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AVID Editing - Rowe Productions

1. Figure 14 5 213 Avid Editing A Guide for Beginning and Intermediate Users Using the techniques we learned in the Paint section drag the Paint icon on top of the clip in the Timeline Open the Effect Editor and use one of the drawing tools I am using the Poly Tool but I could have used the Rectangle Tool to draw a shape that cov ers the image as shown in Figure 14 6 Now double click the shape so you can drag on the handles to make it fit perfectly Now drag the shape to an area of the street that looks identical to the one the paper is on Figure 14 7 Go to the pulldown menu and select Clone Presto we have grabbed the image of the street and put it inside our shape Now sim ply drag it on top of the offending part of the frame and release the cursor and the paper disappears Figure 14 8 Although in this example it is a distracting piece of paper it could be a microphone or a boom shadow or a hair in the gate If the shot pans or tilts you ll need to set key frames to the shape you drew so it keeps covering the offending object as the shot Figure 14 6 Figure 14 8 moves Just move the shape add a keyframe and continue until the shot ends Scratch Removal This is useful if you have a video dropout or scratches or white dust on your motion picture film which seems to always happen at the worst time Usually they last only a frame but they stand out 214 Chapter 14 Advanced Ef
2. Figure 9 18 To sum up the Segment Mode buttons Of 3 2 Use Extract Splice to change the order of clips in the Timeline Figure 9 19 Figure 9 19 Use Lift Overwrite to move blocks of sound or titles in the Timeline gt gt Figure 9 20 Figure 9 20 Suggested Assignments Cut together a sequence using the visuals and interviews from Kizza s Portrait Now practice the following Segment Mode skills 1 154 Go into Segment Mode by clicking the Extract Splice Segment Mode button Now move a clip either a visual or an interview toward the head of your sequence Make sure to Shift click to get the picture and sound Leave Segment Mode Lasso a clip making sure to lasso both picture and sound and move it to the start of your sequence Go into Segment Mode by clicking the Lift Overwrite Segment Mode button Move a picture and sound clip to the head Oops not what you want Undo Leave Segment Mode Add music to tracks A3 and A4 Get into Segment Mode by clicking the Lift Overwrite Segment Mode button Select the music and move it along the Timeline Try moving the music using the Trim Frame keys Lasso three clips to get into Segment Mode Check which mode you are in Leave Segment Mode by clicking anywhere on the TC1 track Media Composer Chapter 10 Advanced Editing As we ve noted on several occasions the Avid is a complex editing system loaded with features that give the editor tremendous flexibil
3. can be recorded at different sample rates sort of like the audio equivalent of resolution The higher the sample rate the better the audio quality You can edit material containing different 341 Avid Editing A Guide for Beginning and Intermediate Users sample rates and then in the Clip menu choose this command to determine one sample rate for the entire sequence This is important when putting your sequence out to tape The default for new projects is 48 kHz ExpertRender In Out Effects often require the computer to create a combination of media This creation of new media is called rendering If the effect isn t too complicated the Avid can often play it in real time without having the computer create new media This is nice because you can see if you like the effect and want to use it before you commit any media space on your drives to the effect Sometimes the Avid can t play effects in real time and they will have to be rendered for you to see them With this command the Avid will look at the effects you have on several tracks and decide which of them need to be rendered for all of them to play together Render In Out or Render at Position If you have just one effect to render place the position indicator on that effect and choose Render at Position If you have a number of effects that must be rendered mark an IN before the first and an OUT after the last and then choose Render In Out Render to Media Station
4. lt Drag roller to the left to extend the Voting Station clip by 30 frames Narration fill is lengthened by 30 frames Figure 10 3b It took me awhile to get the hang of this trimming in two directions business Just remember that once you have the clip you want to trim in order for the other tracks to stay in alignment down stream of that trim you have to add or subtract from every track or else you throw everything out of sync Figure 10 4 shows many tracks having their black fill adjusted so the picture clip can be trimmed Watch Point The transition that the Avid shows you in the Trim Mode window when you click na wie and Ger Picture and sync track are trimmed while the other tracks have their fill adjusted Figure 10 4 on the Review Transition button is called the watch point It s easy when there are only two tracks and everything is straight cut because there is only one transition to watch but whenever you have transitions that aren t in a straight line the Avid can select only one of the transitions to show in the Trim Mode window The last track selected for trimming is the one that becomes the watch point This isn t necessarily the one you want to watch Look at the location of the position indicator in the example in Figure 10 5 It is on the roller for a sound effect but the whole reason you re mak ing a trim is to adjust the picture and sync track That s where you wa
5. q 4 i 4 a q i 1 d q j 71 j k i i i 1 E q i i q i i j j q L FOURTH EDITION A Guide for Beginning and intermediate Users Sam Kauffmann 2 Avid Editing Fourth Edition This page intentionally left blank Avid Editing A Guide for Beginning and Intermediate Users Fourth Edition Sam Kauffmann AMSTERDAM e BOSTON e HEIDELBERG LONDON e NEW YORK e OXFORD fF ee PARIS SAN DIEGO SAN FRANCISCO e SINGAPORE e SYDNEY e TOKYO es aa Focal ELSEVIER Focal Press is an imprint of Elsevier Press EVI Focal Press is an imprint of Elsevier 30 Corporate Drive Suite 400 Burlington MA 01803 USA Linacre House Jordan Hill Oxford OX2 8DP UK 2009 Samuel H Kauffmann Published by Elsevier Inc All rights reserved No part of this publication may be reproduced stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic mechanical photocopying recording or otherwise without the prior written permission of the publisher Permissions may be sought directly from Elsevier s Science amp Technology Rights Department in Oxford UK phone 44 1865 843830 fax 44 1865 853333 E mail permissions elsevier com You may also complete your request on line via the Elsevier homepage http elsevier com by selecting Support amp Contact then Copyright and Permission and then Obtaining Permissions Library of Congre
6. Screen Direction Often good directors and their editors use screen direction to help tell a story Oliver Stone s Oscar winning film Platoon edited by Claire Simpson has a climatic scene in which Willem Defoe s charac ter is murdered by Tom Berenger s character This cold blooded killing 1s wonderfully telegraphed by the screen direction of the two characters Defoe is running from the left of the screen to the right to battle Viet Cong soldiers and for awhile Berenger moves from screen left to right as if he too is going to battle the enemy But suddenly he turns and begins moving from the right of the screen to the left toward Defoe setting up the final confrontation Unfortunately most directors and editors get hope lessly lost when dealing with screen direction and the result is a lot of confusion for the audience Look at Figure 5 1 to get a better understanding of screen direction In Figure 5 1a Kate is on the left hand side of the frame looking to the right Another way to say this is that she is looking from screen left to screen right left to right or L R In Figure 5 1b Tim is looking screen right to left or R L Make sure you understand what I mean when I say someone is looking L R Kate and R L Tim a Figure 5 1 a Screen L R b screen R L 81 Avid Editing A Guide for Beginning and Intermediate Users Now the way Kate and Tim are looking makes sense They are talking to each other and
7. Select Video HD SDI and Audio XLR RCA or whichever digital input you are using 1 In the Resolution menu make sure the correct DNxHD codec is selected Select an external drive for storage In the Decks pulldown menu make sure the correct deck is checked Gently insert your HD tape into the tape deck When the tape prompt comes up name the tape 001 002 003 Select it and click OK To refresh our memories we talked about raster type in Chapter 6 In our example here we shot true 10801 HD with its 1920 X 1080 frame or raster size which is the standard raster type We Project Marne aS ee 23 976p NTSC poh 24p NTSC 30i NTSC 24p PAL sets Standard 25p PAL v Standard 25i PAL DVCPro HD 720p 23 976 XDCAM HD 720p 25 Quit j HDV 720p 29 97 720p 50 720p 59 94 1080p 23 976 1080p 24 1080p 25 1080i 50 J 1080i 59 94 Figure 17 5 Choose Format and Raster Type Z DNxHD 145 MXF DNxHD 220 MXF DNxHD 220 X MXF Figure 17 6 t Bin Clip Output Special Tools Toolset Windows J XLR 4dBu RCA 10dBu AES EBU S PDIF Optical ADAT Optical S PDIF Figure 17 7 271 Avid Editing A Guide for Beginning and Intermediate Users did not shoot in a small raster size HD format such as HDV with its 1440 X 1080 raster or DVCPro HD with its 1280 X 1080 raster and we did not shoot on a XDCAM HD optical disc So choose standard These steps may differ slightly depending on how you connect
8. 2 Select the tracks you want to change in the Timeline e g A1 and A2 3 Place the position indicator on the clip in the Timeline Figure 8 26 4 Drag the sliders to boost or attenuate the low middle or high values 5 Click the Audio Loop button to hear the changes If it s a single clip you are finished and you will see an EQ icon on the track Figure 8 26 If it s more than one clip 1 Identify a portion of the track with IN and OUT marks 2 When you are satisfied stop and then choose Set EQ In Out from the EQ Fast menu To remove the EQ just click on the EQ effect in the Timeline and then press the Remove Effect button Figure 8 27 EQ Templates Avid has a number of EQ templates that fix E A Remove Effect button common audio problems A good way to learn how to equalize your sound is to examine the graphs that these different templates produce Look at the frequencies that are boosted and cut Examine the point where the center of the paramet ric curve is located These EQ templates cover most of the problems you ll encounter Use them as a jumping off point for fixing your sound You can t change any of the templates but you can recreate them and then make adjustments to fit your own set of problems 1 Put the position indicator on the audio clip in the Timeline that you want to change 2 Choose the template from the EQ Fast menu Figure 8 28 The EQ effect will be plac
9. Avid Editing A Guide for Beginning and Intermediate Users Figure 13 20 The image on V1 plete 21 nena ous length of the clip The reason it stays the same throughout is because the first and last keyframes are active pink Here though we want to change the look over time The superimposition looks nice but it s not what I want What I want to do is change the amount of superimposition as we play through the segment First I click on the first keyframe in the position bar This keeps the first keyframe active pink and makes the last keyframe inactive no longer pink Now I go to Effect Editor and drag the Level slider to the left Figure 13 22 resulting in 0 opacity at the start of the clip When I do that the foreground image V2 will not be seen at all I want this to be the case at the beginning of the effect Now I put a new keyframe further along the position bar as shown in Figure 13 24 To create a new keyframe just drag the position indicator to a spot further along the position bar and then click on the Add Keyframe button Next click on the keyframe to make sure it is pink Now go to the Effect Figure 13 23 Editor and move the Level slider to 25 Add Keyframe button Figure 13 24 202 Chapter 13 Effects Now I place a third keyframe further along on the position bar click on it to select it and change the opacity to 75 Now the foreground image really starts to come through the bac
10. e You shot on film and did a quick and dirty telecine to videotape Now you get a supervised transfer and you want to replace the okay looking video with great looking video This process is often called an uprez or going to an online resolution One problem you ll face is that you need space on your drive for this recapture process You can easily see how much room you have on your media drives by choosing the Hardware Tool in the Tools menu In Figure 19 12 you can see that the media drive we have used to store a docu mentary is nearly full but we need space for the uprez One simple way to take back some much needed storage space is to get rid of your unreferenced precomputes 308 Chapter 19 Finishing Drives System Media Drive 76 366 Figure 19 12 Deleting Unreferenced Precomputes A precompute is the new media the computer creates when you render an effect or a title If while editing your sequence you modify rerender or delete some of your titles or effects those old precomputes don t get deleted They remain on the media drive taking up valuable space These hidden hard drive hogs are called unreferenced precomputes They are the mohair sweaters of the dig ital world they take up a lot of space and you never use them It s frightening how many of them you ll find and amazing how satisfying it is to blow them away You will use the Media Tool for this mission Go to the bin that holds all of yo
11. sequence such as narration sound effects titles and music sync problems can become more fre quent and more confusing Figures 15 2 and 15 3 show a sequence containing material on two video tracks and three audio tracks The main visual material consists of a dolly shot past rows of houses with a title superim posed over the shot Audio track A1 holds narration A2 and A3 hold the sync audio Someta Mses 01 Dolly by Houses Figure 15 2 Before use of Single Roller Trim Mode Figure 15 3 After trim showing sync break Narration 3 Dolly by Houses Dolly by Houses Lets see what happens if I get out of sync To get out of sync I use Single Roller Trim Mode just on V1 and not on any other tracks and I trim shorten V1 by 32 frames Immediately sync break indicators appear Notice that the sync break indicators show that the dolly shot is out of sync by 32 frames What you don t see is that the title on V2 and the narration on A1 are out of sync as well If you are going to add or trim material from one track you must add or trim material on all tracks otherwise you will get out of sync Why doesn t your Avid show that the title on V2 and the narration on Al are out of sync Sync breaks only work with pictures and sounds that were captured together The video and audio tracks containing material that you added later the titles narration sound effects and music won t show sync breaks because the
12. 272 NLEs nonlinear editing systems 1 2 No Deck message 97 102 110 Non drop frame NDF timecode 319 320 Non interlaced Import Settings 246 363 Index Nonlinear editing 148 Nonlinear editing systems NLEs 1 2 Non square Import Settings 245 Nonsquare pixels 245 NTSC standard 91 92 file import settings 246 project choices 92 O O key OUT mark 18 21 24 Objects and titles 185 187 Odd Upper Field First setting 246 Offline batch capturing media 105 172 173 online offline editing 107 uprezing sequences 308 312 Offline Bin column 62 Off screen dialog 295 296 OMF media file type 109 110 omfi file 260 OMEFI MediaFiles folder 110 174 260 On Film Editing Dmytryk 329 Online offline editing 107 Opaque layer 246 247 Open Bin File menu 334 Optical disks 8 Organizing bins 100 Other tab Command Palette 76 OUT marker 18 21 24 See also Marking clips Out of sync 37 Outgoing shot 42 Output Gain slider 130 Output menu 343 Output Mode Digital Cut Tool 307 Output options 10 11 Output setting Audio Projects 130 Output to tape 302 308 changing sequence timecode 305 306 connecting powering up deck camera 303 crash recording 303 304 header material 302 303 opening Digital Cut Tool 306 308 record sequence timecode 304 305 video quality selection 304 364 Overlaps 51 52 Overwrite button 23 29 38 39 Overwrite Lift S
13. 316 back to film 327 328 changing sequence timecode 305 306 checking audio 301 302 connecting and powering up desk camera 303 countdown 302 303 crash recording to tape 303 304 Decompose 311 312 deleting unreferenced precomputes 309 310 Edit Decision List EDL 10 343 350 HDV sequence to HDV tape 308 header material 302 303 importing color bars 247 248 302 making progressive DVD Blu Ray disc 315 316 online offline 301 opening Digital Cut Tool 306 308 output to DVD 313 314 outputting to tape 302 308 recapturing process 311 312 recapturing sequences 310 312 record sequence timecode 304 305 recreating title media 313 reference head tone 302 303 replacing audio tracks 312 313 timecode breaks 312 uprezing offline sequences 308 312 using Digital Cut Tool 304 308 video quality selection 304 307 FireStore portable hard drive recorder 118 119 Fire Wire basic concepts 4 5 cables 96 97 configuring I O hardware devices 110 111 drives 67 68 96 97 Fixing volume output levels 130 Index Flagging frames by cameras 267 Flatten Layers for importing 247 Fleder Gary 317 Flex file 327 Flop effect 194 196 Flying spot scanner 318 Fn function key 31 Focus button 33 Focus command key removing 71 72 Folders attic 69 171 172 Avid MediaFiles 110 122 174 260 Avid Users folder 68 170 backing up 168 169 CONTENTS on P2 116 117 119 FireStore Media
14. CONTINUED 1 1D 1E 1K 1L Petar releases her She lholds her chest to catch ber breath Ngne of my leads ever kissed like Chat PETE Came on What bout Brad or Matt MICHELE i but you turns to ldok at Peter MICHELE beat What s soux name He grabs a nearby 2K resting on an apple box PETER tbe that s for ind out bea t you want to to know and you If that s um Qo M r with the heavy 2K There is a e turns to go FADE TO BLACK Chapter 19 Finishing I think successful video and filmmakers are product oriented Let s face it a lot of people start films and videos but only the truly dedicated finish them It s easy to give up to run out of steam to take a never ending break from a project Making a film or video is a lot of hard work and often you do it for little reward I think the reason why some people finish their projects while others abandon theirs is that they love having a product They can t stop until they hold something in their hands whether it s a videotape or DVD Here they say is my project Come look at it Let s first learn how to make a videotape from our final sequence and then how to create a DVD Online or Offline If you captured and edited your project at a lower resolution such as 15 1s in SD or DNxHD 36 in HD and now you need to uprez your offline project to an online resolution before going out to tape you
15. Capture three clips on the fly Name the clips in the bin Capture three clips from the tape by marking IN and OUT points and then capturing each one Name each clip while it is being captured Log five clips into the bin Now select the clips in the bin and Batch Capture Capture a master clip made up of three shots Subclip and name each shot in the bin Quit out of Avid and open your media drive Examine the Avid MediaFiles folder or the OMFI MediaFiles folder Do not move or rename anything just look Chapter 7 Importing from P2 and Memory Cards In this chapter I will describe how to import picture and sound from P2 and HDV memory cards Pll be concentrating on two popular yet very different cameras Panasonic s HVX200 and Sonys XDCAM EX I decided to devote a new chapter to this topic because it is totally different from the capturing process which is explained in Chapter 6 Here we re importing the media which is much easier and faster than capturing from videotape Because this is so much easier and faster we ll see more and more camera manufacturers skipping the videotape process in favor of recording directly to disks memory cards and drives Use the steps outlined here to help you import media from whatever storage device or memory card you might encounter The Panasonic HVX200 Panasonic s HVX200 camera is one of the most popular and sought after cameras on the mar ket Film and video sc
16. Dialog tracks 144 See also Sound Digi Translator 259 Digidesign Command 8 130 Digidesign ProTools File menu 335 Digital audio scrub 128 129 Digital audio workstation DAW 331 Digital Cut Output menu 306 343 Digital Cut Tool 304 308 changing sequence timecode 305 306 crash recording 304 opening 306 308 record sequence timecode 304 305 Digital intermediate DI 328 Digital Nonlinear Accelerator DNA 110 111 Digital scale for audio levels 142 Digital videotape DV format 264 265 Digitalvideoediting com 330 Direct Channel Type 111 Direction screen 81 83 Dissolves 204 205 DNxHD codecs 268 269 Documentaries 85 86 Dongle 5 Downconverting 4 3 letterbox version 277 described 95 HD master clips to SD 273 274 HD sequence to SD 275 279 HD to SD 122 Pan and Scan effect 277 279 squeezed media 276 277 switching from 16 9 to 4 3 277 Drag and Drop editing 64 65 Dragging to a mark 54 55 rollers 48 57 Drawing objects 185 Drive information Bin column 62 Driver software Panasonic P2 115 Drives storage basic concepts 4 5 FireStore portable hard drive recorder 118 119 media drives 4 5 356 offloading P2 cards onto 119 removable camera media 116 119 saving user profile on removable 67 68 selecting Capture Tool 100 101 source material 8 space requirements by format 107 Drop shadow 177 178 Drop frame DF timecode 319 320 Dual display 28
17. L keys once the clips are loaded into the Source Monitor just as you would any other clips A better way is to lasso the take lines or Shift click the take lines and then press the special Play key at the top of the script window Figure 18 12 Figure 18 12 Notice that the clips you selected play one after another in a continuous loop The spacebar functions just like the Play key so you can just as easily press it 288 Chapter 18 Script Integration The Tab Key The Tab key on the keyboard can be very useful when used with this special Play key After select ing the takes you want to look at press this special Play key Figure 18 12 or the spacebar to load your clips in the Source Monitor and begin to play them in order If you want to see the next take without waiting for the current one to finish press the Tab key The Tab key gives you control over what you watch Often you don t want to see the rest of the take You want to jump ahead to the next one and the Tab key gives you that ability This works with slates as well as takes If you lasso a section of your script including one or more slates all the takes for every shot will load and play Let s practice 1 Select one or more takes by e Lassoing a portion of the script covered by several takes or e Shift clicking on several take lines You will see that the tabs are dark selected 2 Press the Play key at the top of the Script window 3 Press the
18. Rendering Multiple Effects First click the track selector boxes to choose the tracks holding the effects you want to render Mark an IN before the first effect and an OUT after the last effect Go to the Clip menu and select Render In Out When the dialog box appears choose a target disk Click OK ee Waiting for Effects to Render If you have complex effects to render the process can take a long time I have often waited 5 min utes for an effect to render Five minutes might not seem like a long time but if you re really in a flow and coming up with a lot of ideas it can be like watching water boil One strategy is to wait until you have created a number of effects and then render them all at once while you go do some thing else Lunch is one possibility Fixing Titles with Effect Mode Let s say you ve noticed you have made a mistake in your titles a misspelled word or inadvertent comma You don t need to redo the title Place the position indicator on the title in the Timeline the one that needs fixing Make sure the track the title is on 1s selected Now click on the Effect Mode button as shown in Figure 13 39 This will open the title s Effect Editor Effect Editor gt 4p ol Pawares Animstian And now click Click here to open here to open the title the title s Effect Editor Figure 13 39 Opening the Effect Editor and the title 209 Avid Editing A Guide for Beginning and Intermediate
19. aaa Monitor where the clapsticks on the Cancer tomclapstiie slate come together as they do in Figure 20 6 is easy But identifying in the Source Monitor which precise Source Record Toggle frame of audio has the first frame of in source mode the crunch is harder because you can t see anything To make identify Figure 20 11 ing that first frame easier you can use waveforms We re accustomed to look ing at the Timeline and seeing what is in the Record Monitor but you can have the Timeline show what is in the Source Monitor instead Just click on the Source Record toggle command Figure 20 11 It looks like two computer screens Go to Audio Data in the Timeline fast menu and select Sample Plot Now you can easily see where the clapsticks first meet To return the Timeline view to show what is in the Record Monitor click on the Source Record toggle command button again Another speed tip involves the AutoSync command It can be time consuming to go to the Bin Menu scroll down the list to find AutoSync and then select it As you may recall in Chapter 10 we learned how to place a menu command onto a keyboard key or a command button So let s place the AutoSync command on an empty Timeline button or on a keyboard key for example F6 It s up to you 1 Get the Command Palette from the Tools menu 2 Select the Menu to Button Reassignment button on the Command Palette N
20. know where you want the OUT Hit Overwrite and you ve edited with a single mark 163 Avid Editing A Guide for Beginning and Intermediate Users Conversely you can mark an OUT in the Source Monitor then locate the frame for the IN mark You can perform the edit without marking the IN This works with Splice Overwrite or Replace 1 Go to Settings and double click on Composer 2 In the dialog box click on the Edit tab and select Single Mark Editing 3 Click OK Practice this because it s incredibly fast Match Frame Sometimes when you are working in the Timeline you want to see which clip a shot in the Timeline comes from or youre wondering what comes before or after the section you spliced in A quick way to open the entire clip is to hit Match Frame Immediately the entire clip will appear in the Source Monitor Match Frame is in the Source Record Fast menu but you can also get it from the Command Palette under the Other tab and place it on a command button on the Timeline toolbar as I have in Figure 10 15 Let s try using it Place the position indicator on the clip in the Timeline and press the Match Frame button Match Frame finds the source clip for whichever track is selected and opens it in the Source Monitor with an IN mark showing you the exact frame ICam Other More Trim Mode O Effect Mode 25 Source Record Mode CH Match Frame B h Cut A amp A 5 af Figure 10 15 y
21. 186 Titles with Objects Transparency Alignment Menu Lines and Arrows Other Buttons Changing or Fixing a Title Rolling Titles Cutting in Rolling Titles Rendering Your Titles Adjusting the Speed of the Rolling Titles Crawling Titles Marquee Suggested Assignments Chapter 13 Effects Kinds of Effects Effect Palette Applying an Effect Applying More Effects Deleting Effects Real Time Effects Effect Editor Effect Editing Tools Working with Keyframes Saving an Effect as a Template Effect Quick Review Adding Dissolves Freeze Frames Two Field Motion Effects Motion Effects Slow Motion Fast Motion Reverse Motion Strobe Rendering Two Field Motion Effects Rendering Rendering Single Effects Rendering Multiple Effects Waiting for Effects to Render Contents 186 187 188 188 188 189 189 189 190 190 191 191 191 193 193 194 195 196 197 197 198 200 204 204 204 204 205 206 206 207 207 208 208 208 209 209 209 XVII Contents Fixing Titles with Effect Mode Practice or Else Chapter 14 Advanced Effects and Color Correction Advanced Effects Paint Clone Scratch Removal Picture in Picture PIP Advanced Keyframes 3D Warp or 3D Picture in Picture Color Correction Pulldown Menus Your Tools Groups Automatic Color Correction Returning to Default Saving Your Color Correction Settings Color Buckets HSL Controls Curves Rendering Complex Effects A World of Effects Chapter 15 Keep
22. 224 228 HSL Controls 228 HSL mode 223 224 Match Color 228 229 pulldown menus 222 223 saving settings 227 Color Correction Toolset menu 221 222 347 Color Effect icon 227 Color Levels Import Settings 246 Color lines 296 Color Picker 182 Color wheels 216 225 226 Color coded takes 296 Colored titles 181 182 Columns bins moving 63 Command buttons changing 72 73 Command Palette Tools menu 71 72 289 346 Command Palette tabs 71 74 77 Commands See also specific commands basic concepts 17 keyboard 17 19 Components 4 8 capture boards 4 dongle 5 input devices 7 media drives 4 5 monitors 5 speakers 6 UPS 6 Composer Tools menu 346 Composer settings 69 Compression DNxHD codecs 268 269 HDV 266 video resolution 106 107 video settings 256 Configuring Avid I O hardware devices 110 111 decks cameras 97 99 269 Connecting equipment 96 99 cables 96 97 303 configuring deck camera 97 99 HD deck to Avid HD box 269 HDV cameras and decks 97 input devices 7 output to tape 303 Console Tools menu 346 Consolidate Transcode Clip menu 273 274 276 279 341 Continuity and eye trace 80 81 Contrast 225 226 228 See also Color Correction Control key Windows 333 Controls tab HSL group 223 Converting source sample rate 109 Copy Edit menu 337 Copying user settings 170 Copy Paste effect parameters 217 Counters frame 49 Crash reco
23. 340 343 344 345 347 345 345 345 345 349 350 351 375 Introduction Since the last edition came out in 2006 Avid has made significant changes to the way it oper ates It has simplified its entire product line by cutting the Xpress line of software and building everything around Media Composer software Avid is holding meetings all over the country and inviting editors to start a dialog about Avid s products and support Most incredibly the company has lowered the price of the academic version of Media Composer to below that of Final Cut so that a student with a valid student ID can purchase the industry s leading software for under 300 I applaud these initiatives and the whole new way Avid is going about its business Avid has always sold great editing software but it s often been overpriced without great customer support Now you can t help but marvel at the changes in price and value This book concentrates on the latest Media Composer software and because that software offers so many more features there is a great deal of new material in this edition Every chapter has been rewritten to keep abreast of the changes in the production world and Avid s responses to those changes Chapter 6 demystifies the capturing process including capturing HDV and DVCPro HD tapes Chapter 7 explains the entire P2 workflow so that you can easily import media from Panasonic s P2 cameras and other P2 devices It also tackles impo
24. Beta SP DigiBeta and high definition decks Figure 1 6 Avid Nitris DX The Mojo DX 1s designed to bring in standard definition digital signals via its serial digital interface SDI connections as well as uncompressed high definition signals via its HD SDI connections In order to connect to Avid s Mojo DX and Nitris DX hardware boxes your computer must have either an available PCI Express slot or an Express Card port A Word About Timecode All NLE systems the Avid included are based on the videotape tracking system called timecode As sound and pictures are recorded onto the videotape by means of a camera or deck unique numbers the timecode are placed onto the videotape as well There are approximately 30 frames of video per second and each frame has its own timecode number Whereas film numbers are based on the length of the film timecode is measured in time The first frame on the videotape is designated as OO hours 00 minutes 00 seconds 00 frames or 00 00 00 00 The next frame is 00 00 00 01 Since video Avid Editing A Guide for Beginning and Intermediate Users is based on 30 frames per second after 00 00 00 29 the next frame would be 00 00 01 00 Because each frame has its own unique address its timecode it s easy to keep track of them Computers are good at numbers so it is through timecode that the Avid keeps track of your pictures and sound Avid Editing Workflow Editing a project with lots of differ
25. Figure 14 25 222 Chapter 14 Advanced Effects and Color Correction You can also use this pulldown menu to turn the monitor into tools that help us analyze the image s brightness contrast and color satura tion The Waveform Monitor and V ectorscope are the tools video engineers most commonly use to determine proper exposure and color The Waveform Monitor shows a graphic representa tion of the clip s brightness often called luminance The Vectorscope analyzes the clip s color often called chrominance As you can see from the menu in Figure 14 26 there are other tools to help you analyze the clips luminance and chrominance information Quad Display lets you place multiple color reference tools in a single monitor so you Ouwad Nicola Empty Entire Sequence Reference Previous Next Second Previous Second Next Quad Display RGB Histogram RGB Parade Vectorscope Y Waveform Figure 14 26 can examine them all at once It could take another whole book to explain the function of these color reference tools Concentrate not on these tools but on making your clips look better but as you do that watch the tools to see how they change as you adjust the clip Start with the Y Waveform Monitor and once you grasp that try using the other displays to get comfortable with them Your Tools Groups There are two primary modes Glick here on the of correction the HSL hue tab to get HSL saturation
26. If for example you record the hum of an air conditioner on your dialog track it s very difficult to remove But if you turn the air conditioner off just before shooting you will have much clearer dia log If the air conditioner s hum is important to the story you can always record the hum separately and add it to your scene during editing That way you can adjust the relative levels of the dialog and the air conditioner Most sounds are added to films and videos after the picture and dialog have been edited This stage is often called picture lock Once picture lock is reached sound editors begin finding and creating the sound effects that were kept out during shooting Often sound editors must invent sounds 125 Avid Editing A Guide for Beginning and Intermediate Users What does a dinosaur sound like What sound does Darth Vader s lightsaber make Sound designers such as Gary Rydstrom Star Wars Attack of the Clones Minority Report Saving Private Ryan Finding Nemo and Ethan Van der Ryn all three The Lord of the Rings films deserve as much credit for the success of the films they have worked on as the cinematographers who shot the films because so much of the emotional impact comes from the sound track Film is shot Sound is built a layer at a time during editing Although the Avid is known for its ability to cut pictures you ll soon realize that s only half the story The Avid gives you tremendous control over your s
27. It s to make everyone else look good All are true and yet none comes close to capturing the critical role the editor plays in any production There are thousands of tasks involved in editing a film or video and thousands of decisions must be made along the way And all of them are important Which take is best Are the lighting and com position better in this shot or that Is the pacing of these shots too fast Will cutting out the charac ter s entrance make the scene more or less confusing Although the editor s primary job remains the same the manner in which an editor works was transformed during the 1990s by the development of computer based nonlinear editing systems NLEs The Avid was one of the earliest NLEs and it is perhaps the best known system in the world Today the transformation from analog editing machines to computer based editing systems is com plete Compared with analog devices computer based systems make the editor s job much easier and faster yet these systems can also make an editor s job harder and take a lot longer to complete It may seem like a paradox but it s true Avid Editing A Guide for Beginning and Intermediate Users Editing on a computer is much easier and faster than on an analog machine because nearly every task is executed with a single keystroke or the push of a button Yet there is a price for all this speed The Avid and the other popular computer based systems are much more dif
28. You also need to buy an Avid system to get the Avid manuals which is one reason I wrote this book This book might seem expensive but you didn t have to shell out hundreds of dollars to get it Information on the Internet Like all modern companies Avid has a well maintained website www avid com You will find lots of hype as well as information about new products and upgrades The Community section of Avid s website is particularly useful as you ll find forums tips and tutorials and links to Avid User Groups all over the country Scottsdale Denver Los Angeles Tampa Miami Portland Salt Lake City Chicago Nashville every major market and lots of small ones as well I belong to the Boston Avid User Group and I ve enjoyed attending meetings and sharing ideas with editors who live and work near me Argentina Australia France Germany Spain Norway Japan England and many other countries also have Avid User Groups A number of Internet user groups offer Avid tips and advice One of the most helpful ones I ve encountered is called the Avid L2 The vast majority of Avid L2 subscribers are professional Avid editors living and working all over the world Most of the postings are by editors seeking specific help for problems they are having on real projects and the answers come from experienced editors who have encountered similar problems and are offering suggestions workarounds and quick fixes You can learn a lot just by fo
29. anything downstream of this transition point will also be out of sync by ten frames Kate s CU wasn t trimmed but because Tim s is out of sync her clip is thrown off as well Remember in order to keep the picture and sound in sync you must cut the picture and sound at the same time When you add picture you must add sound To get back in sync we must either trim ten frames off of Tim s picture or add ten frames to Tim s audio Let s add ten frames to Tim s audio When you re out of sync you have to go into Single Roller Trim Mode to fix the problem Now click on the A1 track and deselect the V1 track The single roller will jump to trim Tim s audio Remember we want to lengthen his audio by ten frames We can use one of several methods e We can hit the lt lt frame key once e We can drag the roller to the left and watch the frame counter until 10 appears Enter Trim Mode on Selected Tracks It often happens that you want to enter Trim Mode on an audio track Perhaps you want to create an L cut split edit by trimming the audio track instead of the video track but you can t lasso just the audio track without lassoing the video track as well Yes you can click on the Track Selector buttons to deselect the tracks where you don t want rollers or you can Shift click on the specific rollers to remove them but that s very time consuming There is an easier way to do this Hold down the Control key Mac or
30. click on the Edit tab In the dialog box check the Default Snap To Edit box Figure 9 3 This will L Aute Patching make the process much easier to master Auto Monitoring ___ Segment Drag Syne Locks Default Snap To Edit Find Flash Frames Shorter Than 10 frames Extract Splice Segment Mode Button When you click on the Extract Splice button you ll Figure 9 3 enter Segment Mode To let you know you are in Segment Mode the background color asl on the segment button at the bottom of the Timeline will darken Extract Splice gt gt If you then click on a clip segment in the Timeline the clip is highlighted If the clip has picture and sync sound you normally Figure 9 4 148 Chapter 9 Segment Mode Editing want to move both of them together To select the sound clip hold down the Shift key and click on the sound Now both are selected as shown here Burning Hills Cooking in park Burning Hille Cooking in park Figure 9 5 Let s say we want the shot called Ext Pool which is the third shot in this sequence to become the second shot Figure 9 6 We want to move it so it comes after Burning Hills To move the clip click on it and then drag it to the spot where you want it to go As you drag a white outline will appear around the clip to show you it is moving When you drag your segment it snaps to cut points or to the blue position indicator Burning Hills Cooking in pa Burning Hill
31. tures to show you where the command keys are located Third party suppliers sell keyboards that have all the standard keys inscribed Google search Avid keyboards and you ll find a number of companies to choose from Three Button Play An extremely important keyboard combination involves three letters on the keyboard J K L Press the L key to play your clip or sequence forward The K key is like a pause key and the J key plays the clip or sequence in reverse By placing three fingers of your left hand with the middle finger on the K key on those three letters you have a wonderful controller Many people call this the three button play I urge you to get into the habit of keeping three fingers of your left hand or right hand if you are left handed on these keys at all times You can use these keys to play the sequence at different speeds If you press the L key twice it will play the clip or sequence at twice the sound speed Press the key again and it will run at three times the sound speed Press it again and you are running at 150 frames per second or five times the sound speed Once more will bring you to 240 frames per second Pressing the J key works the same way but backward If you hold down the K key while pressing either J or L the Avid will creep in slow motion backward or forward The Spacebar The spacebar acts like a large Stop button If you are playing a clip or a sequence hit the spacebar and the clip
32. 23 976fps in NTSC or 59 94 fps in HD However when you select either the 24p NTSC or 1080p 24 format in the New Project win dow you are turning the Avid from a Media Composer into a Film Composer that runs at 24 fps There are two advantages to this First there is no need to slow the audio down and second the Avid can print out a frame accurate list of where you cut the film called a cut list That s because each edit you make corresponds precisely with where you would cut the film As you d imagine the 1080p 24 setting is now the standard for well funded features The disadvantage is that it is very difficult to create a videotape copy because there is no 24 fps video rate Choose these settings only if you are planning to hire a negative cutter to conform your nega tive very expensive based on the Avid generated cut list and then paying for married film prints So I urge you to use the 301 NTSC or HD 59 94 setting unless your budget is in the millions If you ever do need a film print full service film labs can take your master videotape and transfer it onto film Because it was shot on film it will look like film and not video That s what Josh and Bennie Safdie did with their award winning films They finished on the Avid output to tape and then transferred the tape to film Feature Film Workflow For those of you interested the workflow in feature filmmaking has evolved over the past few years Until recently editors
33. 28 You can also see the sample rate that is chosen for your project in the Audio Project Settings win dow Again it should be 48 kHz If not you can change it by clicking on the pulldown menu e Import The Avid has the ability to change the sample rate of the audio For instance if you bring in music or sound effects from a CD those files are at 44 1 kHz It is best to automatically change those files to 48kHz Go to Import Settings select the Audio tab and be sure the first item Convert source sample rate is selected Import Settings Current Figure 6 29 e Media Creation Depending on your software when you double click on the Media Creation setting look for the Media Type tab if you have it or the Capture tab if you don t You ll see the choices OMF or MXF see Figure 6 30 109 Avid Editing A Guide for Beginning and Intermediate Users Media Creation Current lt lt s m i AAZ g E e s a ae Li biai TE pi P poa F E r ii i Figure 6 30 Nowadays I always choose MXF as my media file type Unlike OME which 1s an Avid invention scores of companies have adopted MXF as a file standard so it s easy to move from one type of software to another OMF is standard definition only whereas MXF is standard definition or HD I have a lot of OMF projects on my media drives and they still work fine but now whenever I m starting a new project I choose MXE MXF media files are stored ins
34. 47 Text Encoding Script menu 297 Text tool for titles 176 178 Text View bins 15 60 286 bin headings in 61 63 Third party plug in effects 197 Three marks for edits 23 38 39 Three button play 18 TIFF format 250 251 Timecode basic concepts 7 8 14 breaks 312 changing sequence timecode 305 306 default starting 305 notation using colons and semicolons 320 record sequence timecode 304 305 types of 319 320 Timecode track TC1 43 Timecode Window Tools menu 346 Timeline See also Timeline Fast menu basic concepts 12 13 16 changing clip volume 131 changing view 32 35 Default Snap To Edit setting 148 Display settings 148 drag and drop editing 64 65 enlarge or reduce tracks 34 Home and End keys 31 mixing SD and HD 272 273 moving position indicator 31 32 navigating 31 out of sync indicators 37 saving views 143 144 scaling and scrolling 33 Segment Mode buttons 148 selecting and deselecting tracks 30 31 snapping to cut points 31 32 Track Monitor icons 34 waveforms 137 138 zoom restore 33 Timeline Tools menu 346 Timeline Fast menu Audio Data 134 135 137 143 basic concepts 32 33 Track Color 73 Title Tool 175 177 Title Tool Tools menu 347 Titles 175 192 adding 10 adding fades to 181 adjusting length of 181 Alignment menu 188 blending 182 changing fixing 189 changing fixing with Effect Mode 209 210 choosing background 177 color
35. 63 Avid Editing A Guide for Beginning and Intermediate Users Woman Sweeps dusty street walk through market Buildings Figure 4 6 You can t enlarge or reduce just one frame as the command affects all of the frames in the bin but you can change the frame of the clip you are looking at You can play the clip inside the Bin window just click on it and use the J K L keys Whatever frame you stop on becomes the reference frame the frame you ll see from now on You can also drag the clips all around the bin putting them in any order If things get messy go to the Bin menu and choose Align to Grid Another useful Bin menu item is Fill Window When you select it the frames are positioned nicely in the bin window Starting a New Sequence Often you want to start over again to try some thing new or different The Avid makes it easy to Output Special Tools Toolset Windows Si do this Go to the Clip menu top of your screen New Sequence Shift Ctrl4N You ll see that the first choice is New Sequence New Video Track Ctrl V Select it and you ll have a new untitled sequence New Audio Track Ctrl u If you have a number of bins open a dialog box will appear asking you which bin you d like the Figure 4 7 new sequence to go to Choose one such as the Rough Cut bin Now go into the bin and give a name to Untitled Sequence Drag and Drop Editing Drag and Drop is an amazingly quick way to put toget
36. Alt key Windows and then lasso just the tracks you want and it works beautifully Examine Figure 3 32 Here I m not lassoing both the video and audio tracks but just the audio track This won t work unless I first hold down the Control key Mac or Alt key Windows Press Control or Alt and then lasso the transition from the middle of the track above Kids hick ba Women carries wate Kids kick ba Woman carries wate 3 Weman carries wate Kids kick bz Gee carries wate Figure 3 32 Now I can create a split edit by dragging the rollers either way I stay in sync because I m in Dual Roller Trim Mode Practice this We ll use it often when working with multiple audio tracks or when we have several video tracks in the Timeline 06 Chapter 3 Trimming J K L Trimming Avid has an advanced Trim Mode called J K L Trimming I don t want you to get overwhelmed with information so we will wait until Chapter 10 to explain 1t once you ve mastered all of these techniques Trim Mode Review Let s review some of the hows and whys of Trim Mode Getting into Trim Mode e Lasso the transition e Click the cursor near the transition and press the Trim Mode key Getting out of Trim Mode e Press the Trim Mode button again e Press either one of the step one frame buttons e Click the mouse in the timecode track TC1 at the bottom of the Timeline Switching Trim Modes e To go from Dual Roller Trim Mode to Singl
37. Audio setting e Audio Select All Tracks Centered Dialog and narration should be centered Music should be left and right If you are bringing in the spoken word this is the setting you want If you re bringing in music change it back to Alternating L R e Audio Project Here you can change the audio sample rate for your project as well as choose the type of audio file The latest versions of the Avid s software handle three different types of audio files WAVE AIFF C and PCM pulse coded modulation The PCM format should be used with Material eXchange Format MXF projects MXF is a new file exchange format primarily used with high definition signals so choose PCM for all of your HD projects or those that mix standard definition and HD material The Open Media Format OMF settings AIFF C and WAVE are older formats for standard definition projects If your Avid software doesn t support MXE then either WAVE or AIFF C will work fine You ll find you ll be using AIFF C or WAVE less and less as you move to HD and HDV projects 1 Go to Settings in the Project window and double click on Audio Project 2 In the dialog box that appears open the Audio File Format menu and select OMF WAVE OMF AIFF C or MXF PCM 3 For now use the settings I ve chosen in Figure 6 28 108 Chapter 6 Starting a New Project and Capturing from Tape Audio Project Settings Untitled Select Sample Rate and File Format Figure 6
38. Change the transitional effect length Render command Figure 13 17 Another command lets you reduce the frame so you can start an effect off screen and then enlarge the frame to return the screen to normal Let s work with a segment effect and use the Effect Editor and keyframes to change the way a parameter works We ll wait until the next chapter to examine Picture in Picture It s one of the more complicated effects Instead we ll use the Superimpose segment effect and work with the Foreground Level parameter Superimpose is available in the Blend category of effects For a superimposition to work you need two images First I add a second video track V2 I simply go to the Clip menu and select New Video Track I then overwrite the second clip onto track V2 Figure 13 18 Figures 13 20 and 13 21 show the two clips I next drag the Superimpose icon from the Effect Palette onto the V2 image Now I open the Effect Editor by placing the position indicator on the effect icon and pressing the Effect Editor command key The Effect Editor opens as shown in Figure 13 19 000 Effect Editor Fa F Figure 13 18 Figure 13 19 Right now the effect gives me a superimposition of the image on V2 over the image on V1 The level is set at 50 meaning that the two images are blended evenly together half and half or 50 If I click on the Play button lIl see that the two images remain blended at this level throughout the 201
39. Ctrl D 3 You have two deck configurations Double click on the top Deck Configuration 97 Avid Editing A Guide for Beginning and Intermediate Users Settings tab Deck Configuration Figure 6 8 4 When the dialog box opens click on Add Channel Figure 6 9 5 The software should recognize that a FireWire device is connected and supply the correct channel If not select Firewire in the Channel Type menu for Port select OHCI Click OK A dialog box will ask if you want to Auto Configure Click No Add Channel Add Deck Figure 6 9 6 Now click on the Add Deck button 7 Choose your brand from the Device list Canon Sony etc and then choose your deck or camera from the list of devices Figure 6 10 Select Canon mr an Elura g GL1 XHAI oo a al Select XHAI _ m model XHG1 XLI XLis XL2 v XLH1 60 ZR10 Figure 6 10 98 Chapter 6 Starting a New Project and Capturing from Tape 8 Now click OK to make that deck or camera the one that appears in the Deck Configuration window as shown in Figure 6 11 I selected Canon XLH1 9600 Deck Configuration Click Apply Figure 6 11 9 Click Apply 10 The window will close Now enter the name of the deck in the Settings window Figure 6 12 If you don t see your deck or camera in step 7 choose a similar model from the same manufacturer Now you have a FireWire channel and a deck or camera properly configured Mak
40. DVD Therefore when we start our new project the project format we choose depends on the kind of videotape and deck we transfer to If it s standard definition such as DigiBeta DVCAM or miniDV we will choose 301 NTSC If it s an HD tape we will pick 720p 59 94 for a Panasonic deck or 10801 59 94 for a Sony deck Our HD Raster Type will be Standard New Project New Project New Project Format Format Raster Type Format Raster Type 30iNTSC ow 720p 59 94 aa _ Standard x 1080i 59 94 Standard Figure 20 3 As strange as it sounds we will not choose 24p NTSC or 1080p 24 These two formats are designed for high budget feature film projects that plan to make film prints for distribution to theaters PH explain why shortly But please don t choose them even though it seems counterintuitive Now capture your tapes into your new project To review capturing go to Chapter 6 For an HD project and if you are using Mojo DX Adrenaline HD or Nitris DX you might want to review Chapter 17 as well The only trick is to configure the Capture Tool so V1 and TC are selected but all of your audio tracks are deselected A1 A2 etc Remember the sound isn t on your videotape ust the picture Sound and the Avid When you shoot on film your audio is not captured by the film camera but by a separate audio recorder such as a Nagra DAT or digital recorder Whatever recording device you use always set the device to rec
41. Even those filmmakers who do work from a script have argued that Script Integration is too much work While that argument may have been true in the past the latest Media Composer software v 2 7 comes with a new tool called ScriptSync which uses sophisticated voice recognition technol ogy to do much of the work Now there s no reason to skip Script Integration A little work on the front end is more than made up on the back end Once you get the hang of it you ll wonder how you ever got along without it Hollywood Style Editing Script Integration is based on the style of editing commonly used for feature films During production information about the way each scene was shot gets written onto the script by the script supervisor The script supervisor draws lines through the script indicating the amount of the scene each camera angle covers At the end of production the editor receives a copy of this lined script With the lined script in hand the editor knows what footage is available for each line of action and dialog The script super visor also makes detailed notes about how many times each camera setup was repeated and which are the preferred takes If you turn to the end of this chapter you ll see the lined script we ll be working on An Avid with Script Integration follows this lined script system but adds its own powerful digital editing tools You import the script right into the Avid You select the portion of the script
42. If your Avid is attached to a Media Station XL you can send certain effects to it for rendering Create Unrendered Title Media Feature length documentary editors often edit projects at a low resolution because it saves hard drive space and they then recapture the final sequence at a higher resolution for output to tape Titles created at a lower resolution may not play To get them to play at the new resolution you may need to select Create Unrendered Title Media Now you have your titles in the higher resolution Relink It sometimes happens that the connection link between the master clip and the media file is broken When we transcode clips this often happens The old clip appears offline even though you know the media file is on the drive somewhere In this case you need to relink the clip to the media file Modify This command allows you to change important data about a clip For example you might mistakenly log a tape as having two audio tracks when in fact there is only one useable audio track You can select the clips you logged in the bin and then using the Modify command deselect one of the audio tracks Now when you go to capture the tapes you won t be forced to capture two audio tracks Modify Pulldown Phase When working with film that has been transferred to videotape or with video cameras that record at 23 976 frames per second you are working with frames that are pulled or slowed down It sometimes happens t
43. Importing and Exporting The standard for high definition television presents a much wider frame with an aspect ratio of 16 9 Divide 16 by 9 width by height and you get 1 777777777778 rounded to 1 78 1 In the computer domain the image 1s usually described in terms of pixels the number and shape of the pixels that make up the image Graphic artists often work on a computer creating images that are made up of pixels When creating images in the 4 3 aspect ratio there are 648 rows of pixels width by 486 rows of pixels height Divide 648 by 486 and you get an aspect ratio of 4 3 or 1 33 1 The trick 1s that some pixels are square in shape and others are not Avid s standard definition frame in pixel terms is not 648 by 486 it s 720 width by 486 height non square pix E els Because the pixels are not square and are thinner 720 of them take up the same space as 648 square ones So Avid s Square pixel Avid s non square pixel 720 X 486 non square pixels provide the same aspect ratio as Figure 16 5 a computer s 648 X 486 square pixels namely 4 3 In high definition the pixels are square and there are either 1920 X 1080 pixels or 1280 X 720 pixels Divide the width by the height and you get 1 777777777778 which is 16 9 Color At this level you don t need to know that much about the different ways the Avid and a computer monitor handle color Just remember that computer color is referred to as RGB color w
44. It also connects you to the Avid Learning Figure 13 Help menu Excellerator Alex which provides generally well designed lessons to help you master specific Avid skills Tracking and Monitor Menus Above the Source Monitor and Record Monitor are two rows of information that display numbers and data about your sequence and the clips that are in the sequence Those rows of numbers and data have pulldown menus that let you change the type of information you see displayed 348 Figure 14 Tracking Menu When you click and hold on a number or name you will get a menu that lets you change what is shown in the tracking information display above the Source or Record Monitor In Figure 15 I ve selected I O which tells me the time in seconds between my IN and OUT marks 27 seconds Let s look at the choices Sequence Select and hold Sequence to get a menu where you can choose how you want the informa tion about your sequence listed as timecode footage or frames Here I have selected timecode Source Select Source to choose the kind of information you would like to see in the Source Tracks which are listed below None No information will appear Abs 502 Figure 15 Record Tracking menu Sequen Source None Appendix Menus GA EDL Sequence HA ce gt Sequence Timecode Master 01 00 15 00 Duration 2 26 29 In Out 27 00 Absolute 1 30 00 Remain 56 29 Source Tracks V2 TCL 1 28 11 28
45. Kate s face Drag or play along the Timeline until you find a new point for your IN Place the IN using the I key on the keyboard or the Mark IN com mand in the Record Monitor Now play through the Kate s Hands Face CU clip in the Source Monitor To make sure it s the active window click anywhere on the Source Monitor 23 Avid Editing A Guide for Beginning and Intermediate Users Now choose your IN and OUT points You have three marks Hit the Overwrite button You should Extract now have three shots in your Timeline 11 If you want to cut extraneous pictures and sound Kate s Ha out of the Timeline say the end of a shot is too long mark an IN and then an OUT at the end of the clip in the Timeline as shown in Figure 1 33 Kate s Ha Kate s Ha Make sure all of your tracks are selected high lighted Now hit the Extract key X on keyboard Undo Command Ctrl Z if there is a problem and try again after correcting it Figure 1 33 There are two takes of the Master Shot one covers the entire scene and the other is a pick up There are several takes of Tim s close up Kate has a close up and a medium shot Look at the per formances examine the choices and continue cutting together the sequence Leave your shots a bit long and we will trim them up later Ending an Editing Session To close your project click anywhere inside the Project window That s the window that contains all the bins Hit Comm
46. Menus this because it also places items in the Console and I try to avoid the Console which is designed for Avid programmers Reveal File If you select a master clip you can use this command to go to the computer s Finder level to locate the media file associated with that master clip It is handy for keeping track of your media and locating items that you may want to delete or move Export Because the Avid deals with digital information 1 s and 0 s almost any digital file can be brought in or sent out When you export you send out digital information you have created in the Avid Chapter 16 covers all aspects of exporting Send To This is like Export except that it deals with sending sequences or media files to specific programs This menu item Figure 4 opens to reveal the following choices Export Make New Import TEA Import XDCAM Proxy DigiDelivery p Import P2 Digidesign ProTools gt Digidesign ProTools on Unity gt Refresh Media Directories DVD be Load Media Database Encoding p gt Mount All Avid DS Unmount AudioVision Figure 4 Make New This choice lets you design your own Export settings so that when you want to export all your settings are saved and ready to go Digidesign ProTools Pro Tools is the top audio mixing software in the world and is used through out the entertainment industry We explored how to send sequences to Pro Tools in Chapter 16 Digidesign ProTools o
47. Mode Once you Splice or Overwrite clips into the Timeline for viewing on the Record Monitor the real editing begins trimming the shots to the right length getting the correct timing and rhythm creating a perfect match cut and this all takes place in the Timeline using Trim Mode Trim Mode takes place at the transitions Some editors call them edit points On the Timeline these are the lines that show where one shot ends and the next shot begins We re going to spend a few pages learning how to get in and out of Trim Mode so be patient The payoff is coming soon Trim Mode Practice For those of you who mounted the Wanna Trade scene from the DVD that comes with this book there s a folder in the Project window entitled Chapter 3 Inside the folder is a bin called Trim Practice which is there for you to use throughout this chapter Open the bin and you ll see the sequence named Fix These Problems Most of the cuts are either too short dialog has been cut out or too long we hear off microphone dialog that should be removed Duplicate the sequence and then double click the icon to put it into the Record Monitor Now play the sequence while looking at the script for Wanna Trade provided at the end of Chapter 1 You ll notice all the glar ing mistakes and you ll soon fix the problems using Trim Mode Dual Roller Trim Mode To enter Trim Mode click the cursor near the Timeline cut point or transition you wa
48. Nitris stations to share storage and editing capabilities You could capture your HD project on an Avid DS Nitris cut it on a Media Composer system and finish on the Symphony Nitris all by sending files over a cable Most of the shows you watch on television are edited on Avids that are connected by an Avid Unity system Avid has pretty much captured the broadcast journalism arena with its sophisticated storage net work and HD capabilities The Avid Newscutter uses the script as the heart of its interface And last but not least Avid s Digidesign subsidiary offers Pro Tools the industry standard digital audio workstation DAW Avid s Future Avid was once the Goliath of NLE systems with lots of Davids on the prowl Now the tables have turned a bit Although there are other systems out there for the most part the NLE scene is divided into two camps Avid and Apple s Final Cut It s hard to say which camp has the David and which one the Goliath Today Apple is a corporate behemoth that looks and acts more like Microsoft than an upstart computer company The Mac is not the computer for the rest of us it s too expensive to qualify for that If Boston University hadn t purchased my Mac I would own a PC In 2004 I spent 7 months in Uganda helping to start a video production program at Makerere University in 331 Avid Editing A Guide for Beginning and Intermediate Users Kampala and in 2006 I did the same at the National
49. Peter turns and sees 1ss Powers dder Michele Powers 1G e him holding out her hand He hesitates k gloves but shakes her hand after Everyone knows who you are You r the star of this picture One of America s rising young talents think Varpety said that Are you e here looking for you you on the set the last beat I get so ting in my trailer all waiting and waiting So lost MICHELE No Ic PETER Me MICHELE I ve see couple of weeks bored si day jus escaped to find you She walks toward t PETER I ve wor well th e area set up for the photo shoot ed on ten pictures and s is a first 1M MICHELE What are you doing CONTINUED Chapter 18 Script Integration CONTINUED Peter walks up and stands near her PETER Talking to a movie star Michele smiles PETER CONT D I m pre rigging lights for tomorrow The fashion model scene MICHELE Right 1K She walks to the ladder and starts to climb up PETER Whoa Not so fast He chases after her and Teaches the foot of the ladder MICHE It s fun up here PETER You fall and get hurt I unemployed tL 1D f the ladder S lands in his starts to release her but she hol on nd is encouraged by the warmth he softly Finally she breaks off Peter lpoks into h q r eyes CONTINUED 299 Avid Editing A Guide for Beginning and Intermediate Users 300
50. Play Loop button 47 Play tab Command Palette 75 Playing takes 288 Pleasure of Being Robbed The 317 Plug in effects 197 Point size selection for titles 176 177 Ports and input devices 7 Position Advanced Keyframes 217 219 Picture in Picture 217 Position parameter Effect Editor 200 Post production issues 280 Precomputes 309 Preferences Edit menu 337 Preferences and settings 66 74 Prestriped tape 305 Print Bin File menu 334 Private project 89 Pro Tools Digidesign ProTools File menu 335 Digidesign ProTools on Unity File menu 335 exporting audio to 259 260 Pro Tools LE 259 Production still exporting 250 252 Progressive DVD 315 316 Progressive scanning 92 265 Project Tools menu 346 Project window basic concepts 9 13 settings 66 74 using bins 59 66 Projectionist 87 Projects HD format choices 93 95 Index SD format choices 91 93 starting new 89 91 Projects folder 168 Promote to 3D Effects Editor 219 Promote to Advanced Keyframes Effects Editor 217 219 Protection master for P2 cards 122 Pulldown menus 333 Pulp Fiction 85 Q Quad Display 223 QuickTime movies exporting 253 257 importing 248 249 QuickTime Reference movie 257 259 313 314 Quit Avid Media Composer command 24 334 R RAM random access memory 4 Ramps volume 135 Raster Type pulldown menu 93 94 270 271 Reaction shots 84 Read Audio Timecode Special menu 344
51. Project window and click on the Settings button Figure 4 12 the Settings window appears a r 2 Wanna Irade Scene samki Bins Settings S Format Usage Press this button to Aaja open Settings Audio Audio Project Users pulldown Z Bio menu Figure 4 12 In the Project window there is a pulldown menu listing all the different users on the computer who have set up their own profile Up until now you ve probably been using the default settings As you begin to choose your own settings you ll want those settings to stay with you every time you open the project In fact you can create several different user profiles as I have in Figure 4 13 Here I have a setting for projects shot with multiple cameras and a Standard editing set up for editing single camera projects To create your user profile simply choose Create User Profile type a name and click OK eh ea sited weed Usage In samkauffmann Multi Camera Standard Students working in an Avid editing lab setting may be editing on different computers carrying Bin their FireWire drive from station to station If Select from the User pull down menu Create User Profile you are in that situation you ll want to save your Import User or User Profile user settings on your FireWire drive After creat ing your User Profile quit Avid Now navigate the Figure 4 13 67 Avid Editing A Guide for Beginning and Intermedi
52. README documentation 3 Real time effects 197 Reassigning buttons 71 72 290 Recapturing sequences 310 312 Decompose 311 312 preparing to 310 311 recapturing process 311 312 Record Monitor basic concepts 12 13 16 information display settings 69 Monitor menu 350 Tracking menu 348 349 using in editing session 28 Window settings 69 Record Tool 100 Record Track button 30 31 Record Track Selector panel 30 Rectangle Tool Title Tool 186 Redo Edit menu 336 Redo command 18 19 365 Index Redo Undo List Edit menu 39 40 336 Reduce Frame Edit menu 63 337 Reduce Track Edit menu 337 Reducing tracks 34 Reference command 222 Reference frame 64 Reference head tone 302 303 Reference information 329 330 Reference level setting audio 142 143 Reformat Effect Palette 278 Refresh Media Directories File menu 336 Relink command Clip menu 274 342 Reloading files 170 Remain Tracking menu 349 Remote Play and Capture Special menu 344 Removable disks camera media as 116 119 saving user profile on 67 68 Remove Effect button 140 197 Remove Match Frame Edits Clip menu 343 Removing See also Deleting overlap 52 rollers 53 scratches on video 214 215 split edits 52 Render at Position Clip menu 190 342 Render Effect button Timeline toolbar 190 209 Render In Out Clip menu 190 209 342 Render On the Fly Special menu 344 Rendering complex e
53. The frames of Clip B Master Shot will change as you slip it The frames of Clip A and C will not change at all You can use the Trim Frame keys lt lt lt gt and gt gt to slip the clip or click on and drag either roller The frames that appear in the two inner screens will change as you slip 159 Avid Editing A Guide for Beginning and Intermediate Users Getting out of Slip is just like leaving Trim Mode e Click on the TC1 track or e Press the Trim Mode button Slide Slide is the inverse of Slip It doesn t change any of the frames in the clip you are sliding Clip B instead it moves Clip B along the Timeline In Figure 10 8 we are sliding Tim s CU As you can see the rollers jump to the other side of Tim s CU and as you drag the rollers left or right you move the clip to a different spot on the Timeline Tim s CU doesn t change but the shots on either side of it do It is hard to imagine why you d want to move a clip in this way I mean imagine sliding a clip along the Timeline as we have in Figure 10 8 You d lose all control of your shots Figure 10 8 But think about using Slide with a cutaway now we re getting somewhere Examine Figure 10 9 Here we have Tim s CU in which Tim is telling Kate that the letters are now his and he can do whatever he wants with them Let s say we want to see what Kate thinks of all this We want to break up Tim s little speech with a cutaway of Kate l
54. Timeline will show you that the picture Click here to type a name and tracks are spliced in your sequence In Figure 1 30 the Assembly bin click on the Untitled Sequence letters not the sequence icon so you can type a name such as Assembly 1 Click on the Timeline so it is active Now practice navigating the Timeline by playing the shot at various speeds using J K L or by dragging the blue position indicator Adding Shots to Your Sequence i 22 You are ready to cut in the next shot The clip you want is called Kate s Hands Face CU and it shows a close up of Kate s hands searching the papers on the desk The shot then tilts up to a close up of Kate s face Go to the Dailies Day 1 bin and double click on Kate s Hands Face CU Play through the clip so you know what your choices are Click anywhere on the Timeline Navigate along the Timeline looking for a spot to cut this shot of her hands into the wide shot of her searching the desk Place your IN in the Timeline where you want to place this close up of her hands Do this by placing the blue position indicator at the correct spot in the Timeline Now press the I key on the keyboard or click the Mark IN command button on the Record Monitor This puts an IN mark on the Timeline where you want to make your cut Click anywhere on the Source Monitor to make it active find a point in the Kate s Hands Face CU clip where you think
55. Trace Screen Direction Pacing xil 57 57 57 57 58 59 59 60 60 60 60 61 63 63 63 64 64 65 66 66 67 6S 6S 69 69 70 72 73 73 74 74 79 19 80 ol 83 Story Structure Beginning Middle and End Documentary Issues Short is Better than Long Screening a Work in Progress Being Your Own Projectionist Grilling Your Audience Developing Thick Skin Suggested Assignments Chapter 6 Starting a New Project and Capturing from Tape Starting a New Project Standard Definition NTSC Interlaced Scanning Progressive Scanning NTSC Avid Project Choices The PAL Standard The SECAM Standard Forgetaboutit High Definition Raster Type HDV DVCPro HD Standard HD Connecting Your Equipment Cables Connecting HDV Cameras and Decks Configuring a Deck or Camera Naming Your Tapes Organizing Your Bins The Capture Tool Working with the Capture Tool If the Avid Says NO DECK Capturing Logging Batch Capturing Your Logged Clips Subclipping Video Resolutions Drive Space Contents 54 85 86 86 87 87 88 88 89 89 91 91 92 22 92 92 93 93 93 95 95 95 96 96 J 97 99 100 100 100 102 103 104 105 106 106 107 XIII Contents Audio Audio Sampling Useful Settings Configuring Avid In Out Hardware Devices Suggested Assignments Chapter 7 Importing from P2 and Memory Cards The Panasonic HVX200 Working with P2 Cards and P2 Devices Choosing the Right Format and Frame Rate
56. University of Rwanda in Butare There are no Apples in Africa folks there have more important things to do with their money Thanks to Avid software and some cheap PCs I was able to set up a four station editing suite at each university Many Mac users ask why Avid is slow to qualify the latest software on Macs assuming it is Avid s fault In fact Apple wants to squeeze Avid a bit and is slow to provide access to Apple s code What happened to the companies that bought licenses to make Mac clones In the mid 1990s Power Computing made better Macs than Apple did and charged less for them Lots of people lost their jobs when Steve Jobs returned to Apple and pulled the plug on the Mac clone vendors for ever putting the kibosh on low priced Macs So who the Goliath I bring this up because some Final Cut users seem to believe Apple Computer is like a Jedi knight while everyone else is skulking along with the Dark Side There are no good guys and bad guys just big publicly traded corporations The competition between Avid and Final Cut has brought prices down and features up I hope that people will choose their sys tems based on their editing needs and goals For my students and me that means Avid Boston University attracts students from countries all over the world many of which have no Apple computers Avid has a global presence that Final Cut lacks I want to train students on the industry leading software Feature films c
57. V1 Clip Kate s CU Al Clip Tim s CU Tk 3 AZ Clip Tim s CU Tk 3 A3 Clip Filler A4 Clip Filler Master This displays the master timecode at the point where the position indicator is currently located Let s say the starting timecode of a sequence is set at 01 00 00 00 As you can see in Figure 15 we are stopped at a frame that is 15 seconds from the start of the sequence Duration This displays the total duration of the sequence or clip In Out This displays the amount of time between the IN and OUT marks Absolute This number tells how much of the sequence comes before the position indicator Remain This number tells how much of the sequence comes after the position indicator Source Tracks This gives you information about the clips in your Timeline You can choose the type of information in the Source menu 349 Avid Editing A Guide for Beginning and Intermediate Users Source and Record Monitor Menus aD Both the Source Monitor and the Record Monitor have if MastarShat a Monitor menu Just click on the name of the clip in the Clear Monitor Source Monitor or the name of the sequence in the Record Duplicate Monitor to open the Monitor menu Clipboard Contents Clear Monitor This clears the clips or sequences from the aee o monitor The monitor screen goes black but all the clips or oaa Filer sequences are still loaded Clear Menu Duplicate This duplicates the clip or the sequence B i Master Shot Clipboard Cont
58. a PC is the shortcut keys you use On the Macintosh you ll often use the Command key If you are using Windows you ll use the Control Ctrl key instead Windows users will also use the Alt key instead of the Macintosh Option key That s it That s about the only difference between the Mac and Windows versions Obviously no one book can hope to explain all of the Avid s features or keep up with changes I won t show you every technique found in the Avid s many manuals but Ill show you all the ones you need to know The Avid s interface is the most stable in the industry and this edition should last you for many years XXV This page intentionally left blank Acknowledgments I have many people to thank for their assistance none more so than the many students I ve had the pleasure to teach during the past decade There are too many to name but all of them taught me as much as I taught them I want to give special thanks to Jeffrey and Marilyn Katzenberg Their son David graduated from our film program and after his graduation the Katzenbergs gave us a generous gift which allowed us to move into high definition and outfit our Avid labs accordingly David was a talented student and a joy to teach Special thanks go to Avid employees Bob Russo Greg Staten Bob Barnshaw and Ashley Kennedy for their many suggestions along the way Loren Miller taught me how to use Avid s software many years ago and I m grateful to thi
59. a title Because that s far more than you will ever in the Source Monitor Instead go in about 60 frames and then mark your IN That way you can have fades and trim available Three seconds is a good length for most short titles Mark an IN play for about 3 seconds and mark an OUT Now go to the Timeline and N Mi beanie mark the IN where you want to cut the title into the sequence It s best to use overwrite instead of splice As you can see the title has been placed in the Timeline above the shot that it will be superimposed over A tiny ball on the title icon tells us that the title 1s unrendered An unren Figure 12 10 dered effect is one in which the effect in this case a title has not been cre ated inside the computer The title its color shadow point size etc have not been turned into one whole entity When you render a title or an effect you create a new thing a media file on your media drive Rendering titles takes up space on your media drive so most people don t render titles or effects unless they have to 180 Chapter 12 Titles Adjusting the Title Length If it turns out that the title is on screen a bit too long use Dual Roller Trim Mode to trim the head or tail of the title If it s not on long enough use Dual Roller Trim Mode to extend the tail of the title Adding Fades to Your Title The title I created looks fine but after watching it I decide I don t like that it pops in and out
60. and don t have an assistant to handle the offloading of P2 cards have made this a common capture device 118 Chapter 7 Importing from P2 and Memory Cards In the past people have had problems importing from the FireStore after using the Organize P2 command to organize material after shooting Once you ve installed the Mac or Windows P2 driver attach the FireStore via FireWire When you see that the FireStore is recognized by the computer don t launch Media Composer but instead navigate to the FireStore drive through your Mac or Windows operating system You ll see a folder called Contents The Avid can t recognize this as a root level folder So create a new folder called FireStore Media and drag the Contents folder inside this folder Follow the steps on page 116 When you get to step 6 navigate and select the FireStore Media folder and then click OK Now proceed to the Backing Up Your P2 Media section below Figure 7 6 FireStore Accessing P2 Cards on a DVD or External Drive Offloading P2 cards onto external drives is becoming more and more common in field production workflows That s one of the main functions of the P2 Gear Figure 7 5 Say the producer you often work with is hired to film an important event that will last about 90 minutes You suggest that she hire three of your camera operator friends each of whom owns an HVX200 camera Each camera opera tor shoots two P2 cards with 32GB capacit
61. aspect ratio as HD and since we have a Panasonic AJHD 1400 HD deck we transfer to 720p HD If we had a Sony HD deck we would transfer to 10801 Whatever HD deck you use to capture into the Avid will influence the HD tape format you request from the telecine house Instructions to Lab Enclosed are 5 X 400 foot rolls of Kodak Vision 200T 7217 16mm negative film The Project title is Joe s Last Day This is key you must have a title Develop all rolls Normal or Push Pull Prep negative for video transfer combine into lab flats clean negative hole punch Please send prepped negative to your address via Fed Ex UPS etc or hold for pickup SS ee a Call your name at your telephone number with any questions Instructions to the Transfer Facility for an Unsupervised Transfer Depending on your budget you would either have a supervised transfer where you sit in the telecine transfer room with the colorist and offer guidance more expensive or you can save money by having the colorist make the choices without you present These instructions are for an unsupervised transfer and are intended to help guide the colorist if you aren t going to be there If you are going to be there then these are things you need to discuss with the colorist in person We encourage our students to shoot a few feet of a framing guide at the head of the first camera roll It s just a piece of paper that has black frame guidelines in the
