In this day and age, non-linear video editing software (NLE’s) need to be A) powerful, B) efficient as well as easy to use, and C) able to start and finish projects, or go from “glass to glass.”  Whether you are working in short-form content, promotional or YouTube videos, unscripted and reality television shows, or you are working on full-fledged Hollywood feature films and scripted television shows with multiple editors, Avid Media Composer 2019 was built to meet the diverse needs editors encounter every day and exceed their expectations.

The latest version, shipping September 30^th, 2019 is no exception and builds or improves on the already impressive list of new features introduced just a few short months ago. Each feature was carefully and thoughtfully designed (with lots and lots of feedback from editors and testers) with the goal of continuing to make video editing faster, easier, more customizable and flexible for each and every user’s needs.  Here’s a brief list of some of the latest new features:

Accelerated Performance 

We’ve improved the way Media Composer 2019 handles low-level memory operations so your editing experience is even faster and more responsive. Early beta users are reporting huge performance gains and smoother, more fluid timeline scrubbing on their existing hardware systems.

Bin Left Lock 

The easiest way to correlate or cross-compare metadata within your bins. Bin Left Lock allows you to “split” your bin into two sides and “freeze” the left side at any point but still scroll through the right side for faster comparison and cross-referencing.  Works in Text View mode (often known as “List View” in other applications).

Project Bin Container 

Introduced in Media Composer 2019.6, Bin Containers provide an easy way to organize and display Bins. With a sidebar displaying project contents, users can easily tab and sub-divide bins in the right-hand Bin pane. They can even create two or more Bin Containers for more project organization.  But Projects are like snowflakes and no two are alike, so users told us they want a recallable tool without the footprint and full functionality of a Bin Container, and they want it to persist across projects. Enter the new Project Bin Container: A simplified version of the old Project window based on just a Bin Container sidebar. This tool allows users to organize and access project contents, as well as float Bins by default. The position and size will persist throughout workspaces regardless if it’s docked or floating.

Wider Color Picker Access and Custom Color Options 

We know how important color and color-coding is to a well-organized project and timeline. It eliminates confusion, helps editors see at a glance if clips are out of place or which tracks and bins contain which media – plus it just looks good!  That’s why with Media Composer 2019.9 we’re giving you even more color options. Choose custom colors from a quick-access color picker menu to easily color bin clips, timeline clips, timeline tracks, bins and bin tabs, and more!

Show Bin in Sidebar 

We know it’s easy to get lost inside of bins with hundreds or sometimes even thousands of clips inside. That’s why we added a quick and extremely simple way to jump to the relevant bin container and always have a way to know where you are and what bin your Media is located in. Just choose the “Show Bin in Sidebar” from the right click menu in your Source Browser.

Better Timeline Button Layouts and Button Customization 

We’ve moved the Solo and Mute buttons side-by-side on the left side of the timeline tracks so you will have larger “hit” zones when you need to turn them on or off. We’ve also greatly expanded the available space above the timeline for customized buttons so users can completely tailor them to fit their workflows and editing needs.

Expanded AAF Report Capabilities

Get better visibility into edit points, effects and transitions for imported AAF files. You now have the option to generate sequence reports when you import an AAF file. Simply import your sequence (in AAF format) into a bin and then link to the media via Source Browser. The Symphony Option (which comes with all Media Composer | Ultimate and Enterprise subscriptions) adds even greater control by generating a detailed sequence report that summarizes exactly which sources, clips, effects and transitions were used, where and for how long so you can quickly gain the insights you need.  

Check out the full article HERE

Learn more about Avid HERE

With that out of the way, let’s also acknowledge that NLEs (like nearly all filmmaking tools) are not immune to market forces or trends in the industry. Consumer taste changes, tech advances, and organizations adapt. This has been true throughout all of film history, and it’s especially true in this era of endless software development and media consumption. Editors can (and should) use different tools at different times for different projects, especially as technological and creative demands change over time.

So, what do these trends look like for our industry’s favorite NLEs? Final Cut X’s unique layout and dependable performance make it a favorite among single users and small teams working on fast turn-around projects. Blackmagic Design’s DaVinci Resolve, with its low (free) entrance fee, is becoming a favorite for individual filmmakers, while also tempting some larger teams with it’s all-in-one featureset and world-class grading power. And Premiere Pro’s interoperability with the vast tools of Adobe Creative Cloud make it a perfect fit for graphics-heavy workflows and multimedia team environments.

