn exactly how to take your HD media from the P2 card, edit at a SD resolution, and then relink back to its HD flavor. A transcription of my narration is posted below the video.

I’m Bob Russo, the media education evangelist for Avid Technology. Today I’m going to talk about an offline – online workflow with media from a Panasonic P2 camera and the Avid Media Composer.

One of the ways to work with media from a P2 camera is to copy the contents of a P2 card to a folder on a drive. This is what I’ve done here. The first step in working with P2 is to import the clip information into a bin. Select File, Import P2, Clips to Bin. A finder window opens. Navigate to the drive with the P2 media. The top-level folder must be selected. If this folder is not selected the Media Composer will not be able to import the clip information and you will receive this error.

Once I selected the correct folder the Media Composer indexes the media. The media isn’t being imported, instead, just the clip information is being loaded very quickly into a bin. You can see how the clips are actually linked to a virtual P2 card on the drive and can be played right away. I’ll make my selects and consolidate the media over to my local storage using the File, Import P2, Media. The clip media is now on my local drive. For storage and performance reasons, I like to edit the sequence in a standard definition resolution. To do this, change the Format tab to 30i. Select Clip, Consolidate/Transcode. The Consolidate/Transcode box opens. I now have the option to transcode the HD media to any SD resolution. I’ll select DV25. As you can see, three new clips are made, and I can start my edit.

Once the edit is done and the sequence is ready for the online, it can be relinked to the HD media. Change the Format tab back to HD. The SD media changes to yellow, warning that there is SD media in an HD sequence. With the sequence selected, select Clip, Relink. The Relink box opens and select the Highest Quality in the Video Relink Parameters. These options can be turned off, and click OK. The sequence is quickly relinked to the original DVCPRO HD media and ready for the online.

And that's an offline – online P2 workflow with the Avid Media Composer.

Pre MC 3.5* How To Edit with Media from a Sony XDCAM EX Camera

BobRusso — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 14:19:00 GMT

This should only be used with Media Composer 3.0 / NewsCutter 7.0. Please see: http://www.avid.com/xdcam/

Watch this video to learn exactly how to take media from the XDCAM EX card and edit with it in the Media Composer. A transcription of my narration is posted below the video.

I’m Bob Russo, the product evangelist for Avid Technology. Today, I’m going to talk about how to use media from a Sony® XDCAM® EX camera with the Avid® Media Composer®.

Using the Sony XDCAM EX Clip Browser software, select a memory card or drive where the EX media is stored. The clips load and I can play them in the viewer. Decide on the clips to use in the Media Composer and select File, Export, MXF. Choose a location for the files and click Start. The clips are quickly rewrapped as MXF files, like the files from an XDCAM™ HD camera.

Now in the Media Composer, select File, Import. The import box opens. Navigate to the folder where the MXF files are and select them. The files are added to the Media Composer very quickly, because they aren’t actually being imported. Instead, the clip information is being created in the bin and the media is being copied to the Avid media files folder. Once the clips are in, I’m ready to edit and combine them with other clips in my project.

And that’s how you use media from an XDCAM EX camera with the Avid Media Composer.

2006 SIGGRAPH: Video Podcast:Studio Monthly 16mm workflow

Avid Community Team — Mon, 08 May 2006 17:49:00 GMT

Avid Product Manager - Michael Phillips along with Aril product managers take you through the 16mm workflow.