62. aspect ratio of the camera they are using Students tape it to a wall and move the camera or zoom the lens so the edge of the black lines of the paper just touch the edges of the camera s viewfinder lines That way the colorist can sive them perfect framing matching what they saw when shooting We also encourage our students to film a gray card at the head of every camera roll so the colorist knows the exposure and color temperature of the light they were filming under Whenever there are choices the student s circle the one that s right for their project Here are the instructions we use 1 The film was shot at 24 fps The aspect ratio was 4 3 or 16 9 circle one Transfer all rolls to SD DVCAM miniDV or DigiBeta or HD 720p 59 94 or 10801 59 94 3 Use the Camera Framing Guide at the head of Camera Roll 1 to ascertain correct transfer framing 4 Best Light or Scene to Scene Correction orTime to Gray Card circle one Start first tape with 01 00 00 00 TC and change the hour for each additional tape 6 Clean tapes no visible timecode Ol 321 Avid Editing A Guide for Beginning and Intermediate Users 7 Use NDF timecode 8 Please send tapes and film rolls to your address via Fed Ex UPS etc or hold for pickup 9 Call your name at your telephone number with any questions Avid Project Format FYI we re not going back to film We re transferring our film to tape and then we re going to finish on tape or
63. change the order of segments 147 Avid Editing A Guide for Beginning and Intermediate Users Segment Mode editing gets at the heart of nonlinear editing The speed with which you can shift around whole segments of your project will astound you Let s say that you realize that the first shot in your sequence should actually be the third shot Enter Segment Mode click on the shot in the Timeline and drag it to the new position Presto The two Segment Mode buttons appear po at the bottom of the Timeline on all Avid systems Figure 9 1 The yellow arrow that Extract Splice button Lift Overwrite button appears to be missing its midsection is the Figure 9 1 Extract Splice button and the thick red arrow is the Lift Overwrite button Splice and Overwrite keys Notice the similarities and differences between the h 7 eo d O gt oD figure out what I d done Segment Mode keys Splice and Overwrite commands and the two Segment Mode commands When I was first learning the Avid I often clicked the wrong one and it took me awhile to Figure 9 2 Timeline Setting Before we begin let s get rid of the Four Frame Display which is confusing at best and slows down isplayy Edit the process Go to the Project window and click Start Filler Duration on Settings Scroll down until you find Timeline 00 00 01 00 Double click on it and click on the Display tab Deselect the Show Four Frame Display While we re here
64. choose the wrong setting If it looks bad try the next choice Who knows you might like the way an import looks with the wrong setting better than the right one Now that I ve walked you through an import let s examine the rationale behind the choices and settings we made Computers Versus Television Most of the problems associated with importing files into the Avid stem from the fact that you are creating many of your files on a computer and while the Avid is a computer it doesn t behave like one It behaves like a digital television set A computer and the Avid deal with images differently The main differences involve aspect ratio pixel shape and color Aspect Ratio and Pixel Shape The standard definition digital video standard is known as ITU R 601 The HD digital video standard is ITU R 709 So that s where we get the numbers 601 709 Aspect ratio refers to the dimensions of a rectangle In our case the rectangle is a picture video frame or screen You determine the aspect ratio of a rectangle by dividing its width by its height A square has an aspect ratio of 1 1 because the width is the same as the height Look at any standard television screen It s not a square it s a ic rectangle The frame is wider than it is high On a standard definition television the aspect ratio is k fs 4 3 Filmmakers are more familiar with the number 1 33 1 which comes from dividing 4 by 3 Figure 16 4 244 Chapter 16
65. drive 252 Chapter 16 Importing and Exporting space they are small files They take just seconds to export QuickTime movies take up a lot of drive space they are large files They can take hours to export When do you use one and not the other If you have software applications such as After Effects iDVD Avid DVD or Sorenson Squeeze already on your computer its much better to use a QuickTime reference movie You don t have to compress or alter anything and you save lots of time and space because all the media files are right there on your drive If however you are sending a 90 second sequence to a 3D animator in Toronto you will send a QuickTime movie because the animator doesn t have access to your drive or the media on it Exporting a QuickTime Movie Exporting a QuickTime movie takes time so here s my advice whenever exporting Mark your Timeline with an IN and OUT that is only a few seconds long Select your settings and then Export to your desktop just this very short segment Then open it using Apple s QuickTime soft ware or Windows Media Player to see if everything is as you d hoped If it looks good go ahead and export the whole sequence or whatever length you want That way you won t waste hours waiting for the export to finish only to find out that it s not what you were looking for In other words do an experiment get the settings right and then do the entire job Ex
66. files you can launch your DVD authoring application AUDIENCE PRESETS WV orktlo Creating a Blu Ray Disc ro pra There are also Sorenson settings for Blu Ray Disc ers Figure 19 24 The Audience Presets menu lists the 8D_720p24 choices Select the one that s right for your project B8D_720p24 whether it is a 720 or 1080 project pB D_720p24 1440x1080 fy 1 920x1080 Then set the Filter Preset and click Apply Set the Publish Preset and click Apply Press SQUEEZE IT and it shortly will be Figure 19 24 Done Well that was 1 easy 2 fun 3 interesting 4 frustrating 5 x amp Hey we finished didn t we And that s an achievement worthy of praise 316 Chapter 20 Shooting on Film Cutting on Avid At Boston University our students shoot a ton of film We start with standard 16mm when they re learning and then Super 16mm for advanced and thesis projects We employ double system record ing techniques where the film camera records the image and a separate sound device records the dialog and other sounds Our students then edit their projects in our Avid rooms using the tech niques outlined in this chapter We will learn how to work with a film lab and a telecine house to transfer your film to videotape and we will also go over sound issues involved in double system shooting as well as all the steps involved in synching sound to picture Why Film Film is more expensive than video but
67. first and then even lines to give the total image During the transfer process the telecine machine places four frames of film onto five frames of video using the two fields to make the math work Examine Figure 20 1 The first film frame called the A frame goes onto the first two fields of the videotape The second frame of film called the B frame goes onto three fields The third film frame the C frame goes onto two fields and the fourth film frame the D frame goes onto three fields Two fields then three fields two fields then three fields and on and on like that In this case we have a 2 3 2 3 pulldown As you can see in Figure 20 1 four film frames are transferred onto five video frames If you do this six times 6 X 4 film frames 24 or one second and 6 X 5 video frames 30 or one second you have one second of film and one second of video 318 Chapter 20 Shooting on Film Cutting on Avid 3 Nooo en EE A N alae a B Frame 1 Frame 2 Frame 3 Frame 4 Frame 5 Video frames Figure 20 1 Film Transfered to Video Runs at 23 976 Many people scratch their heads when they look at the various HD frame rates Why are there so many strange numbers Well all the problems started back in the 1950s when NTSC video was slowed down from 30fps to 29 97fps to accommodate the color signal Film has always run at 24 fps so it was easy to get it to fit onto video running at 30 fps as we just saw But once video wa
68. folder 119 getting 66 New Folder Bin Fast menu 66 OMEFI MediaFiles 110 174 260 Shared Avid Projects 168 Font selection for titles 176 177 Force Auto Save Bin Settings 69 Foreground Level parameter Effect Editor 200 202 203 Formats Avid Script Based Editing 283 drive space requirements 107 Format pulldown menu 90 91 270 271 Format tab Project window 273 274 276 279 HD 93 95 Panasonic HV X200 114 pre 3 0 software 93 94 SD 91 93 Frame counters 49 Frame rate for Panasonic HV X200 114 Frame rates fps 2 3 standard pulldown 318 319 basic concepts 267 268 slowdown for film to video 319 Frame View bins basic concepts 15 60 using 63 64 Frames per second fps 2 3 standard pulldown 318 319 basic concepts 267 268 359 Index Frames per second fps Continued slowdown for film to video 319 Framing guide 321 Freeze Frame Clip menu 205 206 341 Full Screen Playback Special menu 344 Full Screen Playback Toolset menu 347 Function fn key 31 Future of Avid 331 332 PX tab Command Palette 72 75 206 G Gafter s Delight 282 283 284 Gafter s Delight script 298 300 Gang button Audio Mixer Tool 131 132 133 Gathering tapes and files 8 9 Get Bin Info File menu 334 335 Glowing titles 185 Gold speaker icons 128 Google video 254 257 GOP Group of Pictures 266 267 Goto Page Scene Script menu 294 Graphic files
69. importing 243 244 Gray card shooting 321 Group Clips Bin menu 338 Group of Pictures GOP 266 267 H Hamburgers Fast menus 17 Hard drives See drives storage Hardware Tools menu 308 346 Hardware devices configuring I O 110 111 HD High Definition 264 280 See also specific format 16 9 to 4 3 Source Record Monitors 277 720p 10801 1080p formats 94 265 266 basic concepts 264 267 capturing 269 272 connecting HD deck to Avid HD box 269 creating titles 272 crossconverting HDV to 279 DNxHD codecs 268 269 downconverting HD sequences 275 279 downconverting to SD version 122 273 274 frame per second rates 267 268 HDV format described 266 267 360 importing graphics 272 mixing with SD in Timeline 272 273 Mojo DX 7 Mojo DX Adrenaline Nitris DX 7 95 110 268 272 playback performance of captured 272 relinking HD media 274 275 squeezed media 276 277 HDTV high definition television 245 263 HDV High Definition Video crossconverting to HD 279 drive space 107 HDV sequence to HDV tape 308 importing media 123 124 project choices 95 raster type 93 94 working in 266 267 Header for tape output 302 303 Headings Bin menu 338 Headings of bins 61 63 Help menu 348 Hide Avid Media Composer command 333 Hide Column Bin menu 338 High definition See HD High definition television HDTV 245 263 Hold Slates Onscreen Script menu 297 Hollow s
70. is change back to All Files Windows or Any Documents Mac as I have done in Figure 16 1 4 Using the Directory menu I navigate through the desktop or hard drive until I find the DVD Inside the DVD I click on the Import Images folder and then click on the image called Big Cat so it s highlighted 5 I click on Options and an Import Settings dialog box opens Select the Image tab and a set of choices opens as shown in Figure 16 3 Import Settings Current Figure 16 3 Image options dialog box 243 Avid Editing A Guide for Beginning and Intermediate Users Choose 601 709 non square In Color Levels choose RGB In File Field Order select Non interlaced In Alpha select Ignore O COND 10 In the Single Frame Import box I choose 10 seconds as my duration If I want it to be longer or shorter I change the number 11 Finally I deselect Autodetect Sequential Files 12 I click OK The Options box closes 13 Back in the Select files to Import dialog box I choose a drive to store the media 14 Because it s a graphic I select a resolution in the Video Resolution box that matches the resolu tion of my sequence 15 When I m finished I click Open Look in your bin There it is saved as a master clip that 1s 10 seconds long Double click on the clip icon and it loads in the Source Monitor ready for editing into your sequence Keep in mind that your computer won t crash or blow a fuse if you
71. it s dictated by the material Pm just urging you to fight to get your projects as short as possible Be ruthless in cutting away nonessential material Be willing to cut out every shot that doesn t carry its weight Screening a Work in Progress Now we re ready to show our work We ve got a good cut but we need some honest feedback Most editors place a high value on screening their work while still editing it Call it a rough cut or a fine cut screening whatever name you give to it it s a screening of your work in progress You have spent a lot of time and energy cutting the material you ve given it your very best but usually you have been working in a vacuum What you re looking for now are fresh eyes and ears You want an audience it can be one or two people or a classroom full of fellow students to tell you what s working and what isn t Nothing teaches you more about your work than screening it in front of an audience Sometimes screenings are painful sometimes they are exhilarating and always they are useful 86 Chapter 5 A Few Editing Tips Being Your Own Projectionist Before your audience arrives get the screening room ready Even if it s just a computer screen and two speakers make sure everything is just right Are the speakers on Are they set at the right level Are the sightlines good or will someone have an obstructed view What about the ambient light Can you pull a shade to make it darker If you
72. last line Are you lost it finishes and then jumps to the next take and then the next take I m only hearing the lines I want I m analyzing the differences in performance I can quickly determine which take works best Think about it for a second Imagine having a 120 page screenplay and scores of bins containing hundreds of clips each Instead of searching through all those bins to find a clip you simply lasso the script mark hit the spacebar and there it is Or try double clicking on a script mark splicing that section of the clip into the sequence and moving to the next script mark to quickly put together a rough cut Looking at Your Coverage Not only does this system help you quickly cut from one take to the next but it is also designed to help you judge all the choices for a specific portion of your script Just lasso all of the script marks for a specific line of dialog including all the coverage As you can see in Figure 18 25 I have lassoed the wide shot of Peter and the medium shot of Peter Now when I press the spacebar I ll see Peter say ing his line in the wide shot and as soon as that 1s sting on an apple box finished Pll see in quick succession Take 1 Take 2 and Take 3 from the medium shot Figure 18 25 Page and Scene Numbers Although your script has scene and page numbers they are not recognized by the Avid You ll need to add new ones The steps for adding scene and page
73. look at Figure 3 14 e The lt lt and lt keys will make Tim s shot longer e The gt and gt gt keys will make Tim s shot shorter Examine Figures 3 10 3 14 closely and review the explanations that go with them You must understand the relationship between Tim s CU TK 1 Kate s CU Kate s CU Tim s CU TK 1 1 00 05 00 01 00 07 00 Figure 3 14 the direction the rollers travel and the effect that has on a shot s length before you go any further Review Transition Button After you have trimmed in either direction press the Play Loop button to see how the scene looks with the new transition points This button reviews the scene as you just cut it in a continuous playback loop Press the button again to stop the loop and return to the Trim Mode display Figure 3 15 ao ai MII I gt Review Transition button Press this and the transition plays in a loop Press it again and it stops 47 Avid Editing A Guide for Beginning and Intermediate Users Trim by Dragging iL Once you are in Single Roller Trim Mode you can simply click the cursor on one of the rollers at the transition point and drag the roller to the left or right Notice as you place the cursor near the roller the cursor turns into the Trim Mode icon Figure 3 16 If sii igure 3 you now click on the roller you can drag it left or right Try it It j really gives you a sense of how Single Roller Tr
74. make changes to your title I m choosing Tahoma for my font and a point size of 36 This will allow the words Nelson Mandela to fit nicely on one line Kerning allows you to change the spacing between letters Select the text you want to kern and pull down the Kern menu or type a number into the box Negative numbers tighten the spacing Positive numbers loosen the spacing Leading changes the spacing between lines of text Be aware of the safe title box the dotted lines Some television monitors cut off the edges of your image but by keeping your letters within the dotted lines you can be sure that viewers see all of your text Shadows You can add a drop shadow or depth shadow to your titles Shadowing can often make the letters stand out from a busy background It s best to add shadows with the Selection Tool Click on the title so the handles appear Now go to the Shadow Tool By clicking on the Shadow Tool and dragging in any direction inside the box you will make a shadow appear You can use the cursor to drag the shadow in any direction and increase or decrease the depth of shadow you will add to your letters The number will change in the Shadow Depth Selection box to indicate how much shadow you are creating Here I ve set the direction so the shadow appears to the upper right of the letters and 178 Chapter 12 Titles at a depth of 14 Really 14 is a bit too much but by exaggerating the effect you can see the dif
75. material in this chapter and how to output HD in Chapter 19 263 Avid Editing A Guide for Beginning and Intermediate Users HD Primer There are many different HD formats to choose from but they all have one thing in common a 16 9 aspect ratio Let s compare the aspect ratio of standard definition to the widescreen 16 9 version As you can see in Figure 17 1 ve placed a 4 3 standard definition frame inside a 16 9 frame Obviously the 16 9 is designed to offer more of a movie theater experience which when you think about it is more like the way our eyes perceive the world Figure 17 1 4 3 inside a 16 9 image High definition used to mean a 16 9 aspect ratio with a lot more detail in the image but now HD has evolved to the point where producers can choose from a number of HD formats depending on the look they want In the beginning there were just two players in the HD world Sony and Panasonic and they came at the problem with two dif ferent approaches Panasonic developed an HD system called 720p and Sony developed 10801 ABC and Fox chose Panasonic s approach while NBC and CBS picked Sony s There are now many HD flavors within these two approaches Most HD formats in the United States use progressive scan but one uses interlaced scan Also there are many frame rates to choose from depending on the look you are after If you want your dramatic project to have a film look you choose a progressive HD format with a f
76. numbers are the same 1 Go to the first line of the new page or new scene and click on it 2 Click either the Add Scene AS or Add Page AP button on the Script window and a dialog box appears 3 Type the page scene number and click OK The nice thing about adding page and scene numbers is that you can now use the Goto Scene or Goto Page commands found in the Script menu to jump to the scene or page you want Without page and scene numbers a 120 page script would be difficult to work with To change the number 294 Chapter 18 Script Integration Add Scene and Add Page Number Figure 18 26 repeat the process The dialog box will now say Change Scene or Page Number To delete page and scene numbers select the line containing the number and press the Delete key Find Script The Find Script button is another handy com a l l Add Script Mark t Find Script button mand button that helps you stay in control of Find Soret your script Place this command key on one of os your rows of buttons in your Source Monitor or __ a Fast menu You need to go to the Command PRUTE aed Palette to find it It s in the Other tab Say you have a clip loaded in the Source Monitor and you are not sure which part of the script it comes from Just click on the Find Script button and the Avid will scroll to the place in the script where the clip is linked and highlight that section Off Screen Dialog When shooting a scene involvi
77. of the shot When you press Echethen LIM SEIP the Review Transition button to stop the loop you ll still be in Trim Mode Figure 3 28 Look at the frame counter under Tim s frame in the Trim Mode display It a will display 20 You added a total of 20 frames to the head of Tim s shot but 2 notice that it is 20 minus 20 Why Whenever you go left the numbers are l jy negative even though you added to Tim s shot Figure 3 29 How many frames you add and remove doesn t really matter What matters is that the shot is now working And its working because you trimmed and watched trimmed and watched trimmed and watched until you got it right Trim One Side Then the Other It often happens that after you ve finished cutting one side it becomes apparent that the other side needs to be trimmed Without leaving Trim Mode simply click on the other frame in the Trim Mode display and the rollers will jump to the other side Now press the Review Transition button and use the Trim Frame buttons to trim the other side Dragging to a Mark Earlier we discussed dragging the rollers to extend or shorten a shot By simply clicking on the roll ers you can drag them left or right It s less precise than using the Trim Frame keys however if you 04 Chapter 3 Trimming combine dragging with placing an IN mark or an OUT mark then dragging can be very efficient Use this technique when you know where you want
78. on the screen Let s add a half second fade to the start and end of it 1 Make sure the track with the Title Tool is selected 2 Place the position indicator so it is inside the title clip in the Timeline 3 Click the Fade Effect button in the Fast menu between the Source Monitor and the Record Monitor apos o a mM Fade Effect button Figure 12 11 A dialog box appears like the one in Figure 12 12 Type in x the number of frames you want for your fade 15 frames U s POR and click OK Fade Down 15 Frames You won t see any indication in your Timeline that the R L fade effect is in place but you ll see the results when you E _Caneel_ press Play That s it We have created a title with drop shadow placed it Figure 12 12 in the lower third of the frame saved it to a bin cut it onto a new video track and added a fade There is a lot more you can do with the Title Tool though Colored Titles You can change the colors of the letters the color of the shadow or both You can even create a blend so for example a title starts out dark and becomes lighter as it progresses Because this book is in black and white you will have to practice the techniques on your Avid in order to see the colors 181 Avid Editing A Guide for Beginning and Intermediate Users Using the Title Tool create a new title Now let s try turning a white title into a title con taining color First select it w
79. on purpose or by accident or if you are going to capture material that you logged the process of batch capturing is the same Batch capture only works with tapes that have timecode Examine the bin in Frame View Figure 11 11 The clip on the left is offline The clip file captured in the first place Before you capture anything you must have the source tapes in front of you You information is there but the media either has been erased or was never Park also need to connect your equipment so you can send your video and audio sig Figure 11 11 nals from the tape deck to the Avid Take a look at Chapter 6 to review the steps you take to capture Once you re set up i 2 3 172 In the bin select all of the video or audio clips that you wish to capture When all of the offline clips are highlighted go to the Toolset menu and select Capture Choose e Your target bin e Your resolution e Tracks VI A1 A2 TC Chapter 11 Saving Your Work 4 Go to the Clip menu Media Composer or Batch Recortil patch RACA a a Bin menu Xpress and choose Batch Capture E orire meca ont 5 A dialog box will open Make sure Offline i media only is selected Then click OK The Avid will then ask you for the first tape You ene oe should have all of the source tapes nearby and insert them as the Avid asks for them Once the Avid begins to capture the offline clips you can watch the proc
80. on the title A box with selection handles appears around the title Change to another font simply by clicking on the font button and selecting a different font from the list You can also select a different font point size Note that Bold is the default setting so click on the letter B if you want to make the text normal The selection handles also allow you to change the size of the box that the words fall into If your words wrap around to a second line and you want them to all fall on one line drag one of the VAT Avid Editing A Guide for Beginning and Intermediate Users right hand selection handles any of the three should work all the way to the safe title line Now drag a left hand selection handle all the way to the safe title line You ll see that your words have more room so they fall onto one line Click on the Center Text button not the buttons which flush left or right and your title will be perfectly centered Now you can click anywhere inside the title and drag it to a different area of the frame In Figure 12 5 I have dragged my title to the part of the frame often called the lower third where most identification titles are placed ae N n i BON MANDELA EnO i OESS ar es word wrap Ee ee HM EITM eJ Gamer D a OOO Gym eD ELLS GD i a M I D WM hp o MC 2 Shadow Tool Selection Tool Center Text Figure 12 5 Use the Text Tool to type the letters use the Selection Tool to
81. rather than in the Record Monitor This option is only available if you are working on a software only configuration of Media Composer Tools Menu All of your audio tools are found in the Tools menu as well as many other handy items such as the Command Palette which we discussed in Chapter 4 New Deck Controller This command opens up a tool for con trolling a videotape deck You can screen your source tapes without having to open the Digitize Tool Audio Mixer When it opens you see what looks like a mixing board with volume and pan sliders You can adjust volume and pan by dragging the sliders You can make changes to indi vidual clips segments of the Timeline or an entire track in the Timeline We examined this in detail in Chapter 8 Audio EQ This tool lets you adjust the equalization of individual audio clips in the Timeline By changing the low middle and high frequencies you can alter or improve your sound AudioSuite This command opens a tool that gives you access to sophisticated audio tools such as pitch processing time com pression and expansion and reversing of audio Audio Tool This command brings up a tool that is like a digital VU meter It measures the strength of the incoming or outgo ing audio signals Instead of depending on your ears to deter mine proper sound levels use this meter s readings instead Audio Punch In This command opens a tool that allows you to record audio directly to the Timeli
82. re This Script Mark is now linked to the star of this picture One of l point in Take 1 Figure 18 17 Lets continue to add script marks to the rest of Take 1 FETER f f Everyone knows who you are You se 1 Play through the clip until you reach the next the star of this picture One of line Michele s No I came here looking for America s rising young talents T think Variety said that Are you 1 J 1 a 1 rt z rt you Play back until just before she speaks lost 2 Single click on the take line where it intersects ee with that line of dialog No I came here looking for you 3 Press the Add Script Mark button There will now be two marks Figure 18 18 Figure 18 18 4 Continue adding script marks with each new speaker until the entire take has script marks If you click on the script mark at the line Everyone knows who you are and press the special Play key or the spacebar the take loads in the Source Monitor starts playing from there and loops back to the start of that line it won t play Michele s line The Fastest Way ScriptSync Now let s examine ScriptSync the software that uses voice recognition to place the script marks automatically This is incredibly fast and if I were a betting man I d bet it turns you into a devoted user of Script Integration Place the slates and takes in the script as before That part of the process doesn t change but once you v
83. select OPERATION TYPE and choose FILM CAM Finally go back to SCENE FILE choose FRAME RATE and select 24FRAME Because you are shooting your projects using the camera s 720p 24PN setting when you start a new Avid project in the Format pulldown menu you would select 720p 23 976 If you have the lat est Media Composer software select DVCPro HD in the Raster Type pulldown menu Figure 7 2 114 Chapter 7 Importing from P2 and Memory Cards te a AE r eee My Recommended Settings New Project Two DVX200 settings are particularly use ful and I recommend using them instead of Format Raster Type 720p 24PN I prefer the 720p 30PN camera 720p 23 976 v DVCProHD v setting because it gives you a 720p 29 97 Avid project setting Most people need to deliver borka semdarddemmiron projeceand a tose TENE proj HD project after editing This setting can eas ily deliver both as we ll see in Chapter 17 Yet it looks like film and has a small enough file size to make storage manageable When you set up your new Avid project you choose 720p 29 97 in the Format menu There should be a DVCPro HD setting in the Raster Type pulldown menu but as of this writing Avid mistakenly left it out so choose HDV The second camera setting is 10801 30 This creates larger files than the 720p setting and looks more like video which might be what you want if you re shooting for a sports show or a television documentary When you set up
84. side Shift click on a transition to add a roller e Do this even if the rollers aren t all on the same side or going in the same direction e As you trim the Avid will add or take away black fill to keep all of the tracks in sync In Figure 15 8 when we drag Tim s CU on track V1 and his overlapped audio on track A1 to the left we are adding to it or making the shot longer That would normally throw the music out of sync But suppose we place a single roller on the fill side of the music on track A2 Then as we drag left the Avid adds black fill and sync is maintained If we shortened Tim s shot by dragging right the Avid would take away black fill to keep the music in sync Remember put the roller on the fill side of the music not inside the music itself What happens if you want to trim a shot in a sequence containing many tracks like the one in Figure 15 9 Let s say you re doing an hour show and you have three video tracks and five or six tracks of audio Also let s assume that the distance between where you want to trim and some of 235 Avid Editing A Guide for Beginning and Intermediate Users lt e A_ Trims black leader to maintain relationships Figure 15 8 these other elements is too great to eas ily add rollers to them You can easily place single rollers on V2 V1 A1 A2 and A3 Tracks A4 and A5 are a slight pain to add rollers to but not a huge deal But you can t even see the m
85. speakers You can also output to a large moni tor to review what you have shot It can handle the latest 64GB cards and it comes with a 7 2 volt 117 Avid Editing A Guide for Beginning and Intermediate Users Li ion battery the same as the one used by the HVX200 camera It has two P2 slots and you can transfer the selects from one card to the other To transfer directly from the P2 Gear to your Avid you ll have to download the P2 Drive driver software from the CD or the Panasonic website as explained in the earlier Install P2 Driver Software section Now attach the P2 Gear via FireWire or USB You ll see the cards you have downloaded as separate removable disks Removable Disk F and Removable Disk G on your PC s My Computer list of attached devices On a Mac they will be indicated by No Name 1 and No Name 2 Now that your operating system recognizes the P2 Gear follow steps 1 to 7 listed on page 116 Figure 7 5 Panasonics AG HPG10 P2 Gear When you re finished don t exit or quit Avid or leave the project because all of the media will go offline Instead proceed to the Backing Up Your P2 Media section in this chapter page 119 FireStore Portable Hard Drive Recorder This small device is mounted on the DVX200 camera and connected via a FireWire cable see Figure 7 6 Depending on the model it will record from 100 to 160 GB of MXF files Documentary filmmakers who need to shoot a lot of material
86. thanks to generous alumni such as Gary Fleder Scott Rosenberg and Lauren Shuler Donner some of those costs have been offset by alumni contribu tions to our students Yet there is a benefit to the high cost of film compared to video it is that very expense that helps our students really focus their minds on the filmmaking process Our students spend a lot of time planning and rehearsing their productions to cut down on waste They don t just shoot a lot of footage and hope to find the story in the editing room And despite the many advances in digital technology there s still nothing like the look of motion picture film To get the same image quality as my film students achieve with our Super 16mm cameras you would have to rent a 1080p HD camera at 1500 per day Josh Safdie one of my former students recently had his first feature The Pleasure of Being Robbed selected for screening at Cannes where the distribu tion rights were bought by the Independent Film Channel He shot it with a Super 16mm camera 317 Avid Editing A Guide for Beginning and Intermediate Users which he rented for peanuts In a tribute to the talents of the Safdie family Josh s younger brother Bennie made a short film in my Production II class last year The Acquaintances of a Lonely John and it too was selected for screening at Cannes Again it was shot on 16mm film The point is that motion picture film transferred to video can look much better than proj
87. that 1s 281 Avid Editing A Guide for Beginning and Intermediate Users covered by a particular clip and then drag the clip to that section of the script Each camera setup is represented by a slate showing a frame from that clip Figure 18 1 Different takes are indicated by tabs at the bottom of the slates Once all the clips are linked to the appropriate sections of the script you can click on a line of dialog and have the takes play automatically so you can compare them When you are ready to start editing a scene you can quickly go through the script click on the preferred takes and create a rough cut in a matter of minutes The Avid can handle documen tary scripts as easily as narrative scripts and the setup and procedures are the same L mapove him She spreads her arms as s forward He steps quickly in front of the ladder Shel arms He starts to release her but she holds o MICHELE CONT D Wait This feels nice You re strong i PETER I must be dreaming Figure 18 1 A script with attached clips and slates An Example The screen captures in this chapter are from a scene entitled Gaffer s Delight which I made with the help of students and staff at Boston University A copy of the project files media files and the script can be found on the DVD that comes with the book A hard copy of the script is provided at the end of this chapter The scene was covered with a master shot showing both actors
88. the correct resolution Insert your first tape into the deck or camera A prompt will appear asking you to give the tape a name Click on the New button and then type 001 and your project ID Once you have typed the tape name you d think you could click OK but you can t After typing you have to click on the tape s icon to highlight the tape name before you can click Avid Editing A Guide for Beginning and Intermediate Users Capture Mode icon e EOE Figure 6 16 Capture Mode Log Mode icon OK see Figure 6 18 Now you should have control of the tape through the deck controls on the Capture Tool Hit the play button on the Capture Tool and the tape plays Hit the rewind but ton and it rewinds Notice how the tape s timecode appears in the Timecode window just above the deck controls You can use the J K L keys as well If the Avid Says NO DECK If for some reason your Avid doesn t recog nize that a deck or camera is attached go to the pulldown menu just below the play but ton and select Check Decks Figure 6 19 That should force the Avid to recognize the deck or camera you are using If that doesn t work and you ve checked to make sure everything 1s properly connected and gone through the checklist of items provided above try quitting your Avid soft ware and then launching it again If you re still having a problem remember to select the Figure 6 17 Log Mode Select T
89. the Assembly bin icon so it opens outside the SuperBin area Duplicate your sequence in the Assembly bin Remember to duplicate a sequence simply select it in the bin so it s highlighted and then press Command D Mac or Ctrl D Windows or select Duplicate in the Edit menu 09 Avid Editing A Guide for Beginning and Intermediate Users Figure 4 1 4 You now want to change the name of the sequence from Assembly to Rough Cut Just select it and type 5 Now click and drag the sequence icon to the Rough Cut bin 6 Close the Assembly bin by clicking the close box All About Bins The bin is like your project s library and card catalog all rolled into one We ll spend much of this chapter learning about bins because that s where everything begins Bin Views Remember that there are four ways to view material in the bin Brief View Text View Frame View and Script View If you re working on a single monitor where screen real estate is at a premium Brief View is helpful because it takes up the least space Brief View provides you with just five columns of information the name of the clip the starting timecode the duration of the clip in seconds the clip s video and audio tracks and whether the clip is online meaning there is digital media on a media drive In Text View you can choose from something like 30 columns such as scene take camera roll and videotape it s particularly useful when you want
90. the Timeline tracks In Chapter 2 we learned the Timeline has a Fast menu with many options that affect the Timeline One option lets you choose the color of your tracks To change the default color select the tracks you want to change and deselect the others Selecting the correct tracks 1s important Now choose Track Color from the Timeline Fast menu by holding and dragging the mouse to a color you would like to see Figure 4 29 Release the mouse and your tracks will reflect your selection 73 Avid Editing A Guide for Beginning and Intermediate Users Normally I keep stereo tracks that go together the same color I ll have one color for V2 another C Show Track for V1 a third for my sync tracks a fourth for my Less Detail music tracks and so on Show Every Frame Suggested Assignments 1 2 Oo ON DH OB OW Show Entire Sequence Timeline Zoom Back Fast menu Zoom In Create a new bin Name it Figure 4 29 Duplicate your sequence Change the name of the duplicate version to today s date Place this version of your sequence in the new bin Examine your clips in Frame View Brief View Text View and Script View Delete the duplicated version of the sequence you just made Open the Headings list and change your headings In Text View move the columns around Sort the columns using various headings Reverse the selections 10 11 12 13 14 15 Create a user Profile Open th
91. this process unbelievably easy we ll set up the Avid to always save the files onto the correct drive You may remember the Media Creation setting from the previous chapter We ll use it now 1 In the Project window click on the Settings tab and scroll down to Media Creation Double click on Media Creation In the window that comes up click on the Import tab Figure 7 8 Set the Video and Audio Drive to your external FireWire device or whatever storage you ve been assigned as shown in Figure 7 8 The Avid will bring the P2 cards in at the DVCPro HD resolution no matter what the Video Resolution is Figure 7 7 set at but I recommend you set it at DVCPro HD in case you import other media into your project Now click Apply to All and then OK That will save the settings and close the Media Creation window Media Creation Current Figure 7 8 120 Select the correct drive Chapter 7 Importing from P2 and Memory Cards You can leave Settings by clicking on Bins Now go to the bin called P2 Media Card 1 which holds the master clips 1 Select all the clips in the bin that you want to save 2 Go to the File menu and select Import P2 Choose Media Get Bin Info Reveal File Export Send To Import Import XDCAM Proxy Import P2 Clips to Bin Dafrach Marlia Nirartrriac Figure 7 9 The media will automatically be stored onto the drive we selected We can now unmo
92. time correcting a medium shot of one of your actors in a dialog scene such as Tim in Wanna Trade and you cut to that shot several times you will want to save your color settings so you can apply them to all of the medium shots of Tim in that scene To save your settings click and drag the Color Effect icon to a bin Figure 14 33 and give it a name Tim s MS To apply it to another clip in the Timeline simply drag it from the bin to the clip in the Timeline In this way you maintain a consistent look throughout the scene Color Effect icon If you quit the application your color correction setting will be saved in the bin Figure 14 33 Color Buckets Another way of saving your color cor rection choices involves placing them in Gain TEEN G16 color buckets This is faster than dragging Hw wae io 4 the Color Effect icon to a bin Depending ane on your software you can create four to pf 1 000 Do y E Match corsa eight different template settings and have Setup them available for use during your ses EJ iej a a sion by placing them in one of the buck E 3 3 a aJ m ets Create the color effect by using the tools we have discussed You ve got Kates Figure 14 34 medium shot just the way you want her Now simply Option click Mac or Alt click Windows on C1 C2 C3 or C4 etc A Color Effect icon will appear above the bucket Now move your position indicator to the next clip o
93. titles is to make them glow The title will appear to be surrounded by a haze of color I used the effect on the opening title of my film Massacre at Murambi To create a glow effect you will use the same tools we used to create Soft Shadow titles but you will use them a bit differently Open the Title Tool and type the text Using the Selection Tool position the text where you want it Make sure the title has no shadow value If there is a number in the Shadow Depth Selection box click on it type 0 and press Return or Enter Now go to the Shadow box and select a color Try a light yellow or light red I know it seems strange to pick a color for a shadow when there is no shadow but have patience Now go to the Object menu and select Soften Shadow Try typing in a value of 24 Press Apply to preview the look Figure 12 19 shows the effect I got It s difficult in a black and white screen capture to show off this feature but I hope you can see that there 1s a soft ness coming around and through the letters Drawing Objects The Title Tool has drawing tools with which you can create boxes circles lines and arrows of vari ous shapes and colors The title in Figure 12 20 has white letters a bit of drop shadow and a red line below the letters to add emphasis I created the line using the Rectangle Tool see Figure 12 21 and just dragged the selection handles to make a long thin line To give the red rectangle a more rounded look I s
94. took the exposed film the film negative and transferred that to videotape as we have described The main difference is in the energy expended to keep track of the film s key numbers Whereas videotape frames are tracked by timecode film uses a system where sequential numbers are printed onto the edge of the film These key numbers appear every half a foot There is a bar code version as well When the film is transferred to tape these key numbers are transferred to provide a record of where each frame of film lines up with each frame of video This record 1s in the form of a shot log often called a flex file Editors import the shot log into the Avid so that every time a cut is made the Avid can keep track of the original film s key number as well as the video s timecode At the end of editing a cut list of these key numbers can be generated that shows where on the original film each cut should be made A negative cutter armed with a cut list and the origi nal film can conform the film to the Avid s final sequence 327 Avid Editing A Guide for Beginning and Intermediate Users Nowadays the film is no longer transferred to videotape but directly to a hard drive or RAID stor age system 1n what is known as a tapeless workflow The Avid editor gets the drive attaches it to the Avid and begins editing At the end of editing a cut list is made so the negative cutter can identify the parts of the original negative that were used in t
95. ve enclosed a short scene for you to edit entitled Wanna Trade It s on the DVD that comes with this book Loading the project onto your Avid is amazingly easy Look for DVD Instructions at the end of the book You will simply be dragging some folders and files from the DVD to your computer In Chapter 1 I have used Wanna Trade for most of my examples There is also a two page script for the scene at the end of the first chapter If you re in a class ideally your professor instructor or teacher will mount the scene onto the Avid so you can begin editing after the first or second class Inside the Wanna Trade project is a folder called Chapter 3 When you reach Chapter 3 open this folder and then the bin called Trim Practice The sequence you ll find in the bin has prob lems that you ll correct using Single Trim Mode It s a great way to practice the trimming tech niques outlined in Chapter 3 I have included a new project in this edition called Kizza s Portrait It s on the DVD that comes with the book It contains documentary footage about a six year old boy from Uganda who is HIV positive The clips come from my film Living with Slim Kids Talk About HIV AIDS which I shot while teaching video production at Makerere University in Kampala Slim is what many Africans call AIDS The film is used all over the world to educate people about the AIDS pandemic in Africa It will help you pra
96. we learned in Chapter 7 you can also bring in HD files from a P2 flash card like the one in Panasonics HV X200 camera You can edit the full raster 1080 HD formats on Media Composer but you need to capture the material using Media Composer software that is connected to an Adrenaline HD a Mojo DX or a Nitris DX device These hardware boxes like the Mojo DX pictured in Figure 17 3 all have HD serial digital interface SDI In Out connections so you can capture and send out digital HD signals ae a n wee Sn a Figure 17 3 Avid Mojo DX courtesy of Avid Technology Avid has developed an efficient HD codec called DNxHD which enables the Nitris DX or Adrenaline HD to capture the largest HD datastreams and to compress them into several different 268 Chapter 17 Working in HD levels of compression all gorgeous Because of the efficiency of the compression you can capture these immense HD files onto your laptop or FireWire drive These codecs are so sophisticated that the eye doesn t detect any loss in detail Many television shows such as American Idol use the Avid to capture HD tapes and to compress the large files into smaller and more useable files all without any detectable loss in picture quality There are several Avid DNxHD codecs for each flavor of HD The table here gives examples of online resolution codecs that can be captured and saved onto a FireWire drive or laptop for easy editing 10801 59
97. you need to do is press Shift T on your keyboard to open the Title Tool Choosing a Background If you don t want a video image as the background for your title click on the V toggle Figure 12 4 The green V will turn black Black 1s the default background color but you can click and hold the cursor inside the Bg box and a color picker will appear Move the cursor through the colors to select the one you want for your background You can also use the eyedropper to pick a color Creating Your First Title Creating titles is fairly straightforward I am going to cre ate a title to go over a specific shot of Nelson Mandela greeting supporters I click on the V toggle so it turns green and the video image appears in the Title Tool window To type the letters make sure the T for Text Tool is green If not click on the T to make it active Now click on the image where you would like the text to start The cursor becomes an I beam As you type the text will appear and flow to the next line Dont Figure 12 4 worry ust type your text You can delete letters edit letters type additional letters basically all the functions provided by most word processing programs Selection Tool On some systems Geneva is the default font and 48 is the default font point size You ll find that 48 is often too large Once you re through typing click on the Selection Tool to the left of the Text Tool so the arrow turns green Now click
98. your effects palette click on Blend and drag the Picture in Picture icon on top of the clip on V2 Figure 14 12 You will see a box containing the fore ground image on top of the background image as I ve shown in Figure 14 13 Open the Effect Editor to see the vari ous parameters available to you Click the pointer arrows to open the param eters As you can see in Figure 14 13 there are two keyframes one at the beginning and one at the end of the clip and they are both pink or selected If you click on the Border arrow it reveals sliders Click and drag the Width slider to the right to get a border around your picture You can change its color either with the color wheel or sliders Figure 14 14 Click on the Opens a color wheel Click arrows to open the parameter controls Figure 14 14 216 Chapter 14 Advanced Effects and Color Correction Scaling or Position triangles to see sliders that you can use to change the size and position of the box If you make sure that both the keyframes are selected the changes you make will be the same at the start and the end of the effect However if you click on the first keyframe you ll deselect the last keyframe and any changes you subsequently make will affect the start of the clip but not the end So be careful not to deselect the first or the last keyframe unless you intend to Play with all the parameters and see what happens e Scaling changes the
99. your format Pulldown menu let s you select pixel size Figure 16 15 Export Settings for a single frame 4 Click on the WIDTH X HEIGHT Fast menu and change to 720 X 540 4 3 square pixel This gives you a larger file size If your project is HD you would instead choose 1920 X 1080 which is the first choice on the list in Figure 16 16 5 Choose Size to Fit 6 Because it s a graphic we always choose 1920 x 1080 16x9 square pixel 1280 x 720 16x9 square pixel RGB 720 x 486 601 non square 7 Choose Even Lower Field First for SD 720 x 243 601 non square single field and Odd Upper Field First for HD 648 x 486 4x3 square pixel Q Click Save v 720x540 4x3 square pixel a 864 x 486 16x9 square pixel Exporting Motion Video Figure 16 16 When you need to export motion video QuickTime is usually your first choice There are two kinds of QuickTime movies QuickTime Reference and QuickTime A QuickTime reference movie is like a shell The guts of the QuickTime the media are on your hard drive When you export a QuickTime refer ence movie you are using the audio and video files already on your drive to fill in the shell The QuickTime reference movie only plays if it is on the same drive as the media files A QuickTime movie is the real deal You can send it anywhere and it will play because it s not a shell it contains all the media QuickTime reference movies take up little additional
100. 073 600 pixels per frame 265 Avid Editing A Guide for Beginning and Intermediate Users This is the latest HD flavor and one that is quickly becoming the most popular Again Sony 1s its parent Its 2 073 600 pixels per frame are about seven times more than a standard definition frame This is the HD flavor that comes closest to 35mm film in terms of look and picture quality Every year more and more features and prime time television dramas are shot on this HD format because it offers progressive scanning like film and offers film s 24 fps rate Again you would need Adrenaline HD or Nitris DX hardware to work with this format A Mojo DX can do it but only if you have a really robust computer processor HDV In Chapters 6 and 7 we covered the ins and outs of capturing or importing HDV media into the Avid but let s examine this format in a bit more detail HDV stands for High Definition Video and it can be recorded onto a standard DV tape HDV uses MPEG 2 long GOP group of pic tures compression which is similar to DVD s MPEG 2 compression JVC s HDV cameras record in the 720p format while Sony and Canon cameras use the 10801 format These are real HD signals that get crammed by way of a great deal of compression onto a miniDV tape What makes HDV difficult to capture and edit is the complicated encoding system Figure 17 2 JVC s GY HD250U HDV camera courtesy of JVC For comparison let s look at
101. 0i 59 94 vieo 1080p 23 976 Figure 17 13 3 Open the SD Sequence bin containing the sequence you wish to downconvert 4 Go to the Clp menu and select Consolidate Transcode Consolidate Transcode 5 When the Consolidate Transcode box opens select Transcode Figure 17 14 6 Choose a target drive to hold the new media 7 Choose an SD Target Video Resolution such as DV 25 411 or 1 1 10b MXF Macintosh HD 8 Click on Create New Sequence and Convert Video iin 9 Select a Handle length I prefer 60 or more frames 10 Click on the Transcode button Squeezed When your clips and sequences are down converted to SD they will have a 16 9 aspect ratio You can put this out to tape or DVD as a 16 9 version as many people do because a 16 9 television or digital pro jector can show the 16 9 image However Figure 17 14 Transcoding a sequence 276 Chapter 17 Working in HD when you show this on a regular television the image will look very thin The people will be squished or squeezed You probably want to create a 4 3 version that can play on an SD television or monitor You have two choices You can make a letterbox or a Pan and Scan version First let s switch our monitors from high definition to standard definition Switching from 16 9 to 4 3 Source Record Monitors Because your HD material has a 16 9 aspect ratio the Avid automatically puts your Source Record Monitor in the 16 9 mode However you may
102. 1 15 This one shows columns for the clip name and the starting timecode ae SuperBin Dailies Day 1 tiii Brief Text Frame Script Name a Kate s Entrance Wide Shot 01 16 02 06 0 x The clip icon double click on the icon and it will open in the gt amp Source Monitor E Kate s Hands Face CU 01 17 04 08 2 Master Shot Kate amp Tim 01 19 45 02 E Master Shot Kate amp Tim PU 01 21 35 20 ee E Tims CU TK 1 01 22 22 02 Click inside the letters They will be highlighted etn cu Tk 2 tape out 01 24 00 11 so you can type a new Ez Tim s CU TKS 01 25 44 11 name Et Kate s CU 01 27 27 16 mE Kate s MS 01 29 02 08 Figure 1 15 An open bin Clips The clips in the bin are the footage and sound the shots from your source tape The clip icon is on the far left Next to it you see the name that I gave the clip followed by important information about each clip Clips don t take up hard drive space Instead each one is connected to the media file it represents The media file is the actual digital picture and sound and it resides on the hard drive The clip contains all the timecode infor mation such as start and end timecode about File Edit Bin Clip Tools Toolset Windows Scri the media file Ine Bin Views You can look at the clips in the bin in several different ways Kate s MS Kate s CU e Brief View shows a minimum amount of information in column form Figure
103. 1 16 Chapter 1 Getting Started e Text View looks like Brief View Mfl Pret otexts oFramen Script but can show many more columns Name Start Duration of information e Frame View shows a picture of a frame from a clip e Script View is like Frame View Track fi Tim s CUS 01 26 51 13 1615 VIA This is Tim s best take but there is space for you to write comments Figure 1 17 Change the view simply by clicking the tab at the top of the bin SuperBin In this mode all your bins can open in the same win Click the dow with only one showing at a time This saves screen Seung space and keeps the screen from getting cluttered It s geal for working with a single coapte O Let s Bin View activate SuperBin because it will make life easier for Bin View you by keeping all the open bins in one location Figure 1 18 1 Click on the Settings tab in the Project window 2 Now double click the word Bin 3 In the dialog box that opens select Enable Double cli SuperBin 4 Click OK and then click on the Bins tab Instead of double clicking a bin icon in the Project window simply click once to open it in the SuperBin If you want to open another bin instead of double clicking it click once on the bin s icon and it replaces the bin already there Source Monitor When you double click on a clip icon the clip appears in the Source Monitor This 1s where you deter mine what will be edited i
104. 18 30 Only One Take Line Sometimes when you have a lot of takes for a particular shot all those take lines can overwhelm the script and make it hard to look at To show only one take line go to the Script menu and select Show All Takes Only one take line will appear on the page and all the rest will disappear however if you then select a slate by clicking on it all of that slate s take lines will appear If you go to the Script menu and reselect Show All Takes you ll reverse the action and all the take lines will appear once more Color Lines Last but not least you can place one of six colors on your take lines Help to indicate a preferred take or a problem or whatever you want to Delete Take highlight Just go to the Script menu Figure 18 31 and select Color a Color gt choice of six colors will appear Select one Go To Scene Now follow these steps Add Scene 1 Lasso the portion of the take line or the entire take that you n aE want to color 2 Click on the Set Color command on top of the Script window Y Show Frames Figure 18 32 v Show All Takes Left Margin Lasso the colored section and click the Set Color command again to interpolate Position remove the color Hold Slates Onscreen ScriptSync e laa lel las lap 4 Set Color command Text Encoding b Figure 18 32 Figure 18 31 296 Chapter 18 Script Integration Identifying the Preferred Take The ability to mark the preferred take with
105. 196 Transitions A side B side 42 43 lassoing 44 Review Transition button 47 snapping to on Timeline 31 32 Transparency and titles 187 188 Transparency layer 246 247 Trim Frame keys 46 47 Trim Mode adding and removing rollers 53 57 changing Single Roller Dual Roller Modes 52 dragging rollers 48 57 dragging to a mark 54 55 Dual Roller Trim Mode 42 43 51 53 entering on selected tracks 56 fixing audio problems 143 frame counters 49 getting into 42 43 44 45 57 introduction 41 42 J K L trimming 57 161 162 lassoing transitions 44 L cuts 51 52 leaving 43 44 57 picture and sound overlaps 51 52 practice 48 51 removing split edits 52 Review Transition button 47 Single Roller Trim Mode 44 48 Slide Mode 160 161 Slip Mode 158 160 split edits 51 52 84 switching modes 57 sync locks 236 240 sync problems in Single Roller Mode 55 56 trim by dragging 48 Trim Frame keys 46 47 Trim Mode 42 trim practice 42 trimming in two directions 155 158 235 236 trimming one side then other 54 trimming while watching 53 54 57 undo in 49 using with waveforms to fix audio 138 372 Trim Mode display 43 Trim Mode icon 48 Trim Mode keys 42 Trim tab Command Palette 75 Two monitors using 282 283 Two field Motion Effects 206 208 TX 8 59 94 Crystal 323 U Uganda 2 147 331 Undo Edit menu 336 Undo command 18 19 in Trim Mode 49 using i
106. 224 Chapter 14 Advanced Effects and Color Correction green is a graphic representation of the bright Gain P and dark areas of your clip We ll use this to help oe at a us understand what happens as we make adjust kj wej a Setup ments to the image as we auto correct it HB cej ne Look at the auto correction buttons shown in Figure 14 29 Notice the Auto Contrast and Auto Balance commands Those are the ones we will click to make this shot have more snap Figure 14 29 Auto Contrast Auto Balance First click on the Auto Contrast button and watch what happens to the Setup and Gain Gain As you can see in Figure 14 30 the Auto Contrast command EJ 10528 gj m 3 determined that the clip was a bit dark and boosted the Gain the white levels a small amount from 100 to 105 29 It also deter aaup mined that the Setup the black levels was too low so there was no detail in the dark areas The Setup was raised from 0 to 7 Thanks to these changes the clip of Kate has more snap Fi 14 30 After Auto Contrast igure 14 er Auto Contrast Color is divided into two parts hue and saturation Hue refers to the color such as red blue or yellow Saturation is the intensity or shade of that color To automatically correct the hue and saturation click on the Auto Balance command and watch what happens to the crosshairs inside the color wheels as you do this Figure 14 31 Notice that the crosshairs ha
107. 3 Dual Split command 222 Dual Roller Trim Mode 42 43 51 53 See also Trim Mode adding removing rollers 53 adjusting title length 181 changing from Single Roller to 52 fixing audio problems 143 J K L trimming 161 162 Review Transition button 47 split edits or L cuts 51 52 84 switching modes 57 trim by dragging 48 Trim Frame keys 46 47 Duplicate Edit menu 35 337 Duplicate Monitor menu 350 Duplicating keyboard settings 70 sequences 35 36 Duration Tracking menu 349 Duration information Bin column 62 DV digital videotape format 264 265 DV 25 411 format 106 274 276 DV 420 format 106 DV 50 format 62 106 107 276 DV cameras 266 DV codec 253 DV format 264 265 DV Scene Extraction Bin menu 337 338 DVCAM 7 8 92 93 245 321 322 Dv com 330 DVCPRO HD 5 93 95 107 114 115 DVCPro HD basic concepts 95 drive space 107 DVCPro HD Raster Type 93 94 DVD authoring software 314 316 making progressive DVD 315 316 offloading P2 cards onto 119 output to 313 314 source material 8 DVD File menu 335 DVD R burner 313 E Edit Decision List EDL 10 343 350 Edit menu 336 337 Edit points 42 Edit tab Command Palette 71 75 Editing basic skills 28 30 drag and drop on Timeline 64 65 editor s job 1 2 J K L trimming 161 162 Lift and Extract commands 36 38 marking clips 29 35 38 39 Match Frame 164 205 navigating the Timeline 31 offline onl
108. 36 38 Extract button 19 36 Extracting clips 36 38 Extract Splice button Segment Mode 148 Eye trace and continuity 80 81 F Fade Effect button 181 Fades adding to titles 181 Fast menu buttons 17 Fast motion 207 Feature film workflow 327 328 Feedback from screenings 86 88 File Field Order Import Settings 246 File formats audio 108 File menu 334 336 Files browsing 12 deleting 65 66 linked to master clip 9 source material 8 Fill Sorted Bin menu 340 Fill Window Bin menu 64 340 Fill Window command 182 Filler sequence 36 37 Film projects 317 328 16mm 263 264 317 318 320 321 2 3 standard pulldown 318 319 Avid project formats 322 feature film workflow 327 328 film to tape transfer 318 finishing back to film 327 328 fps slowdown for film to video 319 hiring negative cutter 327 328 Nagra audio recorder 322 323 reasons for shooting on 317 318 slowing audio 322 323 syncing rushes 323 325 telecine transfer systems 308 320 322 timecodes 319 320 work orders to lab telecine 320 322 Filmmaker s Handbook The Ascher and Pincus 329 FilmScribe Output menu 343 Film to tape transfer 318 Final Cut Apple 3 331 332 Final Draft script software 283 Find Edit menu 337 Find Again Edit menu 337 Find Black Hole Clip menu 343 Find Flash Frame Clip menu 343 Find Script 295 Fine cut defined 10 Fine cut sequences 59 Finishing 301
109. 5 6 More tab Command Palette 72 77 Motion Effects 206 208 adding to Source Monitor toolbar 73 reverse motion 207 slow motion fast motion 207 strobe 208 Motion video exporting 252 253 high resolution QuickTime movie 253 254 QuickTime movie 253 QuickTime Reference movie 257 259 for YouTube Google iTunes Websites 254 257 Mount All File menu 336 Move tab Command Palette 74 Index Movie Settings Format Options 255 256 Moving bin columns 63 clips using Extract Splice 148 150 clips using Lift Overwrite 150 152 keyframes 135 MPEG files creating 254 257 MPEG 2 encoding 266 MPEG 4 Video compression 256 MultiCamera Mode Special menu 344 MultiGroup Bin menu 338 Multiple effects rendering 209 Muting tracks 136 MXF media file type 109 110 N Nagra audio recorder 322 323 Naming bins 14 clips 283 tapes 99 Narration tracks 144 233 239 240 See also Sound National Television System Committee NTSC 91 Navigating Timeline 31 Negative cutters 327 328 New Audio Track Clip menu 126 340 New Bin File menu 334 New Bin button 59 New Deck Controller Tools menu 345 new files 274 311 New Folder Bin Fast menu 66 New Meta Track Clip menu 340 New Project button 9 90 New Script File menu 334 New Sequence Clip menu 64 340 New Title Clip menu 175 340 New Title File menu 179 New Video Track Clip menu 180 340 Nitris DX 7 268
110. 5 Ho Seet Dialog Figure 18 22 After analyzing the clip the software will place script marks at every line of dialog Once you ve got it working Shift click on the other takes or slates and repeat steps 1 to 4 as I have done in Figure 18 23 Placing the marks manually I would always mark the start of an actor s lines and not add another mark until the next actor speaks But ScriptSync places a script mark at every line That s not really what we want but as you ll see it s not really a problem Playing Marked Takes Let s see how all this works I want to review the three takes of Peter saying to Michele I know who you are You re one of America s rising young tal ents I think Variety said that Are you lost I need to pick one but which of the three works best With my cursor I lasso all the script marks across the three take lines that cover those lines as shown in Figure 18 24 Then I press the special Play key Lasso all the script marks for the lines of dialog you want to review Figure 18 24 owa Fsib d hdr Hand H akes her han You re gt Jno gt atae 4E gt gt yweud gt r gt gt gt O Figure 18 23 293 Avid Editing A Guide for Beginning and Intermediate Users or the spacebar The take line for Take 1 turns green and that clip opens in the Source Monitor and begins to play starting at the line I know who you are When it gets to Peter s
111. 6 Hs P Frames 1 He Psy choacoustic model ae r a r j A m 0i 2 Auto GOP None H 7 Closed GOPS Example IPPPPPIPPPPPIPPPPPIPPPPPI Advanced PCM Audio Settings A vi P id Mute Flag dvanced MPEG Video Settings rif Emphasis 48kHz Only Profile ID Main sy Dynamic Aare Co mi prae Dynamic Range Conto Level ID Main Simple impot Export Defaut Cancel Figure 19 23 315 Avid Editing A Guide for Beginning and Intermediate Users In the Input box click on Import and select the two QuickTime reference files on your desktop or drive Figure 19 23 1 In the Audience Presets choose DVD and then your format DVD_NTSC_16 X 9_Lg Now double click on that setting and the compression settings dialog box will open Click on the Advanced button bottom left to open more settings Figure 19 23 Select Elementary as your Stream Type Select Progressive as your Field Encoding Choose 29 97 as your Frame Rate even if you have a 23 976 or 24p project For GOP Structure enter 6 in the I Frames box oS ge rik Once you click OK go to the Filter Presets Although it s counterintuitive in the Auto Crop Deinterlace filter deselect Deinterlace That s because you already took care of this when you chose Progressive in step 4 Now set the Publish Presets to send it to the desktop Make sure you have clicked Apply in each section and then press the SQUEEZE IT button When you have encoded the
112. 65F omf iDisk rs Library s 001V01 C4BE0E98_3EE48989656 0mf 5 Avid Editin amp D OME MediaFiles 001V01 C4BE0E68_3EE48989626 0omh is system AMAMI ARENE 2FeARaROKIN amf PLACES eee DVD Drag the 22 media files from the DVD into this folder on the HD Figure 2 Close the hard drive Eject the DVD Turn to Chapter 1 Getting Started on page 14 Instructions for Mounting Wanna Trade onto a PC Computer Place the DVD in the DVD drawer Double click on the DVD s icon When the DVD opens look for the folders labeled Wanna Trade Scene and Wanna Trade Media 1 376 Double click on My Computer Double click on the computer s media drive Locate the OMEFI MediaFiles folder If you don t find the folder because you have never captured this type of media on this computer create a new folder named OMFI MediaFiles and place it on the highest level of your hard drive The spelling OMFI MediaFiles must be exact Double click on My Computer again Click on the blue or top bar and drag it so you can see both screens Double click on the DVD s Wanna Trade Media folder to open it There you ll find 22 media files Select all 22 media files in the folder and copy and paste them to the OMFI MediaFiles folder It will take about 3 5 minutes for the media files to copy onto the drive DVD Instructions 4 Find the Shared Avid Projects folder on your C drive The MC 3 0 software places the folder on Windows XP at C
113. 8 15 Now go to the script and find the take you want to mark first Let s say you want to place a script mark on Master Shot Take 1 where Peter says Everyone knows who you are Double click any where on that take line Take 1 will be selected and it will load in the Source Monitor Right now the entire take will load from the beginning of the clip You must play the clip in the Source Monitor as you normally would using the J K L keys not the spacebar When you get to the part of the clip where Peter is about to say the line press the K key to stop Now using the cur sor single click on the take line where it intersects with that line of dialog so the line is highlighted as shown in Figure 18 16 wes Hearing Joanna speak and sees PETER Can I help you Miss Powers 1 Master to descend the ladder MICHELE Oh hi there I m Michele Powers toward the him holding out her hagd He hesitate waring work gloves but shakes hef hand after hem Click on the take line where it intersects the line of dialog FETER Everyone knows who you are You rg the star of this picture One of America s rising young talents Ij Figure 18 16 290 Chapter 18 Script Integration Press the Add Script Mark button A double sided arrow will appear at that spot in the script Now that point in the script is linked to that point in the clip Figure 18 17 PETER Everyone kmows who you are You
114. 94 DNxHD 145 145 megabits per second 1080p 23 976 DNxHD 175 175 megabits per second 720p 59 94 DNxHD 145 145 megabits per second 720p 23 976 DNxHD 90 90 megabits per second 10801 50 PAL DNxHD 185 185 megabits per second Connecting the HD Deck to Your Avid HD Box The Nitris DX Mojo DX and Adrenaline HD have HD SDI inputs and outputs A single cable carries the HD digital signal from the HD deck to the Avid HD hardware which in turn 1s con nected to the computer These HD SDI cables carry uncompressed HD digital video streams Unlike FireWire which handles both In and Out signals with the same FireWire connection you need an HD SDI In and a separate HD SDI Out There are also connections for standard definition analog and digital decks such as a DigiBeta Beta SP or VHS decks On the Nitris DX you ll find SDI component Y Pb Pr S Video and compos ite In and Out connections Audio can be sent to and from the HD deck through a number of digital audio connections such as SPDIF or AES Analog audio is captured through standard or balanced L R cables I have included a diagram of the back of the Nitris DX Figure 17 4 so you can examine the vari ous connections I have just mentioned Capturing HD with Adrenaline HD Mojo DX or Nitris DX Now lets bring in an HD tape using our Mojo DX Nitris DX or Adrenaline HD hardware First you must configure your deck Follow the steps on pages 97 99 in Chapter 6 The steps
115. Audio Data 134 135 141 Auto Gain mode 134 Auto Mode Audio Mixer Tool 130 136 Automatically Launch Last Project at Startup setting 70 Auto Save feature 69 AutoSequence Bin menu 338 AutoSync Bin menu 325 326 338 Avid basic concepts 12 19 future of 331 332 products 330 331 starting 11 12 system components 4 8 website 3 330 Avid Digidesign 8 130 331 335 Avid DS File menu 335 Avid DS Nitris 7 95 265 266 268 270 Avid DV codec 253 Avid Handbook The Staten and Bayes 329 Avid Media Composer menus 333 Avid MediaFiles folder 110 122 174 260 Avid Mojo DX 7 95 110 268 272 Avid Newscutter 331 Avid Unity ISIS system 331 Avid Unity MediaNetwork 331 344 Avid L 330 B Background title 177 Backing up creating protection master 122 daily 168 174 media files 173 174 P2 cards 119 122 project folders 168 169 Bad sound replacing 143 Basic editing See Editing Batch Capture Clip menu 105 172 341 Batch capturing logged clips 105 341 offline media 172 173 Batch Import Clip menu 341 B frame 318 Bin Fast menu 66 Bin menu 337 340 Bins 60 66 Brief View 14 60 creating 59 60 creating overview 9 10 deleting sequences clips 65 66 drag and drop editing 64 65 Enable SuperBin 15 Frame View 15 60 63 64 headings 61 63 icons for open unopened 13 moving columns 63 naming 14 opening 14 organizing 100 Script View 15 selec
116. Beginning and Intermediate Users Special Menu Site Setting This command provides a list of the set Sadat Tools Toolset Windows Script Si Site Settings tings that are specific to the site and not the user Bin Settings rete settings Bin Timeline Composer Settings Depending Audio Mixdown Video Mixdown Read Audio Timecode on which window 1s selected this opens the Settings for that window Restore To Default Restores all settings to the default settings I rarely use this Audio Mixdown You can mix or combine multiple tracks into one or two tracks You might mix together your dialog tracks to concentrate on iia the music tracks MultiCamera Mode Shift Ctrl M Video Mixdown This command is helpful for tak ing a very complex section of multilayered effects Nevite b on five tracks and mixing them onto one track Read Audio Timecode The Avid can read the lon gitudinal timecode recorded on an audio track and Full Screen Playback Shift Ctrl F display that information in the auxiliary timecode 2 ee column which is one of the headings 1n Text View You must be in Text View to select this command Restore Default Patch This command returns any source tracks that are patched to other record tracks back to Al and A2 Sync Point Editing This command activates a special type of overwrite editing based on sync points You can line up a point in the Source Monitor one sync point and have
117. C NTSC stands for National Television System Committee which is the standards body that set the standards for broadcast television in the United States It was originally an analog system that was developed prior to World War II The image contains 525 horizontal lines of information running at 30 frames per second It was slightly modified in 1953 to slow the frame rate to 29 97 frames per second to permit color television transmission This NTSC analog system was the over the air broadcast transmission standard for over 50 years Our neighbors in North America and Central America adopted it as did Japan Taiwan South Korea the Caribbean and parts of South America It has since been replaced by a digital standard 91 Avid Editing A Guide for Beginning and Intermediate Users You re probably using a digital NTSC camera so there s no need to worry that your NTSC equip ment will go out of date Interlaced Scanning NTSC uses an interlaced frame That means that a single video frame is made up of two fields One field contains all the odd lines and the other field contains the even lines This oddity came about when the engineers who invented NTSC television back in the 1930s noticed that when observing the picture on the television screen the top of the image was darker than the bottom They realized that by the time the electron beam lit up the last of the 525 rows of phosphor dots the top rows of phosphor dots had faded So they design
118. Chapter 9 to move this title along the Timeline 11 Open the Title Tool Create a rolling title Close the Title Tool and cut this title into the Timeline 12 Render the title 13 Change the speed of the rolling title 14 Render the title 192 Chapter 13 Effects The Avid has a fantastic array of effects that will enable you to do things that until a few years ago only George Lucas s Skywalker Ranch could manage Because the Avid s Effect Palette 1s so com plete and far reaching I ve divided our examination of effects into two chapters the first is for standard effects and the second for more complicated effects Master this chapter before jumping into the deep end that is Chapter 14 Keep in mind that not every project benefits from a lot of effects Scenes involving strong perform ances by talented actors are usually hurt by visual effects because they steal the scene from the actors Montage sequences that are music driven or contain stunning cinematography are great can didates for effects because the right effect heightens the mood and visual impact of the sequence Music videos which are designed to be viewed many times benefit from complex visual effects otherwise the video becomes stale after one or two viewings Transitions before and after television commercials are often piled high with visual effects as a means of grabbing audience attention The same can be said of the commercials themselves which
119. Correction sira E aia o ee ee a ET ey er ee ee ee ee ee i ee ee ee eee Click the eyedropper in the left hand box and then click on Peters face Ei Figure 14 36 Match Color feature A World of Effects We could write an entire book on effects we ve just skimmed the surface in these two chapters For example there 1s the whole subject of third party plug in effects and three dimensional effects which I ve barely mentioned However I believe you now have more than enough information to get started Through practice and experimentation you ll do fine 229 This page intentionally left blank Chapter 15 Keeping in Sync Sync Problems When I write about sync problems in this chapter I have more in mind than just picture and audio tracks falling out of sync To me if a music cue is supposed to be heard as soon as a door opens and instead it comes in 2 seconds late it s out of sync If you spend a lot of time getting narration music or effects to land perfectly with a visual and suddenly they don t you re out of sync If you have a lower third title on V2 that says Nelson Mandela and when you play your sequence the title comes up over a shot of a building your title is out of sync You have sync problems Getting out of sync can be an editors worst nightmare especially if a client or producer is in the room One second you re splicing shots trimming transitions building tracks an
120. Directory menu Countdown f Gi Caffer s Delight eo E Wanna Trade Title psd O Gaffer s Delight Media WTrade Alpha psd O Prac gt Gaffer s De Script TXT ie Sam amp lal Import images Gi Wanna Trade Media gt D Wanna Trade Scene gt DEVICES Macinto File Type menu Drive menu Options box Video Resolution menu Figure 16 2 Mac Import dialog box 242 Chapter 16 Importing and Exporting Importing a Graphic File Perhaps the most confusing aspect of importing is the various options you need to set for each kind of file m going to walk you through importing a picture file that is saved as a jpg file You ll find the image on the DVD that comes with this book Insert the DVD into your Avid computer Let s trace the steps required to do this import and then we ll examine the choices I made and why Examine Figure 16 1 Windows or Figure 16 2 Mac as you follow these steps 1 Open any project Create a new bin called Imported Files Open it and make sure it 1s selected Choose Import from the File menu The Select files to Import dialog box opens 3 From the Files of type Windows or Enable Mac I select the sort of document I am look ing for Graphic Audio etc Because my title is a jpg file I choose Graphic Files Windows or Graphic Documents Mac If for some reason the Import box does not recognize your file type or you re not sure what type of file it
121. Documents and Settings All Users Shared Documents Shared Avid Projects see Figure 3 On Windows Vista it s at C Users Public Public Documents Shared Avid Projects Prior versions of Media Composer will find it inside My Documents 7 Shared Avid Projects File Edit View Favorites Tools Help Beck Q T J Search i t Folders E Address O C Documents and Settings All Users Documents Shared Avid Projects Folders D gt con Wanna Trade Scene L compaq A Documents and Settings CD Administrator C All Users C Application Data C Desktop C Favorites C Shared Documents C Avid Symphony O AVX Plug Ins Data Shared Avid Projects E Shared Music a Shared Pictures E Shared Video lt 2 objects Disk free space 221 GB Figure 3 Go to the DVD folder and copy the Wanna Trade Scene folder and paste it to the Shared Avid Projects folder It should copy over in seconds Looking inside the Shared Avid Projects folder you should see the Wanna Trade Scene folder you just placed there Right click on the folder and the Properties menu will open Click on the Read Only check boxes so the check mark is removed empty Click Apply Another dialog box appears There are two check boxes Make sure the Apply Changes to This Folder Subfolders and Files box is checked If it isn t click on it Now click OK Click OK again Close all the folders and eject the DVD Turn to Chapter 1 Getting Started on pag
122. Effects Illustrator and Corel Painter If the image you are ner eB AUNT EY importing has a fine gradient and you see some ugly banding when you 601 709 import it and cut it into your sequence try importing it again using RGB dithered Figure 16 7 Select 601 when you are importing test patterns such as SMPTE bars which we ll do later in this chapter The only other time would be if you are importing a file that was created by another Avid and that file was exported at 601 When in doubt use RGB except when importing SMPTE bars then it s 601 Alpha If the image you are importing has an opaque layer and a transparent layer then you need to tell the Avid how the image was created The transparent layer is called the alpha channel Animation and 246 Chapter 16 Importing and Exporting graphic applications set up the alpha channel the opposite of what the 4J pha Avid wants so you will want to select Invert Existing The photograph N I am importing doesn t have a transparency layer so this isn t an issue w Use Existing and I choose Ignore a Invert Existing You can create files using graphic programs such as Photoshop that F Ignore will superimpose over a background shot We ll do that in a minute Figure 16 8 Single Frame Import I imported the still photograph as a single frame When I import _ it the Avid is going to turn that single frame into a master clip In Duration fO seconds the Options b
123. Figure 2 19 Figure 2 20 The Master Shot has been lifted from the sequence time hit the Extract button Hey The clip s gone and the Timeline has shrunk Figure 2 21 This one can fool you sometimes because Figure 2 21 The Master Shot it happens so fast you don t see it and you wonder if you has been extracted from the sequence actually did anything If you want the Master Shot back press Command Z Mac or Ctrl Z Windows to undo the Extract Now let s try lifting clips and extracting clips with the video track V1 deselected You ll see that the Lift button will take vei away the sound leaving the picture and black filler where the Figure 2 22 36 Chapter 2 Basic Editing sound used to be In Figure 2 22 I have selected the audio tracks but not the video track and then I hit the Lift button The picture remains but the sound has been replaced by black filler Lift works without a problem but watch out for the Extract button By extracting the audio and leaving the video clip in place you shift all the audio that comes after this clip Let s examine how Extract differs from Lift in this situation mastersnott Select the Master Shot sound tracks and deselct V1 Now mark the clip Only the sound is marked Figure 2 23 As we ve seen if you lift the Master Shot s audio the audio is removed and replaced by filler The audio downstream of this point isn t pulled up to fill in t