But what about Avid Media Composer, where does it fit? Is this tool from filmmaking’s past really relevant in 2019? The answer is unequivocally “yes,” and depending on where you want your career to lead, it might be the NLE you need most.

Avid’s Origins

Editing hasn’t always been a trade of keyboards and mice. Back in the old days, editors physically cut celluloid workprints by hand and arranged scenes by splicing the film together clip by clip. Of course, video workflows operated on tape for decades, and had to be scrubbed and edited with analog decks and reel machines.

But as technology advanced, these tools, and the workflows built on them, began to change. In 1987, Avid Technology Inc. was founded by William J. Warner. Warner had developed a system to copy video footage to digital hard drives in real time, without the need for analog tape. Two years later, the first iteration of Media Composer was released and computer-based non-linear editing as we know it emerged.

Within 6 years of its inception, Avid had partnered with multiple large tech and creative companies (like Apple and Lucasfilm Ltd), found a home in nearly 1,000 facilities, and had been used to cut multiple high-profile feature films. Pairing its fast non-linear editing abilities with fledgling disk-based camera technology, Avid’s systems also became a staple in newsrooms across America.

Over the next two decades, Avid developed various levels of its edit suites for professionals and novices alike. Yes, they did fight some financial difficulty as well as the rise of other NLEs like Final Cut Pro and Adobe Premiere. But through it all, Media Composer and its variants have been used to cut countless numbers of feature films, and Avid itself earned 2 Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Tech Awards, a Grammy, and 16 Emmy awards. This feat is unmatched by any of its competitors, and firmly cements Avid’s legacy and importance in the industry.

To be sure, Avid’s market dominance isn’t what it used to be in the ’90s and early 2000s. But most would still agree that it prevails in Hollywood and big-budget US sports productions.

But with the proliferation of Adobe Creative Cloud, Final Cut X, and the blistering pace at which DaVinci Resolve is being developed, why is this still the case?

Some proponents of FCP X or Premiere Pro might cringe at the thought of jumping into Media Composer, while Avid editors can think of no other way to edit. So determining Avid’s relevance in 2019 isn’t black and white.

To better understand why it may be in an editor’s best interest to have an Avid skillset, I reached out to my former post-super, J.R. Hughto, now Netflix’s Manager of Creative Post for Global Marketing.

Building a career in high-profile post

J.R. got his start in the industry working at Runway (LA-based, globally-connected post-production solution company) as an engineer and workflow specialist. He’s supported Marvel Studios films like Thor and the popular AMC drama series Mad Men, among others.

“Runway focuses primarily on broadcast and film. I was the guy that figured out how we get from the back-end of the camera to post and then shepherd it through whatever deliverable it was.”

Once he earned both ACSR (Avid Certified Support Representative) and ACI (Avid Certified Instructor) credentials, J.R. began teaching non-linear editing, production, and post-production classes part-time and then full-time at Cal Arts and UCLA’s Tisch School of Theater, Film, and Television. Eventually, he landed at Trailer Park, the world’s leading entertainment agency.

That’s where we crossed paths while he was building the internal team that oversaw production and post for its original content division. In his time at Trailer Park, he guided massive projects like Universal’s Jurassic World, The Mummy, and Marvel Studios’ Daredevil Netflix series to delivery. Now he’s currently at Netflix, managing the internal creative post team that works on marketing for Netflix originals.

In short, J.R. knows his way around NLEs in the most professional sense possible – especially Avid Media Composer.

Flexibility Is What’s Relevant

Like most tools, each NLE has its strengths and weaknesses and an editor should use the best tool for the job they’re working on. Considering that, what’s J.R.’s advice for those starting to edit and trying to determine which platform to learn?

“It’s incredibly valuable to be the person that’s super flexible.”

This is simple advice, but it’s true. Focus on the part of the industry that interests you and build your skillset to match. It’s advantageous to learn the intricacies of multiple NLEs. Learning more systems doesn’t just open you up to more job opportunities, it can change the way you think as an editor, making you more efficient and creative.

RELATED: The Editor of John Wick 2 Shares His Top Career Advice: “Flexibility Pays Off”

In the end, you decide the path you want to take, so pick your tools to meet your goals. But keep in mind, if your goal is to edit mainstream feature films or TV shows, it is a necessity to learn Avid.

