Earlier than we get began, let’s all agree on some issues. First, modifying instruments don’t lower nice tales all by themselves—editors do. Second, nice editors could be present in plenty of locations exterior of Hollywood. Third, editors ought to by no means suppose they’ll solely must study one software to construct a protracted, profitable profession.
With that out of the way in which, let’s additionally acknowledge that NLEs (like almost all filmmaking instruments) are usually not proof against market forces or traits within the business. Client style modifications, tech advances, and organizations adapt. This has been true all through all of movie historical past, and it’s very true on this period of limitless software program growth and media consumption. Editors can (and will) use totally different instruments at totally different instances for various initiatives, particularly as technological and inventive calls for change over time.
So, what do these traits appear to be for our business’s favourite NLEs? Remaining Reduce X’s distinctive format and reliable efficiency make it a favourite amongst single customers and small groups engaged on quick turn-around initiatives. Blackmagic Design’s DaVinci Resolve, with its low (free) entrance charge, is changing into a favourite for particular person filmmakers, whereas additionally tempting some bigger groups with it’s all-in-one featureset and world-class grading energy. And Premiere Professional’s interoperability with the huge instruments of Adobe Inventive Cloud make it an ideal match for graphics-heavy workflows and multimedia staff environments.
However what about Avid Media Composer, the place does it match? Is that this software from filmmaking’s previous actually related in 2019? The reply is unequivocally “sure,” and relying on the place you need your profession to steer, it is perhaps the NLE you want most.
Modifying hasn’t at all times been a commerce of keyboards and mice. Again within the previous days, editors bodily lower celluloid workprints by hand and organized scenes by splicing the movie collectively clip by clip. After all, video workflows operated on tape for many years, and needed to be scrubbed and edited with analog decks and reel machines.
However as know-how superior, these instruments, and the workflows constructed on them, started to alter. In 1987, Avid Know-how Inc. was based by William J. Warner. Warner had developed a system to repeat video footage to digital laborious drives in actual time, with out the necessity for analog tape. Two years later, the primary iteration of Media Composer was launched and computer-based non-linear modifying as we all know it emerged.
Inside 6 years of its inception, Avid had partnered with a number of giant tech and inventive firms (like Apple and Lucasfilm Ltd), discovered a house in almost 1,000 services, and had been used to chop a number of high-profile characteristic movies. Pairing its quick non-linear modifying talents with fledgling disk-based digicam know-how, Avid’s techniques additionally turned a staple in newsrooms throughout America.
Over the following 20 years, Avid developed numerous ranges of its edit suites for professionals and novices alike. Sure, they did combat some monetary issue in addition to the rise of different NLEs like Remaining Reduce Professional and Adobe Premiere. However by all of it, Media Composer and its variants have been used to chop numerous numbers of characteristic movies, and Avid itself earned 2 Academy of Movement Image Arts and Sciences Tech Awards, a Grammy, and 16 Emmy awards. This feat is unmatched by any of its rivals, and firmly cements Avid’s legacy and significance within the business.
To make sure, Avid’s market dominance isn’t what it was once within the ’90s and early 2000s. However most would nonetheless agree that it prevails in Hollywood and big-budget US sports activities productions.
However with the proliferation of Adobe Inventive Cloud, Remaining Reduce X, and the blistering tempo at which DaVinci Resolve is being developed, why is that this nonetheless the case?
Some proponents of FCP X or Premiere Professional would possibly cringe on the considered leaping into Media Composer, whereas Avid editors can consider no different strategy to edit. So figuring out Avid’s relevance in 2019 isn’t black and white.
To raised perceive why it could be in an editor’s finest curiosity to have an Avid skillset, I reached out to my former post-super, J.R. Hughto, now Netflix’s Supervisor of Inventive Submit for World Advertising.
J.R. received his begin within the business working at Runway (LA-based, globally-connected post-production answer firm) as an engineer and workflow specialist. He’s supported Marvel Studios movies like Thor and the favored AMC drama collection Mad Males, amongst others.
“Runway focuses totally on broadcast and movie. I used to be the man that found out how we get from the back-end of the digicam to publish after which shepherd it by no matter deliverable it was.”
As soon as he earned each ACSR (Avid Licensed Help Consultant) and ACI (Avid Licensed Teacher) credentials, J.R. started instructing non-linear modifying, manufacturing, and post-production courses part-time after which full-time at Cal Arts and UCLA’s Tisch School of Theater, Film, and Television. Ultimately, he landed at Trailer Park, the world’s main leisure company.
That’s the place we crossed paths whereas he was constructing the interior staff that oversaw manufacturing and publish for its authentic content material division. In his time at Trailer Park, he guided huge initiatives like Common’s Jurassic World, The Mummy, and Marvel Studios’ Daredevil Netflix collection to supply. Now he’s presently at Netflix, managing the interior artistic publish staff that works on advertising for Netflix originals.