124. GB Non Interlaced Ignore Alpha Click OK 5 Back in the Select files to Import dialog box select the drive and resolution 6 Click Open The file will appear in the bin as a master clip Open it in the Source Monitor and hit Play It starts off black but then the descending numbers appear You can import many different types of files Now that you know y the parameters you should be able to import just about any file successfully As with anything else discussed in this book you ll only learn through practice and experimentation Try importing different types of files and playing with the many options Keep a written record of what settings work If you have a file you want to import there s a way to do it Just keep trying Figure 16 12 Exporting There are hundreds of computer applications that can change alter sweeten and enhance your Avid generated picture or sound or both and there are lots of outlets for the work you create on the Avid including the Internet and DVDs To take advantage of all of these applications and avenues for distribution you need to understand the basics of export ing Fortunately the Avid has made this whole process much easier than it was in the past Now there is an Export Settings pulldown menu that contains many templates for the most common exports You select the template and the default settings are usually the ones yovw ll want Here are three situations in which you
125. Ifyou are exporting more than V1 make sure the video track monitor is on the highest level e Make sure the material you want to export is selected e If it s a frame mark the frame by placing an IN mark e If it s one or more tracks click on the track selector panel to select the ones you want and deselect the ones you don t e If you want to export a section of a sequence place IN and OUT marks in the Timeline Exporting a Production Still Exporting a frame from a sequence to create a production still is an important task especially as many budgets don t include money for a still photographer Instead we ll get our production stills right off the Timeline Fortunately the Avid provides a template to make this a breeze Put a sequence in the Timeline and place an IN mark on the frame you would like to export If possible choose a frame that has as little movement as possible Now go to the File menu and choose Export The Export As box will appear as shown in Figures 16 13 and 16 14 1 Go to the Export As window and select either Macintosh Image or Windows Image depend ing on the machine you re on 2 Type a name for the file gt Choose a destination desktop flash drive 4 Click Save It s that easy But now let s make a change to the Avid s default setting Repeat the steps above but don t click Save in step 4 Instead click on the Options button The Export Settings window opens like the
126. Interlaced scanning 92 246 265 Internal hard drives 4 5 See also Drives storage Internet resources 330 Interpolate Position Script menu 297 Interviews 85 Invert Existing Import Settings 247 I O in out hardware devices 110 111 Index Isolating headphones 301 ITU R 601 709 244 245 J J key 18 J K L keys three button play basic concepts 18 practice 21 J K L trimming 161 162 jpg files 243 246 JVC format 95 265 266 267 JVC GY HD250U HDV camera 266 JVC HDV cameras 266 267 K K key 18 Kerning 178 Key numbers 327 Keyboards keyboard shortcuts commands 17 19 defaults 17 duplicating default settings 70 71 duplicating keyboard settings 70 mapping menu items to 70 72 164 165 for menu commands 333 settings 70 72 spacebar 18 three button play 18 zoom restore Timeline 33 Keyframes Advanced Keyframes 217 219 placing automatically 136 working with clip gain 134 135 Kizza s Portrait 147 154 L L key 18 Lab work orders 320 322 Lassoing to get into Segment Mode 44 153 154 to get into Slide Mode 161 to get into Slip Mode 159 transitions 44 Launch In Native Application Bin menu 339 361 Index Launching Avid 11 12 L cuts 51 52 56 Leading 178 Leaving Trim Mode 43 44 57 Left Margin Script menu 297 Lift Z key 36 Lift and Extract commands 36 38 Lift button 19 36 Lifting clips 36 38 150 152 Lift Overwrite butt
127. Miss Powers He starts to descend the ladder Figure 18 3 The script as it appears in the Avid The Avid will also create a special script bin When you close the script it will go inside the script bin as shown in Figure 18 4 You can make some changes to the script once it is in the Avid T Dailies 115K You can delete lines of dialog or action the Delete key won t Beets Deli eae work use the Cut command to remove text instead and you _ f tad Figure 18 4 can move segments or scenes around but you can t change indi vidual words Remember it s editing software not scriptwriting software Linking Clips to the Script Open the bin holding the clips for the scene you are working on and open the script by double clicking on the script icon If you re using a single monitor position the script so it doesn t cover the Source Monitor or the SuperBin You won t need the Timeline during this stage so you can use that screen space for the script Play the first clip in the Source Monitor and reading the script as you watch figure out what part of the script it covers In Gaffer s Delight the first clip is the Master Shot It starts when the character Peter descends the ladder to greet Michele and it runs all the way to the end of the scene 284 Chapter 18 Script Integration The way you select lines or sections of your script 1s pretty standard You either lasso the lines using the cursor or you click o
128. Monitor and the Project window If you want to work within a particular window you need to make it active Many beginning Avid users get confused when they press a command button and nothing happens or the command gets executed in the wrong place If you want to work in the Source Monitor click on it first The same is true of the Timeline or a bin window Practice There are many more commands and menus to discuss and we ll get to all of them but for now let s practice what we have done so far by starting an editing session True you haven t been shown how to use many of the Avid s most powerful tools but you have the basic tools to put Chapter 1 Getting Started J K L Play New Lift and Extract Old Lift and Extract 2 Splice and Overwrite Figure 1 25 Commands together a rough cut of a scene Just follow the instructions provided in the next section They will guide you through your first edits and get you started If you are cutting a different scene and not Wanna Trade simply substitute your clip names for the clip names I provide in the instructions Before you make any edits look at the script for the scene you will be cutting to get an idea of action and dialog If you are cutting Wanna Trade you ll find the script at the end of this chap ter Most of the action has been shot from several camera angles Each actor has a master shot and a close up CU Some of the action ha
129. Motion picture film runs at 24 fps 3 When motion picture film is transferred to videotape it is slowed down so that it runs at 23 976 fps That is the frame rate that film like video emulates Your video camera may say 24p or 24pN but it 1s really 23 976 4 720p runs at 59 94 fps but it can be flagged to run at 23 976 to look like film 5 The 59 94 is often the same as 29 97 Double 29 97 and you get 59 94 6 It is easier to deliver to tape if your format s fps is 29 97 or 59 94 and it is easier to make a DVD if your rate is 23 976 7 24p NTSC and 1080p 24 are only used for feature films that will be projected in a theater 267 Avid Editing A Guide for Beginning and Intermediate Users Chapter 20 Shooting on Film Cutting on Avid examines points 2 3 and 7 further In the PAL world it s simpler because 25 fps has always been the standard and 25 fps and 50 fps are basically the same Feature films are produced using 24p PAL HD with the Mojo DX Adrenaline or Nitris DX Fortunately for us Avid is the most trusted name in high definition Ask the producers of just about any prime time television show from CSI to American Idol They all cut on Avid systems Media Composer can capture and output a wide range of DVCPro HD and HDV tapes That means you can capture tapes shot with Panasonic s VariCam JVC s GY HD250U or Canon s XL H1 using just a camera your Media Composer and a FireWire connection As
130. My Recommended Settings P2 is for Shooting Not Editing Install P2 Driver Software Importing Directly from the Camera Using the PCMCIA Slot in the Computer Using Panasonic s P2 Gear AG HPG10 FireStore Portable Hard Drive Recorder Accessing P2 Cards on a DVD or External Drive Backing Up Your P2 Media Protection Master Downconverting to SD Sony XDCAM EX Importing Other HDV Media Working with Imported HD Media Chapter 8 Sound The Importance of Sound Importing an MP3 File or Audio From a CD Adding Audio Tracks Patching Audio Tracks Track Monitors Monitoring Only One Track The Hollow Speaker Icon Audio Scrub Selecting the Tracks for Scrubbing Scrolling Your Tracks Deleting Tracks Changing Audio Levels XIV 108 108 108 110 112 113 E 114 114 115 115 115 116 117 117 118 119 119 121 122 122 124 124 125 125 126 126 127 127 128 128 128 129 129 129 129 Fixing Volume Output Levels Audio Mixer tool Speed Tips Panning Changing Volume and Panning on Multiple Clips Audio Data Auto Gain Placing Keyframes Automatically Waveforms Using Trim Mode with Waveforms to Fix Audio Equalization Setting the EQ EQ Templates Saving Your EQ Effect When to Use the Different Audio Tools What Level is Correct Other Audio Techniques to Fix Problems Replacing Bad Sound Timeline Views Setting Up Your Tracks Pro Tools Tell the Story First Suggested Assignments Chapter 9 Segment Mode Editing Timeline Settin
131. NLE sweepstakes Final Cut and Avid only the Avid is a cross platform system meaning it runs on both Macs and PCs either laptops or workstations The Avid website maintains a list of qualified computers that are approved for the Media Composer family Go to www avid com products media composer and click on Tech Specs to check out the quali fied computers and their specifications Assuming you ve got a qualified computer running the correct operating system loading the soft ware is fairly straightforward Put the SafeNet dongle that comes in the pink bubble wrap into a USB port and insert the Media Composer DVD disk that comes in the box you got when you purchased the software Double click on the DVD and you ll see contents similar to Figure 1 2 AMC30Mac n eS row Avid Media Other Installers Goodies README_AvidMediaCompo Composer mpkg ser pdf Figure 1 2 Contents of Installer DVD Open the README pdf and note if your specific computer system has any issues that you may need to address These README documents provide way too much information for the beginner but you should read over the section Before You Install the Editing Application Now open the Other Installers folder and load the EDL Manager first Then load the contents of the Goodies folder and last install the Avid Media Composer software It should take about five to ten minutes to install the software The tricky part is that you should now go to the Av
132. NTENTS acide Sd Removable Disk F C CONTENTS E S alanwong on ca2001 omcihome H Figure 7 4 You re ready to start editing But don t And most importantly don t exit or quit Avid or leave the project because all the media will go offline and you ll have to import it all again Instead proceed to the Backing Up Your P2 Media section in this chapter page 119 Using the PCMCIA Slot in the Computer Many Windows PCs come with a PCMCIA slot into which you slide the P2 card Mac users need a PCMCIA to PC Express adapter The advantage to the PCMCIA slot over the camera is that you no longer need the camera so the camera operator can keep shooting or you can return the camera to the rental company If you haven t loaded the P2 driver as explained in the Install P2 Driver Software section you ll need to do that first Now insert the P2 card into the PCMCIA slot and you ll see the card mounted as a separate drive on the Mac s desktop or in the PC s My Computer list of removable disks Once you see that the card is recognized by the computer follow steps 1 through 7 as out lined on page 116 You re ready to start editing but first proceed to the Backing Up Your P2 Media section in this chapter page 119 Using Panasonic s P2 Gear AG HPG10 Panasonic s AG HPG10 P2 Gear Figure 7 5 is great in the field because you can quickly view clips on its small screen and hear sound through its
133. Nagra or DAT we record at a slightly faster sampling rate of 48 048 kHz That is 0 1 faster than 48kHz When we import the audio files into the Avid the Avid brings them in at 48kHz This slows the audio files by the correct amount Nothing could be easier e Audio Start Time Options 1 Insert your flash card into a flash card reader 2 Go to File gt Import and navigate to the flash card 3 You will see a number of folders open the one that contains your WAV files Select all of the files 4 Click Open 5 If you see a dialog box like the one in Figure 20 4 select Non Drop and 30 FPS and then click on OK to All Figure 20 4 Synching Rushes Okay so you ve captured the tapes you got back from the telecine and you ve imported or captured your audio Now all that s left before editing can begin is synching picture and sound It s a time consuming endeavor Usually you have a lot of takes and each one has to be synched by hand Film projects often hire assistant editors to do the synching If you have 30 rolls of film transferred to 10 hour long tapes and you ve had your fill of synching after just one tape you might think about finding an assistant editor Remember Tom Sawyer s fence painting trick make it sound like lots of fun and rope in an unsuspecting tyro who s eager to learn The Avid has an AutoSync feature which we ll use to sync our footage It s a bit misnamed as there s nothing au
134. Project window and click on the little tab that looks like one of those naval flags that s used to signal by semaphore Once the Effect Palette opens you ll see a box with two columns The left hand column lists the categories of effects When you click on a category a list of the types of effects your system offers in that category is displayed in the right hand column In Figure 13 1 I have clicked on the Image category and my choices are listed in the right hand column Scroll through the category list clicking on the different categories and look at the many choices offered Click here to open the Effect Palette id Avid Pan amp Zoom E Blur Effect Box Wipe Conceal Edge Wipe F ilir illusion FX Matrix Wipe Peel Plasma ipe Avid Borders iPlasmawipe Avid Center Plasma ipe Avid Hor iz Plasma ipe Avid Lava Plasma ipe Avid Paint Plasmawipe Avid Techno Push Reformat Figure 13 1 Effect Palette 194 BS Color Correction ofa Color Effect LE F lip aE Flip Flop Flop A Mask Mosaic Effect Paint Effect Region Stabilize of Resize Safe Color Limiter Seratch Removal EF Stabilize GJ Submaster Chapter 13 Effects Applying an Effect It s easy to apply an effect Just click on the icon for the effect you want and drag it from the Effect Palette to the Timeline Release it when you ve reached the transition or segment of your choice Let s try a transi
135. Proxy p ugivevery P Import P2 ET Avid Video Consolidate Audio a Digidesign ProTools on Unity gt QuickTime Embed Audio Figure 16 26 5 Choose QuickTime Embed Audio 6 When the dialog box comes up as shown in Figure 16 27 choose your external drive as the destination 7 Click OK As you can see you have separate settings for the video and the audio You can make changes to any of the settings listed in the summary area by clicking on the Options buttons Under Destination you can either save it on your desktop and then move it to your external media drive or you can navigate to your drive Click Set and navigate to the drive or desktop 209 Avid Editing A Guide for Beginning and Intermediate Users To QuickTime Embed Audio i Massacre at Murambi OOOO O O ala rF Piala P g F Figure 16 27 Place the omf file inside your Avid MediaFiles folder or your OMFI MediaFiles folder on your drive or the external FireWire drive When you launch Pro Tools select New Session navigate until you find the omf file inside the Avid OMFI MediaFiles folder and open it That omf file is your Pro Tools session If you think you may go to an outside vendor such as a professional mixer with a Pro Tools station talk to the vendor because the steps may be a bit different This outline will give you a great place to start the conversation You can then make whatever changes to this list of st
136. Quality in the Relink Method pulldown menu Figure 17 12 Deselect the check boxes below the menu as I have in Figure 17 12 Chapter 17 Working in HD Pulldown menu Deselect these checkboxes Figure 17 12 Relinking Some editors working on a laptop capture their HD media on an external drive and then transcode their SD clips to an internal drive They can take the laptop anywhere the beach is nice and then when they are through editing they connect the external drive relink to the HD media on it and then output to HD Use this with your P2 cards DVCPro HD media captured HDV tapes or high end HD Downconverting an HD Sequence to SD Some editors working on a robust computer attached to a Nitris DX capture and edit their HD media without bothering to downconvert it to SD Their systems don t blink at handling the larger HD files They simply downconvert the finished sequence when they are through editing 279 Avid Editing A Guide for Beginning and Intermediate Users The first step in this workflow is to make a duplicate of your final sequence so you can have an HD and an SD version I usually make a new bin call it SD Sequence and then drag the duplicated HD sequence into this bin 1 In the Project window click on the Format tab and select the pulldown menu 2 Depending on your HD frame rate choose 301 or 23 976p NTSC Figure 17 13 or 251 PAL Ji NTSC 23 976p NTSC 720p 29 97 720p 23 976 108
137. Tab key to jump to the next take Script Marks To harness the power of Script Integration we need to take one more step We need to place script marks These marks when placed in the script will allow you to look at all of the mate rial covering any portion of the script you want and only that portion For instance if you have script marks on all three takes of a line of dialog as in Three Script Marks one on each take Figure 18 13 you can lasso those marks hit the Play key or the spacebar and watch all three takes of that line of Figure 18 13 dialog one after another so you can quickly find the best take You don t need the Tab key Placing Script Marks Manually ScriptSync will place the script marks automatically but to understand how it works we first need to learn to place them manually To do this we will need the command that places script marks in the script Go to the Tools menu and open the Command Palette 289 Avid Editing A Guide for Beginning and Intermediate Users Trim Mode 0 Collapse Effect Mode r Dual Split Add Script Mark command Add Scr ipt Mark a E Match Frame i Find Script EN m Figure 18 14 Go to the Other tab and you ll see Add Script Mark With the Button to Button Reassignment box selected click and drag the Add Script Mark button to any row of your Source Monitor buttons as I have in Figure 18 15 Source Monitor with the Add Script Mark button Figure 1
138. Timeline even if there s more sound than picture as might happen with a split edit in the Timeline This command can also be useful if you want to try to replace a section of bad sync sound Let s say there was a loud background noise during one take The second take isn t as good visually but it has cleaner sound Just mark a word in the Timeline with the position indicator then place the position indicator on the same word from the second take which you have placed in the Source Monitor Now hit Replace and you should have better sound and pretty good sync This won t work with long takes but is perfect for replacing short bits of dialog Single Mark Editing My mantra for making an edit from the Source Monitor to the Timeline has always been it takes three marks to make an edit Well we re advanced editors now or getting there so we want to work more quickly Single Mark Editing lets you establish a single mark Svin O Chapter 10 Advanced Editing Position Indicator Figure 10 13 This will be placed here suimtk2 Figure 10 14 then uses the location of the position indicator for the other two marks Let s say you place the position indicator in the Timeline where you want the next shot to begin There s no need to mark an IN Go to the Source Monitor and mark an IN point Now play until you find your OUT But instead of marking an OUT use the position indicator to let the Avid
139. Users Now click on the tiny Title icon to open this title in the Title Tool Make your changes and save this new Title Avid creates a new title and magically replaces the old one in the Timeline with this new one Practice or Else The next chapter tackles advanced effects and the wide world of Color Correction Make sure you ve practiced all the steps outlined here before turning to the next chapter Otherwise it ll be like jumping into the deep end of a pool OK I know you re a fast learner I know you think I m overly cautious Still it s deep down there 210 Chapter 14 Advanced Effects and Color Correction Advanced Effects There are some fairly complex effects that are worth examining in detail because they can be incredibly useful So here goes Paint Say you interviewed a man who doesn t want to be identified on camera You promised to disguise his features so that even his mother wouldn t recognize him The steps are fairly simple 1 Go to Effect Mode gt Image gt Paint Drag the Paint icon on top of your image on V1 With the position indicator on top of the effect icon in the Timeline click on the Effect Mode button to open the Effect Editor Click to open the Effect Editor Region Stabilize of Resize ol Safe Color Limiter Figure 14 1 3 In the Effect Editor click on a drawing tool here we ll use the Rectangle Tool 4 Using the cursor drag a rectangle that covers the person s
140. a as shown in Figure 6 7 Deck External FireWire drive 6 x 6 pin FireWire cable to computer 6 x 4 pin FireWire cable to deck Figure 6 7 Connecting HDV Cameras and Decks If you re using an HDV camera as your capture device make sure to set the camera to HDV rather than DV mode Always connect through the computer s IEEE 1394 port Configuring a Deck or Camera Always turn on the deck or camera before launching your Avid software Otherwise the Avid won t recognize that a deck or camera is connnected If you recently mounted your Avid software onto your computer or downloaded a new version chances are your Avid has not been set up to recognize your deck or camera When you select Capture from the Toolset menu you may get a message saying NO DECK even though you have a deck or camera attached and remembered to power up before launching the software With newly installed software or when attaching a new deck or camera you must indicate the way your deck and the Avid computer are connected and which type Sony Panasonic of deck or camera you are using You indicate the connection by selecting the channel type and the correct port Here we ll configure a Canon camera connected via a FireWire cable the channel to our Avid computer s FireWire connection the port 1 Click on the Settings tab in the Project window Figure 6 8 2 Click once on Deck Configuration and duplicate it Command D or
141. a copy and use it to make a protection master to store on a disc If your drive dies you can use these archived discs to retrieve your media as well as restore your edited sequences Downconverting to SD We ll learn how to change your final DVCPro HD sequence to a standard definition project in Chapter 17 so you can submit it to the many film festivals that require SD and not HD tapes Sony XDCAM EX The Sony XDCAM EX Figure 7 11 is a high quality HDV camera that stores its media on a memory card called SxS The easiest workflow involves connecting directly to the camera and requires that you download Sony s Clip Browser Software to your computer Just Google Sony XDCAM EX downloads and choose the Clip Browser Software If you re going to be bringing in media via a USB Sony SxS memory card reader and not the camera then download the SxS card driver software as well Follow these steps Connect the camera to your Avid computer using a USB 2 0 cable Turn the camera s power switch to Media The fold out screen will prompt you with Connect USB now ae dee eae Select Execute The USB Connecting symbol appears and you can now find the camera as a drive on your desktop Now that the computer recognizes the camera as a drive create a new folder on your media drive and call it XDCAM EX Media Launch Sony s Clip Browser Software and select the drive or 122 Chapter 7 Importing from P2 and Memory Cards F
142. a color is all part of the organizing process that takes place before the editor even walks in the door Often on a feature the director will indicate which take is the preferred one during the screening of the dailies Using the notes supplied to the edito rial department an assistant links all of the takes to the script and then highlights the preferred takes in red With all that done the editor can sit down and put together a rough cut of the scene in a matter of minutes Other Menu Items There are a few other Script menu items that you may find useful they let you fine tune the appearance of the script or make it easier for you to navigate through it e Left Margin You can drag the box located in the lower right hand corner of the script to resize the right hand margin but not the left hand margin Left Margin lets you make this adjustment e Interpolate Position With this command you can click in a take line within a script and the image in the Source Monitor updates to the approximate position in the take where you have clicked If you deselect this option the Source Monitor does not interpolate when you click in a take line e Hold Slates Onscreen With this command selected when you scroll through the script the slate will stay in view until you scroll past the point covered by that slate at which point it will disappear e Text Encoding If your script was created on a Mac or PC and you used what is known as the Latin 1
143. a shot on V2 over a shot on V1 Drag the Picture in Picture icon onto Figure 14 16 the clip on V2 Place the position indicator on the Picture in Picture icon in the Timeline and open the Effect Editor Now go to the bottom right hand side of the Effect Editor and click on the Promote to Advanced Keyframes button as shown The Effect Editor expands to show a row attached to each parameter as shown in Figure 14 17 This looks intimidating but let s see what it allows you to do Let s examine the Position parameter We ve already worked with it in the standard Picture in Picture Mode so let s try using the advanced keyframes and graphs instead Click on the triangle arrows so 217 Avid Editing A Guide for Beginning and Intermediate Users Click on the triangles to open the grids Figure 14 17 they point down to open up the X and Y axis controls as shown in Figure 14 17 The X axis allows you to move the box left or right in the frame The Y axis allows you to move the box up higher in the frame or lower in the frame You can precisely change the placement of the box in the frame by dragging the keyframes up and down the axis You can add keyframes and further manipulate the positioning of the box In Figure 14 17 I have not touched the Y axis just the X axis What I ve done by dragging down the start keyframe and raising the end keyframe is to start the box on the left hand side and make it travel smoothly ac
144. a track 4 Fy i This will turn green and solo the track e Hold down the Command key Mac or Ctrl key L Windows and click on that track s monitor The indicator box turns green to show that this is the only track that is on All the other tracks are off L Figure 8 6 Figure 8 6 To return to monitoring all of your tracks simply click in the Track Monitor and it will no longer be soloed You can solo more than one track by Command Ctrl clicking multiple Track Monitors If you have four music tracks Command Ctrl click them to hear only your music The Hollow Speaker Icon If you look at Figure 8 7 the speaker icons for E tracks A1 and A2 are hollow They are also gold i although it s a bit hard to pick that up from the 19 black and white screen capture The speaker icon for track A3 is neither hollow nor gold The tracks with the hollow and gold speaker icon are special Hollow and gold speaker icons Those are the tracks you are listening to when you Figure 8 7 play the sequence at speeds faster than normal 30 fps or when you scrub your audio Audio Scrub Scrubbing the audio is a technique used to concentrate on a particular piece of audio There are two types of audio scrub smooth audio scrub and digital audio scrub Smooth audio scrub is quite simple e Hold down the K key pause while pressing the L key forward You will hear what is on the hollow icon
145. actly on the line A bit on either side will work 52 Chapter 3 Trimming Adding and Removing Rollers Once in Trim Mode you sometimes want to add or remove a roller so you re working with some tracks and not others If you get into Trim Mode and notice that one or more of your tracks don t have rollers its probably because the Track Selector box wasn t selected To add rollers to that track simply click on the track selector Deselecting A1 will remove a roller on that track as well f Sy Yi i Kate s Entrance Wide Shot d Al Kate s Entrance Wide Shot Click here to add a roller to A1 Figure 3 25 Another quick way to add or delete rollers is to hold down the Shift key while clicking on the transition Tim s CU point you want to change Figure 3 26 Shift click on this spot to Tim s CU e Shift click on a roller to remove it add a roller e Shift click on a transition to add a roller AAA Am AA sour Figure 3 26 Advanced Trim Mode Techniques Assuming that you are comfortable with trimming as explained in this chapter and you want to work even faster and with more precision let s look at a couple of advanced techniques Trimming While Watching We have talked about the important role that watching plays in every phase of editing There s a very simple technique that involves trimming a cut while watching it Instead of using the trim keys in the Trim Mode display you will be using the tri
146. ake effect until you Figure 4 22 close the Keyboard window Lets try another Go to the More tab Drag the upper left Add Locator button it s red to the F5 key You won t need this yet but we ll use it in Chapter 15 Resist making any more changes just yet Let s wait until you re more familiar with all the commands and can decide which ones you use most Figure 4 23 frequently Command Palette Figure 4 24 Figure 4 25 By the way the Command Palette works like a giant Fast menu You can open it from the Tools menu click on a tab and then click on the Active Palette radio button Now press any command and it is executed Let s go back to the Project window Notice that Keyboard setting Mine has the checkmark If at any time you want to Click here go back to the Default keyboard just click to activate a setting the mouse in the area just left of the name For now we re finished with Settings so Figure 4 26 let s click on the Bin tab to see our bins Changing Command Buttons The Avid lets you change any of the command buttons on the computer monitor The process is basically the same as changing the keyboard commands You go to the Command Palette in the 72 Chapter 4 The Project Window Tools menu and then you drag com mands to the buttons you want to change or replace Look at the buttons on the tool bar beneath the Record Monitor Drag from the Command Palette to the Sour
147. al was usually converted to PAL for editing So for editing purposes the stand ard definition choices are essentially NTSC or PAL If you want to find out more about these standards and the countries that use them type the letters NTSC PAL and SECAM in all caps into your search engine Wikipedia has a nice world map showing what countries use which standard High Definition If you think standard definition is a mess brace yourself for the world of HD There are many dif ferent and competing versions of HD and each one has strengths and weaknesses The only thing they share in common is their widescreen 16 X 9 shape We discuss the choices in greater detail in Chapter 17 For now we ll look at how the Avid divides them up as shown in Figure 6 4 The screen capture on the left is for Media Composer versions prior to version 3 0 and the one on the right shows Media Composer 3 0 Raster Type When you select a HD format from the menu Media Composer 3 0 gives you a Raster Type menu where you can select the type of HD you are capturing Figure 6 5 DVCPro HD and HDV are nonstandard HD formats that have a smaller number of vertical lines than standard HD If you shot in one of those formats you should select the correct raster type in the pulldown menu That way you ll get improved playback performance when you edit If you shot using full raster HD with 93 Avid Editing A Guide for Beginning and Intermediate Users w Proj
148. ale 217 219 real time 197 rendering 208 210 reverse motion 207 Scratch Removal 214 215 segment 194 196 Shape Wipe 196 slow motion fast motion 207 Squeeze 195 strobe 208 transition 193 194 195 196 357 Index Effects Continued two field motion effects 206 208 Effects Editing Toolset menu 347 Electrical back up device 6 7 Empty bin icon 21 Enable SuperBin Bin Settings 15 68 Encoding File menu 335 End key 31 Ending editing session 24 Enlarge Frame Edit menu 63 337 Enlarge Track Edit menu 337 Enlarging tracks 34 EQ Fast menu 140 EQ icon 141 EQ Tool 139 141 Equalization 138 141 EQ graph 139 EQ templates 140 saving EQ effect 141 setting 139 140 Equipment Emporium 323 Even Lower Field First setting 246 Exit File menu 24 336 Expert Render In Out Clip menu 228 342 Export File menu 335 Export As window 250 251 Export Setting Summary 259 314 Export Settings pulldown menu 249 Export to Device Output menu 343 Exporting 249 261 audio to Pro Tools Work Station 259 high resolution QuickTime movie 253 254 motion video 252 253 MPEG files 254 257 other file types 261 preparing to export 250 production still 250 252 QuickTime movie 253 QuickTime Reference movie 257 259 single frame settings 250 252 for YouTube Google iTunes Websites 254 257 External project 89 Extract X key 24 36 358 Extract and Lift commands
149. an IN and OUT Make sure all your tracks are selected 2 Choose Export from the File menu 204 Chapter 16 Importing and Exporting 3 In the Export As window choose Fast Export QuickTime NTSC PAL from the Export Settings pulldown menu 4 In the Export dialog box click on the Options button 5 You will see your choices in the box Figure 16 19 Click the Custom radio button Click to set compression options Custom radio button Type in 480 and 360 Figure 16 19 If you want the entire sequence deselect the Use Marks and Use Enabled Track boxes For Width X Height type in 480 and 360 Select RGB Select Single Field this will keep out ugly interlaced artifacts 10 Select 4 3 square pixel or 16 9 11 Click on Format Options as shown in Figure 16 19 O CO NID When we click on the Format Options button we go to the Movie Settings window like the one shown in Figure 16 20 299 Avid Editing A Guide for Beginning and Intermediate Users a Movie Settings Click here to set video M Video compression settings Settings Compression MPEG 4 Video 7 Quality Best Filter Key frame rate 24 SO ed AION Click here to set audio M Sound a _ settings at 48 kHz and 16 bit j Format Uncompressed Settings e Sample rate 46 kHz Sample size 16 Channels 2 _ Prepare for Internet Streaming Cancel GOKS Figure 16 20 In Video click on Settings and t
150. an carries water work with Lift and Extract Their main Hanan 5 function is to prevent you from going out of sync when in Single Roller Trim E Mode In Single Roller Trim Mode the boa 4 Avid will maintain the proper relation E A A ship with all your other tracks ii 3 Figure 15 11 provides an example I have 1a s D placed single rollers on the A side of this transition on tracks V1 A2 and A3 but I forgot to place trim rollers on the narra Woman carries water Woman carries waer Music Cud 11 hlusic Cud 44 Figure 15 11 tion on Al and the music cue on A4 and A5 What happens if I trim this shot by dragging the rollers to the left ll throw the narration and music cue off because I haven t trimmed in two directions Right Wrong Because the sync locks are on the Avid will keep the A1 A4 and A5 tracks locked together with V1 A2 and A3 Examine Figure 15 12 Although the Kids kick ball shot has been shortened the music and nar ration are still in sync The Avid shortened the black fill on A1 A4 and A5 in order to keep the narration and music cue where they belong Even though I didn t trim in two directions the Avid s sync locks did it for me Hey you might say if this works so well why did you spend so much time teaching us about trimming in two directions and setting watch points My answer is twofold First you need to 237 Avid Editing A G
151. and then shot again from many different angles to cover the actors as they moved around the set Each camera setup was repeated several times as Take 1 Take 2 and so on Follow the DVD instructions at the end of this book to mount the project and media files onto your Avid Pll explain how to bring in the script shortly You may need to change your monitor to the 16 9 aspect ratio Right click Windows or Ctrl Shift click Mac in the Record Monitor and select 16 9 Video or go to Settings gt Composer and choose the Windows tab Now select the 16 9 Monitors box If you have a project with a script and clips that you want to use instead just follow along substi tuting your script and clips for the Gaffer s Delight script and clips Using Two Monitors This is one editing mode where having two computer monitors can be helpful One monitor holds all the bins including the script and a second monitor holds the Source Record Monitor and the 282 Chapter 18 Script Integration Timeline You can do it with one monitor because the script can be resized and moved around the screen but it s a lot easier with two Setting up a second monitor is pretty easy Read your computer guide to find out how to hook up a second monitor and to set the second monitor s screen resolu tion You want dual display rather than mirroring In dual display mode the second monitor extends the real estate of the Avid so you can drag the Script window t
152. and Ctrl S to save all of your changes Press Command Ctrl Q to quit the program or choose Exit from the File Menu or Quit from the Media Composer menu Well done 24 Chapter 1 Getting Started Script for Wanna Trade 1 1A HERS STUDIO NIGHT y opens Light pours into a darkened room A ilhouette enters cautiously After a few steps s illuminated by moonlight coming from a high WINSLOW attractive in her mid twenties is s and a leather jacket She turns on a desk lamp ies sses the studio in order to switch on a floor peat She steps in front of a desk covered with papers and begins rifling through it Suddenly TIM HARPER steps from the shadows lt s He is a fashion photographer and looks the part handsome sleek and self satisfied 1C Master 1D Tim 1E Kate 1F Kate So why 10 and ste embarra 1eve I ever wr Tim looks down at shuffling papers I guess CONTINUED 25 Avid Editing A Guide for Beginning and Intermediate Users 2 1 CONTINUED iC 1D Tim 1E Kate KATE outraged Those a my letter TIM No Kate You sent them to me They re mine now a I can do whatever I want with them KATE himself Hate turns and heads for the arm and sgins her around TIM Hey KATE What TIM That s jacket Give it here KATE No Tim You gave m this jacket Remembe And I can do whatever I want witk it TIM Jerk Kate holds open t jacket displayin
153. and clicking OK There are a couple of things to check but for the most part importing is a piece of cake even if you ve never done it before Exporting is a bit trickier because you need to know a bit about the software or system you are exporting to Still the Avid has made this whole process so much easier than it used to be I m con fident you will be able to master importing and exporting without a problem Importing In order to import there must first be a file to import It can be located on an external drive a flash drive a CD or the Internet To import simply select Import from the File menu If Import is dimmed on the menu it s because a bin has not been selected Click anywhere in the bin to make it active After you select Import an Import dialog box opens Figures 16 1 and 16 2 show the boxes for Windows and Mac Avids As you can see although they appear to be quite different the Mac and Windows Import windows offer the same choices 241 Select files to Import Look in Removable Disk w 21 HER Directory oeo menu _JCONTENTS LASTCLIP TXT Source File selection box Files of type g Files a Options Video Resolution D VCPro HD MxF X Video Drive Avid Il Y g v Select drive Th menu Audio Drive Disk Label Options box File Type menu Video Resolution menu Figure 16 1 Windows Import dialog box Source File selection box Tr gt E import images _ earch
154. anging the Appearance of the Slate You can make the same changes to a slate as you would to a frame in Frame View in the bin To change the size of the slate choose Enlarge or Reduce from the Edit menu To change the repre sentative frame that appears in the slate 1 Click on the take tab or take line of the take you want to change 2 On the keyboard press the 2 key the step ten frames forward key Press multiple times to move more quickly Use the 1 key to move backward Don t use the J K L keys for this because they won t work Adjusting Take Lines The vertical lines showing how much of the script a single take covers are called take lines Where the line begins and ends is denoted by a short horizontal dash called a beginning or ending mark Let s say that you highlighted too much of the script and the vertical line the Avid draws goes beyond where the shot actually ends or the take starts later than indicated It s easy to correct where these lines start and end Figure 18 10 You can do this with the 1 Master PU Take 2 Clip Step ten frame keys Figure 18 9 Excype me Joanna leaves Hearing J Michele a i moved this End Mark to here PETE Can I help you He starts to descend the MICHI Oh hi there End Marks Figure 18 10 287 Avid Editing A Guide for Beginning and Intermediate Users 1 Go to the Start Mark or End Mark and hold down the Command key Mac o
155. ant set Font with this list you can search the list and then select the action you want to change Remember that all previous Preferences actions those actions above the selected action on the list will also be changed Figure 5 Edit menu 336 Appendix Menus Cut If you select material in the Timeline by using an IN mark and an OUT mark and then choose Cut the selected material 1s removed and immediately goes into the Clipboard Cut works just like Extract Copy If you select something by using an IN mark and an OUT mark and then choose Copy the selected material is copied to the Clipboard where it is stored until you paste it in somewhere This is a great way to get audio from one area of the sequence copy it to the Clipboard Monitor and then put it somewhere else Paste This command places whatever is in the Clipboard at the blue position indicator or at an IN mark in the Timeline Delete This works just like the Delete key It opens a dialog box for deleting clips from a bin or tracks from the Timeline Select All Tracks This is a terrific way to quickly select all of the things you re working on You can select all the clips in a bin or select all the tracks in the Timeline Deselect All Tracks This 1s quick way to deselect lots of tracks or clips Duplicate We already practiced this in Chapter 2 There are many times when you want to dupli cate sequences Just select the sequence you want to copy and hi
156. any standard DV camera The camera compresses the signal using a 5 1 compression ratio as it records it to DV tape When we capture the DV tape into our Avid the Avid deals with what it s given already compressed frames But in HDV some of the frames con tain all of the picture information we ll call them the Big Frames while others carry only the information that has changed from the previous Big Frame this explanation is somewhat simplified and uses my own terminology The first frame is a Big Frame but the next 13 frames are shells They hold only what has changed The next frame the 15th frame in the group is also a Big Frame and is related to the previous 266 Chapter 17 Working in HD 13 shells Fifteen frames make a group of pictures GOP that relate to each other The 16th frame is part of the next group and begins the process over again If the subject you are shooting is static the 13 in between frames do not have much new information and so are fairly empty But if the shot is a quick pan or a subject with lots of motion those in between frames get really taxed What I call Big Frames are really called I Frames and the frames that I call shells are correctly called P and B frames The Sony and Canon HDV cameras use a 15 frame GOP the PAL versions have a 12 frame GOP while the JVC camera uses a 6 frame GOP Sometimes the images don t look great if there is a
157. ape x Wheat tape is in Sony DSR 40 7 C New Tape Hame Project Name p _ Show other projects Scan tfortapes eee OK Cancel Figure 6 18 Check Decks _ re n Canon XLH1 60 VI and or Al and A2 tracks on the Capture Tool If they are not selected you won t see or hear anything 102 menu Adjust Deck Auto configure Check Decks Figure 6 19 Chapter 6 Starting a New Project and Capturing from Tape Capturing The fastest way to capture material is simply to play the tape using the Capture Tool s deck controls As you watch the image press the large Capture button to start the capture The red button will flash to show you that it is recording material 1 Make sure you are in Capture Mode and you see the CAP icon 2 Press the red Capture button 3 When you reach the end of the segment of the tape you want press the Capture button again Pause or stop the deck 4 A master clip will appear in your bin 5 Repeat the steps above to capture all the material you want from the tape Red flashing button Capture Icon Capture button Figure 6 20 When the master clip appears in your bin in step 4 the clip will have the name of the bin Click inside this name and type the name you want to give to the clip This method 1s called capturing on the fly and it s great if you just have a few clips you want to cap ture quickly A more accurate way to select your clips is to vie
158. are often packed with stunning visual effects Kinds of Effects There are two categories of effects Transition effects are applied at the cut point or transition point in the Timeline These effects change the way Shot A transitions to Shot B A dissolve is an exam ple of a transition effect Instead of a straight cut Shot A fades out while Shot B fades in creating a melding of the two shots 193 Avid Editing A Guide for Beginning and Intermediate Users Segment effects are applied to the entire clip or segment in the Timeline You might have a shot in the sequence where your actor is facing screen left to right and by applying a flop the screen direc tion of the entire shot is changed so the actor is facing screen right to left When you use a segment effect you are affecting a segment in the Timeline Segment effects can work on one video track like the flop or on several video tracks For instance you might have an image on V2 interact with an image on V1 In a multilayered effect VI is always the background layer and V2 is layered on top of the background Many effects work as both transition effects and segment effects They can be applied to either a transition or a segment Applying effects to a transition or segment is really quite simple Getting them to do what you want is a bit more complicated Effect Palette Let s take a look at the Effect Palette Go to the Tools menu and select Effect Palette or simply go to the
159. arted The Avid Interface on Your Computer Toolset Menu Project Window Bins Clips Bin Views SuperBin xxii XXVIL O OO PM AONIN DDD UV HF AA A BAO KH ml PR ER ep sp sp sp ep he Gof A A GO NM NHN amp co 2 Contents Source Monitor Record Monitor Timeline Commands The Keyboard Three Button Play The Spacebar The I and O Keys Other Important Commands Active Window Practice Starting an Editing Session Making Your First Cut Adding Shots to Your Sequence Ending an Editing Session Script for Wanna Trade Chapter 2 Basic Editing Editing Rules Starting Your Second Editing Session Basic Editing Skills Marking Clips Splice and Overwrite Source Monitor Menu The Timeline Selecting and Deselecting Tracks Navigating the Timeline Home and End Snapping to Cut Points Position Indicator Single Prame Keys Changing the Timeline View The Timeline Fast Menu Scaling and Scrolling the Timeline Enlarge or Reduce Tracks Track Monitor Icons Marking Clips in the Timeline Duplicating a Sequence 15 16 16 17 17 18 18 18 18 19 19 20 21 22 24 25 27 27 28 28 29 29 30 30 30 31 31 31 32 32 32 33 99 34 34 35 35 Lift and Extract Trim Shots Using Extract It Takes Three Marks to Make an Edit Like a Mantra Using the Clipboard Undo Redo List Suggested Assignments Chapter 3 Trimming Trim Mode Trim Mode Practice Dual Roller Trim Mode Leaving Trim Mode Lassoing the Transition S
160. as recorded separately so you would deselect A1 and A2 2 Select the target bin If several bins are open the Avid might select the wrong bin 3 Select a target drive Your post production supervisor or teacher may have assigned you a drive If not you ll want to use the drive that has the most space Go to the drive window Figure 6 15 and drag down to select the assigned drive or the drive with the most space That drive is always the one in bold letters 4 Select Capture Mode Figures 6 16 and 6 17 Press the Log Capture selector button to switch from Capture Mode to Log Mode and vice versa The pencil icon shows that you are in Log Mode We want Capture Mode to start our practice 5 Select the Video channel If it is from a DV or HDV deck or camera choose Host 1394 100 Chapter 6 Starting a New Project and Capturing from Tape Capture Log toggle button Track selector buttons Video and Audio channels Clear OUT Deck Shuttle Mark OUT Mark IN controls control Figure 6 13 Capture Tool O00 Capture Tool Figure 6 14 Figure 6 15 Drive window 101 Select the Audio channel If it is from a DV or HDV deck or camera choose Host 1394 if it 1s from a microphone choose either Internal Microphone or Line in Select the Res video resolution If you re capturing directly from a digital video deck or camera choose DV 25 If it s from an HDV deck or camera the Avid will select
161. at help you position selected objects inside the frame Using the Selection Tool practice using the various alignment choices available in the pulldown menu Lines and Arrows There are tools for creating arrows and lines of various thickness These work with the Line Tool and can be changed and manipulated DS 7 Line Too just like the rectangle we created using the Lines and __ Gume ee Rectangle Tool Select the line thickness or WS ED Mw arrow shape click on the Line Tool and then drag the cursor across the Title Tool to create a Figure 12 27 line or arrow Other Buttons The Video Placement Tool is one tool I d suggest you avoid using for now It doesn t move objects within the frame it moves the entire frame Stay away from this tool Ls js p iz es Za Geneva 48 Yi m C styles na Templates aE B 7 sh FC ae s My Kern 0 Yi Lead 0 eod B 0 d Crawl Roll Rolling and Crawling Figure 12 28 188 Chapter 12 Titles Changing or Fixing a Title It often happens that you create a title cut it into the sequence and then several days later you notice you spelled a name wrong or find a mistake that needs correcting You don t have to start from scratch and create a new title We ll use the Effect Editor to do this which we ll learn about in the next chapter Look for Fixing Titles with Effect Mode on page 209 Rolling Titles The many credits t
162. at the list of settings in the Export Setting Summary looks like the list in Figure 19 21 If not Export Setting 1 Summary QuickTime Reference click on Options and in the Export Settings dialog Export as QuickTime Reference box change the settings Exception If you have a Use Marks Off Use Enable Tracks Off DV25 project choose Use Avid DV Codec Flatten Video Tracks On 6 Click Save When you re returned to the Send To Fill Spaces with Black On Quick Time Reference window click OK ee E r N 5 Audio Format AIFF C You ll find your test QuickTime reference movie on Sample Rate 48000 your desktop as well as an audio aif file Figure 19 22 Sample Bit Depth 16 Display Aspect Ratio Native dimensions Use Network Media References Off Use Avid DV Codec Off They will have the same name as your sequence Double click and play the mov file to make sure everything looks correct Sometimes I ve had to go back and change the Display Aspect Ratio setting to 4 3 or 16 9 because native Figure 19 21 dimensions didn t work Once the test looks right trash the test and send out the entire sequence maz DUD sy OD cil At this point you ll launch your DVD authoring software and create a new project You will find the files on your desktop and most often you will only drag the mov file into the DVD authoring software s project window Figure 19 22 314 Chapter 19 Finishing Using Sorensen Sque
163. ate Users computer s file hierarchy to the Avid software folder on your computer and find your User Profile folder in the Avid User folder Drag it to your FireWire drive and the next time you launch your software select Import User or User Profile see Figure 4 13 and all your settings will be activated Kinds of Settings On the left of the Settings window you ll see a Fast menu that lists the setting options Active Settings All Settings and Base Settings For now select All Settings Beneath the Settings window you ll see the main scroll list If you want to see more of the list drag the size box or scroll down the long list of settings Almost every feature on the Avid can be altered to suit your preference The scroll list shows you the Avid features you can change To make changes dou ble click on the setting whose parameters you want to change and a dia Y All Settings log box with a number of choices or options will open Simply type in the Base Settings changes or check a box and click OK l Figure 4 14 We are not going to go through each item on this scroll window because we O Wanna Trade Scene samkauffm don t need them all yet We ll get to Bins Settings E Format Usage info other settings later in the book As you amkauffmann v Double click on become more familiar with your Avid I the bin name to see recommend that you go through all the pe Onno items By then ll be able t
164. ate a video track V2 that is above your clips on V1 Make sure both the V1 and V2 tracks are selected 2 Go to the Effect Palette and click on Reformat Drag the Pan and Scan effect icon to the topmost video track the one that is empty 2 4 After placing the blue position indicator on the effect icon in the Timeline open the Effect Editor Figure 17 17 Effect Editor gt Acceleration wv spect Ratios Source f 16 9 Anamorphic Target 1 33 4 3 w Scaling Wid Hgt L peere 100 x Neer _ emma Nee w Position Drag this slider to H Pos E peer 6 change the placement t w Y Pos of the frame w Actions al Establish Origin we Subdivide Effect wel Reset to Origin gt Grid Co Se Square Figure 17 17 5 Click on the Aspect Ratios triangle so it opens In the Source pop up menu select 16 9 Anamorphic In the Target pop up menu select 1 33 4 3 You will now see a white wire frame inside the Effect Preview Monitor Pan and Scan chooses the middle of the widescreen frame as its default selection 6 Open the Actions triangle 7 Click on Subdivide Effect You will see that it breaks the Pan and Scan effect into sections that match the length of each clip in your Timeline as shown in Figure 17 18 1 Masten 1A Tk 9 1 Master Shot Figure 17 18 Pan and Scan 278 Chapter 17 Working in HD Now you nee
165. ate this tone Tone media level in dB 20 1 Get the Audio Tool from the Tools menu Tone media frequency in Hz 1000 2 Click and hold on the PH box in the Audio Tool A menu Tone media length in seconds 60 will open Select the last option in the menu Create Tone Number of Tracks 2 Media Target Bin Video Clips 3 In the dialog box Figure 19 1 choose the length of tone in Target Drive Media HD seconds You need a length to match your SMPTE bars 60 seconds A tone of 14dB is the default setting HD projects OK Cancel are usually set at 20 dB Just match whatever dB you ve been working with throughout the editing process Get two tracks Figure 19 1 4 Click OK 5 The 1000Hz tone appears in your bin as a clip Overwrite it into your sequence on audio tracks 1 and 2 so it lines up with the bars Now you have bars and tone Most people create an identification ID title that has the project s title the total running time such as RT 15 min and contact information They then cut this title into the Timeline just after the bars and tone Create this title and cut 5 seconds of it into the Timeline The last piece of header material consists of a 10 second countdown 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 and 2 sec onds of black after the 2 What comes after this countdown is your sequence be it the first title or first shot The projectionist or television engineer uses this countdown to cue up the tape just a
166. aterial on track V3 and unless you expand the Timeline and add a roller to the clip on V3 it will go out of sync as soon as you trim Also don t forget that you have to move the watch point back to the shot you want to trim There must be an easier way you say aloud There is Sync Locks m s CU 1 Tim s CU 1 Techno Music 2 Start Copy 01 Soweto Taxi Stand Do tly by Houseg Kids kick E natan 3 Figure 15 9 The Avid knows how important it is to maintain sync especially when you re getting toward the end of editing and the tracks are filling up with titles visual effects sound effects and music So it gives you a tool in the Timeline that enables you to lock your tracks together it s aptly named sync locks In the track selector area there is a small box just to the left of the tracks Figure 15 10 By click ing in the small box you can place a sync lock on your track You can lock two three or all of your tracks together Click in the empty box in the TC1 or timecode track and you ll place sync locks in all the boxes 236 Chapter 15 Keeping in Sync Sync locks ee Ea R Click here to place sync locks on all tracks Figure 15 10 You can remove sync locks individually by clicking on the sync lock box of each track or remove all sync locks by clicking in the TC1 box again Sync locks are supposed to work only in Trim Mode but you ll find that they also A fo J Al Wom
167. ber that Bin Settings was one of the first settings we examined see Figure 11 7 This is where you told the Avid how often and when you wanted your work saved to the attic The attic you ll recall is like an attic in a house where old items get stored In Figure 11 7 this case the old items are previous ver sions of your work If there is a crash or if you lose a sequence or if something hap File Edit View Favorites Tools Help pens during an editing session you can go to the attic and retrieve the bin containing your sequences Whatever you are looking for it s probably in the attic p As G da Back gt QSearch L 4 Folders x Address Attic Look for the Attic folder in the same place Gaffer s Practice you found the Avid Projects and Avid User Renae folders Double click to open the Attic l l E ic i Select an item to view its description folder and then open your project folder a See also wanna Trade Figure 11 8 The Avid doesn t just save sequences instead it saves your bins q y Figure 11 8 The Attic folder Retrieving a File from the Attic 1 In the Project window close all of your bins Assembly 25 a Dalles Day One 36 2 Minimize the Avid screen in Windows on a Mac ae a i One 37 hide the Avid screen by pressing Command H i i 3 Open the hard drive on the desktop 4 Look for the Attic folder in the same place you found the Avid Projects and Avid User fo
168. better seat Continuity and Eye Trace Most narrative films are shot using one camera With all the lights technicians and sound equip ment on a set or location a second camera is useless because it would film the crew and equipment So instead of shooting with multiple cameras the camera 1s moved the crew and equipment are placed out of frame and the action is repeated The problem with this method is that there are often continuity problems The actor holds the cup in his left hand in the long shot but the cup is in his right hand in the medium shot You want to cut from one shot to the other but that cup is making it hard Perhaps the problem isn t as blatant as a cup in the wrong hand More often it s the position of an arm or the position of someone s head that changes on the cut No matter what the problem is how do you the editor make such a cut when it s so blatantly awkward There are a couple of tricks The easiest is to go to a cutaway the audience forgets the continu ity problem and you re home free Unfortunately this almost never works because that s not what the audience wants to see That cutaway is not the best seat in the house A better choice is to find movement and cut on it Make the cut when the actor sits down or gestures with his arm Then you ll be cutting on the action rather than before or after the action This will hide or at least obscure the continuity problem Eye trace is another importa
169. bin 4 Repeat the steps above to log all your shots Figure 6 23 Batch Capturing Your Logged Clips Click to log Once you have logged all the clips you want clip in bin to capture you re ready to Batch Capture Do not log another tape until you have captured Figure 6 24 all the clips on this tape 1 Select all the clips in the bin Hit Command A Mac or Ctrl A Windows to select all the clips or lasso the clips Shift click all the clips or go to the Edit menu and choose Select All 2 Go to the Clip menu Media Composer 4 clip s selected or the Bin menu Xpress and select Batch Batch Record Offline media only Capture 3 A dialog box will appear Because you Figure 6 25 have no media it doesn t matter whether or not you check the button Offline media only but later on you ll want this box selected so get in the habit of checking it Then click OK The Avid will rewind the tape to the first clip find the IN point roll back a few seconds for preroll and then begin capturing It will stop when it reaches your OUT point After capturing the first clip it will go to the IN of the second clip on the tape and capture it You can watch the bin and see the progress the Avid 1s making as it captures each clip Or you can go have lunch If you re logging an HDV tape make sure your deck or camera can Batch Capture Not all HDV cameras and decks can Check the manual before starting to
170. blem Because of that slight difference an hour in timecode time does not equal an hour of real time Lets do some simple math Multiply 30 fps times 60 seconds and you get 1800 frames per minute Now multiply 1800 by 60 minutes and you get 108 000 frames per hour Give every frame an address starting at 00 00 00 00 and after an hour of running your timecode would read 01 00 00 00 That s the way it was But the engineers discovered that if you play that tape at 29 97 fps instead of 30 fps for exactly an hour remember the tape is running a bit slower you will get a timecode reading of 01 00 03 18 Another way of putting it is if you stop the tape when the timecode clicks over to 01 00 00 00 and look at your stopwatch it will read 59 minutes and about 56 seconds That s almost 4 seconds off and that 4 seconds can be critical when you are playing commercials sched uling shows etc To solve this problem drop frame DF timecode was introduced No frames are actually dropped but two frame numbers are dropped every minute so that when an hour of real time has passed the timecode says 01 00 00 00 and not 01 00 03 18 Television quickly adopted drop frame timecode but the film industry has always used non drop frame NDF because no frame numbers are dropped Sure the clock time and timecode don t match but to the person cutting a film all of those frame numbers are critical You just can t drop any of them Remember the Avid uses t
171. called MPEG 2 Long GOP Not every frame has the entire image some contain only the picture information that has changed since the previous frame They are pretty simple to capture because they use the same FireWire system and the same DV tapes as standard definition DV cameras The Avid can convert your HDV signal to standard definition a process called downconverting The Avid can also convert your HDV signal to HD We ll learn how to do this in Chapter 17 If you shot with a Canon or Sony HDV camera and you have Media Composer 3 0 you would most likely select 10801 59 94 in the format menu and then HDV in the Raster Type menu With earlier versions of the Avid software choose 1080i1 59 94 HDV If you shoot with the JVC camera your choices are as follows JVC Camera Format Avid Project Format 720p30 720p 29 97 720p24 720p 23 976 720 p60 720p 59 94 I recommend the 720p30 camera setting because it gives you a lot of flexibility when finishing DVCPro HD DVCPro HD is Panasonic s technology and unlike HDV every frame is unique There are no GOPs group of pictures However its raster size is less than standard 720p or 10801 p HD Because it has a smaller raster size you can capture its signal over FireWire just like DV and HDV Most DVCPro HD videotapes will be brought into the Avid at 720p 23 976 or 720p 59 94 which I recommend We devote most of Chapter 7 to Panasonic s DVCPro HD P2 technology Stan
172. ce Monitor toolbar I propose we make just one more change now and as many as you want later First open the Command Palette and click on the FX tab Find the Motion Effect icon and drag it to the Source Monitor toolbar as I have in Figure 4 27 Youre replacing the step one frame backward command Figure 4 27 which we don t need with a command we ll use frequently in Chapter 13 Wait until you re further along in this book before you map more command buttons By then you ll have a better idea of which commands you like on the keyboard which ones you like on the tool bars and which ones you d rather click with the mouse Saving Your Screen Set up ools Toolset Windows Script You may prefer to have Frame View as the default view whenever ealaccorecuan v Source Record Editing Effects Editing Audio Editing Capture Full Screen Playback you place a bin in the SuperBin Or you might like to have the Timeline take up more space and the Source Record Monitor take up less space Perhaps you want the Audio Tool to open when you launch the software Perhaps you want the Project window smaller Save Current Go ahead make all your changes Now go to the Toolset menu and Restore Current to Default choose Save Current Figure 4 28 From now on your project will take the exact form that you want it to Figure 4 28 Track Color Speaking of changing the interface you can also change the color of
173. ceive is standard defini tion SD Of the 800 channels only about 40 are HD channels Hmmm And what really surprised me was how many television commercials are still in standard definition and not high definition even on the so called HD channels But my cable salesman promised me that as the years go by we will see more and more content delivered in HD and not SD He s a trustworthy guy right My two recent films have screened at over 30 film festivals and one of the films Massacre at Murambi was broadcast on PBS Not once did anyone ask me for an HD version They all wanted standard definition So what s the point Who needs HD One reason to tackle HD is that you can easily downconvert your HD material to standard defini tion and have a better looking SD program Let s face it prime time television shows have been shooting on film for decades even though no one has a film projector in their living room They shoot on 35mm or 16mm film because they know it looks better when transferred to standard definition tape If you shoot in HD you will have the best of both worlds standard definition for most film festivals and television broadcasts and high definition if your film is chosen by one of the few festivals or television programs that require HD And as more and more programs convert to HD you ll be ready So lets make this the year we dip our toes into the murky waters of HD We will learn how to work with HD
174. character set and the characters display incorrectly go here and choose either Mac or PC If you used the Unicode UTF 8 character set try UTF 8 A Select Few You are now one of only a handful of people who know how to use Script Integration I think we can all agree that Script Integration doesn t make sense for every project but for those script based projects involving lots of camera coverage with multiple takes it is worth the effort And if you have an assistant to do the grunt work think how quickly you can really get to the heart of the scene If you re the person hired to do the grunt work maybe Script Integration doesn t seem so special but hey at least you ve got a job Documentary filmmakers with hours of interviews will also fall in love with Script Integration Linking clips of the on camera interviews to the transcript of those interviews can be a huge time Saver 297 Avid Editing A Guide for Beginning and Intermediate Users Script for Gaffer s Delight 298 INT SOUND STAGE DAY 1A PETER HILL 25 isjon a la grid He is a 2nd j background JOANNA POWERS a young ac looks at Joanna Excuse m Joanna leaves Hea Michele Can I he He starts to desce Oh hi t She walks toward t he s wearing wo remoying them PETER 1B der hanging lights on a ceiling working on a film In the a light from a stand MICHELE recognizable beauty enters and 1F a speak
175. close a window will the traffic noise diminish You re going to have a lot of these screenings in your career and you will need to wear a new hat that of a professional projectionist I ve screened my films all over the world and I ve learned many painful lessons the most important being that if you want it to go smoothly then you have to get deeply involved You have to arrive at the theater early and do a sound check so the sound level is right Make sure the tape is cued up properly One festival started my film after the opening shot Sometimes you even have to correct the focus Believe me it s worth it If you don t do it it may work out 8 times out of 10 but chances are there will be that one screening when the sound is too low or the focus is soft and you ll kick yourself for not checking it out ahead of time Grilling Your Audience Whenever possible I like to start off small with an audience of just a few people I like to split my attention between the audience and the screen Usually if something isn t working I know it by feel ing the attention or lack of attention the audience is giving to a particular section After you ve screened the footage start your inquiry as wide as possible and then work toward the specific Take notes If the audience members aren t all that forthcoming ask them questions How did it work Were you confused about what was going on What emotion did it evoke If it s a narrative p
176. creen capture for all ten tabs found on the Media Composer What I m about to propose may seem heretical but instead of adding commands to the keyboard the first thing I m going to ask you to do is to remove a command from the keyboard I m a firm believer in J K L play I want you to place three fingers of your left hand on the keyboard and use those keys to play as well as to mark IN and OUT with the I Chapter 4 The Project Window Interface Interface v Interface Keyboard v Keyboard Media Creation Figure 4 19 Audio Tool Audio Punch In Calculator Ctrl 2 Command Palette Cti 3 Ctrl 1 Figure 4 20 Command Palette Button to Button Reassignment Figure 4 21 and O keys Well it sometimes happens that your fingers land on the wrong keys The key just to the left of the J K L keys is the Focus command key and it can be particularly troublesome see Figure 4 22 If you accidentally click on this key it changes the look of Timeline at the worst time So to prevent an accident we re going to remove it Go to the Other tab in the Command Palette and look for the blank button Figure 4 23 71 Avid Editing A Guide for Beginning and Intermediate Users To replace a keyboard key make sure the radio button next to Button to Button Reassignment is red see Figure 4 21 Now simply drag the blank button on top of the H key it s gone Figure 4 24 The changes won t t
177. ctice your editing skills and introduce you to the plight of the millions of children who are born HIV positive When you get to Chapter 16 you will import graphics from the DVD including a title with and a title without an alpha channel These will help you understand the import process and the way the Avid deals with transparency The DVD also contains a second sequence called Gaffer s Delight Whereas Wanna Trade is a relatively easy scene to get you started Gafter s Delight is more complicated and was shot in the 16 9 aspect ratio This scene was covered by many different camera angles and involved several takes making it a good candidate for using Avid s Script Integration features explained in Chapter 18 The script for Gafter s Delight is included on the DVD so you can bring the script into your Avid and then following the instructions provided attach clips to the action and dialog Here you can practice using ScriptSync the voice recognition software to quickly join the Gaffer s Delight script to the Gaffer s Delight clips We ll use the Countdown included on the DVD when going out to tape in Chapter 19 XXIV Introduction Because Avid systems come on Windows and Macintosh platforms I ve used both Macintosh and Windows screens to guide you through the instructions Mac and Windows screens are almost iden tical The main difference between cutting on a Mac and cutting on
178. cy of reaction shots to speed up or slow down the pace Split edits are also useful Instead of staying on the person who is talking we use Dual Roller Trim Mode to change the video cut point For example you have a close up of Tim talking but instead of waiting to cut until after he stops you drag the rollers on V1 to the left Figure 5 5 so Kate s face is seen while we hear Tim fin Drag rollers left to ish talking and then Kate talks A split q make split edit edit is like a reaction shot in that we watch Kate as she digests what Tim is Tim s CU TK 1 saying and then Kate responds Be careful that you don t overdo split Tim s CU TK 1 Kate s CU edits because they often make the scene go by too quickly The brief pauses that you create by straight cut Figure 5 5 ting from one person to the next the moment when an actor waits to talk or thinks before speaking often get lost when there are too many split edits My students complain that their scenes sometimes behave like runaway trains they go faster than they intended The cul prit 1s always the same they have used too many split edits Story Structure Beginning Middle and End Students often get confused when they hear screenwriters talk about three acts What s in the first act How long should it be Why not six acts It s not rocket science Every story has three acts including 84 Chapter 5 A Few Editing Tip
179. d 8 In the Source Monitor play the sound back O O Synched subclips and forth until you hear the first full frame of Frama iGcrigt eriet crunch Use the step one frame button to Track locate it precisely Mark an IN at this frame ial Go to the end of first take and mark an OUT j 9 Make a subclip of this audio by holding the Option key Mac or Alt key Windows and Figure 20 7 Tivo subclips in the Synched subclips bin dragging the audio to the Synched subclips bin you should see the subclip symbol 10 Now you have two subclips in the bin Shift click so both of these subclips are selected 11 Go to the Bin menu and choose AutoSync 12 A dialog window appears Select the Inpoints box and click OK A dialog box will say that one or more of these subclips lack Inpoints Click OK Figure 20 8 Figure 20 8 13 A third subclip is formed and appears in the bin combining sound and picture locked in sync The new one is always on top 14 Hit Command S or Ctrl S to save what you have done 15 Double click on the subclip icon to place it in the Source Monitor and play it to check it If it is in sync drag it to the Synched Takes bin I usually get rid of the subclip info so it looks clean see Figure 20 10 16 Now sync up the next take in the same way Figure 20 10 325 Avid Editing A Guide for Beginning and Intermediate Users Synching Tips Finding the video frame in the Source gt
180. d editing See Editing Advanced Keyframes 217 219 A frame 318 After Effects Adobe 217 246 253 AIFF C Audio Interchange File Format 108 AIFF C audio files 108 Alias desktop Mac 11 Align to Grid Align Columns Bin menu 63 64 340 Alignment menu 188 Alpha Import Settings 246 247 Alpha channel 246 247 Ambient sounds introduction 125 replacing bad sound 143 American Idol 268 269 Analog audio 108 Analog editing 1 2 Appearance Setting 70 Apply to All Media Creation 120 270 272 Archive to Videotape Clip menu 343 Arrows in titles 188 ASCII text format for scripts 283 A side transition 42 43 See also Trim Mode Aspect ratio 4 3 letterbox version 277 16 9 to 4 3 Source Record Monitors 277 computers vs television 244 245 HD formats 264 265 Import options 245 246 Pan and Scan effect 277 279 351 Index Aspect ratio Continued Reformat 278 squeezed media 276 277 switching from 16 9 to 4 3 Source Record Monitors 277 Aspect Ratio Pixel Aspect Import Settings 245 246 Assembly defined 10 Assigning buttons 71 72 290 Associated media files deleting 65 66 linked to master clip 9 Attic 69 171 172 Audio See also Sound checking before finishing 301 302 configuring Avid I O hardware devices 110 111 editing workflow 10 exporting to Pro Tools 259 260 file types 108 finishing 312 313 recorders 322 323 sampling 108 129 source material 8 u
181. d then go to the Styles menu and select your choice The same parameters will be applied to the new title Soft Shadows When you place shadows on the letters they have a hard edge to them Sometimes giving the shadow less definition improves its appearance In the Title Tool select a title that has shadowing 183 Avid Editing A Guide for Beginning and Intermediate Users and then go to the Object menu at the top of the computer screen This menu and the Alignment menu appear only when the Title Tool is open Select Soften Shadow it s the last item at the bottom of the Object menu As soon as you select it a dialog box appears like the one shown in Figure 12 18 Type in an amount The range is from 4 to 40 Try 5 and then click Apply You ll see the amount of softening in the title s shadow If you like what you see press OK If not change the value and click Apply again until you re happy with the look Massacre at Soft Shadow x Shadow Softness 5 d 5 a eg EAE LI InN r ron a a i oe y lt _ lt gt Figure 12 18 Murambi Soft Shadow Shadow Softness 24 OK Cancel Apply A mea 7L_I alizal acala ome Kern o v Leaf 5 ord M L_ Figure 12 19 184 Make sure there is 0 shadow depth and that you have selected a color in the Shadow box Chapter 12 Titles Glowing Titles Another look you can give your
182. d then have the Avid highlight all of the objects related to it Let s say you have finished the final sequence and you want to make sure you used all the shots available to you Click on the sequence and then on Select Media Relatives the Avid will highlight every clip that was used in the sequence For this to work you need to be able to see two bins at once If you re working with a SuperBin double click on the bin containing your sequence s and select a sequence then single click the bin containing your clips so you can see both bins at once Now choose this command to see the media relatives 339 Avid Editing A Guide for Beginning and Intermediate Users Select Sources Select an object like a sequence and then choose this command It will highlight all the clips that make up the sequence The bins must be open and visible for this to work Select Unreferenced Clips This command works like the flip side of Select Media Relatives Select a sequence and then choose this command It shows you all the clips in the bin that have not been used in the sequence Loop Selected Clips Let s say you have two takes of an action or scene Use Mark IN and OUT in the Source Monitor to select the part of each take you wish to compare Now Shift click the takes in the bin Select Loop Selected Clips and the two takes will play one at a time in a loop for comparison You can do this with however many clips you want Align to Grid Align Colum
183. d to put the position indicator on each clip that requires recomposing Open the Effect Editor and either drag the wire frame or use the H Pos slider in the Position triangle to set the panning as shown in Figure 17 17 If you need to adjust the frame by panning left or right dur ing the clip because the actors move set keyframes to control the precise placement of the frame throughout the duration of the clip If at any time you want to get back to your starting point click on Reset to Origin in the Actions section and you ll return to your original or base composition To see it play properly you ll need to return to a 4 3 aspect ratio Right click Windows or Ctrl Shift click Mac in the Record Monitor and deselect 16 9 Now you can see the 4 3 sequence play just as you have framed it Crossconverting HDV to HD If you connect Media Composer to Mojo DX or Nitris DX hardware you can output your HDV sequence to HD tape via the Mojo or Nitris HD SDI connection without having to transcode the sequence We ll learn all about outputting to tape in Chapter 19 So if you shoot on HDV you can easily have a HDCAM tape ready for broadcast on network or cable television However if you re using an Adrenaline HD system follow these steps to crossconvert HDV to HD 1 Choose the correct format in the Format tab e Choose 10801 59 94 if your camera format was 10801 59 94 HDV z e Choose 720p 29 97 if your ca
184. d working at a nice clip and the next second you re lost The sound is out of sync with the picture the music comes in at the wrong moment the titles land on the wrong shots and you don t know what s happened And as you try to solve the problem the client is behind you pacing back and forth looking at the clock and sighing meaningfully It s not helping If you haven t had this experience you will and if you have I don t need to go any further because you ve been there In fact because you can easily add multiple video and audio tracks to your sequences the Avid greatly increases the potential for sync problems When you re working with three video tracks and six audio tracks a sync problem results in a confusing mess in the Timeline Fortunately there are some tools that help you get back into sync quickly and there are things you can do to avoid going out of sync in the first place 231 Avid Editing A Guide for Beginning and Intermediate Users The Source of Your Problems Before we talk about solutions let s review the ways you can get out of sync Know what can go wrong and you re in a better position to identify and fix the problem How did you get out of sync Here are the three actions most often responsible for sync problems They are what the police would call the usual suspects e Single roller trimming one track but not the other e Splicing material to one track but not to the other e Extrac
