Avid Technology, Inc. today announced that a wide variety of Avid® customers from cutting-edge independent documentary filmmakers – like Sarah Price, director and editor of Summercamp – to Academy Award® winning feature film editors – such as Dody Dorn of A Good Year –  will feature their projects at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival. 

“I wouldn’t use anything but Avid to work on a low-budget documentary like ‘So Goes the Nation’,” said Editor Jeff Groth.  “On these types of projects, I need a tool that will allow me to work quickly and accurately, not waste time rendering sequences and, most importantly, not lose my media.  When dealing with so much footage (over 400 hours in this case) and a budget that doesn’t allow me to burn time searching for clips and rebuilding sequences, using something like Final Cut Pro would have been too volatile and risky.  Avid is the way to go, it manages my media, works intuitively, and allows me to focus on the story.”

Bonneville Editor Anita Brandt-Burgoyne and her assistant editor Helen Hand echo Groth’s sentiments when it comes to working on Avid for various types of projects. “Avid is always the system of choice for me when I’m working on a film, whether it’s an indie or studio feature,” Brandt-Burgoyne said.  “I’ve tried other tools like Final Cut but found it was much more complicated to perform many functions, and I really missed the trim tools that Avid offers.  The Avid Xpress Pro and Media Composer systems are much more intuitive – they work like an editor thinks and Avid’s interface is very easy to navigate.”

This year marks the 31st anniversary of the Toronto International Film Festival.  The 10-day long event will showcase more than 350 films from 61 countries.

Read more for a list of projects created on Avid systems...

If have you have a high-end tape machine, chances are it may have a 9-pin serial R422 connection on the back. In this case, you would benefit from purchasing a simple adapter cable that will allow your Avid or Final Cut Pro system to take advantage of direct deck control using your Deck's 9 pin RSS 422 control.

If you are using a PC, all that is required is a simple cable that converts the RSS 422 (serial) - to RS 232 (serial). (Available here)

If your computer does not have a 9 pin serial port, or if you are using a Mac. You'll also need an USB to serial adapter.

Next, all you need to do is change your device control options to use RS 422 control instead of firewire. You will immediately notice that your device will control much better than it did with the firewire cable. You will still leave your firewire cable connection to your system for Video and Audio input. You will be using the RSS 422 connection from timecode and deck control.

It can also work in reverse allowing you to enter in the storage capacity of optical storage media such as a DVD or CD and calculate the amount of video it can hold. Check out and Download Digital Heaven's VideoSPace right here.

For added flexibility and efficiency, Pankow used a Macintosh G4 Powerbook laptop equipped with Avid Xpress Pro software, which allowed him to travel with the cut in progress to review and approve edits with creative team members, regardless of their location. Avid Xpress Pro was great for when Bill had to fly back to L.A. from Toronto to look at the digital intermediate, or to show what he had already cut to the director and try out new ideas with him, or to set it up on the mix stage in order to have a copy of the movie. The Avid Xpress Pro on the laptop saved a lot of time and made things very convenient, says Johnston.

The Avid Xpress Pro on the laptop saved a lot of time and made things very convenient.
- Lara Johnston, Assistant Editor, The Black Dahlia

Check out the offical The Black Dahlia site for the full details.

Here are the steps to take to create a subclip:

1. Load your clip into the Source monitor.
2. Mark and in and out where you would like the clip to start and end.
3. Hold down the Alt key and click the source monitor and drag the subclip into the desired bin.
4. Name the sub-clip

You have now made a more manageable clip to edit from. The great thing about master clips is that because you have made a subclip from your master clip the subclip can be expanded in trim mode to reveal more footage.

Here are the steps to lock your items in your bin:

You must first be in the Text View.

1. Display the Lock heading in the bin by going to the fast menu in lower left corner of the bin and go to headings and select the Lock heading.

2. Click the item you want to lock.

3.Navigate to Clip and click Lock BIn Selection

You can select multiple items with control click or shift click and lock them all at once.

How to apply an effect to multiple transitions in the Timeline:

1. If there is not already an effect on one of the transitions, add a transition effect.

2. Enter Effect mode, for example, by selecting Toolset > Effects Editing.

3. Click the existing transition effect to select it.

4. Click above the Timeline and begin dragging to activate a selection box. Continue to drag down and either to the left or right to include additional transitions in the selection.

5. Release the mouse button when you have lassoed all the transitions you want.

6. If the transitions where you want to apply the effect are not contiguous, Shift+click any transition to deselect it.

7. In the Effect Palette, double-click the icon for the effect that you want to apply to the transitions.

We had just finished creating his first sequence and he asked me, "How do I make another sequence?". This seemed very simple to me, since he just created a whole sequence, so I just assumed I was unclear in my explanation, but after looking at why he might be so confused, it made sense to me.

The timeline was already full with his current sequence and he did not understand that if he made a new sequence that it would not write over his current sequence. So to clarify, I reminded him of the sequence he had in the bin and then he made a new sequence by right clicking in the record monitor and clicking "Create New Sequence". A new sequence popped up in his bin and he started editing his new program. So this may seem very simple but it can be confusing if you are new to Avid.

Stay tuned for more Back to Basics with Avid Express Pro!

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An alternate method is to use the 'red segment' arrow and double click on an effect icon within a video segment. This will open up the effect so you can see its nested background. You can then drop an additional effect onto the background layer. If you need additional effects you can repeat the process by double clicking on an effect segment within a nest. (V1.2).

Both applications can run as software only. Just make sure you are running the software on one of Avid's qualified and recommended computer configurations.

The key functions that are only available in Media Composer are:

• A vector based paint system
  
• A 4 point motion tracker
  
• Timewarp and motion effects that can be graphed out
  
• SpectraMatte chroma keyer
  
• Film Composer toolset

My favorite features in the Media Composer software that are not available in Avid Xpress are the integrated paint system and the motion tracker. These two features really add a lot of power when it comes to compositing effects.

There are differences between the two software options, but they may not be obvious to the typical Avid editor. You can visit Avid Technology's website for complete technical specifications of Media Composer or Avid Xpress HD.

For example: If you are shooting an interview, you need to have at least 5-10 seconds after you hit record and 5-10 seconds before you stop recording where the interviewee is looking at the camera, or desired direction, so that your edits will be smooth.

This may sound so simple, but it is often not done by many camera operators; but more so the subjects are not told they need to do this. It makes it really hard to insert a nice 20-frame dissolve while your subject is not moving according to what you are shooting. This is great rule to always follow no matter what type of subject you are shooting. It makes it so much easier when you get back to your Avid or Final Cut machine and have nice clean cuts to start with. This will make your editing process go so much smoother and make for a much more professional production.

But let's let some of our customers speak on our behalf:

Read on to resolve this issue...