Scott Cole
Forum Replies Created
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I know we do something akin to relinking master clips to a different media file in our color correction process. Here’s what I would try. First consolidate the offending clip to another media drive, selecting “Delete Original” when doing the consolidate. Unlink the offending master clip from its media file. To do this hold both ctrl and shift while rightclicking the master clip; UNLINK CLIP will appear in the context menu. Once the media is offline, you can start the relink by righclicking on the master clip without using ctrl and shift. RELINK will appear where UNLINK had been. Your media drives will appear as a pulldown menu, so select the drive where you feel the good clip lives, also uncheck “current project only.” Assuming the good and bad clips were of identical duration and had matching metadata, the masterclip that was used in your edits should relink to the good media.
M. Scott Cole
Senior Post Production Editor
60 MINUTES
CBS News, NYC
sc6@cbsnews.com
mscottc@comcast.net -
Shane: “Unless you are delivering a 23.98 timecode master…then the delivery can only be non-drop. BUT…you must time the show so that it times out properly at drop frame timings. Avid makes this easy by showing multiple timeline timecodes. Other NLE’s you have to do calculations.”
Every show I’ve delivered for broadcast in the United States, obviously most for CBS, but also for Discovery Networks, Showtime and others have all been Dropframe Timecode, 59.97i. In the broadcast world, I’ve never seen NON-Drop be acceptable except for anything under a minute, or animations.
M. Scott Cole
Senior Post Production Editor
60 MINUTES
CBS News, NYC
sc6@cbsnews.com
mscottc@comcast.net -
For that setting, there is no absolute answer. It depends on the situation you are in. For someone to tell you “You aren’t a qualified editor unless you do it this way,” is just wrong. There are thousands of video editors out there, and I can assure you that every one of us does things slightly or radically differently. There is no absolute right or wrong way to do anything. As long as you meet your client’s specifications and their desired program, hopefully within their budget and in the case of TV, by their deadline, that’s all that really counts. Did I say “Don’t miss the deadline?”
Avid put that setting there with both options for one simple reason, to give you the choice to select what works best given your current project. If you are editing a stereo project, and they provide you with all stereo media, then “alternating L/R” is the better setting.
If you are working on a project with multiple sources, some mono and some stereo, and you are at the point where you aren’t sure which tracks are going where, then “all tracks centered” would be a better choice. A similar scenario would be several tracks that are dialogue, sound effects, and narration, and you also have a need for overlapping music. In that case, I’d created 8 audio tracks, the first four would be TK1-narration, TK2-Dialogue, TK3-SFX, TK4-Other mono audio, TK5/6 Music 1 and TK7/8 Music 2. I’d run with the setting in question set for “all tracks centered.” At some point before doing the actual mix work I’d do a global left pan of tracks 5 and 7 and a global right pan of tracks 6 and 8. This is an example only. You really have to sit down and figure out what will work for the project you are doing.
I always tell editors who work either with me or for me, “I don’t care how you get there, I just care that you get there.” In other words, as long as your final product accomplishes what’s needed, I don’t care how you do it, as long as you do it efficiently. Your job, as a professional, is to know the tools, know the client’s needs, and find the most proficient way to use the tools to meet their needs. Every project is different, and almost every project is a learning experience. That being said, this company knows their needs, and for them, “alternating L/R” may be the better setting.
M. Scott Cole
Senior Post Production Editor
60 MINUTES
CBS News, NYC
sc6@cbsnews.com
mscottc@comcast.net -
Realizing that my prior reply to your inquiry may be a little harsh, let me give you an example of why rules are hard to define in editing for TV. Just this morning I had to put together a 3 edit sequence. Yes it was incredibly simple but it’s a perfect example of why the rules you mention in your question just don’t work all the time. I had to put together a sequence for this morning’s Sunday Morning. First I took in a piece from London that came in “split track,” in other words, the correspondents VOs were on track 1, all the other audio was on track 2. Needless to say there are plenty of reasons why we do this. Immediately following that, I ingested the lead recorded from the studio with stereo sound on it, along with the material that was to immediately follow the piece. It also had two track stereo audio. When I put together the sequence the first and third edits needed to be cut into my sequence with “Alternating left and right tracks.” On the other hand, the piece from London needed to be edited in “All tracks centered.” No producer is going to tell me that I need to do that, it’s up to me as the editor, understanding what goes out as final product, to determine that. No matter what setting I had chosen in my settings, I would have had to open the audio mixer and change either 1 or 2 of the clips regarding the audio panning. So the best advices really is, experience will tell you which of those two settings will least likely cause trouble for you, and stick with it. But know you are going to have to make decisions on each clip as you go along depending on the edit situation. I know my example is extremely simple, but I offer it up as a building block.
M. Scott Cole
Senior Post Production Editor
60 MINUTES
CBS News, NYC
sc6@cbsnews.com
mscottc@comcast.net -
The reality is, “editing for TV” is not just a simple set of rules. Quite frankly, every network has spec sheets that spell out proper audio and video levels, their desired video resolutions, audio track layouts, tape or file formats, codecs to be used if file based, and so much more. Understanding those specs comes from understanding all the technical issues involved. Quite often, that’s why there are “finishing” editors out there who’s job it is to color correct, create polished effects,and also to make sure your show meets those delivery specs. I’m not trying to discourage you, but really to encourage you.
Creative editing has rules, but they are there to be broken in creative ways. The “editing for TV” deliverable, on the other hand, has a whole lot of rules that unfortunately if broken result in either your show being turned back to you, or worse, failing in one way or another on its way to the audience. In earlier years, typically those skills were split amongst two different types of people. I’ll be the first to admit I’m not that all creative, my strength has always been on the tech side, I’m a stickler for specs.
