Avid Community Blogs

Boris FX – Rockin’ with BCC6

DIGITALFILMS.wordpress.com — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 21:13:47 GMT

Boris FX is one of the most prolific producers of plug-in filters and compositing applications. Factor in all the host applications covered by the Boris products – like Boris Continuum Complete, plus the hosted and standalone versions of Boris Red, Blue, FX and Graffiti – and you can easily see how so much video is [...] Read More......(read more)

Exporting Sequence for DVD with RGB Levels

GeniusDV.com — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 15:24:31 GMT

When exporting a QuickTime movie from Avid Media Composer, you may want to take a quick look at your color levels. Chances are you may be exporting with ‘safe broadcast’ levels. The RGB equivalent of broadcast levels are 16 (black) – 235 (white). Save Broadcast levels are only necessary if you plan on ‘broadcasting’ your program. For example, if you’re producing a ½ show for Sportsman Channel . If you are producing a project that is going directly to DVD, or a multimedia movie, you may want to consider...(read more)

Using Avid FX or Boris FX Engine for Avid Media Composer

GeniusDV.com — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 05:01:00 GMT

All retail versions of Avid Media Composer ship with a program called Avid FX. When you see Avid FX think Boris FX , that’s because it’s the same exact program. I’ll warn you, if you plan on regularly using the Avid FX plugin, you’ll want to make sure that you have a beefy machine with plenty of RAM. Avid FX is much more than a software plugin, it’s an entire compositing program. When it comes to building complex effects Avid FX is extremely useful. However, one issue you may run into is the amount...(read more)

nVeil – the origami of video

DIGITALFILMS.wordpress.com — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 18:27:37 GMT

If you are looking for a plug-in to give you a unique and different look for striking visual effects, then Storek Studio’s nVeil filter fits the bill. nVeil is an FxPlug filter for Final Cut Pro, Final Cut Express and Motion and provides yet another tool that leverages the power of OpenGL and the FxPlug [...] Read More......(read more)

Media Composer Windows XP install 3GB

GeniusDV.com — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 15:45:22 GMT

If you are an Avid Media Composer user, and you’re like me, you’ve been hestitant to upgrade to Windows Vista. After all, Windows XP Professional has been a steady workhorse for Avid Media Composer users. With the Microsoft's Windows 7 coming out soon, it may be worth completely skipping out on upgrading to Windows Vista. That being said, if you are a Media Composer user running Windows XP 32bit, you may need to take the extra step of modifying the boot.ini file for Windows XP . This is because the...(read more)

Photoshop titles that are high quality

GeniusDV.com — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 14:30:00 GMT

Photoshop is an invaluable tool for video editor, and I've always been a big fan of teaching the Photoshop basics as it applies to video editing. One basic Photoshop skill is the ability to cut out a company logo so it can be placed as a 'bug' or integrated within a video project to help brand a business. You can read up on a Photoshop tutorial for creating a glass bug on how to actually do this. For myself, I like to keep things simple. I've always touted using the file format .png to when saving...(read more)

Tech Tips Organized for Your Enjoyment

SpliceHere.wordpress.com — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 19:31:45 GMT

Responding to popular demand (thanks, Harry), I’ve put up a page with a complete list of the tech tips I’ve posted, organized by subject. You can always click on the category menu in the right-hand column and select “Avid Technical Tips,” but the tips list should make things easier to find. It’s here: Avid Tech Tips The [...] Read More......(read more)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Left to Right

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

Photo courtesy of Thomas Donley.

Left to Right

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

Left to Right

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

Photo courtesy of Thomas Donley.

Left to Right

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

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

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

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

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

• Questions, comments and suggestions - send in an email

• Subscribe to The Rough Cut Podcast on iTunes

• Get your feed of episodes - RSS

• Follow our podcast episodes on Twitter on YouTube or Vimeo

• Episodes featured in InFocus Newsletter - subscribe

Try Avid Media Composer free for 14 days - download now

Creating Radiant Title with Avid Marquee

GeniusDV.com — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 14:55:06 GMT

It’s been awhile since I’ve written a tutorial for Avid Media Composer. I thought I’d mix it up a bit and share an extremely valuable tool for creating moving mattes. The ability to create moving mattes is a critical skill when building effects. This tutorial demonstrates how you can use Avid Marquee to create a giant title with a ‘glassy’ appearance that travels through a scene. This exercise is not for the light hearted and requires some basic knowledge of the Media Composer interface. I’ve done...(read more)

Scoring with Sonicfire Pro

DIGITALFILMS.wordpress.com — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 19:46:35 GMT

Music choices are very subjective and can often be the most difficult part of finishing a production. There is no replacement for a true custom score that’s right on the money, but rarely do clients have a budget to support that, especially in the world of corporate video. I’ve frequently built videos with music changes [...] Read More......(read more)

Editing DVD Material in an Avid

SpliceHere.wordpress.com — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 17:49:23 GMT

I recently had to re-edit some source material that lived only on a DVD. And I had to do it at home on a software-only Media Composer system. Many friends told me not to attempt this–too many settings, too many ways to screw yourself up. Better to use a good DVD player, using component or [...] Read More......(read more)

