Avid Editing

Aug 2

OK, I will try NOT to make this a post comparing FCP to Avid…which is better…blah blah blah. They are tools…they get the job done…and I like both. I just wanted to point out a few things I like and dislike about both. The point? I dunno…do show the strengths and weaknesses of both I suppose. And also to tell people that I am NOT JUST A FCP EDITOR. Sure, I am on like five Final Cut Pro forums regularly…and NOT ONE Avid forum. That doesn’t mean…well, OK, it does. I like and prefer FCP now. So there….I said it. THPHTHPHTHPHTHPH!!

BUT STILL…I’d like to mention a few things I missed about cutting on an Avid.

I had a quick taste back in April. I was flown to Seattle to do the rough cut of a small project as a favor to my step-father, because the director passed away suddenly. The school (University of Washington) happened to teach and use Avids…Adrenalines. So I struggled my way thru a rough cut…not really having time to familiarize myself with the machine before I finished the rough cut and had to return to *cough* *hack* Los Angeles. But now I have landed a long term gig editing on an Avid…and I have been on an Avid for about a month. I am working on a Discovery Channel series on surgical doctors saving lives. My episode deals with a trauma center in Miami. ANYWAY…back to the point. After a two year hiatus editing on FCP…in my home…I am now back to editing on an Avid. NOW…I do need to mention that this Avid is…a tad old. It is an Avid Meridian v11…running on *cough* OS 9 *cough*. But I also need to mention that this is the version of Avid that I am most familiar. I started out on Avid Media Composter 5.5…assisted mainly with Avid 6.0 and 7. Then when I moved up to editor, I landed on a Meridian v11…utilizing UNITY.

And that is where I find myself now…in front of an Avid on Unity. The exact same system I edited on for 3 years before I moved to FCP.

But, why are they using such an OLD machine you ask? Well, I did at first, but then remembered something. One of my many many mantras. If it works, don’t fix it. This Avid not only works, but work as a part of a well oiled workflow that Hollywood is still firmly entrenched in. We offline at 20:1…then can either take the project file to a Symphony where it would be opened, recaptured and output to tape, where it is then color corrected on a DaVinci. An OMF is sent to the sound mixer where he sweetens the show then lays off to the color corrected master. That system has been in place for QUITE a while, and since it works for our given situation…for the type of footage we are editing…there is no need to change it.

And we are on a UNITY. Again, a system that works and works well. Sharing projects and media…nearly flawlessly. Every system has its quirks. And this one does appear to have more than its fair share of issues…more than usual. And the techs are switching it out for a newer model.

Since this older system works, the production has not needed to move to more expensive Avids. They are getting their money’s worth out of this system…as much as they can. And why not? They did invest about $65,000 per system (5 systems) and MORE on the Unity, and MORE on the per seat license…and tech support. So they are going to use it until it dies, or the workflow changes making it not a viable option.

Well gee Shane, if you like it so much, why don’t you MARRY IT? Huh?

One reason is that, well, it is cheaper than an Avid (And who doesn’t like a cheap date on occasion?). Every single Avid editor I know has FCP on their home system. Why? Well, we all edit side projects…short films, corporate videos, commercials, music videos….And most of us cannot afford an Avid. And the days of asking to use the company Avid for these projects, or sneaking in and using it at night (when you could…darn assistants trying to get work done)…are pretty much over. So I had a copy and used it on side projects.

But the main reason I switched to Final Cut Pro for a broadcast show was…well…HD. I was working on an HD show for National Geographic (a series of 9 shows on THE SCIENCE OF THE BIBLE)…shot with the Varicam, 720p. And we used the Avid Meridians and onlined on Avid Adrenalines…and…well. It wasn’t a smooth ride. Post went WAY over budget because of many factors…basically the system was having issues capturing DVCPRO HD and outputting an HDCAM master, and the people involved were inexperienced in what to do. So when a DVCPRO HD project came my way…I looked at FCP, which had been editing that format for a year or more at the time. And after some research, and testing…it worked great, so I made the leap.

WOW…and now this post is getting HUGE, and I haven’t gotten to my likes and dislikes yet. Better get there now. You can take a break and read more later. I’ll understand.