Briefly, J.R. is aware of his manner round NLEs in essentially the most skilled sense doable – particularly Avid Media Composer.
Like most instruments, every NLE has its strengths and weaknesses and an editor ought to use the most effective software for the job they’re engaged on. Contemplating that, what’s J.R.’s recommendation for these beginning to edit and making an attempt to find out which platform to study?
“It’s extremely worthwhile to be the person who’s tremendous versatile.”
That is easy recommendation, but it surely’s true. Deal with the a part of the business that pursuits you and construct your skillset to match. It’s advantageous to study the intricacies of a number of NLEs. Studying extra techniques doesn’t simply open you as much as extra job alternatives, it might change the way in which you suppose as an editor, making you extra environment friendly and inventive.
RELATED: The Editor of John Wick 2 Shares His Top Career Advice: “Flexibility Pays Off”
In the long run, you determine the trail you wish to take, so choose your instruments to satisfy your objectives. However take into account, in case your purpose is to edit mainstream characteristic movies or TV reveals, it’s a necessity to study Avid.
I’d argue that Avid is the best choice for these simply dipping their toes into modifying. Whereas this may appear daunting at first look, from private expertise of working with dozens of editors, I feel that Avid teaches essential modifying fundamentals that may make studying different NLEs lots simpler.
For instance, Media Composer’s toolset encourages you to chop with the keyboard relatively than the mouse. That is sooner than modifying with a mouse, and is a good talent for all editors to apply regardless of which NLE they use.
However new editors who begin in Premiere Professional or FCP X generally tend to lean closely on the mouse, just because the UI makes it really easy. Nonetheless, that may make leaping into Avid extra of a problem, on high of creating you slower within the timeline. In order that’s why it may be a good suggestion to start out with Avid’s keyboard-first interface. It is going to make you a sooner editor to start with, after which upon getting the behavior down, it’s straightforward to choose up the shortcuts in different NLEs.
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If you happen to’re studying this, you then in all probability already know the NLE market is firmly divided, every camp with its personal loyal followers, fanatical die-hards, and sometimes-reluctant customers.
J.R. shares his private expertise, “from my perspective, clearly Remaining Reduce X, Premiere Professional, and Avid are all used throughout skilled workflows.”
He continues, “you’ll discover that pockets just like the San Francisco Bay Space are very a lot Remaining Reduce X. However, in my expertise, Remaining Reduce Professional X just isn’t used lots in Los Angeles. It’s used extra in advert companies the place it’s extra acceptable for single customers.
“However in most publish homes which might be servicing the movie business—that means broadcast or movie—you primarily discover Premiere Professional and Media Composer. And it’s nonetheless very typical for Avid techniques to be dominant in that area the place there are very giant groups engaged on single initiatives.”
Critics will probably be fast to level out that Premiere Professional and DaVinci Resolve each have staff options constructed into their modifying platforms. Though the technologies are quickly developing, neither carry the strong nature and pedigree delivered by Media Composer—at least not yet. Avid constructed staff collaboration into their platform a very long time in the past, so it has a really lengthy head begin. In J.R.’s expertise, different NLEs don’t come shut.
“When you’ve gotten a challenge go sideways, it’s very laborious to restore. Are you able to do it on different NLEs? Sure, you possibly can. Is it as bullet-proof because the Avid system? No, it’s not. And even when it turns into so, it should take plenty of time to persuade the studios and publish homes which were utilizing Avid for years and years. However on a protracted sufficient timescale, although, if Adobe stays and makes a powerful impression on Avid customers, Premiere Professional might begin to take a few of Avid’s core market.”
All different bullet factors apart, NLEs are all combating to beat Media Composer’s historic pedigree. Hollywood publish professionals belief Avid and the checks it’s overcome which have earned it the excessive place within the NLE panorama that it has. In J.R.’s phrases, “It’s very laborious to make the case that you just’re going to attempt a brand new know-how and probability the assist points that associate with that idea.”
So what’s it that makes Avid so “bullet-proof”? The key sauce is the way it handles challenge information, giving editors and assistants unparalleled entry to what’s below the hood.
J.R. explains, “The best way that the system is constructed, all of its constituent elements (bins, folders, database information), are accessible from the Finder (Explorer window). For instance, bins are represented as particular person information.”
That led J.R. to what he believes is Avid’s largest benefit. “There’s the power to have Avid bin locking, not simply challenge locking, in order that everyone could be within the identical challenge on the identical time, sharing the identical sequences, and so forth.”
What that permits for is assistant editors to construct bins for editors and cross them alongside with out anyone having to decelerate or actually even speak to one another! It additionally permits for conform and every part else to happen with out editors having to cease reducing.”
