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Editing Tip of the Week – Keep it Good

January 22, 2012 · by bcleggtv

Wanted to make sure I got this week’s editing tip in because in about 4 – 5 hours the New England Patriots are going to be playing in the AFC Championship game and my day will be spent watching the game and either (hopefully) celebrating a victory after that or wallowing in despair.
***update, I celebrated!!!***

This week’s tip goes along with this theme I have going “Keep it ____.” What exactly do I mean by good? Does it mean it is well written, well edited, the FX are good, the color-correction is good?

What I am really talking about is good in an over arching sense. When you work on something, whether that be an edit, a script, a shoot, a lighting design, anything really, know that your name is on it. We all at some point work on projects that aren’t exactly creative or something that gets those creative juices flowing. It can be easy to say “well, it is just this or just that, it doesn’t matter.” Guess what, it does. Why? Because your name is on it.

The first video I ever edited as a professional was cutting 4 segments together, putting a dip to black between the 3 cuts and putting a fade on the head and tail. Sounds easy, right? I was working at an entry level position trying to work my way into the editing suite. That day I realized that if those simple edits weren’t correct, I may not be able to get more chances to edit. Those were the best damn fades and dip to black edits to ever leave a NLE edit system. Why? Because they had my name on it.

Whether you are working on a complex build in a video composite or you are editing the boss’s daughter’s wedding ceremony, always make it good. Never let apathy get in the way of quality.

Avid Media Composer / Symphony 6

January 18, 2012 · by bcleggtv

Let me first say as much as some may want to hear it, I am going to abstain from any inkling of the Avid vs. Final Cut Pro debate. Over the years I have been involved in many such discussions and I have learned one undeniable fact, nobody has ever watched a program because of what it was edited with. It would be like debating whether you shoveled your driveway with a aluminum or plastic shovel…isn’t the only thing that really matters is that your upstairs neighbor did it before you got up? That is what I thought.

Symphony 6

Having said that I won’t make any secret that I am an editor first, an Avid editor second. For the majority of my time as an editor Avid has been my tool of choice. It is what I know, it is what I like, but it doesn’t mean it is the best tool, just a tool. Tonight I attended the Boston Avid Users Group demo at Avid Headquarters in Burlington, MA, and the following is a recap of the new version of Media Composer and Symphony 6. It isn’t an endorsement or argument for using the software, just my thoughts and info for those that are interested.

BAVUG sign on crystal screen

The group was lucky enough to run into Bob Russo from Avid giving the first part the presentation, a general overview of Version 6 as well as an more in-depth look into the stereoscopic 3D tools now available. If you haven’t seen Bob present I highly recommend it, of all the software evangelists out there I think he is one of the best. Matt Feury is also very good, but I have yet to get a chance to meet him in person although I have seen many of his presentations.

Sterescopic 3D

Last time I ran into Bob Russo I had a lot of questions about the first stereoscopic 3D project I was going to be working on with Cramer. At the time we were shooting with the Panasonic AG-3DA1. The great thing about this camera was that it took all the bulky camera rig setups with beam splitters and parallel rigs and put it into one, more intuitive camera. The camera recorded a left and right eye stream to AVCHD onto two SD cards. After that we used Cineform HD to mux the two streams into a stereoscopic file that was then translated into a side/side stereoscopic image and sent out to a 3D monitor via HDMI.

After many questions answered by Bob Russo about workflow, he said one thing that stuck to me. That if Avid really wanted to take a leap forward they needed to “own” stereoscopic 3D editing. (at this time we were working on 4.0, which had pretty sophisticated 3D tools, but you needed those 3rd party software tools to really make it happen.) Well, after tonight, I can say that Avid must have listened because they have taken a big leap forward in working with stereoscopic material.

Having not worked with the software yet and due to time constraints in the demo I don’t have an in-depth dissertation on the upgrades, but I can tell you the key points. You can mux left and right streams right in Avid. You can adjust and key-frame convergence right in Avid(#awesome!) You can do source material color-correction on one stream in a stereoscopic clip to compensate for color shifts in a two camera beam splitting 3D camera rig. Any and all Avid FX are stereoscopic aware and will compensate the images if you were to do a simple PIP or anything really. AND (this one is really big) there is a built in tool to change legacy 2D footage into 3D. Now, it was somewhat hard to tell how well the 2D to 3D feature worked (we had paper anaglyph glasses) but the fact you could in theory cut in legacy 2D footage onto the same timeline is something that should be pretty appealing. I won’t sit here and think that the end results of 2D acquired material is going to be anything like true stereoscopic 3D, but at least you will get something right out of the box.