I’d argue that Avid is the best choice for those just dipping their toes into editing. While this might seem daunting at first glance, from personal experience of working with dozens of editors, I think that Avid teaches important editing fundamentals that can make learning other NLEs a lot easier.

For example, Media Composer’s toolset encourages you to cut with the keyboard rather than the mouse. This is faster than editing with a mouse, and is a great skill for all editors to practice no matter which NLE they use.

But new editors who start in Premiere Pro or FCP X have a tendency to lean heavily on the mouse, simply because the UI makes it so easy. However, that can make jumping into Avid more of a challenge, on top of making you slower in the timeline. So that’s why it can be a good idea to start with Avid’s keyboard-first interface. It will make you a faster editor to begin with, and then once you have the habit down, it’s easy to pick up the shortcuts in other NLEs.

Related: 

• Edit At The Speed of Thought With FCP X Shortcuts
• Over 30 After Effects Shortcuts You Should Be Using (But Probably Aren’t)

Where do all the NLEs seem to fit

If you’re reading this, then you probably already know the NLE market is firmly divided, each camp with its own loyal followers, fanatical die-hards, and sometimes-reluctant users.

J.R. shares his personal experience, “from my perspective, obviously Final Cut X, Premiere Pro, and Avid are all used across professional workflows.”

He continues, “you’ll find that pockets like the San Francisco Bay Area are very much Final Cut X. But, in my experience, Final Cut Pro X is not used a lot in Los Angeles. It’s used more in ad agencies where it’s more appropriate for single users.

“But in most post houses that are servicing the film industry—meaning broadcast or film—you primarily find Premiere Pro and Media Composer. And it is still very typical for Avid systems to be dominant in that space where there are very large teams working on single projects.”

Defining Strengths

Critics will be quick to point out that Premiere Pro and DaVinci Resolve both have team solutions built into their editing platforms. Though the technologies are quickly developing, neither carry the robust nature and pedigree delivered by Media Composer—at least not yet. Avid built team collaboration into their platform a long time ago, so it has a very long head start. In J.R.’s experience, other NLEs don’t come close.

“When you have a project go sideways, it’s very hard to repair. Can you do it on other NLEs? Yes, you can. Is it as bullet-proof as the Avid system? No, it’s not. And even when it becomes so, it will take a lot of time to convince the studios and post houses that have been using Avid for years and years. But on a long enough timescale, though, if Adobe stays interested and makes a strong impression on Avid users, Premiere Pro could start to take some of Avid’s core market.”

All other bullet points aside, NLEs are all fighting to overcome Media Composer’s historic pedigree. Hollywood post professionals trust Avid and the tests it’s overcome that have earned it the high place in the NLE landscape that it has. In J.R.’s words, “It’s very hard to make the case that you’re going to try a new technology and chance the support issues that go along with that concept.”

What’s different about Avid?

So what is it that makes Avid so “bullet-proof”? The secret sauce is how it handles project files, giving editors and assistants unparalleled access to what’s under the hood.

J.R. explains, “The way that the system is built, all of its constituent parts (bins, folders, database files), are accessible from the Finder (Explorer window). For example, bins are represented as individual files.”

That led J.R. to what he believes is Avid’s biggest advantage. “There’s the ability to have Avid bin locking, not just project locking, so that everybody can be in the same project at the same time, sharing the same sequences, etc.”

What that allows for is assistant editors to build bins for editors and pass them along without anybody having to slow down or really even talk to each other! It also allows for conform and everything else to occur without editors having to stop cutting.”

Avid relies on a staunch media management style, that does its best to take the user out of the equation, relying on folder management and database files for handling content. Paired with robust logging features, Avid has proven its ability to handle projects of enormous size.

J.R. illustrates Media Composer’s asset management capabilities (and Avid users’ trust in the software) with the following statement. “If your final piece is only going to be thirty minutes long, or you only have 50-60 hours of material, any good NLE at this point can handle that. But currently, none of the other NLEs can point to a track record like Avid’s, where massive, hours-long BTS projects can be handled without a hitch.”

This aligns with my own experience while working with J.R. on Jurassic World’s original content. The behind the scenes footage alone neared 12 TB of DNx36 media. That’s over 700 hours of documentary style footage that a small army of editors and assistants wrestled with. We wouldn’t have been comfortable handling that with another NLE at the time.