Avid depends on a staunch media administration fashion, that does its finest to take the person out of the equation, counting on folder administration and database information for dealing with content material. Paired with strong logging options, Avid has confirmed its skill to deal with initiatives of huge dimension.
J.R. illustrates Media Composer’s asset administration capabilities (and Avid customers’ belief within the software program) with the next assertion. “In case your remaining piece is just going to be thirty minutes lengthy, otherwise you solely have 50-60 hours of fabric, any good NLE at this level can deal with that. However presently, not one of the different NLEs can level to a observe report like Avid’s, the place huge, hours-long BTS initiatives could be dealt with and not using a hitch.”
This aligns with my very own expertise whereas working with J.R. on Jurassic World’s authentic content material. The behind the scenes footage alone neared 12 TB of DNx36 media. That’s over 700 hours of documentary fashion footage {that a} small military of editors and assistants wrestled with. We wouldn’t have been comfy dealing with that with one other NLE on the time.
Premiere Professional is able to adapting to a variety of totally different roles; dits, graphics, mixing, illustration, and extra. However generalists are usually not specialists. On main movement photos, groups are usually giant and extremely specialised. Editors lower, assistants handle media, graphic artists create visible results, and colorists shade.
“In Hollywood workflows, there’s actually an individual for each single activity and barely a necessity for an individual, like an editor, to put on a number of hats.”
Due to this, some great benefits of a set of functions, like Adobe’s Inventive Cloud, start to vanish for an editor when their one job is to chop.
“The power to have assistants and editors working concurrently in a challenge results in extra uptime in editorial.” However J.R admits this want for simultaneous work is challenge dependent. “What a person would possibly need or want, like an indie filmmaker, just isn’t the identical type of scale or scope as somebody engaged on a significant tentpole movie. Having a number of editors engaged on the identical factor just isn’t wanted for lots of initiatives, and generally it would even be counterproductive.”
J.R. goes on, “In case your purpose is to have as many individuals supporting editorial as doable, for my part, Avid’s staff and network-focused characteristic set nonetheless give it the sting over different NLEs. In case your purpose is tight integration with animation and also you wish to do some shade work or tackle digicam authentic information from the most recent digital cameras, then that’s not Avid.”
In short, an editor’s NLE preference is dependent on the goals of the project and the environment they want to work in. (Click on to tweet)
In J.R.’s phrases, “each editor brings one thing totally different to the desk. Some editor’s superpower is their skill to combine graphics into items.” After all, Premiere Professional, with its Inventive Cloud integration with apps like Photoshop and After Results, is a mainstay amongst editors who fluidly transfer between movement design and reducing.
Adobe has come to the fore as a strong Swiss Military knife; nevertheless, for those who don’t want all the opposite instruments, and also you simply want a knife, Avid’s give attention to reducing and teamwork are what contribute to its continued preeminence in Hollywood.
I requested J.R. if he thinks that Avid’s dominance for high-end workflows was right here to remain. Given the proliferation of content material being developed by skilled editors and YouTube-trained creatives alike, it might be argued that Media Composer’s laborious give attention to reducing and collaboration might change into a legal responsibility sooner or later.
“It’s laborious for me to think about that an 18-year previous freshman in movie college goes to be all for Avid, as a result of the character of the business is altering a lot. Most of us now must do plenty of various things that we didn’t used to do, like an editor making ready content material for social media. We’re making hybrids and that’s the way forward for the business.”
And that is an opinion held by many business specialists and insiders. The calls for of the artistic business are quickly altering, and that’s pushing the NLE market in new instructions.
That stated, J.R. is adamant that Hollywood is a bit totally different (because the real-world proof suggests). “There’ll proceed to be lag from the highest down. Multi-hundred-million greenback superhero motion pictures aren’t going wherever, and people workflows require specialists. So long as specialist editors are wanted, then specialist modifying instruments will probably be related.”
However sure, “hybrid” editors are on the rise, and the alternatives for this skillset are growing at a neck-breaking tempo. Nearly every single day it appears that evidently new movies are being edited on packages like FCP X, Premiere Pro, and even DaVinci Resolve. Meaning you possibly can have a rewarding, profitable, and acclaimed profession in video post-production with these instruments.
In the long run although, in case your final purpose is to work in mainstream (i.e. Hollywood) movie or tv, it’s nonetheless in your finest curiosity to study the present software of selection, Avid Media Composer.
After all, if you really and truly want to work in Hollywood, there are lots of, many extra essential issues than which NLE you make investments essentially the most time to study. Keep in mind, there are lots of other markets where you can land a great job. So long as you proceed to study new expertise and refine your artistic instincts, your most well-liked NLE shouldn’t maintain you again.
Except it’s Windows Movie Maker.
