Archive for the ‘Avid’ category

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Final Cut Penetration in Hollywood

March 28, 2007

Every year the American Cinema Editors compiles the results of a member “equipment survey.” It offers a pretty reasonable estimate of the number of feature film and television editors currently working with various kinds of equipment. The 2006 survey results were released yesterday.

Key results:

  • About 90% of survey respondents are working in features, movies of the week, miniseries or episodic television. That gives you a sense of what ACE members do.
  • Over 80% of respondents are using Avid systems (Meridien, Adrenaline or Xpress). 13% are using Final Cut. More interesting is that Final Cut penetration has remained constant now for three years running. In 2004 it was also about 13%. That can’t be happy news for Apple.
  • DI penetration is increasing. In 2004 it was 18%. In 2006 it was 33%. (Keep in mind that TV shows don’t do DIs and they’re included in these numbers.)
  • On over half the shows, the editor chose the equipment. From an editor’s perspective, that’s a bit distressing — it would be nice if we chose the equipment on every show. But from a manufacturer’s perspective it means that the editor is still the primary customer. And making us happy still has to be job #1.

Full results of the survey are here. Special thanks go to Harry Miller for his hard work on this project.

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Categories: Avid, Avid vs. Final Cut, Workflow

Comments: 15 Comments

The Best Editor on the Planet?

March 26, 2007

Is it me, or does this business of calling the machine the “editor” seem inappropriate to you? Last time I looked, editing was my job. The machine is a tool — a better tool, sure, but something that only works in the hands of a skilled and creative human being. Calling the machine the editor is like calling a hammer a carpenter or a pipe wrench a plumber.

Last year Avid added to the confusion by using the advertising tagline “the best editor on the planet.” I tend to agree with the sentiment — for me, the Media Composer remains the best piece of software for the work I do. But it’s a tool. We never called a Moviola or a KEM an editor. And we don’t call Photoshop a designer.

Maybe this use of the word has its origin at big facilities. If you’re dealing with 25 or 100 systems, buying them, upgrading them, making sure they work, then maybe you start calling them editors. You don’t really think about the people — as far as your balance sheet is concerned, the room and whatever is in it is indeed the editor.

In the early years of the digital revolution, the mantra of the entire industry was that the software was just a tool, a much better tool, sure, but something that only worked in the hands of a skilled and creative human being. Avid advanced that perspective very consistently. The Media Composer will allow you to be more creative. It can’t edit for you, you don’t want it to do that and we don’t claim that it can. It won’t put you out of a job.

Today, Avid marketing seems to have forgotten that fundamental point. To me, and I’ll wager, to a lot of people like me, calling the machine the editor is at best tone deaf and at worst, downright disrespectful. As we ramp up to this year’s NAB, I hope that Avid retires that tagline as soon as possible.

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Categories: Avid, Avid Wish List & Bugs, Quality of Life

Comments: 6 Comments

Keyframe Madness

March 22, 2007

Can it really still be true that when you trim a shot that carries a segment effect, all of its keyframes move? Presumably, the original idea was that if you have an effect on a shot and you change the shot length, then you must want the effect to change proportionately. This was probably harder to implement than the alternative — chopping off keyframes. But for me and for everybody I know, it creates hidden effects that are almost never desireable.

Keyframes are generally aligned with action and need to stay attached to the frames I put them on. Or the distance between keyframes — ie. the speed of an effect — was deliberately chosen and I don’t want it to change. So every time I trim or extend a shot with a segment effect I have to laboriously write down the positions of all its keyframes, make the trim, and then move them back where they were. A minor adjustment can cause dozens of keyframes to move.

The workaround is to use lift or extract rather than trim. This leaves keyframes where they were. But you can’t lengthen something that way.

(Transition effects are immune to this kind of thing, by the way. If you trim a shot that carries a fade, the fade length is preserved. Ditto with a dissolve.)

This “feature” can’t be that hard to fix. If lifting/extracting does the right thing, then some of the needed code is already written. If people at Avid are worried that customers won’t be happy with such a change then make it a preference. But I don’t know anybody who wouldn’t welcome it.

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Categories: Avid, Avid Technical Tips, Avid Wish List & Bugs

Comments: 7 Comments

Is Automatic Script Mimic a Killer Feature?