185. dard HD Because full raster 1920 X 1080 HD takes up much more space on a drive we need an Avid HD box to capture it We ll learn how to capture 10801 p HD in Chapter 17 when we discuss Avid s HD In Out hardware devices Mojo DX Nitris DX and Adrenaline HD With these devices you can capture the highest quality HD tapes Because most students and beginners don t start their careers capturing 10801 or 1080p projects on a 50 000 HD deck we ll wait until you get more comfortable capturing DV HDV or DVCPro HD projects 95 Avid Editing A Guide for Beginning and Intermediate Users Connecting Your Equipment In order to capture the picture and sound you need to run cables from your videotape player deck to your Avid video and audio capture boards In a school setting the cables have probably been connected for you and all you need to do is turn on the power to the deck launch the Avid software and insert your tape In case you re on your own lets take a minute to examine the procedures for capturing directly from a deck or camera to your computer If you have your Avid software running and you are about to capture you should quit the program before you connect the camera or drive If the software is already running it might not recognize that a deck or camera has been attached Once the cables are connected and the deck or camera s power is turned on then you can launch your software Cables Those of you s
186. de selection of SD formats and resolutions to choose from including DV 25 and DV 50 or either of two uncompressed 1 1 choices First we will learn how to use transcode to downconvert our clips to standard definition and then we ll learn how to transcode our sequences to standard definition Downconverting HD Master Clips to SD We can easily downconvert HD DVCPro HD or HDV clips to SD Let s say you capture HD into Media Composer You need both an SD and an HD version One option is to downconvert your clips to SD edit in SD and output an SD tape and SD DVD You can then relink your final SD sequence to the HD media you captured it takes seconds and output an HD tape or Blu Ray Disc This is called an offline online workflow and it s very simple to do 1 In the Project window click on the Format tab Depending on your HD frame rate choose 301 or 23 976p NTSC Figure 17 10 or 251 PAL 2 Open the bin containing your HD clips Select the clips you want Click on the Format tab Tec A O Gaffer s Delight SK Bins Settings 1 Format sa 720p 23 976 1080p 23 976 720p 29 97 1080i 59 94 mae Figure 17 10 273 Avid Editing A Guide for Beginning and Intermediate Users 3 Go to the Clip menu and select Consolidate Transcode 4 When the Consolidate Transcode box opens select Transcode Figure 17 11 5 Choose a target drive to hold the new media 6 Choose a Target Video Re
187. deck connected to your Avid hardware device Mojo DX Adrenaline HD or Nitris DX 8 Check the Entire Sequence box and the Stop on Dropped Frames box 9 Select Add Black at Tail and then type a number such as 00 00 10 00 for 10 seconds of black 10 Select Sequence Time in the menu window 11 Press the Record button 12 At the prompt insert your master tape and click Mounted The Avid cues up the tape and begins recording your sequence to tape If you need to stop at any time press the blue Stop button He eae ae OWE be p MY special Tools Toolset_ Window It s easy to archive your final HDV sequence to HDV i Cut tape Simply connect your camera or deck via Fire Wire Export To Device FilmScribe EDL Select the sequence in the bin and then go to the Output menu Select Export To Device gt HDV Figure 19 11 Uprezing Your Offline Sequence If you captured your material at a lower resolution than you plan to send it out you will now want to recapture your final sequence at a high resolution Keep in mind that you will not be recapturing your audio That stays just as it is You are only recapturing the picture All of your sound tracks will be untouched Suppose e You edited the project using a HD offline resolution lower resolution such as DNxHD 36 or a SD offline resolution such as 15 1s and now you want to recapture your sequence at an online higher resolution such as DNxHD 220 or DV 25
188. dia 172 173 effects as template 204 EQ effects 141 reasons for 167 screen set ups 73 Timeline views 143 144 title style sheets 183 titles 179 USB flash drives for 169 user settings 67 68 170 Scale bar Timeline 16 33 Scaling Advanced Keyframes 218 Picture in Picture 217 Scaling parameter Effect Editor 200 Scaling Timeline 33 Scan See Pan and Scan effect Scene numbers 294 295 Scratch Removal Tool 214 215 Screen direction 81 83 Screen set ups 73 Screening work in progress 86 88 bringing your own projectionist 87 developing thick skin 88 grilling audience 87 88 Script Integration 281 300 adding takes 285 286 adjusting take lines 287 288 changing appearance of slate 287 color lines 296 coverage 294 deleting takes and slates 288 Find Script 295 getting script into Avid 283 284 Hollywood style editing 281 282 identifying preferred takes 297 linking clips to script 284 285 loading and playing takes 288 moving slates 288 naming clips 283 off screen dialog 295 296 page and scene numbers 294 295 placing script marks automatically 291 293 placing script marks manually 289 291 playing marked takes 293 294 Tab key 289 using two monitors 282 283 Script marks 289 291 Script menu 348 Index Script supervisor 281 Script View bins 15 60 Scripts See also Script Integration getting script into Avid 283 284 linking clips to 284 285 Scri
189. dit controller for the video deck This is the preferred method for projects that will be aired by a television station 304 Chapter 19 Finishing 4 A 6 Digital Cut Tool Record button Figure 19 5 Crash Recording To accomplish this you need a videotape that has been blackened and striped with a predetermined timecode that matches the sequence timecode The advantage to this method compared to a crash recording is that you can make changes to the finished tape without rerecording the entire sequence You can go back later on and do an insert edit You can ask for a prestriped tape from a tape facility Obviously it costs more than a blank tape Or you can set your deck s timecode and blacken a tape yourself Less expensive DV decks may not be able to do this do this For instance my Sony DSR 11 does not have this capability whereas the more expensive Sony DSR 25 deck does All HD decks can stripe your tape When you stripe the tape you want to set the deck to record the timecode so the numbers start at 00 58 30 00 Make sure to set the type of timecode to match your project If your project has drop frame timecode uses semicolons set the deck to drop frame If your project has non drop frame timecode uses colons set the deck to non drop frame The types of timecode are explained in detail on page 319 Changing the Sequence Timecode Depending on your Avid the default starting timecode of your sequence will start anywhere
190. done that the most important skill of all comes into play To be a good editor you must be a good watcher It sounds simple but it s not Good editors can stop being editors and quickly transform themselves into good viewers You have to be able to erase from your mind all your worries hunger pangs sore muscles random thoughts and anything else that could impede your concentration And then you must 27 Avid Editing A Guide for Beginning and Intermediate Users really really watch As you watch you are asking yourself one question Does it work I hope you ll know the answer to that question by the end of this book Starting Your Second Editing Session With any external drives connected and turned on click on the Avid alias to launch the software When the software launches you ll see the Select Project window like the one shown in Figure 2 1 User samkauff Folder Users Shared XpressPro Avid Projects Faj User Profile samkauff a Select a Project Day Scene Gaffer s Delight __ Private HIY Wanna Trade Scene Shared __ External lene New Project Figure 2 1 Select Project window If youre working on Wanna Trade just click on it so its highlighted and press OK If your instructor has loaded a different project for you click on it and press OK When you reach the Project window open the Dailies Day 1 bin and the Assembly bin Find your sequence which you created during your first editin
191. dows PCs use the Control Services gt 3 Useful when you need key Ctrl Hide Avid Media Composer 38H toseg ihe desktop Hide Others XH Figure 2 is a Mac only menu and we ll use only two of the items from Quit Avid Media Composer Q lt Use to Quit the program this menu The first is Hide Avid Media Composer This menu item acts Figure 2 333 Avid Editing A Guide for Beginning and Intermediate Users a lot like Minimize on a Windows PC and we ll use it whenever we need to view the desktop We will also use the command Quit Avid Media Composer whenever we want to exit the Avid program File Menu G Edit Bin Clip Output If you ve used just about any software on a Windows or Mac New Bin N computer you re already familiar with some of the File com Open Bin 0 mands shown in Figure 3 Open Close Save Print they re all New Script standard The rest are very Avid specific Close Bin gew Save Bin AS New Bin Creates a new bin In the past we clicked on the New Save Bin Copy As Bin button on the Project window Avid gives you many ways Page Setup to Ge the a thing Print Bin sep Open Bin This command does more than just open a bin When you select this menu command you re presented with a dialog Get Bin Info ve box That dialog box taps into all of the bins on all of the projects on the Avid Let s say you want to take a clip of music from Export another project and
192. e you can better organize your media files Transcode is an advanced feature that lets you change the format ofa clip or sequence You could use Transcode to convert a high definition sequence to a standard definition one We examined this feature in Chapter 17 Decompose This command takes your sequence and breaks it into all the individual clips that make up the sequence Let s say you captured 1000 mas ter clips when you captured your tapes and to save space you captured all those clips at a low resolu tion such as 15 1s or DNxHD 36 And let s say Appendix Menus New Sequence New Audio Track eE Output Spedal Tools Toolset Windows S Shift Ctrl N Cirl r Ctrl U New Meta Track New Video Track New Title Center Pan Default Pan Batch Capture Batch Import Consolidate Transcode Decompose Change Sample Rate Relink Modify Add Filler at Start Remove Match Frame Edits Find Black Hole Find Flash Frame Lock Bin Selection Unlock Bin Selection Figure 7 Clip menu your final sequence 1s made up of only 50 clips After decomposing your final sequence you have those 50 clips in a bin and you simply recapture just those 50 at a higher resolution such as DV 25 or DNxHD 220X Decompose is a handy command and one we examined in Chapter 19 Change Sample Rate Digital audio like that found on a CD or recorded by a DV camera
193. e PLACES yoo ai E ieoi la SD_NTSC e SMPTE_Bars tif FEY Desktop r Settings DD Site_Effects gt B sp PAL sh ca YUV 10 com ftv lo lt e eee INE TE Patter gt Ti cuore pare net l Figure 16 11 Select it Click on Option Choose 601 709 non square Choose Non interlaced In the Color Levels box select 601 709 This is one time when we choose 601 709 and not RGB Repeat use the 601 709 setting 10 Choose 60 seconds 11 Click OK 12 Back in the Select files to Import dialog box choose the correct video resolution and drive you Oo On DD VI want 13 In your bin you will find a master clip called SMPTE Bars In Chapter 19 we will cut this clip together with 60 seconds of 1000Hz audio tone into the head of a sequence that we will put out to videotape We will have bars and tone Importing a QuickTime Movie We will also insert a 10 second countdown just after the bars and tone and before the start of our final sequence The countdown is a QuickTime movie and it s on the DVD that comes with this book 248 Chapter 16 Importing and Exporting 1 Open your Avid project open a bin and make sure the bin 1s selected 2 Inthe File menu choose Import 3 When the Select files to Import dialog box opens for file type select Any Documents or All files Navigate to the DVD and click on the QuickTime movie named Countdown 4 Click Options Select 601 709 non square R
194. e 14 377 DVD Instructions Instructions for Mounting Kizza s Portrait and Gaffer s Delight Follow the instructions provided above for mounting Wanna Trade onto your Avid Wherever the instructions mention the Wanna Trade Scene folder substitute either Kizza s Portrait or Gafter s Delight folder and wherever you see the Wanna Trade Media folder substitute Kizza s Portrait Media folder or Gaffer s Delight Media folder There are ten media files in Kizza s Portrait Media folder There are sixty eight media files in Gaffer s Delight Media folder 378
195. e 4 2 Wanna Trade Scene anaes abit These bins are open and in the SuperBin Figure 4 2 Single click on any bin to place it in the SuperBin You know right away when you re in SuperBin Mode SuperBin Tem fy Brief textel iFrames is Assemblies 4 3 If you click on that SuperBin icon a list appears Click to see wT aa P PP the list of open Dailies Day 1 bins because the bin says SuperBin and there s an icon showing bins stacked on top of one another Figure guperBin icon showing you which bins are open and waiting to be chosen Select Rough Cut and it appears replacing the Dailies Day 1 bin Figure 4 3 SuperBin If you want to open the bin on its own outside of the SuperBin that s easy just double click on the bin icon in the Project window To put it back into the SuperBin double click again To review 1 Single click to place a bin in the SuperBin 2 Double click to open a bin on its own 3 Double click to move a bin on its own back into the SuperBin Bin Headings in Text View We re living in the information age Billions of facts are available to us through the Internet It makes sense therefore to have all the facts about your clips available as well Single click Dailies Day 1 to open it in the SuperBin area Go to Text View and drag the resize box or scroll along the 61 Avid Editing A Guide for Beginning and Intermediate Users E Kate s Ent
196. e 480 vis ible horizontal lines with interlaced scanning running at 29 97 fps Now let s look at the same variables in the HD world 720p e Aspect ratio 16 9 e Progressive scanning e Pixel count 1280 X 720 e Frames per second rates 59 94 23 976 or 29 97 e 921 600 pixels per frame This is Panasonic s format and the one JVC adopted Because 720p is a progressive format it looks very pleasing to the eye and has a filmic look to it Because its datastream is smaller than the other types of HD this is the choice for many independent filmmakers Media Composer software can capture and output this format through a FireWire connection 10801 e Aspect ratio 16 9 e Interlaced scanning e Pixel count 1920 X 1080 e FPrames per second rates 29 97 or 59 94 e 2 073 600 pixels per frame This is Sony s baby and a big one it 1s This is the format producers choose when they want HD to look like video or reality TV It produces a huge datastream seven times greater than DV You need an Avid hardware system such as Adrenaline HD or Nitris DX to capture 10801 A Mojo DX can do it but only if you have a really robust computer processor For several years these were the two choices but Sony recently developed a third choice to com pete more directly with motion picture film 1080p e Aspect ratio 16 9 e Progressive scanning e Pixel count 1920 X 1080 e Frames per second rates 23 976 24 25p 29 97 or 59 94 e 2
197. e Roller Trim Mode click either the A side or the B side frame in the Trim Mode display e To go from Single Roller Trim Mode to Dual Roller Trim Mode click the frame line between the A side and B side frames Add Rollers and Delete Rollers e In Trim Mode Shift click on the transition side where you want to add a roller e To remove a roller Shift click on it and it will be removed Drag the Rollers e Click and drag the rollers left or right e Command drag Mac or Ctrl drag Windows to IN or OUT marks e Command drag Mac or Ctrl drag Windows to transition points Trim While Watching e In Trim Mode press the Review Transition key to have the transition go into a loop e Use the keyboard Trim Frame keys lt lt lt or gt gt gt to trim as you watch o7 Avid Editing A Guide for Beginning and Intermediate Users Suggested Assignments Although Trim Mode is a fantastic feature it isn t always intuitive Study this chapter and then prac tice using all of the many techniques discussed If you haven t fixed the Wanna Trade practice sequence inside the Chapter 3 folder you should do that now Otherwise use your own sequence and follow these steps 1 Make a duplicate of your sequence and give it today s date 2 Practice getting in and out of Trim Mode 3 Practice Dual Roller and Single Roller trims trimming and lengthening the A side and the B side and creating picture and sound ov
198. e Settings window Scroll through the list and examine various settings Duplicate the Keyboard Setting and name it Use the blank button to remove the Focus Key Add Motion Effect to the Source Monitor toolbar Change the color of your tracks Command Palette Tabs a Command Palette 1 Frame I Figure 4 30 74 Chapter 4 The Project Window Figure 4 31 Figure 4 32 Figure 4 33 Figure 4 34 79 Avid Editing A Guide for Beginning and Intermediate Users Figure 4 35 O Figure 4 36 O Figure 4 37 Figure 4 38 76 Chapter 4 The Project Window Figure 4 39 i This page intentionally left blank Chapter 5 A Few Editing Tips You ve been working on Wanna Trade for a while now and it s time to get some feedback That means bringing in friends classmates and relatrves whoever you think can help you improve your scene by telling you how he or she honestly feels about your work If you edited a different scene for your first project t doesn t matter because we ll be exploring the whole process of screening your work But before you subject yourself to all that honesty let s go over a few editing pointers These may seem obvious but they have helped my students over some bumps so perhaps they ll help you too When to Cut Everyone agrees that a cut brings energy to any film or video By changing the angle of view or cutting to a new locat
199. e as flashlights but resist the temp tation Buy one that isn t much thicker than the USB connection I once made the mistake of buying a thick one and every time I went to use it I had to disconnect m 6 Figure 11 2 Backing up 310 g Statistics Trash Assembly Dailies Day 1 Wanna Trade Wanna Trade Settings Figure 11 3 Contents of the Wanna Trade folder other USB devices just to fit mine into the USB port My 512 MB flash drive has served me well You can get 1GB for under 10 Figure 11 4 169 Avid Editing A Guide for Beginning and Intermediate Users After the Crash If there is a bad crash and your project is missing or badly corrupted or if someone removes your project from the computer you can reload all your files onto your Avid All you have to do is insert your flash drive into the appropriate part on the computer and drag your project folder to the Avid Projects folder Launch the Avid program and your project and all the clip information will be there It will all be listed as Media Offline but you can easily recapture the clips And once you recapture the clips all the sequences that you have edited using those clips will be just the way you left them like magic We ll learn to recapture your clips later in this chapter Saving User Settings You can back up your user settings the same way All of the user settings you made in the Settings area how the
200. e at the lower resolution 2 Click and drag the sequence icon to the Source Monitor not the Record Monitor 312 Chapter 19 Finishing 3 In the Source Monitor go to the very first frame of the offline sequence Mark an IN Go to the very last frame and mark an OUT 4 Now make your Timeline active and go to the very first frame of the Online Sequence Mark an IN 5 Now you re ready to splice the sound tracks into your Online Timeline To do this you will need to create new audio tracks as many as there are source tracks Command U or Ctrl U 6 In the Timeline select the audio tracks and deselect your video tracks Now hit the Splice but ton All of your audio should splice into the Timeline Recreating Title Media If you recaptured at a higher resolution you may need to recreate your titles because they were cre ated at a lower resolution 1 Select all of your titles by selecting the video tracks and marking an IN and an OUT in the Online Timeline 2 Go to the Clip menu and choose Create Unrendered Title Media Your titles will be recreated at your new resolution Now that you have an online sequence ready to go to tape go back to the earlier Outputting to Tape section Output to DVD If you have a DVD R burner and DVD authoring software you can burn your sequence onto a DVD Most people use iDVD on a Mac or Avid DVD on a PC Whichever system you are on remember that the process can be slow someti
201. e black or filler area to keep tracks aligned Watch 155 Avid Editing A Guide for Beginning and Intermediate Users Ext Mdlovinga Voting Station Ext Ndlovinga Voting Station Figure 10 1 Before trimming Int KwaShoba Harration Narration Ext Hdlowinga Voting Station Int FwaShoba Figure 10 2 After trimming By placing a single roller on the other side of the narration track as shown in Figure 10 3a where there is fill and no voice and then trimming the Avid takes 30 frames of black fill off the narration track while it takes 30 frames off the Voting Station clip All the tracks are still aligned As you can see the arrows go in two different directions We are trimming in two directions JExt Mdlovinga Voting Station Int KwaShobe ja Narration Narration Ext Mdlovinga Voting Station Int Kowa Shrobee _ Drag roller to the right to trim the Voting Station clip by 30 frames Narration fill is shortened by 30 frames Figure 10 3a 156 Chapter 10 Advanced Editing We can use Single Roller Trim Mode to add to the head of the Voting Station clip This time we are dragging the rollers to the left to extend the clip by 30 frames Again we put the single roller on the black fill side of the narration Figure 10 3b Ext Mdlovinga Voting Station Int KwaShoba Ue es Yer otior Ext Mdlowinga Voting Station Marr Int KwaShoba Ue
202. e created in Chapter 4 Get the Command Palette from the Tools menu Select the Menu to Button Reassignment box on the Command Palette Notice that the mouse cursor now looks Menu to Button Reassignment like a white menu On the real keyboard hold down the Shift key Now click the cursor on the computer monitor keyboard s Shift T key so it turns a dark color Bring the cursor to the Clip menu and select New Title You will now see a large T on your Shift T key on the Avid keyboard Close the Command Palette Close the keyboard Figure 10 16 Figure 10 17 Remember you can place any menu item on any button or keyboard key but let s wait to map other menu commands until we re more familiar with all of the menu items Suggested Assignments oo ae ee P Practice trimming in two directions Set the watch point to show the clip you want to watch in the Trim Mode display Get into Slip Mode and slip a clip Cut a reaction shot into V1 of your Wanna Trade Timeline and use Slide to move it Practice J K L trimming Select a video track and hit Match Frame Deselect the video tracks and select an audio track Hit Match Frame Use Replace to change a clip in the Timeline using the position indicators to replace the mate rial in the Timeline with the material in the Source Monitor 165 This page intentionally left blank Chapter 11 Saving Your Work If it s a Computer
203. e got your slates and takes in place ScriptSync places the marks 1 Select the take or takes you want in the script by clicking on the take lines or tabs Here I selected 1G Tk 1 Figure 18 19 2 Go to the Script menu and select ScriptSync Figure 18 20 291 A dialog box will open Figure 18 21 You can choose from nine languages Dutch German Japanese Korean Spanish Arabic Chinese Mandarin North American English and United Kingdom English a fine distinction Choose your tracks To help the software find the lines of spoken dialog and to ignore character names par enthetical information and action select the choices shown in Figure 18 21 Now click on Select Dialog A section of the script will appear as in Figure 18 22 Click on a line of dialog so the Avid can count how many indented spaces there are Avid Editing A Guide for Beginning and Intermediate Users oanna speak and R Mass Powers ladder ELE I m Michele Powdks Figure 18 19 Left Margin interpolate Position Hold Slates Onscreen The software will count the indented spaces and put that number in the Dialog Indent box Click OK When you are returned to the dialog box click OK ScriptSync Figure 18 21 Figure 18 20 Click here Chapter 18 Script Integration Click ona PETER o gt o line of dialog Can help you Miss Powers He starts to descend the ladder a Dislog Indent characters 2
204. e monitor icon were on V1 we would not see audio monitor icon looks like a anything on V2 tiny speaker and the video moni tor icon looks like a tiny screen They show which tracks will be k P OA E EE seen and heard If the button on F a track is empty you won t see or hear anything The exception is when you have more than one Figure 2 15 video track If the top video track has the monitor icon then all the video tracks beneath it will also be monitored Click on the box and the monitor icon indicator disappears You won t hear or see that track Click again and the indicator reappears and you ll hear or see the track 34 Chapter 2 Basic Editing Marking Clips in the Timeline One of the most useful buttons at your disposal is the Mark Clip button Often you will be work ing on your sequence and see that you want to get rid of a shot One way to do this is to work in the Timeline and place an IN mark at the head of the clip and an OUT mark at the tail of the clip But there s a much simpler way 1 Put the position indicator in the clip you want to mark make sure only the active tracks are selected 2 Press the Mark Clip button The Mark Clip command can be found on the T key on the Mark Clip keyboard or on the row of commands above the Timeline a You ll see an IN mark at the head and an OUT at the tail of Mm m the clip The entire clip is highlighted Note that if you have tracks
205. e monitor screen rather than in the Record Monitor This option is only available if you are working on a software only configuration of Media Composer Save Current This lets you change the way the Toolset items are configured and then saves your changes This command makes it easy to have it your way For instance when you re in Source Record Mode you might prefer to have Frame View as the default view Simply change the bin view from Brief to Frame and then select Save Current and from then on that is the way Source Record will work Restore Current to Default Any changes you make to the default setup using Save Current get wiped away if you select this Link Current to In Chapter 4 we spent some time discussing Settings We learned how to change the color of bins or the Timeline background We changed the keyboard settings We also learned to duplicate settings and to call the original setting Default and the new setting Mine Link Current to allows you to have various settings name them and then connect those set tings to particular Toolset modes 347 Avid Editing A Guide for Beginning and Intermediate Users Windows Menu Windows Script Studio Help I never use the Windows menu but you may find these Close All Bins commands useful Home Ctrl Close All Bins This closes all your bins If you have a SuperBin Output Sequence sequence loaded in the Record Monitor it will disap pear as wi
206. e pulldown menu and select 320 X 240 This is another good choice for YouTube Exporting a QuickTime Reference Movie Let s say we want to send our sequence to the desktop so we can import it into Sorenson Squeeze or After Effects software Since we have the software on our computer we can save time and space by using a QuickTime reference movie We can point to the media on our Avid media drive and do not have to create new media n E ERE A A ARASA Put your sequence in the Timeline If you don t want the entire sequence mark an IN and OUT and choose Use Marks and Use Enabled Tracks Make sure all of the tracks you want are selected and render all your effects Here are the steps we will take to export a sequence 1 Choose Export from the File menu 2 In the Export As window choose Quick Time Reference from the Export Setting pulldown menu 3 Press Save That was easy Let s click on Options to see what settings were chosen for us in case we want to make changes A window like the one in Figure 16 23 opens QuickTime Reference is selected in Export As because that s the template we chose The Use Figure 16 23 29 Avid Editing A Guide for Beginning and Intermediate Users Marks and Use Enabled Tracks boxes are both deselected because we want to export the entire sequence If this was a DV project we would choose Use Avid DV Codec otherwise we would uncheck that The other settings are fairl
207. e quite helpful whenever you re trying to edit complex sounds such as music For example let s say you wanted to lengthen a music cue because it ends a bit too soon You can eas ily do this by copying a section of the music into the Clipboard opening the Clipboard Monitor marking the section and then cutting it into the Timeline at the end of the music Now the music is extended The waveform shows you where the beats are in the music Use those beats to make Lee BB Khi FTONI your marks and edit points Try it Using Trim Mode with Waveforms to Fix Audio I often do my audio work using Trim Mode Lets say you have a lot of narration that you have cut into your sequence and the narration track is a bit noisy When the narrator speaks you don t hear the hiss but as soon as he or she stops talking you can hear the hiss or hum on the track lt i You want to clean the track up The best way to do this is to Figure 8 24 Use Dual Roller Trim mode to get rid of noise enter Dual Roller Trim Mode and cut the narration so the only segments left in the Timeline are those that contain the voice and not the silent bits which are actually quite noisy Equalization On most sound mixing boards there are dials that you can turn to boost or decrease various fre quencies low midrange high to alter or improve the sound Such alteration of frequencies 1s called equalization For example 1f a voice has too much bass
208. e sure the checkmark is next to the correct Deck Configuration If it isn t simply click the cursor in the space on the left To leave Settings click on the Bins tab in the Project window to view your bins Naming Your Tapes After you have gathered together your source tapes you should come up with a system for naming the tapes In a way you might want to consider your system of naming tapes even before you start shooting so the name you give the tape in the field is the same name you give it when capturing One of the worst mistakes you can make when capturing is to give two tapes the same name Your naming system need not be complicated Whenever you begin a new project simply call the first tape 001 and add a project ID So Pll use 001 Slim for the first tape for the Living with Slim project The second tape is 002 Slim and so on That way IIl always have different tape names 99 Avid Editing A Guide for Beginning and Intermediate Users Organizing Your Bins Before you begin the actual capture process you must decide into which bin your newly captured material will go On film projects many editors prefer to organize their bins according to what was shot on a given day All the tapes from the first day of shooting would go into a bin called Dailies Day 1 On a video project it makes sense to have a bin for each camera tape thus Tape 001 would go into a bin called Tape 001 The Capture Tool With the latest software as soon a
209. early everything you do with your clips The other important part of the Project window has to do with Settings Settings Have it Your Way The folks from Tewksbury Massachusetts Avid s headquarters have created an editing system that you can configure and rearrange in so many different ways that it s mind boggling Some critics say there are too many choices and too many ways of doing the same thing and that all those choices have turned what was supposed to be an intuitive and fun to use editing machine into anything 66 Chapter 4 The Project Window but I can understand where the critics are coming from This is mature software in computer life cycles and it has gone through many changes While the Avid has gained lots of features along the way it hasn t lost many and as any kid knows if you keep adding blocks to your tower it can grow out of control Because this book is primarily for beginning users I m only showing you what I think you need to know in order to create outstanding films or videos If I included every trick or feature you could be overwhelmed The Settings window is one area where you can easily feel swamped Still setting the Avid up to suit your editing style is one of the Avid s best features Let s examine a few of the ways the Avid can be set up We ll explore this in greater detail later in the book but for now we ll just get our feet wet User Profile If you go to the top of the
210. ect Fo mat 23 976p NTSC 23 976p NTSC 24p NTSC 24p NTSC 30i NTSC 30i NTSC 24p PAL 24p PAL 25p PAL 25p PAL 25i PAL the HD 25i PAL 720p 23 976 formats are 720p 23 976 v 720p 29 97 HDV below this 720p 25 SOn Eg 4 720p 29 97 piaz 720p 50 1080p 23 976 vV 720p 59 94 eae 1080p 23 976 1080i 50 1080p 24 1080i 50 HDV 1080p 25 1080i 59 94 1080i 50 1080i 59 94 HDV 1080i 59 94 Figure 6 4 1920 X 1080 lines select Standard We ll discuss raster types more fully in Chapter 17 For now select the one that matches the _ peer at Standard format of your camera or tape Matchback DVCPro HD v HDV The table below shows the various raster 3 sizes We ll learn more about these num bers as we progress through the book but Figure 6 5 Raster Type pulldown menu for now you can see there is a reason for the choices If you can capture and edit at 1440 X 1080 and then output at 1920 X 1080 you ll tax the editing software less and get improved performance Project Type Standard DVCPro HD HDV 720p 1280 X 720 960 X 720 1280 X 720 10801 1920 X 1080 1280 X 1080 1440 X 1080 1080p 1920 X 1080 NA NA If you re working on pre 3 0 software you don t have a Raster Type menu so choose the correct format as shown in the left hand screen capture in Figure 6 4 94 Chapter 6 Starting a New Project and Capturing from Tape HDV HDV is sometimes called HD light as it uses a compression system
211. ecting Tracks The Track Selector panels are on the left of the Timeline When you have a clip in the Source Monitor the Source Track Selector panel appears next to the Record Track Selector panel Before making any edits always check to see which tracks are selected before splicing and overwrit ing In Figure 2 6 if we were to try to splice the material in the Source Monitor into the sequence 30 Chapter 2 Basic Editing the sound coming in on tracks A1 and A2 will not This video track is selected get spliced in Why Because the Record Track buttons for A1 and A2 are deselected To select the record tracks for Al and A2 simply click on the track buttons If the record tracks are selected but the Source Track buttons aren t the source material will F p not get spliced or overwritten into the sequence either Check your tracks before splicing or Source Track Audio tracks A1 and A2 are deselected overwriting buttons Click on the buttons to select them Figure 2 6 Navigating the Timeline It s easy to move around the Timeline Use the J K L keys or the mouse to drag the blue position indicator to any place in the Timeline Home and End Click anywhere in the Timeline to activate it and then press the Home key which is on the keyboard Figure 2 7 You ll jump to the beginning of the sequence Hit the End key just below it and you ll jump to the end of the sequence If the Source Monitor is active Home a
212. ects shot on video Shoot with a Super 16mm camera and transfer the film to HD and you ve got a better looking project and saved yourself a fortune in HD camera rentals The Film to Tape Transfer After you have shot your film footage you take the exposed film to a laboratory for processing When the film has been processed it has an image either negative or positive You then take your processed film to a telecine facility many labs have them for a film to tape transfer The individual frames of the film are projected or scanned onto videotape A majority of the telecine systems in use today employ a flying spot scanner capable of incredible image manipulations Many flying spot systems cost over 500 000 The film is transported on rollers that never touch the image surface so your film won t get scratched or damaged A flying spot scanner can also transpose a negative image to a positive one So if you shoot negative film as most people do you don t have to make a posi tive print of your film to get it transferred The 2 3 Standard Pulldown Film intended for projection in a theater is shot at 24 frames per second fps In the United States we still reference the NTSC standard of 30 fps even in HD How do you transfer 24 frames of film onto 30 frames of video Each frame of interlaced videotape is made up of two fields Each field contains half of the frame s total lines which are scanned horizontally odd lines are scanned
213. ed but to make it fit a black border on the left and right will be added A wide image will be imported so we see the entire image no cropping or squeezing but a border on the top and bottom will be needed File Field Order File Field Order The choices here are Non interlaced Odd Upper Field First and lt Non interlaced Even Lower Field First In Chapter 6 we learned that many video CO Odd Upper Field First systems use interlaced scanning to record video images An interlaced Even Lower Field First frame is made up two fields one containing all the odd lines and the other containing all the even lines The Avid cares about the ordering Figure 16 6 of the lines in the digital file So whenever you are importing inter laced images you need to set the field order On an NTSC project Avid wants Even Lower Field First If you re working on a PAL 601 project choose Odd Upper Field First However if you are working with a PAL DV project choose Even For HD files Avid wants Odd Upper Field First If the file you are importing is progressive media or if it doesn t deal with fields then Non interlaced is the correct choice For example when I imported the photograph I chose Non interlaced because it is a JPG file not a video file Color Levels If whatever you are importing was created with any paint photo graphic Elar Safak application software always use RGB That includes Adobe Photoshop RGE After
214. ed 181 182 crawling 191 creating style sheets for 183 creating your first 177 cutting in 189 190 cutting into sequences 179 180 deleting 186 drawing objects 185 186 glowing 185 HD 272 lines and arrows 188 Marquee Tool 175 177 191 multiple rendering 190 with objects 186 187 opening Title Tool 175 177 Index rendering 190 rolling 189 191 safe title box 176 178 saving 179 shadows 178 179 183 184 speed of rolling 190 191 for tape output 302 303 Text Tool 178 transparency 187 188 Toolbars adding Motion Effect command 73 Effect Editor 199 200 Source Record Monitors 15 16 Timeline 42 164 Title Tool 176 Tools menu 345 Toolset menu 12 13 100 347 Track Color Timeline Fast menu 73 Track Monitors 127 128 monitoring only one track 128 speaker icons 34 127 128 Track Selector panels 30 Track selectors Timeline 16 Tracking menu 348 349 Tracks adding audio 126 deleting 129 deselecting 30 31 enlarging 34 locking 240 patching audio 127 reducing 34 scrolling 129 selecting 30 31 setting up sound 144 Transcode Consolidate Transcode Clip menu 273 274 276 279 341 downconverting 273 making SD versions of HD projects 273 275 Transcripts of interviews 85 Transferring from film to tape basic concepts 318 instructions for unsupervised transfer 321 322 work orders to lab telecine 320 322 371 Index Transition effects 193 194 195
215. ed on the clip If it s close but not perfect examine the template s sliders then remove the template effect Now using the template as a guide try to make adjustments that are similar but work even better than the template 140 Figure 8 27 xi kmj 2 amp zj Sel EQ Global 47 3dE Remove EQs On Track Global Remove EQ s On Enabled Tracks Global Female Voce wih Presence Male Voice with Presence Music High Boost a0 Hz 2 cet Music High Boost with Mid Rollout s Music Low Boost NTSC Hum Buster PAL Hum Buster Tape Hiss Filter Tape Hiss Filter with High End Boost Telephone EQ A Telephone EQ B Figure 8 28 Chapter 8 Sound Saving Your EQ Effect You can also save an EQ effect so you can use it later on in your project You might spend ten min utes setting different EQ levels to fix a problem in Tim s dialog track Once you have the effect set up the way you want simply click and drag the EQ icon Figure 8 29 to whichever bin you would like it saved to Try it It s quite easy to do Once it s in the bin you can name it SuperBin Temp 8 x Oy Brief Text Frame Script Name Start Eq Effect for Tim PH music cue 3 12 46 54 00 dio EQ Tool J x Da mr 2 Bypass IN Figure 8 29 Drag the EQ icon to the bin Now simply click and drag it from the bin to Tim s other clips in the Timeline and they will have the same EQ applied to th
216. ed the electron beam to scan the odd lines then the even lines When these two interlaced fields are combined you have a frame of video and a brighter image top to bottom Progressive Scanning With the advent of the digital NTSC standard a new scanning method became possible Instead of interlaced scanning where the picture information for each frame was recorded onto two fields progressive scanning means the entire frame is scanned at once Progressive scanning offers many benefits over interlaced scanning including better resolution Interlaced scanning 1s identified by the letter 1 and progressive by the letter p NTSC Avid Project Choices So if you are capturing a NTSC tape here are your three choices e 23 976p NTSC You would select 23 976p NTSC if you shot with a Canon XL2 Panasonic DVX100 or Panasonic DVX900 for a North American audience and you chose 24p Advanced as your frame rate e 24p NTSC You would only select 24p NTSC if you are editing a high budget film project and finishing on film We explore this option in Chapter 20 e 301 NTSC This is correct if you used a mini DV or DVCAM camera Beta SP camera or DigiBeta camera at the regular 301 setting This is also a choice if you shot with a Canon XL2 Panasonic DVX100 or Panasonic DVX900 for a North American audience and you chose 24p but not 24p Advanced in the camera s menu The PAL Standard PAL Phase Alternating Line was inv
217. ed the wires but they should get you started If you need a refresher on capturing from a tape go to Chapter 6 Playback Performance Playback performance can be enhanced by clicking on the Video Quality icon near the Timeline Full yellow is best performance which is used if you have lots of effects that are causing the Avid to choke Half yellow half green is draft quality most of your effects will play without need for rendering All green is best quality what b your image will look like when you output to tape When editing it is used whenever you want to check focus and see all the image detail or p gute 17 8 Video Quality when holding a screening for investors Normally you need to be in icon set at half yellow half green the green mode to output to tape Creating HD Titles and Importing HD Graphics If I am working in a specific HD online format resolution such as DNxHD 145 I like to create titles and import graphics at the same DNxHD 145 resolution I simply go to Settings double click on Media Creation select the Titles or Import tab and select DNxHDb 145 in the Video Resolution pulldown menu This isn t necessary however if when I was choosing my resolution when capturing my first tape I clicked on Apply to All Apply to All means that every title I create or every graphic I import will come in at DNxHD 145 In the Media Creation window I can also choose the drive into which everything will be saved Med
218. edit your projects but there is certainly more to learn There are several excel lent books on the market that I urge you to read The Avid Handbook by Greg Staten and Steve Bayes covers in great detail many areas that I have treated lightly It is for advanced users but you re fast becoming one Although it 1s not a book on nonlinear editing NLE I highly recommend The Filmmaker s Handbook by Steven Ascher and Edward Pincus This book covers nearly every aspect of video and film production and will answer just about any question you might have about moviemaking Three books about the art of editing are definitely worth reading The Techniques of Film Editing by Karel Reisz and Gavin Millar On Film Editing by Edward Dmytryk and In the Blink of an Eye by Walter Murch The first two were published decades ago but are valuable for their insights and the historical perspective they provide Walter Murch s book 1s the most recent and contains some inter esting observations about the pitfalls of digital editing Last but not least I recommend the various user manuals that Avid supplies when it sells a system Much of my understanding of Avid s products comes from these manuals which are often clearly written The problem with all manuals is that everything is treated as if it is of equal importance to 329 Avid Editing A Guide for Beginning and Intermediate Users you when clearly some things deserve more attention than others
219. egment Mode button 150 152 P P and B frames 267 P2 cards See also Cameras backing up 119 122 downconverting to SD 122 Import P2 File menu 116 121 336 importing from Panasonic HVX200 113 119 protection master 122 unmounting 121 P2 Contents Management Software 122 P2 Gear AG HPG10 117 118 Pacing 83 84 Page and scene numbers 294 295 Page Setup File menu 334 Paint effect 211 215 PAL Phase Alternating Line standard 92 93 file import settings 246 Pan and Scan effect 277 279 Panasonic DVX100 DVX900 92 93 Panasonic HD formats 264 265 Panasonic HVX200 113 122 accessing P2 cards on DVD external drive 119 camera and memory card 8 choosing format frame rate 114 FireStore portable hard drive recorder 118 119 importing directly from camera 116 117 installing P2 driver software 115 recommended settings 115 shooting vs editing on P2 card 115 using P2 Gear AG HPG10 117 118 using PCMCIA slot in computer 117 working with Avid 114 Panasonic VariCam 268 Panning 132 133 Parameters effect 198 Paste Edit menu 337 Patching audio tracks 127 Pause deck 103 104 PCM pulse coded modulation audio files 108 PCMCIA interface 117 PCs loading Avid 3 operating system 4 Pencil icon 100 104 105 Phase Alternating Line PAL 92 93 Phillips Michael 315 Picture lock 10 25 Picture in Picture effect 198 200 215 217 Pixels 244 247 Platoon 81
220. eking information about which formats to shoot for different projects With the emergence of HD and HDV this is truer than ever before In fact because there are so many formats to choose from and post production issues are becoming increasingly complicated I believe editors will be among the first crew members hired on future projects So this is the year we must continue to educate ourselves about HD and HDV issues Use the information in this chapter as the foundation of your HD knowledge base and build up from here As HD formats gain wider acceptance more and more people will choose to shoot their projects on HD or HDV In a few years we ll forget we ever shot in standard definition and what seems complicated now will soon become standard operating procedure Don t be afraid to tell clients that they are better off shooting in standard definition if you believe that s the case Don t do HD for the sake of doing it but if it s right you are ready to show the way 280 Chapter 18 Script Integration Script Integration is found on both Media Composer and Xpress I believe it is the most dynamic and exciting feature found on any nonlinear editing system in the world Yet despite its strong points Script Integration is perhaps the least used of all of the Avid s features Why First you have to have a script For many films and videos from experimental to verit there s no script so there s no script to integrate
221. elected it and then went to the tool that changes the corners of all objects see Figure 12 22 Figure 12 20 185 Avid Editing A Guide for Beginning and Intermediate Users Rectangle Circle and Line Tools Figure 12 21 Click here to select the Delete Key shape of your corners If you create a title or draw an object and don t like it just select it with the Selection Tool and press the Delete key You can also use Undo Titles with Objects Figure 12 22 To give you an example of some of the other things you can do with these tools I have created a title that I want to superimpose over a shot showing swimmers in the ocean off Durban South Africa Figure 12 23 The white letters don t show up as well as I d like so I will create a colored rectangle that I can place behind the title First Pll select a color for the rectangle by clicking in the Fill box and choosing an aqua blue color Next I select the drawing tool that creates boxes and rectangles Because I want the rectangle to have rounded corners I select the curved corner with the Corner Selection Tool PURBANI eS ERTROT i Figure 12 23 When I drag the pointer across the title window a blue rectangle with rounded corners appears Using the Selection Tool I drag the rectangle on top of the title Durban Waterfront The title is no longer visible I know that s not good but I m not finished Now I go up to the Object menu and selec
222. em When to Use the Different Audio Tools Here s how I work with my audio tools I use the Audio Mixer Tool to set the overall levels of my clips Pll go into the Timeline put the position indicator on Kate s CU and then raise it or lower it with the slider Then Pl do that with the next clip that needs adjustment I might find that a whole section is too low In that case Pll mark an IN and then an OUT in the Timeline and using the Audio Mixer Tool menu I choose Set Levels On Tracks In Out Figure 8 14 Now let s say I don t like the way something sounds Kate s voice seems muffled or there s too much sibilance or there s a hum I don t like then Ill use the EQ Tool The last tool I use after I have set levels and EQ is Auto Gain Say I want an audio ramp because I have music or sound effects that I want to bring down or up I will go to the Timeline Fast menu and select Auto Gain I place keyframes using the key on the Media Composer keyboard or the N key on the Xpress keyboard and then I raise or lower keyframes to set a ramp up or down If I have a section of music that requires a lot of adjustment I ll use the Audio Mixer in Auto Mode While I am listening and watching the picture I can raise the sliders and let the Avid set all those keyframes automatically What s important to note 1s that the levels you set with the Audio Mixer Tool are memorized and kept If you then add keyframes manually or auto
223. enever you make a splice or overwrite you need to make three marks There are only four possi ble choices Look at the choices in the chart below So far we have concentrated on the first choice In the Source Monitor you mark the material you want to edit into the sequence with an IN and an OUT and then you mark an IN in the Timeline where you want it to go You ve got three marks Source Monitor Record Timeline Mark 1 Mark IN and OUT IN 2 Mark IN IN and OUT 3 Mark OUT IN and OUT 4 Mark IN and OUT OUT Let s look at the other three choices They are most often used with the Overwrite button whereas choice 1 is used most frequently with the Splice button Choice 2 is useful whenever you want to replace a shot or audio that you ve already cut into your Timeline with a better shot Let s say you ve cut a shot of a smiling baby into your sequence When you play the sequence you see that it would make more sense to use the shot of a crying baby You like the length of the shot but not the content So you simply mark the clip use the Mark Clip button in the Timeline and then find the clip of the crying baby in the bin Play through the cry ing baby shot in the Source Monitor and mark an IN where you want the shot to begin Now hit Overwrite and the shot of the smiling baby is replaced by the crying baby The length of the sequence doesn t change You ve simply replaced one shot with another Choice 3 is just like ch
224. ent elements requires a great deal of organization Gather Tapes Files and Drives First gather together all the picture and sound elements that form the source material for your project These may include e Videotapee HDV HD DVCAM DVCPro or miniDV e Memory cards Used by many cameras such as the Panasonic HVX200 to store pictures and sound e Audio CDs e Optical discs Such as the Sony blue laser discs which can be recorded over hundreds of times and have a much longer shelf life than tape formats e Picture and audio file Computer graphics animation pictures and audio files on a flash drive CD or DVD e Hard drives Such as those mounted on cameras that can be connected to a Mac or PC via Fire Wire Figure 1 7 A Panasonic HVX200 with a P2 memory card courtesy of Panasonic Chapter 1 Getting Started Be sure to develop an inventory system that will track all of these sources throughout the project in case you need to recapture or reimport them Create a New Project When you start up the Avid software it asks you to tell it which project to open You might share an Avid with other students or other editors all working on different projects If you are beginning a new project you would click the New Project button name the project and begin work on your new project Capture Import The Avid will open up the Project window for your new project You can now begin to capture from your videotap
225. ented in Germany and first adopted by Great Britain It attempted to resolve the problems Europeans had with NTSC Europe runs on 50 Hz electrical power and NTSC was designed for North America s 60 Hz power PAL uses interlaced scanning but with the advent of digital television it now has a progressive choice 92 Chapter 6 Starting a New Project and Capturing from Tape So if you are shooting with a camera designed for Europe most of Africa and all of India and China then you re probably using the PAL standard If you re capturing a PAL tape here are your three choices e 24p PAL You would select 24p PAL if you were editing a high budget film project in a PAL country e 25p PAL You would select 25p PAL if you shot your project using a camera such as the PAL version of the Canon XL2 Panasonic DVX100 or Panasonic DVX900 and chose the 25p setting e 251 PAL If you used a PAL version of a DV or DVCAM camera Beta SP camera or DigiBeta camera then 251 PAL 1s more than likely the correct setting The SECAM Standard Forgetaboutit France created and uses a different standard and parts of Eastern Europe and the former French colonies use this standard The joke 1s that SECAM stands for System Essentially Contrary to the American Method No matter the merits of SECAM everyone acknowledges that French pride had a hand in the decision not to use NTSC or PAL It has always been difficult to edit in SECAM so the SECAM sign
226. ents Whenever you copy something in the Timeline its saved here Just select this menu item to see Figure 16 Source Monitor menu what you ve copied Add Comments You can add comments to a clip and C Ceke omte aier pala omments 1s selecte rom e melne Fast Menu Clear Monitor Load Filler The Source Monitor will load with black filler i Duplicate Clipboard Contents they will appear in an EDL as well as in the Timeline if os Let s say you want to put 30 frames a second of black between the end of one scene and the beginning of the next Choose Load Filler Mark an IN go 29 frames and Add Comments mark an OUT Then mark an IN on the Timeline where Load Filler you want the fill to go Select all your tracks and hit Splice Clear Menu It acts just like any clip except that this one has only black v Fine Cut icar Menu This removes all but the current sequence or ate dy Record Moin clip from the menu Clip sequence list Below the Clear Menu item you will find a list of all of the shots in the Source Monitor or all of the sequences that have been loaded into the Record Monitor The one with the checkmark is the one currently in the monitor We have spent considerable time and energy trying to digest the scores of commands located in the pulldown menus that are at the heart of Avid editing You may never use some of these commands while others will be in your repertory continually Whenever keyb
227. eps that the vendor suggests Figure 16 28 An omf file 260 Chapter 16 Importing and Exporting Exporting Other File Types Exporting is more complicated than importing because you could be exporting to hundreds of applications but you are only importing to one application your Avid Just as I did with import ing I have tried to make exporting as simple as possible To become expert at exporting you need to learn about the applications you are exporting to such as After Effects Photoshop and Sorenson Squeeze The more applications you master the more valuable you are to your client or employer Or if you re editing your own projects you will need to hire fewer outside vendors or freelance people Suggested Assignments Import color bars from the Avid Test Patterns folder Import a picture from a digital camera Cut it into a sequence Export a frame from a sequence for use as a production still ot Eee AT Mark a 10 second section of your sequence with IN and OUT marks and export it as a QuickTime movie Use Same as Source and Custom settings Under Custom settings try dif ferent video compression settings and width X height settings Compare quality and file size 261 This page intentionally left blank Chapter 17 Working in HD Imagine my disappointment when I finally broke down and purchased a shiny new 37 LCD wide screen high definition HD television The vast majority of the content I re
228. erases overwrites most of the clip Obviously this is not what the Lift Overwrite Segment Mode is used for Its main function is to move blocks of sound quickly such as music or narration Let s say we are working on a sequence involving a series of shots that are explained by voice over narration When you first cut in the nar ration it doesn t flow as nicely as you might like The narrator s sentences are too close together so you decide to spread the narration out Here s where the Lift Overwrite Segment Mode excels 150 Chapter 9 Segment Mode Editing Burning Hille Burning Hills Cooking in par Cooking in par Lift Overwrite Figure 9 9 In the example shown in Figure 9 10 I want to move the narration on Al toward the head of the visual on V1 I place the position indicator where I want the head POU Ee ones of the narration to land Next I click the red Lift Overwrite Segment Mode button click on the narra tion segment and drag it to the position Eten indicator When I release the mouse the block of narration is right where I want it and nothing has been thrown out of sync Figure 9 12 In the previous chapter we learned to import music and sound effects Cut sev eral sound clips into your Timeline and Figure 9 11 practice moving them around using Lift Overwrite Another handy trick involves the use of the Lift Overwrite Segment Mode button with the Trim Frame key
229. erlaps Practice dragging the rollers Practice trimming while you watch using the Trim Frame keys Practice adding and deleting rollers ees oe Using Trim Mode create a fine cut with sound overlaps where appropriate of Wanna Trade or whatever assignment you have been editing to date 08 Chapter 4 The Project Window The Project window as you recall from the first chapter is like the home page of your project To get you editing on the Avid as quickly as possible we skipped some important information about the bins in the Project window that information now needs our attention Creating a Bin Often you will want to organize different kinds of material and the simplest way to do that is to create a new bin for each category For instance in addition to your video footage you might have voice over narration music and titles As you edit your footage you might have a bin for your assembly sequences one for your rough cut sequences and as your work progresses one for your fine cut sequences Let s try creating a new bin and putting something in it 1 In the Project window click on the New Bin button and a new bin will open Figure 4 1 It will be titled Wanna Trade Scene Bin The bin is named for the project You ll want to give it a more helpful name and the Avid knows this Notice that the name is highlighted 2 Simply type the name you want such as Rough Cut 3 Now double click
230. ers may be set too low This can sometimes happen on a Mac where the Mac s volume control buttons on the keyboard can sometimes throw off the Avid s output settings usually lowering them far more than you want Here is how to set and check the output levels 1 Go to the Project window and click on Settings 2 Double click on Audio Projects Mainul inputel Output ihar 3 When the dialog box opens click on the f Output Gain Master Yolum Output tab 4 Raise the Master Volume slider to a point that is a 4 in line with the Output Gain slider 0 0 0 Mute 5 Now close the dialog box 6 Baise ie here Always check the Output setting before you make ao adjustments to your audio and then make sure the 2 volume on your speakers or headphones is always set at the same level That way you re always starting Figure 8 9 from the same place Audio Mixer Tool The first tool used to adjust volume is the Audio Mixer Tool Figure 8 10 Open it by going to the Tools menu When it opens slide it Tools Toolset Windows New Deck Controller The Audio Mixer Tool has three modes of operation The default Audio EQ on top of the SuperBin so it doesn t get hidden if you click on the Source or Record monitors mode is Clip which you use to raise or lower the volume of clips in the Timeline or to change the pan of clips in the Timeline The Figure 8 10 second mode Auto lets you record volume and pan changes The third mode Li
231. eryone knows what a straight cut looks like When the picture and sound end at the same point you have a straight cut When you splice in the next shot it too 1s a straight cut So far we ve worked with straight cuts but it often happens that the best place to cut the picture isn t nec essarily the best place to cut the sound When a picture and its sound are cut at different points you have a split edit also know as an L cut Some people call them overlaps Suppose you have spliced two shots together and you love the way the dialog flows from one per son to the next But you re not really happy with the picture cut point You decide to create a split edit or L cut This is where Dual Roller Trim Mode excels 51 Avid Editing A Guide for Beginning and Intermediate Users Let s say we have Kate finishing her line and Tim about a el to say his line You decide to remove 30 frames of Kates LE Kate s CU picture and replace it with 30 frames of Tim s picture The Aly sound stays where it is _ TCl 7 Tim s CU 01 00 05 00 1 Enter Trim Mode by lassoing just the video track at the cut point You are now in Trim Mode with the Figure 3 23 dual rollers on V1 but not on the sound track 2 If you do get rollers on the sound tracks remove them by clicking on the track selector box A1 3 Drag the rollers 30 frames to the Tim s CU TK 1 left or press the trim by ten frames key lt lt three times 4 Press t
232. es Figure 2 13 Focus button 30 Avid Editing A Guide for Beginning and Intermediate Users Enlarge or Reduce Tracks You can make the tracks in the Timeline larger or smaller I think the tracks in the default mode are too small Later on though they are handy when you re working with more than four tracks because it is difficult to fit them all in the Timeline unless you make them smaller To change the size of your tracks select the ones you want to change so they are highlighted colored and then press e Command L Mac or Ctrl L Windows to enlarge e Command K Mac or Ctrl K Windows to reduce If you want to quickly change the size of just one track hold Resize track cursor down the Option Alt Key while carefully placing the cur sor at the bottom line of a track button The pointer changes shape and becomes a resize track cursor In Figure 2 14 it 1s between Al and A2 Drag this cursor down and the A1 track gets larger Drag it up and the track gets smaller If you re using Xpress software you don t need to hold down the Option Alt Key Just place the mouse cursor at the bot Figure 2 14 tom line of a track button and it will change to the resize track cursor Track Monitor Icons These small boxes to the right of the track selectors hold tiny Video Track Monitor icon Both V2 and V1 will be a monitor icons Figure 2 1 5 The D monitored because the top video track has the monitor icon If th
233. es in Media Composer comes with the most grisly name Decompose When you decompose your final sequence it breaks the sequence into all the many clips that are part of that sequence Once the sequence is broken down this way you can organize the clips any way you wish select them in the bin and batch capture Without Decompose the Avid controls the recapture process and there s no way to change or stop it With Decompose you can recapture some clips today then quit and do the rest tomorrow Let s begin Decompose 1 Select the sequence in the Online bin it should be the only one there 2 Choose Decompose from the Clip menu Figure 19 16 3 Deselect the choice Offline media only 4 Select a Handle Length The default 60 frames will work fine 5 Click OK Clips with the suffix new will appear in the bin These are all the clips that make up the final sequence but they are all offline waiting to be selected and recaptured When you recapture each clip will have an extra 60 frames on either end the handle This gives you flexibility in case you want to tweak a shot a few frames either way Figure 19 16 6 Get the Capture Tool from the Tools menu Figure 19 17 7 Select V and TC Deselect all audio tracks 8 In the Video pulldown menu select HD SDI SDI Composite SVideo Component or DV 9 Select the final resolution DV 25 1 1 DV 50 DNxHD 220X etc Figure 19 18 10 Choose the target dri
234. es onto your computer s media drives or import files from memory cards or DVDs As soon as you capture or import your media the Avid creates two things a media file which is the Avid s digital version of your picture or sound and a master clip which is a virtual copy of the media file Media files are stored on media drives One media file is created for each track of picture and sound If you have video and stereo sound the Avid will create three media files for that digital material one media file for the picture and two media files for the stereo sound recorded with that picture see Figure 1 8 E al liii Brief textel Frame Script Name O on Clinic waiting room poza 001690F7V01 47D69596 A758F0 mxf 33 8 MB 001690F7A01 47069596 A758E0 mxf 1 1 MB 001690F7A02 47D69596 A758D0 mxf 1 1 MB Figure 1 8 This single master clip is linked to three media files stored on the drive You don t edit or work with media files you work with the master clip Think of the master clip as a shot You can edit the shot duplicate the shot or flip the shot and all of these actions affect the clip while the media file the captured picture or sound is safe on the media drive Create Bins When you capture or import your source material you organize it into bins You might have a bin for all the material from tape number one and a second bin for all the audio files imported from a memory card Bins are like folders on y
235. ess in action When a clip is captured it is on ji Bey one eats i a a no longer highlighted so over time the list of high e z lighted clips gets smaller and smaller until none is TLL Gan highlighted You can abort the batching process at any time To abort click on the Trash icon in the Figure 11 12 Capture Tool Backing Up Media Files If almost everything in your project was captured from videotapes containing timecode then there is little reason to back up your media files you ll just batch capture your tapes as described above Nowadays however a lot of cameras don t record to tape anymore The sound and pictures are recorded to drives and memory cards so devising a backup protocol becomes critical With 500 GB external drives selling for less than 150 you d be crazy not to back up all of your Avid media espe cially if you have no videotape to recapture from I may seem obsessive compulsive but I know a friend who lost five months of shooting because his drive crashed How is that possible Well he shot with a camera that stored everything to memory cards and all those cards had long since been erased so he had no way to get the footage back Even those projects that were recorded to tape often have lots of imported graphics music sound effects and animated files None of those files has timecode so there is no easy way to recapture them I think it s time we consider backing up our media files onto dup
236. eyes 211 Avid Editing A Guide for Beginning and Intermediate Users 5 Double click inside the rectangle to get points that allow you to change the shape Pulldown menu Rectangle Tool Figure 14 2 6 The mode you are in is called Solid In the pulldown menu choose another Mosaic Blur etc I ve chosen Mosaic Solid Erase Outline Clone Colorize Hue Saturation Luminance Darken Only Lighten Only Darken Lighten Add Subtract Invert Mosaic Figure 14 3 Okay so his mother could recognize him So I click on the box enlarge it and get Blur from the pulldown menu I then open Feathering and adjust the Horizontal and Bias sliders Figure 14 4 so the shape of the rectangle is less obvious 212 Chapter 14 Advanced Effects and Color Correction Figure 14 4 When you close the Effect Editor you ll have to render the effect If you find that the person moves outside of the rectangle you can place keyframes and move the rectangle to keep it positioned properly Clone Clone is one of the pulldown menu choices inside Paint and it can be worth its weight in gold Let s say you have a boom in the shot or a hair in the gate or a flare Clone to the rescue In the example in Figure 14 5 we have an actress walking along a street and a piece of paper is blown by the wind in front of her No one noticed it until we got the dailies back and now every one wants it gone No problem
237. eze to Make a Progressive DVD or Blu Ray Disc For more sophisticated applications we ll use Sorenson Squeeze to prepare the files for encoding before opening them in our authoring software Avid includes Sorenson Squeeze as part of the extras you get when you purchase Media Composer and it 1s a great piece of software We used it to make an MPEG for exporting to YouTube in Chapter 16 Now we will use it to make a pro gressive DVD In Chapters 17 and 18 we discussed the advantages of shooting your projects using progressive rather than interlaced Chief among those advantages is the ability to create a progressive DVD Michael Phillips does a nice job of explaining this process on his www 24p com website I lean heavily on his article entitled 24p NTSC DVD Creation Using Sorenson Squeeze for the infor mation below With your QuickTime reference files on your drive or desktop launch Sorenson Squeeze Name DVD_NTSC_16x9_Lg Total Data Rate 8211 Kilobits Se Format Constraints DVD MPEG 2 HH Stream Type Elementary 4 fi Audio F Video Codec MPEG Layer 2 Audio Display Asped Ratio Policy Unconstained Maintain Aspect Ratio O Letter Box or Pillar Stereo we Frame Rate 29 97 He Frames Sec Advanced MPEG Audio Settings De emphasis None 5 Pixel Aspect Ratio 16 9 EB Bl nv at _ Set private bit Field Encoding Progressive ES C Setoopyrite bit Set onginal bit GOP S Enable CRC iFrames
238. f Kate Just click on C1 C2 C3 C4 etc and that effect will be placed on the next clip You could create a color effect for Kate s medium shot C1 an effect for Tim s medium shot C2 and an effect for the master shot C3 Now as you go along your Timeline just click on the correct bucket and pretty soon the entire scene is color corrected These buckets will disappear as soon as 227 Avid Editing A Guide for Beginning and Intermediate Users you quit the application so if you need to save W HSL g Curves them for another day drag the icon to a bin El Controis IRE wl Hue Offsets 0 00 Li HSL Controls Saturation Clicking on the Controls tab brings up another EJ TIK z2 set of color correction tools which differ from aipee 7 SSK SS Sar the tools in HSL Offsets in the way they attack eS problems I mostly use Controls to change Lf f a 3 the saturation of my colors by clicking on the Saturation arrows left to make the colors less Figure 14 35 vibrant right to make them more vibrant If you drag the Saturation slider all the way to the left your clip will become totally desaturated that is the resulting image turns black and white Curves Curves is more complicated than HSL Offsets but it has one feature that is very handy Match Color Say you have a shot from a scene that has a different color cast than the rest of the scene You can get that shot to easily match the rest of the scene P
239. f titles that have to be rendered it s easier to render them all at the same time Rendering Multiple Titles 1 Click the track selector to choose the tracks holding the titles you want to render 2 Mark an IN before the first title and an OUT after the last title 3 Go to the Clip menu and select Render In Out Adjusting the Speed of the Rolling Titles Once you see it play you may decide the rolling title is going by too quickly or slowly It will seem strange but you use Trim Mode to change the speed of the rolling title Lasso the end of the title to get into Dual Roller Trim Mode Now drag the roller toward the right tail and the rolling title slows down Drag it toward the left head and the rolling title speeds up 190 Chapter 12 Titles The rolling title will always start with the first line off screen It will then appear at the bot tom of the screen and move upward You can set IN and OUT marks in the Source Monitor to change the start and end points for example if Drag right to slow down the rolling title you mark an IN the rolling title will begin with the first line already on screen Figure 12 30 Crawling Titles Avid calls a title that moves across the screen horizontally a crawl The text runs along the frame from screen right to left You create crawling titles the same way you create rolling titles but you click on Crawl instead of Roll You ll need to use the Selector Tool handles to
240. facing each other The screen direction is correct But often when new editors cut shots taken from vari ous angles they end up making it look as though one of the characters has turned around and 1s looking in the same direction as the person he or she 1s talking to Examine Figures 5 2a and 5 2b Kate is looking L R and so is Tim This is wrong and confuses the audience a Figure 5 2 a Screen L R b screen L R I realize this 1s an easy one Everyone can see it s wrong so let s examine a different scene that has more choices and examine what happens 4 4 gt ay Figure 5 3 a Michele L R b Peter R L In Figure 5 3a we have Michele looking left to right L R and talking to Peter Figure 5 3b who is looking right to left R L This is correct They are looking at each other as they speak But now let s see what happens when Michele has to leave the room She turns to exit toward screen right 82 Chapter 5 A Few Editing Tips as we see in Figure 5 4 Now when we cut to Peter watching her leave we have a screen direction problem We are cutting from Michele on the left hand side of the frame to a shot showing Peter on the left hand side of the frame It s more subtle than Figures 5 2a and 5 2b but confusing just the same Believe me it looks even worse on screen Figure 5 4 a Michele and b Peter are both looking left to right L R This sort of cut is also called crossing
241. fects and Color Correction like a missing tooth Let s start by going to Tools gt Command Palette and selecting the Effects tab Place the Scratch Removal button on a free space in the Timeline toolbar as I have Figure 14 9 Scratch Removal As you can see in Figure 14 10 there is a bad dust glitch on the man s shirt which I am going to remove 1 Place the position indicator on the bad frame so it is visible in the Record Glitch Monitor 2 Click on the Scratch Removal command The Effect Editor will open 3 Click on one of the drawing tools I ve Figure 14 10 used the rectangle and then use the cursor to draw a box around the glitch Presto It s removed Figure 14 11 The Scratch Removal Tool takes material from the previous frame one that 1s glitch free You will see Add Edits in the Timeline showing the effect at work You will probably need to render the effect to see it Play Picture in Picture PIP This effect lets you see two images on the screen at the same time I use it a lot for combining cred its with a picture of the actor or crew member or to create a compelling juxtaposition between images 215 Avid Editing A Guide for Beginning and Intermediate Users On your Timeline place the background s Fade from Color image on V1 and the foreground image sE Fade to Color on V2 just like we did in Chapter 13 when working with superimpositions E Super impose In
242. fer ence better By toggling the Drop and Depth Shadow button you change from one type of shadow to the other Figure 12 6 Drag the shadow to set the direction and amount of shadow n Toggle this button to id oS go from drop i4 to depth shadow ht shadow at MANDELA in Figure 12 6 Drop shadow left depth shadow right You can also click on the Shadow Depth Selection box type a number and press Enter or Return Saving Titles Titles aren t saved automatically You must save a title in a bin File Edit Bin Clip Tools Toolset Wir in order to use it Go to the File menu and select Save Title New Title Celt A dialog box will open letting you select the bin that the PRE EIit Ctrl 0 title will be saved to the hard drive partition and the res hew Script olution After clicking OK the title will be saved in the Close Ctrl bin you selected If you are through creating titles go to Save Title Ctrl S the File menu and select Close If you want to keep creat Save Title as Shift Ctrl 5S ing titles choose New Title in the File menu BS Figure 12 7 Cutting Titles into Your Sequence You can t edit titles directly into the sequence from the Title Tool Once you ve saved your title and closed the Title Tool you will find that the title has been saved to your bin and conveniently placed in the Source Monitor With the title in the Source Monitor you re ready to splice it into your sequence B
243. few chapters work nicely with visual material and on camera interviews the foundations of many documentary films or reality based projects A script based scene with sync dialog like Wanna Trade is great for introducing you to the Avid basics but as we move on to more complex tools documentary or visual material is often best for showing off these features In the event that you don t have a documentary to edit I have included a short project called Kizza s Portrait on the DVD that comes with the book It s about a 6 year old boy from Uganda who is HIV positive The clips come from my film Living with Slim Kids Talk About HIV AIDS which I shot in Uganda Slim is what many Africans called AIDS before it had a name There s visual material of Kizza at home as well as interview clips If you have your own visual material or a short documentary to work with by all means use your material to practice the techniques outlined in this chapter If not please follow the instructions at the back of this book and meet Kizza I have held off introducing Segment Mode editing because it s more useful to an editor working on a visual montage or working with documentary footage When you were editing Wanna Trade you didn t need to change the order of your shots but now that you re working on a documentary or some other reality based material you may find yourself wanting to move shots around in the Timeline and to
244. ffect tool you can create slow and fast motion reverse the motion or create a strobe effect You ll be working in the Source Monitor You place the shot you want to change in the Source Monitor and mark the part you want to change and then the Avid creates a new effect which you cut into your Timeline All the motion effects share the same dialog box Figure 13 36 206 Chapter 13 Effects Motion Effect x amp Variable Speed Current New Duration 456 Si Frames Rate 3 15 00 FPS 50 00 Speed O Fit To Fil _ Strobe Motion Update every 5 trames Rendering choices pulldown menu Render 2 Field Motion Effect Using LF Duplicated Field i Target Drive gt Datal E X Create Create and Render Cancel G OM a Figure 13 36 Slow Motion Fast Motion 1 Dr Choose a clip in a bin that you want to apply a motion effect to and double click to open it In the Source Monitor mark an IN and an OUT to show the section of the clip you want to use for the effect Press the Motion Effect command on the Source Monitor toolbar A Motion Effect dialog box appears Figure 13 36 For Variable Speed effects you ll see that 15 frames per second fps and 50 are the default set tings The resulting shot is twice as long which is another way of saying it appears to be twice as slow as normal Choose another setting such as 8 fps to make it even slower When you click on Create and Rende
245. ffects 228 defined 342 effects 208 210 multiple titles 190 rolling titles 190 waiting for effects to render 209 Replace command Source Record Fast menu 162 Resize track cursor 34 Resolution Res pulldown menu 106 See also Video resolution Restore Current to Default Toolset menu 347 Restore Default Patch Special menu 344 Restore from Videotape Clip menu 343 366 Restore to Default Special menu 344 Retrieving files from attic 171 172 Reveal File File menu 335 Reverse motion 207 Reverse parameter Effect Editor 200 Reverse Selection Bin menu 339 Review Transition button 47 RGB color levels 246 Roll button Title Tool 189 Rollers See also Trim Mode adding removing 53 dragging 48 Rolling titles 189 191 cutting in 189 190 rendering 190 speed adjustments 190 191 Rosenberg Scott 317 Rough cut defined 10 Rough cut sequences 59 Rules of editing 27 28 Rydstrom Gary 126 S s solo box in Audio Mixer 136 Safdie Bennie 318 327 Safdie Josh 317 327 Safe title box 176 178 Sample Plot Audio Data menu 137 143 Sample rate 109 Sampling audio 108 129 Saturation 225 228 See also Color Correction Save a Copy As File menu 334 Save As Title Tool 183 Save Bin File menu 334 Save Current Toolset menu 73 347 Save Title File menu 179 Saving 167 174 See also backing up to attic 69 171 Auto Save feature 69 batch capturing offline me
246. ficult to mas ter than analog film or a video system Today when you buy an Avid it comes with nearly 1500 pages of documentation And because the Avid comes with so many sophisticated tools the editor is supposed to do things that were once handled by scores of other people In the past someone else designed and shot the titles there was a team of sound and music editors and a highly trained group of talented individuals created all the special effects Now a single editor is often the entire post production team Today s NLE editors are expected to be computer savvy while possessing video engineering skills Often an editor must set up connect and troubleshoot an incredible array of video decks operat ing systems audio drivers and FireWire cards So while it s true that a computer can make an edi tor s job easier and faster it can also make the job longer and more difficult An editor s job has gotten more difficult and complex but the rewards and satisfaction are greater as well You the Avid editor have far more creative control over the project than at any time in the history of editing You may have more to do but you don t need much help getting the job done and you can make sure everything looks and sounds just the way you want it Figure 1 1 Students at Makerere University in Kampala Uganda using Avid software Chapter 1 Getting Started Loading Your Avid Software Of the two main players in the
