Avid Assistant

The secret to keeping any project on track is organisation. This can come in a number of forms but for this post, I wanted to look at how you can use simple folder structures to help organise and manage the content of your project. For most people, especially editors, when you use the word content they will instantly think of hours and hours of rushes, but in terms of a project, there is a ton of other 'stuff' that we will need to have to hand. The amount of 'stuff' we have will depend upon the type of project you are working on and the experience of the people you are working with too. Even if there is no information being offered to you, there are a number of things that you should be doing to ensure your project runs smoothly. Understand the workflow Make sure you have an understanding of the project's workflow. Talk with the producer, editor and cameramen if needed. Ensure you understand how the material is captured, backed up, delivered, ingested a...

Avid Projects. It's the first thing you are greeted with once you have launched Media Composer. In days gone by creating a project was relatively simple with only 3 types being available. These were basically PAL (25 frames) NTSC (Drop and Non-Drop) and finally Film (24 frames usually). When High Definition formats turned up they added to the muddied waters with various raster sizes (1280x720 and 1920x1080) varying frame rates (50fps was now commonly available) as well as the usual Progressive and Interlaced fields issue. Today we now have 2K, UHD, and 4K to contend with too. These add further issues such as varying colour spaces and a myriad of various frame rates and raster sizes, such as the Digital Cinema Initiatives formats. DCI Flat, DCI Full, DCI Scope and Full Apature  to name but a few. If you are interested in the complete list of varying formats check this  Avid KB article  about currently supported project formats. For this short post, I'd like to lo...

You've worked hard to get your first Avid Assistant role so you need to keep that good impression going to make sure you'll be hired again! Stepping into an editing room for the first time can be a little overwhelming. I'm not talking about the technology but rather the day to day workplace interactions with others, especially the editor. OK, so some edit suits aren't too intimidating. Relationships with your co-workers are very important. You're not just trading off your technical ability but also your reputation as a great person to work with. Are you easy to get on with? Helpful? Punctual and well mannered? Can you work well under pressure and still be polite and helpful? All of these are important life skills and can make the difference between being hired and not. I know a number of Assistants who are technically brilliant but their personal persona has actually deterred editors from working with them. Don't forget, the editing profession i...

When starting out as an Avid Assistant you will need to practice your skills constantly. So what are the essentials you need to be able to practice your skills and use on your first projects? Here's a short look at what you can get for free and a few items you may have to buy, but all of them under $25! I'll be making one (rather large) assumption here. I am assuming you already have a laptop, Mac or PC it doesn't really matter. I don't however, assume that it can run Media Composer, but if it is the right specification then great as this means you can practice your Media Composer skills anywhere! But if your laptop has seen better days it still has a place. Use it as your nerve centre in co-ordinating and researching projects. Ideally, you will have access to a computer that runs Media Composer in some way shape and form, even if it is at a facility that will allow you access to their system outside of business hours. Make sure you have a laptop bag too, you...

For a lot of smaller productions, typically documentary makers, their projects will shoot with smaller format cameras such as DSLR or small hand-held cameras like the Panasonic AJ-PX270 or Canon XF305. All these cameras can produce stunning quality pictures and produce relatively small files for storing and editing with. This means these productions could work with rushes in their 'Native' format removing the need to carry out a more complex offline and online conform and can help streamline the editing process and more importantly save money and time. This approach still needs some planning as you need to ensure camera rushes are presented in similar, if not identical formats (raster size, framerate and colour space). This can still be challenging, especially when some productions have little experience and may have little technical understanding of camera equipment and formats. So what can we, as assistants, do to ensure the project runs smoothly and can be edited in its ...

Media Management is not a widely taught subject but is an important skill to master especially if you are managing multiple projects on a single editing system. Even with large storage capacity at some stage, you will have to delete material! This post looks at the basics of deleting media from within Media Composer (or Symphony) we have other posts that look at managing content while ingesting which also helps maintain a tidy system, which in turn means a responsive editing system. Basic deletions Deleting media is relatively straightforward within Media Composer. You can delete material directly from your bin by simply selecting a clip and pressing the Delete key on your keyboard. You're then presented with the Deletion window asking what you would like to delete the master clip, its associated media files, or indeed both. Choosing Master clip(s) (shown top left) simply deletes the clip information from the bin, but keeps the media (pictures and sound) on the drive...

One of the key roles of the Avid Assistant to ingest media, at the right Avid Codec , into the Project. It's important that you understand how Avid uses Media and how it is stored. Leaving the idea of AMA and linking to source files to one side for now here we will be looking at how Avid stores media it actually creates through either Consolidation, Transcode, Import or even Digitising. Media Types  Avid has been around for almost 30 years and has seen a number of formats come and go, but the 2 main formats that Avid has and still usee are listed below. OMFI Open Media Framework Interchange - OMFI - is now a legacy digital format that was introduced by Avid in the Mid 90's on its ABVB systems, when most media was ingested by digitizing from tape. This format is limited to PAL and NTSC ratios and sizes. For example in PAL, OMFI media can be stored as 4x3 or 16x9 Anamorphic with a frame size of 720x576. It does NOT support High Definition Formats. All current Avid editin...

This is an essential skill but often overlooked or completely forgotten on many projects.  As an Editor or an Assistant on smaller projects especially, it will be down to you to ensure that project remains on course, losing the project would be catastrophic and almost impossible to recreate in a short period of time. You did back it up? Right? As the Avid Project holds ALL your bins containing your Edits, rushes, effects, music, VO, and Titles it is essential that it is backed up on a regular basis, ideally every day. Remember the Avid Project is merely metadata (descriptive data) and so is relatively small as it does not contain the actual video itself. The process is very simple and takes little time and should be completed daily through the life of the project. Equipment needed Blank USB Memory Stick - 8GB min Where does the Avid Project live? When using a stand-alone Avid editing system the Avid Project can be located in one of three places described by...