Test for Avid Skills

[Dave Schweitzer]

I’d start by asking if your prospective editor brought their settings with them – that’s a good sign. Of course the basics like creating organized bins, being able to digitize properly, and put together a quick sequence with titles and a few tracks of audio are a good place to start. It’s really a balance of the creative with the technical. If an editor can cut a dynamic piece but it is full of technical mistakes which take time to fix are they of value to you? A couple things I frequently see juniors screw up with – importing graphics with improper import settings, creating freeze frames without proper field order, audio tracks not panned correctly, stacking dissolves, no idea what timecode is for…
I’d also slant the project toward what your company does>>>
Doing film projects? Does your prospective editor know what a flex file is? Have a clue about matchback or pulldown? Graphics-intensive pieces? Can he/she integrate with Photoshop, After Effects, ProTools or other apps? Know Animatte or what a Matte Key does? Do they think Posterize looks cool?

I think I’m getting carried away here, but maybe these ideas will help you.

DS

[Richard_victoria_bc_canada]

Hello,

Depending on your editing environment here are my thoughts:

– have they worked in a multi-editor environment, where projects are shared?
ie: one editor assembles, another editor does the rough cut, etc. etc.

– ask them to set up for a multi-show editing job. ie: a five episode tv series.
If they put all five episodes into one project OR do they make seperate projects for all five episodes, plus a sixth project for shared or common elements (ie: opener, bumpers etc.)

– ask them to res up a project

– ask them to quickly organize some mixed media (ie: different projects)

– can they consolidate?

– can they do a “Replace Edit”. This as you know is a major time saver when editing.

– ask them to work with keyboard shortcuts (if they can’t, time is ticking)

Good luck,
Richard

——————–
Still using five Avid ABVB systems.

Richard Games
Victoria, BC, Canada

[Judita]

Thanks for the responses, guys. I love the ‘do they think posterize looks cool’ – LOL!

[Todd Beabout]

Just ask them if pre-computes can be loaded into the monitor.

lol

-Todd Beabout
Vazda Studios

[Mark Raudonis]

My favorite question: What’s the difference between drop and non-drop time code?

Sure, it has nothing to do with Avid skills, but the kind of response you get will certainly give you a sense of the candidate’s understanding of all things technical. (Not to mention their skills at B.S.’ing!) Chances are it they can nail this question they can do everything else.

Mark

[Michael W. towe]

Excellent feedback David, but if they brought their settings with them I would immediately take away their disk or jump drive away before they had a chance to install them on my system!!! I have heard and seen to many horror stories of corrupt user settings.

On a side note how are things in your world? I am getting ready to move the studio out to east county where I can have a room for each editbay!! Give me a shout we should hook up for lunch or something.

Mike

Michael W. Towe
President M2 Digital Post
http://www.m2digitalpost.com