247. figuration and duplicate it Command D or Ctrl D Name this new Deck Configuration DNA Double click this setting to open it sae a a 110 Chapter 6 Starting a New Project and Capturing from Tape 6 Click on Add Channel The Avid may sense that you are connected through DNA and supply Firewire on Avid DNA see Figure 6 31 If not use the pulldown menu Click OK 7 Don t auto configure Select Add Deck and choose the one you are using Click OK and then Apply 9 Make sure the checkmark is next to this new DNA Deck Configuration and not the one you A set up earlier Now the Avid Capture Tool will recognize your deck Channel l AAA Wedd Dee beck aa Figure 6 31 Decks that are not connected by FireWire such as decks with Component or Serial Digital Interface SDI connections are often controlled by way of a serial cable from the deck directly to the Avid computer skipping the DNA box In the Add Channel you would choose Direct for the Channel Type and COM1 for the Port Figure 6 32 You can change the channel type and port choices by double clicking on the Channel box 111 Avid Editing A Guide for Beginning and Intermediate Users Suggested Assignments 1 2 or a ae 112 Create a new project and name the bin Click on the Settings tab and examine Audio Audio Project and Media Creation settings Return to the bin Open the Capture Tool Name your source tape
248. from 00 30 00 00 to 01 00 00 00 m using semicolons for drop frame timecode in this example Most television stations want the show s first frame to start at 01 00 00 00 timecode But if your sequence starts at 01 00 00 00 and you add 60 seconds of bars and tone before the beginning of your show a 5 second ID title and a 10 second countdown before the first frame as you should then the show s 305 Avid Editing A Guide for Beginning and Intermediate Users first frame will be 1 01 15 00 We want the first frame of the show i Clip Info to start at 01 00 00 00 To do that we need to change the default starting timecode on our Timeline so it reads 00 58 45 00 With your final sequence loaded in the Record Monitor click on the Record Monitor to make it active Go to the File menu and select Get Clip Information In the box that opens type 00 58 45 00 for the Starting TC as I have done in Figure 19 6 When you click OK your sequence will now have new timecode Figure 19 6 that conforms to industry standard Opening the Digital Cut Tool Go to the Output menu and select Digital Cut Figure 19 7 Stop and Preview Source tracks and Record tracks Digital Cut Figure 19 7 Digital Cut Tool 1 Place the deck s Remote Local switch on Remote 2 Launch your Avid software 3 If you are connected through FireWire select 1394 If you are connected through Mojo Mojo SDI or Adrenaline click the DNA 1394 toggle butto
249. fter the number 2 and then when ready hits the Play button on the tape I have included a countdown for you to import It s a QuickTime movie and in Chapter 16 we imported it from the DVD that comes with this book If you haven t imported it follow the 302 Chapter 19 Finishing instructions on page 249 Once you ve imported it cut it into your sequence following the bars and tone and the 5 seconds of the ID title The total length of this header material is 1 minute and 15 seconds 1 minute of bars and tone a 5 second ID title and the 10 second countdown Your Timeline should look like Figure 19 2 Bars and Tone ID title and countdown JE Baia SUR TERIOR pet Be Countdo wh 1B Tk 1 TONE 1000 Hz Countdown 16 eeM Tont 1000 nz qm bod E pac E 00 59 15 02 Figure 19 2 The header material cut into the Timeline Now get the Audio Mixer Tool With the Audio Tool still open play the bars and tone and check to see that the 1000 Hz tone lands at the 14dB or 20dB line If the levels don t fall precisely on that line use the Audio Mixer Tool to set the Pan for A1 to L100 and A2 to R100 not at MID Now check again This should fix it Figure 19 3 Track A1 and A2 panning Connecting and Powering Up a Deck or Camera Save everything and then quit out of your Avid software If you are using FireWire you don t need to connect anything because the same cable
250. full image qual ity There are many reasons why you might want to cap ture at a lower resolution You may have hundreds of tapes and want to bring everything into Avid at a lesser quality to save drive space knowing that later after editing you ll recapture your final editing sequence at full uncompressed quality This process is known as offline online editing In Chapter 19 we ll learn to uprez to recapture the final sequence at the highest resolution With HD projects if you are using an Avid HD box such as Nitris DX or Adrenaline HD you may choose to cap ture at an offline resolution such as DNxHD 36 and then after editing uprez your final sequence to an online HD resolution such as DNxHD 220 Bin Tape 001 Res DW 25411 MXF X v DV 25 411 MXF DV 50 MXF 10 1m MXF 15 1s MXF 20 1 MXF 10 1 MXF 1 1 MXF 1 1 10b MXF Figure 6 27 For HDV projects the Avid automatically selects the HDV resolution so no other video reso lutions are available Drive Space I ve created a simple chart to show you how much drive space several formats will require for ten minutes of media I ve done some approximating to make it easier to compare formats Format Space Needed for 10 Minutes of Media DV 25 2 0 GB DV 50 4 0GB DV 25 captured at 20 1 700 MB note this is 7 10th of a GB Eiby 2 0GB DVCPro HD 8 0GB 10801 59 94 HD uncompressed 86 0 GB So if you have ten hours of HDV media t
251. g Extract Splice Segment Mode Button Lift Overwrite Segment Mode Button Moving Sound to Different Tracks Lassoing to Get into Segment Mode Suggested Assignments Chapter 10 Advanced Editing Trimming in Two Directions Watch Point Slipping and Sliding Slip Slide Contents 130 130 132 132 133 134 134 136 137 138 138 139 140 141 141 142 143 143 143 144 144 144 145 147 148 148 150 152 153 154 155 155 157 158 158 160 XV Contents J K L Trimming Replace Single Mark Editing Match Frame Mapping Menu Items to Keyboard Suggested Assignments Chapter 11 Saving Your Work If it s a Computer it will Crash Backing Up USB Flash Drives After the Crash Saving User Settings Copying User Settings The Attic Retrieving a File from the Attic Batch Capture Offline Media Backing Up Media Files Drag and Drop Your MediaFiles Folder Back Up Daily Suggested Assignments Chapter 12 Titles Opening the Title Tool Choosing a Background Creating Your First Title Selection Tool Shadows Saving Titles Cutting Titles into Your Sequence Adjusting the Title Length Adding Fades to Your Title Colored Titles Blending a Title Creating Title Style Sheets Soft Shadows Glowing Titles Drawing Objects Delete Key XVI 161 162 163 164 164 165 167 167 168 169 170 170 170 171 171 172 173 173 174 174 175 175 177 177 177 178 179 179 181 181 181 182 183 183 185 185
252. g Figure 8 3 the mouse from A2 on the source side to A4 on the record side You ll notice that as you hold down the mouse and drag a white pointer arrow appears and points to A4 and when you release the mouse the source track A2 moves down to line up with your record track on A4 Figures 8 2 and 8 3 Try it Do the same thing with A1 Move it to line up with A3 Now when you splice or overwrite that s where your music will go onto A3 and A4 not onto Al and A2 Figure 8 4 Track Monitors The tiny speaker shaped icons next to the track selector boxes show you that a track is being monitored These are called Track Monitors If you click on a Track Monitor the icon inside it will 127 Avid Editing A Guide for Beginning and Intermediate Users disappear indicating that you won t hear any sound from that track To get T the icon back simply click in the Track Monitor and the icon reappears s al Examine Figure 8 5 E lt Monitoring Only One Track L F Let s say you are monitoring eight tracks and you hear a sound glitch but Figure 8 5 Track Mon itor icon for A1 is present while A2 is turned off aren t sure which track it is on You think the problem is on the narration track A1 but you aren t sure One way to monitor just Al is to deselect all the other Record Track Monitors however if there are eight of them that s a pain There is a faster way of monitoring one track also known as soloing
253. g Up If there is a major system crash or hard drive glitch all of your work can be lost unless you back up your work By that I mean placing the information about your bins and sequences on a USB flash drive or a CD Here s how 1 When you finish editing for the day and after you save all your work close the project and quit the application You are returned to the desktop or Finder 2 Double click My Computer Windows or the Macintosh HD Mac 3 Mac users go to the Users gt Shared gt Avid Media Composer where you ll find the Shared Avid Projects folder Media Composer 3 0 users on Windows XP go to C Documents and Settings All Users Shared Documents Avid Media Composer Shared Avid Projects On Windows Vista go to C Users Public Public Documents Avid Media Composer Users of earlier versions of Media Composer will find the Shared Avid Projects folder inside My Documents 4 If you re using an external FireWire drive your project folder may be stored there 5 Open the Shared Avid Projects folder i My Documents O 2 E AAAren My Documents File and Folder Tasks n J Avid Projects By My Music J Make a new folder W Publish this folder to the Web tal Share this folder Users gt samkauffmann vy L Shared vy L AvidMediaComposer gt Lo Avid Users gt Le Avid Attic gt Shared Avid Projects Y Figure 11 1 The Avid Projects folder on Windows and Mac 6 Scroll through it until you find y
254. g it like a model Tim considers the ismisses her with a wave FADE TO BLACK 26 Chapter 2 Basic Editing Editing Rules Unfortunately or fortunately depending on your perspective there are no editing rules That is not to say there isn t an aesthetic at work or that any ordering of shots is correct If that were the case a trained monkey would be as good an editor as Thelma Schoonmaker who won Oscars for editing Raging Bull The Aviator and The Departed So what makes an editor good When you re editing a sequence involving a number of different shots many skills and talents come into play First of all you must be able to choose from among the choices given to you To make the right choices you must understand the script and not just the storyline but also the subjects or characters needs If you don t know what motivates a char acter or subject you can t really determine which shot or which take will work best You also must judge performance composition screen direction blocking camera movement lighting and sound for all those elements can help draw in your audience The ability to judge the material is critical whatever the nature of the program you are editing be it documentary narrative commercial or experimental Once you have picked from among the choices the material that will work best you must cut it to the right length and attach it to the right shot And once you think you have
255. g session You probably named it something like Assembly 1 There are two ways to get a sequence into the Record Monitor the monitor on the far right You can click on it and drag it to the Record Monitor or you can double click the sequence icon It will load in the Timeline and you are ready to continue Basic Editing Skills Lets review what we learned at the end of the first chapter Start by opening the bin containing your clips SuperBin users will single click on the bin icon while those not using SuperBin Mode will double click Now double click on a clip s icon to load the clip into the Source Monitor 28 Chapter 2 Basic Editing Marking Clips Splice and Overwrite enable you to put your shots together in the order in which you want them to appear They help you build your sequence They may be the most important commands at your disposal but to use them you must first select the material you want to splice or overwrite into your sequence You select this material by placing an IN where you want to start and an OUT where you want to end the shot Click anywhere on the Source Monitor to make it active Use the J K L keys to play through the clip or click and drag the position indicator in the Source Monitor window Once you are familiar with your clip choose your cut points Mark an IN and mark an OUT You have just determined what will be spliced or overwritten into the sequence Mark an IN Mark an OUT Clear your IN a
256. ghtly different manner than what is described here but all systems are fairly similar Getting Started If you haven t already mounted the Wanna Trade Scene project found on the DVD that comes with this book or that your instructor has loaded for you this would be a good time Make sure you Quit your Avid software if it s open Follow the DVD ROM Instructions section found at the end of the book Once you ve finished restart your computer and you re ready to go Figure 1 9 Students practice editing techniques in a classroom If you have another project mounted and want to work on that instead excellent The process for launching your Avid is pretty much the same whether you re on a Mac or a PC running Windows When the software is first loaded onto the system a short cut or alias is usually created and left on the desktop When everything is turned on you simply click on the shortcut or alias icon to launch your Avid software Figure 1 10 An alias located in the dock To launch your Avid on a Mac Click it to launch 1 Turn on the power to all the devices that make up your system That means the speakers the external media drives the deck or camera and the client monitor 2 Press the Power key or button that turns on the CPU Wait for the system to mount Avid Editing A Guide for Beginning and Intermediate Users 3 If there is a log on process type in your user name and password 4 Click on the
257. h it you see that adding ten frames wasn t quite enough Action Result Click on the Review Transition button The looping stops Click on the gt button three times You have added three more frames 13 total Click on the Review Transition button The new cut point plays in a loop When you watch it you see that the new transition point works Now you want to get out of Trim Mode 00 Chapter 3 Trimming Action Result Click on the Review Transition button The looping stops Click in the timecode track You are out of Trim Mode Using Dual Roller Trim Mode Dual Roller Trim Mode is the default Trim Mode When you press the Trim button or lasso a tran sition you go into this mode Kate s CU I tim s cu 1 Kate s CU ee CU 1 Kate s CU lies cuU 1 Figure 3 22 Drag the roller right Kate s CU ee cu 4 As you can see from the two screen captures when I drag the rollers to the right Kate s CU has been lengthened and Tim s CU has been trimmed If Kate s CU was lengthened by 40 frames Tim s CU would be shortened by 40 frames There s almost never any reason to trim your shots like this using Dual Roller Trim Mode because you lose all control of your Timeline We instead use Single Roller Trim Mode first on the A side and then on the B side You ll most often use Dual Roller Trim Mode to create a picture and sound overlap often called a split edit or an L cut Split Edits or L Cuts Just about ev
258. hange from Clip to Auto Gang your tracks Because tracks 3 and 4 are ganged adjust one slider to affect both tracks The audio waveform is a visual representation of your audio s signal strength or amplitude The Avid s Timeline has the ability to show you the waveform of your audio This feature provides a handy way of finding specific sounds and seeing where to trim your sound Go to the Timeline Fast menu select None under Audio Data and then go back and select Sample Plot Figure 8 22 which I find more useful than Energy Plot The Avid will draw the waveform The speed with which the sample plot is drawn depends on your Timeline view and the number of tracks selected Once the waveform is drawn you can see where your sounds begin and end Audio Data gt None Clip Color gt Energy Plot Track Color gt v Sample Plot Show Locators gt Clip Gain Auto Gain This can be helpful when you are fine tuning Figure 8 22 137 Avid Editing A Guide for Beginning and Intermediate Users your audio As you can see in Figure 8 23 the Timeline has been expanded so we can see music beats A couple of commands will help you to better see the waveforms e To make your tracks larger use enlarge track Command L Mac or Ctrl L Windows e To make the waveform itself larger use Command Option L Mac or Ctrl Alt L Windows OO feet aaan n aana aetna cee Figure 8 23 Waveforms ar
259. has an amazing auto function that will optimize the color and brightness of every clip It can intelligently analyze each clip and make it look better It sounds incredible and it 1s It is both sophisticated and simple to use and it works about 75 of the time Some people say I shouldn t teach students auto color correction because it can be a crutch that prevents them from learning how to use the Color Correction Tool I disagree It s a great way to fix problems while helping the beginner better understand how the Color Correction Tool works The auto tools are especially useful if you don t have an expensive and properly adjusted Broadcast Grade 1 or 2 client monitor connected to your Avid and you are instead relying on the computer screen as is often the case in a classroom setting We ll start by placing our final sequence of Wanna Trade in the Timeline In the Toolset menu select Color Correction When the tool opens you ll be looking at the HSL Hue Offsets If not click on the correct tab To demonstrate the auto correction feature I ve placed the position indicator on a clip of Kate that needs some work The blacks are a bit milky and the exposure is a tiny bit off Go to the left hand monitor and where the Previous clip is click on the pull down menu and choose Y Waveform as I have in Figure 14 28 This storm of gray it s actually 5i Hue Offsets a O g ak pe asa boa Figure 14 28
260. hat appear at the end of films are usually handled by a lengthy rolling title They are not that difficult to create The one oddity is that the speed at which the title rolls is determined by the size of the clip in the Timeline To make the crawl go faster you trim the clip To make it go slower you extend its length size in the Timeline To create a rolling title 1 Select a background black or video by clicking the V toggle in the Title Tool see Choosing a Background section earlier in this chapter From the Clip menu choose New Title On the far right of the Title Tool click the Roll button it turns green Click on the Text Tool Choose your font and point size and then click the Center Text button ON U1 BW NWN Type the text As you type the text might word wrap Don t worry Just keep typing Press the return key at the end of each line of text 7 Get the Selection Tool and drag the handles to the left and right to make the text box wide enough to prevent word wrap 8 If the text goes onto more than one page screen drag the scroll bar that appears on the right hand side of the title window to scroll through the text 9 Select Close from the File menu 10 Save the title e Select the target disk and bin e Don t save with Fast Save 11 Click OK The title is saved as a title in a bin Cutting in Rolling Titles The rolling title will already be in the Source Monitor Because it starts o
261. hat you need to modify the information about the way the pulldown occurred Modify Enhancement Enhancements are things that can be imbedded into the Avid Timeline such as HTML links With this command you can change the size and shape of the enhancement and where it appears on the screen 342 Appendix Menus Archive to Videotape If you are finished with a project but want to save the final sequence plus handles or the most important master clips this is a way of putting these clips or the sequence out to tape Instead of saving 100 source tapes you can archive the sequence with 90 frame han dles Once the sequence is archived you could delete the media from your drives Restore from Videotape This command helps to recapture the archived sequence or master clips into the Avid Add Filler at Start This command adds a second of filler at the start of a new sequence Remove Match Frame Edits With this command you can mark an IN and then an OUT and remove add edits from your sequence Find Black Hole A black hole is simply a section of black on a selected video track in the Timeline this 1s a quick way to check that there isn t a missing clip in the picture Find Flash Frame A flash frame is a very short edit for example one that is only a few frames in duration If you don t accurately mark your IN and OUT points it is possible that you may mistakenly leave a few frames of a clip in the Timeline This command al
262. he Review Transition but 11 00 05 00 01 00 0 7 00 01 00 03 00 ton to see how it works Figure 3 24 When the split edit is made as shown in Figure 3 24 Kate is talking but before she finishes talking we see Tim listening to her words and then Tim talks Tim s picture has overlapped Kate s sound Removing a Split Edit After working on a transition and creating a split edit you might decide that in fact a straight cut would work better A quick way to turn a split edit back into a straight cut is to Command drag Mac or Ctrl drag Windows 1 Get into Trim Mode by lassoing just V1 the track with the split edit 2 Hold down the Command key Mac or Ctrl key Windows while you drag toward the straight cut The trim will snap to the transition point A word of caution You always want to create split edits using Dual Roller Trim Mode Because you are working with one track and not the other Dual Roller Trim Mode keeps everything in sync If you use Single Roller Trim Mode to trim one track and not the other you will immediately get out of sync Use Dual Roller Trim Mode to create split edits Use Single Roller Trim Mode to adjust the length of your shots Changing from Single Roller to Dual Roller Trim Mode If you re in Single Roller Trim Mode and you want to be in Dual Roller Trim Mode simply move the mouse to the Trim Mode display and click on the line between the A side and B side You don t have to click ex
263. he Source Monitor You can also place clips in the Source Monitor by clicking and dragging the clip icon from the bin to the Source Monitor You can play the clip by selecting the Play button under the Source Monitor but I Hpmu MO omean a suggest that you get into the habit of using the J K L keys on the keyboard Practice playing the clips using those keys with your left hand Hit J or L several times to go fast reverse or fast forward Hold pause K while holding J or L to go backward or forward in slow motion To move quickly through the clip drag the blue position bar inside the position bar window in the Source Monitor Once you are familiar with the clip in the Source Monitor choose your cut points Mark an IN somewhere after the slate and mark an OUT after Kate is through search ing for the papers on the desk Use either the I and O keys or the Mark IN and Mark OUT command buttons in the Source Mark IN and OUT Figure 1 28 Monitor as shown in Figure 1 28 21 Avid Editing A Guide for Beginning and Intermediate Users To make your first edit click the Splice button Splice button Figure 1 29 A dialog box may appear asking you _SuperBin o Assemblies where you would like the Untitled rief Sequence to go Select the Assembly Sequence bin and click OK Presto You have just Avid Media Composer File Edit Bin icon g Untitled Sequence created an Untitled Sequence and the
264. he final sequence The post production supervisor then arranges for those selected shots of the film s negative to be scanned to make a 4K digital intermediate DI This is a high quality very large digital file over twice as large as 1080 HD of every single frame of film that is in the final sequence Color cor rection and image manipulation all take place at this 4K DI level Finally a laser device scans the image from the DI onto motion picture film so 35mm prints can be made for projection at movie theaters There are now several thousand digital theaters where instead of a film print an encrypted dig ital signal can be sent via satellite to the theater for digital projection As time goes by these digital theaters will replace film projection Next Stop Cannes Well it s hard to argue with success and when your students walk down the red carpet at Cannes it s easy to see the arguments for shooting on film and cutting on an Avid Bonne chance 328 Chapter 21 Present and Future Where Do You Go from Here If you want to make videos and films then go make videos and films You now know enough about the Avid to edit your own projects and what you don t know you can figure out But I hope this book is a beginning not an end I ll be the first to admit that this book doesn t cover every Avid command or examine all of the Avid s capabilities I have tried to give you all the information you need to efficiently
265. he problem isn t always where they think it is it s usually before that If they can t tell you what is bothering them but they feel a bit confused I suggest you slow down the beginning Make sure the audience is grounded at the start Once they know who s doing what you can speed things up Whatever you do don t argue with your audience You might be the expert on the project you re cutting but they re the experts on their feelings about it If they criticize your work and point out shortcomings its human nature to be defensive I ve never met anyone who liked being criticized But if you argue with them you re missing the point of the screening which is to learn what is working and what isn t You don t have to take any of their suggestions If you think they re way off base so be it Toss out your notes and find another audience But if you get the same response from these folks as you did before it s time to really listen Sometimes you leave a screening embarrassed The suggestions were so good you feel embarrassed that you didn t see the problems yourself Other times you feel grateful because you identified a problem know how to fix it and can t wait to get back to work Then there are the times when you realize there are lots of problems and it s depressing to think how far you have to go Those are the days when if possible you take the afternoon off and go for a long walk Once in a while peop
266. he space left by the missing audio because there s something there the black filler But when you extract there is no filler The audio rushes in to fill in the gap Notice how Tim s audio moves into the gap caused when the Master Shot s audio is extracted throwing everything out of sync Master Shot 1 Figure 2 24 This is not something you want to do Because you extracted 184 frames of audio while leaving the video in place the audio becomes 184 frames out of sync everywhere after the extraction Fortunately the Timeline shows you when you are out of sync and by how much Plus and minus signs indicate the direction of the sync problem The frame count indicates the extent of the sync problem 37 Avid Editing A Guide for Beginning and Intermediate Users Be careful when you use Extract It s a great tool but only when all tracks are selected Be prepared to use Undo to fix problems with Extract Trim Shots Using Extract A common way to quickly trim the head or tail of a shot is to use Extract Let s say the head of a shot that you cut into the sequence seems too long Find the point where you want to cut it Mark an OUT Snap to the head of the clip Command Ctrl and drag the position indicator and mark an IN Hit Extract and the shot is trimmed to the desired length It Takes Three Marks to Make an Edit This is a rather simple statement of fact yet when you really understand it it makes profound sense Wh
267. hen when the dialog box Figure 16 21 opens click on the Compression Type menu I like the compression called MPEG 4 Video Standard Video Compression Settings Compression Type MPEG 4 Video HH Motion Data Rate Frame Rate Current B fps Data Rate Automatic _ C Restrict to kbits sec Key Frames Automatic _ Every 24 frames Optimized for Download All Re 1 Compressor Preview Quality eee Least Low Medium High Best Figure 16 21 Use the Compressor Quality slider to choose the best combination of file size and quality If it s a short clip you could use Best but a 5 minute video may create a file that is too large so Medium quality might be best My 5 minute film Massacre at Murambi creates a 127MB file at Best quality but a more manageable 88 5MB file on the Medium setting 256 Chapter 16 Importing and Exporting In the Sound area Figure 16 20 click on Settings and change them to 48kHz 16 bit and Stereo Use the settings shown in Figures 16 19 16 20 and 16 21 Click OK after making your selections You will be returned to the Export As window Name the file click Save and send it to your desktop Now that you have a mov file on your desktop click the upload button on any YouTube page fill in the informa tion and you re done Another way to make a smaller QuickTime movie file while retaining maximum image quality is to use a smaller Figure 16 22 frame size Go to th
268. her an Assembly or Rough Cut First create a New Sequence as outlined above Put a clip in the Source Monitor and mark an IN and an OUT Now click and hold the cursor anywhere inside the monitor window Drag the clip to the Timeline 64 Chapter 4 The Project Window and drop it let go of the mouse button Open a new clip mark IN and OUT points and click and drag the clip to the end of the Timeline It gets spliced onto the tail of the last clip you just placed in the Timeline You ll notice that as you drag the clip from the Source Monitor the cursor changes appearance and becomes a hand as shown in Figure 4 8 You don t have to drag to the end of the sequence You can actually drop the clip on any transition point in the Timeline and when you let go the clip is spliced right there Practice this technique It s amazingly fast Just mark the clip Figure 4 8 in the Source Monitor then click and drag to the Timeline Deleting Sequences and Clips o You can delete just about anything you have Delete O xi created You do this by working in the bin Say you wanted to delete a sequence Just click on the sequence icon and press the Delete key on the keyboard Because you don t want to acci dentally delete something important the Avid will immediately bring up a dialog box kind Figure 4 9 Deleting a sequence of an Are you sure prompt just like the one sh
269. hereas the Avid s color conforms to the ITU R 601 digital video standard in standard definition and the ITU R 709 standard in high definition Import Options Now armed with this information let s look again at the Options choices in Figure 16 3 The Avid is asking for information about your file so it can properly translate it into the Avid s format Aspect Ratio Pixel Aspect The first box you see is Aspect Ratio Pixel Aspect We have four choices 1 601 709 non square 2 Maintain non square 3 Maintain square and 4 Maintain and Resize square e 601 709 non square takes graphics with the correct aspect ratio no matter what the pixel shape and makes them fit the Avid s 601 709 non square standard e Maintain non square 1s the choice that deals with the discrepancies between DV and standard definition The miniDV and DVCAM formats have 480 horizontal lines not 486 This choice adds or deletes the 6 lines 245 Avid Editing A Guide for Beginning and Intermediate Users e Maintain square keeps the graphic just the way you designed it with no change in size For instance you might not want a logo to fill the Avid s frame but stay in the corner of the frame This setting will do that It will keep your image size and shape just the way it was created e Maintain and Resize square forces the graphic to fit the Avid s frame no matter what A tall image will fit into the frame it won t be cropped or squeez
270. his shows you in which drive the clip s media has been stored Tape This tells you onto which tape the clip was recorded Creation Date This is the date and time the clip was captured Video This is the video format DV DV 50 HD Offline This is helpful whenever you have erased media files 62 Mark OUT Chapter 4 The Project Window Other column headings will be more helpful later on when we talk about more complex projects To return to your bin click OK Moving Columns Now that you have the columns you want you can arrange them in any order Simply click on the column heading the entire column is highlighted drag the column to a new location and release the mouse I wouldn t change the position of the Name column because that s the most useful col umn and should be flush left next to the icon But you might want to set up your columns like this Name Start Duration Drive Video Tape Creation Date You can delete a column by selecting it and hitting Delete It s still available under Headings You can jump from column to column and row to row with Tab Shift Tab Return and Shift Return In the Bin menu is an Align Columns command that will organize the columns if they are unevenly spaced Sorting Another really useful command is Sort When you select a column and then choose Sort from the Bin menu the Avid will arrange the column s contents in either alphabetical or numerical order You can also use
271. hold down the Option key Mac or the Alt key Windows and click on the slider button The level will jump back to 0 dB Panning The window at the bottom of each track is for panning the audio Panning is a technique used whenever you have 45 45 45 more than one channel of sound coming from more than 4i 4 o MID Click here mo then drag here how much of the sound will come from the left speaker E ES how much from the middle both speakers equally and how much from the right speaker To set the pan click Figure 8 13 one speaker When you set the pan you are determining on the window and a horizontal slider will appear Drag it left or right Figure 8 13 If you Option click Mac or Alt click Windows on the Pan button it will jump to MID the center pan position 132 Chapter 8 Sound Voices and sound effects should always be set at MID Music can be panned left and right Changing Volume and Panning on Multiple Clips You may want to change the volume or pan throughout the sequence or a large portion of the sequence rather than making changes to individual clips Open the Audio Mixer Tool To affect pan or volume levels for a segment of a track in your sequence 1 Place an IN mark inside the first clip place an OUT mark inside the last clip 2 If you are changing more than one track click the track button and gang button for each track to gang the tracks together 3 Raise or lower the vo
272. hools independent filmmakers and television stations have bought thousands of these cameras because they provide outstanding high definition picture quality at an affordable price Unlike HDV which uses a GOP compression system the HVX200 captures every frame in full DVCPro HD resolution The camera records its HD signal not onto videotape but onto P2 memory cards These cards mount on your Avid computer as a virtual drive so you can start editing within minutes 113 Avid Editing A Guide for Beginning and Intermediate Users Figure 7 1 The HVX200 records onto two P2 cards Working with P2 Cards and P2 Devices Panasonics HVX200 camera stores picture and sound using the same native file format as the Avid MXF so it s quick and easy to bring P2 cards into the Avid Media Composer versions 2 7 and above Choosing the Right Format and Frame Rate The Panasonic HVX200 can shoot over 20 different combinations of format and frame rates The Avid Media Composer works natively with most but not all of them Search at www avid com p2 p2_chart_lores pdf to see a list of the camera settings and the corresponding Avid project set tings that you would select For instance if you wanted to finish your project at 720p 23 976 go to the camera s menu and navigate to RECORDING SETUP gt REC FORMAT and then select 720p 24PN Also in the RECORDING SETUP gt REC FORMAT menu go to UB mode and select FRM RATE Now go to the SCENE FILE menu
273. hooting on mini DV HDV or DVCPro HD need only worry about your IEEE 1394 FireWire cable Sony s version of IEEE 1394 is i Link This cable will control the deck or camera and carry both the digital picture and sound The same cable is used later on to send the digital signal out of the Avid to your deck or camera for putting your finished project onto tape You plug one end of the FireWire cable into the FireWire connection on the back of your com puter and the other end into the video deck or camera Standard FireWire 400 cables are either 6 pin or 4 pin The FireWire 800 interface doubles the throughput of the FireWire 400 and has 9 pin 6 pin or 4 pin connectors The 9 pin and 6 pin connectors most often run from external FireWire drives to computers whereas the 4 pin con nectors usually connect to a camera or smaller deck FireWire 800 9 pin cable FireWire 400 6 pin cable FireWire 400 4 pin cable Figure 6 6 96 Chapter 6 Starting a New Project and Capturing from Tape To capture to an external FireWire drive you need two cables a cable with 6 pin connectors on both ends 6 X 6 and a cable with a 6 pin connector on one end and a 4 pin connector on the other 6 X 4 Plug the 6 X 6 cable into the computer s FireWire port and the other end into the external drive Now grab your 6 X 4 cable Plug the 6 pin connector into the external drive and the 4 pin connector into the deck or camer
274. ht or early in the morning but have it your way You can always go back and change them again Click OK to save your changes Try clicking on the left hand side of the other Interface settings Dark Medium Light to make them active Pretty wild some of them Click the last one to return to the default Interface Keyboard Settings All Avid keyboards are mappable You can change every single key Not only can you place any of a hundred different commands on any key but you can also place items found in any of the pull down menus onto keyboard keys Let s make some changes First though we re going to make a duplicate of the Default settings and then make changes to the duplicate rather than the Default 1 Click on the Keyboard Setting so it s highlighted 2 Press Command D Mac or Ctrl D Windows 3 Click on the space just to the right of the name and in the box type Default in one and Mine in the other Figure 4 19 70 4 Now double click on Keyboard Mine to open it A picture of the keyboard opens Now go to the Tools menu and select the Command Palette Figure 4 20 You ll see that all the command buttons have been organized according to their function and are acces sible by clicking one of the tabs In Figure 4 21 I have opened the Edit Command Palette by simply clicking on the Edit tab Explore the different tabs At the end of this chapter as a handy refer ence I have included a s
275. ia Creation Current Z DNxHD 145 MXF DNxHD 220 MXF DNxHD 220 X MXF Figure 17 9 Mixing SD and HD in the Timeline You can capture SD material in an HD project and play everything in the Timeline All that is required is that they belong to the same frame per second family You might have stock footage in 272 Chapter 17 Working in HD a documentary that is on a Beta SP tape a common SD analog format Simply go to the Format tab and select 301 This will give you SD resolution options in the Capture Tool Once you have captured the material go back to the Format tab and return to 10801 59 94 or 720p 29 97 The 23 976 rates will play together The 59 94 29 97 and 301 rates will play together Using Transcode to Make a SD Version Most people will want an HD and SD version of their HD projects The latest versions of Media Composer have a command under the Clip menu called Consolidate Transcode Consolidate helps you move your media to other drives With Tianscode you can move media but its main purpose is to convert your media to other formats and resolutions We can take HD DVCPro HD or HDV material and make it standard definition in a process called downconverting Transcode is a great tool for those of us who want to work in high definition but know we need to convert our HD project to standard definition for submission to most film festivals many television outlets and devices that can t yet handle HD We have a wi
276. ica tor to another clip in the Timeline Current and the images in the monitors change Each monitor has a position indi cator so you can navigate the clip and several commands The most Before interesting command is the first correction one Dual Split When you click that button the frame is split in 3 i 06 21 Le EL 3 O74e S018 ae two You can drag the white tri SS Dual Split ay angles to change the shape and j No i i L BL Ji d placement of the box What s BO s aE gt DE w og inside the box is what you had l Figure 14 24 before the correction Pulldown Menus If you look at the three monitors from left to right you ll see they are labeled Previous Current and Next If you click and hold on the name you will see a pull down menu that lets you change the clip that monitor displays Figure 14 25 Peferenre Reference lets you lock a frame from a clip into one of the monitors Empty I usually use the right hand one With the right hand monitor on Entire Sequence Reference I can hold a clip in that monitor and then move through e Reference the Timeline looking at and fixing specific clips in the middle moni Current tor I always have this clip as a reference Maybe I want to use flesh Tae tones or a shirt color as a reference When you choose Reference in Next either the left hand or right hand monitor whatever clip is in the center monitor becomes the Reference frame
277. ice in the freeze Remember there will be no sound yust black fill 205 Avid Editing A Guide for Beginning and Intermediate Users aii Output Special Tools Toolset Windows Script Help New Sequence CBN Composer Academic Ve New Video Track ae Y 1 0 119218 New Audio Track U Me 123 New Meta Track New Title Freeze Frame 1 Second Seconds Sapa icl 10 Seconds Default Pan V 20 Seconds Batch Capture 30 Seconds Batch Import lMinute Consolidate Transcode 2 Minutes Decompose 5 Minutes Change Sample Rate Other ExpertRender at Position Two Field Freeze Frames Using Duplicated Field Render at Position Using Both Fields Render to Media Station 4 Using Interpolated Field Figure 13 34 Two Field Motion Effects You have three choices when creating your Freeze Frames Using Duplicated Field Using Both Fields or Using Interpolated Fields The highest video quality comes from Using Both Fields But if you re freezing a clip that has a lot of motion try Using Interpolated Field Motion Effects This is a special effect that has its own com mand button but it is only found inside the Media Composers FX Command Palette Motion Effect command In Chapter 4 when we practiced using the Command Palette we placed the Motion i TN Effect command onto the Source Monitors toolbar If you skipped that step please turn to pages 72 73 to see how we did it With the Motion E
278. ice most often If you have one video track and two audio tracks lasso 7 all three tracks Left handed editors can put the cursor ENS gt o gt gt above and to the right of the transition and lasso right to left Be careful that you don t lasso an entire clip If Segment Mode buttons you do you ll enter Segment Mode see Chapter 9 and the entire clip will be highlighted The Avid behaves quite differently in Segment Mode If you inadvert Figure 3 7 ently enter Segment Mode click on whichever Segment button is highlighted at the bottom of the Timeline Figure 3 7 You ll be back in Edit Mode Now try lassoing just the transition Single Roller Trim Mode Dual Roller Trim Mode is the default mode the one you enter when you lasso a transition You get rollers on both sides But we want to get into Single Roller Trim Mode to edit our clips in the Timeline Getting into Single Roller Trim Mode You enter Dual Roller Trim Mode first and then you click on the picture on the A side or B side Let s try it 1 Click the Trim button or lasso the transition so you are in Dual Roller Trim Mode 2 Place your mouse in the Trim Mode display and click on the A side picture left The rollers move to the A side in the Timeline 44 Chapter 3 Trimming 3 Place your mouse in the Trim Mode display and click on the B side picture right The rollers move to the B side in the Timeline I clicked on Kate s picture in the Tr
279. id website and download the latest version Yeah I know you just bought the software but that DVD has been sitting in the box for several months and problems that could cause you headaches may have been fixed since that DVD was shipped Go to www avid com support downloadcenter and scroll down the page to Additional Support Updates Find your Media Composer application Pick the Mac or PC Make sure there is a newer version and select it The problem is you have to reinstall the whole Media Composer software and it s a big file to download from the web Be patient and you ll soon have the latest version up and running Avid Editing A Guide for Beginning and Intermediate Users The Many Parts of Your System Operating System Whether you have a Mac or a Windows PC make sure it 1s running the correct Operating System version Leopard Vista or whatever the site says All Macs and PCs have system drives or internal hard drives On a Windows computer it s the C drive and on a Mac it s the Macintosh HD hard drive Figure 1 3 Avid Media Composer on a PC laptop courtesy of Avid Technology System Memory As incredible as it sounds your computer should have at least 4 GB of system RAM Capture Boards Your computer must have IEEE 1394 FireWire or i Link to bring in both video and audio dig ital formats All Macs and most PCs are sold with IEEE 1394 ports already installed If your system doesn t have such a port y
280. ide a folder called Avid MediaFiles whereas OMF files are stored in a folder called OMFI MediaFiles Configuring Avid In Out Hardware Devices Most beginners start off by purchasing Avid software but as your needs expand you might consider purchasing one of Avid s In Out I O hardware products These devices let you connect a variety of standard definition and HD decks Avid s newest devices are the Mojo DX and Nitris DX There are also a lot of Digital Nonlinear Accelerator DNA hardware devices such as the Adrenaline Mojo and Mojo SDI units still in heavy use The idea is that instead of connecting your deck or camera to your computer you connect everything to the I O hardware device which then sends the signals to the computer If you re at a school or post house that has an Avid I O device you ll choose the deck you want and follow the standard capturing procedures The decks have probably all been configured However if the Capture Tool says NO DECK it may be because you re not going from a deck or camera to the Avid you re going through the I O device so you need to set up a new Deck Configuration like we did earlier in this chapter For a quick review take another look at the earlier Configuring a Deck or Camera section We ll discuss the Nitris DX and Mojo DX devices in Chapter 17 For now let s connect an Avid DNA device Go to Settings In the Fast menu select All Settings Click once on Deck Con
281. iece you might ask about the actors performances Which actor did they like best Because you re working on a digital machine you can quickly go to any section to review it If your project 1s over ten minutes long there s probably a lot to talk about in terms of structure pacing character development and dramatic tension With a scene as short as Wanna Trade you can probably move on to an analysis of specific editing problems At this stage you re trying to find places where your audience tripped over things that didn t work If you re lucky the audience will give you feedback that s right on the money Audience member When Tim searches the desk pretending to look for the letters I didn t like the cut from the master shot to Tim s close up You Why not Audience member I couldn t see what he was doing That s specific Or someone might say that she thought a cut seemed awkward or an actor remained on the screen for too long before you cut to the next shot More times than not especially if your audience knows nothing about video or filmmaking they won t tell you what tripped them because they honestly don t know In those instances you have to play detective to figure out what s going wrong It s not easy but it can be rewarding I ve often found that when people who don t 87 Avid Editing A Guide for Beginning and Intermediate Users know much about editing say something doesn t work t
282. igure 7 11 Sonys XDCAM EX attached memory card reader You can review the clips in this browser and choose the ones you want to bring into the Avid Select them so they are highlighted Now go to the browser software s File menu and choose Export gt MXE When the prompt comes up choose the XDCAM EX Media folder you created This changes the files into the Avid s MXF file format and stores them in the folder Now launch the Avid software In the New Project window name the project and the format most likely 10801 59 94 with HDV Raster Type setting or 10801 59 94 HDV with pre Media Composer 3 0 software 1 Open a bin and make sure the bin is selected 2 Go to the File menu and choose Import 3 Navigate to the XDCAM EX Media folder you created open the folder and select all of the files Click OK The files will be copied to your Avid MediaFiles folder and you can start editing Importing Other HDV Media More and more HDV cameras are storing media on memory cards or drives Here are the steps to use when bringing in HDV media files HDV files all have the extension m2t so look for this extension when navigating the storage device 123 Avid Editing A Guide for Beginning and Intermediate Users Open a bin name it HDV Clips and select the bin Go to the File menu and select Import In the Import dialog box set the Enable Mac or Files of Type Windows menu to HDV files Select the drive where you wa
283. ilets There are hundreds of unreferenced precomputes in C TA Delete audio file s this project I deselect the audio files because they take C TAS Delete audio file s up no space so why delete them The video precom Selected 557 precomputed file s putes are a different story Click OK and they re gone Delete 192 video file s TA Delete 365 audio file s Now you ve got some space to work with Preparing to Recapture Your Sequence There are several steps you need to take before you s __OK d i Cancel j start to recapture Figure 19 15 1 Make sure you have all your source videotapes with you 2 Create a new bin and call it Online 3 Duplicate your final sequence select it and hit Command D or Ctrl D in its original bin and drag the duplicate copy to the new Online bin 4 Name the duplicate sequence Online Sequence 310 Chapter 19 Finishing 5 Delete all the audio tracks in the duplicate To do this place the Online Sequence in the Record Monitor so the tracks appear in the Timeline Select the audio tracks and deselect the video tracks Hit the Delete key 6 Close all your bins except the newly created Online bin The Recapturing Process In order to recapture your sequence you will need to hook up your videotape deck See Chapter 6 for suggestions on how to do this If you re working with HD tapes Chapter 18 may also be helpful Decompose One of the nicest featur
284. im Mode display the A side Figure 3 8 and the rollers jumped to her side of the transition ie Ma imm f oh Tas OST T Click anywhere in here to enter Click anywhere in here to enter Single Roller Trim on the A side Single Roller Trim on the B side Kate s CU Tim s CU Tk Kate s CU Tim s CU Tk Tim s CU Tk Figure 3 8 Pay attention that you ve got rollers on the A side or the B side and not both Don t be timid Practice clicking on the A side picture to see the rollers jump to the left and practice clicking on the B side to see the rollers jump to the right Now with the rollers on the A side let s use the Trim Frame keys to trim Kate To simplify the screen captures from here on out I removed one of the audio tracks in my Wanna Trade Timeline You ll want to keep both of yours and trim all three tracks as shown in Figure 3 8 45 Avid Editing A Guide for Beginning and Intermediate Users Trim Frame Keys If you look at Figure 3 9 you ll see four Trim Frame keys at the bottom of the Trim Mode display The lt gt keys are single frame trim keys They will trim the shot by one frame The lt lt gt gt keys will trim the shot by ten frames Trim Frame keys Figure 3 9 Trim Frame keys Let s look at a specific cut and see what happens when we use these keys in Single Roller Trim Mode Examine Figure 3 10 Let s say Kate is finishing her line You scared me but we ve cut i
285. im Mode works Let s see what dragging Tim s roller does Examine Figure 3 17 You can see that when we dragged Tim s rollers to the left we lengthened the shot If we drag the roller to the right we shorten the head of Tim s shot Before After m s CU TK 1 Kate s CU fe Tim s CU TK 1 Kate s CU Tim s CU TK 1 Figure 3 17 If we bring the cursor up and click on Kate s picture in m the Trim Mode display the A side the rollers will jump eE Tim s CU TK 1 from the head of Tim s shot to the tail of her clip in the i Tim s CU TK 1 Timeline Figure 3 18 What happens when we drag y Kate s rollers to the left We trim the end of her shot 94 99 95 00 01 00 07 00 her shot gets shorter If we drag the rollers to the right we extend or lengthen her clip Figure 3 18 If you drag the rollers so far that you reach the end of the shot you ll hear a beep and see a small red marker in the frame to indicate that you can t roll any farther because there are no more frames to extend Trim Practice Let s look at a specific cut to see what happens as we use Single Roller Trim Mode In Figure 3 19 Tim is finishing his dialog and Kate is beginning to say hers 48 Chapter 3 Trimming Let s say you are working on the part of the scene where Tim tells Kate that he knows she s come to steal her letters back Here s the dialog m s CU Tk 2 Kate s n s CU Tk 2 Ti
286. imecode to keep track of all of your cuts If after editing you are going back to that original film negative and cutting those strips of negative together to make a print for theatrical release you sure don t want any of those numbers missing or else you ll cut the negative at the wrong place Today most people who shoot on film don t go back to the original negative although feature films do Still if you are working on a film project ask your telecine facility to provide videotape with non drop frame timecode just in case How do you tell the difference The Avid can tell as soon as you feed a tape into the deck during capturing Non drop frame timecode will display colons 00 23 54 21 whereas drop frame will display semicolons 00 23 54 21 Work Order to Your Lab and Telecine The main points you want to stress in your work order to the lab and transfer facility are provided here This is the form I give my students at Boston University and it has worked for them Notice that I ve provided specific 16mm camera stock and footage to make it easier to follow You can have 320 Chapter 20 Shooting on Film Cutting on Avid the film transferred to standard definition SD or high definition HD At Boston University we shoot regular 16mm in Production I and II and transfer to standard definition usually DVCAM Our seniors and graduate thesis students shoot on Super 16mm and transfer to HD Super 16mm has basically the same
287. ine 107 scaling and scrolling the Timeline 33 in Segment Mode See Segment Mode editing selecting and deselecting tracks 30 31 single mark 163 164 Slide feature 160 161 Slip feature 158 160 snapping to cut points 31 32 splicing and overwriting 29 30 trim shots using Extract 38 trimming in two directions 155 158 235 236 Undo Redo list 39 40 using Clipboard 39 watch points 157 158 working with imported HD media 124 Editors getting job as Avid editor 330 331 tasks of overview 1 2 EDL edit decision list 10 343 350 EDL Output menu 343 EDL Manager 3 Index Effect Editor 198 204 See also Effects opacity adjustments 202 203 opening 198 201 211 saving effects as template 204 tools 200 203 working with keyframes 204 Effect Editor Tools menu 198 346 Effect Mode button 198 209 Effect Palette Tools menu 194 346 Effect Palette icons 197 Effect Preview Monitor 198 199 200 Effects 3DWarp Picture in Picture 219 229 adding 10 204 adding Dissolves 204 205 Advanced Keyframes 217 219 applying 195 196 Clone 213 215 Color Correction 220 228 Copy Paste parameters 217 deleting 197 Effect Editor 198 204 Effect Palette 194 Flop 194 196 Freeze Frame 205 206 HSL group 223 Illusion FX 197 introduction 193 kinds of 193 194 Motion Effects 73 206 208 Paint 211 215 Picture 1n Picture 198 200 215 217 plug in 197 position sc
288. ine will form around the box to show that it s moving and where it s moving to The result as shown in Figure 9 16 is what you expected TeaTime at Dawie s Narration 12 Narration 12 TeaTime at Dawie s Figure 9 16 Lassoing to Get into Segment Mode You ve probably already done this by accident As you know you go into Trim Mode by lassoing a transition from left to right If instead of lassoing a transition you lasso a segment you ll go into Segment Mode Burning Hills man gets water Cooking in park Burning Hille man gets water a Cooking in park Figure 9 17 Which Segment Mode will you enter when you lasso a segment The Segment Mode selected is the one you used last If you want the other one just click on it Lassoing is a great way to select a number of clips at once Lasso all of the clips you want You can move more than one segment at a time For instance you may want to take the fourth and fifth shots and move them to the beginning of your sequence You could press the Extract Splice Segment Mode button click on a segment and then Shift click to get all four segments selected two picture and two sound or you could lasso them all in one quick move Although in Figure 9 18 I am only moving two shots you can move 30 or 50 shots at once If there is black fill between segments you want to move you can select and move that also 153 Avid Editing A Guide for Beginning and Intermediate Users
289. ing in Sync Sync Problems The Source of Your Problems Sync Break Indicators Many Tracks Mean Many Sync Problems Locators Deleting Locators Editing Tricks to Stay in Sync Trimming in Two Directions A Review from Chapter 10 Sync Locks Locking Tracks Suggested Assignments Chapter 16 Importing and Exporting Importing Importing a Graphic File XVIII 209 210 211 211 211 213 214 215 217 219 220 222 225 224 226 22 227 228 228 228 229 231 231 232 232 22 233 235 235 235 236 240 240 241 241 243 Contents Computers Versus Television 244 Import Options 245 Importing Color Bars 247 Importing a QuickTime Movie 248 Exporting 249 Preparing to Export 250 Exporting a Production Still 250 Exporting Motion Video 232 Exporting a QuickTime Movie 253 Exporting a High Resolution QuickTime Movie 253 Exporting a QuickTime Movie for You Tube Google iTunes or Your Website 254 Exporting a QuickTime Reference Movie 257 Exporting Audio to a Pro Tools Work Station 259 Going to Pro Tools 259 Exporting Other File Types 261 Suggested Assignments 261 Chapter 17 Working in HD 263 HD Primer 264 DV 264 720p 265 10801 265 1080p 265 HDV 266 All Those Pesky Frame Per Second fps Rates 267 HD with the Mojo DX Adrenaline or Nitris DX 268 Connecting the HD Deck to Your Avid HD Box 269 Capturing HD with Adrenaline HD Mojo DX or Nitris DX 269 Playback Performance 212 Creating HD Titles and Imp
290. ing keyframes to other groups that are opened or enabled selected or to graphs that I have opened 3D Warp or 3D Picture in Picture Let s start one more Picture in Picture Create a new effect by placing a shot on V2 over a shot on V1 Drag the 9 00 ras ap Promo 10H Picture in Picture icon onto the clip on V2 Place the position indicator on the Picture in Picture icon in Figure 14 19 Promote to 3D button the Timeline and open the Effect Editor Now click on the Promote to Advanced Keyframes button as before Next click on the Promote to 3D button This will promote the Picture in Picture to the 3D Warp effect in Media Composer and to the 3D PIP in Xpress Pro Three dimensional 3D effects are similar to their two dimensional 2D counterparts they just have a few more parameters One difference is that the 3D parameters don t have any keyframes You have to place all of them Lets work with one parameter in a 3D Warp the Rotation X axis I open up its group and open the X axis graph Now I place two keyframes in the graph and drag the one on the left up off of its base so it is above the 0 00 position Figure 14 20 The second keyframe has not moved from its base position Set two keyframes and then lift this keyframe up to rotate the picture Figure 14 20 Because of this simple change the picture starts on its side and then over the course of the clip rotates to become a straight up and down
291. ing output levels 130 rubber banding 134 W Wanna Trade adding shots to sequence 22 24 making first cut 21 22 opening project 11 12 script 25 26 starting editing session 20 Trim Mode practice 42 Watch point 157 158 WAVE audio files 108 Index Waveform Monitor 223 Waveforms 137 138 Websites Avid information updates 3 330 exporting video for 254 257 Wikipedia 93 Window settings Source Record Monitors 69 Windows menu 348 Work orders to lab telecine 320 322 Workflow editing 8 11 adding titles and effects 10 capture import 9 creating bins 9 10 creating new projects 9 edit process 10 gathering tapes and files 8 9 output options 10 11 sound work 10 Works in progress screening 86 88 X X Extract key 24 36 Xpress 5 12 34 89 134 281 Xpress icon 89 Xpress Pro 219 277 Y YouTube video 254 257 Z Z Lift key 36 Zoom centered 195 Zooming Timeline 33 373 This page intentionally left blank DVD Instructions This DVD contains all the video and audio clips for three editing projects You re encouraged to use the first scene called Wanna Trade while reading Chapter 1 The documentary project Kizza s Portrait is handy when you re tackling Chapters 9 through 15 The third project Gafter s Delight is a more complicated dramatic LE Wanna Trade Scene ij Wanna Trade Media ui Kizza s Portrait Media There you ll b
292. ingle Roller Trim Mode Getting into Single Roller Trim Mode Trim Frame Keys Review Transition Button Trim by Dragging Trim Practice Undo in Trim Mode Frame Counters More Practice Using Dual Roller Trim Mode Split Edits or L Cuts Removing a Split Edit Changing from Single Roller to Dual Roller Trim Mode Adding and Removing Rollers Advanced Trim Mode Techniques Trimming While Watching Trim One Side Then the Other Dragging to a Mark Sync Problems in Single Roller Trim Mode Enter Trim Mode on Selected Tracks J K L Trimming Trim Mode Review Getting into Trim Mode Getting out of Trim Mode Contents 36 38 38 39 39 39 40 41 42 42 42 43 44 44 44 46 47 48 48 49 49 49 51 51 52 52 53 53 53 54 54 55 56 57 57 57 57 xi Contents Switching Trim Modes Add Rollers and Delete Rollers Drag the Rollers Trim While Watching Suggested Assignments Chapter 4 The Project Window Creating a Bin All About Bins Bin Views Selecting Clips Working in SuperBin Mode Bin Headings in Text View Moving Columns Sorting Frame View Starting a New Sequence Drag and Drop Editing Deleting Sequences and Clips Getting Folders Settings Have it Your Way User Profile Kinds of Settings Bin Settings Composer Settings Interface Keyboard Settings Changing Command Buttons Saving Your Screen Set up Track Color Suggested Assignments Command Palette Tabs Chapter 5 A Few Editing Tips When to Cut Continuity and Eye
293. int right gt or gt gt they will be positive numbers see Figure 3 20 More Practice Before you learned how to use Trim Mode you used splice and overwrite to lay down the shots leaving them long to begin with If you wanted to shorten a shot you marked an IN and an OUT in the Timeline and used Extract to shorten the shot If you wanted to lengthen the shot you 49 Avid Editing A Guide for Beginning and Intermediate Users siah a ioa Press these keys and the Press these keys and the numbers are negative numbers are positive Figure 3 20 spliced in more Now that you have Trim Mode at your Tim s CU TE 1 Kate s CU 01 00 05 00 disposal the way you edit changes significantly If you see that a shot in the Timeline is too short or too long it s oe l Tim s CU TK 1 easy to trim it to just the right length Let s say you are playing your sequence and you see that 01 00 07 00 the tail of Kate s shot is too short When you spliced it in _ Figure 3 21 you marked it at the wrong point and you ve cut off her words You need to lengthen the shot Action Result Go to the transition and lasso it You are in Trim Mode Click on Kate s picture in the Trim display You are in Single Roller Trim Mode Figure 3 21 Click the gt gt Trim key You have lengthened Kate s shot by ten frames Click on the Review Transition button The new cut point plays in a loop As you watc
294. io tracks to hold music and narration Once you go beyond cutting just a few tracks sync problems can really cause you heartache We ve spent a lot of time on the subject of sync because losing it can be so painful My best advice is to keep it as simple as you can for as long as you can Don t add titles music and sound effects until you have reached a fine cut Tell the story first Otherwise you ll spend your time repairing sync rather than editing Suggested Assignments 1 Place a single roller Trim Mode on one track and not the other Drag left and look at the sync break Leave Trim Mode Now go back into Trim Mode and fix the sync break Place a row of locators on your tracks Leave yourself a message using the locator message function Delete the locator Place sync locks on your tracks Try single roller trimming Remove sync locks from individual tracks Remove all sync locks Add sync locks to some tracks and not others and try single roller trimming ae eet ey ae Lock one or more tracks Try editing the locked tracks 240 Chapter 16 Importing and Exporting Most of us have become adept at bringing digital files into our computers we ve imported MP3 music files into iTunes or brought in JPEG pictures from friends and family Importing files into the Avid is fairly straightforward For the most part it is as simple as identifying the type of file navigating to the drive or CD that contains the file
295. ion you are participating in the essence of filmmaking Without editing movies are no more than recorded plays If you go to a theater to see a play you buy your ticket and take your seat and everything happens from that one vantage point your seat No matter what the action a swordfight a kiss a verbal argument you see it from the same distance and angle But what if you could change seats If you could move to any seat in the theater to better see what is going on You might go to the front row to see the kiss and you might move up to the balcony to see the sweep of the swordfight but if the lead actor gets stabbed and falls you might race back to the front row to hear his dying words and see the expression on his face As the editor its your job to give the audience the best seat in the house Whatever the action you pick the shot that gives the audience the best vantage point to see and hear what is going on 79 Avid Editing A Guide for Beginning and Intermediate Users Establishing shot long shot medium shot close up over the shoulder shot reaction shot master shot these all describe what the camera is seeing Don t worry about the names or following some half baked rule about cutting from one to the other Instead look at the choices and decide where the audience would want to be to view that action Once you ve picked the best seat then cut to the next shot as soon as you feel the audience wants to change to a
296. ions of your bins are stored The Avid sends your work to the attic whenever you or it executes a save The attic stores a certain number of files and when that number is reached the attic begins discard ing the oldest in favor of the newest That s what the last two choices are about We ll go into more detail about the attic later The pulldown menu item Double click loads object in gives you the choice of loading clips and sequences directly into the Source or Record Monitor default or opening them as Pop Up Monitors Make sure you have selected Source or Record Monitor Here is where the Enable SuperBin choice can be found If you re working with a single computer monitor then you ll probably want to check this button If you have two monitors then you prob ably want to deselect this Remember you can always come back and change the setting Composer Settings Find the Composer setting and double click on it The first tab Window lets you change the way the Source and Record Monitors look For example you can change from a standard 4 3 screen size to a 16 9 widescreen by select Window Edit FF REW MultiCam ing the 16 9 Monitors button If you feel you re x First lower Row of Info v Second Row of Info __ Digital Scrub Parameters Center Duration Y 16 9 Monitors Z First Row of Buttons Z Second Row of Buttons Tick Marks in Position Bars overwhelmed by the rows of numbers above the mo
297. ips defined 9 deleting 65 66 linked media files 9 Master Volume slider 130 Match Color feature 228 229 Match cut 42 80 Match Frame Source Record Fast menu 164 205 MCam tab Command Palette 76 Media Composer menus 333 Media Creation Tools menu 346 Media Creation settings Project window 109 110 120 Media drives 4 5 Media files and clips 14 defined 9 deleting 65 66 linked to master clip 9 Media Offline tag 66 170 336 Media Tool Tools menu 309 310 346 Media Type tab Media Creation 109 110 MediaFiles folder 110 173 174 Memento 85 Memory cards P2 cards and Panasonic HVX200 113 119 source material 8 SxS cards and Sony XDCAM EX 122 123 Memory system 4 Menu to Button Reassignment Command Palette 165 326 Menus Avid interface 333 334 Bin 337 340 Bin Fast menu 66 Clip 340 343 Edit 336 337 File 334 336 Format 90 91 270 271 Help 348 mapping menu items to keyboard 70 72 164 165 Monitor 350 Output 343 Raster Type 93 94 270 272 Script 348 Settings Fast menu 68 Special 344 347 Timeline Fast menu 33 73 134 Tools 345 Toolset 12 13 347 Tracking 348 349 Windows 348 MetaSync Manager Tools menu 345 Microphones 102 Mirroring monitors 283 Modify Clip menu 342 Modify Enhancement Clip menu 342 Modify Pulldown Phase Clip menu 342 Mojo DX 268 272 Mojo SDI 7 110 306 Monitor menu 350 Monitors
298. it Replace is in the Fast menu between Splice and Overwrite It s a blue arrow a Replace Edit ro a Z a X Figure 10 11 OK Let s say we have footage of two people swimming What s shown in the picture in Figure 10 12 is taken from Swim Take 1 You cut this into the Timeline When you review the sequence you think Take 2 might be better because when the woman lifts her head out of the water we see more of her face The most important action is the woman touching the wall and lifting Figure 10 12 her head so I put the position indi cator on that frame in the Timeline Figure 10 13 Then I go to the Source Monitor and get Swim Take 2 I play through the clip until I find the spot where she 1s lifting her head out of the water I leave the position indicator there Now I hit the Replace command located in the Source Record Fast menu 162 I have now replaced Swim Take 1 with a clip of the same length taken from Swim Take 2 but the part of Swim Take 2 that is overwritten is based on the location of the position indicators The woman s head will lift out of the water at the same point in the sequence as it did when Take 1 was there In this case we are matching the action while replacing What s special about Replace is that it can replace sound and picture even if there is a split edit It replaces sound based on the amount of sound used in the
299. it Will Crash Not too long ago there were articles in newspapers weekly magazines and online news sites about the convergence of television and computers with some prognosticators suggesting we would soon be watching television on our computer monitors One scribe rebutted this suggestion by saying he didn t want to be watching the Super Bowl and have the system crash during a game winning touchdown drive There is some truth to that observation Computers do crash they have bugs and they are suscep tible to viruses and other infestations When you stop and think about it those are problems we don t encounter on any of the other countless electronic products that surround us My microwave doesn t crash my television doesn t have bugs and my digital camera hasn t caught a virus That said the various Avids that I have been using for the past 14 years have been quite dependable Yes the sound you hear is my knuckles striking wood They have only crashed about 50 times and never have I lost more than about 10 minutes of work Given how much I ve used my Avid and the service it has rendered I figure it s one of the most dependable things in my life So I m a satisfied customer and I don t hesitate to praise the Avid s dependability whenever I am asked Yet as dependable as they are the Avids will crash and when they do you d better be ready 167 Avid Editing A Guide for Beginning and Intermediate Users Backin
300. it overwrite at an exact point in the sequence the second sync point This is often used when editing rock videos Show Phantom Marks We spent a lot of time going over the it takes three marks to make an edit rule In fact whenever an edit is made there are really four marks IN and OUT on the source and IN and OUT on the record You don t set the fourth mark it s just there The fourth mark is called a Phantom Mark and when you choose this command Media Composer will display all four marks in the Source and Record Monitors Render On the Fly As we mentioned in Chapter 13 Media Composer can play many effects in real time without rendering This is known as rendering on the fly If you disable this option Media Composer will skip all unrendered effects in the timeline Transitions will be played as cuts and segment effects will be ignored MultiCamera Mode This command calls up the most advanced MultiCamera editing choices Remote Play and Capture If you are attached to an Avid Unity Media Network you can work with media that is part of the workgroup environment 344 Appendix Menus Device This command directs the Avid to check to see what external devices are hooked up such as the Avid Mojo or a deck attached to a FireWire port Usually you would do this if you wanted to send your sequence out to tape Full Screen Playback This command changes the Avid interface so the sequence plays on the entire monitor screen
301. ith interlaced video because each frame has two fields and it s not easy to combine them when creating motion Duplicated Field J Both Fields Interpolated Field VTR Stvle Figure 13 37 Here are my suggestions but try the other choices if you re not happy with how the effect looks e Ilike Both Fields for most effects because it gives the highest quality image e Interpolated Field is another high quality choice that I use if the clip has a lot of motion e Duplicated Field is a lower quality image and I only use it if the other choices don t look right e VTR Style offers sharper images than Interpolated Field and is worth trying for freezing frames with lots of motion Rendering No matter how simple or complex your effects are at some point you ll need to render your effects This is always the case whenever you need to send your work out to tape or DVD Rendering can take up a lot of time and some space on your hard drive so render as late in the editing process as possible and render only those effects you know are going in the final sequence 208 Chapter 13 Effects Rendering Single Effects PL ff 1 Place the blue position indicator on the effects icon in A ca be the Timeline Render Effect 2 Click the Render Effect button in the Timeline toolbar or choose Render from the Clip menu Figure 13 38 3 When the dialog box appears choose a target disk your media drive 4 Click OK
302. ith the Select Tool Now click on the Fill window Figure 12 13 Press and hold the mouse on the Fill window l I and a Color Picker appears Fill LIM Drag through the colors and select the color C you want or click on the eyedropper and click inside the video frame to choose any color Figure 12 13 already inside the frame In Figure 12 14 I have selected the color red to fill in the title letters You can also select a color for the shadows They don t have to be black Select the title in the window and then click and hold on the Shadow window Figure 12 15 When the Color Picker appears drag through the choices and select the one you want Here I have selected a light red for the shadow I ve exagger ated the shadow by choosing a depth of 7 so the change is more pronounced Figure 12 15 Now I have a white title with a red shadow Blending a Title Lets say the video background shifts from bright to dark so a white title won t show up in the bright areas and a dark title won t show up well in the dark areas You can create a blend so the title changes from one color to another color When I click on the Fill window Figure 12 16 two small windows appear to its right Click and hold on the left window and select a dark color Click and hold on the right box and pick a lighter color Your choices appear in the respective box and the mixture of the two appears in the Blend Direction box You can change the direction of the b
303. itors and some are hidden inside Fast menu buttons often called hamburgers because of the resemblance Click and hold the Fast menu and a palette appears You can click and drag any palette and it will tear off so you can place palettes anywhere you like Once the palette has been torn off a click on the palette s close button will send it back inside the Fast menu Many commands are also offered as keys on the keyboard Fast menu button Rough Figure 1 23 The Keyboard The keyboard is an important part of Avid editing Many of the most important editing commands can be executed by simply typing a key on the keyboard The default or standard keyboard for the Media Composer can be seen in Figure 1 24 Mark IN Mark OUT J K L three button play Figure 1 24 Media Composer keyboard commands When you buy an Avid system you normally get a sheet containing stickers of all the command icons you can press and stick them onto the keys on your keyboard so your keyboard looks like 17 Avid Editing A Guide for Beginning and Intermediate Users Figure 1 24 Because all of these keyboard command keys are mappable meaning you can change them to suit your own preferences I recommend that you wait until you read Chapter 4 before you apply all of those stickers you may want to place different commands on those keys The only ones I d apply right now are the J K L commands as shown in Figure 1 24 For now use my screen cap
304. ity For the most part we have stuck to the basics in order to limit the amount of material you must grapple with to get the job done Now we ll examine more advanced features By the end of this chapter you ll be a faster editor with greater control of the Timeline Trimming in Two Directions Once you begin to add additional tracks to your sequence using Trim Mode can get a little tricky For example say we have a clip on V1 of people voting in the first free election in South Africa Figure 10 1 Your narration describes the action on Al and your sync track is on A2 You re happy with the way the narration works with the picture and sync track But let s say you need to trim the head of the clip because the sequence is running too long I ve placed red markers called loca tors on all three tracks to show what happens if you trim the voting clip without adjusting your narration track In Figure 10 2 we have trimmed 30 frames off the head of the Voting Station picture and sync track Tracks V1 and A2 have been shortened by 30 frames while A1 containing the narration has remained the same length Everything is thrown off You say We ll trim 30 frames off the narration and everything will be in sync but we can t do that If we trim the head of the narration we ll be cutting off the narrator s words The solution is trimming in two directions The Avid realizes this is a common situation and allows you to trim in th
305. ject give it a name and most importantly go to the Format pulldown menu and select the appropriate project type 720p 23 976 720p 29 97 10801 59 94 etc Media Composer 3 0 users choose Raster Type DVCPro HD 3 Open a new bin and name it P2 Media Card 1 2 3 and so on File Edit Bin Clip Output Special Tools 4 Click on this bin so it is active New Bin 3e N 5 Go to the File Menu choose Import P2 Open Bin 0 and select Clips to Bin Figure 7 3 New Script 6 When the browser window opens navi Close Bin EW gate to the drive that is the P2 card With Save Bin 36S Windows you re looking for a Removable save Bin Copy As Disk on a Mac its the No Name disk Page Setup Select Removable Disk F as I have Print Bin dP done in Figure 7 4 Do not select the Get Bin Info 2 CONTENTS folder or the Video folder Reveal File Those will not work You want the high l l Export est or root level folder in this case Send To Removable Disk F Import 7 Click OK in the browser import XDCAM Proxy Clips to Bin Media Now all the clips on the P2 card will quickly appear in your bin as master clips Figure 7 3 116 Chapter 7 Importing from P2 and Memory Cards ax Select the root of the virtual volume t Desktop a G My Documents TE d My Computer E 3 31 Floppy A e Local Disk C E Se HP_RECOVERY D Select Disk F not the E 24 DVD RAM Drive E CO
306. k You ve been told that one of these days your beloved Avid is going to crash so don t risk losing days or even weeks of work Remember DID Do It Daily Suggested Assignments Open the system drive or computer s hard drive and examine the Avid folders it contains Find the Avid Projects folder the Avid Users folder and the Attic folder Open the Avid Projects folder and back up your Avid projects onto a flash drive Back up your Avid User file to a flash drive or CD Open your media drive and examine the Avid MediaFiles folder or OMFI MediaFiles folder oh a oS 174 Chapter 12 Titles There are many different kinds of titles and they serve different functions in a production In addi tion to the main title of the show there are the opening and closing credits identification titles lower thirds subtitles and copyright information When you think about it you really can t finish a project without adding titles Usually you add titles when you are nearing the end of the editing phase If you re still making a lot of changes to your sequence and you cut titles in they can easily get out of sync and drift away from the images they belong to and it s a real pain to put everything back together Trust me on this one Wait to add titles as late in the editing process as possible Because we are through editing Wanna Trade and possibly another short assignment we can go back and add titles to them Opening the Ti
307. keep the letters from word wrapping For example let s say you wanted the following title to crawl across the screen Boston Red Sox win World Series Watch the News at Eleven for highlights To get this text to crawl as a single line drag the selector handle to the far right so the text doesn t word wrap Marquee As mentioned earlier in this chapter Media Composer comes with special titling software called Marquee It lets you create titles in three dimensions that can move around the screen like a five star roller coaster m not going to get into Marquee as it s so deep that it needs its own book but you can create many of the same effects with the tools you ve learned Suggested Assignments Open the Title Tool and choose a font point size Type a title Click on the Selector Tool and drag the right hand selection handle to make the title fit on the line Move the title around inside the frame Add a drop shadow Increase and decrease the depth and direction of the shadow Change to a depth shadow Save your title Close the Title Tool and cut the title into your Timeline If you need to create a V2 track Open the Title Tool Create a colored title Add a depth shadow Now create a blend for that title O ODN HN WB WN e 191 Avid Editing A Guide for Beginning and Intermediate Users 10 Close the Title Tool and cut this title onto V2 Use the Lift Overwrite Segment Mode button see
