MC101 | Professional Editing with Avid Media Composer v6
A Thorough Foundation in the art of the Splice
Tap-Quiz
How do you copy a section of the timeline into the Source Monitor?
Mark the clip and press Alt/Option+C.
Day 1
Assemble a Rough Cut
We begin with fundamental techniques for creating a rough cut of a sequence. You'll also learn basic Avid terms and concepts and workflows.
- Create a new sequence
- Mark Edit Points
- Understand Splice, Overwrite, Lift & Extract techniques
- Using Digital & Analogue Audio Cues
- Adding, Removing & Patching Tracks
- Use of the Replace Edit feature
- Trimming with the Trim Tool & Smart Tool
Day 2
Refine your Edit
On Day 2, you take on a few additional skills that will help you to quickly establish a good structure to your program, and how better navigate and customize Media Composer. Emphasis is placed on maintaining synchronization and cutting dialogue-intensive content, as well as establishing a basic audio mix.
- Creating Subclips & Storyboard Editing
- Extract Top & Tail
- Using Locators
- Navigate using Timecode
- Slip & Slide Segments
- Creating Split Edits
- Use of the Extend Tool
- Ways to Prevent Broken Sync
- Audio Audio Levels using the Mixer
- Realtime Audio Mixing with Automation
- Adjusting Pan
- Use of the Audio Tool
- Customizing the Keyboard & Toolbars
- Customizing Popular Settings (Autosave, Media Creation, Interface)
- Using Avid Toolsets
Day 3
Add Effects
After you’ve built and refined your sequence, the next phase in your workflow often involves adding effects, and customizing those effects using the keyframe graphs in the Effect Editor, as well as saving templates for easy effect re-use.
- Understanding the different kinds of Effects in Media Composer
- Adding/Removing/Customizing Effects
- Avid Effect Mode
- Changing Transition Duration (revised for MCv5.5)
- Changing the Speed of footage (faster, slower, freeze-frame)
- Layering Video Tracks
- Use of Picture-in-Picture
- Reordering Effects & Tracks
- Keyframe Graphs
- Bezier, Shelf & Linear Keyframes
- Nesting & Collapsing Tracks
- Understanding Realtime Effects
- Efficient Rendering Techniques
Day 4
Finishing
Specialized effects like Stabilize, Pan/Zoom and basic Colour Correction are important aspects of the finishing phase. Additionally, you will learn to create lower-third, rolling and crawling titles using Avid's Marquee tool.
- Understanding the Finishing Workflow
- Perform Automatic Colour Corrections
- Understand the basic Colour Correction Interface
- Use Pan & Zoom to link to high-res still images
- Stabilizing shaky video footage
- Creating a title in the Avid Marquee tool
- Adjusting Fill, Edges and Shadows of Titles
- Use of the Fade Effect command
- Creating Shapes in Marquee
- Using Auto Title
Day 5
Supporting Techniques
You'll need to ingest and import from a variety of sources, ranging from Quicktime Movies to XDCAM/P2 & RED media, and perhaps even from traditional video tape. You'll also need to prepare a sequence for review by your producer, and manage your media when your project is finished. Our final day consists of supporting techniques.
- Use the Timecode Generator effect
- Reformat a Sequence using Bin-level Reformat Options
- Reformat a Sequence using the Pan & Scan Effect
- Full Screen Playback
- Configuring the Capture Settings
- Use of the Capture Tool for Tape-based Media
- DV Scene Extraction
- AMA Workflows
- Where to obtain AMA Plugins
- Using AMA with Quicktimes
- Importing Image Files
- Importing from an Audio CD
- Auto-Adjustment of Audio CD Gain on Import
- Using Mixed-Rate Clips
- Converting Sequences to different Frame Rates
- Metadata Uses of Bin's Text View
- Sorting, Sifting & Moving Clips within Bins
- Consolidating (copying) & Transcoding Clips
- Workflows for Subclip + Sequence Consolidation
- Use of the Media Tool
- Deleting Media Files
- Locking Bin Items
- Relinking Clips
- Outputting to File, XDCAM/P2, DVD, HDV & Video Tape
What's Covered
This course follows the order that editors typically follow when editing a show: Creating a rough-cut, refining it, adding effects, adding titles, some colour correction and then output.
Who uses this software?
Just about all major TV channels, hollywood films and broadcast news channels use Avid editing systems. The Ellen Show, Madmen, The Amazing Race, CSI, Avatar (and mostly all the 3D movies) are cut on Media Composer. Check it out yourself.
My company has Avid Symphony or Avid NewsCutter. Is this course for me?
Absolutely. Avid Symphony is based on Media Composer, and adds more high-end finishing features. You can take advanced courses on the features of Symphony that are unique to Symphony, but you should take this course first, as your foundation course on Avid editing systems.
Is this course taught on Windows or Mac?
Media Composer works and looks exactly the same on Windows and Mac OS, with the exception that two keyboard keys (control & command) are reversed. Because of that, we normally teach it on Mac. If you'd prefer to take the course with Avid on Windows, we'd be more than happy to prepare a workstation with Avid Media Composer running on Windows.
Is there an exam?
There is an optional end-user exam, which, upon successful completion, will earn you the Avid Certified User Certification. The exam fee is an additional $150 when purchased with the course, or $200 if you do not take the course or have to re-write the exam. You do not need to write the exam immediately after the course, some students prefer to come back and take the course a second time to ensure they understand the material fully.
There is a lot of material for just five days.
That's true. The material we cover in a week is what a university or college might cover in an entire semester. However, professionals tend to come in, get trained, and get back to work, so we keep it compact and information-dense in just 5 days. Once you have taken the course once, you may take it again at no charge as often as you like for a year, at any of Splice's training centres.
What book do I need?
You need to have the Avid Student Guide that accompanies this course and is included with your course fee.
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Instructor Bio
Woody has been successful as a professional video editor, working as a production editor in the Arts & Entertainment division of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. He has spent years performing online and offline editing for broadcast television. He was also a visual effects compositor on Season 4 of Lexx.
While living in England, Woody worked for Avid as a specialist in Media Composer and Avid DS. He taught editing courses for Avid and served as a consultant for the European Professional Services group of Avid.
He was a post-production consultant on Batman Begins, and a technical consultant on Harry Potter's 2 and 3. He was a trainer in broadcast news workflow at Al Aan TV in Dubai, TV3 and RTE in Dublin, BBC London, Aberdeen and Glasgow, and spent a year working for TV2/Kobenhavn, Denmark's 24-hour news channel.
Splice is endorsed by the Director’s Guild of Canada, Atlantic Regional Council, with whom Splice has had a training partnership program since 2008.