March 21, 2007

A friend of mine is working on a well-known series that’s being shot on HD video. He gets four to five hours of dailies — every day. The show employs several Meridien systems for off-line editorial.

He’s very eager to get his hands on Avid’s upcoming “automatic script mimic” software, which listens to your tracks and quickly lines up your dailies with an on-screen script. He thinks that’ll make it a lot easier to sort through all the material he receives.

And that got me thinking. He’s certainly not alone. Many shows, particularly those originated on video, are shooting more now. Is automatic script mimic the killer feature that will finally push editors, especially TV editors, to upgrade their old Meridien systems?

Also, keep in mind that script integration, which was originally created by Ediflex, is patented. It’s not likely to be seen on a Final Cut system any time soon. So is script integration destined to become an important differentiator between FCP and Media Composer — a reason that editors will stick with their Avids?

What do you think?

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Categories: Avid, Avid vs. Final Cut, Workflow

Comments: 3 Comments

Avid From Wall Street

March 19, 2007

Here’s an interesting sidelight. Browsing through the annual report from the Columbia Acorn family of mutual funds, I came across the following. It turns out that their fund, Acorn Select (ACTWX), which I don’t own, holds a lot of Avid stock. This is what they had to say about the company at the end of 2006:

On the downside, Avid Technology, which lagged all year, fell 32% (or reduced the fund’s return by 1.28%) as the company guided sales and earnings down for 2006 due to delayed products and an acquisition that needed resuscitation. While obviously disappointed, we believe the long-term outlook remains sound and we added to the Fund’s position in the stock. Avid is a leader in digital editing software and systems used by the film and news industries. Additionally, we believe that Avid has the potential to become a leader in consumer video and audio editing in the next few years. Over the last decade, consumer competition has dwindled while product demand has increased. We believe that this nascent market should give Avid an opportunity for solid revenue growth.

And here’s what David Krall had to say about the Pinnacle division in Avid’s press release accompanying the release of their 4th quarter results.

In consumer, we had lower than expected results for the year as the business was slow to recover from the product quality problems with the Studio 10 software. We took an impairment charge in the fourth quarter to reflect the decline in the fair value of the consumer business unit. Nevertheless, we believe that the product quality problems are now behind us, and are pleased that we achieved higher-than expected consumer revenues in Q4 based on strong demand in Europe.

Frankly, I’ve never used Pinnacle’s products and don’t know much about them. But I’m not happy hearing that Avid is taking such a beating in the stock market, particularly when it’s because of a product that I’ll probably never use.

Here’s a chart of Avid’s stock price over the last year. It took a couple of big nose dives, one right after those fourth quarter results were reported.

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Categories: Avid

Comments: 3 Comments

What New Features Look Like

March 19, 2007

I was going over my book, “Avid Media Composer Techniques and Tips” this weekend. It was originally published way back in 1995, when MC development was advancing very quickly. The book starts with a list of the new features that appeared in Version 5.2. Take a look at this:

Basics

Bigger Source and Record Images
Track Panel in the Timeline
Tear Off Button Bar
Locators
Script View in Bins
Find Bin Command
Configurable Go-to-Next
Improved Deck Controller

Effects

More Real-Time Effects
Dissolves Made from Trim Mode
Easy Real-Time Title Fades
Better Film Fades & Dissolves
Film Blowups

Editing

Simpler Full-screen Play
Better One-Frame Audio in 3-Button Play
Trim Sides Play Together
Dupe Detection in the Timeline
Better Waveforms
Control+Drag to Split Tracks
Control+Lasso to Select Transitions
Multi-Camera Capabilities

Lists

Lockable Sequences
Multi-Sequence Change Lists
Optical Lists Handle More Effects
Preview Codes in Change Lists
Frame Images in Lists

All of that appeared in one version of the software! And frankly, the previous upgrade, from Version 4.5 to Version 5, was even bigger.

Needless to say, software changes most in the beginning, when developers are still realizing their initial vision (or getting the kinks out of it). It’s unreasonable, and probably undesirable, to see changes continue at this pace throughout the life of a product.

The Media Composer rocked in 1995. And it’s no slouch now. But there were plenty of things that needed work back then, and today there’s a lot of stuff that feels just plain archaic. It’s time to see some new thinking.

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Categories: Avid, Avid vs. Final Cut, Avid Wish List & Bugs

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