308. keyboard is configured how Auto Save works the color of your tracks in the Timeline are saved under your name in the Avid Users folder Copying User Settings When you are on the desktop or Finder the application is closed and the computer s hard drive is open repeat the steps you used to get to the Avid Projects folder and look for the Avid Y L Avid Users Users folder Double click on the Avid Users gt comadmin folder and then drag your User Settings folder to a flash drive as shown in Figure 11 5 temp test nie IF Flash Drive gt 2 MarqueeTitles If you become a freelance editor and work at different post production houses you Figure 11 5 Locate your Avid User folder and drag it to the can carry all of your user settings how the backup disk Avid looks how the keyboard keys are mapped with you Settings Info on a flash drive When you sit samkautt v samkauff Client Screenings down at a new Avid editing station just connect your flash drive In the Project window 5 Kauffmann click on the Settings tab Go Script Editi to the User pulldown menu eee Click here to get your settings as I have in Figure 11 6 and Create User Profile y get you g select Import User or User Import User or User Profile Profile Navigate to the flash drive and select it Figure 11 6 170 Chapter 11 Saving Your Work The Attic If you recall the work we did with Settings you will remem
309. kground image Effect Editor 200 Ol Ra i a lie ie Rake Figure 13 25 Figure 13 26 Finally I click on the last keyframe at the end and change the opacity to 100 O Level 25 Level 75 Level 100 Level Figure 13 27 Now I ve created my effect The image begins with V1 totally filling the frame Level is set at 0 Over time the image on V2 slowly takes over as increasing amounts of opacity are set at those key frames until finally the opacity is set to 100 and only the V2 image appears on the screen Figure 13 28 Begin with justV1 Figure 13 29 V2 is supered overV1 Figure 13 30 V2 takes over the screen 203 Avid Editing A Guide for Beginning and Intermediate Users Working with Keyframes e After you have created a keyframe you can move it by holding the Option key Mac or Alt key Windows and dragging it to a new position e You can delete a keyframe by selecting it and hitting the Delete key e You can change the parameter for any given keyframe by clicking on it it turns pink and changing the parameters in the Effect Editor e Ifyou want an effect to look the same throughout the segment then keep the first and last key frames active pink If one is inactive shift click on it to make both active Saving an Effect as a Template After doing all the work involved in setting parameters for an effect you can save those parameters so you can use them again on another transition or segment in
310. ks gets thrown off as shown in Figure 15 7 The sync break indicators tell me that the Figure 15 6 Tracks in sync 234 Chapter 15 Keeping in Sync dolly shot and its sync tracks are out of sync but now because we added the locators we can see that the title and narration Souci Houses are out of sync as well Diii by Houses You don t need to put locators everywhere in the Timeline but I would suggest you place a vertical row of them every 5 Narration 3 minutes or so in your project That way if you get out of sync you don t have far to go before you have a checkpoint Dolly by Houses Dolly f Houses Deleting Locators If you want to delete the locator and its message click Figure 15 7 Tiacks out of sync on the locator in the position bar the window under the monitor If it doesn t appear in the monitor window step frame until it does and then press the Delete key Editing Tricks to Stay in Sync In Chapter 10 we examined the topic of trimming in two directions Because this is a vital skill let s take a moment to review it Trimming in Two Directions A Review from Chapter 10 If you want to add material or trim material in Single Roller Trim Mode you must trim all of your tracks to keep their relationship the same If you just trim V1 and A1 picture and sync sound all the music and narration will fall out of sync e Go into Single Roller Trim Mode e Add rollers on the fill or black
311. lace the correct shot in the Reference win dow and then put the position indicator on the shot that needs fixing so it s the Current shot Then 1 Click on the eyedropper Place it inside the left hand box and click and drag it to the Current frame Place it on the color you want to improve Peter s face as shown in Figure 14 36 Release the dropper on that spot 3 Now place the eyedropper on the right hand side of the box and then click and drag the drop per to the Refference frame placing it on the part of the face where the color you want to emulate match 1s located Release the dropper on that spot 4 Now click on the Match Color button Clearly the Color Correction Tool offers vast capabilities Like most of the Avid s features Color Correction gives you instant feedback It either looks better or worse and you can easily undo if things get out of control The overview I ve provided here should help you fix your problem clips give more punch to your good clips and give your scenes a more consistent look Rendering Complex Effects If you have a number of real time effects bunched together in the Timeline because you re creating a complex visual look they may need to be rendered to play If that s the case try selecting Expert Render from the Clip menu The Avid will figure out the least number of effects that will have to be rendered to get the effects to play together 228 Chapter 14 Advanced Effects and Color
312. late 1 In the Dailies Bin find the take called 1 Master Shot PU which is Take 2 of the Master Shot It s a pick up PU meaning that we didn t start from the beginning of the Master Shot Take 1 but started a bit later in the scene 2 Click and drag the clip icon that represents the second take and drag it on top of the slate already in the script Now you can see that the slate has two boxes hanging from it one for each take Figure 18 7 Let s call them take tabs Clicking on either take tab will select that take The frame in the slate will change depending on which take is selected There is a faster way to create slates and add takes to that slate Say you have a shot with five takes Simply lasso the portion of the script the shot covers so it s gray Now in the Dailies bin Shift click on all five takes and drag all of them to the highlighted area of the script In Figure 18 8 you can see that I have dragged several clips some with multiple takes onto the script Figure 18 7 Take tabs 286 Slate Takes of the script covered by that take Figure 18 8 background Line showing amount a i Chapter 18 Script Integration PETER HILL 25 is om a ladder hanging lights on a ceiling grid He is a 3nd Electric working on a film In th JOANHA a grip removes a light from a stand MICHELE POWERS a young actress of recognizable beauty enters and looks at Joanna JOANNA Excuse me Ch
313. lders 5 Open the Attic folder It shows a folder for each project 6 Scroll through it until you find your project the Figure 11 9 Bins that have been backed up one you named Open it v Shared 7 Look for the folder named for the bin you want v AvidMediaComposer and then open it gt Q Avid Attic 8 Inside the bin folder you will find multiple files representing different saved versions of the bin Figure 11 10 171 Avid Editing A Guide for Beginning and Intermediate Users A 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 Ly The smallest number 1 1 will be the oldest and the largest number will be the most recent version Ctrl click Windows or Shift click Mac the bin file you want Windows users make a copy of the original bin in the Attic folder and paste it to the desktop Mac users Option drag the bin to the desktop Now open the Avid program from the taskbar or dock When the Avid program opens click on the Project window to make it active From the File menu choose Open Bin Navigate until you find the bin you just created on the desktop Click Open Now create a new bin Call it Restore Select the sequence you want from the backup bin and then drag the sequence Windows or Option drag Mac the sequence to the new Restore bin Select and delete the backup bin in the Other Bins folder On the desktop trash the backup bin file Batch Capture Offline Media If your material goes offline
314. le You do this by refreshing the media directories Load Media Database The media database is like a card catalog that keeps track of what is being put on and taken off the external drives The Avid doesn t keep the entire database in memory all the time After certain actions some of your sequences might be offline the images or sounds don t play and you ll see that the media is listed as Media Offline When you load the Media Database the Avid may find the missing offline material Mount All This command mounts or makes active and available all of oe media attached to your Avid TGS En cip Output Special Tools Unmount This opens a dialog box that allows you to select drives or disks for ejection or unmounting Exit Like Quit on a Mac Exit is the Windows command Undo Redo List that closes everything currently opened and exits the f Avid application software j Ot Ctri x Copy Ctrl C Edit Menu E Undo You are no doubt already a devoted user of this Select All Tracks Ctrl A command The Avid gives you 32 levels of Undo You Deselect All Tracks Shift Ctrl A can go back and change actions that you took up to 32 Duplicate Ctrl D actions ago Enlarge Track Ctrl4e Redo Redo replaces the action that you undid It is just as Reduce Track Ctri k handy as Undo Kind E Undo Redo List This list outlines your last 32 actions either Undo or Redo Instead of working through all of them one at a time to reach the one you w
315. le computer with its single monitor and when they are back home or at the office they hook up a second monitor Avid Editing A Guide for Beginning and Intermediate Users Speakers Sound is a critical part of any film or video and having good external speakers is of utmost impor tance If you are putting your own system together don t try to save money here Plan on spending about 100 for a speaker system The Client Monitor A monitor is helpful no matter which system you cut on With digital video footage a monitor may seem less critical because you can t alter the image coming into the system But you can change it once it s in the Avid and knowing how the signal will look on a television monitor once you put it back out to tape is important The monitor has long been called a client monitor because it s the one the client is supposed to look at when the editor hits Play With widescreen LCD screens dropping in price they re a good choice because they can handle high and standard definition projects You can pay over 25 000 for a top of the line model but smart shoppers can get a quality HD or SD monitor for under 1500 Figure 1 5 An Avid system with a high definition client monitor UPS When you spend thousands of dollars on a computer you should consider buying an electrical backup device called a UPS uninterruptible power supply Because your work is important and because you can t run a computer with
316. le will pat you on the back shake your hand and tell you it s brilliant but unless you get raves from everyone you ll probably head back to work fix the problems and try to schedule another screening with another group with fresh eyes and ears Developing Thick Skin This test screening process should be repeated at least three times for a short and twice as often for a feature Yes it can be painful but it s much better to endure the pain now when you can fix the problems then later on when it s out 1n the world and getting rejected by festivals or excoriated by the press These sessions can be invaluable if you take the criticism to heart They can be a waste of time if you ignore what your teachers friends and loved ones have to say Develop a thick skin now learn to learn from these screenings Soon you ll get the applause you ve earned and a chance to raise high your share of gilded trophies Suggested Assignments 1 Hold a screening of your edited scene taking notes of the various suggestions 2 Duplicate the sequence 3 Make changes to the new version of the sequence 4 Compare your old version to the one that is based on the feedback you received 88 Chapter 6 Starting a New Project and Capturing from Tape I remember attending a conference about fifteen years ago a well respected video engineer declared that the end of film as a recording medium was upon us Soon there won t be any more motion pict
317. learn how to modify them later in the chapter Now let s try a segment effect Scroll down the Effect Palette until you see the Image category in the left hand column Click on it Now click on the effect called Flop This effect changes the screen direction of a shot Let s look at a clip of students studying on a grassy lawn To change the clip s screen direction I simply drag the Flop icon onto the clip itself Figure 13 7 not onto the transition and presto the screen direction changes Figure 13 8 196 Figure 13 6 Students st Figure 13 7 Figure 13 9 Chapter 13 Effects Deleting Effects It is easy to get rid of an effect you don t want anymore Remove Effect button e Put the position indictor on the effect icon e Press the Remove Effect button Figure 13 10 Real Time Effects If you look at an effect in the Effect Palette the effects with green dots to the left of their name are real time effects they will play in real time You won t have to render them to see how they look when played We discussed rendering in Chapter 12 As you recall an effect such as a title is a new creation In order to see this new creation the effect must be created by the computer so new media sits on your media drive However the Avid has the ability to play most effects in a sort of preview mode These effects which can be played in the Timeline even though they have not bee
318. lend by dragging the cursor inside this box I ve selected a dark gray in the left hand box and white in the right hand box Figure 12 16 shows the resulting title Notice how the letters go from dark gray to white over the width of the title 182 lick and hold the mouse here to open the Color Picker o Ww ot CI Figure 12 15 Chapter 12 Titles Blend Color selection boxes Blend Direction Box Figure 12 16 Creating Title Style Sheets After doing a lot of work to set up the title just the way you like it it would be nice not to have to rein vent the wheel the next time you create a similar title Fortunately the Title Tool has a Save As feature that lets you create a style sheet so you can set the same title parameters to any new titles you create To create a style sheet 1 Click on the title or object you want to save as a style sheet so it becomes a selection and the arrow lights up in the Title Tool box 2 Press the triangle next to Styles so the Save As box appears Choose Save As Figure 12 17 The Style Sheet dialog box appears Make sure that the parameters reflect your choices ot a You ll see the name of the font style in a box Type over this substituting a name such as Lower Thirds or Credits 7 Click Done Once you have created a style your style sheets appear in the Save As window To apply a style to a new title choose the Selection Tool an
319. licate drives I can sleep at night knowing that I ve backed up all my media onto a 320 GB backup drive and all it cost was 100 That s a bargain Drag and Drop Your MediaFiles Folder Once you have captured or imported your media simply connect your backup drive to your com puter If you have stored your media on an external FireWire drive then you ll need to connect both drives your media drive and your backup drive to your computer so you can see both of them Navigate to your media drive the one you have used to store your picture and sound 173 Avid Editing A Guide for Beginning and Intermediate Users files If you re working with MXF files they are stored in a folder called Avid MediaFiles like the one shown in Figure 11 13 If you re working with standard definition material and selected OMF instead of MXF as your media type the folder will be labeled OMFI MediaFiles Simply drag the folder to your backup drive If you have a lot of media it may take several minutes Media HD CO a E mj j a vid MediaFiles T MXF Back Up Media Drive Figure 11 13 Back Up Daily Once you ve captured all your media onto your backup drive there is no point in backing up your media files more than once they don t change But you should continue to back up your Avid Projects folder at the end of every workday That s the folder that records your editing decisions your creativity and hard wor
320. list that choice replaces the one currently in view Click and drag here a to see the list of gt Fate s Hande Fare PU yy clips in the Source Clear Monitor Monitor Duplicate Clear Menu v Kate s Hands Face CU Kate s Entrance Wide Shot Kate s CU Figure 1 27 20 Chapter 1 Getting Started Making Your First Cut Follow these step by step instructions which will guide you through your first editing session 1 In the Project window for Wanna Trade you ll see two bins Dailies Day 1 and Assembly Ignore the folder called Chapter 3 Click once on the Dailies Day 1 bin icon It should open in the SuperBin If you double click on the bin icon it will open but it won t go into the SuperBin To get it to go into the SuperBin you will have to double click on the empty bin icon in the Project window it 1s grayed to show that it has already been opened Click once on the Assembly bin icon It will appear in the SuperBin replacing the Dailies Day 1 bin In the Project window click once more on the Dailies Day 1 bin icon It will spring into view replacing the Assembly bin In the Dailies Day 1 bin you ll see a number of clips You are probably in Brief View Click on the tabs at the top of the bin to switch views Switch to Text View Switch to Frame View Try Script View Return to Brief View In the Dailies Day 1 bin double click on the Clip icon for Kate s Entrance Wide Shot The clip appears in t
321. ll need to add two tracks e Go to the Clip menu and select New Audio Track or e Press Command U Mac or Ctrl U Windows 126 Chapter 8 Sound Patching Audio Tracks When you want to splice or overwrite a shot of video it usually goes onto the V1 track Your sync sound the sounds that come with that video usually goes onto Al or if you have stereo sync sound onto A1 and A2 If you re bringing in music or sound effects Source Tracks you don t want them to go onto Al or A2 because Figure 8 1 they ll replace your sync sound Music sound effects and narration are additional sound elements and they need to go onto additional audio tracks Let s say you have a stereo music cue that you want to add to the scene You want it to play underneath the dialog You need to cre ate two additional tracks A3 and A4 and patch the audio onto A3 and A4 When you put a music clip into the Source Monitor you ll see that the source tracks A1 and A2 appear in the Timeline Figure 8 2 parallel to record tracks A1 and A2 Bl ee If you splice the music into Al and A2 you throw your dialog out of sync If you overwrite the music you erase your dialog Instead you cre ate two additional tracks A3 and A4 and patch the tracks so your music will get spliced onto them To patch click and hold the mouse on the first source track that you want to patch In the example provided here it is source track A2 Dra
322. ll need to skip ahead to the section entitled Uprezing Your Offline Sequence However most of you are ready to go to tape so let s get started Checking Your Audio Before you output the final sequence to tape examine your sound one last time Get a pair of iso lating headphones that prevent you from hearing anything other than what s coming through the 301 Avid Editing A Guide for Beginning and Intermediate Users earpieces Are your dialog tracks centered They should be Open the Audio Mixer Tool and fix any dialog or narration that is panned left or right Check your levels one last time Outputting to Tape Now your sequence is just as you wished It looks and sounds perfect You re itching to get it onto tape but first there are a few things you need to do to get ready You should import SMPTE_Bars pct and cut it into the beginning of your sequence This is helpful when looking at the image on a monitor or screen to make sure the colors brightness and contrast look good Chapter 16 walks you through this process in the section called Importing Color Bars on page 248 Make sure you import the file from the correct folder 720 1080 SD NTSC and that you bring in 60 seconds Splice all 60 seconds of the clip into your sequence If you sync lock all your tracks before you splice in the bars everything will stay in sync Now cut in a reference head tone at 1000Hz to go with the Create Tone Media SMPTE bars To cre
323. ll remove the sync lock and place a single roller in the fill side of the narration Now when we drag left to extend the shot girls watch bus Figure 15 17 239 Avid Editing A Guide for Beginning and Intermediate Users the Avid takes care of the tracks that are sync locked V1 A2 A3 and we control the narration track so it will stay in sync Locking Tracks You can also lock your tracks to prevent accidental changes Locking 1s different from sync locking When you lock a track no further editing can take place on that track You can lock picture and audio tracks Let s say you have several sync dialog tracks and a narration track that are all in perfect sync with the video track and you need to work on your music and sound effects tracks You can lock the picture narration and Soweto F dialog tracks Now you don t have to worry about messing up those Dolly by He tracks while you work on your music and sound effects tracks sates armratit To lock and unlock tracks l Dolly by He 1 Select the tracks you want to lock and deselect the others Dolly by He From the Clip menu choose Lock Tracks A padlock icon appears in the track lock indicator space Choose Unlock Track to remove the padlocks Figure 15 18 Because you re beginning to take advantage of all the Avid has to offer you re in danger of going out of sync You are adding video tracks for titles and effects and you are adding aud
324. ll your Timeline Figure 12 Windows menu Home This will return your active window usually the Composer or Timeline window to its proper placement on the computer monitor for video playback SuperBin Output Sequence This command simply makes the bin active The name of this command changes depending on the name of your open bin My open bin is named Output Sequence and I am in SuperBin Mode Script Menu All the items in the Script menu deal with Script Integration Script Integration is based on the style of editing commonly used on feature films It is one of the Avid s most powerful features and requires an entire chapter to adequately explain it We tackled all of its features in Chapter 18 Help Menu The Avid offers an online reference tool called Avid Media Help Composer Help which offers many guides that you can scan through if you re stuck Most of the guides presume you know Commoner Hep a lot already but they can be really helpful with complex issues H sai The Shortcuts selection provides a list of keyboard short ine ibrary cuts Read Me connects you to Avid s website for help Learning Resources The Online Library consists of PDF documents basi cally the same as the Help guides but in PDF form Learning iam Resources connects you to tutorials on specific topics About Avid Media Composer that can be helpful or frustrating depending on the quality of the instruction
325. llowing the postings over time It s now hosted by Yahoo You can eas ily find the site by putting the following words in your search engine movies groups yahoo Avid Once there you ll find a link to the Avid L archive which encompasses several years worth of tips and workarounds Creative Cow has an Avid forum that many people new to the Avid have found helpful go to www creativecow net DV magazine has many articles that relate to the Avid and digital editing in general and it also has a useful website www dv com Another website devoted to digital video editing is www digitalvideoediting com which often has interesting columns and product reviews The StudentFilmmakers Magazine and its website have some helpful articles as well Finally a wealth of information about HD and 24p issues can be found at www 24p com hosted by Avid guru Michael Phillips Getting a Job as an Avid Editor If you want to be an Avid editor I suggest that you find an entry level position or internship at an editing facility that uses Avids and works on the sorts of projects you are interested in The Avid User Group in your area may be a good place to start I know it s wrong to generalize about people but it s been my experience that editors are the most down to earth and helpful people in the film and television industry and many enjoy sharing their knowledge Once you get a foot in the door 330 Chapter 21 Present and Future seek out a me
326. lly 136 saving EQ effect 141 speed tips for adjusting 132 synchronization for film projects 322 323 Track Monitors 127 128 volume ramp 135 waveforms 137 138 when to edit 144 145 when to use different audio tools 141 Index Sound effect tracks 144 See also Sound Source Tracking menu 349 Source Monitor basic concepts 12 13 15 16 changing clip volume 131 information display settings 69 loading takes 288 289 menu 30 39 Monitor menu 350 three marks for edits 23 38 39 Tracking menu 348 349 using in editing session 20 24 Window settings 69 Source Track buttons 31 Source Track Selector panel 30 Source Tracks Tracking menu 349 Source Record Editing Toolset menu 12 347 Source Record toggle command 326 Spacebar 18 Speaker icons 34 128 Speakers 6 Special menu 344 347 Splice button 22 23 29 38 Splice Extract Segment Mode button 148 150 Spline effect 220 Split edits 51 52 84 Square pixels 245 Squeeze effect 195 Standard definition See SD standard definition formats Standard HDTV 95 Standard HDTV Raster Type 93 94 Start information Bin column 62 Starting Avid 11 12 Starting editing session 20 24 adding shots to sequence 22 24 making first cut 21 22 Stone Oliver 81 Story structure 84 85 Straight cuts 51 Striped tape 305 Strobe 208 StudentFilmmakers Magazine 330 Style sheets for titles 183 Subclipping 106 369 Index SuperBi
327. lly I don t change levels until I have edited the maii PAW clips into a sequence Most times the sound levels are 1 5 good coming in and the only reason I want to change 9 0 5 0 them is to change the way they work with other tracks ler lord Gang button on and within the sequence as a whole Before I change a clip s volume I want to see how it works with other clips The one time I do change the levels of a clip in the Source Monitor is when I ve brought in sound from Drag the slider a CD Sometime those levels can be quite hot and must up or down be adjusted before cutting them into the Timeline When adjusting clips in the Timeline you will notice that you are only affecting the level for the clip on which the position indicator sits The entire track is not 4 l Figure 8 12 affected by the changes This makes sense when you stop to think about it because often you want to raise one actor s level while keeping another actor s level unchanged Speed Tips There are a couple of tricks that speed up the adjustment process Let s say that A1 and A2 are stereo narration tracks and you want to lower both of them at the same time Click on the gang buttons for A1 and A2 they will turn a bright green As you click on one slider the other moves up and down with it see Figure 8 12 Let s say you want to go back to OdB Sure you could drag the slider back to 0 but that s time consuming Simply
328. log If the deck or camera isn t capable of batch capturing then don t log your tapes but instead use the Capture method outlined in this chapter My advice is to capture from a camera and log from a deck Decks are designed for shuttling tapes back and forth whereas cameras are not 105 Avid Editing A Guide for Beginning and Intermediate Users Subclipping Another strategy that I use a lot involves capturing a bunch of good shots as one master clip and then once they re captured and in a bin breaking them up into smaller subclips For example I might have a single clip that includes a shot of a woman sweeping a street a close up of her and a shot of a crowd of people watching her It was faster to capture this as one big clip than as individual clips but it will make editing much easier if each shot is separated from the others and given its own name It s easy 1 Double click on the clip s icon to place it the Source Monitor 2 Play the clip and mark the IN and OUT points for the first shot 3 Mac users Press and hold the Option key and then click and drag and drop the picture from the Source Monitor to the bin in which you want to store the subclip Windows users Simply click and drag the picture from the Source Monitor to the bin in which you want to store the subclip Drop it in the bin 4 Repeat for the other two shots Notice a couple of things When you click and start to drag the clip in the Source Moni
329. lot of motion This GOP system is tough on desktop and laptop editing machines because when you hit Play the Avid has to fill in the shells with all of that material The ability to select HDV as a raster type when capturing makes HDV editing much easier on the Avid All Those Pesky Frame Per Second fps Rates As you ve noted some of the HD DVCPro HD and HDV formats offer several different frame per second rates It s all very confusing even to people who deal with it every day Let s take the 720p HD format Inside the camera this format is always recorded at a rate of 59 94 fps but you can select 23 976fps for a film look The camera flags frames while recording at 59 94 fps When you select 720p 23 976 in the Avid Format menu the Avid brings in those flagged frames and not the others giving you 23 976 fps Another bit of confusion comes when various manufacturers use 23 98 or 23 97 when what they really mean is 23 976 They re rounding 23 976 up or down but it only makes things more confus ing Or worse they ll say 24 when they really mean 23 976 What Sony calls 23 98 Panasonic calls 24pN and the Avid calls 23 976 Yikes Let s face it the world of HD would have come a lot sooner if these techies were just a little bit more plain talking Here are some helpful tips regarding frame per second rates for those who live in an NTSC world 1 Standard definition video runs at 29 97 fps but it is often called 301
330. lows you to specify an edit duration and locate all edits of that duration or shorter in the timeline Lock Bin Selection Lock Tracks When working in bins Lock Bin Selection lets you lock bins so they can t be changed Lock Tracks lets you lock one or more tracks This is especially handy as you get to the end of your editing phase and don t want a lot of work dislodged inadvertently A padlock symbol appears in the track selector box in the Timeline Unlock Bin Selection Unlock Tracks This command unlocks the bins or tracks Output Menu This menu brings up tools useful for sending your final sequence out to the world Output Special Tools Digital Cut Digital Cut This command opens the tool that sends your sequence out Export To Device gt to tape We concentrated on manual recording to tape as well as using Haier ER ilmScribe the Digital Cut Tool in Chapter 19 EDL Export To Device This opens a submenu for exporting a sequence to an HDV device an XDCAM device or a P2 device i l l l l Figure 8 Output menu FilmScribe This Tool is for film projects that will be finished on film It keeps track of a film s key numbers so a negative cutter can match the film cuts to the Avid cuts EDL This launches the EDL software that creates an Edit Decision List of your sequence so an online version can be created The EDL shows the start and end timecode for each shot in your sequence 343 Avid Editing A Guide for
331. lume slider or the pan slider 4 Go to the Audio Mixer Tool Fast menu and drag down to Set Level On Track In Out or Set Pan On Track In Out Set Pan On Track In Out AD WD oo ay Adjust Pan Vols On Track In Out Gang button iF Sg Remove Cip Gain On Track IVOut Remove Pan On Track In Out b amp 8a2450 bbs S b amp 8Srs006585 eee Ta l kba uooti j Figure 8 14 If you want to affect the entire track rather than the area inside your marks don t place any marks Instead do the following 1 Remove any IN and OUT marks 2 If you are changing more than one track click the track button and gang button for each track to gang the tracks together 133 Avid Editing A Guide for Beginning and Intermediate Users 3 Raise or lower the volume slider or the pan slider 4 Go to the Audio Mixer Tool Fast menu and drag down to Set Level or Pan On Track Global set Level On Track Global Set Pan On Track Global The Audio Mixer Tool is ideal for making changes to Figure 8 15 entire clips or large segments of your audio however the Avid has a host of other tools to help you manipulate and analyze your audio Audio Data Click on the Timeline Fast menu and you ll either see several audio tools Xpress or a menu item called Audio Data Media Composer with a submenu listing audio tools Audio Clip Gain gives you a way to graphically see the decibel level at which y
332. luminance mode and the Curves mode You choose one or the other by clicking on the tab If you make adjustments in one mode then Figure 14 27 go to the next mode and make Click here on the tab to get Curves Controls J Choose either Controls w Hue Offsets or Hue Offsets additional adjustments the changes are cumulative I think its easy to make a mess of things by jumping from one mode to the next Try to use one and make all your changes there The HSL group itself has two tabs Controls and Hue Offsets So in a sense there are three different ways of attacking a color correction or exposure problem Controls Hue Offsets and Curves e Hue Offsets This is the group of tools you see as soon as you open the Color Correction Tool and it looks the most daunting In fact this is easy to use and the one I use 80 of the time to correct all of my exposure and color problems e Controls This is also much easier than it looks and the one I use whenever I want to increase or decrease the saturation intensity of the colors in a shot 223 Avid Editing A Guide for Beginning and Intermediate Users e Curves This is perhaps the most difficult to master It works a lot like Curves in Adobe Photoshop so if you re used to using Curves in Photoshop you might prefer Curves though I believe the first two are easier for beginners to master Automatic Color Correction The Avid s Color Correction Tool
333. m You re looking for a small stack of perfume scented letters Aren t you Kate Figure 3 19 Kate Yeah actually I am Imagine that when you spliced it in you left Tim too long so that we actually hear Kate s off microphone dialog The tail of Tim s shot needs to be trimmed by about a second In Single Roller Trim Mode it s easy To get into Trim Mode Go to the transition Lasso the transition point including all of the audio tracks or press the Trim Mode key Click the cursor on Tim s image the rollers jump to the left of the transition ee ee ae Click three times on the trim by ten frames key lt lt to trim 30 frames from the end of Tim s shot 5 Press the Review Transition button Now watching the cut you see that Tim finishes his line and we ve removed Kate s off microphone dialog To get out of Trim Mode do one of the following 1 Click the mouse in the timecode track TC1 at the bottom of the Timeline 2 Press the Trim Mode button again 3 Press either of the step one frame buttons Undo in Trim Mode You can undo and redo work in Trim Mode If you made several trims keep pressing Undo until you are back where you started Frame Counters The frame counters in the Trim Mode display show how many frames you have added or subtracted to the segment If you press the trim keys that point left lt lt or lt the numbers will be negative If you press the trim keys that po
334. m keys that are on the keyboard Examine Figure 3 27 As you can see the keys on the keyboard are identical to the trim keys in the Trim Mode display Press the Review Transition button and as the transition point loops around press the trim keys on the keyboard with your fingers while keeping your eyes on the screen Watch and trim watch and trim until the shot works Figure 3 27 03 Avid Editing A Guide for Beginning and Intermediate Users Let s try it 1 Get into Trim Mode 2 Choose a side that you want to work on either the A side or the B side 3 Press the Review Transition button 4 While the transition is looping hit the keyboard trim frame keys lt lt lt gt or gt gt When you re just starting this exercise you will want to hit the trim by ten frames keys gt gt or lt lt so you can see a big change What happens is that the Avid makes the trim and then shows you what the new transition point looks like You can keep hitting the trim keys until the cut looks right You can go in either direction depending on what works Go ahead and try this For example let s say you are trying to fix the head of Tim s shot to give him just the right amount of pause before he Say you press the Review Transition button and then click the lt lt key lengthening his shot by ten frames As the loop plays you see it needs even more so you press the lt lt key again Now you like the length
335. matically those changes are added onto the set tings you ve already made Remember do your gross adjustments first using the Audio Mixer Tool then work on the quality of the sound with the EQ Tool and then fine tune the levels with the Auto Gain 141 Avid Editing A Guide for Beginning and Intermediate Users What Level is Correct The Audio Tool is the final arbiter when it comes to setting levels I usually have the Audio Tool open whenever I make any volume adjustments It used to be that the reference level was always 14dB on the Audio Tool Figure 8 30 left That means that 14 on the digital scale on the left was equal to 0 VU on the analog scale But with the movement to all digital audio most profes sional post production companies and television stations are now using 20dB as their reference Figure 8 30 right This gives more headroom meaning you can boost audio without worrying about overmodulating or distorting the audio 14 dB 20 dB Figure 8 30 Reference Level When editing my sequence together if I m using the 14 reference I will try to have normal conversation fall within the 25dB to 12dB range on the digital scale Loud sounds will then have room to be louder peaking at 4dB for the loudest shout or bang but I won t let any of my levels get higher than that Place your average sounds at the reference level and let your loud sounds use the headroom but never let anythi
336. mera format was 4 OLO Gaffer s Delight SKaufman 720p 29 97 HDV Bins Settings GS Format Usage e Choose 1080i 50 if your camera format was 1080i 50 _ Prodeet Types po TO60159 94 Seer 30i NTSC HDV 720p 29 97 Choose Standard in the Raster Type menu Video 1080i 59 94 Open the bin containing your HDV sequence Go to the Clip menu and select Consolidate Transcode Figure 17 19 When the dialog box opens select Transcode ee Project Type 1080i 59 94 Raster Type ss Standard Choose a target drive to hold the new media ae Se er a a In the Target Video Resolution pulldown menu e Ifyou chose 10801 59 94 in step 1 choose DNxHD 145 e If you chose 720p 29 97 in step 1 choose DNxHD Standard 110 or DVCPro HD Viso DVCPro HD Raster Dimensi XDCAM HD HDV e If you chose 10801 50 in step 1 choose DNxHD 120 e Click Transcode Figure 17 20 279 Avid Editing A Guide for Beginning and Intermediate Users Have an HD Year With the Avid s ability to capture and edit all flavors of HD and HDV and its ability to trans code to one of many SD formats or resolutions we are able to create both high definition projects and standard definition projects Finally the roadblocks that prevented us from shooting HD are removed As editors it s important for us to stay ahead of the technical curves that come our way so we can give advice to the producers and directors who approach us se
337. mes many hours It can also be frustrating I suggest you start by burning a very short sequence no longer than a minute to work the kinks out Oh and you should have more than one DVD R available Unlike a videotape you don t want any bars and tone and no countdown or anything before the start of the project Just a second of black use Add Filler at Start from the Clip Menu and then the sequence Send To b Make New Import z Import XDCAM Proxy DigiDelivery Import P2 gt Digidesign ProTools Digidesign ProTools on Unity DVD Encoding Refresh Media Directories QuickTime Reference Load Media Database Tsay YTY Figure 19 19 313 Avid Editing A Guide for Beginning and Intermediate Users 1 Launch Avid 2 Load the sequence to be burned Make sure all effects have been rendered and all tracks have been selected 3 Click on the sequence in the bin so it is highlighted 4 From the File menu choose Send To gt DVD gt QuickTime Reference When the Send To QuickTime Reference dialog box opens Figure 19 20 let s save it to the desktop In Destination click Set and navigate to the desktop Send To QuickTime Reference Filename DYD Set Destination Macintosh HD Users com ftv loaner Desktop Setar __ Auto Launch iDVD app a Auto Load Exported File s Z Reveal Exported File s Options Ii Export Setting 1 QuickTime Reference v _ Options 4 Figure 19 20 5 Check th
338. might want to export frames or sequences from the Avid e Create a production still for publicity purposes You could export a still frame from a sequence retouch the image in a program such as Photoshop and e mail it to festivals asking you for production stills e Export part of a sequence to After Effects make changes and reimport it into the Avid e Export a QuickTime movie for posting on YouTube or MySpace or your company s website e Export to a DVD We will examine this option in Chapter 19 To really learn about exporting you need to be familiar with the software application you are exporting to Often you will be exporting files to applications such as Pro Tools After Effects 249 Avid Editing A Guide for Beginning and Intermediate Users Photoshop Maya and countless others If you don t have much experience with these applica tions ask for help from the graphic artists sound engineers and animators living in your area who work with the software application on a daily basis Preparing to Export There are several things you should do to make sure your export goes smoothly e If you are exporting a sequence or the audio tracks from a sequence you should duplicate the sequence before initiating an export Create a new bin for the duplicate and export it If any thing goes wrong you have an original to return to e If you re exporting a frame you do not have to duplicate anything e
339. moving them PETER Everyone knows who you the star of this pictu T el oe oe al The take line indicates the portion of the script covered by that clip Figure 18 5 Adding Takes The process of adding takes to an existing slate is a bit different Instead of highlighting the script you simply drag the next take right on top of the slate This next take adds a second little box at the bottom 285 Avid Editing A Guide for Beginning and Intermediate Users If you want to see the take number appear in the box below the slate and you do you must create a column for the takes The clips in the Dailies bin have the take number listed as part of the clip name so you can use that information in the take column you create Takes don t show up in Brief View so you need to switch to Text View Go to the Bin menu and select Headings In the list of headings find the Take heading and click on it to select it Click OK In the bin scroll to the right and find the Take column heading Click on it so the entire col a a umn is highlighted and then drag the column all the way to the left next to the Name column Now enter the take information by clicking in the column Figure 18 6 AGriefe Text ofremes eSeript Start 1 Master Shot 01 00 01 26 1 Master Shot P U E 01 02 40 08 01 034 mm I Tk2 2 01 03 29 04 01 04 mm I Tk3 3 01 04 25 20 01 05 Gm tatTkS 01 05 27 05 01 06 Figure 18 6 Let s add takes to a s
340. music a narra tion track and several sound effect tracks to your dialog tracks you can easily need 6 or 7 audio tracks This command instantly creates a new track on the Timeline New Meta Track A meta track contains information that can be imbedded in the sequence Time line Web links closed captioning advertising and product information are all examples of meta material New Title This command opens the Title Tool which you use to create titles 340 Freeze Frame This command opens up a list of freeze frame lengths 1 second 5 seconds 10 seconds etc and creates the freeze frame of your choice Center Pan Selecting a clip in a bin and then selecting this command will center the audio Default Pan Returns the panning to the clip s origi nal panning Batch Capture This opens a dialog box that leads you through the process of capturing selected clips Normally you use this command after you have logged a number of clips When you log a clip you have set the IN and OUT timecode for the clips but you haven t captured them We examined this in Chapter 6 Batch Import Some projects contain a great many imported files such as graphic and animation files Batch Import makes it easy to make changes to files on another computer or with different software and then bring those changed files back into the Avid Consolidate lets move media files to other drives which means you Consolidate Transcod
341. n rendered are real time effects The effects with no green dots are the complex effects Once you place that effect in the Timeline a Realtime ehh blue dot will appear and you must render the effect ioe Mosaic Effect to see how it works rendered ea Paint Effect The Media Composer also comes with effects cre _ Figure 13 11 ated by Avid as well as by other companies that spe cialize in visual effects such as those effects listed under the category of Illusion FX Edge Wipe Flare Film Ee FluidBlur Plug in effects olorMap EZ FluidMorph Iris Ed Kaleidoscope Figure 13 12 These are called plug in effects All of the icons for plug in effects look like electrical wall outlets These are not real time effects they are quite complicated and they take a long time to render We will stick with the real time effects first before we tackle the more complicated ones 197 Avid Editing A Guide for Beginning and Intermediate Users Effect Editor So far we ve looked at some fairly straightforward effects As you can see it s not all that difficult to apply an effect to either a transition or a segment in the Timeline Now let s look at how effects can be changed in significant ways by the use of the Effect Editor Almost all effects have parameters which are specific features that can be altered or adjusted For example you might have one shot on the sc
342. n Sometimes it s obvious how long to hold a shot If the shot is of a specific action you ve got to hold the shot until the action is finished For example if someone is putting a cake into an oven you don t want to cut before the cake is safely on the cooking rack But everyone knows that The ones that are tricky involve the length of a cutaway or the how long to hold on a person who 1s talking or how long to hold a static shot or a reaction shot My students know there is no one answer just as they know there are no rules What they are really asking is How do you learn timing The answer is to learn to really watch You make the cut the way you think it should be and then you watch it And you watch it again and you pay attention to the timing Is the cut too fast Too slow Confusing Does it increase the energy of the scene or drag it down You try adding and shortening the shot until it s just right The Avid boasts a powerful feature called Trim Mode and when you re in Trim Mode you can quickly and easily lengthen or shorten the shots in your sequence This is the tool that has made the Avid the television and film industry standard and it s the main reason it will make you a bet ter editor Remember the key to being a good editor is having the ability to really watch In Trim Mode you can cut and watch at the same time Sounds incredible and it 1s 41 Avid Editing A Guide for Beginning and Intermediate Users Trim
343. n enabling 15 opening 15 21 28 using 60 61 SuperBin icon 61 Superimpose segment effect 201 202 S Video output 7 269 307 Switching Trim Modes 52 57 SxS memory card 122 123 Symphony Nitris DX 331 Sync Point Editing Special menu 344 Synchronization 231 240 locators 233 235 locking tracks 240 multiple track problems 232 233 out of sync 37 out of sync indicators 37 problems in Single Roller Trim Mode 55 56 problems with 231 233 sound for film projects 322 323 source of problems 232 sync break indicators 232 sync locks 236 240 syncing rushes 323 325 tips 326 327 trimming in two directions 155 158 235 236 T Tab key and scripts 289 Take lines 287 Take tabs 286 Takes adding 285 286 adjusting lines 287 288 deleting 288 loading and playing 288 marked 293 294 playing 293 294 Talking head interviews 85 Tape formats 264 267 information in Bin column 62 naming tapes 99 outputting to 302 308 370 Target bin 100 172 Target drive capturing 100 311 for new media 274 276 279 rendering effects 190 Target Video Resolution menu 274 276 279 TC1 timecode track 43 Techniques of Film Editing The Reisz and Millar 329 Telecine transfer systems 308 instructions for unsupervised transfer 321 322 work orders 320 322 Television monitor 6 Templates EQ 140 EQ Tool 140 Export As 250 252 saving effects as 204 Ten frame trim keys 46
344. n Unity Unity connects scores of Avid stations to one another on a network DVD This menu item creates a QuickTime reference movie of your sequence for use by DVD software We discussed this in Chapter 19 Encoding This item will send your sequence to encoding software mounted on your computer such as Sorenson Squeeze Avid DS This is Avid s most sophisticated turnkey system and this menu item is for sending your sequence for polishing and finishing on an Avid DS Audio Vision Like Pro Tools Audio Vision is an audio editing system that locks digital video in sync with audio for audio sweetening This menu item helps you send your sequence to Audio Vision 335 Avid Editing A Guide for Beginning and Intermediate Users Import Import is the flip side of Export You use Export to send files you created in the Avid to other computers You use Import to bring all sorts of files into your Avid We spent some time learning how to export and import in Chapter 16 Import XDCAM Proxy XDCAM 1s a tapeless storage system used by some Sony cameras This command helps bring XDCAM files into the Avid Import P2 Many of the latest HD cameras from Panasonic store media on P2 cards The Avid can import the files using this command This workflow is detailed in Chapter 7 Refresh Media Directories If you remove a media drive from the Avid or delete a lot of media files you will want to let your Avid figure out what is still availab
345. n a line and then Shift click to include more lines You ll find lassoing text is the best way to go Now let s follow these easy steps 1 Select the part of the script that the first clip covers by lassoing the script lines with the cursor That portion of the script becomes highlighted gray 2 Go to your clips bin select the first clip and drag its icon from the bin onto the highlighted area of the script A slate or frame from that clip will appear above the highlighted text as shown in Figure 18 5 The slate will show a frame from that shot and include the name of the clip and it will have a box at the bottom to show different takes Once you ve placed the first clip onto the script you will want to drag any additional takes on top of that slate Drag the clip icon to the highlighted area and release A slate appears gria He 15 a sna BLectric work background JOANNA a grip remo MICHELE POWERS a young actress enters and looks at Joanna JOANNA Excuse me O1 i 01 05 27 05 49 01 1 Joanna leaves Hearing Joanna sp 1ATKS i Michele FETER Can I help you Miss P He starts to descend the ladder 08 57 17 IDTk2 01 10 13 16 1ETK 1 01 11 34 14 IETK2 01 12 35 25 1ETkK 3 01 13 41 00 IF Tki 01 14 49 06 IF Tk 01 15 06 14 1FTK 3 01 15 27 27 I1GTk 1 01 15 44 21 iGTk2 01 16 31 05 MICHELE Oh hi there I m Mich She walks toward the him holdin he s wearing work gloves b re
346. n editing session 23 24 Undo Redo List Edit menu 39 40 336 Uninterruptible power supply UPS 6 7 Unity MediaNetwork Avid 331 344 Unlock Bin Selection Unlock Tracks Clip menu 343 Unlock Tracks Unlock Bin Selection Clip menu 343 Unmount File menu 121 336 Unreferenced precomputes 309 Unrendered title 180 Untitled Sequence 22 64 Upper Field First Odd setting 246 Uprez 107 308 312 UPS uninterruptible power supply 6 7 USB flash drives 169 User profile 67 68 User settings Avid Users folder 170 copying 170 saving 170 saving on removable drives 67 68 Users folder 170 V V toggle Title Tool 176 177 Van der Ryn Ethan 126 Vectorscope 223 Video background for titles 176 177 Video channels 101 102 Video information Bin column 62 Video Mixdown Special menu 344 Video Monitor icon 34 Video Output Tool 307 Video Placement Tool Title Tool 188 Video Quality button 272 304 307 Video resolution 102 capturing 106 107 importing 242 media creation 271 272 shooting on film vs video 317 318 target for downconverting 274 276 279 uprezing offline sequences 308 312 Video Track Monitor icons 34 Videotape player See Decks Videotapes 8 View Timeline 32 35 Views of bins 14 15 60 Voice over narration 85 86 150 Volume sound See also Sound Audio Mixer Tool 130 132 changing on multiple clips 133 134 creating volume ramp 135 fix
347. n on the Timeline row of buttons If you are connected through a Mojo DX or Nitris DX there is no toggle button 306 Chapter 19 Finishing Select DNA or 1394 Figure 19 8 4 In the Timeline bottom toolbar click on the Video Quality button and choose all green for the best quality 5 If you are Eomneces through an Avia O O Video Output Too hardware device and you are going to an analog deck or out through the analog output connections select Output pulldown menu Tools gt Video Output Tool and select either the SD or HD tab depending on your project format Figure 19 9 Select from the Output pulldown menu choices Figure 19 9 SD for Component Composite or S Video HD for Component YPbPr or HD Component RGB 6 Open the Digital Cut Tool from the Clip menu 7 In the Output Mode pulldown menu select the choice that is appropriate Figure 19 10 The choices depend on whether you are connected through an Avid hardware device DNA or Digital Cut Tool Digital Cut Tool RT DV25 RT DVSO v DV25 DVSO Figure 19 10 FireWire or Avid hardware connections directly through a FireWire IEEE 1394 connection RT deals with whether you have effects rendered or not I recommend your render effects anyway Some examples are e RT DV25 or DV25 if you have a deck attached via FireWire 307 Avid Editing A Guide for Beginning and Intermediate Users e RT DNA or DNxHD if you have the
348. name you typed will appear in the bin Logging When you log the tape you are choosing the shots you want to capture marking IN and OUT points but not capturing them Many editors working with decks log first and then capture those clips they ve selected Why Basically it s better to divide your tasks Concentrate first on selecting the shots you want to capture and then later perform the capturing task Separate the wheat from the chaff and then capture the wheat This is the job many of my students have gotten right out of school working at night logging tapes for shows like The Bachelor and Survivor In this method you log the clips you want first and then capture them after they have been logged To get into Log Mode click the Log Capture toggle The pencil icon appears in place of the Capture icon Figure 6 22 Log Capture toggle Figure 6 22 1 Play the tape using the deck controls When you come to the first clip you want go to the beginning and mark an IN Now play the tape until you come to the end of the clip you want Mark an OUT 104 Chapter 6 Starting a New Project and Capturing from Tape 2 Enter a clip name Use names that best describe the Name rs ER TRY E T shot If the shot is of a man on a ladder name the l Cmnt Nice lighting clip Man on Ladder You can add comments as well 3 Now press the Pencil icon The shot is logged in Bin z Tape 001 the
349. nd End work there as well Laptop users may need to press and hold the function fn key in order for the Figure 2 7 Home and End keys to work Snapping to Cut Points More often than not you will use the mouse to get where you want to go either by clicking in the Timeline or by using the mouse to drag the position indicator Often when editing you ll want to get to the end of a shot to mark an OUT or go to the head of a shot to mark an IN But getting the position indicator to quickly land exactly on the beginning of a shot isn t all that easy If the position indicator in the Timeline isn t parked on the first frame and you start splicing you ll have little orphan frames hanging around To quickly jump to the head of a clip in the Timeline press the Command key Mac or the Ctrl key Windows and click the cursor near the transition you want to snap to Iry it To quickly snap to the tail of a clip press the Option Command Mac or Ctrl Alt Windows keys and click near the transition you want 31 Avid Editing A Guide for Beginning and Intermediate Users Position indicator Position indicator snaps to the transition or cut point Figure 2 8 Snapping to transitions Position Indicator e Hold the Command Ctrl key and click near the transition you want you ll snap to the head or first frame of a shot e Hold the Option and Command Ctrl Alt keys and click near the transition you want you ll snap to the tail
350. nd Intermediate Users and choose Save As and when the dia log box comes up name it Sample Plot or Waveform You can also make changes and then igure 8 36 instead of creating a new view replace a view with a new one Select the one you want to change make changes then update by holding down the Option key Mac or Alt key Windows and clicking Replace Edit Mode on the Timeline name You ll see Replace Save As Edit Mode Select the view you want Ein hode to replace from the list and the replaced OB view will hold onto the changes Figure 8 37 I like to have a basic Edit Mode view a Sample Plot view and an Auto Gain view Setting Up Your Tracks With the Avid it s easy to add tracks but you should give some thought to how your tracks are laid out In the Avid s Timeline the tracks go one on top of each other flowing left to right If you have narration it should go onto the topmost audio track A1 Reserve the next two tracks for dialog The sound effects come next Finally your music tracks go at the bottom of your Timeline If you have no narration the topmost tracks will contain your dialog 1 Narration 2 Dialog 3 Sound effects 4 Music Pro Tools The process of moving your audio to Pro Tools is explained in Chapter 16 Tell the Story First We ve examined many of the important techniques and tools at your disposal all of which will help you create clean clear
351. nd OUT Figure 2 2 You can clear your marks by clicking the Clear IN and OUT button Instead of using the command buttons under the Source Monitor use the Mark IN and OUT command keys on the keyboard to set your marks They are the I and O keys It may be slower at first but I think you ll find it faster in the long run Now you must determine where that material will go Click anywhere on the Timeline to make it active Play through the sequence Using the keyboard click on the I key to place an IN mark Remember it takes three marks to make an edit and you now have three an IN and an OUT in the Source Monitor and an IN in the Timeline Count to make E5 z sure you have three Now you have two choices You can select the Splice button or you can select Splice and Overwrite the Overwrite button Figure 2 3 Splice and Overwrite The Splice button inserts material into the sequence at the IN mark and pushes everything after that point downstream The Overwrite button replaces writes over what is already in the sequence with new material Let s say your third shot Kate s CU is a bit too long You can use overwrite to trim the end of the shot while putting in the fourth shot In Figure 2 4 the tail of Kate s CU is a bit long I place an IN mark in the Timeline where I want the fourth shot to go Overwrite will place Tim s CU right at the IN mark and get rid of the tail of Kate s CU 29 Avid Editing A Guide for Begin
352. ne It is used primarily to quickly add voice over narration MetaSync Manager Metadata is extra material embedded in a video or DVD such as subtitles closed captions or links to the Tools Toolset Windows Script New Deck Controller Audio Mixer Audio EQ AudioSuite Audio Tool Ctrl4 1 Audio Punch In MetaS ync Manager Calculator Ctrl 2 Clipboard Monitor Command Palette Ctri 3 Composer ctri 4 Console Ctri 6 Capture Ctrl 7 Effect Editor Effect Palette Ctri 8 Hardware Locators Media Creation Ctri 5 Media Tool Project Ctrl Timecode Window Timeline Ctri 0 Title Tool Figure 10 Tools menu Internet This command opens the tool that lets you place this metadata on the Avid s Timeline Calculator This opens up a special calculator that helps you figure out different film and video durations For instance you could enter a duration in timecode numbers and then calculate the number of feet and frames that would represent in the 35mm film format 345 Avid Editing A Guide for Beginning and Intermediate Users Clipboard Monitor Several actions such as Lift Extract and Paste as well as clicking the Clipboard button will send whatever has been marked in the Timeline to the Clipboard Monitor for tem porary storage This command opens the Clipboard Monitor Once it s open you can splice or overwrite any or all of the Clipboard s contents into the Timeline Command Palette All of the command
353. ng get higher than 4 dB If Pm using the 20dB reference level as shown in Figure 8 31 quiet sounds are around 40dB to 30dB normal sounds from 30dB to 18dB and loud sounds up to 4dB Reference level in dB 50 1 20 Ok i Cancel wail Figure 8 31 Audio Tool set at 20 dB Figure 8 32 142 Chapter 8 Sound To change the reference level click and hold on the PH button on the Audio Tool and choose Set Reference Level Type 20 in the box see Figure 8 32 Other Audio Techniques to Fix Problems When you re working on a cut in Trim Mode you ll pej sometimes hear a glitch in the audio but it s so close to Tim s CU 4 the transition point that you aren t sure which side of P y Figure 8 33 the transition has the sound glitch As you play the tran Tim s CU 4 sition the sound loops around Try this Press the Go to Mark IN key Q on the keyboard The loop will play on the outgoing clip but not the incoming one Figure 8 34 The transition loop plays only the outgoing A side of the transition To hear just the incoming or B side of the transition press the Go to Mark Kate s CU OUT key W on the keyboard This technique allows you to locate spu rious sound glitches Once they have been located you can often get rid of them by using Dual Roller Trim Mode to create a sound overlap Here ICA EGE the glitch is on the A side Create an overlap and the glitch i
354. ng two actors more often than not the director will shoot it several times from different camera angles In the simplest form of coverage there is a master shot of both actors and then individual close ups of the two actors When the close ups are shot one actor is on camera on screen and the other actor 1s standing off screen but saying his or her lines of dialog so the on screen actor has someone to act with During shooting the script supervisor draws jagged lines on the script to indicate off screen dialog You can easily yao PETER add these jagged lines to the script in the Avid MICHELE l I ve seen you on the set the S 1 Lasso the portion of the script where you want couple of weeks beat I m s bored sitting in my trailer 4 day just waiting and waiting gt only those take lines that represent off screen escaped to find you to place off screen marks Make sure you lasso dialog toward the area set up for tha pHbtd shoo 2 Click on the Off Screen button Figure 18 29 Figure 18 28 295 Avid Editing A Guide for Beginning and Intermediate Users Your script will now have a series of jagged lines indicating which lines of dialog were spoken off screen Figure 18 29 PETER He MICHELE I ve seen you on the set the H couple of weeks beat I m sap bored sitting in my trailer al day just waiting and waiting escaped to find you w I Off screen indicators toward the area set up for the Figure
355. ng with making them smaller so I can see more tracks without having to scroll Deleting Tracks It sometimes happens that you need to get rid of one or more tracks Perhaps you ve created more tracks than you need and the extra tracks just take up space on the computer screen To delete a track deselect all the other tracks and select just the one you want to delete Press the Delete key on the keyboard A dialog box will ask if you are sure you want to do that and you click OK If you make a mistake and inadvertently delete an important audio track don t worry Just press Command Ctrl Z to undo the action Deleting tracks works with video tracks just as well as with audio tracks Changing Audio Levels When you capture your audio the sound levels aren t always perfect Often you need to raise or lower the levels once you start editing Changing levels becomes especially important when you begin to add audio tracks and mix a number of sounds together For example you wouldn t want 129 Avid Editing A Guide for Beginning and Intermediate Users your music to drown out the actors voices or to have unintelligible narration because the sound effect track is too loud The Avid provides several tools to help you control the sound levels of your tracks so they work well together Fixing Volume Output Levels Before we change levels let s start by making sure our Output settings are correct The audio you get out of your speak
356. ning and Intermediate Users Tim s CU 1 Kate s CU Kate s CU 00 01 30 02 Kate s CU Kate s CU Tim s CU 1 Tim s CU 1 Kate s CU Tim s CU goes here overwriting the tail of Kate s CU Figure 2 4 Source Monitor Menu Double clicking on a clip icon loads that clip into the Source 2 vare nande fara ri Monitor If you want to put more than one clip at a time into Clear Monitor Duplicate the Source Monitor just Shift click and drag a group of clips to the Clear Menu Source Monitor screen Once the clips have been loaded into the Kate s CU Source Monitor they are available in the Source Monitor menu Kate s Entrance Wide Shot v Kate s Hands Face CU Press and hold the cursor on the clip name at the top of the Source Monitor screen When the list comes down drag and release on Figure 2 5 the clip you want to open in the Source Monitor Figure 2 5 shows that three clips have been loaded into the Source Monitor The check mark shows which one appears in the monitor The menu lists the clips in alphabetical order One neat trick to remember is that if you hold down Option Mac or Alt Windows while you drag down the menu you will see the clips listed in the order you last used them The Timeline As mentioned in Chapter 1 the Timeline is a graphic representation of the shots in your sequence It is one of the Avid s most intuitive and user friendly features Selecting and Desel
357. nitors try deselecting the Second Row of Info button Turn to pages 348 350 in the Appendix to learn what these numbers mean I like to select the First and Second Row of Buttons which are the rows of commands beneath the Source and Record Monitors Interface Find the Interface setting with the checkmark next to it and double click on it A dialog box Figure 4 17 69 Avid Editing A Guide for Beginning and Intermediate Users like the one in Figure 4 18 opens One setting I like to select is Automatically Launch Last Project at Startup This saves time if you re working on only one project and you don t want to be bothered with picking from the choices when you launch the Avid software Click on the button to make it happen Interface Default General Appearance _ __ Appearance tab t show Labels in Tool Palette E Show ToolTips Delay BEM seconds before showing Choose this to 7 open your a Windows Standard Alt Key Behavior project at C Automatic Num Lock Activation startup t Automatically Launch Last Project at Startup Figure 4 18 If you re not happy with the way your computer screen looks click on the Appearance tab and you ll see that you can change every aspect of the Avid s interface from the shape of the buttons to the color of the bins You can go wild with all these settings Personally I don t want too many bright colors staring me in the face late at nig
358. ns When you are in Frame View this command aligns all of your frames to a grid When you are in Text View this command changes to Align Columns and arranges the columns in nice neat rows Align Selected to Grid Select certain objects in Frame View and only those will align to the grid Fill Window When you are in Frame View this command distributes all of the frames evenly inside the window Fill Sorted You can t sort in Frame View because there are no columns to sort however if you sort a bin in Brief or Text View you can then get into Frame View select this command and have the clips appear in Frame View according to how you sorted them in the other views Select Unrendered Titles As we mentioned earlier titles need to have associated media that repre sents the actual letters and shapes you used in your title If this media 1s accidentally deleted you can recreate these titles This command allows you to select all of the titles missing their associated media in a bin Clip Menu In my opinion the term Clip menu is a bit of a misnomer as many of the commands here don t really have much to do with actual clips I think these commands have a lot more to do with the Timeline But here we go New Sequence Whenever you want to create a new sequence use this command New Video Track This command creates a new video track on the Timeline New Audio Track The Avid can play 24 tracks of audio simultaneously If you add
359. nt concept The bigger the screen the more our eyes are attracted to different parts of the screen Where do we look when we watch a film e We look at the eyes and mouth of the person talking e We look at the part of the frame where there is movement not where things remain still e We look at bright areas before dark ones Pay attention to where your eyes go as you watch a shot Ask yourself What am I looking at right before I cut to the next shot Examine your eye trace Your eyes might start out on the far right of the frame but when you cut there s not much to look at there so your eyes search the frame to find something of interest Your eyes move around the frame to find a face or movement or brightness That movement is called eye trace If youre trying to make a match cut watch where your eyes go when you make the cut If your eyes don t move much at all you ll have a pretty good match cut This is especially important if 80 Chapter 5 A Few Editing Tips there s a continuity problem Make the audience move their eyes very little when you cut The cut will seem smooth and that smoothness will hide the continuity problem Sometimes we want the eyes to move at the cut If Kate is on the left hand side of the frame and you cut to Tim the person she s talking to he should be in the right hand side of the frame see Figure 5 1 Our eyes expect to jump from her to him from left to right like a tennis match
360. nt the watch point to be 157 Avid Editing A Guide for Beginning and Intermediate Users To fix this situation simply click the mouse on the roller at the transi tion you want The position indicator jumps to that transition and the watch point moves to the correct spot Remember the last transition you select is where the watch point will fall Practice this technique See what happens when the watch point 1s wrong Move the watch point so the transition you want to trim is shown in the Trim Mode display Here Not here Slipping and Sliding os oe Figure 10 5 Slip and Slide are power editing features that affect clips in the Timeline They are unique versions of Trim Mode Slip Slip is particularly handy Say you have spliced a section of a master clip into the Timeline and after playing the sequence you see that the section of the clip you used just isn t right Maybe you put your IN and OUT marks in the Source Monitor a bit too early Without Slip the only way to fix this would be to mark the clip in the Timeline and choose a new IN in the Source Monitor Press Overwrite and you ve replaced the clip with a different section of the clip If it still isn t right try it again With Slip you don t need to go back to the Source Monitor You can change the clip in ie a ae the Timeline What you re doing is chang _ The rest of the clip ing the IN and OUT at the same time you can slip through Think
361. nt to store the media Se A die Navigate to the files you wish to import select them and click Open Working with Imported HD Media Editing these imported files is now straightforward and no different from editing media captured from tape Just follow all of the Avid tips and techniques outlined in this book We will explore more advanced HD workflows in Chapter 17 In Chapter 19 we ll explore ways to output these projects to tape DVD and other media 124 Chapter 8 Sound The Importance of Sound Many videomakers and filmmakers don t realize just how important sound 1s to the success of a project It s a visual medium is the common wisdom handed down as gospel Well half right 1s better than all wrong I ve organized a number of film festivals and served as a judge at others and while I have often been amazed by the stunning cinematography on display in student projects just as often I ve been dismayed by the poor quality of the sound I think what separates a student project from a professional project is the lack of care that students give to their sound tracks On most films and videos the only sound you care about during shooting is the sync sound the dialog or words spoken by the subjects A good sound recordist works really hard not to record the ambient sounds the traffic people in the background footsteps and so on Yes ambient sounds are vitally important but you add them during editing
362. nt to work on Trim Mode and then click the Trim Mode key Because it is Command key so useful the Trim Mode command is located on the Timeline toolbar beneath the Splice Media Composer keyboard ST Ee EE Overwrite commands and on the U key on the keyboard Figure 3 1 The Trim Mode command To help explain what happens when trimming editors talk about the A side and B side of the transition The A side is the outgoing shot and the B side is the incoming shot Because we have a sequence involving two actors we will place Kate s CU on the A side and Tim s CU on the B side so you are sure of what you re looking at in Figures 3 2 and 3 3 As you ll see when you press the Trim Mode command two things happen First the Composer monitor changes you are no longer looking at the Source and Record Monitors Instead the last frame of the A side Kate s CU appears on the left and the first frame of the B side Tim s CU appears on the right Second you will see colored rollers appear on both sides of the cut point 42 Chapter 3 Trimming A side This is the last B side This is the first frame of this segment frame of this segment often called the Tail often called the Head ie ie Saad Figure 3 2 Tiim Mode display in the Timeline You are seeing the Trim Mode display and you have entered Dual Roller Trim Mode It s called this because there are rollers on both sides of the cut point Now that
363. nto your project Beneath the Source Moni tor 1s a position bar with a posi tion indicator and beneath that is a toolbar with buttons Figure 1 20 Source Monitor Position window pimini Toolbar Figure 1 20 15 Avid Editing A Guide for Beginning and Intermediate Users The toolbar contains buttons that carry out commands Click a button with the mouse and that command is executed The three command buttons in the middle are left to right the IN edit mark the Play button and the OUT edit mark Record Monitor The Record Monitor shows you what is in your sequence it shows what you have created by edit ing clips together Just like the Source Monitor it has a position window position indicator and toolbar Figure 1 21 shows the Source Monitor and Record Monitor together Compover re wi ee nF eras iin soup eo Birra BNN Figure 1 21 Source Monitor and Record Monitor Timeline The Timeline Figure 1 22 shows a graphic representation of the shots in your sequence in track form V1 A1 A2 A3 A4 The Timeline has Source and Record track selectors Scale and Scroll bars and a blue position indicator L Scale and Scroll bars P Source and Record indicator track selectors Position Figure 1 22 16 Chapter 1 Getting Started Commands You will instruct the Avid to do what you want through commands Some of the commands are offered as buttons below the mon
364. ntor and ask her or him to teach you what she or he knows in exchange for loyal and dependable assistance Ask 1f you can get on a machine after hours to try your hand at cutting the day s work Employee turnover at some post houses can be amazingly fast and you may find your self moving up the ladder quickly You need to demonstrate four things your reliability your pro ficiency with the equipment your ability to please clients and your creativity You ll find that the order of importance varies from company to company Other Avid Products Avid offers a full range of products on both Macintosh and Windows platforms We have concen trated on the Media Composer family including Mojo and Nitris DX hardware The next prod uct up from a Media Composer system is the Symphony Nitris DX which offers all of Media Composer s capabilities plus more real time HD and SD options The mother ship in this post production stream is the Avid DS Nitris which allows multistream 10 bit uncompressed HD editing You can even take HD datastreams that are too large for HD tape formats and bring them in as 2K 4K files The Avid Storage group offers a variety of storage products many of which work with its shared storage software Avid Unity MediaNetwork works with as many as 46 client stations and up to 40 TB of storage while the Avid Unity ISIS system can connect to 330 clients Either system per mits groups of Media Composer Symphony and Avid DS
365. o capture you ll need at least 120 GBs 107 Avid Editing A Guide for Beginning and Intermediate Users Audio Sound takes up a fraction of the storage space required by video so you don t have to worry about running out of media drive space whenever you capture sound However there are a couple of issues we should address before we move on Audio Sampling When audio is captured the signal is sampled and then converted to digital information Sampling means that not all of the sound is converted but a representative sample of it is The more samples that are taken the better the fidelity or faithfulness to the original analog signal Compact discs use 44 1 kHz as their sample rate The trend today is for higher quality such as 48 kHz That is the Avid s default setting and the one I recommend you use With digital tapes the sample rate 1s determined by the camera Many digital cameras let you choose the sample rate before you shoot so set it on the highest rate available Don t assume it is set on the sample rate you want If you don t see 48kHz look for 16 bit audio and set your camera on that not 12 bit Useful Settings Let s look at some useful settings that relate to capturing Remember as we discussed in Chapter 3 to change settings look in the Project window click on the Settings tab and then double click on the name of the setting you want to change Let s start with Audio First double click on the
366. o important effects aren t found on the Effect Palette freeze frames and motion effects Freeze frames are given special status and are found in the Clip menu You work from within the Source Monitor to create freeze frames The only trick is choosing a render method Just follow these steps to create your first freeze after you ve done it once you ll be able to do it in your sleep 1 oF ge ee In the Timeline go to the tail of the shot you want to freeze and put the position indicator on the last frame Remember in the Timeline use Option Command click Mac or Ctrl Alt click Windows in the position indicator to jump to the clip s tail frame Click on the Match Frame command see Chapter 10 page 164 and the clip will appear signee Fy in the Source Monitor with the last frame l a marked by an IN Go to the Clip menu and click and hold on Figure 13 33 Freeze Frame Scroll to the bottom of the menu and keep holding the cursor to open the Two Field Freeze Frames pulldown menu Choose Using Both Fields see Figure 13 34 Now you must go to the Clip menu again click and hold on Freeze Frame and choose a length Click OK A new clip is created labeled Clip name FE It automatically opens in the Source Monitor Mark an IN and an OUT in the Source Monitor In the Timeline go to the first frame of the next shot and mark an IN Select all your tracks by clicking on the Record Track selectors Spl
367. o make es ae aoe ONS Figure 4 15 informed choices For now let s open up some of the items that are the most use Bin Settings Current ful at this stage in the learning process Bin Settings When you double click on Bin in the Settings list the dialog box shown in Figure 4 16 opens We made changes to our Bin settings when we opened it in Chapter 1 to enable SuperBins The other choices provide you with options for backing up and saving your work Your work is important and any bugs or glitches that suddenly crash the system and wipe away your morning s work could be upsetting To avoid such a calamity the Avid Figure 4 16 68 Chapter 4 The Project Window has an Auto Save feature You determine at what time interval the Auto Save kicks in The default setting is 15 minutes I prefer 10 minutes so I typed in 10 There 1s also a feature called Inactivity period the Avid will wait before it saves if you are really editing like crazy Genius should not be interrupted Set it to 15 seconds and it will wait until you ve paused in your work for 15 seconds before beginning the Auto Save But what happens if you never pause that long That s where Force Auto Save comes in It will interrupt you to force a save no matter what you are doing You can always save manually Remember Command S Mac or Ctrl S Windows The attic is appropriately named It s a place on the computer s internal drive where the old vers
368. o make changes to the Auto Contrast I can change the Gain or Setup by dragging the sliders Figure 14 32 To make finer adjustments click on the left or right arrows to increase or decrease the amount of change Slider and arrows Enable buttons Click on and off to see changes ke tia tl al Figure 14 32 Returning to Default Whenever you make a change the Enable buttons turn dark to indicate that a change has been made If you want to see what it was like before you made the change use the Enable buttons to togele on and off the changes you made Compare with to without If you don t like what you have done with any control you can erase your changes and return to the O or default setting Simply Option click Mac or Alt click Windows the Enable buttons Figure 14 32 e Option click Mac or Alt click Windows the individual buttons to reset e Option click Mac or Alt click Windows the group button to reset everything all the settings in that group 226 Chapter 14 Advanced Effects and Color Correction To get a better feel for what I m accomplishing I often go to the Toolset menu and switch to Source Record Editing so I can play the sequence Then I return to Color Correction to continue the work of polishing each shot in the Timeline Saving Your Color Correction Settings You will often want to save a particular color effect to use on another clip in that scene If you have spent a lot of