So did Avid do what Bob said and “own” stereoscopic 3D editing? Hopefully soon I will be able to test it out and do a comparison to my original project, but lets just say if they don’t already own it with 6.0, they are definitely leasing with an option to buy. (Note: all the above features are in addition to the already built-in stereoscopic tools available since 4.0, being able to pick side/side, over/under, left eye only monitoring, etc.)

Avid Marketplace

I’ll make this brief since I am not totally sold on this concept, but Avid has partnered with Thought Equity and created an in software marketplace to buy stock footage. The over arching concept is genius really, a way to think of it is having an iTunes app right in your editing software, but with video footage instead of music. It integrates right into the Avid and links via AMA with downloaded watermarked comps. After you have done your edit, you can then create a stock footage report that tells you what shots you have used and the ins and outs of your selects. That report can then be sent back to Thought Equity and they then process your order. Sounds great, right? Well, there are some road bumps you have to go over. You may or may not have to deal with a representative on rights usage (depending on the clips you have used) and it isn’t certain how long a clip could take. Basically if you use all royalty free material it is more or less instantaneous, if not, then you may have some red tape on how long it is before you get your footage. The overall great thing here is you can access it right from the Avid software or you can access it through the web if you are a producer. If you want to have all your watermarked footage get replaced automatically, it does appear you have to download the high rez clips on your Avid workstation through the software. All though once you do that, there literally is a button that say “replace all stock footage” so no more match framing re-imports of bought clips. You can also purchase audio packages as well as audio and video plug-ins from the interface.

5.1 and 7.1 Surround Sound

The next great new feature is 5.1 and 7.1 surround sound audio capabilities. They work just like the new stereo tracks feature Avid released in 5.0, just now you can pick either 5.1 or 7.1 if you are given a surround track from say a Pro Tools mix session. You will still need a 5.1 or 7.1 speaker and hardware setup in order to hear it, but the Avid will be able to edit those right into the timeline. If you don’t have a surround setup the Avid will “automagically” play it out in stereo. (“Automagically” may be my new catch phrase. Thanks 3rd presenter who said it, hopefully someone will read this who was there and can tell me your name.) And it isn’t just import, you can actually make 5.1 or 7.1 surround mixes in your Avid edit session. My initial thought on this is why…anytime you were doing a surround mix it would go to a post audio designer 99% of the time, right? But, all the tools and pans and fun surround sound stuff gets transferred in an AAF file to Pro Tools, so I can see the validity in being able to do some of that while in the editing process.

That is it for now, the meeting ran late and I wanted to get all this down before I forgot. I am sure I forgot something and I am sure there are plenty of misspellings and grammar errors but it is late, I’ll get to them tomorrow. Here are some pictures from the Avid headquarters, they got some great hardware there, and yes, I am talking about the Academy Awards and Emmys…(you didn’t think I would write all this and not get one little FCP dig at the end, did you 🙂 )

Academy Awards

Emmys

Editing Tip of the Week – Keep it Simple

January 15, 2012 · by bcleggtv

Earlier this week I asked my Twitter editing friends what they would like to hear about next on barryclegg.com, and I got some good suggestions. They ranged from how to make more money without heavy lifting, H.264 codecs, secret Avid tricks all the way to things never to say to editor (with my favorite being “I don’t like the music” or “it needs to ‘feel’ more.”)

The subject of this post actually came to me last night around the 2nd quarter of the Patriots vs. Broncos divisional playoff game. I think the score at this point was 78-0, but I may be overestimating on that score memory. It came in the form of a Twitter response from Steve Audette, former Frontline editor at WGBH in Boston who now works on Nova. We were discussing titles in Avid Media Composer and Symphony and how they can sometimes get corrupt. I asked Steve if he used the regular Avid Title Tool or if he used Marquee. He informed me that he used the Avid Title Tool along with this statement, “Keep it Simple.” Side note, Avid Marquee has not been developed since 2001 and is, in my opinion, a software that needs a massive overhaul or a quick burial.