First thing I noticed…RIGHT OFF THE BAT. Moving clips around the timeline is clumsy at best. I am so use to dragging clips all over the place and rearranging things. Like index cards on a table. Flip flip flip swish swish, assemble assemble…done. And the “TTTT” combo was my friend. I get onto an Avid and this is TEDIOUS. First I have to click a button to ACCESS the arrow that allows me to move things, then I have to highlight my clips (or I can drag from the upper left down and draw a box around the clips I want) and then move. And I’d BETTER get the black space in between them, or there’ll be hell to pay. I needed to make space in the middle of a cut to place some clips. With FCP, I grab and move them, or hit TTTT and move everything down the timeline…well, not so with the Avid. I had to load FILLER and drop it in…ooop, cut my audio in half as it was under the video…ok, rejoin that, then up arrow to get back to my nearest clip…no..I just switched my multiclip shot from the A camera to the B camera. GAH!

I was very lost my first week on the thing. It was VERY clear that my FCP techniques weren’t gonna work. I had to shove FCP into the recesses of my mind, and root in the filing cabinet for my Avid skills. Ah, there they are. PHooo! Dusty. Cough cough.

OK…now…dynamic trimming…hey! I remember this. Cool. And subclipping. Wow, I missed that…rock solid, linked to the master clip that then opens the master bin the clip is in! SWEET! OK, two camera angles, GROUP clip those. playing in the timeline I just press DOWN ARROW and a cut point appears and the B camera is there. NICE. OK, I want to add a paint effect, LIGHTEN, to go from white to normal. I can drop this on the layer above…in the EMPTY space…and make that. OK, I need to animatte around this face to blur it. ANIMATTE! Man how I missed you. How ya doin’? And the kids? They healthy and having fun? Good….man, I missed you Matte…

Ahem…sorry. It is late.

My editing chops came back…and so did a lot of my favorite tools. Animatte, LOCATORS that work right (move with the timeline if I cut in a clip earlier in the timeline), a Viewer that REMAINS ACTIVE after I cut something into the timeline (yes yes, I found that workaround in FCP….go away kid, you bother me), putting effects in the layer above to affect everything below globally. Great media management…THE CLIPBOARD. Ahh…my trusty clipboard. Sigh.

OK…enough. Now to what I MISS on FCP. Things that made me go “what the?” when trying to cut on an Avid.

-AUDIO IN THE VIEWER (Preview Monitor, pardon me) IS BLACK. No waveform…no way to LOOK at your audio and see beats. Gah…that sucks.
-scrolling on the timeline is GLACIAL. Slower than slow. I had to basically zoom out, then find a spot, and zoom in. Not bad after you get used to it
-I have to OPEN THE BINS to see what is inside. And that is slow. I can’t just turn the triangle down for a quick glance. So this REALLY slows me down. It is due to the fact that each bin is a separate file in the Avid Project itself on the FINDER level. Smart in some ways, not in others. This is really slowing me down.
-MEDIA OFFLINE. Not the fact that it is offline, but THAT I CANNOT TELL it is offline until I look at the clip. Or in the case of audio, listen to it and hear nothing. FCP does a great thing by putting that RED SLASH thru the clip. And brings up the fact that FILES ARE MISSING when you launch the application. Avid doesn’t do this. Nope. It just isn’t there, and you open the clip and MEDIA OFFLINE. Or in the case of audio..you still see black, but it doesn’t play. Now, in the TIMELINE you can make it obvious what is offline…there is a setting to make offline clips RED. This is VERY helpful when onlining a show so you can see what is still missing and needs to be captured/imported. But I had audio and picture…a LOT of audio and video…go offline and I didn’t know until I looked for it. Then there was a call to the Avid tech (because hey, it has been a while, OK?) to fix it while I go play ping pong with my producer. And lose in GLORIOUS fashion.

Did I mention there is a ping pong table at work in the main bullpen? No? Well, there is, and I am the WORST player. to be fair I am the newest employee…but still…it hurts a little. Mainly because it appears I am getting WORSE. Ah well, to be around other people is nice for a change. Working at home has benefits, but to hang with people over the age of 9…and other GUYS (I am flush with daughters…and one wife)…that is nice.

OK…I have rambled enough. The point I wanted to make is that Avid is a tool. It does what I need…no matter how old it is. And FCP is a tool. They are both good tools for a freelancer in L.A. to have knowledge of. Avid is alive and kicking, and FCP is making lots of inroads. They both are good, and they both SUCK…depending on the situation. And it is very odd to edit with both in the same day (Avid by day, FCP side project at night). Lots of gears shifting.