Strength In Specialization

Premiere Pro is capable of adapting to a number of different roles; dits, graphics, mixing, illustration, and more. But generalists are not specialists. On major motion pictures, teams tend to be large and highly specialized. Editors cut, assistants manage media, graphic artists create visual effects, and colorists color.

“In Hollywood workflows, there is literally a person for every single task and rarely a need for a person, like an editor, to wear multiple hats.”

Because of this, the advantages of a suite of applications, like Adobe’s Creative Cloud, begin to disappear for an editor when their one job is to cut.

“The ability to have assistants and editors working simultaneously in a project leads to more uptime in editorial.” But J.R admits this need for simultaneous work is project dependent. “What an individual might want or need, like an indie filmmaker, is not the same kind of scale or scope as someone working on a major tentpole film. Having multiple editors working on the same thing is not needed for a lot of projects, and sometimes it might even be counterproductive.”

J.R. goes on, “If your goal is to have as many people supporting editorial as possible, in my opinion, Avid’s team and network-focused feature set still give it the edge over other NLEs. If your goal is tight integration with animation and you want to do some color work or address camera original files from the latest 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 to tweet)

In J.R.’s words, “every editor brings something different to the table. Some editor’s superpower is their ability to integrate graphics into pieces.” Of course, Premiere Pro, with its Creative Cloud integration with apps like Photoshop and After Effects, is a mainstay among editors who fluidly move between motion design and cutting.

Adobe has come to the fore as a powerful Swiss Army knife; however, if you don’t need all the other tools, and you just need a knife, Avid’s focus on cutting and teamwork are what contribute to its continued preeminence in Hollywood.

Gazing into the future

I asked J.R. if he thinks that Avid’s dominance for high-end workflows was here to stay. Given the proliferation of content being developed by experienced editors and YouTube-trained creatives alike, it could be argued that Media Composer’s hard focus on cutting and collaboration could become a liability in the future.

“It’s hard for me to imagine that an 18-year old freshman in film school is going to be interested in Avid, because the nature of the industry is changing so much. Most of us now have to do a lot of different things that we didn’t used to do, like an editor preparing content for social media. We’re making hybrids and that’s the future of the industry.”

And this is an opinion held by many industry experts and insiders. The demands of the creative industry are rapidly changing, and that is pushing the NLE market in new directions.

That said, J.R. is adamant that Hollywood is a bit different (as the real-world evidence suggests). “There will continue to be lag from the top down. Multi-hundred-million dollar superhero movies aren’t going anywhere, and those workflows require specialists. As long as specialist editors are needed, then specialist editing tools will be relevant.”

But yes, “hybrid” editors are on the rise, and the opportunities for this skillset are increasing at a neck-breaking pace. Almost every day it seems that new films are being edited on programs like FCP X, Premiere Pro, and even DaVinci Resolve. That means you can have a rewarding, successful, and acclaimed career in video post-production with these tools.

In the end though, if your ultimate goal is to work in mainstream (i.e. Hollywood) film or television, it’s still in your best interest to learn the current tool of choice, Avid Media Composer.

Of course, if you really and truly want to work in Hollywood, there are many, many more important considerations than which NLE you invest the most time to learn. Remember, there are lots of other markets where you can land a great job. As long as you continue to learn new skills and refine your creative instincts, your preferred NLE shouldn’t hold you back.

Unless it’s Windows Movie Maker.

Check out the full article HERE

Learn more about Avid HERE

In the three years since it opened its doors, IPC has produced a range of content for networks, cable companies, SVOD, and digital platforms, including Netflix, Amazon, A&E, Showtime, and Oxygen. Under the management of co-founders, Eli Holzman and Aaron Saidman, the company produced the critically acclaimed shows, Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath and Active Shooter.

The concept of being able to utilize shared storage virtually anywhere we find a talented editor who needs to work from wherever they are located is very exciting. We know we’re going in a great direction and Avid is a huge, huge part of the confidence we have in these decisions.

ERIC TOWLER, VICE PRESIDENT OF POST PRODUCTION, IPC

“We like to think of ourselves as documentarians of real human stories and we work with whatever networks or platforms want to tell those stories with us,” explains Towler. Towler along with Spencer Wolf, IPC’s Director of Post Production, currently oversee post production of 42 shows for Industrial Media, including series presentations, pilots, and pitches. They build and maintain the post-production infrastructure which allows the team to focus on the quality of the content, supporting Industrial Media’s mission to tell stories with integrity.