369. o the second monitor If you use two monitors you want to get out of SuperBin Mode Go to Settings gt Bin and deselect the Enable SuperBin button Naming Clips In the future when you capture your own material for editing with Script Integration you should give some thought to how you name your clips Long clip names such as Over the Shoulder on Peter or Close Up on Hands are easy to read in your bin but don t work as well with the slates which are the heart of Script Integration Try using clip names such as 2D Tk1 to indicate the scene the camera setup and the take because such names will fit more easily on the script page If your clip names are too long the Avid will shorten them but in doing so the Avid might hide important information For the purposes of the book I have used clip names that describe the action to make it easier for the reader to follow On the DVD for those of you who will edit the scene I have used the shorter scene and take numbers such as ID Tk1 Getting the Script into the Avid I use Final Draft the popular scriptwriting software as do many of my students Because Avid and Final Draft have collaborated on Script Integration it s easy to bring a Final Draft script into the Avid If you don t have Final Draft you can save your script in ASCII text format Just choose Text Only with Line Breaks Here is how you save a Final Draft script 1 Open your script in Final Draf
370. oard equivalents are listed in the menu try learning them as they will speed up your work considerably 350 Index 1 78 1 aspect ratio 245 2 3 standard pulldown 318 319 3DWarp Picture in Picture effects 219 229 4 3 letterbox version 277 16 9 Source Record Monitors 69 16 9 to 4 3 Source Record Monitors 277 23 976p NTSC format 92 273 276 24p NTSC formats 92 267 315 322 327 330 24p 25p 251 PAL formats 93 24p com 330 301 NTSC format 92 106 267 273 276 322 327 35 mm theatrical release print 256 320 328 345 44 1kHz sample rate 108 109 48 kHz sample rate 108 109 323 48 048 kHz sample rate 323 180 degree rule breaking 83 601 709 digital video standard 244 245 720p format 94 114 115 265 267 269 720p 24PN camera setting 114 115 720p 30PN camera setting 115 10801 format 94 95 107 115 265 269 10801 30 camera setting 115 1080p format 94 265 269 1280X720 94 245 265 1920 X 1080 94 95 245 252 270 A Acceleration parameter Effect Editor 200 Acquaintances of a Lonely John The 318 Active Palette radio button 72 Active window 19 Add Channel button 98 Add Comments Monitor menu 350 Add Deck button 98 Add Filler at Start Clip menu 343 Add Keyframe Effect Preview Monitor 200 Add Locator button 72 234 Add Page Scene Script window 294 295 Add Script Mark button 290 291 Adrenaline HD systems 107 110 265 266 268 272 279 Advance
371. ob of explaining what you need than Panasonic s own very confusing page The driver software you download should work for the Panasonic camera as well as a variety of Panasonic P2 storage devices such as the P2 Store P2 Drive and P2 Gear 115 Avid Editing A Guide for Beginning and Intermediate Users Importing Directly from the Camera Make sure the camera s media switch 1s on P2 and not the tape function If the P2 card isn t already in the camera insert the P2 card in the slot connect the camera to your Avid computer via FireWire for a Mac or USB 2 0 for Windows and then turn on the camera s power Enter the camera s menu and select OTHER FUNTIONS gt PC MODE and choose either USB Device Windows or 1394 Device Mac Now press the camera s mode button so the screen on the fold out viewfinder changes from the camera mode to the thumbnail images Now press and hold the mode button until a blue screen appears saying USB 1394 Device Connect With Windows you ll get a prompt saying a new disk or device is attached Click OK and then navigate to My Computer until you find Removable Disk F or another letter This is the P2 card in the camera On a Mac the P2 card is identified as a disk on the desktop as No Name Now that you have confirmed that the computer recognizes the camera as an attached device fol 9 low these steps 1 Launch the Media Composer software 2 In the New Project window create a new pro
372. of Slip as working a bit like a con veyor belt Figure 10 6 The whole belt is the master clip and the portion of the belt you are seeing in the Timeline is the section The segment of the master clip in the Timeline you ve spliced in Figure 10 6 You can change the section in the Timeline with Slip As you slip through the footage the length of the clip in the Timeline remains the same When you slip you are adding frames to the head of the clip in the Timeline while trimming the tail by the same number of frames or you can trim frames from the head of the shot while adding the same number of frames to the tail of the shot Dragging the rollers left reveals material that comes before what s in the Timeline your re slip ping toward the head Dragging the rollers right reveals material that comes after what s in the Timeline you re slipping toward the tail 158 Chapter 10 Advanced Editing To get into Shp Mode e Lasso the clip in the Timeline from the right to the left or e Get into Dual Roller Trim Mode and right click the clip segment Choose Select Slip Trim Single trim rollers will jump to the cut points The Source and Record Monitors will change to four screens Figure 10 7 Figure 10 7 The two inner screens are the head and tail frames of the clip you are slipping Master Shot Clip B The far left screen is the tail frame of Clip A and the far right is the head frame of Clip C
373. oice 2 except it marks the clip in the Source Monitor from the OUT rather than the IN Think about it You mark your clip in the Timeline that you want to replace Then you find the shot you want to put in its place Perhaps the end of the shot of the crying baby is what 38 Chapter 2 Basic Editing makes it special So you use an OUT mark rather than an IN mark You ve got your three marks and now you hit Overwrite The shot of the smiling baby is replaced by the crying baby The length of the sequence doesn t change You ve simply replaced one shot with another When I drove a truck for a living I was told that 99 of all trucking accidents occur when back ing up That s the reason why you ll seldom use choice 4 With this choice the material is backed into the Timeline and can end up erasing material you want to keep however this choice is handy whenever you re laying in music as we ll see in Chapter 8 Like a Mantra It takes three marks to make an edit Think about this simple sentence Examine the choices Imagine different situations where you would use each of them Try them out See what I mean Profound Using the Clipboard The Clipboard is one of the Avid s most useful tools You can mark a section in the Timeline with an IN and OUT and then place it into the Clipboard by pressing Lift or Extract or the Clipboard icon Figure 2 25 Unlike Lift and Extract which remove the material from the Timeline when
374. ommercials music vid eos primetime television shows that s where Avids are used At today s tuition rates I would be doing my students a disservice by training them on Final Cut and I think Avid finally gets it The decisions it makes the prices it sets and the attention it gives to you the customer show a better understanding of the needs of the editor than ever before But what s important isn t the software we use it s the projects we produce Let s keep pushing our selves to make projects that matter We live in a world that needs more compassion greater under standing and better communication from all of us 332 Appendix Menus Pulldown menus are at the heart of the Macintosh and Windows interface On the Avid a lot of choices and commands are located on the menus Sometimes an item is grayed out meaning it isn t available You will need to select something or do something for that item to come into play Avid Media Composer File Edit Bin Clip Output Special Tools Toolset Windows Script Help O SuperBin Dailies OOC Compose Figure 1 As you will see some of the commands have keyboard equivalents Either drag down the menu and select an item or memorize the key board equivalent and type it instead AO File Edit On a Macintosh the main keyboard About Avid Media Composer Preferences db modifier is the Command key whereas Win
375. on Segment Mode 148 150 152 Line Tool Title Tool 186 188 Lined script 281 Lines in titles 188 Link Current to Toolset menu 347 Live Mode Audio Mixer Tool 130 136 Living with Slim Kids Talk About HIV AIDS 99 147 Load Filler Monitor menu 350 Load Media Database File menu 336 Loading takes 288 Locators Tools menu 346 Locators using 155 233 235 Lock Tracks Lock Bin Selection Clip menu 240 343 Locking tracks 240 Log Mode 100 102 104 Log Capture Mode toggle 100 102 104 Logging clips 104 105 341 Loop Selected Clips Bin menu 340 Loops Play Loop button 47 Lower Field First Even setting 246 Luminance 223 M m mute box in Audio Mixer 136 m2t file extension 123 Macs Avid s future 331 332 fixing volume output levels 130 loading Avid 3 menus and keyboard commands 333 334 operating system 4 Maintain and Resize square Import Settings 246 Maintain non square Import Settings 245 Maintain square Import Settings 246 Make New File menu 335 362 Mapping menu items to keyboard buttons 70 72 164 165 326 Mark Clip button 35 36 38 Mark IN Mark OUT commands 18 19 21 Marking clips basic editing skills 18 21 24 29 dragging to a mark 54 55 single mark editing 163 164 three marks for edits 23 38 39 in Timeline 35 Marquee Tool 175 177 191 Massacre at Murambi 185 256 263 Master Tracking menu 349 Master cl
376. oncepts 9 batch capturing logged clips 105 341 batch capturing offline media 172 173 configuring deck or camera 97 99 connecting equipment 96 99 HD 269 272 Log Capture Mode toggle 100 102 104 logging 104 105 naming tapes 99 No Deck message 97 102 110 on the fly method 103 organizing bins 100 recapturing process 311 312 video resolution 106 107 working with Capture Tool 100 102 270 271 CC tab Command Palette 76 Center Pan Clip menu 341 Center text in title 178 C frame 318 Change Sample Rate Clip menu 341 342 Channels adding 98 audio video Capture Tool 100 102 Check Decks 102 Chrominance 223 Circle Tool Title Tool 186 Clapstick synching 324 326 Clear IN button 19 29 Clear Menu Monitor menu 350 Clear Monitor Monitor menu 350 Clear OUT button 19 29 Clip Browser Software Sony 122 Clip Gain Audio Data 134 Clip menu 340 343 Clip Mode Audio Mixer Tool 130 Clipboard 39 Clipboard Contents Monitor menu 350 Clipboard Monitor Tools menu 138 337 346 Clips in bins 14 deleting 65 66 354 marking 29 35 38 39 naming 283 renaming 14 selecting 60 Clone Paint effect 213 215 Close All Bins Windows menu 348 Close Bin File menu 334 Color computers vs television 245 title shadows 182 Color bars 247 248 302 Color buckets 227 228 Color Correction 220 228 automatic 224 226 color buckets 227 228 Curves mode 223
377. one shown in Figure 16 15 The only difference is that I have changed the WIDTH X HEIGHT to 720 X 540 and selected TIFF as my Graphic Format Let s go through them to see why they were chosen 250 Chapter 16 Importing and Exporting Export AS Save As CU Jane tif m Type a name for your file here Where W Desktop Choose to save your file to a disk flash drive or desktop Export Setting Macintosh Image d Choose from a list of templates Click to get the Options box to open Figure 16 13 Export As on the Mac Export As Save in J Removable Disk G __ Gaffer s Delight DesktopPrinters DB aj Wanna Trade ALE _ JRESOURCE FRK sa FILEID L Trash FINDER J Wanna Trade Gaffer s Delight Script Desktop DB OpenFolderListDF_ a Desktop DF ka Wanna Trade _ Title gt File name Rough Cut 8 01 bmp Save Cancel Export Setting Windows Image Figure 16 14 Export As on Windows 1 In the Export Settings menu Graphic is chosen because we asked for the Macintosh Image or Windows Image and the Avid knows it s a graphic file 2 Because we are exporting a specific frame Use Marks is selected Remember we placed an IN mark in the Timeline on the frame we wanted to export 3 In the Graphic Format box we want TIFE 251 Avid Editing A Guide for Beginning and Intermediate Users Export Settings Macintosh Image SHK Pulldown menu let s you select
378. ooking more than a bit disgruntled so we overwrite just her picture somewhere over Tim s CU But where should it go Using Slide we can move it along the Timeline until it is placed perfectly As you can see in Figure 10 9 we can move Kate s reaction shot so it comes more toward the end of Tim s dialog drag it right or more toward the start of his dialog vous Figure 10 9 160 Chapter 10 Advanced Editing To enter Slide Mode e While holding down the Option key Mac or Shift Alt keys Windows lasso the clip from right to left e Get into Dual Roller Trim Mode and right click the clip segment Choose Select Slide Trim from the pop up menu To get out of Slide e Click on the TC1 track or e Press the Trim Mode button J K L Trimming This is one of the greatest editing innovations of all time Some people call this trimming on the fly You don t use the trim keys lt lt and gt gt instead you trim as you play using the J K L keys in Trim Mode Let s first try J K L trimming by working on the A side or B side of a transition but not both 1 Lasso a transition and then get into Single Roller Trim Mode Make sure the rollers are on just one side of the transition 2 Press the J or L keys your transitions will lengthen or shorten as you watch 3 When you see the frame where you want to end the trim press the K key or the spacebar When you first try this things can get confusing so slo
379. or Script window 296 Set Font Edit menu 337 Set Level Pan On Track Global Audio Mixer Tool Fast menu 134 Set Level Pan On Track In Out Audio Mixer Tool Fast manu 141 Set Level Pan On Track In Out Audio Mixer Tool Fast menu 133 Set Reference Level Audio Tool 142 Setting up sound tracks 144 Settings 66 74 audio 108 110 bin settings 68 69 Composer 69 deck camera configuration 97 98 interface settings 69 70 introduction 66 67 keyboard settings 70 72 kinds of 68 saving screen set ups 73 track color 73 74 user profile 67 68 Settings Fast menu 68 Settings window 68 Shadow Depth Selection box 178 179 Shadows titles 178 179 183 184 Shape Wipe effect 196 Shared Avid Projects folder 168 Shared project 89 Shift Selected Items Bin menu 338 368 Shortcuts desktop 11 keyboard See Keyboards keyboard shortcuts Shot log 327 Show All Takes Script menu 296 Show Phantom Marks Special menu 344 Show Sifted Bin menu 339 Show Unsifted Bin menu 339 Shuler Donner Lauren 317 Simpson Claire 81 Single effects rendering 209 Single Frame Import setting 247 Single frame keys 32 Single mark editing 163 164 Single frame trim keys 46 47 Single Roller Trim Mode 44 48 See also Trim Mode changing to Dual Roller Mode 52 getting into 44 45 J K L trimming 161 162 practice 48 49 Review Transition button 47 switching modes 57 sync locks 236 240 sync
380. or last frame of a shot Practice this technique until it s automatic Single Frame Keys To move a very precise amount click on the single frame keys the a frame left and right arrow keys on your keyboard Each click will move i you one frame forward or backward Hold down either key to creep in slow motion Figure 2 9 Changing the Timeline View There are times when you want to see a Timeline view of the entire sequence and there are times you want to view just the section you are currently editing Obviously if you have a show that is an hour long and involves a thousand cuts showing the entire Timeline isn t useful Click on the Timeline Fast menu to open because all you ll see is black lines For _ a Figure 2 10 editing purposes you will want to look at a specific edit point or five or six shots The ability to control what you see in the Timeline is obviously important There are several ways to control how much of your entire sequence is shown in the Timeline 32 Chapter 2 Basic Editing The Timeline Fast Menu The Timeline has a Fast menu that contains a number of options that allow you to change the Timeline s appearance and the view of your sequence Just click and hold on the Fast menu button and the Fast menu opens More Detail a6 Less Detail 36 Show Every Frame Show Entire Sequence 3 Try selecting More Detail and Less Detail The Zoom In and Zoom Back are the only ones that a
381. ord in sync with a film camera running at 24fps or 25 fps in a PAL country because that is the sync sound speed at which all film cameras run A Nagra recorder will be set at 60 Hz and a DAT recorder will be set to record at 30 fps And again always use non drop frame if the recording device has timecode as most do Remember that your film will then be slowed down in the telecine from 24 to 23 976 fps It will be slowed down by 0 1 Your audio therefore will also have to be slowed down During 322 Chapter 20 Shooting on Film Cutting on Avid post production your audio must be captured at a speed that is 0 1 slower than when it was recorded otherwise it will not stay in sync with the picture that has been slowed down during the telecine transfer To do this you will need to slow your Nagra down by 0 1 and transfer the sound into the Avid by using a device that slows the Nagra down from 60 Hz to 59 94Hz 0 1 I bought one of these devices from Equipment Emporium in Mission Hills CA www equipmentemporium com They call it the TX 8 59 94 Crystal and it is a snap to use If you recorded with a DAT recorder you will need to feed the DAT a video signal of 29 97 while capturing into the Avid This will slow it down by 0 1 At Boston University we use a Sound Design 702T digital recorder that records audio onto Compactflash memory cards Instead of recording the sound at normal speed and then slowing it down as with a
382. orrection Tool Remember that color correction is one of the final steps in the editing process Wait until you have gotten to picture lock or at least to a very fine cut before doing serious color correction As we ve said before tell the story first and make the important editing decisions Then when you are fin ished editing add things such as color correction titles music and sound effects When the Color Correction Tool opens make sure that the video track containing the clips you want to correct is selected and all the video tracks above it are deselected In other words if you want to correct the clips on V1 make sure V1 is selected and any other video tracks such as V2 or V3 are deselected 221 Avid Editing A Guide for Beginning and Intermediate Users As soon as you select Color Correction in the Toolset menu you ll see three monitors showing you three segments or clips in the Timeline see Figure 14 23 Color correction is relative Changing the color of one clip without seeing how it looks in comparison to other clips would be a mistake because shots in the same scene would not match The middle monitor shows the segment that the position indicator in the Timeline rests on in this case the Master Shot of Kate and Tim That s the segment whose colors you are changing The left hand monitor shows you the clip just before it and the right hand monitor shows you the clip just after it Move the position ind
383. orting HD Graphics 272 Mixing SD and HD in the Timeline 212 Using Transcode to Make a SD Version 273 Downconverting HD Master Clips to SD 273 Relinking to Your HD Media 274 Downconverting an HD Sequence to SD 2715 Squeezed 276 Switching from 16 9 to 4 3 Source Record Monitors 217 4 3 Letterbox Version 24 XIX Contents Pan and Scan Effect Crossconverting HDV to HD Have an HD Year Chapter 18 Script Integration Hollywood Style Editing An Example Using Two Monitors Naming Clips Getting the Script into the Avid Linking Clips to the Script Adding Takes Changing the Appearance of the Slate Adjusting Take Lines Moving Slates Deleting Takes and Slates Loading and Playing Takes The Tab Key Script Marks Placing Script Marks Manually The Fastest Way ScriptSync Playing Marked Takes Looking at Your Coverage Page and Scene Numbers Find Script Off Screen Dialog Only One Take Line Color Lines Identifying the Preferred Take Other Menu Items A Select Few Script for Gaffer s Delight Chapter 19 Finishing Online or Offline Checking Your Audio Outputting to Tape Connecting and Powering Up a Deck or Camera XX 217 279 280 281 281 202 282 283 283 284 285 287 287 238 238 238 239 239 239 291 299 294 294 295 295 296 296 297 297 297 298 301 301 301 302 303 Crash Recording to Tape Using the Digital Cut tool to Record Sequence Timecode Changing the Sequence Timecode Opening the Digital Cut
384. oth tracks simultaneously Simply select both tracks as shown in Figure 8 20 and the keyframes you place will appear in both tracks You may find that you have placed the keyframe in the wrong place You can easily move your keyframes so they affect the sound at a precise point To move a keyframe 1 Hold the Option key Mac or Alt key Windows 2 Click the mouse on the keyframe you want to move and drag it to the new spot Figure 8 20 Keyframes 135 Avid Editing A Guide for Beginning and Intermediate Users Add two more keyframes further down the clip in the Timeline and drag the fourth keyframe this time up You have now created an audio dip To delete a keyframe e Bring the mouse pointer over the keyframe you want to remove and when the cursor turns into a hand press the Delete key on the keyboard If after you have placed keyframes in the Timeline you deselect Auto Gain from the Timeline Fast menu the keyframes disappear but a single small red keyframe sits on the clip to show that key frames are in place Placing Keyframes Automatically As mentioned you can place the keyframes automatically This method imitates the way a mixer in a mixing studio works you are making changes and recording those changes in real time I don t use it that much because I m not a professional mixer and I find it moves too fast for me but you might like it From the Tools menu get the Audio Mixer Tool Click on
385. otice the mouse cursor now looks like a white menu 3 Click on an empty command button on the Timeline or open the keyboard from the Settings tab and click on for example F6 Wherever you click will darken to show it s ready 4 Now bring the cursor to the Bin menu and select AutoSync You ll see that the abbreviation Au appear on the Timeline command button area or F6 on the Menu to Button Reassignment keyboard 5 Close the Command Palette Figure 20 12 Now after Shift clicking on the two subclips as explained _ Timeline in step 10 on page 325 just press the Au button and the AutoSync tool will appear When you re finished synching close the Synched subclips bin you re through with it and then double click the Synched Takes bin icon in the Project window it will open in the SuperBin area Figure 20 13 326 Chapter 20 Shooting on Film Cutting on Avid and you re ready to start editing Finally press the Caps Lock key to turn off digital scrubbing It slows the Avid down when it is left on Finishing Back to Film Most features are cut on an Avid and have been for many years That s because the Avid has the abil ity to return the frames per second rate to 24fps inside the Timeline You are editing at precisely 24 fps the rate at which the camera shot the film and the rate at which the film will be projected As we know when film is transferred to video it is slowed to
386. ou can usually add one via an add in card Media Drives In the past all media drives were external to the computer but today many computers have large internal drives that store media efficiently Whether you store your media on an internal or external Chapter 1 Getting Started drive make sure you have 160GB or more But even if your computer comes with 160GB or more of storage it s often a good idea to store your project and media on an external FireWire drive That way you can carry your media to another Avid if your computer goes down or is needed else where How large should your external storage device be Here size does matter You can store only about 4 hours of DVCPro high definition HD footage on a 160GB drive Many people start with 320GB and go up from there mia z Jpn rn nun aah et aee Figure 1 4 Media Composer on a MacBook Pro with an external FireWire media drive The Dongle The Avid comes with a special key on a chain called a dongle You attach it to the CPU by inserting it into one of the USB ports Without the dongle you can t launch your Avid software The dongle prevents software piracy and enables certain functions or extras you may have purchased Monitors It used to be that the Media Composer was designed to work with two computer monitors and the Xpress was designed for one Now it s your choice Some people switch back and forth When they are on the road they use a portab
387. ou have marked with the position indicator If you want to find the source clip for a clip of narra tion make sure that is the track selected If it s a picture then make sure you select the video track Mapping Menu Items to Keyboard You can place any command located on any menu onto any key on the keyboard or onto any of the command buttons For instance the command that opens the Title Tool which we use to create titles is at the bottom of the Tools menu If we are creating lots of titles as we will in Chapter 12 it would be handy not to have to go to the Tools menu and drag all the way down to the bottom to get it It would be great to place the menu command on a key so we can quickly call up that tool Open your keyboard by going to the Settings window and double clicking on the active keyboard You ll see most of the keys on the keyboard are already mapped with commands but if you hold 164 Chapter 10 Advanced Editing down the Shift key the real one not the one on your Avid screen you ll see that there are many blank keys We are going to place the Title Tool on Shift T You ll notice that the T key already has a command on it one that s not very useful Yes I could map to another key that s blank but Shift T for title is so easy to remember i A J Fa We won t need this until we get to Chapter 12 but then we ll find it very helpful Open your keyboard from the Settings window the one w
388. ou have set each clip It also shows you if the volume on a clip has been changed Audio Data gt None Select the tracks in the Timeline you want Clip Color gt Energy Plot to see and then go to the Timeline Fast Track Color gt Sample Plot menu select Audio Data and then choose Show Locators gt v Clip Gain Clip Gain Figure 8 16 Horizontal lines Show Track gt Auto can ai l l Auto Pan appear in the Timeline showing the clips Mara Maeail aol that have been changed Figure 8 16 Clip Gain If you enlarge the audio tracks by select ing the track and pressing Command L Mac or Ctrl L Windows or by stretching the track with the mouse decibel reference lines appear Figure 8 17 Normally you enlarge your tracks to this size only when you are making critical sound level adjustments and you want to see the relation ship between your setting and the 0 dB line To be honest I don t use Clip Gain very often But I use Auto Gain all the time Tim s audio Kate s audio level Jg level e Figure 8 17 Clip Gain Auto Gain Instead of using a slider to change the level of an entire clip the Auto Gain Mode uses keyframes to set and adjust levels within a clip It is sometimes called volume rubber banding I use it most often when I m working with music because I need to lower the music when someone is about to speak 134 Chapter 8 Sound You can either
389. ouds in the sky The wind blew the leaves along the ground we see leaves blow across the ground This is called Mickey Mousing long story You re repeating the information twice Try to find footage that amplifies the narration so the audience gleans more information rather than showing exactly what the narration describes But be careful that you don t undercut the narration If the narrator says We owe it to our children to give them a cleaner less polluted world don t show smokestacks billowing out pollution That undercuts your narration A shot of kids swimming in a mountain lake would work better Short is Better than Long Too often filmmakers crafting their first projects think that longer 1s better yet festival judges film curators and busy agents greatly prefer short and tight Guess what the maximum length is for a short film submitted to the prestigious Cannes Film Festival It s 15 minutes Anything longer is disqualified Put yourself in the seat of a judge at a film festival trying to put together a program of shorts All things being equal if you can select four 30 minute films or six 20 minute films you ll pick the six films every time Put another way everyone can find 10 minutes to watch your 10 minute film but ask someone to watch your 45 minute film and it s a harder sell Don t get me wrong If your film is a powerful hour long documentary that s great There is no correct length
390. ound tracks Take advantage of that capa bility It ll make a huge difference in the success of your work Importing an MP3 File or Audio From a CD To practice some of the techniques in this chapter it will help if we have additional sound elements such as sound effects from a sound effects library temp music for editing or music cues from your composer Importing audio files is incredibly easy Chapter 16 deals with importing graphics and motion video 1 If you re importing an MP3 file place it on the desktop to make this easy If you re importing from a CD place the CD into the computer s CD drive If iTunes opens quit it 2 In the Avid open a bin and click on it to make the bin active Now choose Import from the File menu 3 When the Select Files to Import dialog box opens navigate to the CD or the desktop and find the CD or MP3 file 4 Select the CD track or MP3 file you want to import If the file is dimmed select Any Documents 1n the Enable menu Mac or All Files in the Files of Type menu Windows 5 Click Open The import will take less than a minute and when the file comes into your bin it will look like an audio master clip Double click the clip s icon to put it into the Source Monitor We ll soon learn to cut it into our Timeline Adding Audio Tracks When you add sound effects and music to your sequence those sounds require their own sound tracks Music often has stereo tracks so you
391. oup AutoSequence Custom Sift Sift Selected Items Set Bin Display Reverse Selection Select Offline Items Select Media Relatives Select Sources Select Unreferenced Clips Loop Selected Clips Select Unrendered Titles Figure 6 Bin menu MultiGroup This is an advanced feature that lets you use the Avid s MultiCamera editing fea tures Most situation comedies are cut this way AutoSequence If the original videotape has no audio as with a film to tape transfer you can bring in the sound sync it up and then use this command to put the synched audio back onto that videotape Custom Sift This command opens a dialog box in which you set various options and parameters for sifting through a bin to find clips you want to locate You can sift by name creation date tape duration and so on Sift Selected Items Shift click to select items in a bin and this command will show you only those selected items and hide everything else 338 Appendix Menus Sort Sort Again We spent some time in Chapter 4 discussing this command It enables you to choose a column in a bin and sort all the clips alphanumerically by that chosen column After you have sorted it will change to Sort Again Show Sifted During sifting this command displays only those items in a bin that meet the sift cri teria All others are hidden from view Show Unsifted This command restores the unsifted items for viewing Se
392. our home or office computer The name comes from the Avid Editing A Guide for Beginning and Intermediate Users trim bins used to hold strips of film in the days of film editing The Avid recognizes that you might be starting an ambitious project involving the creation of many bins each holding up to 100 clips and provides sophisticated search and find tools to help you locate just the shot you are looking for Now that you have organized the material it s time to edit Edit When you open up a master clip think of an entire shot from head to tail and select a part of it to be included in your project you are making your first cut The Avid calls any material that is cut together a sequence You create a sequence by editing together clips In traditional film editing the editor starts by putting together an assembly which includes all the clips that might appear in the final film spliced together in the right order You could call your first sequence an assembly sequence Once you have assembled the material the next stage is to create a rough cut in which the clips are placed in the right order and trimmed to approximately the right length You might name this a rough cut sequence Because the material is digital sequences are easily duplicated You might create a sequence on Tuesday duplicate it on Wednesday morning and start making changes to it At any time you can open up the Tuesday version for comparison As you get
393. our project the one you named 7 Insert a flash drive into the computer s port e g USB for that type of storage device 168 Chapter 11 Saving Your Work 8 When the flash drive icon appears on the _ Avid Projects Cu desktop drag or copy the project folder containing your project name onto the flash drive see Figure 11 2 The computer will automatically begin to copy to the flash drive Now eject the flash drive That wasn t so hard Remember to do it daily You should backup your project folder at the end of every editing session and then rename the latest version with the current date so you can easily find the one with the most recent changes All the project settings sequences and bins includ ing all your titles effects clips subclips and audio clip information everything is copied to your backup disk Open the most recent folder and you ll see that everything associated with the project has been backed up onto the backup disk as shown in Figure 11 3 It is important to note that no media files none of the digitized picture or sound are copied to the backup device Only the information the Avid has created about the project is copied but that s usually all you need USB Flash Drives USB flash drives also called travel drives come in all shapes and sizes My one piece of advice is to buy a thin one I know there are some slick looking drives shaped like ani mals or ones that doubl
394. out electricity common sense suggests that you plug the CPU the computer monitor and the media drives into this backup system which provides a stable Chapter 1 Getting Started electrical current and will keep everything running in case of a power failure The idea is not that you keep editing but rather that you use the backup power to save your work and then shut down your system If you do not get a UPS at least get a surge protector Input Devices Many people use their cameras to capture tapes into their Avid system using a single FireWire cable This is especially true with HDV cameras Although an added expense a deck becomes a necessity whenever the camera is needed elsewhere The Avid website maintains a list of supported devices that work well Go to the page that lists specifications www avid com products mediacomposer If the page moved as they often do search Avid s website www avid com For capturing mini DV and DVCAM tapes I really like the Sony DSR 11 deck which can handle NTSC and PAL DV tapes Avid sells external interfaces such as the Nitris DX and Mojo DX Both allow you to capture and play uncompressed HD signals The Nitris DX is shown in Figure 1 6 It offers sophisticated HD compression and decompression together with a huge variety of In Out connections so you can connect your computer to digital and analog audio and video recorders You can record to and from just about any deck including VHS S Video
395. own in Figure 2 27 You ll see a list of your actions If you ve been working for a long stretch you may have up to 32 actions in the list Find the one you want to Undo or Redo and select it from the list Just remember that all previous actions those actions above it on the list will also be undone Who said you can never go back in time Suggested Assignments File Edit Bin Clip Output Special Tools Toolse Select All Tracks HA Deselect All Tracks RA Figure 2 27 Undo Lift HZ Unda Lift Undo Mark Out Undo Mark In Undo Splice in Undo Mark Out Undo Mark In Undo Extract dimen hinari Phat 1 Duplicate your sequence Change the name of the duplicate version to Rough Cut and add today s date 2 Practice Snapping to Cut Points 3 Change the Timeline view using the Timeline Fast menu the Focus button and the Scale and Scroll sliders 4 Use the Mark Clip command to select segments in the Timeline and then use the Lift and Extract commands Note the differences 5 Place material in the Clipboard and Splice and Overwrite it into the Timeline 40 Chapter 3 Trimming Whenever I m teaching a class on editing one of the questions students often ask me 1s How do you know how long to hold a shot The first time I was asked that question I gave the worst pos sible answer I said I don t know beat You just know I ve given the question a bit more thought since the
396. own in Figure 4 9 The dialog box provides a list of things you can delete If you have selected a sequence the sequence button is checked Click OK You ll probably delete a lot of sequences in the course of your work Let s face it not everything is worth saving But think twice before you delete a master clip Remember that a master clip is the shot Its your footage or sound It has two parts the master clip itself which contains all the time code information and the media file which is the captured material on the hard drive If you have selected a master clip for deleting the buttons will not be checked You have to click inside the button to check off your choice You can delete either the master clip or the media file s or both This is an important decision Lets look at why we might want to delete any part of a master clip Let s say you select a clip in one of your bins and press the Delete key Figure 4 10 shows the dialog box that appears Here are your choices 1 If you want to get rid of the shot because it s worthless you will never use it and you want to permanently remove it then check both boxes Delete master clip s and delete associated media 65 Avid Editing A Guide for Beginning and Intermediate Users file s The clip and its media file are deleted Yes the footage still exists on your source tape or P2 card but the Avid doesn t know anything about it 2 If you are running out of
397. ows Color Correction the tools you ll find most useful when performing common edit a Source Record Editing ing tasks such as capturing videotapes color correcting your shots l l l fee Effects Editing or adding visual effects You could open these different tools indi Audio Editing vidually but it is often easier to do it with one flick of the cursor Capture Full Screen Playback Color Correction This opens a series of tools that allow you to Screen Playoack make very detailed adjustments to the color of a clip in your Save Current Timeline We examine color correction in Chapter 14 Restore Current to Default Source Record Editing This gives you a Source Monitor and a Link Current to Record Monitor It s the mode we have been using throughout this book Figure 11 Toolset menu Effects Editing When you select this menu item the Effect Pal ette opens showing you all of the visual effects available to you The Effect Editor also opens Audio Editing This opens the Audio Mixer Tool which can alter or improve the quality of your sound Because you are working with clips in the Timeline you don t need the Source Monitor just the Timeline and the Record Monitor so the Source Monitor disappears Capture When you select this editing mode the Capture Tool opens so you are ready to begin capturing tapes into the Avid Full Screen Playback This command changes the Avid interface so the sequence plays on the entir
398. ox I tell the Avid how long I want that master clip Single Frame Import to last The default is 10 seconds That s plenty for a single image Figure 16 9 Importing a Graphic with an Alpha Channel Alpha Let s try importing a couple of graphic images Both are titles for Wanna Trade and like the Big Cat picture both are in the Import Images folder on the DVD that comes with this book One has an alpha channel and the other doesn t Import the Wanna Trade Title first Follow the instructions on pages 243 244 for importing a graphic file Figure 16 10 c Use Existing Invert Existing Ignore Now import the file called WannaTrade Alpha When you get to step 9 in the Options dialog box select Invert Existing in the Alpha box After you click Open in the Select files to Import dialog box you ll get a prompt from the Avid saying the file has layers Select Flatten Layers You will have two imported titles in your bin Wanna Trade Title has an opaque black back ground and it can t be superimposed over another image but Wanna Trade Alpha has a Matte Key effect You can place that on V2 and it will superimpose over an image because of its alpha channel Try it Importing Color Bars Let s import something else Normally when you send a sequence to videotape you put SMPTE bars at the head of the tape so a video engineer can use them as a reference to properly set up the playback monito
399. peaker icon 128 Home Windows menu 348 Home key 31 Horizontal Bands 196 HSL hue saturation luminance mode 223 HSL Controls 228 Hue 225 See also Color Correction Hue Offsets tab HSL group 223 I key IN mark 18 21 24 IDVD 253 313 I Frames 267 iLink 4 Illusion FX effects 197 Import File menu 126 241 336 Import P2 File menu 116 121 336 Import settings Project window 109 Import User or User Profile User menu 67 68 170 Import XDCAM Proxy File menu 336 Importing 241 249 Alpha settings 246 247 Aspect Ratio Pixel Aspect settings 245 246 aspect ratio pixel shape 244 245 audio 126 basic concepts 9 color 245 color bars 247 248 302 Color Levels settings 246 computers vs television 244 245 countdown for tape output 302 303 directly from camera 116 117 File Field Order settings 246 graphic files 243 244 graphic with alpha channel 247 HD graphics 272 HDV media 123 124 MP3 files audio from CDs 126 options 245 247 from Panasonic HVX200 113 119 QuickTime movie 248 249 selecting files 241 Single Frame Import setting 247 from Sony XDCAM EX 122 123 IN marker 18 21 24 See also Marking clips In the Blink of an Eye Murch 329 Incoming shot 42 Independent Film Channel 317 In Out Tracking menu 349 Inpoints Sync Selection 325 Input devices 7 Installing AVID 3 Interface Avid basic concepts See Avid settings 69 70
400. picture 219 Avid Editing A Guide for Beginning and Intermediate Users Now let s look at our old friend the Position X axis parameter in the same 3D Picture in Picture Because this parameter is part of the 2D version it has two keyframes In the graph in Figure 14 21 I dragged the one on the left down off of its base its 0 00 position The second keyframe hasn t moved from its standard position What happened because of this simple change is that the picture starts on the left hand side of the frame and moves to the center of the frame and stays there The position indicator in the graph is placed to show that the picture has traveled most of the way Drag this keyframe down to move the picture to the right Figure 14 21 The combined effect of these small changes to two parameters is a smooth crawl and rotation of the picture inside another picture An ad shown recently on television showed a credit card doing exactly this The advertising agency probably paid 50 000 for this ST a E Add Keyframe Delete Keyframe move and we ve done it in seconds Notice that the slopes of the lines in the graphs are not straight as they are in our 2D version Compare Figure 14 17 to Figure 14 21 They show Position X axes If you right click Shift Control for Mac on a keyframe you ll get a menu like the one shown in Figure Select All Keyframes Deselect All Keyframes Align Keyframes Slip Keyframes Reverse Keyframes 14 22 I
401. porting a High Resolution QuickTime Movie If we want the highest quality export because we are going to give the QuickTime movie to a 3D animator who is using Maya or to a friend who is an expert with After Effects then we need to export the sequence at its native resolution the same resolution we used to capture or import the files or tapes 1 Select the sequence in the bin and choose Export from the File menu 2 Click on Options 3 In Export Settings click on the Same as Source button Once we do that we will be exporting full height and width and at whatever resolution we used to capture our media If our project was captured in DV 25 and we re going to a system that has the Avid DV codec we would select the Use Avid DV Codec box Any system with the Avid installed has the DV codec If the computer it 1s going to Export As eee Ise Enabled Tracks doesn t have the Avid deselect Use Avid DV Codec Same as Source Ba Use Avid DY Codec Use the default settings unless they don t ey Custom work One area where I sometimes have to make changes is in Display Aspect Ratio Figure 16 17 293 Avid Editing A Guide for Beginning and Intermediate Users Sometimes the image I get using native dimensions looks squeezed but by changing the selection to 4 3 square pixel everything works fine Figure 16 18 shows the choices for 4 3 and 16 9 projects 4 Now click Save When you are returned to the Expor
402. problems in 55 56 232 trim by dragging 48 Trim Frame keys 46 47 Site Setting Special menu 344 Skills for basic editing 28 29 marking clips 29 splicing and overwriting 29 30 Slates 282 285 changing appearance of 287 deleting 288 moving 288 Slide Mode 160 161 Slip Mode 158 160 Slow motion 207 Smooth audio scrub 128 129 SMPTE bars 246 247 248 302 Snapping to cut points 31 32 Soft shadows for titles 183 184 Soften Shadows Object menu 184 Soloing tracks 128 136 Sony DSR 11 deck 7 305 Sony HD formats 264 265 266 Sony HDV cameras 266 267 Sony SxS memory card 122 123 Sony XDCAM EX camera 122 123 Sorenson Squeeze exporting MPEG 258 importing into 254 making progressive DVD Blu Ray disc 315 316 Sorting bin columns 63 Sort Sort Again Bin menu 63 339 Sound 125 145 adding audio tracks 126 audio dips 136 Audio Mixer Tool 130 132 audio scrub 128 129 bad sound replacing 143 changing audio levels 129 134 changing volume and panning on multiple clips 133 134 clip gain 134 136 correct level 142 143 deleting tracks 129 editing workflow 10 EQ templates 140 equalization 138 141 finding silence 143 fixing problems 143 fixing volume output levels 130 importance of 125 126 importing MP3 files audio from CDs 126 keyframes 134 136 moving to different tracks 152 153 panning 132 133 patching audio tracks 127 placing keyframes automatica
403. ptSync 291 293 Scroll bar Timeline 16 33 Scrolling Timeline 16 33 tracks 129 Scrubbing audio 128 129 SD standard definition formats downconverting HD sequences 275 279 downconverting to 122 273 274 mixing with HD in Timeline 272 273 project choices 91 93 using Transcode to make SD versions 273 275 SDI serial digital interface 7 111 268 SECAM standard 93 Segment effects 194 196 Segment Mode entering 148 lassoing to get into 44 153 154 leaving 150 Segment Mode editing 147 154 Extract Splice Segment Mode button 148 150 Lift Overwrite Segment Mode button 150 152 moving sound to different tracks 152 153 Timeline settings 148 Select Media Relatives Bin menu 310 339 Select Offline Items Bin menu 339 Select Project dialog 28 89 90 Select Sources Bin menu 340 Select Unreferenced Clips Bin menu 340 Select Unrendered Titles Bin menu 340 Select All Tracks Edit menu 337 Selecting audio tracks for scrubbing 129 clips 60 tracks 30 31 Selection Tool Title Tool 176 177 178 Selectors track Timeline 16 Send To File menu 314 335 367 Index Send To Back Object menu 186 Sequence Tracking menu 349 Sequence icon 22 Sequences Decompose 311 312 defined 10 deleting 65 66 duplicating 35 36 new starting 64 recapturing 310 312 Serial digital interface SDI 7 111 268 Set Bin Display Bin menu 339 Set Color Edit menu 337 Set Col
404. r the motion effect appears as a new clip in the Source Monitor Now you splice or overwrite it into your sequence Reverse Motion This is useful for example if you have a zoom that goes in and you want to make the zoom go out ee Select a clip in a bin that you want to apply a motion effect to and double click In the Source Monitor mark an IN and an OUT on the section you want Press the Motion Effect button on the Source Monitor toolbar Put a minus sign in front of the FPS or percent rate Choose 30 fps if you want it to play at normal speed After clicking on Create and Render cut the new clip into your sequence 207 Avid Editing A Guide for Beginning and Intermediate Users Strobe 1 Select a clip in a bin that you want to apply a motion effect to and double click 2 In the Source Monitor mark an IN and an OUT on the section you want 3 Press the Motion Effect button on the Source Monitor toolbar 4 Click on the Strobe Motion box and deselect the Variable Speed box 5 Update every 5 frames is the default setting This means every fifth frame is displayed creating the strobe effect Try five frames and then try another number 6 After clicking on Create and Render cut the new clip into your sequence Rendering Two Field Motion Effects If you click on the pulldown menu on the Motion Effect tool you see you have four choices when creating these effects as shown in Figure 13 37 This situation arises w
405. r Beginning and Intermediate Users Figure 6 1 Capturing from a DV tape User samkauff 0 Folder Users Shared XpressPro Avid Projects a User Profile lt samkauff Select a Project Day Scene Gaffer s Delight HIY Wanna Trade Scene Figure 6 2 Select Project dialog box After you ve made that decision press the New Project button A dialog box appears First give a name to your project by typing it into the Project Name box The name is often the title of the video or film Next go to the Format pulldown menu Figure 6 3 and choose from the list of formats the one that is correct for you We ll first look at the choices appropriate for standard definition projects 90 Chapter 6 Starting a New Project and Capturing from Tape 76p 24p NTSC v 30i NTSC 24p PAL 25p PAL 25i PAL 720p 23 976 Standard defintion SD choices 720p 25 720p 29 97 720p 50 720p 59 94 1080p 23 976 1080p 24 1080p 25 1080i 50 1080i 59 94 Figure 6 3 Project Format choices Chapter 17 examines the high definition HD formats in greater detail so if your first Avid project is high definition and you re new to the world of HD you might want to read Chapter 17 imme diately after digesting this chapter Standard Definition Until the advent of HD and HDV all televisions and video equipment were standard definition Where you lived in the world determined which of the three different standards you used NTS
406. r and tape recorder Let s import the SMPTE bars that come bundled with the Avid software This file is already loaded on your computer We will need 60 seconds of this when we learn to output our sequence to tape in Chapter 19 247 Avid Editing A Guide for Beginning and Intermediate Users When you are in your project click on a bin From the File menu select Import The Import window opens Select Graphic as the file type Navigate the Source Files until you get to your computer s internal hard drive You are looking for the Avid Media Composer folder then the Supporting Files folder the Test Patterns folder and then the correct folder for your format Click on the correct folder depending on whether your format is HD 720 HD 1080 SD NTSC or SD PAL Inside that folder you will find SMPTE_Bars tif In Figure 16 11 I pretended my project was HD 720 WN Re rane TE i may cave Colorbars_10upet pet Bowtie tif pick ah i LAA l LD pundie Machine Templates rr HD_720 p i BWRamp tif ey iDisk me i mati ina mo HD_1080 P fM ColorBars tif IDiSk i i j a i ae Leamingnesounces ux OnlineHelp Import_as_601 CCIR txt Col El FT565 amp ua LicenseFiles ii pi Wi i Ual CANOANE A 1 a omen lie asc MultiBurst pet MultiBurst tif El My Stuff amp uo Marquee C Scripts m i p Led fe Ramp1 254 pct i e R 1 254 tif i OnlineLibrary SeriptSyne gt Ga p dai samp o
407. r the Ctrl key Windows The icon changes shape 2 Drag the mark to the correct line in the script and release Moving Slates You might find that a slate ends up obscuring a line of dialog and you want to move it to another place on the script page Just click on the slate with your mouse and drag it left right up or down Delete 2 take s __ Delete marks Deleting Takes and Slates Delete scenes You may make a mistake and put the wrong take on a slate 7 T l eer nans ireal or put the wrong clip in the script To delete a slate or take Mante paga Svea click on it and press the Delete key The resulting dialog box looks intimidating see Figure 18 11 Just press OK The takes in the bin will still be there but the slate here made up of two takes will be removed from the script Figure 18 11 Cancel F _ aa Loading and Playing Takes We still have more work to do before the script is truly integrated and we can take advan tage of all Script Integration has to offer Before we take the next step let s play around a little to get some satisfaction for all our work If you double click on a take line the clip will load in the Source Monitor If you want to select all the takes for a shot just lasso the take lines and they will all be selected Now double click on any take and they will all move to the Source Monitor You can play takes in two different ways You can Play Key use the Play keys or J K
408. rame rate of 23 976 fps If you want your sports program ming to look like video you choose an interlaced HD format running at 59 94 fps If you want your reality TV show to look in between you choose a progressive HD format running at 29 97 fps In fact we can choose from something like 18 HD flavors Let s take a look at some of the differences In the high definition world things are described a bit differently than in the standard definition world First HD formats are described by how many horizontal lines they contain thus we have systems with 720 horizontal lines or 1080 horizontal lines HD formats are also described by the ce 99 way in which those horizontal lines are scanned whether progressive or interlaced A lowercase p CO 99 gt or 1 is added to the number of lines as in 720p or 10801 for identification purposes Finally the frames per second rate is often used to help differentiate between similar HD formats Let s begin our examination of HD by reviewing what we know about standard definition but using HD terminology We ll use NTSC DV miniDV and DVCAM for purposes of comparison building on everything we have learned in the previous chapters DV e Aspect ratio 4 3 e Interlaced scanning e Pixel count 720 X 480 264 Chapter 17 Working in HD e Prames per second rate 29 97 e 345 600 pixels per frame Using HD nomenclature our DV format would be called 4801 29 97 meaning there ar
409. rance Wide Shot 1A1 2 01 16 02 1 01 16 50 05 47 25 p E Kate s Hands Face CU ViAI 2 01 17 04 04 01 17 57 14 53 10 GH Master Shot Kate amp Tim VIAl 2 01 18 00 22 O1 19 41 21 1 40 29 Figure 4 4 Bin Column Selection bin box to see more of the columns At the top of the bin you ll see columns listed such as Name Tracks Start Duration and Mark IN About 30 column headings are available to you in coma ale Text View each providing specific information about Drive each one of your clips You ll notice that not all of the columns are displayed To see all the choices go to the bottom of the bin and you ll see a Fast menu Frame looks a bit like a hamburger Hold it and the Bin AEA menu appears This is the same Bin menu found at loci mai the top of the computer screen One of the choices Mark R is Headings Select it and you will get a dialog box Modified Date like the one shown in Figure 4 5 You can select or deselect headings by clicking on them Some headings are more useful than others and you ll want different headings at different stages of editing Having all of the headings on display is more confusing than helpful Select those you find useful and deselect those representing information you don t need Here are my choices for the early stages of editing Figure 4 5 Duration It s helpful to know the length of a clip Start The clip s starting timecode locates it on the source tape Drive T
410. rding 303 304 Crawl button Title Tool 191 Crawling titles 191 Create Tone Media Audio Tool 302 Create Unrendered Title Media Clip menu 313 342 Create User Profile User menu 67 Creation Date Bin column 62 Creative Cow 330 Crossconverting HDV to HD 279 Curves Mode 223 224 228 Custom Sift Bin menu 338 Cut Edit menu 337 Cut list 327 Cutaway 80 Index Cutting editing process 10 snapping to cut points 31 32 split edits and L cuts 51 84 in titles 179 180 189 191 when to cut 79 80 D DAT recorder 322 323 DAW digital audio workstation 331 Deck controls Capture Tool 101 102 Decks batch capturing logged clips 105 cables 96 97 303 configuring 97 99 269 connecting powering up for outputting to tape 303 Device list 98 HDV sequence to HDV tape 308 Decompose Clip menu 311 341 Default Pan Clip menu 341 Delete Edit menu 337 Delete associated media file s box 65 66 Delete dialog box 65 66 Delete key 65 186 Delete master clip s box 65 66 Delete Media dialog box 310 Deleting bin columns 63 clips using Lift Overwrite 65 66 effects 140 197 keyframes 136 locators 235 sequences and clips 65 66 slates 288 takes 288 titles 186 tracks 129 unreferenced precomputes 309 310 Depth shadow 177 178 Deselect All Tracks Edit menu 337 Deselecting tracks 30 31 Device Special menu 344 Devices input 7 D frame 318 399 Index
411. re tape or the portion you re interested in recording and then use DV Scene Extraction to break each individual shot into subclips automati cally This saves no space on your media drive but it s a really fast way to break what you have into distinct clips Go to Capture Mode This simply opens the Capture Tool so you can capture media from tapes Headings We discussed this command in Chapter 4 If you are in Text View it opens a dialog box that lists all of the possible columns that are available to you You select the ones you want and deselect the ones you want hidden from view Hide Column This allows you to hide selected col umns in Text View AutoSync As we learned in Chapter 20 this is handy when you re working on film projects Film is recorded double system meaning the sound is recorded on a separate recorder and not by the film camera The sound and picture are then joined in sync in the Avid Once synched they can be locked together so sync breaks appear whenever sync 1s broken Group Clips Using this command you can select up to nine clips and then group them together so they act as one master clip In Nine Split Display you can see the nine clips often nine different camera angles in the Source Monitor and edit them into the Timeline a ee 2 es 9 Clip Output Special Tools Toolset Wind DV Scene Extraction Go To Capture Mode Cirl 8 AutoSync Group Clips Shift Ctrl G MultiGr
412. reen and then a second image appears inside a box that travels across the first image There are a lot of parameters that you could manipulate to enhance this effect You could for instance give the box a border You could give the border a color You could have the box get bigger as it moves across the screen These are all parameters that you can control with the Effect Editor You can open the Effect Editor from the Tools menu but I usually just click on the Effect Mode button that is conveniently located in several places Let s see what the Effect Editor looks like Effect Mode command buttons Figure 13 13 Click on the Blend category and drag the Picture in Picture effect to any segment in the Timeline Make sure the track is selected Then 1 Place the blue position indicator on the effect s icon in the Timeline 2 Click the Effect Editor button When the Effect Editor opens you ll see that the Record Monitor changes appearance It is now officially called the Effect Preview Monitor and you re looking at just the clip containing the effect not the entire sequence Notice that two keyframes are already set in the position bar see Figure 13 15 Let s examine the Effect Editor The one shown in Figure 13 14 is for the Picture in Picture effect At the top of the Effect Editor you ll see the name of the effect you are editing Inside you ll see the parameters that can be changed Triangle shaped openers give you acce
413. ren t self explana tory When you select Zoom In Command M Mac or CtrlI M Windows the cursor changes Now click and onii F drag across an area of the Timeline with the cursor Let Zoom In 392M go and that s the section displayed in the Timeline Press S22 zawamemeeecromeememmmmmns sic Command Mac or Ctrl J Windows to restore your n Figure 2 11 Timeline Fast menu original view Scaling and Scrolling the Timeline Another way of changing your Timeline view is by dragging the Scale and Scroll bars found at the bottom of the Timeline The bar on the left contains the Scale bar Drag the small slider to the right to zoom in to look at just a few cuts or even just a few frames Try it and see Drag it to the left and the Timeline compresses so you re looking at a much larger percentage of the sequence Scale bar and Scroll bar Figure 2 12 The rectangle on the right is called the Scroll bar which has its own slider You won t actually see it until you drag the Scale bar slider to the right Then it appears because there are clips hidden from view When you drag the Scroll bar slider to the right it shows you a different section of the Timeline You are determining which section of the project is displayed in the Timeline Finally there s the Focus button Figure 2 13 Click once and you zoom are in Click once more and you zoom out Practice changing your Timeline views using all the choic
414. ress Stop Using the Digital Cut Tool to Crash Record To do a crash record using the Digital Cut Tool is quite simple To make the process easier I sug gest you record about 10 seconds of anything or nothing onto the tape This puts timecode onto the tape and makes the process easier If you have a deck put it in Local Mode and simply press the Record or Play Record button If you have a camera just shoot something with the lens cap on After about ten seconds you can hit Stop and then rewind the tape Now follow these instructions 1 Connect the deck or camera to your Avid system turn on the camera or deck and then launch the software 2 Place the deck s Remote Local switch on Remote ignore this if using a camera With your sequence in the Timeline go to the Output menu and select Digital Cut A When the Digital Cut Tool opens select the following boxes as shown in Figure 19 5 Entire Sequence Stop on Dropped Frames and Add Black at Tail Type 00 00 10 00 to indicate you want 10 seconds of black at the end Choose Ignore Time and Crash Record You can t change the DV Offset box Now click on the red Record button At the prompt insert the tape If it is in the deck click Mounted oe Using the Digital Cut Tool to Record Sequence Timecode This 1s the fancy way to record to tape It gives you a frame accurate recording using timecode but it is a lot more complicated than crash recording The Avid acts as the e
415. ring in the Gaffer s Delight Script TXT and practice Gal Kizza s Portrait scene than Wanna Trade and a perfect companion to Chapter 18 Script Integration The DVD also contains a folder called Import Lil Import Images Gaffer s Delight Script TXT ij Gaffer s Delight Media a QuickTime movie of a standard countdown that we ll use in Gal Gaffer s Delight Images which ll explain how to use in Chapter 16 Finally there s Chapter 19 when we send our project out to tape Instructions for Countdown importing the QuickTime file are found in Chapter 16 Figure 1 Contents of the DVD In order to fit everything onto one DVD I created Wanna Trade in the standard DV25 format but I had to use 15 1s for Gaffer s Delight This is a compressed format so the images don t look quite as beautiful as they really are The contents of the DVD will mount on Macintosh and PC platforms and should work with new and old Media Composer software as well as most Xpress systems Instructions provided here explain how to mount these editing projects onto your Avid It couldn t be easier You re simply dragging a folder and some files from the DVD to your computer It should take less than ten minutes to mount a project onto your computer Instructions for Mounting Wanna Trade onto a Macintosh Computer Insert the DVD in the DVD drawer Double click on the DVD s icon When the DVD opens look for the folder
416. ross to the right hand side of the frame To raise or lower the box I manipulate the Y axis keyframes Once I m happy with the movement of the box I close that trian gle and open another set of parameters and adjust those Try Scaling next to precisely adjust the size of the box The advantage of Advanced Keyframes is that it enables you to fine tune one parameter at a time without affecting the other parameters When working with two dimensional effects you ll get two keyframes on each graph If you want to add a keyframe click on the Add Keyframe button You ll automatically get a menu that lets you control where the keyframe will go Examine the choices in Figure 14 18 Add To Active Parameter Add To Active Group Then drag the Add To Open Groups cursor to here Add To Enabled Groups and click Click to add Add To Open Graphs keyframe Add To All Parameters Figure 14 18 218 Chapter 14 Advanced Effects and Color Correction Because I normally want to add keyframes to the graph that I m working on and not to others I ll choose Add to Active Parameter I move the cursor to the spot inside the graph where I want to add a keyframe and click to make it active Next I click on the Add Keyframe button Figure 14 18 and the menu opens I drag the cursor up the menu to Add to Active Parameter and click on it A single keyframe is added to the spot on the graph If I had selected any of the other choices I would be add
417. rting media from Sony s memory cards Chapter 14 explains how to use several advanced effects that you will find useful in your everyday work such as Paint and Scratch Removal The Color Correction tool is examined in much greater depth in this edition Chapter 17 is devoted to working in HD and explains how you can easily create SD and HD versions of your sequences using Avid s Transcode feature Chapter 18 explains the use of ScriptSync the voice recognition software that makes Avid s script based editing a breeze Think of this as a textbook workbook and user manual all rolled into one It s written so you can read it while lounging on a couch or sitting in front of an Avid following the book s step by step instructions Suggested assignments at the end of most chapters are there to encourage you to practice the tech niques and skills explained in that particular chapter The DVD that comes with the book contains exercises that will help you master some complex concepts Because each chapter builds on the ideas presented in the previous chapter it s a good idea to practice one set of skills before moving on to the next XXIII Introduction I believe you will learn to use the Avid more quickly if you start by editing a short narrative scene rather than a short documentary project With a script for the scene in front of you you know where you are going and you can concentrate on how to get there To get you started I
418. s our lives Everything has a beginning a middle and an end And every film should too be it a narra tive or documentary Editors often lose sight of this as they grapple with hours of footage and thousands of choices but whether you re working on an hour long documentary with 12 sections or a feature film with 80 scenes everything should fit into the beginning middle or end If it doesn t you can probably cut it out Go ahead throw Memento or Pulp Fiction at me in rebuttal but both started with a beginning a middle and an end the writers simply scrambled them after the story was written Documentary Issues Editing a documentary often means working with talking head interviews or voice over narration With talking head interviews you often cut away from the subject s head to more interesting visual material In television speak that visual material is called B roll For example a pilot talks about the stress of flying a helicopter and while she speaks you cut to a shot of a helicopter making a danger ous Maneuver If you have a lot of talking head interviews I suggest you get the producer to transcribe the audio of the interviews so you have a written copy of everything the subjects say It s so much faster to read through hours of interviews than it is to watch it all over and over again The Media Composer has a way to connect the interview clips to the written transcript a topic we ll explore in Chapter 18 I of
419. s i Cooking in pa Figure 9 6 When you release the mouse the clip moves to the new location Burning Hills oman gets water Cooking in park Burning Hille oman gets water Cooking in park Figure 9 7 149 Avid Editing A Guide for Beginning and Intermediate Users As you can see here Ext Pool is now the second shot in the sequence What was the second shot becomes the third shot Because you re moving segments the length of the sequence remains the same and everything stays in sync You can drag shots in either direction To leave Segment Mode e Click on the highlighted segment button For those of you using Media Composer there s an easier way e Click anywhere on the TC1 track as shown in Figure 9 8 Click on TC1 track to leave Segment Mode Figure 9 8 Lift Overwrite Segment Mode Button This button is much less helpful when moving shots around When you click on the Lift Overwrite button red button and drag your segment it moves the segment you ve chosen fine and over writes the segment it lands on not so fine That s not usually what you want to do Examine Figure 9 9 to see what happens when we use Lift Overwrite to drag Ext Pool to the same spot as we did using the Extract Splice Segment Mode button The shot is lifted from its old position leaving blank fill in its place and is moved to its new position But instead of pushing Woman Gets Water to the third spot it
420. s slowed down by 0 1 to accommodate the color signal film transferred to video had to be slowed down by 0 1 as well If you do the math a speed that is 0 1 less than 24 is 23 976 So film is transferred to video at 23 976 fps What about the progressive HD formats Why are they running at 23 976 fps The answer is that they want the video image to look as much like film as possible so they run the video at film s video rate 23 976 fps the rate film runs at when it s transferred to video Since the film is getting transferred to videotape anyway why continue to shoot film at 24 fps Why not shoot at 23 976 The reason for this is simple Most feature films are going to end up projected on a movie screen and that film projector runs at 24 fps everywhere in the world Types of Timecode We know that each video frame has a unique address its timecode number There are actually two kinds of time code non drop frame and drop frame Figure 20 2 A film to video transfer at a telecine facility 319 Avid Editing A Guide for Beginning and Intermediate Users Non drop frame is used primarily when film is transferred to video so that s why I have waited until this chapter to explain it In fact many people who work exclusively in video know little about the differences between the two As we ve learned NTSC video was slowed from 30 fps to 29 97 in the 1950s and video engineers saw immediately that there was a pro
421. s available to you are contained in the Command Palette You can choose from over a hundred commands and you can map any of them to the keyboard to create a custom keyboard or you can map them to the Source and Record row of command buttons The palette looks like a file cabinet with tabs for categories of commands Move Play Edit Trim FX 3D Mcam Other More Click on the tab for the category you want so you can see all of the command buttons Composer This activates the Composer Monitor window Console This opens the Console window which gives you detailed information about your sys tem including your ID number and model It provides information about bin objects and the sequence in the Timeline It also provides a log of error messages which you might read to an Avid technician who 1s trying to help you solve a problem over the phone Capture This opens up the Capture Tool which we examined in detail in Chapter 6 Effect Editor This tool opens the Effect Editor which you use to adjust the parameters of a visual effect see Chapter 13 Effect Palette This tool opens up a palette from which you can select all of the various visual effects available to you Hardware This tool gives you information about the computer hardware that makes up your Avid This tool also shows you how much space 1s available on your various drives Locators Locators are like tiny colored labels that you can place on any track in the Timeline They help
422. s day My colleagues at Boston University have given me advice and encouragement throughout my teaching career Jamie Companeschi Jose Ponce and Jim Baab all offered invaluable technical assistance and helped my students over difficulties whenever I wasn t there Jamie Jose and DP Bob Demers shot one of the scenes on the enclosed DVD ROM I also wish to thank Mary Jane Doherty Bob Arnold Geoff Poister Bill Lawson Alan Wong and Charles Merzbacher Thanks to Joanna Jefferson Mary Choi Brad Kimbrough and my siblings Margaret Louise and Bruce Kauffmann who were my first friends and teachers Special thanks to former students Kate Shanaphy and Tim Eberle who are Kate and Tim in Wanna Trade And thanks to actors Josh Wingate and Rachel Neuman who play Peter and Michele in Gafter s Delight This book could not have been written without Kate Cress who gave invaluable support and advice every step of the way XXVII This page intentionally left blank Chapter 1 Getting Started The Editor s Job What does an editor do Some say an editor s job is to simply take out the slow parts Others say it s to follow the wishes of the director and to string together the best takes Ask an editor what the job entails and he or she will say it s to breathe life into a film or video or to find and expose its heart and soul Ask that same editor at the end of a long and difficult project and you ll probably hear
423. s gone Figure 8 35 Replacing Bad Sound If we continue with the example of the sound glitch on the outgoing clip what do we do if the sound on the incoming clip isn t a good match and the Dual Roller Trim makes the sound even worse We can easily mark the area where the glitch is located and use Lift to get rid of it but you can t have nothing on your soundtrack You need to replace what was cut out and fill in the blank spot with some sort of room tone or ambient sound Just go to the Source Monitor and put that clip there Now play until you find silence You re not looking for silence really but ambience that matches Simply mark an IN in the Source Monitor and overwrite that ambience into the Timeline replacing what you lifted Timeline Views You can set up your tracks in the Timeline the size of the tracks and whether or not you see waveforms and save those settings All you have to do is fix the tracks just the way you want move your mouse all the way to the bottom of the Timeline next to the Segment Mode keys and then click and hold on Untitled see Figure 8 36 A pop up menu comes up and you can choose Save As In the dialog box type a name such as Edit Mode and click OK Now let s create more views Go to the Timeline Fast menu and select Audio Data gt Sample Plot Notice that the Edit Mode name changes to look like it 1s italicized Click on the Edit Mode name 143 Avid Editing A Guide for Beginning a
424. s labeled Wanna Trade Scene and Wanna Trade Media 1 Open your Macintosh computer s internal hard drive Find the folder called Shared Avid Projects Users gt Shared gt AvidMediaComposer gt Shared Avid Projects Now drag the Wanna Trade Scene folder from the DVD to the Shared Avid Projects folder and release it It should copy 1n seconds 375 DVD Instructions Click on this newly copied Wanna Trade Scene folder and press Command I to open Get Info In Sharing and Permissions make sure you can Read and Write all files Close the Get Info window Now look for a folder called OMFI MediaFiles on your Mac hard drive It should be on the highest level If you don t find one because you have never captured this type of media on this computer create a new folder name it OMFI MediaFiles and place it on the highest level of your drive The spelling OMFI MediaFiles must be exact Go to the DVD and double click on the Wanna Trade Media folder There you ll find 22 media files Select all the media files by clicking on the first and the shift clicking on the last They should all be highlighted Now drag them to the Mac drive s OMFI MediaFiles folder and release see Figure 2 It will take about seven minutes for these 22 files to copy onto the drive _ Macintosh HD 4 b aa 7 O Pa Name L Wanna Trade Scene acca gt ss lh a oa Wanna Trade Media Macintosh HD sarren _ _ 001V01 C4BE0EA1_3 E48989
425. s more than one take Your job is to make the scene come to life and to choose among the best parts Examine the performances and also determine which angle works best for that section of the scene Avid Editing A Guide for Beginning and Intermediate Users Starting an Editing Session The screen in Figure 1 26 shows the Avid as it would look during an editing session The Project window is in the lower left The Dailies Day 1 bin is open in Brief view and it shows the clips that make up the Wanna Trade scene One clip a close up of Kate has been opened in the Source Monitor Several shots have been spliced into the Timeline creating a sequence The Record Monitor is on the right hand side and shows what is in the Timeline We re looking at a close up of Tim because the blue position indicator in the Timeline is parked on that clip l jas ai Ei B _ i A AE eo E t mM a z 1 h a os s oOo tata rand vates seed m eate ors cu rd can es cu nl eal tewe cuma 3 a eat sa Figure 1 26 We ll start by loading clips into the Source Monitor The Source Monitor is like a holding tank Every time you double click on a clip icon it appears in the Source Monitor The Source Monitor has a menu that shows all the clips you have loaded into it Click on the name of the clip in the upper left of the Source Monitor to see a list of all the clips that are held there Drag down and release to choose another clip from the
426. s that are on the TeaTime at Dawie s keyboard Press the red segment Marration 12 button select the block of audio you want to move and press the Figure 9 12 Narration 12 Marration 12 Marration 12 151 Avid Editing A Guide for Beginning and Intermediate Users lt lt or lt Trim Frame key to slide the segment of sound toward the head of the sequence or the gt or gt gt Trim Frame key to slide the sound toward the tail Try it It is quite precise ee The Lift Overwrite Segment Mode is also great for moving titles around as we ll see in Chapter 12 Figure 9 13 Moving Sound to Different Tracks You will also use the Lift Overwrite Segment Mode button whenever you want to move a sound or picture clip that is on one track onto another track In Figure 9 14 the sound for TeaTime is on A3 and I want it to go onto A2 just below the narration track TeaTime at Dawie s Narration 12 Narration 12 TeaTime at Dawie s Figure 9 14 1 Click the Lift Overwrite Segment Mode button If you want to keep the track from sliding horizontally hold down the Control key Mac or the Ctrl Shift keys Windows 2 Click on the sound segment you want to move 3 Drag it to the track where you want it to go TeaoTime at Dawie s Marration 12 Marration 12 TeaTime at Dawie s PERS UC CREP ER RR CREE a Figure 9 15 152 Chapter 9 Segment Mode Editing Again a white outl
427. s the SQUEEZE IT button 208 Chapter 16 Importing and Exporting You will soon have a mov file on your desktop Just click the upload button on any YouTube page fill in the information and you re done Exporting Audio to a Pro Tools Work Station Although the Avid is capable of fairly sophisticated audio manipulation it 1s not as sophisticated as Pro Tools Pro Tools is an Avid product and is the industry leader in audio mixing and sound manipulation Pro Tools HD is a high end system most individuals couldn t afford to purchase ProTools LE combined with the optional DV Toolkit 2 is a more affordable option Going to Pro Tools Both Pro Tools and Pro Tools LE with the DV Toolkit for Pro Tools LE option have what s called a DigiTranslator This translator lets you bring both your audio and video into Pro Tools so you can mix your sounds while watching your video You re not just bringing in audio files First make a duplicate of your final sequence Create a new bin label it Pro Tools Sequence and place the duplicate in the bin Place the sequence in the Record Monitor Now follow these steps 1 Make sure all of your audio and video effects are rendered and all your tracks are selected 2 Make sure all of your audio has been converted to 48 kHz or whatever sample rate you are using 3 Select the sequence in the bin 4 Choose Send To from the File menu Make New Import Ss import XDCAM
428. s you launch your new project there s a bin 1n the Project window with the same name as the project Click in the letters and type Tape 001 Remember before you open the Capture Tool open the bin you want the material to go to and close any other bins that may be open Open the Capture Tool by going to the Toolset menu and choosing Capture Examine the Capture Tool s user interface Figure 6 13 Parts of it look exactly like a video deck Other parts are logical renditions of the actions they perform The buttons on the deck control are self explanatory You have buttons for fast rewind fast forward stop pause play step one frame backward and step one frame forward and a slider that acts like a shuttle control There s even an eject button There are lit tle triangles for opening and closing sections of the Capture Tool Your J K L keys work with the Capture Tool s deck controls to play pause and play at faster than standard speed Working with the Capture Tool We ll examine some of these choices more fully later in the chapter but if you re capturing a DV or HDV tape these steps will get you started 1 Select the tracks As you can see in Figure 6 14 the video track V is selected and the audio tracks A1 and A2 have also been selected Make sure the TC timecode track is selected as well If you re working on a film project where the film was transferred to tape there may not be any sound on the tape the sound w
429. seful settings 108 110 Audio channels 101 102 Audio data 134 136 clip gain 134 136 placing keyframes automatically 136 Audio Data Timeline Fast menu 134 135 137 143 Audio dips 136 Audio Editing Toolset menu 347 Audio EQ Tools menu 139 140 345 Audio Interchange File Format AIFF C 108 Audio levels changing 129 134 Audio Mixer Tool 130 132 changing volume and panning on multiple clips 133 134 clip gain 134 136 fixing volume output levels 130 panning 132 133 speed tips 132 Audio Loop button EQ Tool 139 140 Audio Mixdown Special menu 344 Audio Mixer Tools menu 130 136 345 Audio Mixer Mode button 130 131 Audio Mixer Tool 133 134 141 352 Audio mixing changing volume panning on multiple clips 133 134 panning 132 133 placing keyframes automatically 136 using Audio Mixer Tool 130 132 when to use different tools 141 Audio Project settings Project window 108 109 Audio Punch In Tools menu 345 Audio reference level setting 142 143 Audio scrub 128 129 Audio settings 108 Audio settings Project window 108 Audio Start Time Options 323 Audio tab Import Settings 109 Audio Tool Tools menu 142 345 Audio tools Xpress 134 Audio Track Monitor icons 34 AudioSuite Tools menu 345 AudioVision File menu 335 Auto Balance Color Correction Tool 225 226 Auto button Audio Mixer Tool 136 137 Auto Contrast Color Correction Tool 225 226 Auto Gain
430. set the keyframes _ Audio Data None manually or play the sequence Clip Color Energy Plot and let the Avid place keyframes Track Coor SAME PR A Show Locators Clip Gain as you move the sliders l v Auto Cain We ll p hod Show Track Auto Pan e ll use the manual method first More Detail 98 From the Timeline Fast menu Less Detail 2 select Audio Data and then Auto Show Every Frame Gain Now select the tracks you want to work with In this case Timeline I select A3 and A4 the tracks Fast menu containing my stereo music Place the blue position indicator in Figure 8 18 the Timeline where you want to make audio changes Then hit the key on the Media Composer keyboard or a T the N key on the Xpress A A keyframe appears in the Timeline Because both tracks A3 and A4 are appear in both Figure 8 19 selected keyframes Show Entire Sequence Zoom Back Zoom In EIE Key Frame simultaneously Move the blue position indicator in the Timeline further along the Timeline and hit the keyframe key again Another keyframe appears Using the mouse move the pointer to the second keyframe Notice that the pointer changes into a hand Now drag the keyframe down vertically in the Timeline Figure 8 20 We have created a volume ramp Play the section in the Timeline and listen to the volume change Often when working with stereo tracks you want to create volume ramps on b
