[Michael Hancock]

That actually made me laugh out loud Bob!

Actually, I like learning new software- I’ve edited on Media 100, Edius, Avid, FCP, and I’m in the process of getting familiar with Premiere. When FCP-X comes out we’ll get a copy at work and I’ll put it through its paces, but until then I’m learning what else is available and testing it out. You’re right about moving to Premiere because we already own the production bundle, and that’s why I’m learning it and testing it now.

The thing is, FCP 7 works fine, but it’s showing its age. I’m genuinely curious about what systems people are considering, or if they’re just going to stay with FCP 7 if FCP-X disappoints. Besides, this forum has died down a bit. May as well post something.

Smoke and Scratch are out of our league/price range right now, I love Avid for editing but the effects can be rough compared to FCP and Premiere, plus we’re on shared storage so the cost to go Avid is considerably higher then switching to Premiere. Plus I’m the only Avid trained editor so the learning curve would be rough for a while for everyone else. Premiere is pretty easy to figure out if you’ve used FCP.

I just wondered if people were already testing other software or just in a holding pattern. Or not planning anything.

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Michael Hancock
Editor

[Michael Hancock]

You can slip the audio by samples. Do this:

Match frame your audio. Zoom all they way in. Hold Shift and move your playhead to where you want your new In point to be. Mark In. Cut back into your sequence.

It’s cumbersome, but it works. I do it all the time when we shoot double system sound and the VO is slightly off.

Michael

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Michael Hancock
Editor

[Michael Hancock]

It’s worth about $10 and you should sell it to me. 🙂

It retails for $2,500. You can post it on the Classified section here or try ebay. You can probably get a decent amount for it, if it’s unopened, unregistered, and can be updated (sometime giveaways at tradeshows aren’t eligible for updates, etc…). Call Avid if you’re unsure whether it’s an upgradeable version – I imagine it will be.

Michael

[Michael Hancock]

[Toni Martin Dobrzanski] “s it possible to choose ‘insert’ when moving clips around in the timeline from one place to another (in Premiere done by holding CTRL while moving clips)?”

Select the clip in the timeline, move it to where you want to Insert it, and hold Alt/Option. It will change from Overwrite to Insert.

[Toni Martin Dobrzanski] ” Is it possible in FCP to reveal a clip from the timeline in the browser? When I right-click on a clip in the timeline I can choose ‘Reveal in Finder’ but what about ‘Reveal in Browser’?”

Select the clip in your timeline, then Shift+F. It will highlight the clip in your browser.

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Michael Hancock
Editor

[Michael Hancock]

PNG or Tiff sequence will work. Or a Quicktime movie in the DNxHD codec. You can download that codec for free from the Avid site. Ask your editor which DNxHD compression they want first though.

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Michael Hancock
Editor

[Michael Hancock]

If it’s DVCProHD and you’re taking it to a PC, you’ll need a decoder.

Try to open it on your PC. If you get a white screen, download the Raylight decoder demo, install it, and reopen the Quicktime (you may need to restart your computer first). If you see video with an X on it, the decoder works. Buy it, plug in your serial number, and the X will go away.

Here’s the Raylight site: https://www.dvfilm.com/raylight/decoder/index.htm

And the price went down! Only $45 (used to be $95 I believe).

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Michael Hancock
Editor

[Michael Hancock]

What is the source footage and how is it being brought it? If it’s DVCproHD or XDCam and they’re just rewrapping it as Quicktime, you’ll need a decoder to read those Quicktimes. If they bring the footage in and encode it as ProRes you can get the decoder from Apple for free if you don’t already have it (I believe you’ll already have it if you have Quicktime 7 or higher, but don’t quote me on that).

Your best bet is to take a handful of files from different sources, toss them on a hard drive, and take it home. Open them up in Quicktime or import them into your Avid – if you can see the video and hear the audio in Quicktime, they should import into Avid just fine. If you get a white screen, you don’t have the codec. Hit Ctrl+i in Quicktime to pull up the inspector and see what the codec is. Let us know and we’ll point you toward a decoder.

A lot of it depends on the source and ingest into their machines.

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Michael Hancock
Editor

[Michael Hancock]

What codec? Will your Avid have FCP installed? Is your Avid a PC?

Some codecs are FCP only so you’ll either need to install FCP on the same machine as your Avid or, if that’s not an option, buy a decoder. But it really depends on what you’re ingesting into FCP, and in what codec.

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Michael Hancock
Editor

[Michael Hancock]

As long as it works like a subclip and marking, making notes, scrubbing footage, etc…can be keyboard driven, I’ll be happy. Requiring the use of a mouse to add notes to a clip is too inefficient.

Michael

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Michael Hancock
Editor

[Michael Hancock]

I’ve been doing what you suggest for subclips – moving them after an entire interview is done. Shame you can’t pick a bin to send them directly to.

Regarding Name — Log Note:
Tab doesn’t work – I’ve have arranged my layout so Log Note is right next to Name but Tab doesn’t move from Name to Log Note, or any other column. It just goes to the next clip. Now once you’ve activated Log Note or another column (anything other than Name), tab works but it still requires you to touch the mouse to get to this point. C’est la vie.

I’ll wait till FCPX comes out – if this behavior is the same I’ll start making feature requests.

Thanks Tom.

Michael

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Michael Hancock
Editor