[Chris Bové]

Will do. Thanks!

[Chris Bové]

I’m waiting for an in-Avid 3rd party interface that really, REALLY rocks with sculpturable lighting effects. There are some out there now that mimic real life lighting, but nothing too insane yet. Film, video and advertizing will always push trends that can create the purposeful focusing of your eye. We’ve thus seen serious use of techniques that involve painting around subjects with defocus, motion blurs and darkened vignettes. Once editors can do some out-of-this-world-yet-in-the-Avid lighting effects (that can render in eight seconds or less) you’ll see a ton of new trends!

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/-o-o-
`(=)`/…Pixel Monkey
`(___)

A picture says 1000 words. Editors give them meaning.

[Chris Bové]

I remember ten years ago and our old Mac Avid AVBV with a max of 45 minutes of AVR77 storage and having to cut hour-long documentaries in two chunks… all while the formerly linear bay producers-turned-nonlinear producers bitched about having to sit through “these damned annoying render times”. Well, I work with many of the same producers today and they all cringe at the thought of having to go back to their linear bay days. Sure decreased render times have contributed to it, but mostly they’ve become devout non-linear-ites because they like the new workflows it has given them. Just imagine flying Bill & Ted’s phone booth back ten years and explaining layered HD video tracks and QuickTime files on an FTP site to a devout linear guy with 38 work tapes, two slaved decks and his finger on the Pre-Read button!

Here are some HD workflow comparisons and suggestions that have increased my productivity…
_ _ _ _ _ _ _
[1] QuickTime to FTP:
Highlighting a portion of a sequence and exporting it as a QuickTime movie takes a long time and stops you from working in the Avid interface until it is done. Instead buy the upgrade to QuickTime Pro. You can then highlight the portion of your sequence in Media Composer and export it as a QuickTime Reference file. Then reduce Media Composer, find the file and open it in QuickTime. Hit Export and choose your settings (the interface looks exactly the same as in the Avid). It works in the background allowing you to go back into Media Composer and keep working with no significant reduction in performance. It sounds like a lot more steps, but once you do it 3 or 4 times, it’s fast and brainless.

I took ten seconds of an HD sequence (1080i DNxHD145).
– Creating a QT movie: 2min 10sec.
– Creating QT Reference and converting it in QT Pro: 35 seconds.

The added benefit: I’ve had up to five of these conversions happening in the background while I keep working in Media Composer.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _
[2] Video Quality Menu.
If you have it on your version of Media Composer, don’t be afraid to use this. It’s the little green rectangle in the bottom left of your timeline monitor. Changing it to yellow or yellow/green drops the visible resolution and allows more things to happen in realtime. Just be careful to set it back to green before playing out to tape!
_ _ _ _ _ _ _
[3] Photoshop instead of Title Tool.
An imported, full-screen flattened Photoshop file doesn’t need to render. An Avid title does. Use it even for simple things like slates in the front of a program, for the “white” in white flashes, and for full-screen black if you need to.

Also note: I created a lower-third CG super for an interviewee created in Photoshop (imported as a key) and created an identical one in the Avid’s Title tool. In DNxHD145, they both took exactly ten seconds to render. I thus like doing everything in Photoshop. There are more tools; when I make a change I save right over the original and then go into Avid and batch import it – and it trickles to all the times it appears in the sequence. They all live in a folder on our network, which is accessible by the producer who can check spelling of name supers from his/her desk. He/she can even email it to the interviewee to triple check it (without asking me to make a screenshot). Best of all when the project is done, I can archive them all onto one CD or DVD. (I still have trust issues with “recreate title media” maintaining everything when Avid upgrades its versions of the software.)
_ _ _ _ _ _ _
[4] Locator notes instead of effects.
This is a goofy one, but a REAL good one once you implement it. When a producer sitting next to me barks out: “Can I see that with a sepia color effect?” Go to the head of the shot and put a red locator on the video layer and type “sepia”. Then MOVE ON! Don’t do it. Don’t play it. Don’t show them. Not now. Explain that it’s become part of your to-do list and that when they leave for lunch, you’ll implement all their red locators by the time they come back.

After a few fist fights, this workflow will become routine. You can even go so far as to create a dumbed-down Producer’s workspace in your settings. This way the producer can get to work an hour before you, watch the sequence and apply locators with notes. You get in and make the changes as they’re off on their cell phone producing other elements of the program.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _
[5] USE ASSISTANTS!!!
I still hear from editors shaking their boots over the idea of Assistant Editors taking work away from them. They don’t! Once a producer realizes that Assistants cost less to tackle the menial stuff and can free you up to concentrate on actual content, they can’t wait to get into work every day. Having assistants on a project means a producer listens to you yapping less “editor tech-speak” all day long. You become more of a “storytelling partner”, and they’ll love it. They create better stories, get recognized for doing so by their bosses, then come to find you and your “specialized workflow” invaluable.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _
[6] The “Format” tab in the project bin. (This one’s my favorite.)
Start your 1080i HD project. Do 1080i HD digitizing, editing, whatever. Gack! It’s Tuesday morning and the producer is gonna be here for a big session. Go to the project bin, select the format tab and select 30i. Now ALL footage, dissolves, color effects, etc are seen, done and rendered in SD… AND at lightning-fast SD speed. Make all the producer’s changes, renders and so on. Now the producer is gone. Switch back to 1080i. Gack! All the work I just did is in SD while all the stuff before today is in HD. No worries. Go to the bin the sequence is in. Click on the hamburger menu (bottom left) and select “set bin display” and “rendered effects”. Now go to the top of your bin, sort resolutions ascending, select all the rendered effects that are in the SD resolution, delete the Associated Media Files (nothing else!!!), and whammo! Go back to your sequence, render it during lunch, and when you come back you’re fully HD. All effect parameters translate perfectly.

The real problem I keep running into with HD editing is less the computer’s speed and more the mindset of the producers. It’s the “don’t move my cheese” linear bay mindset all over again. If they can slowly incorporate some new workflows (suggested by an editor they trust) into their day, they’ll soon cringe at the days where they felt they needed to be a babysitter to their editor all day long. THAT is the golden selling point.

Digitize is done. Back to work.

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/-o-o-
`(=)`/…Pixel Monkey
`(___)

A picture says 1000 words. Editors give them meaning.

[Chris Bové]

Nice one! Good and weird. For the heck of it, try DV_50 resolution on a couple shots. It’s pretty comparable to 2:1. Can’t discern with naked eye.

Random fact (so I’m told by Avid staffers):
The “ratio resolutions” like 2:1, 3:1, 10:1 etc actually don’t buy you as many realtime layers & effects anymore, where the DV-based resolutions do (DV_50, etc). Progress, progress.

“I know engineers, they love to change things.” – Bones from ST TMP, 1979

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/-o-o-
`(=)`/…Pixel Monkey
`(___)

A picture says 1000 words. Editors give them meaning.

[Chris Bové]

Hey Del. I did a magazine show like that last year. Two one-hour programs though, but let me list the workflow and schedule so you can draw your own conclusions from it.

Programs:
It was a two-part program on the wineries in our region. The first one-hour program was on the wineries in Western New York. The second one-hour program was on the wineries across the border in Southern Ontario. Twenty seven wineries were presented over the two hours, at between 4-8 minutes each. A basic in-and-out approach, “Hi I’m Andy and this is my winery.” There were some interview-supported B-Roll of history and process shots and customers tasting wine; some customer soundbytes; a quick segment on the in-winery-restaurant; and cut back to interview for a happy-ending soundbyte. Dissolve to WS jib settling on shot of the EXT with the wineries sign in the lower corner. Do that 27 times in a row, and you’ve just banged-out a couple shows. The programs end, and the live TV guys dissolve to studio where the public television beggers are staring at-camera yapping about how television as you know it will die forever if you don’t make out a check for $50 bucks.

Workflow / Schedule of Program 1:
Producer shot 70 tapes with the Panny 900 DVC-pro HD camera and 6 tapes with a Canon XL2 HDV.
Dec 15, 2006 (two weeks): Digitize all tapes for both programs at 20:1 resolution for interviews and 10:1 for B-Roll.
Jan 1-5: Get script. Create Interview assembly based on the script. Be frame-exact for their soundbytes. Basically, make it a pause-free radio program.
Jan 8 – 24: Rough cut with B-Roll and best-possible sound mix one winery per day. Each day, create a low-res Quicktime of the rough cut and put it on FTP site so Producer can review and make notes at her convenience.
Jan 25 – Feb 2: Fine cut two wineries per day based on Producer’s notes. Final audio mix and off-line quality color correct are included. Quicktime/FTP.
Feb 5,6,7: Final cut all segments based on notes.
Feb 8: Producer, Exec Producer and Assoc Producer sit in edit bay for final cut/picture lock sign-off.

(Break 3 weeks for another production)

Workflow / Schedule of Program 2:
March 3 – Mar 20: Rough cuts
Mar 21 – April 1: Fine cuts
Apr 2,3,4: Final cuts
Apr 7: Dog and pony to the suits
Apr 8 – 16: Create promos, DVD elements, packaging elements, underwriting, and anything else they want.

Apr 17 – 23 (5 business days): Online in HD. As long as you cut the whole program in 16×9 dimensions, this process looks and feels no different from any other online. Only difference is a longer render time. Try to do all your finalizing color correction and effects without rendering, and then do it all at 5pm so it churns while you’re gone.

Then, schedule it up against a Sabres playoff game so it makes no money. Doh!

It was a break-neck schedule that I’d highly recommend for a quick turn-a-round program that is rich in cinematography but shallow in story. Light-hearted Travel Channel / HGTV style.

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/-o-o-
`(=)`/…Pixel Monkey
`(___)

A picture says 1000 words. Editors give them meaning.

[Chris Bové]

Hey Del, done a bunch of long and semi-long format HD stuff since ’04 at the Public Television station here in Buffalo, NY. Still doin’ it SD with an HD online, because 100 tapes at 60 minutes each would require roughly 50 terabytes of storage, and that’s only at DVC-proHD resolution. We’ve just incorporated an Avid Interplay system with a 16 terabyte unity storage system, so at least we’ve upgraded our SD offline from 20:1 resolution to DV_50.

Anyway… your magazine show:
– Cut it all in 16×9 SD (960×540 square pixel or 864×486 round)
– Buy and use Stage Tools Moving Picture (with the rotation option) to do all your image moves. It will be the best $200 bucks you’ll ever spend. Never (repeat) NEVER use any Avid effect for doin’ moves on still images. ALSO, you can buy a separate $200 “producers version” of Stage Tools and have the moves created outside the edit bay! Best of all, you can ALWAYS operate it in high-res HD mode while inside an SD 16×9 project without hiccups. Then when you go to online, the moves are already done – no redoing any work.
– Regarding footage, delegate the bulk of the logging, subclipping and adding of locators to one editor, while the other tackles more of the creative. It’s a much better workflow if you don’t have the budget for a fleet of assistant editors.

Got a bunch more ideas, but my digitize just ended. If you need more than this, just yell.

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/-o-o-
`(=)`/…Pixel Monkey
`(___)

A picture says 1000 words. Editors give them meaning.

[Chris Bové]

…just like Pedro Cerrano praying to Jobu in Major league?

(attached)

https://hitlesswanderings.mlblogs.com/photos/uncategorized/jobu4.png

(Except the adrenaline don’t like rum. Too strong. It like schnapps.)

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/-o-o-
`(=)`/…Pixel Monkey
`(___)

A picture says 1000 words. Editors give them meaning.

[Chris Bové]

[grinner hester] “along with a fine joke and a 10 minutes of good coversation.”

How many Producers does it take to screw in a lightbulb?
Just one, but he keeps changing it and changing it!

How many live TV directors does it take?
“One. No two! No, one! One! Three!

How many editors?
Jost one of course… However we don’t want the light to come out of the bulb. Can it move across the ceiling? And can you make it a square bulb? The sponsor likes the color green.

Sorry… ahem…

The best “pro” Assistant Editors (AE’s) out there are actually real editors with a touch more analitical-ness than most, and who know their immense technical knowledge can fetch easy money as assistants. They know when to chip-in their 2¢ and when to shut up.

Other assistants — the ones that are so because of how green they are in their careers — will benefit the most if you treat them like equals… “eventual editors”, not “current coffee getters”. You’ll benefit in the short term as well because they’ll dedicate themselves more to the project.

From my current “Best practices”:
– Editor creates an Excel doc listing all tape names, formats and so on, from which the assistant works from (and adds to) during digitizing and logging.
– Assistant creates subclips, adds locators (of which the Editor creates a color-coded system for the AE to follow).
– Editor formats scripts for Avid’s ScriptSync software, within which the AE creates an “interview assembly” or a “base script assembly” (project depending).

Once you see how dedicated/capable your assistants are, you can hand them small scenes to create themselves. I remember a guy a couple years age that actually cut a scene three ways for me to choose my favorite. He’s now a full-blown editor, but still freelances AE on the side.

For what it’s worth.

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/-o-o-\
\`(=)`/…Pixel Monkey
`(___)

A picture says 1000 words. Editors give them meaning.

[Chris Bové]

Used to bang it out from right-to-left with the “chip away at the interview assembly” method. I can’t do it anymore. It’s all subclips and ScriptSync now. It doesn’t get it done much faster, but my thoroughness has tripled (not exaggerating at all).

However I’m still the fastest fish in Buffalo!

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/-o-o-\
\`(=)`/…Pixel Monkey
`(___)

A picture says 1000 words. Editors give them meaning.

[Chris Bové]

[Charlie King] “unmotivated effect”

Unmotivated Effect. That just became the phrase of the day. So many connotations.

Bad effects I myself was guilty of this year:
– Avid’s own PlasmaWipe “Center Ocean”
– Avid’s own PlasmaWipe “Techno TV noise”
– a box wipe

Great effects used this year (great like Charlie sez – because they went unnoticed)
– Boris’s fake rain
– Boris’s Wire Remover
– Avid’s Timewarp – Fluidfilm progressive (to fake 24p)
– Absolutely anything from 55mm

I need to print some “Unmotivated Effects” T-shirts and keep a stack of ’em in the edit bay. When all the interns-turned-producers ask for “film scratches” on 30i miniDV interview footage, they get a shirt.

______
/-o-o-\
\`(=)`/…Pixel Monkey
`(___)

A picture says 1000 words. Editors give them meaning.