431. shortcut or alias for the Media Composer or Xpress application 5 When the Avid Project window appears click on the project you have been assigned If it s on a different drive click on the folder icon to browse in other drives Figure 1 11 If it has been mounted click on Wanna Trade Scene 6 Click OK The project will open showing you the Avid interface Click on the folder icon to browse for projects on external drives Figure 1 11 The Avid Interface on Your Computer Toolset Menu Before we begin editing let s make sure we are all using the same editing interface Go to the menu bar at the top of your computer MOJEGA Windows Script screen and pull down the Toolset menu I want you to select the Color Correction Source Record Editing Effects Editin bly already set that way but if not let s all start off on the same foot are Source Record Editing Mode as shown in Figure 1 12 It s proba Just drag your mouse down the menu list and click on Source _ B l Figure 1 12 The Toolset menu Record Editing Arrange the window to look like Figure 1 13 The Media Composer and Xpress applications can work with just one computer monitor which shows the Project window containing all your bins the Composer window containing the Source and Record monitors and the Timeline Figure 1 13 You select clips in the bins and place them in the Source Monitor on the left which holds the clips that will be edited in
432. size of the box or Picture in Picture e Position changes where your Picture in Picture is placed You can add keyframes to change how the parameters work over time just like we did with the Superimposition effect in Chapter 13 Using Scaling for example you could have the picture start off small and then get larger in the frame Click on the first keyframe adjust the size of the picture so it s small add a keyframe halfway through to make it a bit bigger and then click on the final key frame and make it slightly larger One trick involves copying and pasting parameters settings just like in a Microsoft Word document Take the Scaling example just described To get the PIP to remain that size throughout the rest of the segment click on the middle keyframe and Command C Mac or Ctrl C Windows as in Copy Click on the last keyframe and Command V or Ctrl V as in Paste to set those attributes through to the end The PIP box will get larger reach the size you set halfway through and stay that way until the end When you ve explored all the parameters to Copy here and paste here your satisfaction let s look at a more com plex but much more accurate way to work m aq i a fi with effects such as Picture in Picture Those of you who have used After Effects Figure 14 15 will find this approach quite familiar Click here to promote to Advanced Keyframes Advanced Keyframes Create a new effect by placing
433. solution DV 25 411 or 1 1 MXP 7 Click Transcode In your bin you ll see clips with the suffix new Simply edit your project using these clips as you normally would Because you are editing SD clips your computer won t struggle playing the HD material When you are ready output the edited sequence to DVD and SD tape You ll probably need a 4 3 version one that will play on a standard television and we ll learn to do that in the section entitled Squeezed on page 276 Now it s time to relink your final sequence to the original HD media that you captured way back before you started editing Relinking to Your HD Media Consolidate Transcode FT 565 Macintosh HD My Stuff Figure 17 11 Tianscoding clips This is a really important tool found in the Clip menu Sometimes your media will go offline and you will use this to get it back online But it s also useful when you have used Transcode to convert media and you want to go back to the original media Here s how 1 First make a duplicate of the SD sequence and put it in a new bin called HD Sequences 2 Click on the Format tab in the Project window and select your original HD format such as 720p 29 97 or 10801 59 94 3 Click on the SD sequence in the HD Sequences bin you just created in step 1 so it s highlighted pS er The sequence returns to HD 274 From the Clip menu select Relink The Relink dialog box opens Select Highest
434. sound Perhaps the most important advice I can give you is this Wait to add sound effects and music until as late in the editing process as possible Editors who are new 144 Chapter 8 Sound to the Avid often create complex sound tracks much too early in the editing process making even the simplest change an onerous task Tell the story first by cutting the picture and the picture s sync sound Then build your other tracks laying down the sound effects and music cues that will give tone and emotional content to your project Suggested Assignments CON WD UWF BW NHN RF i 12 13 Move the hollow speaker icon to different tracks Enlarge all of your sound tracks Make individual tracks smaller Add two additional audio tracks Splice sound into these new tracks by patching Adjust the volume of your tracks using the Audio Mixer Tool Change the pan on three of your clips Select Auto Gain from the Timeline Fast menu and place several keyframes on a clip Create volume ramps Move the keyframes in the Timeline 10 From the Timeline Fast menu leave Auto Gain and go to Waveforms Try cutting audio using the waveforms as cutting guides Place an EQ template onto a clip in the Timeline Save an EQ setting by placing it in a bin Create a Timeline view 145 This page intentionally left blank Chapter 9 Segment Mode Editing Many of the techniques we will introduce in the next
435. ss Cataloging in Publication Data Kauffmann Sam Avid editing a guide for beginning and intermediate users Sam Kauffmann 4th ed p cm Includes index ISBN 978 0 240 81080 5 pbk alk paper 1 Video tapes Editing Data processing 2 Motion pictures Editing Data processing 3 Avid Xpress 4 Media composer I Title TR899 K38 2009 778 59 3 dc22 2008044537 British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library 09 10 1154321 Printed in the United States of America Working together to grow libraries in developing countries www elsevier com www bookaid org www sabre org ELSEVIER BOOKAID Sabre Foundation For Katie Allie and Derek This page intentionally left blank Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure Nelson Mandela This page intentionally left blank Contents Introduction Acknowledgments Chapter 1 Getting Started The Editor s Job Loading Your Avid Software The Many Parts of Your System Operating System System Memory Capture Boards Media Drives The Dongle Monitors Speakers The Client Monitor UPS Input Devices A Word About Timecode Avid Editing Workflow Gather Tapes Files and Drives Create a New Project Capture Import Create Bins Edit Add Titles and Effects Do Sound Work Output Your Project Getting St
436. ss to sliders which control the amount or quantity of a particular parameter Click on a triangle to show or hide the sliders Each effect will have different parameters because each effect behaves differently however the effects within a category usually have similar parameters In Figure 13 15 the Picture in Picture 198 Effect name Click here to get a color palette Sliders to adjust eaa Ee parameters zafi Click on arrows to reveal or hide Toolbars Figure 13 14 Effect Editor Keyframes at beginning and end of clip Figure 13 15 Effect Preview Monitor 199 Avid Editing A Guide for Beginning and Intermediate Users effect has been applied to a shot of two boys going to market on track V2 and that shot is on top of a shot of three businessmen on V1 Picture in Picture places the boys in a picture box on top of the three businessmen Using some of the parameters offered by the Effect Editor I created a small border around the box of the boys and gave it a yellow color that helps separate it from the airport clip Then I moved the box of the boys to the righthand side of the frame Here are some of the different parameters you will encounter e Border Changes the color of the border or box that surrounds an image You can also change the width and softness of the border e Foreground LeveK On blends and key effects it represents the video s transparency On transi tional effects this represents
437. storage space and you need to make room for other material delete the associated media file but not the master clip itself In this case click only the box delete associated media file s The actual footage gets erased from the media drives but all the information about the clip including editing choices about the shot Figure 4 10 Deleting a master clip remain with the Avid Whenever you look for that clip you will find it in the bin but a Media Offline tag will appear in Frame View To get your clip back you ll need to recapture it 3 You almost never want to check Delete master clip s by itself If you did you would be using up space on your hard drive to store material you can t use because the Avid can t find it Getting Folders Wanna Trade Scene If you re editing a large project involving scores of a tapes you may find the need to store bins in fold pen Bin New Bin Bin Fast menu ers so the Project window isn t an unruly mess On the left hand side of the Project window you ll see the Bin Fast menu Pull it down and you ll see a Creates a folder to list of commands Just select New Folder from the store bins Fast menu Figure 4 11 and when it appears in the Project window name it and drag into it the various Figure 4 11 Bin Fast menu bins you want it to hold We ve examined the Bin and the Bin menu in considerable detail because it s at the heart of n
438. t and once it s open Save As Text Only with Layout choose Save As from the File menu HTML Document 2 In the dialog box go to the Format box choose Avid Where Sate Mage Script Based Editing and click on Save Figure 18 2 MacToolkit File Format eA eee ac eiaem alias Save it to your desktop or put it on a flash drive and bring Stationery it to your Avid computer Launch your Avid system Because y P y y Figure 18 2 we have a script to practice with insert the DVD that comes with your book and then follow these steps If you haven t done so already launch the Avid software and open the project called Gaffer s Delight 1 Click on the Project window to make it the active window 2 From the File menu select New Script 283 Avid Editing A Guide for Beginning and Intermediate Users 3 Search through the directory dialog box that appears and find Gaffer s Delight Script TXT on the DVD 4 Select the file and click the Open button The script will appear in the monitor looking much like Figure 18 3 INT SOUND STAGE DAY PETER HILL 25 is on a ladder hanging lights on 4 ceiling grid He is a 2nd Electric working on a film In the background JOANNA a grip removes a light from a stand MICHELE POWERS a young actress of recognizable beauty enters and looks at Joanna JOANNA Excuse he Joanna leaves Hearing Joanna speak Peter turns and sees Hichele PETER Can I help you
439. t too short and mistakenly left off the word me In Trim Mode I clicked on Kate s picture in the Trim Mode display and the rollers jumped to Kate s side Figure 3 10 Tins CUTK Tim s CUTE Tim s CU TK 1 Kate s CU Tim s Cu TK 1 01 00 05 00 01 00 07 00 01 00 05 00 01 00 07 00 Figure 3 10 Before Figure 3 11 After I click the gt gt key three times and Kate s clip gets 30 frames longer Figure 3 11 Now we can hear the word me e The gt gt and gt keys will make Kate s shot longer In Figure 3 12 I have clicked the lt lt key three times and Kate s clip has gotten shorter Figure 3 13 We re back where we started e The lt and lt lt keys will make Kate s shot shorter It took me awhile to figure out how the Trim Frame keys worked with single roller trims Remember when you re in Single Roller Trim Mode all of the Trim Frame keys affect just one side in this case the A side Kate s 46 Tins UTR Kate s CU Tim s CUTK 1 01 00 05 00 01 00 07 00 Figure 3 12 Before Chapter 3 Trimming Kate s Cl Tim s CU TK 1 Tim s CUTE 1 01 00 05 00 01 00 07 00 Figure 3 13 After If we stay in Trim Mode and now click the cursor on Tim s picture in the Trim Mode display the B side the rollers will jump to the head of Tim s clip All of the Trim Frame keys now affect Tim s shot Look at the Trim Frame keys as you
440. t As window name the file the name of the sequence will be the default name 5 Choose a destination desktop external hard drive DVD R 6 Click Save Figure 16 18 Exporting a QuickTime Movie for YouTube Google iTunes or Your Website Often times you want to create a QuickTime version of your project that is less than the high est quality You might want to put your project on your webpage or upload it to YouTube but if you keep it at the source resolution the file will be too large YouTube limits you to 100MB and suggests 480 X 360 rather than full 720 X 486 YouTube accepts files in the avi mov wmv movie One is to send out a and mpg file formats There are two ways to export a QuickTime QuickTime reference movie and import it into Sorenson Squeeze which comes with your Media Composer software You re sending the uncompressed media to Sorenson and letting it compress your sequence The second approach is to have the Avid do the compression and skip the Sorenson step I recommend using Sorenson Squeeze which is surprisingly easy to use as you ll see The Sorenson Squeeze approach is described at the end of the Exporting a QuickTime Reference Movie section You decide which one is easier Using the Avid to Create the MPEG File Let s create a version that is compressed but still looks great 1 Put your sequence in the Timeline If you don t want the entire sequence mark
441. t Bin Display This command presents a dialog box that lets you determine which items you want displayed in the bin The choices are as follows e Master clips e Subclips e Sequences e Sources lists the tapes the material comes from e Effects dissolves wipes etc e Motion effects freeze frames slow motion e Rendered effects If you checked off all of the choices your bin would be packed with too much information making it hard to find the sequences clips and subclips you need Launch In Native Application This command only comes into play when you are inserting metadata such as remote commands HTML files or closed captioning into the Timeline Reverse Selection Let s say you want to select all those clips that are close ups And let s say that of the 10 clips in the bin only 2 are wide shots and the other 8 are close ups Shift click on the 2 that are wide shots and then on Reverse Selection Now the 8 close ups are selected and the 2 wide shots are deselected You reversed your selection Select Offline Items We learned about logging and capturing clips in Chapter 6 Often when you are capturing you re looking for clips that are offline meaning they have no media files because they haven t been captured just logged It makes your life easier to be able to go to a bin select this command and have all of the offline clips selected Select Media Relatives This enables you to select a sequence or a clip an
442. t Command D Mac or Ctrl D Windows Enlarge Track This enlarges tracks in the Timeline It also enlarges frames when you are working in the bin in Frame View Reduce Track This reduces tracks in the Timeline or frames in Frame View Find This is just like Find in most word processing programs but it is used to find clips in the Timeline or text you have attached to a locator It s great if you have a Timeline with hundreds of clips Find Again This command repeats the previous Find command Set Font You can customize the way things look on the screen including the font used in bins and certain windows This is useful if your eyesight is such that you find it difficult to read the bin information Set Color This command lets you add color to clip or sequence icons it is helpful for organizing clips or sequences by color Preferences This command changes the Project window to show Settings Bin Menu The Bin menu is made up of commands that act on things you find in a bin Often you need to have a bin open and selected in order for these commands to be available DV Scene Extraction Whenever you stop and start a DV camera a marker is put down on the tape therefore every single shot in your tape has been tagged This command helps you break all those shots on your videotape into individual clips You can make a master clip of 337 Avid Editing A Guide for Beginning and Intermediate Users the enti
443. t Send To Back This places the object that is in front the blue rectangle behind the title Now that s more like it Our title is a lot more visible now that a blue rectangle surrounds it 186 Chapter 12 Titles Object Alignment Help Bring To Front Shift Ctrl L Send To Back Shift Ctrl K Bring Forward Send Backward Figure 12 24 DURBAN WATERFRONT a e a Ti M e Figure 12 25 Transparency I m not really happy with the title I think the rectangle would look better if it were less opaque so some ocean showed through To set the transparency of an object select the transparency tool for the particular object you want to affect The Transparency box is right next to the Fill box Figure 12 26 Transparency box 187 Avid Editing A Guide for Beginning and Intermediate Users In this example I ve selected the Transparency box for the Fill which affects the transparency of my blue rectangle To make the blue box more transparent I must first place it in the foreground I choose Bring To Front from the Object menu Then I click and hold on the Fill Transparency Tool A slider appears and as I drag it to the right the blue rectangle becomes more transparent It now has a Hi high degree of transparency Now I need to send it to the back using the Object menu Alignment Menu A second menu that is available when you open the Title Tool is the Alignment menu You ll see that it has many items th
444. ten photocopy the transcript of the interviews and then do a paper edit so I can cut and paste together the best material I then watch the footage and see if the material is as interesting on the Avid as it was on paper If it is I cut the interview into the Timeline onto V1 and A1 Usually I start with the talking head on camera put in a lower third title identifying the person and then cut in visuals that amplify what she or he is talking about Figure 5 6 Figure 5 6 I overwrite the visual onto V1 replacing the talking head and if the visual has natural sound like a helicopter I put that sound onto A2 We ll learn in Chapter 8 how to lower the volume of the heli copter so it does not detract from the subject s voice on Al 85 Avid Editing A Guide for Beginning and Intermediate Users Because I m cutting to a visual the helicopter I can edit the subjects audio on A1 as she is no longer on camera I can cut out pauses coughs ums and even extraneous parts If the subject is saying something interesting or it has emotional content I like to see the person saying it on camera If it s strong on camera I don t replace it with B roll If you re working with voice over narration you don t have a talking head so it is all B roll The problem many editors have is in choosing the B roll material Too often the visual they choose is identical to the narration The narrator says It was a cloudy day we see cl
445. that are empty of clips and they are selected Mark Clip l Figure 2 16 Mark Clip button will mark the entire sequence Deselect all empty tracks first s p Now we re ready to master two important commands Lift and Extract But before practicing these commands on your sequence let s duplicate it first so if we get too excited by all our lifting and extracting and totally mess it up we won t care because the original is still in the bin Duplicating a Sequence The ability to save versions of your work is critically important Let s say you have a brilliant idea and edit furiously Then suddenly you see it doesn t work at all and the whole Timeline is a disas ter If that happens you want to be able to revert to your previous version So get in the habit of making a duplicate of your sequence before trying that brilliant idea and always create a duplicate sequence at the end of every editing session so you start fresh the next day That way you can keep track of your changes and go back to an earlier version if need be Here s how 1 Go to the Assembly bin and find the sequence you ve been working on 2 Select it by clicking on the sequence icon so it is highlighted 3 Go to the Edit menu and choose Duplicate or type Command D Mac or Ctrl D Windows You have created an identical copy of your eeu 2 Bade Go it so you can differentiate between the two gy CO o oo c0 00 59 4 4 sequence The suffix
446. the Clip button until it turns to Auto The sliders turn blue the Record button is red and the Trash icon is visible Figure 8 21 By choosing the Auto button you are changing the Audio Mixer Tool from Clip to Auto Mode This looks complicated but it s easy to use just hard to use well You can mix as much or as little as you like If you are not happy with what you re doing press the Trash icon to stop the recording If after you are through you don t like what you ve done press Undo and it s all erased Let s give it a try 1 Place the position indicator at the beginning of your tracks or at the beginning of the section youd like to change Select the tracks in the Timeline Deselect the ones you don t want to change Place the Audio Mixer Tool in Auto Mode If you want to work on two tracks at once such as stereo tracks gang them Press the Record button As the position indicator plays through the Timeline raise or lower the track s slider with your Sie ee el mouse 6 Press the Record button to stop The s and m boxes let you solo and mute your tracks The Live Mode is used when you have an external mixer or fader attached 136 Bip 1 i lt i indo EA 5 te e b Sanbo ae ae g luoobhti Ne marae 8 un E Figure 8 21 Audio Mixer in Auto Mode Waveforms Chapter 8 Sound Press the Record button Auto button Click here to c
447. the Timeline Simply drag the icon in the Effect Editor window to a bin Rename it in the bin You have just created a template Drag this icon to your bin Figure 13 31 To place the template you created on a different transition or a segment simply click on it in the bin and drag it to the Timeline Effect Quick Review Steps for adding effects e Load a sequence into the Timeline e Open Effect Palette from the Tools menu or from the Project window e Choose the effect and drag it to a transition or clip in the Timeline e Adjust the effects parameters with the Effect Editor Adding Dissolves Dissolves are so common that you will find a Dissolve key on the keyboard the key a Dissolve button on the Add Dissolve Button Fast menu and one on the Timeline toolbar Figure 13 32 204 Chapter 13 Effects Just follow these steps to get the dissolve you want Put the blue position indicator on the transition Hit the Add Dissolve button A Quick Transition dialog box appears giving you choices to control how the dissolve will look Choose the duration A 30 frame dissolve is the default length Choose whether the dissolve is centered on the cut starts on the cut ends on the cut or is cus tom designed by you Choose the target disk Click Add to place the dissolve on the transition or choose Add and Render to place it on the transition and have it rendered I usually just click Add Freeze Frames Tw
448. the cut will work and mark an IN Go to the section of the clip just before the camera tilts up to her face and mark an OUT 6 Chapter 1 Getting Started IMPORTANT It takes three marks to make an edit and you now have three an IN and an OUT in the Source Monitor and an IN in the Timeline on the TC1 track Count to make sure you have three Figure 1 31 Three marks Figure 1 31 eg 9 10 Now you have two choices You can select the Splice button or you can select the Overwrite button The Splice button inserts material into the sequence at the IN mark and pushes every thing after that point to the right The sequence gets longer The Overwrite button replaces writes over what is already in Splice and Overwrite the sequence with new material In this exercise I want you to _ Figure 1 32 press the Overwrite button When you press the Overwrite button the extraneous part of Kate s Entrance is replaced with the insert of her hands at the IN point you selected Now play the entire sequence to see if you like the way it works If you don t like it hit Command Ctrl Z to undo your last action your overwrite 1s gone Choose new edit points by clearing the IN or OUT in the Source Monitor or the IN in the Timeline and setting new marks When you cut an assembly together you are normally overwriting placing a new shot over the tail of the last shot in the Timeline Now try cutting in a close up of
449. the keyboard to sort Press Command E Mac or Ctrl E Windows Sort is available in both Brief and Text views Lets say you want to look at the clips in your bin in the order in which they were shot on the source tape Listing them alphabetically by name won t give you that information but listing them by starting timecode will Click on the Start column and choose Sort from the Bin menu or use Command E Ctrl E The clips in the bin now appear listed according to the starting timecode To switch back to listing the clips by name simply click on the Name column and choose Sort from the Bin menu or use Command E Ctrl E There are times when you may want to invert the order in which items appear To sort in descend ing order hold down the Option key Mac or Alt key Windows and then press Command E Mac or Ctrl E Windows Frame View Sometimes it s easier to edit material if you are looking at the choices as pictures rather than as col umns of words and numbers Frame View shows the clips in picture view Figure 4 6 Click on the Frame tab at the top of the bin e You can enlarge the frames by selecting Enlarge Frame from the Edit menu or pressing Command L Mac or Ctrl L Windows Think of enLarge e You can reduce the size of the frames by selecting Reduce Frame from the Edit menu or using Command K Mac or Ctrl K Windows e Repeat these commands and the frames will keep getting bigger or smaller
450. the line or breaking the 180 degree rule but that s the language of camera operators and directors For editors it s called a problem and our job 1s to fix it Don t cut Michele here Using skills we mastered in Chapter 3 get into Trim Mode jump the roll ers onto the A side click on Michele and extend her so she walks farther to the right cutting her just before she crosses in front of Peter and is blocked by his head you are adding frames to the A side Now place the rollers on the B side click on Peter and trim frames cutting her until she is just about to walk in front of Peter After trimming frames we start this shot just as she crosses in front of him Now the screen direction problem is much less noticeable Examine Figures 5 1 to 5 4 Understand that nearly every shot involving people has screen direc tion The person 1s either walking left to right or looking left to right or walking right to left or looking right to left Obviously two people walking toward each other must have the opposite screen direction When you cut from different angles and takes make sure your actors don t sud denly share the same screen direction as happened in Figure 5 4 Pacing Pacing is crucial to effective editing yet it 1s perhaps the most difficult skill to write about or to teach But here goes Let s think about cutting a conversation between two people The content of their conversation together with the actor s deli
451. the proportion of incoming to outgoing frames e Reverse This reverses the parameters you have set All parameters are reordered last to first Instead of a box starting out small and getting bigger it will start big and shrink e Acceleration This controls the speed at the start and end of a move so the move is not too abrupt e Scaling This changes the size of the box You can manipulate the width and height of boxes Most boxes have handles that you can drag to change the shape of the box You can also click in the center of the box and drag it to a new position e Position This enables you to move an effect such as a box inside the frame You can also click in the center of the box and drag it to a new position Effect Editing Tools You ll notice that when you open the Effect Editor the Record side of the Source Record Monitor changes into the Effect Preview Monitor The position bar offers a different set of command but tons and it contains two keyframes one at the beginning and one at the end You can add addi tional keyframes with the Add Keyframe command Keyframes enable you to change a parameter s look over time Figure 13 16 The Effect Editor has toolbars containing helpful tools Figure 13 17 One tool will render the effect and another allows you to type in a new length for a transitional effect Just type a new value and press Return or Enter 200 Chapter 13 Effects Reduce and enlarge
452. ting clips 60 settings 68 69 single click double click icons 61 sorting columns 63 starting New Sequence 64 Text View 15 60 61 63 Index views 14 15 60 working in SuperBin mode 60 61 Black filler 36 155 Blend Direction box 182 183 Blending titles 182 Blu ray disc creating 315 316 Border parameter Effect Editor 200 Brief View bins 14 60 286 Brightness 228 See also Color Correction Bring To Front Objects menu 188 B roll 85 86 Browsing for projects 12 B side transition 42 43 See also Trim Mode Button to Button Reassignment 71 72 290 Buttons changing 72 73 C Cables connecting equipment 96 97 303 Calculator Tools menu 345 Cameras See also P2 cards 16mm 263 264 317 318 320 321 batch capturing logged clips 105 cables 96 97 303 configuring 97 99 connecting HDV and decks 97 connecting powering up for outputting to tape 303 DV 266 flags and fps 267 framing guide 321 HD project choices 93 95 HDV 266 267 HDV sequence to HDV tape 308 Panasonic HVX200 113 119 Sony XDCAM EX 122 123 Canon HDV cameras 266 267 Canon XL2 camera 92 93 Canon XLH1 camera 99 268 Capture Toolset menu 97 100 270 346 Capture boards 4 Capture button 103 Capture Mode 100 102 103 Capture Tool Tools menu 100 105 270 271 311 346 Capture Log Mode toggle 100 102 104 353 Index Capturing audio 108 111 audio sampling 108 basic c
453. ting material from one track but not from the other Now that you know who they are keep an eye on them Stay alert whenever you are performing one of these three actions Sync Break Indicators If your audio and video were captured at the same time the Avid will lock the two together If you go out of sync sync break indicators will appear in the Timeline to show you exactly how many frames out of sync you have fallen Numbers appear in the Timeline on the video and its associated audio track indicating precisely what went wrong and by how much In the example shown in Figure 15 1 I made the mistake of entering Single Roller Trim Mode on just one track I inadvertently added nine frames to Kate s picture but not to her sound The sync break indicator shows the sync break as well as the number of frames by which the entire sequence has been thrown out of sync It also tells me in which direction I need to go to get back into sync To get back in sync use Single Roller Trim Mode to add or subtract the number of frames indicated Here I need to either subtract nine frames 9 from Kate s picture or add nine frames 9 to Kate s sound mc J E Figure 15 1 Many Tracks Mean Many Sync Problems If you lose sync when cutting a sequence containing just a few tracks you ll be able to restore sync without much trouble but once you start adding tracks containing additional material into your 232 Chapter 15 Keeping in Sync
454. tion effect the Squeeze effect Click on the Squeeze category to see the choices There are quite a few squeeze effects to choose from Let s try a Centered Zoom Shape Wipe ef Bottom Right Click and drag to Spin of Bottorn a transition in a the Timeline Centered Zoom b ef Horizontal Centered Timewarp Figure 13 2 Figure 13 3 shows the hills in Rwanda and Figure 13 4 is a dolly shot through a street market in Murambi Rwanda Figure 13 3 Figure 13 4 Now I m going to click on the Centered Zoom icon in the Effect Palette drag it onto the transition point in the Timeline and release it There I ve got a centered zoom squeeze between the two shots Drag the icon to the Timeline and release it Figure 13 5 Drag the Centered Zoom icon to the Timeline and release it 195 Avid Editing A Guide for Beginning and Intermediate Users Figure 13 6 gives you some idea of what the effect looks like The people in the market start out small and then get bigger and big ger as the image squeezes out the shot of the hills Applying More Effects Let s try applying some different effects to other transitions Click on the category called Shape Wipe Click and drag the effect called Horizontal Bands to a transition in your Timeline Admittedly some of the effects are fairly goofy transitional effects that only George Lucas could love Most transitional effects are preset but we will
455. tle Tool If you are planning to add a title over a video image normally you park the position indicator on that image in the Timeline and then open the Title Tool That way the background of your choice becomes the background that the Title Tool shows you To open the Title Tool go to the Clip menu and select New Title You will probably get a prompt like the one shown in Figure 12 3 asking you if you want the Title Tool or Marquee titles Marquee is an advanced titling tool that is much easier to understand once you ve mastered the standard Title Tool Since this prompt will appear every time you open the Title Tool select the Persist box and then click on the Title Tool button to go directly to the Title Tool 179 Video background Safe Action area Safe title area Title ay Bis TEE gt a km oD BL Bord Figure 12 1 Title Tool Selection Tool Text Tool Font Font point size Color or video background toggle V Figure 12 2 New Title Figure 12 3 176 Chapter 12 Titles Later when you re ready to work with Marquee go to Settings and double click on the Marquee Title setting to bring up the Marquee title tools Once you select Title Tool you ll see the Title window For those of you who practiced placing a menu item directly onto a keyboard key in Chapter 10 you Il remember that we placed the Title Tool menu command on the keyboard s Shift T key so all
456. to go with the trim Before you go into Trim Mode play your sequence If you find a shot that needs trimming or lengthening place an IN mark if it s to the left of the transition and an OUT mark if it s to the right of the transition Now enter Trim Mode Hold down the Command key Mac or Ctrl key Windows and click and drag the roller to the mark The Avid stops precisely on the mark In this case I have quickly trimmed the head of this segment This technique works with either Single Roller or Dual Roller Trim Mode Command drag Mac or Ctrl drag Windows the rollers so they will snap to this OUT mark Kate s Hands Face CU Kate s Hands Face CU Figure 3 30 Sync Problems in Single Roller Trim Mode This is a good time to examine what happens when you use Single Roller Trim Mode on one track and not on the others In Figure 3 31 I went into Single Roller Trim Mode and by mistake I selected the video track but not the audio Without noticing I trimmed anyway and dragged the roller to the left thus I lengthened Tim s picture by ten frames Because the audio was not trimmed the clip went out of sync Master Shot 4 Kate s CU sro lt _________ _ Video track was lengthened by ten frames Audio track was not lengthened Figure 3 31 99 Avid Editing A Guide for Beginning and Intermediate Users Tim s audio is now ten frames shorter than his video As you can see
457. to organize and search through a lot of clips Frame View is most useful when you re working on a documentary involving lots of different visuals clips I don t use Script View much but friends of mine use it all the time Selecting Clips As with any Windows or Macintosh software you can easily select more than one clip at a time by Shift clicking or lassoing Command A Mac or Ctrl A Windows is particularly helpful because it selects all the clips in two quick keystrokes Working in SuperBin Mode SuperBin takes a bit of getting used to but it s a great feature if you are on a laptop or only have a single screen to work with It gives you an easy way to keep your bins from taking over your 60 Chapter 4 The Project Window editing space SuperBin is no longer the default mode in Media Composer 3 0 so we enabled it in Chapter 1 see page 15 Let s look at what happens when I double click the bin I recently created to hold my rough cuts It opens in Brief View just to the right of the project window see Figure 4 1 On a system using two computer monitors you ve got plenty of room to move the bin around and place it wherever you choose But if you have just one computer monitor it can get in the way When you single click a bin s icon in the Project window the bin opens in a special holding place or SuperBin Let s open several bins by single clicking on their icon in the Project window as shown in Figur
458. to the end of your editing you are working on what is normally called a fine cut Shots are trimmed to give each scene the right pace and timing Add Titles and Effects Once you have edited your sequence you can easily add titles and effects to it The Avid has tools for creating multilayered effects and titles Titles can be created and added to a sequence in min utes Most effects take only a few seconds to create When all the titles and visual effects have been added you have reached the stage called picture lock No more changes are made to any of the pic ture tracks Do Sound Work Once you have reached picture lock it s time to add the many sound effects and music cues that will make for a rich and powerful sound track The Avid can monitor up to 24 sound tracks and by using built in tools you can make intricate sound adjustments to any and all tracks Output Your Project Finally the end of the Avid workflow takes place when the final edited sequence is sent out into the world The many output options include e Record the finished sequence onto videotape e Create a DVD e Create an edit decision list EDL for an online videotape editing session e Turn your sequence into AVI MOV WMV or MPG files for posting on the web Chapter 1 Getting Started With that overview behind us let s turn on the computer launch the software and explore the workspace the Avid provides us Your system may be set up in a sli
459. to the project The 12 Chapter 1 Getting Started Record Monitor on the right shows the edited sequence The Timeline presents a visual represen tation of the clips in the sequence Source and Record Monitors FDO Sepertin o Dalles Dayi AAN Bried feed Frase TE An open bin containing clips Blea ea p AoA A Wanna Trejda Sepan Skal ee 7 P Thelin Rough Cus ch O amp af m i a E E J Oo ema ma I y ates CU Tis cute J aia Ou Tima CU Te 3 Ta N E The project window contains all the bins Timeline Figure 1 13 Avid interface Project Window The Project window is like a home page It lists all the bins and it must be open for you to work on a project so don t close the Project window until you are ready to quit for the day Wanna Trade Scene samkauffmann Open bin icon Unopened bin icon Figure 1 14 13 Avid Editing A Guide for Beginning and Intermediate Users Bins Place the captured or imported material clips into bins to help organize the material You can name the bins anything you want Common bin names are Tape 001 and Tape 002 Dailies Day 1 Assembly Sound Effects or Music Whatever makes it easiest for you to organize your material is the best system If you double click on the bin icon labeled Dailies Day 1 the bin will open and you ll see that it contains master clips and columns Figure
460. tomatic about it 323 Avid Editing A Guide for Beginning and Intermediate Users 1 Create a new bin and call it Synched Takes Now create a second new bin and call it Synched subclips Double click both bin icons to open them outside the SuperBin area so both are visible as shown in Figure 20 5 just below the Source Record monitors eoe v o Synched subclips YON Synched Takes Figure 20 5 2 Open the bin with the picture clips Dailies Day One Open the first clip to be synched in the Source Monitor Here it s Scene 1A Take 1 4 Find the first frame where the clapstick closes If there was sound it would crunch here Mark this frame with an IN Go to the end of the take and mark an OUT 5 Make a subclip of this by holding down the Option key Mac or Alt key Windows click ing on the picture in the Monitor the cursor becomes a hand and dragging the picture to the Oo Sync subclips bin as shown in Figure 20 6 509 gt Synched subclips PE Kaki gt a Takes Brief text frame Script ___ _ amp errr texts frame Script eel Name Start Meme Start Duration Z TATE DSub01 0 4 00 16 13 1 53 10 Figure 20 6 6 Locate the audio clip that goes with the first shot Scene 1A Tk1 Open it in the Source Monitor 7 Press the Caps Lock key on the keyboard so you can use digital scrub to hear the sound 324 Chapter 20 Shooting on Film Cutting on Avi
461. tool HDV Sequence to HDV Tape Uprezing Your Offline Sequence Deleting Unreferenced Precomputes Preparing to Recapture Your Sequence The Recapturing Process Decompose Timecode Breaks Replacing Your Audio Tracks Recreating Title Media Output to DVD Using Sorensen Squeeze to Make a Progresstve DVD or Blu Ray Disc Creating a Blu Ray Disc Done Chapter 20 Shooting on Film Cutting on Avid Why Film The Film to Tape Transfer The 2 3 Standard Pulldown Film Transfered to Video Runs at 23 976 Types of Timecode Work Order to Your Lab and Telecine Instructions to Lab Instructions to the Transfer Facility for an Unsupervised Transfer Avid Project Format Sound and the Avid Synching Rushes Synching Tips Finishing Back to Film Feature Film Workflow Next Stop Cannes Chapter 21 Present and Future Where Do You Go from Here Information on the Internet Contents 303 304 305 306 308 308 309 310 311 311 312 212 313 313 315 316 316 317 317 315 315 319 319 320 321 321 322 322 J29 326 327 I2 328 329 329 330 xxi Contents Getting a Job as an Avid Editor Other Avid Products Avid s Future Appendix Menus File Menu Edit Menu Bin Menu Clip Menu Output Menu Special Menu Tools Menu Toolset Menu Windows Menu Script Menu Help Menu Tracking and Monitor Menus Tracking Menu Source and Record Monitor Menus Index DVD Instructions XXII 330 331 331 333 334 336 397
462. tor to the bin the mouse pointer turns into a hand Once the subclip is in the bin you ll see that the subclip has the same name as the master clip it came from but with the addition of Sub n where n is the number of times that the master has been subdivided Also notice that in Brief and Text View the subclip icon is like a mini clip icon Figure 6 26 tiiin Brief Text Frame Script Name Start Subclip icon Woman Sweeps dusty street Sub 01 O00 02 4 fs Woman Sweeps dusty street 00 02 E People walk in street 00 0 Figure 6 26 Now I simply name rename the subclips During editing subclips behave like master clips Video Resolutions The Avid can handle a variety of video resolutions from uncompressed resolutions to those with a good deal of compression You can choose the resolution you want in the Capture Tool by select ing from among the choices in the Res pulldown menu The resolutions available depend on your Project Format The list shown in Figure 6 27 is for a 301 NTSC project Standard NTSC DV 1s called DV 25 411 The PAL version is called DV 420 Both have a data rate of 25 megabits per second A few years ago Panasonic came out with a format that is like DV only better It s called DV50 and has a data rate of 50 megabits per second 106 Chapter 6 Starting a New Project and Capturing from Tape If you select 10 1m 15 1s 20 1 or 10 1 the Avid will compress your signal giving you less than
463. tracks in slow motion It works backwards as well if you use the J key 128 Chapter 8 Sound Digital audio scrub involves sampling a frame of audio Because it is sampled the pitch and speed don t change 1 Select the tracks you want to scrub Press the Caps Lock key or hold down the Shift key 3 Step forward or backward by clicking the step one frame forward or step one frame backward button or drag the position indicator forward or backward Figure 8 8 This is great for locating a specific sound that will become your cut point Say you re searching in the Timeline for the first frame of a hammer striking a nail Click on the Caps Lock button and press the step one frame forward button pretend it is five frames away Step step step step CRUNCH Ah there it is Selecting the Tracks for Scrubbing Now lets say the hollow icons are on tracks A1 and A2 and the sound you want to scrub is on tracks A3 and A4 To move the hollow speaker icon to track A3 simply hold the Option Alt key and then click on the A3 speaker icon A3 is now the track with the hollow icon Now Option Alt click on A4 Remember Option click or Alt click on the speaker icons you want to scrub Scrolling Your Tracks Whenever you have more tracks than can be viewed in the Timeline a scroll bar appears on the right hand side of the Timeline so you can scroll up and down to see different tracks I often resize the tracks I m not worki
464. uide for Beginning and Intermediate Users Woman carries water Nanation 5 22 9 Kids kick ball Woman caries water Kids kick ball Woman caries water Music Cu 44 Music Cud 14 LO AANA ee fo Tet Min Figure 15 12 Even though there are no rollers on A1 A4 and A5 they will stay in sync because the sync locks are on know about those things to fully understand the value of sync locks but mainly because sync locks don t always work Another way to put it is that they work too well With sync locks if the other tracks inline vertically with the tracks you are cutting are empty the Avid adds or subtracts fill to keep your tracks in sync and everyone is happy But if the other tracks have mate rial in line with the tracks you are cutting the Avid cuts material from those tracks as well This is a prob lem Suddenly your narration and music have disap peared You re in sync all right but you ve lost your narrator Or a chunk of your music is missing Look at Figure 15 13 I ve got sync locks on all of the tracks and I m going to extend the tail of the shot the A side by dragging the rollers to the right Examine the results shown in Figure 15 14 Whoa My music cue has been cut in two and a chunk of black fill silence has been added I certainly didn t want that Why did it happen Because even though A4 and A5 weren t selected for trimming they are sync locked to the other tracks I
465. unt the P2 card P2 Gear FireStore or whatever device contained the P2 media In fact it is extremely impor tant that we do this before we start editing so the Avid will know where to find the media and not be confused by media that are available in two locations Go to the File Menu and select Unmount In the Unmount Disk or Drives dialog box select the drive that is the virtual P2 card Once selected click on Unmount see Figure 7 10 Unmount Disk or Drives Figure 7 10 121 Avid Editing A Guide for Beginning and Intermediate Users Now you are ready to edit You re no longer working with a P2 card but rather with MXF files stored inside the Avid MediaFiles folder on your drive just like picture and sound captured from a videotape Protection Master When we capture from a videotape if our Avid media drive dies or is accidentally dropped or sto len or you fill in the disaster we can always pull out the videotape and recapture our media But with memory cards such as the P2 card there is no tape to recapture and the P2 card has long ago been erased and used again So we need a protection master in case our Avid drive has a bad ending I recommend two methods 1 Buy a cheap FireWire drive and drag the Avid MediaFiles folder to the backup drive 2 Use Panasonic s free software designed to facilitate this archival process P2 Contents Management Software for Mac and Windows Go to Panasonic s website to download
466. ur sequences Make sure any sequence you care about 1s in this bin Media Tool Display Figure 19 13 Media Tool Display 309 Avid Editing A Guide for Beginning and Intermediate Users 1 In the Tools menu open the Media Reverse Selection Tool Figure 19 13 Select Offline Items 2 In the Media Tool Display click on ane Seed Relatives All Drives and Current Project s Select Unreferenced Clips 3 Select Precompute Clips Deselect Ta Align to Grid the other choices Click OK e Fill Window 4 Now go back to the bin that con Bins Fill Sorted tains your sequences Make sure the E Select Unrendered Titles sequences you care about are high lighted If not Shift click to select Figure 19 14 them Go to the Bin Fast menu and choose Select Media Relatives 5 Go to the Media Tool window and click on the title bar to activate the window All the precom Selected captured clip s putes associated with the selected sequences are highlighted They are the ones you want to keep C TY Delete video file s 6 Using the Media Tool s Fast menu select Reverse 7 Al Delete audio file s Selection Now all the unreferenced precomputes CT AZ Delete audio file s are revealed 1 A3 Delete audio file s 7 Press the Delete key In the Delete Media dialog T Ad Delete audio file s box that appears make sure only the precom C TAS Delete audio filets putes are selected Figure 19 15 Click OK C TAG Delete audio f
467. ure film he stated flatly Everything will be shot on videotape Funny how predic tions work People still shoot on film while the end of videotape as a recording medium seems just around the corner I m not in the prediction business so Pm not making any but with P2 cards and cameras that record directly to drives or optical discs you ve got to wonder The point is that this chapter is all about capturing what you ve shot on videotape into the Avid In Chapter 7 Pm going to explain how to get your picture and sound from cameras that record onto memory cards and P2 cards So the question is How much longer will this chapter be relevant We ll see Starting a New Project When you double click on the Media Composer or Xpress icon you are launching the Avid soft ware Soon the Avid brings up a dialog box that asks you to let the Avid know which project you will be editing Figure 6 2 The left hand column lists all the projects that are currently in post production on this machine If you are going to start a new project one that the Avid has never dealt with before you must first decide if you want to restrict access to your project Private or if you want others to be able to work on it The Shared and External settings permit anyone who has access to the computer to open it Select External if all the information about the project will be stored on an external drive or shared storage 89 Avid Editing A Guide fo
468. use it in this project Select Open Bin and hron then navigate through the computer s hierarchical menus until Import XDC AM Proxy you find the bin you want Open it and you can open a music Import P2 gt clip mom another Doe and put it into yonr curent project Ramee edis Directories New Script This command works with the Script Integra Load Media Database tion feature which we discussed at length in Chapter 18 Mount All Close Bin This command closes the active bin however we usu Unmourt ally click on the Close box in the corner of the bin itself Save Bin This saves any bin that is selected The Avid has an Figure 3 File menu auto save function that automatically saves your work but if you want to make sure you save what you just did then type Command S Mac or Ctrl S Win dows or select this menu item Save Bin Copy As This saves a copy of the open bin Page Setup If you have a printer hooked up to your computer you can print out a lot of dif ferent items and information This command opens a dialog box so you can determine the page setup Print Bin This opens a dialog box that lets you choose what you would like to print on your printer an active bin a frame of a clip or the Timeline Get Bin Info This tells you the name and the start timecode for the clip you have selected and information about the number and length of clips in your bin To tell you the truth I rarely use 334 Appendix
469. used Trim Mode to extend the hiandela 1 Mandela hiandela i Mandela Music Cue 11 Muso Gua 11 Figure 15 14 tail of my shot The Avid kept my tracks in sync even 1f that meant adding fill in the middle of my music cue 238 Chapter 15 Keeping in Sync Figure 15 15 shows another example I ve got single rollers on the B side video and sync audio tracks but not on the narra tion I want to extend the head of the girls watch bus shot by ten frames Look what happens in Figure 15 16 when I drag the rollers to the left to extend the shot Yikes The Avid has added black fill in the middle of the narration That s not going to sound very good girls watch bus Figure 15 15 girls watch bus Narration girls watch bus girls watch bus Drag rollers to the left to extend Figure 15 16 So as you can see sync locks work some of the time but not all of the time If the other tracks in line vertically with the tracks you are editing are empty sync locks can be fast and foolproof But if the other tracks have material in line with the tracks you are cutting or trimming the Avid will blindly remove important material in its quest to keep you in sync That s when all of our previous sync work starts to pay off Take the situation in Figure 15 17 To extend the girls watch bus shot we don t use sync locks on Al the narration Instead we
470. ut wait where will it go Because this title 1s supposed to be superimposed over the video of Nelson Mandela 179 Avid Editing A Guide for Beginning and Intermediate Users we need to open a second video track Go Name Start Title Thabo Mbeki 00 00 30 00 Title Soweto Housing 00 00 30 00 Title Nelson Mandela 01 00 00 30 00 to the Clip menu and choose New Video Track V2 will appear in the Timeline Now you must patch the source track to the V2 record track Remember we learned to patch tracks in Chapter 8 Just click and Oi aha eins Wied UL 0000730100 hold on the V1 source track and drag it to SS Ji the V2 record track as shown in Figure 12 9 When you have made the patch V2 will be highlighted and V1 will not be Make sure the video monitor icon is on V2 Remember the Avid will monitor all the video tracks at or below the track with the aaeei Ee video monitor If the icon stays on V1 it 3 a 1 aa i a a a won t monitor any tracks above it MUM BDE Jome rua Te e a zm muna Mov yor ae A E E Figure 12 8 Title in bin and the Source Monitor the rule of three marks make an edit There are a few things you should know before you make the edit n N lt ie need don t mark your IN on the first frame Figure 12 9 Click here to move the Video Monitor icon to V2 al The Avid generates about two minutes of title material every time you create
471. ut black empty you won t see anything To see the titles you have to drag the Source Monitor position indicator across the position bar 189 Avid Editing A Guide for Beginning and Intermediate Users Select the video track in the Timeline patch the source track and now mark an IN in the Timeline where you want the rolling title to start Next move the cursor along the Timeline and mark an OUT after your IN calculating the number of seconds between your IN and your OUT If the IN and OUT are 40 seconds apart that will be the time of your rolling title Now go to the Source Monitor and mark an IN at the very first frame of the title You ve got three marks Now hit Overwrite You ll see the title is in the Timeline with a small RT for rolling title Depending on your version of software it might not play in real time You will probably need to render it in order for it to play Rendering Your Titles Regular titles play in real time but Crawling and Rolling titles often have to be rendered to play in the Timeline Rendering a Rolling Title 1 Select the track containing the title 2 Place the blue position indicator on the T icon in the Timeline 3 Go to the Clip menu and choose Render Effect button Render at Position or 4 Click the Render Effect button in the Timeline toolbar Figure 12 29 5 When the dialog box appears choose a target drive for the effect 6 Click OK If you have a number o
472. ve is most often used when you have an external mixer control panel attached such as the Digidesign Command 8 You change modes by clicking on the Audio Mixer Mode button Figure 8 11 Clip is the mode we will use most often It looks like a standard mixing board with volume slid ers for each track of audio In Figure 8 11 you see we only have four tracks If you are monitoring 130 Chapter 8 Sound Audio Loop button Fast menu button Select which group Mix Panes of tracks to show button shows 4 or 8 tracks Audio Mixer Mode button Volume level Gang buttons in decibels Volume slider Pan setting Figure 8 11 Audio Mixer Tool in Clip Gain Mode eight tracks you have the option of looking at all eight by clicking on the Mix Panes button that shows four or eight tracks To save screen space you can keep it to four tracks and change the four you are viewing The Audio Mixer Tool can be used to change the volume of clips in the Source Monitor or clips that have been edited into the Timeline e To change the volume of a clip place it in the Source Monitor make sure the Source Monitor is selected and then raise or lower the slider e To change the volume of a clip in the Timeline click on the Timeline and place the position indicator on the segment you want to change Now simply raise or lower the sliders to change your levels 131 Avid Editing A Guide for Beginning and Intermediate Users Usua
473. ve your media drive 311 Avid Editing A Guide for Beginning and Intermediate Users AOO Capture Tool Figure 19 17 Figure 19 18 11 In the Online bin select the new clips I suggest you organize them by tape Use Text View to see which tape the clips came from Select all the clips from tape 001 12 Now select Batch Capture from the Bin menu The Avid will ask you for tape 001 by name Feed that tape into your deck and click OK When all the clips from tape 001 are captured organize all the clips from tape 002 Select them and select Batch Capture 13 Continue until all the clips have been captured Timecode Breaks It will sometimes happen during the batch capture process that when the Avid is searching for the next clip to capture you ll suddenly get an error message saying the Avid can t execute the preroll Don t panic The Avid is trying to get to the timecode for the next clip but it bumps up against a break in the timecode Abort the batch capture and fast forward until you find the timecode the Avid was searching for You are crossing over the timecode break Select the remaining clips and select Batch Capture Now the Avid will find the timecode and continue batch capturing Replacing Your Audio Tracks When the recapturing process is complete you ll see that you need to restore the audio tracks that you deleted earlier 1 To get your sound tracks open the bin that contains the final sequence the on
474. ve chosen Spline rather than Linear This makes the lines have a curve and now the movement accelerates and decelerates beautifully This menu also makes it easy to work with and delete your keyframes Shelf oe Linear If you are in a hurry or the effect is simple you don t need to use e Spline advanced keyframes but when you want to be precise and change lots Bezier of parameters advanced keyframes are priceless Fixed Elastic Extrapolate Color Correction Hold The latest versions of the Avid come with a very powerful Color Correction Tool The tool was designed for professional colorists and Figure 14 22 220 Chapter 14 Advanced Effects and Color Correction experienced Avid editors but some of the features are easy to grasp and can really help give your production a more consistent look Access the Color Correction Tool via the Toolset menu Color correction acts like an effect but it is in the Toolset menu because it changes the appearance of the Avid screen rather dramatically Figure 14 23 Previos Current Next O 44 o p ipoaa j ipod oe og po 4 p ied He 6 i HSL igh Corwes Hue Offsets Riig R16 Gain lbie Bie Aa S a y setup cy w N a WANT a ai aaa e E Hue ooo ooo arnt 2 jt 0 100 0 00 amt Eire oo 000 Amt A es a 7 l Timeline I maoo a oa a aan ak Kote Tim s OU TKH Kate Ties OUTE i Figure 14 23 Color C
475. ve shifted from the center of the wheel toward the blue side of Enable buttons Figure 14 31 229 Avid Editing A Guide for Beginning and Intermediate Users the color wheel The Auto Balance determined that the image was a bit too yellow and shifted the color of the clip away from yellow toward blue Use Auto Contrast first and Auto Balance second and while you do watch to see the adjustments that the Avid makes This is how you can really teach yourself color correction so that over time you can start to make adjustments on your own If I don t like the results it s easy to adjust these settings but using the auto settings gives me a place to start You ll find that the Auto Contrast command does a great job 98 of the time but Auto Balance is less reliable because it is difficult for the Avid to know what the true colors are I rarely change the Auto Contrast settings but Pll often undo or make adjustments to the Auto Balance Click and drag the crosshairs toward the color you want The farther away from the center of the wheel you go the more saturated the color becomes Simply dragging the crosshairs can cause too much of a change so hold the Shift key as you drag to make finer adjustments Start with the Mid range the center wheel and then move to Highlights right and finally Shadows if needed If the shot has too much green drag to the opposite side of the wheel away from green toward magenta blue If I want t
476. versions 00 00 30 00 4 Get rid of the suffix copy 01 and replace it with today s date or a new name so you can easily tell your versions apart Figure 2 17 35 Avid Editing A Guide for Beginning and Intermediate Users Double click on the new sequence icon to load it into the Record Monitor and Timeline Now you have a new ver sion to work with Lift and Extract Now let s start exploring Lift and Extract two commands that are important in helping us understand Avid editing Because they are so important you ll find them right on the keyboard they are the letters Z Lift and X Extract Avid changed the look of these commands in Media Composer 3 0 The two screen captures in Figure 2 18 show the old and new commands Let s go to the third shot in the Timeline In my sequence it s Master Shot 1 For this exercise we ll be using the Mark Clip button to select the clip for lifting and extract ing Place the position indicator anywhere in the clip and then press the Mark Clip button Figure 2 19 Now press the Lift button The clip is gone and black filler is in its place Figure 2 20 Notice that when you lift the length of your sequence does not change The Timeline is the same length Press Command Z Mac or Ctrl Z Windows to undo the Lift Now use the Mark Clip button to mark the Master Shot again This Ws ith Old Lift and Extract New Lift and Extract Figure 2 18
477. very determines the pacing A talk between friends 83 Avid Editing A Guide for Beginning and Intermediate Users or an amiable exchange between people where each person 1s listening to the other would be slower paced and involve more pauses Instead of cutting as soon as one person stops you might want to let the dialog breathe by putting in pauses before each person talks we can see them think ing or reacting rather than delivering lines An argument where two people aren t really listening to each other would be faster paced You would have more cuts with few if any pauses between lines At times one person might cut in before the other person finishes Reaction shots and split edits are important components of any conversation You don t want to always stay on Kate until she finishes her lines and then cut to Tim while he says all his lines always on camera It is often better to start that way so the audience learns who is talking and gets a handle on their voices but once the audience gets it you can depart from the talking head approach and spice things up with reaction shots and split edits Let s start with reaction shots If Tim says something hurtful or ironic or funny we want to see how Kate responds True the length of the cutaway depends in part on her reaction but you would tend to want the reaction to be a bit longer during a normal conversation than during an argument or fight You use the length and frequen
478. w the material by playing it and then marking the part you want with IN and OUT points Let s try it 1 Play the tape using the deck control and mark an IN where you want the clip to start Notice that the timecode of the exact spot you chose is displayed in the window next to the IN marker Figure 6 21 2 Play the tape using the deck control and mark an OUT The timecode for that spot is displayed as well as the duration of the clip which is listed in the IN to OUT window 3 Hit the red Capture button The tape will rewind to your IN timecode rollback a few seconds and then start capturing The box next to the Capture button will flash red 4 When the clip is captured it will appear in the bin Name the clip in the bin 5 Repeat the steps above to capture all shots You can abort the capturing process by clicking on the Trash icon next to the flashing red box 103 Avid Editing A Guide for Beginning and Intermediate Users Press here to mark your OUT Press here to mark your IN 7 E y ooo e amp tt E ULNA pg 00 00 11 28 a j L ile J i le m i DE maHc 264 2a Sony DSA TSC r R OR se oj l e Custom preroll EA econd J Shuttle the Pause deck Play deck The duration of your clip Figure 6 21 To save time you can actually type the clip s name without waiting for the capture to end Just start typing as soon as the button flashes red When the clip has been recorded the
479. w things down by pressing and holding down the K key and then either J or L 1 Hold the K key while pressing J or L to glide slowly backward or forward as you shorten or lengthen your clip 2 When you reach the frame where you want to end the trim release the K key Most people love this so much they re hooked forever Dual Roller Trim Mode You i i will notice that only one side of the Trim Mode display will play in real time The other side will catch up once you stop Whichever side has the green Green line shows the live side line just below the counters 1s the one that plays in real time Figure 10 10 161 Avid Editing A Guide for Beginning and Intermediate Users Just move the mouse over the other window don t click on it to choose which side you want to see play The green line shifts to the other side Replace Replace does what you d expect it replaces material in the sequence with other material of your choosing Let s say you have placed a clip in the Source Monitor marked an IN and an OUT and spliced it into the Timeline Looking at it you think another take would work better Without Replace you would have to find the new take and overwrite it into the Timeline Replace is differ ent Unlike overwriting Replace doesn t need IN and OUT marks It uses the location of the blue position indicators to do its work I realize this is a new concept so let s take a closer look at
480. want to change the aspect ratio of the monitors to 4 3 to see how your SD material looks Right click Windows or Ctrl Shift click Mac in the Record Monitor and deselect 16 9 Video 4 3 Letterbox Version Creating a letterbox version is amazingly simple and can be done in a matter of minutes With letterboxing you get to keep the widescreen composition but in order to do so you have to put black bands above and below the Info Usage picture information om 14 9 Letterbox 1 Switch from 16 9 to 4 3 Source Record Monitors see above 16 9 Letterbox Create a V2 track Make sure nothing else is on it If there is Hal 4 3 Sidebar create a V3 track 3 Click the Monitor track box so the icon moves up to V2 4 Go to the Effect Palette click on the Reformat category of effects and drag the 16 9 Letterbox icon to the V2 track see Figure 17 15 Figure 17 15 You will now see your sequence with normal 4 3 proportions but with the widescreen composition maintained thanks to the letterboxing Figure 17 16 Pan and Scan Effect Media Composer and the newer Xpress Pro versions have a Reformat category of effects that allows you to reformat to different aspect ratios as well as Pan and Scan First leave your Source Record Figure 17 16 277 Avid Editing A Guide for Beginning and Intermediate Users Monitor in the 16 9 mode Unlike letterboxing we need to see the 16 9 version Now follow these steps 1 Cre
481. will 269 Avid Editing A Guide for Beginning and Intermediate Users Digital audio Analog audio In and Out p ta n GN fey OF ah dj W b u K F r3 fi a F ipao HD SDI In Out SDI In Out Analog video In Out Figure 17 4 The back of the Nitris DX box vary slightly depending on the HD deck you are using For this example we will capture a Sony HDCAM tape shot in the 10801 59 94 HD format i Turn on the deck Make sure the Local Remote switch is on Remote 2 Turn on your computer The Mojo DX and Nitris DX are turned on and off by turning on 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 270 and off your computer however for the Adrenaline HD you will need to turn on the power button on the Adrenaline device Launch the Avid Media Composer software When the Select a Project window opens click on New Project and name it such as Finding Sarah HD Under the Format pulldown menu choose the HD format of your tape Figure 17 5 for the latest software select a Raster Type Once in your project name a bin and make sure it s open Go to Settings in the Project window Double click on Media Creation Select the Capture tab choose the proper DNxHD codec and then select Apply to All see Figure 17 6 Examine the table on page 269 for the suggested online codec Go to the Toolset menu and choose Capture In the Capture Tool make sure that the V1 A1 A2 and TC track buttons are selected
482. will stop playing The spacebar is also a Play button Just tap the spacebar and the clip or sequence will play Tap it again and it will stop The and O Keys Like the J K L keys the I and O keys on the keyboard are particularly handy When you press the I key you are marking an IN and telling the Avid where the start of your clip will be When you press the O key you are marking an OUT and telling the Avid where the end of the clip will be Notice that these two keys are right above the J K L keys making it easy to mark an IN and an OUT Other Important Commands Examine the list of some of the most important commands and their symbols shown in Figure 1 25 Most are available on the keyboard as buttons on the computer screen or in a Fast menu Two of the most important commands are Undo and Redo To undo an action simply hold down the Command 18 key Mac or Ctrl key Windows and press the letter Z To Redo a previous action hold down the Command key Mac or Ctrl key Windows and press the letter R e Undo Command Z Mac or Ctrl Z Windows e Redo Command R Mac or Ctrl R Windows You can go back and undo or redo up to 32 previous actions Memorize the keyboard keys listed here and you ll have the Avid down in no time Really these are about the only keys you need to memorize Active Window As you can see the Avid screen has a number of windows and monitors the Timeline the Source Monitor the Record
483. works both ways If you are using cables with a Mojo MX Nitris DX or Adrenaline HD make sure the cables run from the hardware s output connectors to the decks input connectors Now turn on the power to the deck and then relaunch your Avid software Crash Recording to Tape The simplest method of recording to tape 1s called crash recording You don t need to be a video engi neer to get it to work There are two ways to do this 1 Simply set your video deck or camera to record press Record on your camera or deck and then play your sequence 2 Use the Avid s Digital Cut Tool to do the crash record We ll start with the first option 303 Avid Editing A Guide for Beginning and Intermediate Users 1 Select all your tracks and then Mark an IN at Video quality the beginning of your sequence and an OUT at selector button the end Now select Render In to Out from the Clip menu to render your effects and titles Now remove the IN and OUT marks 2 In the Timeline bottom toolbar click on the Figure 19 4 Video Quality button and choose all green for best quality Put a new tape in the camera or deck Place the position indicator at the start of your sequence On a deck set the Remote Local switch to Local On a camera place the Camera VTR switch to VTR Press the Record Play Record button on the camera or deck Count a few seconds and play your sequence on the Avid Se eee ee When the sequence 1s over p
484. y At the end of the event you quickly insert each card into the P2 Gear and offload the cards via USB 2 0 to an external 320GB drive You reformat each card and hand them back to the camera operators You then take the external drive back to your Avid to edit Or a camera operator director or producer may hand you a DVD onto which he or she has offloaded P2 cards After installing the Mac or Windows P2 driver insert the DVD or attach the external drive Once you see that your operating system recognizes the drive or DVD follow steps 1 through 7 listed on page 116 You re ready to start editing But don t Let s first back up your media Backing Up Your P2 Media Up until now you have imported the P2 media into your Avid Media Composer from the P2 card from one of several Panasonic devices or from an external drive or DVD but none of that media is actually on your Avid drive All of it is still on the P2 card or whatever device you have attached 119 Avid Editing A Guide for Beginning and Intermediate Users to your Avid We can see the master clips and view the footage but if you exit or quit the Avid application all of your imported media will go offline What we want to do now 1s put these media files into our Avid drive so we can dismount the P2 card or P2 device Avid has a fast and simple way of doing this and it is highly recommended that you do this before you start editing clips from the P2 cards To make
485. y are independent of any video There are several ways to solve this problem Ill show you one of the quickest methods Locators Locators are handy tabs that you can place on any and all tracks in the Timeline to show you that you are in or out of sync You can also use them to leave helpful messages in the Record Monitor 233 Avid Editing A Guide for Beginning and Intermediate Users Locators in the Timeline 7 d oom out Hill Figure 15 4 As you may recall in Chapter 4 we opened the Command Palette and mapped the Add Locator button in the More tab to the F5 key on the keyboard Just select a track in the Timeline by clicking on its track selector button and then press F5 A pop up window opens in which you can type comments Figure 15 5 Just click OK to save the locator and close the window Start sync marks here Locator Start sync marks here Figure 15 5 For sync purposes you want to place a locator on all of the tracks so the locators line up in a straight vertical row In Figure 15 6 you can see that I have placed locators on every track that contains a clip You must place the locators on each track one at a time I deselected all the tracks except V2 and then I hit the Add Locator button Then without moving the position indica tor I deselected V2 and selected V1 and pressed the Add Locator button again and so on until all of the tracks have locators Look what happens if any of my trac
486. y self explanatory If you want audio tracks as part of the export your audio tracks will be mixed onto one track AIFF C 48 kHz and 16 Bit are simply our Audio Project Settings If you are on a Unity network check Use Network Media References You will find two files on your desktop one for picture and one for sound These are the files we will import into Sorenson Squeeze Fine Cut aif Fine Cutmov Now we ll let Sorenson Squeeze compress the files so they are perfect Fi 16 24 for putting on our webpage or YouTube igure INPUT N E p lt x P e n E 1 j t gt bmp Fie Wech Fokker Caphare Video F AUDIENCE PRESETS F L r p My Favostes j fem i169 1 78 HOTWEDTY ue ee Auto Cropping z owo ES Ci aA ao SETTING DESTINATION PROGAESS Joo 133514 07 1 BAe ceri Fine Cutat Fro Cutmov JIM Fre Cu _iMb mpi Figure 16 25 Here are the steps I use to import the QuickTime reference movie into Sorenson Squeeze and output a MPEG file 1 In the Input screen I click on Import File 2 I navigate to the two files on my desktop that the Avid exported and select them Then I click Open 3 I chose 16 9 as my aspect ratio 4 In the Audience Presets I choose Web gt Streaming gt MPEG4 gt 1Mb or smaller if you want a smaller file I click the Apply button 5 I select the Publish Preset to send it to my desktop and then I click the Apply button 6 When it appears I pres
487. you can cut the low frequencies and boost the midrange frequencies 138 Chapter 8 Sound The Avid has a tool that enables you to do the same thing The EQ Tool is in the Tools menu The EQ Tool affects clips in the Timeline From the Tools menu choose Audio EQ A window appears Audio loop button Effect icon Track selector menu EQ Fast menu Midrange frequency range adjustment High frequency range adjustment Low frequency range adjustment Horizontal slider EQ graph Figure 8 25 Setting the EQ The sliders allow you to emphasize boost or de emphasize cut the low middle and high fre quencies The horizontal slider allows you to change the shape and placement of the parametric curve This adjustment allows you to locate the frequency that you most want to boost or cut Watch the EQ graph to see the changes The Audio Loop button will play the sound in a continuous loop and allow you to hear the changes you make as you adjust the sliders There is also an IN button which gives you the opportunity to turn off the effect of the EQ so you can tell how your changes compare to the original sound Are you making the sound better or worse Click once and it turns gray indicating that no equalization is taking place Click again and it turns yellow indicating that the effect is on 139 Avid Editing A Guide for Beginning and Intermediate Users Steps for applying EQ 1 Select Audio EQ from the Tools menu
488. you flag important points You can even write yourself notes This tool opens a window that shows you where all the locators are on your sequence and lets you view them in different ways Media Creation This command opens a dialog box in which you tell the Avid how you want to handle all of the media you bring into the Avid You could for example set the resolution for the tapes you capture at a lower resolution and set your titles and imported files at the highest resolution That way you could recapture only the shots used 1n your final sequence at the highest resolution and have your titles and effects already at that highest resolution Media Tool This is a tool that looks and behaves just like a bin It helps you find and manage all of the project s media files Project This command makes the Project window the active window Timecode Window This opens a window that can display up to eight lines of timecode informa tion If you click on the window a pop up menu appears giving you options such as IN to OUT sequence duration and remaining time Timeline If you inadvertently close the Timeline or find you don t have a Timeline select this com mand and a Timeline will appear 346 Appendix Menus Title Tool This opens the tool that we use to create titles This command does the same thing as New Title in the Clip menu Toolset Menu Script Studic The items on this menu change the look of the Avid They open lesa Wind
489. you know how to get into Trim Mode you need to be able to get out of Trim Mode r Figure 3 3 In Dual Roller Trim Leaving Trim Mode Mode the rollers appear on both side of Any one of these methods will take you out of Trim Mode the transition point e Press the Trim Mode button again e Press either of the step one frame buttons the left and right arrow keys e Click the mouse in the timecode track TC1 at the bottom of the Timeline Figure 3 4 Click anywhere in the timecode track and you will leave Trim Mode The position indicator will jump to the spot you clicked Figure 3 5 43 Avid Editing A Guide for Beginning and Intermediate Users I prefer to click on the timecode track to get out of Trim Mode I usually click to the left of the transition That way the position indicator jumps to the spot where I clicked and I m ready to watch the transition I just trimmed Lassoing the Transition To lasso the transition put the pointer Click the mouse pointer in the gray area here and drag above the tracks and to the left of the tran tO surround the transition There s a faster way to enter Trim Mode sition you want to work on Drag down left to right encircling the transition including all the tracks and let go Figure 3 6 You are instantly in Trim Mode Lassoing the transi Figure 3 6 tion is the fastest method because you don t need to select the tracks It s the method you should pract
490. you press the Clipboard icon the material stays in the sequence and a copy of it including all the audio and video tracks that you have selected 1s saved to the Clipboard This way you can take something you ve done and place an exact copy of it elsewhere You could even place it in another sequence omposer File Edit Bin Clip Output Special Tools Toolset Windows 5 To see the material you placed in the Clipboard go tOo ish cut seguen the Source Monitor menu and hold down the pull Clear Monitor Duplicate down menu Select Clipboard Contents and whatever Add Comments Load Filler Clear Menu you selected appears in the Source Monitor Figure Kate s CU 2 26 Now you can mark the material you want to cut seada le into the same sequence or another sequence Figure 2 26 When you put more than one clip onto the Clipboard they will all be listed in the Source Monitor menu They will be erased from memory once you close the project or Quit Undo Redo List As we noted you can Undo and Redo your actions simply by pressing Command Z Mac or Ctrl Z Windows If you press the Undo command four times in a row you can undo your four 39 Avid Editing A Guide for Beginning and Intermediate Users previous actions There 1s an easier way to do this Go to the Edit menu at the top of your computer screen and pull down the Edit menu Drag down and then hold open the Undo Redo List like the one sh
491. your new Avid project you ll choose 10801 59 94 in the Format menu Choose DVCPro HD in the Raster Type pulldown menu P2 is for Shooting Not Editing Most people don t edit directly from the P2 card although with the Avid Media Composer you can It s recommended that you offload the media onto a drive and edit from that drive and not from the P2 card There are several different workflows depending on how many P2 cards you have and how much you are filming But since the P2 cards are reusable most people offload the media to a storage device or a computer They then reformat the P2 card and resume shooting We will go over the different ways you can get P2 media into the Avid and then we ll describe how to back it up Install P2 Driver Software Before your computer can recognize the P2 card you must install P2 driver software It s just like when you buy a new ink jet printer and have to install the printer driver When you buy any of Panasonic s P2 equipment including the camera it will come with a CD containing the necessary driver software which you install on your Media Composer computer However if you re renting or borrowing a camera or P2 storage device and you don t have the CD or the CD 1s outdated and you need a newer version of the driver Google Panasonic P2 card format station and click on the link P2 driver for PC and Mac As I write this a handy website called Panasonic sixbullets net does a better j

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