Archive for January 2009

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Deleting a Clip in One Step

January 24, 2009

Back in the old ABVB days, if you wanted to delete a clip you simply selected it in segment mode and hit the delete key. But Meridien changed that. If a clip contained effects, (or, in the case of an audio clip, if it contained volume graphs), then selecting and deleting only deleted the effects. You had to re-select the clip (or clips) and hit delete again to make it disappear. The re-selection turned out to be a pain, especially if you were trying to delete several clips at once.

Well, it turns out that the Media Composer does indeed offer a shortcut for single-step clip deletion. It’s the ordinary cut command (command-x on the Mac, ctrl-x on the PC) — but with segment mode turned on. To delete a clip in one step, hit red segment mode, click the clip and then hit cmd-x. The clip goes away. (This is different from hitting cut when segment mode isn’t on. In that case you’ll cut everything between your marks.)

A couple of additional tips:

  • The cut command obeys the segment mode you’re in. If you’re in extract/splice-in (yellow) the clips are extracted. If you’re in lift/overwrite (red), they’re lifted.
  • You can use this command to delete a range of clips without selecting them all. Click the first and last clips in a group and hit cmd-x and the clips will disappear along with everything in between.
  • The material you cut goes to the clipboard. So if you want to put it somewhere else just load clipboard contents into the source monitor (with the clipboard button or the pull-down menu above the source monitor) and edit as needed.
  • Since the material goes to the clipboard, it’ll obey the paste command (command-v), inserting it at the current cursor position. If you prefer an overwrite, then select lift/overwrite segment mode first.

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Categories: Avid Technical Tips

Comments: 16 Comments

New IATSE Contract (revised)

January 17, 2009

The Editors Guild will be holding an open meeting Thursday to explain the new IATSE basic agreement, on which members will be voting shortly. The most controversial provision is an increase in the basic health plan eligibility requirement from 300 to 400 hours — in the third year of the contract. This will make it harder for people who don’t work much to get coverage.

It also means that it’ll be harder to fill up your bank of hours. For those of you who don’t understand it, the bank extends your health insurance coverage. You accumulate hours in the bank during good times and then cash those hours in for another six months of coverage when your ordinary hours run out. It used to take 300 hours to get another half year of coverage, now it’ll take 400. Also, the maximum amount you can hold in the bank — 450 hours — won’t change, so you’ll get less out of the bank during a long dry spell.

Needless to say, this comes at a very bad economic time. I know many people who have been facing long unemployment periods and are turning to self-pay via COBRA to keep their benefits. But that can be startlingly expensive.

Details of the contract leaked out long ago and can be reviewed here. There’s also a new web site devoted to challenging the 400-hour requirement here.

The Guild recently sent out an email describing the contract in general terms, and it promises to get members the complete memorandum soon. I hope that it comes in time for us to read it before Thursday.

Meeting details:

Thursday, Jan. 22nd
Directors Guild
7920 Sunset
Los Angeles
7:30 pm

A similar meeting will take place Tuesday, February 10 at the New York office.

Categories: Editors Guild

Comments: 6 Comments