Building a foundation for remote collaboration

About half of Industrial Media’s new 14,000 square foot facility in New York City is dedicated to post production. It has 16 edit bays, a server room, rooms for eight assistant editor stations, and a number of story stations. The other half is creative space designed to bring in new business with directors and producers. “We’re finding that a lot of the talented filmmakers, producers, and editors, who are making the kinds of programs Industrial Media is interested in making are New York-based,” explains Towler.

With a tight six-week schedule to open its new production facility, Industrial Media turned to Avid partner, T2 Computing, to build a technology infrastructure that would enable the company to meet the needs of its creative teams and keep pace with changing technology. They built an Avid post-production environment with 20 Media Composer | Ultimate editing workstations and an Avid NEXIS | E4 software-defined storage system. Avid NEXIS offers real-time editorial collaboration and high scalability and performance enabling Industrial Media to share and access media assets with anyone, anywhere.

“Avid NEXIS is the preferred storage solution for collaborative workflows,” explains Dominick Tarabocchia of T2 Computing. “Industrial Media needs storage that supports both Avid and Adobe. Avid NEXIS enables them to keep all media in the same ecosystem, provides fast access, and expands to meet future requirements.”

“We need shared storage and there is really no option other than Avid in terms of reliability and scalability,” said Wolf. Wolf adds that in many cases, his team works on co-productions that start in an Adobe Premiere ecosystem. “In our world of shared projects, the way editorial can communicate together on projects with Avid compared to other editing tools, is night and day. There’s no comparison.”

“As we built out Atlanta and then New York City, we did not look at other solutions in terms of shared storage or editorial platforms because of our experience with Avid as well as the talent pool of experienced Avid editors. Avid gives us access to some of the best editors. One hundred percent. The talent pool that is Avid-based is deep, and rich, and seasoned.”

Industrial Media is already busy developing content in New York City including documentary features for YouTube and HBO and a series for CNBC. “Our partnership with T2 and Avid actually has a lot to do with my excitement about New York,” explains Towler. “I feel we’ve already got the base layer of everything we’re going to need. If there are problems that come up, because there always are in this business, there will be solutions right behind. That gives me a lot of confidence.”

The ability to treat somebody who works 3,000 miles away as though they’re just down the hall is very appealing. We’re getting into that with Avid.

ERIC TOWLER, VICE PRESIDENT OF POST PRODUCTION, IPC

Meeting the challenges of changing technology

As Towler explains, his major challenge is dealing with ever-increasing demands on post production and finding ways to say ‘yes’ to whatever comes along, including larger format files, UHD, 4k, and 8k. “We want to be leading the charge forward. We’ve been finding more and more that when we look to Avid to find ways to accommodate new technology, Avid’s tools are already there or arriving shortly. Avid is as ahead of the curve as it needs to be and it’s helping us adapt to new and challenging adjustments to our industry.”

Towler and Wolf don’t know the exact path Industrial Media’s expansion will follow, but they are laying the groundwork in New York City. “The concept of being able to utilize shared storage virtually anywhere we find a talented editor who needs to work from wherever they are located is very exciting,” concludes Towler. ” We know we’re going in a great direction and Avid is a huge, huge part of the confidence we have in these decisions. Avid is the absolute foundation of our post processes.”

Read the original article HERE!

Learn more about AVID HERE!

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is making major inroads to post-production, and nowhere more significantly than in Avid’s editing systems.

When speaking with David Colantuoni, vp of product management at Avid, I started by asking how he would define what AI is.

ScriptSync matches each source clip to its associated line in the script.

“In the Media and Entertainment context, we look at AI as using machine learning to reach out to massive amounts of data and streamlining it so it can become practical to use it in productions,” he began. “In addition, it is used to relieve humans of repetitive procedures by letting computers supervise automated tasks.”

And Avid has been in the forefront of putting these concepts to good use.

“We’ve had AI functionality in our systems for many years,” Colantuoni said, “with our ScriptSync and PhraseFind features that let an editor search for spoken words in a general phonetically indexed database. We were using AI before the expression came into general usage.”

