Billie Williams DFSA: Avid Editing Workshop 1

This was my first workshop learning how to use Avid Editing. I have always loved the editing side of film work so I have quite a large understanding of editing but I have always used Adobe Premiere Pro so I jumped at the chance to learn to use Avid instead. I took a lot of notes during the Lesson as there was so much information being taught to us but here is roughly what I picked up and learnt:

Firstly here was a picture of our basic set up:

So we have three monitors and the two on the left are used for the actual editing software and then the one on the right is used as a preview monitor. We also have two sets of headphones so we can listen either individually or together whilst editing. Then their is a special editing keyboard which as you can see is colour coded and has symbols on to help you know what does what on Avid. There is also just a standard computer mouse to use which runs across both left hand screens.

So unfortunately when we were setting up a new project in Avid in the Project Window I did not take a screen however I took notes so that I new the general standards when setting one up. It should be set to 1080p/25-HD because most things will be shot in progressive at 25 francs per second especially here in the UK. If on the Project Window you go onto settings you can then choose 'Source/Record Editing' which is the general layout that you want to work with. Also while in these settings you can check that your audio is set to 'alternating L + R' so that the sound comes out properly on a two speaker left and right system. Also while in the Audio settings here you can click on 'hardware' and select ' - 18 dbfs' which is the right sound level you want. You should also when in the project window go to 'Render' then 'Video resolution' and click the option that says 'DNxHDx185xMXF' and also make sure its set to 'N Drive'. This will make sure the quality of the video while editing is set correctly and therefore will also render and export correctly. Now once you have set this all correctly and named your project you can create it so that you then enter the actual Avid Workspace.

We then imported some practice materials/videos into the project and we also then went and organised our bins like so:

Sp that is the Bin window opened up where you can create bins, delete bins etc. As you can see before I started editing I created a new bin called edits to work from as you should never mix up your media.

So sometimes when you import media into Avid the files will be transcoded so Avid is usually able to format these files so it is able to work with them however if it can't then their are always plug ins available to do this before it goes into Avid.

Once you have imported your files into the project you can start editing them. However the files we imported for this practice were linked files (have a little chain symbol next to them):

You should never edit linked files and instead should move them and delink them into a different bin. You do this by electing the linked clips and going onto 'Transcode/Consolidate' then 'Transcode' then 'N;Drive' and then make sure the same settings for these clips (quality 1080p etc) are the same as before when you set the project up. This will then unlink the media and you can put the unlinked files you want to edit into a bin called rushes.

If you want to change the way your bins look then you can. As you can see from the last image there are lots of columns with different information in them about each clip. You can add columns in or take them away in the settings and you can even change the order. This can be saved as a preset if you like as well. One thing to keep in mind while doing this is that you should never change the name of the clip because you need it to match to the original. Instead if you want to add names you can add a custom column called details and then you can write in this what you want.

If a '*' appears next to the bin this means this bin hasn't been saved so hit ctrl and S and this will save it for you. This is the same for the project and files with in it as well.

You then to start actually adding a sequence to edit on right click on the bin you want this to be in and then click new sequence. You can then add things to the timeline but always make sure the sync locks are on. Heres what the time line looks like:

The sync lock is where the blue squares that say V1 A1 etc are. They should all be synced and therefore highlighted blue but originally when I set this up I forgot to do this. As you can see I have also added more lines of audio in. When I did this we had to make sure the audio tracks were set to mono but you should always create two at a time because of the two speakers you will have usually.

Next we learnt about what the keys mean when editing on the timeline:
V = Has a yellow arrow pointing right on it. This means you will splice in the piece of footage your adding to the track making everything shuffle up an not deleting anything.
b = Has a red arrow pointing right. This will add footage in to the track but instead of splicing in it simply over rights the footage that was underneath deleting it.
z = arrow pointing up. This lifts out the media selected on the track but leaves a space empty where it once was.
x = again arrow pointing up. This lifts out media off a track again but his one closes up the gap left automatically.

Then we learnt about the tool bar next to the timeline:

If this is locked on and all selected it means your actions are restricted when editing the timeline because it guesses what tool you want and what your trying to do. Instead it is a lot easier to just click on which tool you want. The min ones are the red and yellow arrows. The red arrow allows you to select and clip sections but deletes what you place it on when moved. The yellow arrow moves the other material around the cup you are trying to add in.

Here some more hints and tips I picked up:

If you have the caps lock on when scrolling through footage frame by frame this means you can hear the sound of each frame too.

The J, K and L keys allow you to play and fast forward or back the media.
If you press the K and L keys together you play it in slow motion.
Press the L key once to play normal speed and the more times you press it the more fast forward it gets.
J works the same as L but backwards.

We then learnt about the term checker boarding. this means you should always keep different elements of sound, video and special effects etc on different tracks therefore creating a checkerboard effect. Here is my simple example from what I made:

If you need to change the audio levels etc there are a few ways to do so. One way is to right click the clip in the bin an then press audio gain which brings up a quick way to push the audio up.

Another more complex way to edit the sound levels is to go onto tools then 'audio mixer' which then gives you these sliders for you tracks and clips:

There are two sliders, a left and a right for each track. You can change the pan of the track with the dials at the top of the sliders. Then you simply push the sliders up and down to change the level/gain. If you open the audio mixer for the whole timeline you will get the master track come up too but never change any of the setting on the master.

You can click on the expand icon which is sometimes know as the 'burger' and this will let you look at a lot more options. For example audio clip gain will let you edit the file on the timeline. Always avoid clicking on the waveform option for audio on the timeline though because it takes up so much memory germinating these waveforms and this will just slow down the whole system.

Another key on the keyboard which is really important is the bright pink triangle. This is the keyframe button and lets you add keyframes to clips. If you press alt you can then move the keyframes once they are on the timeline. Holding alt on the timeline lets you lasso around any part of it you need to. At the bottom of the timeline is a symbol made of two triangles which has to be selected to allow you to be able to click on the keyframes.

Other things you can do when editing on the timeline are to click on the icon which is the 'Quick Transition' button which kets you add a number of simple effects and traditions to video and audio such as cross dissolve or fade etc. Here is the menu that comes up when you do this:

This lets you change all the parts of the effect as well and move it around.

The last important piece we learnt was that the easiest way to get rid of an effect you no longer want or like is to click the symbol that looks like an no entry sign and this is actually the remove effect symbol. Only do this when your cursor is over the effect you want to get rid of.

This first Avid session was really hard going because this whole programme is new to me however the principles are similar to Premiere which did make it a little bit easier to understand. I am hoping the more practice I have the more likely it will be for me to actually remember everything and start using Avid for editing over Premiere. Here are the two timelines I managed to create in this session: