[Kell Smith]

Thanks Scott. =)
Not a pretty rant… sorry guys.
Took a break today and am going to go back and start over.
I WILL conquer Avid. LOL It will NOT win.
I won’t respect myself if I back out just because something else is easier or less trouble.
But first – an egg and cheese burrito with green chile…
Sustenance, you know. Gotta be prepared for the long haul.

[Kell Smith]

Thank you David,
I’ll do those tomorrow morning.
Took a break and am editing my rant.
Will start fresh in the morning and with a better attitude.

[Kell Smith]

I will persevere and learn this program because i want the skill, and because of its reputation, and because the people in this thread swear by it so it must be worth it. And because easy makes one lazy, and I suspect I’ve begun to fall into that trap.

It shouldn’t be this difficult. Not for me, anyway – I’m usually very good at this and have no fear of jumping in and teaching myself anything.

>Long ,angry rant edited< This is so disappointing, I have thought for years that I would immediately fall in love with Avid. Well, third date, not going so well. Not ready to kick Avid to the curb yet, but five more minutes I may be - so I'll come back to it later.

[Kell Smith]

I hope the drifting of the topic is okay here.. let me ask a workflow question.

What’s a good method for keeping your scenes organized that way? Do you use markers in the source footage? Subclips?

Let’s say you have say, 75 different takes of things on one clip. Some are good, some are alternates, some are garbage. It’s AVCHD imported footage, so let’s say you have 15 source clips imported in for that particular card.

Editing in the timeline, I would create separate timelines for each segment of the event, i.e. establishing, introduction, etc.
Drag the footage in, cut it up, remove the garbage, and edit with the remaining usable clips. Sometimes dragging the alternates to the end or to a turned-off track, using slugs to separate the stuff at the end visually from my editing area.
If there was, say, an establishing shot done in the middle of the event for some reason, I would remove the clip from the event sequence, and put it in the “establishing shots’ sequence.

If it all remains in the source clips, and is just delineated by markers, what’s the best way to handle that and stay organized? I guess coloring the markers might work, but it’s still sort of disorganized and you can’t see the clips together. Subclips might work but that seems like an extra step, along with issues of handles. Naming your markers could work, but that presents organizational/sequencing problems of its own.

Open to suggestions on methods that work for you guys.

[Kell Smith]

LOL sometimes I even find imovie confusing – but have not cared enough to spend more than five minutes in it, so maybe that’s why. =)

As for Avid…
LOVING the filmstrip track and the B key. and love the keyboard-focused approach.

The tutorials address a different method of editing than I am used to – I am used to dragging a clip into the timeline, cutting it up, and making my choices from there. It’s an easy way to get rid of the garbage by just dragging it to the end of the timeline, or deleting the clips.

Not sure how I would keep all my clips/scenes arranged any other way but am open to new methods/suggestions. I guess with markers in the source clip, once I figure out how to add them in Avid, and maybe could just color code the markers for the good scenes?

It’s probably just as easy to timeline edit in Avid but I am open to whatever methods are efficient.

[Kell Smith]

I’ve started into the Douglas tutorials and they are proving to be very helpful. I did some of the Kevin tutorials the other day and really liked them as well.
Finally am starting to make some progress…..

[Kell Smith]

I wish I knew someone who works in Avid. Unfortunately right now I don’t, but point taken, it might make sense to sign up for some Avid training once I am able to – just to get that perspective from someone who knows it well.

[Kell Smith]

Thank you everyone,
I”lll be back at it today.
I originally wanted to learn Avid at the beginning, and went to FCP reluctantly since that’s what was available.
It’s just very different from my expectations. Never have I spent so much time fumbling around an interface, getting so little done, even in a new program. It’s not FCP and I need to throw that expectation out of the window and start from scratch and learn the way Avid thinks. It’s very different from the way I would think, where I would expect things to be – so….
Hopefully once past the hurdles, I’ll love it. Everyone else seems to so it must just require persistence.
Thx =)

[Kell Smith]

Thanks Michael,
Will do. Have a great night. =)

[Kell Smith]

Thanks Michael,
As I recall, that’s not as bad as transcoding to AIC, but it’s still a lot of space. Guess there’s no way around the space increase and buying more drives.
Apparently Adobe can edit AVCHD natively, which might be an option, but I really would like to learn Avid as a skill. So I guess I’ll just get Avid and eat the extra space.
What’s your experience with this? I’m assuming since you are in the Avid forum, that Avid is your preference?