PhraseFind allows editors to search their Media Composer project phonetically – that is, by the sounds of the words.

In fact, just to jog peoples’ memories, ScriptSync, or the ability to reference raw footage to its position in a written script was first introduced in 2007.

It was joined by the ability to search for the appearance of specific words with PhraseFind in 2011.

Although well received, due to licensing machinations behind the scenes both were discontinued in 2014.

But ideas as downright useful as those two could not stay down forever, so ScriptSync and PhraseFind re-appeared in 2017, each upgraded to version 2.0 and each with an upgraded license fee offered either separately or bundled together.

“Now we are more and more getting into ways to leverage the computing power of the cloud by using MicrosoftAzure,” Colantuoni told me. “That is giving us the ability to help people responsible for logging massive amounts of source video for productions such as, for example, Reality Shows, based on several criteria.”

Azure was announced in October 2008 under the codename “Project Red Dog.”

Using video uploaded from MediaCentral to the Azure cloud, you can process the visual information and turn it into metadata. Then you can search that metadata for specific words, faces, or even objects.

“Say there is a specific red car you need to use in a scene, you can have the system find all instances of that red car by searching the metadata identifying it,” he said. “But it doesn’t end there.”

Avid has extended their metadata information into quality assurance. “For example if PhraseFind has identified some words that should be place in a certain scene,” Colantuoni described, “the operator can access the linked metadata to verify that the associated closed captions are appearing in the proper shots.”

It all has to do with MediaCentral interfacing with a database because of the metadata component that enables this kind of multi-level search.

“Metadata is going to be providing the foundation of ever more elaborate search capabilities as we learn to leverage AI more extensively in post-production,” Colantuoni finished up. “But, of course, it is always going to require human intelligence to give the final result meaning.”

Check out the video on YouTube HERE

Learn more about Avid HERE

Media Composer as always been very rigid in how it wanted to you work, and how you were to not only organize your projects, but how to organize your interface as well.  Well, that has gone the way of the Dodo (an expression I use a lot when talking about MC2019). The Project window has always been at the core of your editing experience in MC, and the Project window is no more.  Bin Containers rule the application now, and all the features like settings, Format, Hardware, Usage and many more have been tucked away in menus, only to be accessed when you need them.

This was something that, to be honest, took a little getting used to.  I’ve been using MC2019 for about two months prior to its public release, and I’ll be 100% transparent.  When I started working with it…..I hated it. I didn’t like that the project window was gone. I didn’t like the new Bin Containers. I didn’t like the idea of having to dock all my panels, tools and bins.  But, let me be clear. Much like before, you don’t have to work any particular way. You don’t have to work with docked panels and bins. I find now that the project window was a pretty big waste of space, holding tools that I really never used.  I am now, what some people might call, a “Power Docker”. I dock all my bins now constantly. I find that I can just access all my media so much faster. Here’s the thing, though. If you’re not big on docking, you can tab your bins and tools. Don’t like that idea either?  No problem, you can switch back to having Floating panels as well. Now, with the Project Window gone, how are you going to organize yourself in your editing project? That’s where Bin Containers come into play.

When you first launch the application, you’ll notice what appears to be the project window, that shows you your project bins, as well as any currently open bin.  Looks like a project window, but it isn’t. It’s a bin container broken down into two sides. The left side contains the project sidebar, and the right side has the bin pane.  What’s important to keep in mind here is that at any time if you don’t want to see either pane, NP, you can simply drag the window to the left to cover the Sidebar, or close any open bins to only see your Project Sidebar.

With the bin pane on the right, this is where you can start to “power organize” your bins either by tabs or by docking.  Here’s a tutorial that will show you what I mean.

Bin containers are a very clever way to have a “Project Window”, without having a project window.

Let’s move on and talk now about another core feature that has stepped into the foreground with the new release of Media Composer 2019, and that is Workspaces.  Previous to MC2019, I wasn’t a Workspace user.  At all. I would only ever use it to switch over to Color Correction mode, and even then that was only sparingly.  With MC2019, I use Workspaces all the time. They go hand in hand with the dockable tools and switching back and forth for little interface changes has become so commonplace for me, I almost don’t even notice I’m doing it anymore.  A perfect example of this is when I want to apply an effect to a clip, and then step into Effects Mode to edit the effects’ parameters. The process would be to call up the Effects Pallette, choose the effect, drop it onto my clip, step into the Effect Editor, move it out of the way, into a location where there aren’t any other tools, and then adjust accordingly.  Pain in the you know what. Now what I do is in one of my Effects workspaces, I have the Effects Pallette and the Effects Editor tabbed to my Bin Container. Now with a quick click of the mouse, I can tab between windows, find what I need, and when I step into the Effects Editor, it’s in a location out of the way, so I can start working immediately.

