Need To Learn Avid

[David Powell]

Hey I wrote up a post about switching, on Thanksgiving. You should read it. I started out on FCP 5 and mastered it up to 7. Once you learn how to trim in Avid you will wonder how you ever went without it. I was one of very few who used to use dynamic trimming in fcp which is a royal pain in the arse. Also, once you learn how to patch on the keyboard, it is 10x faster than in FCP and I did everything from the keyboard in tcp.

As far as tutorials “Avid Agility” is a must read. As check out avidscreencast.com. This dude has some great tutorials as well, though his voice really grades on you. It only takes about 2-4 weeks to get going if you commit yourself to it and then you start to fly. Funny thing is only after about a month of using avid exclusively I had to cut a show on FCP and didn’t know what to do! Of course it all came back, but switching back and forth from these programs can be a real head trip.

[Danielle Warren]

Thanks Ed, that’s good advice. Although I’ve definitely heard that it’s less painful going from Avid to FCP simply because the UI is just easier and more intuitive and hence why so many have trouble going the other way. I really wish they would make that opposite book already, lol!

[Danielle Warren]

Hey Michael,
I haven’t responded in a while because I was out of town in LA. I had a chance to catch up with my old shop and some friends at other shops and NO ONE is moving from FCP any time soon.

When you say it’s dated because: “Can’t read P2 footage natively. Can’t read XDCam native. Can’t read AVCHD. Can’t play DSLR natively. Can’t read Red natively. Requires way too much rendering compared to the other NLEs out there. Hasn’t had a significant update in about 4 years. The list goes on and on.” This doesn’t matter to companies that do their work completely offline. We don’t import straight from cameras. The thing that was the largest pain in my butt when I was an assistant was using a 3/4″ machine, but then and now you mostly get footage on DVCAMs, and I think increasingly, already on drives in Quicktime format ready to go. Perhaps this wasn’t explained better before, but that’s why Avid was and won’t be a necessity for a long time. And most people I talked to out there weren’t worried and believed Apple was going to improve on what they have for all the shops like them. There are too many professionals to leave out in the cold when it comes to FCP. I have to think they aren’t going to turn their backs on them.

I suppose it’s tougher being in NY because people are paranoid, even when things being cut are not going anywhere near a movie theater or broadcast TV. But that’s the way it is!

I’m going to spring for the Avid agility book, and if I can get the money together, go and do some training. Otherwise, I want to thank a lot of people on the thread for all the links and advice of great books and training online. I think the key is just starting to cut things in Avid and forcing myself to work in it.

Thanks Michael, and thanks everyone else! You’ve all been a great help and I’m more excited rather than apprehensive to start learning Avid!