If you ever get the chance to see Steve talk at either a Rule pub night or Boston Avid User Group meeting please do so, he always gives a great presentation on all things editing, but specifically about the philosophies of editing. One specific concept that both Steve and I share is that editing is telling stories, and you should never let anything get in the way of telling a good one. While I can’t speak on his exact behalf, I think maybe what Steve was saying was why get bogged down making titles that, most likely, don’t add anything to your story. Couple years back I was working with a junior editor who spent the better half of a day making a lower third REALLY spiffy and visually interesting. While I applauded their efforts (the lower third was quite visually appealing) it didn’t add anything to the overall story and it was a half day lost to fine tuning and shaping the story at hand. For me, unless there is some specific brand look, feel and/or font, I go with white Arial fonts for lower thirds, usually with a drop shadow for better reading on screen. My philosophy is that if there is time and the story is in a good place, we can always go back and manipulate lower thirds.

During any edit, specifically ones that involve heavy compositing, I always find myself asking “is this going to be easy to change if I need to” or “will it take me more time to explain it to someone else than just do it myself?” When I find myself in situations where the answers are “no and yes” respectively, I then try and simplify it. There are still many times where it just is not possible to simplify or make more efficient, but I think there is always a time to TRY and do it.

Sometimes it is a scenario of being able to manage your efforts with the time you have. On days I find multiple deliverables due at the end of the day I try and ask to get a synopsis of everything that I need to do so I can spend x amount of time of video 1, x amount of time on video 2, etc. It can be real frustrating to reach the end of your edit session and then hear “oh, we got this one more thing we have to do” and think “man, I could have managed this time much better if I had just known this needed to be done.”

I want to take this moment to also thank those who helped in making suggestions, and hopefully I will get more from all of you out there.

Steve Audette, WBGH Nova Avid Editor. You can follow him on Twitter @stevecutsdoc

Steve Andrada, DP in the Boston area I got to work with a couple years ago. He is also an Avid Editor and all-around great guy. You can follow him on Twitter @steveandrada and visit his website www.andradaproductions.com

Joanna June, Final Cut Pro editor who I just finished a 3 week event project with. Joanna is the hardest working woman in post. You can follow her on Twitter @coffeebooksbeer and read her website www.coffeebooksandbeer.com

Benjamin Eckstein is a Boston based DP who also edits on Final Cut Pro, but I think his heart is behind the viewfinder. You can follow him on Twitter @benjeckstein or visit his website www.benjamineckstein.com

So the question is, how do you keep things simple?

Editing Tip of the Week – Keep it Clean

January 8, 2012 · by bcleggtv

After a successful release of BarryClegg.com last week (over 120 unique visitors in the first day, now, only 5 billion more and I’ll be on par with Google) I am now motivated more than ever to keep this site fresh and informative to any and all who visit. One of my initial goals of this site is to be a source of information and education about all things production. Seeing as my expertise comes from post, I figured why not have a weekly tip? It should be quick, easy, and beneficial the next time you sit down to make your magic in your editing suite.

Sometimes I feel like I could write a book on all the editing tips I have both received and given over my tenure as an editor. They come from all over; my colleagues, watching TV, user groups and dumb luck.

Today’s tip is really more advice than anything, and that is to be organized. This only applies to your edit session, not your whole life. For example, here is a picture of the corner of my room right now. As you can see, it is NOT organized (the fan seems really out of place, right?)

My Room

When it comes to your edit session, being organized is one of the most important things you can be. In today’s world of tight turnarounds, being FAST can sometimes be better than being GOOD. Luckily I am fast AND good, as well as being humble…basically the triple threat. In all seriousness, one of the things I pride myself on is being a fast editor, and the main reason I can be fast is because I am organized, and you should be too. Here is a quick tip to being organized.

Naming Conventions – Naming conventions is the quickest, easiest way to stay organized. It will help you with version control. It will help you find clips. It will help you when in a collaborative environment, e.g. multiple editors on one project or sharing with animators. The best part of this tip is the only requirement is to have a working knowledge of the English language (or Spanish if you are in Spain…or French if you are in France…etc.) Want to know if your naming conventions are working? If the answers to these two questions are always “yes,” then they are working. “Do I know exactly what is in this clip/file/document without having to view it?” and “If someone else works on this, will they know exactly what is in this clip/file/document without having to view it?” If you ever have something that says “Untitled Sequence.01” I better be able to delete it and not get fired.