Avid: Using the Fit to Fill Button for Motion Effects

GeniusDV.com — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 18:30:56 GMT

Most Avid editors are unaware that you can use the Fit to Fill button to make motion effects. If you have a space in your time line that you need to fill or you can set and in to out and simply use the fit to fill button to create your motion effect. There are a few things you need to be aware of when using the fit to fill button. By default it creates the effect using the Duplicated Field rendering which does not produce the cleanest looking motion. You need to change this to Interpolated Fields...(read more)

Hector Parra’s Hypermusic Prologue prepared in Sibelius

Daniel Spreadbury — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 23:16:56 GMT

One more story from my friend Wim Hoogewerf for today. He says: Last sunday I assisted at the first performance of Hector Parra’s Hypermusic Prologue by the Ensemble InterContemporain at the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris. A 500-page score, a real engraver’s nightmare (have a look at the picture above!) taken care of by Canadian copyist Katherine [...] Read More......(read more)

The Avid GPS/SatNav

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

‘Turn right and you have arrived at your destination’

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Techniques and Tips Book Redux

SpliceHere.wordpress.com — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 15:23:00 GMT

As some of you know, I’ve commenced work on an update to my venerable “Avid Media Composer Techniques and Tips” book. The original version began life way back in the mid-90s, when I was working closely with the Avid engineers, helping them design an interface and feature set that would work for people like me. [...] Read More......(read more)

Clean the Mouse

SpliceHere.wordpress.com — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 12:51:53 GMT

I know it sounds faintly ridiculous, but cleaning your mouse can make a real ergonomic difference for your wrist and forearm. I’m often amazed at what people will put up with in a mouse. It seems like this is the most basic connection you make to the computer. Many of us are dragging and clicking [...] Read More......(read more)

More Grunt with CoreMelt

DIGITALFILMS.wordpress.com — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 18:44:47 GMT

In the world of plug-in effects filters, CoreMelt might seem like the new kid but that would be incorrect. CoreMelt is the brainchild of Roger Bolton, an accomplished Flame artist and visual effects veteran with numerous film credits, including Kingdom of Heaven and The Lords of the Rings trilogy. Bolton started out as one of [...] Read More......(read more)

The Rough Cut - "Chuck" assistant editor Scott Pellet

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

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

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

• Questions, comments and suggestions - send in an email

• Subscribe to The Rough Cut Podcast on iTunes

• Get your feed of episodes - RSS

• Follow our podcast episodes on Twitter on YouTube or Vimeo

• Episodes featured in InFocus Newsletter - subscribe

Try Avid Media Composer free for 14 days - download now

ICON Bootcamp!

ProToolsProfessional.com — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 01:36:42 GMT

Hi there folks, it seems that some new visitors to my blog (www.protoolsprofessional.com) aren’t finding all the various videos or visiting them in any logical order, so I thought Id take the initiative of posting a “contents” type list of the videos I’ve made so far and how the logical progression of ideas could be [...] Read More......(read more)

METal Media Festival

NormanHollyn.com — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 17:28:54 GMT

I’m part of a group of people who get together about every week or so to talk about events in the Media, Entertainment and Technology spaces (don’t you just love when someone uses the term “space”?). The group, which is called METal — for the Media Entertainment Technology Alliance — is run by Ken Rutkowski, [...] Post from: HOLLYN-wood by Norman Hollyn METal Media Festival Read More......(read more)

Preview Mode

ProToolsProfessional.com — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 05:10:36 GMT

Here’s another quick video to demonstrate a key automation feature from the PTHD7.2 release. Its called Preview mode. Many clients want to audition a change in their automation from region to region, scene to scene, before committing to “Writing” it. The most common way of doing that pre-7.2 was to suspend your automation, find the [...] Read More......(read more)

The Erratic Future of Education

NormanHollyn.com — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 04:32:24 GMT

A recent episode of This Week In Tech, Twit 197, focused on education. Along with host Leo LaPorte were Don Tapscott, Gina Trapani, Jeff Jarvis, and Jeff’s son Jake Jarvis. Now, Don is the author of a number of books, including one of my favorites — Grown Up Digital, which looks at the generation of [...] Post from: HOLLYN-wood by Norman Hollyn The Erratic Future of Education Read More......(read more)

Preferential Power…PTHD and ICON Prefs

ProToolsProfessional.com — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 10:15:13 GMT

So, The Preferences… These two videos explore the two sides of an ICON suite, the Pro Tools HD system’s preferences and the ICON console’s preferences. Key components of the PTHD prefs are your choices on the “Mixing” page amongst others. On your ICON you can completely customise how the unit behaves, where your custom fader groups [...] Read More......(read more)

Loader

DIGITALFILMS.wordpress.com — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 22:53:19 GMT

The last 6 – 12 months have seen a bumper crop of new Final Cut plug-ins and utilities that extend its power and functionality. Quite a few have come to light since this year’s NAB. I’m going to spend the summer highlighting a number of these throughout the next series of posts. The first isn’t really [...] Read More......(read more)