Sorry for the long post. This is what happens when I don’t post for a while and save it all up (in a Word document) and spit it out at 2 in the A.M.

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Comments

James

August 2nd, 2007 at 7:23 AM

Very interesting post. Right now where I work we also have two old Avid Merridians, also V.11. But fortunately I get to work on the new FCP system as of about 6 months ago. I pretty much work in FCP full time as far as editing goes but I do have to dabble sometimes on our Avids. I feel the same way about moving clips around. It’s just so easy. I pull my hair out when I go to the Avid. Then it’s In point, Out point, In point, overlay cut. “Next…”. In point, Out point, blah blah blah. I mean it’s the fundamentals of editing but man I just want to grab and go. Oh, I don’t want it there, I grab it and try it here. No re editing, no recutting.

Another interesting thing I have found with the two systems is with the effects. Although many of the effects are basically the same the editor that is full time on the avid suite finds himself wishing that he had some of the effects from the FCP suite. Not only that but also with the additive of Livetype. I know I know Livetype is “lame” people can do better stuff in AE. But you can’t beat it when it comes to quick and dirty nice little titles to jazz it up a little. Especially the seamless workflow and being able to go back and edit with no re RENDERING. anyway I am rambling. I liked you comment and it is nice to hear someone in the mainstream being weighted towards FCP.

I always look forward to what you have to say in your blog. Thanks
WTL

August 2nd, 2007 at 7:29 AM

Great post – and very true. Mind you, I think I’ve forgotten all my Avid skills.

But, what I was actually comment on was that you use Word to write your blog posts.

Dude, give Writeroom (google it) a whirl. There is a free version 1.0, and the 2.0 is fairly cheap. I use it *all* the time.
Shane Ross

August 2nd, 2007 at 10:24 AM

WTL – I used Word to basically jot down notes.

“Oooo…ANIMATTE!”
“Locators….Yaaay!”
“No clip collision! I love this!”
“DAMMIT! I can’t move my clips around easily.”
“I can’t see audio waveforms…this is BOGUS.”

Stuff like that. And I have Word because, well, all my producers and writers have that and I need to open their docs. But, I have seen NeoOffice, which is free, or $5 if you want to donate, and I am considering getting it.

But Write Room does look cool…
dan

August 2nd, 2007 at 11:40 AM

You can see audio waveforms on the timeline for source clips if you toggle between source and record. Also, when working on a Unity you can see what clips in the bins are offline. Online clips show two little lines attached to the bottom of the clip icon that look like network cables (for lack of a better term), and offline clips show a slightly larger clip icon that doesn’t have those lines underneath. Or, if you set the bin display to frames or script, you should also be able to see media offline in the thumbnail.

On FCP why bother with TTTT? Just hit T once and then hold down shift when you make your selection, the results are the same.
Shane Ross

August 2nd, 2007 at 12:15 PM

I can see the audio waveforms on the timeline. I want them in my VIEWER so when I cut music, I can find the beat easier.

And I do TTTT out of habit…that is what I know. I didn’t know your trick of T and then the OPTION key. Every editor finds their own little tricks. But I admit that most of the tricks I picked up from other editors have come from you Dan. You have a knack for finding them.

Ah yes…I do see that now on the UNITY…the little CABLE connection..and it is missing from the offline clips, sure enough. Still, that is a small thing that I have to LOOK for…not as obvious as a RED SLASH…or a warning when you start the system that files are missing. And NOW i have the column heading for OFFLINE.

Audio mixing is poor on the Avid too. Keyframing is clumsy…can’t move them left or right, only up and down. So I typically resort to cutting the clip, lowering or raising the audio on one part, and adding a transition.

What is your tip for that man? I know you’ll have a good one.
dan

August 2nd, 2007 at 12:39 PM

To move Audio keyframes left or right on the Avid hold down OPTION on a Mac or ALT on a PC.

Actually, that applies to moving any keyframes left or right on an Avid. Even in Effects Mode.

Waveforms. I get what you’re saying, but you do understand that you can view both source and record sides on the timeline right? There’s a toggle button at the bottom of the timeline window that you can map to the keyboard (SHIFT-Y for me).

And the FCP Tip for T, SHIFT and OPTION both work, but for some reason with SHIFT you can actually see the double arrow cursor. And with SHIFT you don’t have to click on a clip in the timeline, whereas with OPTION you do.
Shane Ross

August 2nd, 2007 at 9:49 PM

Ahhh…thank you Dan. SWEET. Still not as elegant as FCP, but hey, nice to know.