For sequences I always try to follow this: Client_VideoName_Version# Example: SmithCo_SpringSizzleReel_v4. Depending on where you are working naming conventions may change, but this simple formula should work for most. If you are mastering to full resolution QTs are similar, I suggest something more robust that is more aimed at an archiving system. Client_VideoName_Date_Format_Initials Example SmithCo_SpringSizzleReel_030112_BC. Use whatever works for your workflow. If you are working on spots you should include the ISCI code as well. GEICO_CaveManFootball_ISCI021012H_BC

For clips I always try and follow this: Shot Description_Focal Length_Take# Example Host Dolly Left_MED_T1 or Host Dolly Right_CU_T2. I use WS (wide shot) MED (medium shot) MCU (medium close up) CU (close up) and XCU (extreme close up.) Now, I know those probably aren’t the official film school terms for focal lengths, but I have found that for any given shoot I can divide up the takes into some of those categories and then be able to go back and figure out where the other takes are. If I am working with a clip that has a WS on it, I know that the one I logged with MED is a closer focal length. Not the most scientific system, but it sure does work.

When it comes to naming conventions for clips, the advent of file based acquisition has thrown a wrench into the works. Case in point, Avid AMA bin with files from P2 camera.

Avid AMA bin with P2 footage

Files are ready to edit instantaneously, but nothing has been logged. There are systems out there for on-site and in camera logging, but I suggest doing anything to avoid loading clip after clip to find the shot you need. Might be a good habit to logging clips as you go when dealing with file based workflows. If you are lucky enough, get an assistant editor.

In closing, remember, the more time you spend looking around and figuring out what is what is time you are taking away from storytelling and creativity…and cleaning your room. Trust me, your colleagues and mother with give you the thumbs up.

Good Job!

iPad

December 16, 2011 · by bcleggtv

Well, I am going to make this post the first of hopefully many that are not related to a specific video project. As of today, I am the owner of a new Apple iPad. It actually complete the “i” trifecta for me. iPod, iPhone and now iPad. In reality I am testing out the app for updating this website on my iPad right now. It is very basic and it doesn’t have that instant preview option as the website from a laptop or CPU, which is something I am used to. Although this will be a great way to publish information quickly and on the go…or at least anywhere with a wifi connection.

My initial reaction to the iPad was “what am I going to use this for?” (the iPad I have was a gift, so you can see why I had this reaction instead of the calculated buying process I usually go through with any major product.)

As the owner of a laptop, as a person who works at an Avid workstation all day and, as I mentioned above, the owner of the other Apple gadgets, where does this gadget fit into my day to day needs. To put it simply, it doesn’t fit. I don’t need it, but I am keeping an open mind.

After a full day with the new toy, I have seen some uses that I may not have thought of before. The first being this post right here. One of my goals with this website is to not only showcase the video work I do but also to discuss new technologies. With the iPad, it gives me more flexibility to do this quickly and on the go.

The next major one is one I haven’t really tested out yet, more so because I am on vacation for the next week and won’t be in an edit suite for a little while. What I can envision is the iPad acting as my digital paper work. Scripts, change lists, branding guidelines, etc are all types of things I normally print out to go along with what I am editing. Lately I have been trying to do as much of this as I can on the iPhone, but for me the iPhone is just too small to really be effective. Hopefully the iPad will help me be more “green.”

One thing I would love to see, and not sure if this exists already, but some sort of app that a producer/director could open either on a laptop or iOS device that creates a list of tasks that could then be shared. When I get a list of changes I almost always print it out so I can physically check them off to know what I have done and what I need to do. It would be great to have some sort of shared list with the producer/director that I can go though and process and then send back, hopefully with comments. That way I could send info back such as “this change conflicts with branding guidelines” or “I think this edit is conflicting with our story goals” etc.

Of course there will be other things I can do with the iPad. Maybe my angry birds skills will improve. Not sure if digital books will work their way into my everyday life, but I also said that when iTunes came out. Can’t remember the last time I bought a CD, although I will say I don’t envision using the iPad for music listening.

Feel free to use the comments section to discuss what you use your iPads for, maybe there s something I haven’t thought of yet. I am sure there is.