The other big feature in MC2019 is the Inspector.  Much like MediaInfo (a free utility that you can use outside of Media Composer for getting more information about your media), this dockable panel is used for just that.  Inspecting your media. You’ll get more information that you’ll need about your clips, and this tool is exceptionally helpful when working with Linked media, as I can’t count the amount of times I’ve been asked to take a snapshot of certain clip parameters to send to a client, and now all I have to do is take a snapshot of this window, and it has all the information I need.

With that being said, let’s talk about a few of the Bells and Whistles that I did cover in the above tutorial, in case you didn’t watch it yet..  MXFOP1a media has been the focus of Media Composer for the last few years, and this release has added a very smart feature that I can’t believe has taken this long to add, and that is the ability to capture as MXFOP1a media, as well as Transcode/Consolidate and even mixdown your timelines as it as well.  What does that mean for your Media Management? Data, Video and Audio are now all combined into one simple MXF file, much like it is when you’re exporting your final productions for delivery.

Speaking of Media Formats and Codecs, DNxUncompressed brings along with it the ability to have your media consolidated/transcoded into Float color space, and once you’ve C/T’d it, you can switch your Timeline’s Video Quailty over to Float as well.

Last but not least, Avid added a tool that I never knew I needed, but one that I’m using on a pretty regular basis now, and that is the ability to drag and drop effects to empty places on your timeline.  Before, if you wanted to add an effect, let’s use the Avid Titler+ effect, to your timeline on a track above everything else, you had to add edit points to that empty track before you could drag and drop the effect where you wanted it.  Well, not anymore! Now, simply mark in and out point on the track, and drag and drop any effect (Titler+ included) to the timeline, and that effect will be automatically added to the timeline with no additional work required.

With all this being said, I’ve seen the usual haters online already badmouthing MC2019 before they’ve even started using it.  I’ve seen some posts in the Avid Editors of Facebook page that “Nobody cares about Docked panels, they’re making a big deal about nothing”.  Remember, for Media Composer editors, many of them who have been editing on their Media Composer systems for over 20 years (yes, that’s me raising my hand), they don’t need change.  They don’t like change.  Everything has worked fine the way it is, but let’s look at cars as a good example. How much have they changed in the last 30 years. They haven’t really, at their most basic. You put the key in the ignition, turn it, the car (hopefully) starts, and you drive away.  That’s the way I look at Media Composer. Don’t get me wrong, features have been added, and companies like Boris FX have given us unbelievable tools to do things in our timelines that we have never been able to do before, but to be honest, if you look at Media Composer way back at version 5.5 when I started editing (that’s 20 years ago), and you look at it two months ago, features have been added, but not much has changed.  I would compare this update of Media Composer to going from a Chevy to a Tesla. They still do the same job, but things are just so much smoother in the Tesla than they are in the Chevy (Chevy lovers please don’t start e-mailing me.  LOL).

I’m writing this third last paragraph with a bit of a chuckle, as I’m going to talk about probably my most annoying new “feature” of Media Composer, and that is Audio Scrubbing.  Now, you’re probably thinking “Why would you be annoyed with Audio Scrubbing?”. Well, this comes from the book of “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”, someone at Avid decided that editors should have the ability to map Audio Scrubbing to any key on the keyboard.  Awesome. Sounds great. Except for one little problem. Audio Scrubbing has been mapped to Caps Lock since day one with, for me at least, absolutely no reason to change that. Well, in this version, you can now map Audio Scrubbing to whatever keyboard shortcut you want……except we can’t map to the Caps Lock key for some reason.  I can’t tell you how many times, today included, I’ve gone to turn on Audio Scrubbing by hitting the Caps Lock key, only to remember, for the millionth time, that I’ve had to map it somewhere else. Exceptionally annoying, no reason to do it, and you won’t get one customer switching to MC because you can map Audio Scrubbing to whatever keyboard shortcut you want to.