Anything you need me to show you? Some trick you are lacking knowledge of?
Dan

August 3rd, 2007 at 12:26 AM

How to get producers to not push start dates? Do you know a trick for that?
AndrewK

August 3rd, 2007 at 12:48 AM

Shane,
Loved the post (even though I just hopped over here for a quick look before bed and ended up reading a short novel). Although I don’t have nearly the experience you do it reminds me of when I’ve had to hop between Avid and FCP and the first few days of just staring at the keyboard going, “How does this work again?” Also, a post house I used to work at had a rule not to use keyframes for adjusting audio and to make edits instead. I think that was a rule handed down by the audio facility that we used.

Dan,
At least in my experience the little “feet” telling you if a clip is on/off line sometimes lie. For whatever reason I’ve had clips always appear “offline” even though they were and could be worked with. Just gnomes in the machine I guess…
editblog

August 5th, 2007 at 6:14 AM

Hey Shane, great post. Sometimes a rambling post can yield better info than a well though out one. I wish you could get to a new Media Composer on the most current OS. I find a world of difference when I am on a new machine vs. when I have to step back to OS 9. I think a lot of it is the faster Mac but it just feels like a totally different edit machine.

And what is the workaround you found for keeping the Viewer active in FCP as you edit clips into the timeline? If it doesn’t involve a keystroke then it’s genius!
Susan

August 6th, 2007 at 1:56 AM

Hi Shane,
Great read…I’ve just come over to FCP from Avid and oddly enough cut on Avid this weekend, and just flipped without the TTT. Also had to get used to clicking a few buttons first before having an active timeline. Things that irritated me about FCP before, and now I am obviously used to!
I love cutting on Avid, but cutting on FCP full time for the past 3-months has made me appreciate it a little more and not be so ready to knock it. Yes, I do have some gripes which seem silly (small bloody buttons) but by in large I do enjoy FCP and it’s been good to see the holes in Avid (offline clips was a good one, didn’t really think about that until you brought it up, but yes a biggie to be able to see it in the bin without having to go down to the hamburger menu to see which ones are offline). Thanks for the blog…I’ll be back to read how it all ended.
Cheers,
Susan.
Shane Ross

August 6th, 2007 at 2:38 AM

Scott, you know I know that VIEWER ACTIVE AFTER CUTTING A CLIP INTO THE TIMELINE trick exists…but I haven’t used it. I have gotten into the habit of pressing Q after I cut a clip in. Then I get back to Avid and press Q..and thankfully nothing ODD happens. But I asked someone who knows, so I hope to get the trick soon.

And when I can justify $5000 for the Media Composer software, I’ll get it. I’d love to have it for my current job…edit at home and all, but nope…no kit rental, so I just cannot justify it.

Thanks Susan. Yeah, I really missed a lot of Avid things, but the elegance of working on an FCP timeline is something I really miss . If only we could get the best of both!
editblog

August 8th, 2007 at 9:26 AM

Shane,
I do the same as you in FCP in that a quick keystroke takes me back to the Viewer. But doing that a few hundred times in an edit is soooo inefficient. If you find that shortcut/setting in FCP to make the Viewer stay active do a post about it as there’s lots of folks who would love that one. Oh… and in Avid Q is “go to IN point” so nothing too screwy if pushed by mistake. And yep… rarely is a spare $5000 sitting around in the bank!
Scott
Baklap

August 8th, 2007 at 10:06 AM

Great blog!! Was fun reading the experience. Hopefully you will be able to cut on a newer MC-A as well in the future (for reference). And yes hopefully we get better tools on both next few years.

Best, Menno
Anonymous

December 13th, 2007 at 11:26 AM

for sure! I went to school and all we trained on was fcp and now I have a job making commercials on Avid and I’m always comparing the two. FCP is just so much better, more tools, and much more user friendly. I’m getting used to avid now but for a while I was getting so frustrated that I couldn’t just click in the preview monitor to move something around.
REASON

July 21st, 2009 at 5:45 PM

I am a FCP user who started using AVID last year. It is so true about Avid being pain in butt when it comes to moving clips around in the timeline. I tried to explain the editor who has no experience using FCP but they just don't get it.

Little Frog in High Def

Avid Editing

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