Better editing in Avid

by Jonny Elwin

Re-editing an action sequence

At the 2011 Supermeet editor Eddie Hamilton (in the middle of a Avid demo) played two versions of an edited action sequence from Kick Ass. Its really only worth watching this video from about 6 minutes in to about 17 minutes, thereafter the video then descends into technical difficulties and Avid soapboxing. But those 10 minutes in the middle do provide a valuable insight into how to transform a difficult scene into one that really, well, kicks ass.

Avid MC6.5 Review

Scott Simmons on PVC has a good run down of some of the new features in MC6.5 and provides his take on whether or not they’re good value for money – The .5 upgrade is $500.

Editorial Note: It seems odd to me that people like Eddie Hamilton (see above) would claim that ”there’s just no other platform to use” for a big feature when there are things that MC 6.5 can’t do or is only just getting the ability to do, that FCP7 has always been able to do; such as the number of audio tracks you can have or moving clips about. Plenty of other big features are cut on FCP, Lightworks or Premiere so I don’t think any one platform can justifiably claim superiority. After all, an edit is just two shots next to each other and when you’re watching a film you’ve got no idea what software was used to edit it! As Michael Cioni said at the Amsterdam Supermeet editors should be able to use all platforms, just as skilled people can speak many languages.

Avid workflow tips

Premiumbeat has (among lots of good stuff!) a couple of posts featuring some Avid workflow tips that are well worth checking out. read more...