I want to give a final mention to a tool that was added a couple of releases ago, and to say it was underwhelming is an understatement, and that is Avid Titler+.  Fear not, Media Composer friends, as much as this tool was confusing definitely not what we expected when it was hyped for years (and years), the development team is still working to get this tool up to the level it needs to be at, and there are some updates to it that I will focus on in it’s own dedicated article/tutorial, as I feel this tool has the potential to be one to replace the Title Tool…just not yet, though.

In the end, the Audio Scrubbing gripe in minor, and I have to say that Avid has converted me.  When I first saw 2019.6, I thought that the coloring of the interface was cool, but I hated docked panels, I never used Workspaces, and I was just really annoyed in general.  After working with it for a couple of months I have to say that I’m totally converted. I’m a Docking Master, and a Workspace Overlord, and I have to say that I have found that these updates (except for Audio Scrubbing, of course) have helped speed up my workflow a great deal.  With that being said, if you’re looking to update to the newest version, which is available now, don’t do it in the middle of a project, as there is a learning curve you’ll need to be ready for as things are where you left them in previous version. I’ll say this…. Avid, you have taken a step in the right direction, and have helped me speed up my workflow more in the last two weeks, than I have in the last 10 years, so keep things going in this direction, and I think you might be onto something!   Keep in mind that I didn’t talk about all the new features of MC2019, so when you download the software, make sure to check out the “What’s New” document for all the new features, as well as the “Known Issues” PDF, as there are still some bugs being worked out, but overall my experience with MC2019 is that it’s one that Media Composer editors, as well as new editors, and recent converts will really like!

Check out the full article HERE

Learn more about Avid HERE

Hi everyone. I know you’re curious about the new Media Composer being released soon. Many of you saw it has a new “paneled” user interface, a new color palette and other features. Obviously everyone’s worried how thoughtful it will be towards their needs. What will this new design do to projects? To workflows? Can those colors be muted?!? (Haha.)


Not to worry. Hopefully this video will put a lot of your worries to ease. Recently at NAB’19, I got the opportunity to record a fun, “fact or fiction” style interview with the head Product Designer for MC.

In addition, I’m lucky to be part of the many professional editors out there who are on the BETA testing team. We are pro editors volunteering for this, while we’re working on docs, on network TV shows, on commercials, on news, on Netflix deliveries… Avid has certainly reached out to a diverse group. I can tell you the process is great. For months, we’ve been getting new versions to test constantly. Sometimes weekly or less. We report back what seems to be working and what isn’t. Then Avid’s whole MC team of engineers and app designers review the feedback and triage the issue(s). We get the next version to test, and so on. Each new BETA version has been better and better. Frankly I’ve been amazed how quickly everything is able to be implemented.

There are a LOT of people involved, helping Avid get this one right. Also there have been 3 constant themes in this process:


1) None of us (neither Avid’s staff nor us editors) want this to be like the initial launch of FCPX. Everyone is working hard to make this great, right away. And each release after it will include more and more features, based on the overall feedback from the Avid Community.

2) If users are too busy right now to play around with a new user interface, that’s fine. You won’t be left in the dust. Avid is intentionally going to keep development going on the December (2018.12) version, until users get a chance to test the 2019 version. So for a while, there will be TWO versions of MC considered “new and current” – 2018.12.x and 2019.x.

3) Everyone who uses MC has been asking for YEARS for a redesign. This is it. Code-wise, there will be no physical way to “shut off” the new interface, however if users wish, they will indeed be able to go through and make everything look very similar to the old way… and then they can slowly integrate one new interface idea at a time. (This is what I did on one of the BETA versions and it worked great.) When it comes out, IT IS GOING TO BE DIFFERENT. So the same way you sit down in a new car and have to get used to it, set aside time for yourself. But I promise, you’ll only need 20-30 minutes inside of the interface before you get comfortable. After that you can start to create Workspaces for your old ways and your new ones.

They not only brought our beloved app into this century, but they’ve rewritten lots of that decades-old code underneath it. As a result: – The timeline interactions are SO fast now. – The playback engine is now SO much more responsive to interface clicks. – You can even change things like the timeline track colors using the OS’s own color picker!!! I’ve been sitting here, using my 25-year muscle memory, and just flying… amazed at how fast I’m working. I hope you find the same.