What’s happening now, with the incredible drop in prices in high quality editing equipment, is that the two job roles are overlapping more and more. If you want to “edit for TV” you really need to work with other TV editors on a long term basis. Learn how to read waveform monitors and vectorscopes. Learn the proper levels that each of those devices display. Read up on how to mix both 5.1, stereo, and even mono audio. Discuss with other editors how to best mix audio for the show you are working on either as the finished product or for delivery to your audio mixing professional.
Once you learn all these rules, then common sense tells you which rules apply in which situations, what rules you must follow, and what rules you can break. But that only comes with experience. Keep plugging away. You’ll get there.
M. Scott Cole
Senior Post Production Editor
60 MINUTES
CBS News, NYC
sc6@cbsnews.com
mscottc@comcast.net -
Unfortunately, my position at work doesn’t often present me with the need to deal with AMA, as I’m a finishing editor, and by the time material gets to me, all of the media I deal with is Avid managed media. But I have tinkered with AMA and will do my best to answer.
Old school traditional Avid media all lives in an MXF (or formerly OMF) folder within a folder called Avid Media Files. In that folder are all of your audio and video media files along with a couple of database files keeping track of all of the media. All of those files must be in the very specific forms that your Avid software can deal with, using one of the native codecs.
On the other hand, AMA files live wherever you want them to, and are not at all managed by the Avid editing application. AMA just provides pointers to that media. I believe this is the way both FCP and Premier work. As succeeding versions of Avid have come out, they’ve added newer AMA codec capabilities.
You are correct when you state that when you transcode your AMA clips, the media is copied into the Avid Media Files Folder, and then master clips pointing to that media are created. At that point the right thing to do remove the AMA linked media from your workflow (assuming you’ve transcoded all the material you’ll need for your project). And yes you are correct with your other assumptions. You can have two or more clips pointing to the same media in your Avid Media Folders, you can push those extra clips into a “doubles bin.” You can then safely delete that bin, and be done with all the doubles. Or you can just simply delete the Master Clips but as I stated earlier, not delete the media. Either way is fine.
And remember, if you accidentally delete the only master clip but don’t delete media all is still not lost. The Media Tool will find and catalog all viable media for you within your various Avid Media Folders.
M. Scott Cole
Senior Post Production Editor
60 MINUTES
CBS News, NYC
sc6@cbsnews.com
mscottc@comcast.net -
One other point, if you feel you have extra sets of master clips, there are a couple of ways you can deal with it. If all the “extra clips” are in one bin, and you know you have valid master clips for all your media, just delete the first bin. You aren’t really deleting any media this way, just a set if master clips pointing to that media. Of course be careful that you don’t have any sequences or any other information in that bin you are trashing. The other thing you can do is delete the clips individually, but when the delete dialogue comes up, just select “master clips,” do NOT select the actual media files. Those media files will still remain linked to the other set of master clips. That being said, quite frankly, I’d just close the offending bin and ignore it. Remember Bins are only meta-data, not real media, and hardly take up any space in the grand scheme of things. All it really contains is a set of pointers to your media, which you can safely ignore if you have other bins with master clips to the same media.
M. Scott Cole
Senior Post Production Editor
60 MINUTES
CBS News, NYC
sc6@cbsnews.com
mscottc@comcast.net -
With Avid you have to realize that “clips” within a bin are just pointers to the actual media files. You can have multiple “pointers” or clips pointing to the same media file. I’m going to ignore AMA linked clips for the purpose of this answer. If you have a clip representing a shot in one bin it’s just a pointer to one or several media files, typically for a short shot, 1 video file and then one audio file for each track of audio. very long video clips are typically comprised of several video files, based on the size limits of those video files. And in some cases a “master clip” may not point to any media, in which case you’ll get a “media offline” display. All that being said, you can have a master clip in one bin and another master clip in a second bin pointing to the same media files, and this won’t cause any real issues. For example I may be using a clip of music in one of my open bins, and I’ll mark in and out points. when I close that bin, those points will stay put, and be there when I re-open that bin the next day. At the same time, another editor may have that same set of audio files represented by a copy of that master clip. When the other editor changes the marks within his bin, those marks will stay put for him as he saves and re-opens the bin. There really is no adverse affect that I’m aware of, other than possible naming confusion, when you have two clips referring to the same media files.
M. Scott Cole
Senior Post Production Editor
60 MINUTES
CBS News, NYC
sc6@cbsnews.com
mscottc@comcast.net -
I have to imagine that Symphony Color Corrections would have a problem playing back on MC? Don’t know for sure, just an educated guess.
M. Scott Cole
Senior Post Production Editor
60 MINUTES
CBS News, NYC
sc6@cbsnews.com
mscottc@comcast.net -
On the import menu is “Field” Correct for current project. I’d go with that. That being said, it is my understanding that for 1080i HD, upper field is first.
As an aside to this topic. One set of keys everyone onlining an interlaced project should have somewhere on their keyboard is “Step forward one field” and Step Backward one field.” I may have exact wording wrong, but you get the jist. As you use these keys, you will see a small “2” become visible on alternate fields in either your source or record monitor, upper right hand corner. It’s the easy only way of seeing field 2 while still. If you step through your video, and it seems to be jumping backwards every other field, that’s a good indication of wrong field order imports.
M. Scott Cole
Senior Post Production Editor
60 MINUTES
CBS News, NYC
sc6@cbsnews.com
mscottc@comcast.net