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Script Sync question
I’m thinking about moving to Avid Media Composer.
I have been waiting for the release of FCP-X and it turned out to be a disappointing waiting and it just will not do what I need. I think this forum will start to see a lot of stories like that. Yep, Apple really dropped the ball.
One of the questions I have is about Script Sync. I was watching some demos of it and it looks really handy. One of the things I was excited about FCP-X was the Audition feature. It can really speed up editing and take selection. Looking at the Script Sync demo it seems you can do some of what Audition does with Script Sync in Media Composer. Is this true? I saw for example that you can load multiple versions of a take so you can watch them all within Avid. Not sure it will do what Audition does which is give you the ability to watch your cut with all the different versions of the take so you can choose which one best fits with your editing. But it seems to at least give you the ability of watching the different versions within MC. This is better than nothing. So how much of Audition can Script Sync do or any other MC feature do?
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13 Replies
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Haven’t used the auditioning feature. Script Based Editing in MC does allow you to select a bunch of takes for a single line, and play them sequentially. ScriptSync is just the speech recognition part of the Script Based Editing feature; it allows the software to ‘read’ your audio tracks and match the clips up to any scripted text.
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ScriptSync is a different approach to audition, although it may share a lot of the same benefits. Of course, for starters, there needs to be a script. The first thing about it is that once takes are automatically aligned using phonetic indexing, you have an overview of the coverage associated with each line of dialog. You can directly click on the intersection of dialog and take and have it load at that point, or you can select a span of lines and takes and quickly review just that portion – useful when trying to find that one performance that delivers the story you want to tell. Since editing is about finding that performance in context of the story, that is the approach of ScriptSync. Once a selection of the take has been loaded and edited into the timeline (or edited directly from the script into the timeline), you always have a link. You can park on the event in the timeline, and do a “matchback” or what is called “Find Script” to take you back to the script, select the span of script in the timeline, and highlight the selected take. Now, again in context, you can review all other available takes.
There is a subset of the “loop play” function in each bin if you don’t have a script. With clips selected, from the bin’s “hamburger” menu, select “lop play” and this will load and play selected takes automatically between the IN-OUT marks. And like in ScriptSync, you can you use TAB and SHIFT-TAB to go back and forth.
The 5.5.2 trial you downloaded also includes trials for ScriptSync and PhraseFind. PhraseFind is for material for which you don’t have a script or transcript but allows you to find dialog based on user text entry when needed. Demos for PhraseFind are also available on avid.com.
Both ScriptSync and PhraseFind offer tremendous benefits to the editorial process bringing you closer to the material to quickly find the best take, shot, dialog, as needed to tell the story.
Michael
Michael Phillips
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Thanks. I actually have not yet downloaded the MC demo. I wached some video demos online.
Are ScriptSync and PhraseFind included in MC or are there they separated applications that must be purchased separately.
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They are part of the trial, but need to purchased separately in addition to Media Composer.
Michael
Michael Phillips
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Oh really?
Oh yes, I forgot. This is Avid.
Premiere has something very similar too. I guess it comes for free with the application.
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Premiere doesn’t have anything like Scriptsync. If you do a lot of scripted work or doc work with transcriptions it’s worth the purchase price. If you don’t it’s probably not worth it. Download the trial and try it.
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Michael Hancock
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Not really true.
What Avid has (and used to be free) is scriptsync. Give it a script and it can ‘sync’ to the script based on the phonemes of speech (engine provided by Nexidia.) It’s used on TV shows (and films) everywhere, just for this killer integration. Multiple takes, shifting between takes etc. It’s no longer free because nexidia changed the price of their licensing – but you get a 30 day trial to figure out if it’s right for you.
Adobe has their own speech recognition engine. When it’s against a script it has some of the ability of scriptsync. Without a script it’s so-so at best. With a script, it has its own workflow for different takes. For example, working off a single script doesn’t happen – you attach a script for each take. Very different workflows.
Best,
Jeff G
Apple Master Trainer | Avid Cert. Instructor DS/MC | Adobe Cert. Instructor
————
You should follow me (filmgeek) on twitter. I promise to be nice.
New- my book (with Richard Harrington and Robbie Carman)- An Editor’s Guide to Adobe Premiere Pro
Compressor Essentials from Lynda.com
(older but still good) Marquee, Media Composer (3.5) and Basic/Advanced Color DVDs (1.0) from Vasst.com
Contact me through my Website -
Jeff is correct that ScriptSync is a very different value proposition than speech to text in Premiere Pro. As he notes, takes in ScriptSync are associated to the script, so in one view you have all associated coverage and have the ability to play selected ranges and takes as needed. Spans of dialog can be color coded for preference, etc. You can edit directly from the script based on span/line selected. Also, once in the timeline, you can link back to that take directly with “option-Find script” to see span and line highlighted so you can instantly see what other coverage exists.
The Nexidia engine, as amazing at it is, is only a subset of the reason ScriptSync is used. It eliminates the tedious process of syncing dailies to the script.
In Premiere Pro, a straight up speech to text will have very mixed results and will perform better if it has a script or transcript before the process (isn’t that what the feature is supposed to do in the first place???). From there, every take will have the script associated within the take. That is a very different value proposition when editing. While it is great for navigating within the clip, it misses the greater value of finding the best take for any given dialog. Will work for doc transcripts better because of this, but still is an issue of loading up that clip to see the text.
When I edit, I load up all my takes in ScriptSync, flip my monitor to be portrait, close all my bins, and have access to all my dailies as it relates to the script. Easy for my, the director and producer to understand at a glance, what is available to tell the story.
Michael
Michael Phillips
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It really looks like an interesting application. But since it seems to be a separated application from Media Composer, can Scriptsync be used separated from Media Composer or even with other NLEs?
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Nope. It’s not a separate application. It’s really part of MC
Best,
Jeff G
Apple Master Trainer | Avid Cert. Instructor DS/MC | Adobe Cert. Instructor
————
You should follow me (filmgeek) on twitter. I promise to be nice.
New- my book (with Richard Harrington and Robbie Carman)- An Editor’s Guide to Adobe Premiere Pro
Compressor Essentials from Lynda.com
(older but still good) Marquee, Media Composer (3.5) and Basic/Advanced Color DVDs (1.0) from Vasst.com
Contact me through my Website
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