Avid to help editors
Avid’s Angus Mackay and Michael Phillips discussed with Miguel Gonzalez the future of editing software and how technology has impacted the craft of editing over the last couple of decades.
The most notorious change to editing was the transition to non-linear editing. How did that impact the craft and the skills of editors?
Michael Phillips, solutions marketing manager: Editing has changed from a more horizontal style editing (cuts) to both horizontal and vertical (layers) where VFX need to be edited to tell the story, be it obvious or corrective type effects. This in turn affects the style of the cut such as the 3-4 storylines we see in a television series like 24. Pace and rhythm has certainly changed, the viewer has adjusted to short and very fast cuts, flash forward, flashback and “sideways” flashes are now common and easily understood by the user. Non linear has allowed for more experimentation due to either more time available to explore, rather than justify the time it would take to not explore due to the time it takes to do so. The ability to quickly duplicate timelines for versions also encourages this as physical mediums like film and tape did not allow this without a penalty of cost or time.
Previews are quite complete, nothing is really left to the imagination as it can be done in the system. Be it visual effects or very complete mix tracks with music, effects, and dialog smoothing all available. The ability to quickly explore a story has changed the way an editor works with their director – no more is it notes and leave the editor be, but the two now sit side by side with interaction happening as quickly as they can think.
We are now seeing editing in depth with the resurgence of stereo 3D. The language of 3D stortelling will evolve as both the tools and the editor push and explore the boundaries of the user viewing in Z space (depth)
To answer how that’s impacted editors…. Editors have become more complete storytellers with picture and sound. Stories are not only told from one set of frames to another, but within the frame. The future will tell stories across multiple screens and multiple mediums. NLE has extended the careers of editors by decades due to the elimination of the physical demands of film editing. The feature set of NLE encourages exploration through the ease of manipulating picture and sound. Sound editing enhances the picture and can make a cut work where it didn’t before. Having more tools to make these decisions make for a more powerful storyteller.
How has non-linear editing changed over the years, from Avid’s perspective?
MP: From a picture perspective; small low quality pictures to HD resolution large screen editing. Being able to edit and project at the size of the delivery allows the pace to be perfect for the distribution medium. NLE has evolved from a single editor/single system to a connected and collaborative when needed. The ability to scale and meet the schedule, budget, or imagination of a director/producer can now be met. Editing is no longer relegated to a dar room. Editing is now mobile and free to be on set with the production. The close interaction of post into production and managing the creative decisions bring even more freedom to the director. A laptop and a 1TB FirWire drive can hold the entire contents of a feature. Soon editors will be freed from the physical attached media and edit from any Internet connected device – the impact will be felt in not only worldwide economies of scale, but also in a better balance of home and work – as the editor and log in from anywhere, any device and work when the creativity is at its highest.
What are the current needs of editors, and how can Avid satisfy them?
Angus Mackay, segment marketing manager: We are engaged with the industry in a number of ways. A couple of examples of this are:
· Customer Advisory Boards – Our executives, product designers, product management and marketing teams meet on a regular basis with customers across the world. These sessions are designed to get input on products, discuss current and future features and to have engaging conversations about the unique business and technical problems plaguing our customers – whether they be an indie film editor working out of his/her garage or the head of post production at a large movie studio. It’s important we understand our customers’ needs at all levels and have an opportunity for them to kick the tires with us. In fact, many of the features you’ve seen delivered in recent versions of Media Composer came as a direct result of these discussions.
· Customer visits – Our executives spend a great deal of time on the road meeting with customers and understanding how their business operates. Often times, these visits coincide with visits from our Engineering and product teams. By placing our team in the real-world environment of our customers, we have a better understanding of their workflows, unique business issues and operations. We can either offer them a better way to work, or develop workflows designed to allow them to work they want to work.
Our customers continue to tell us that openness, flexibility to work they want to work and increasing productivity are the most important things to them. Whether its opening Media Composer up to work with low cost third party hardware, creating an architecture like AMA designed to let our customers work with the format of their choice or creating applications like ScriptSync – which dramatically improves the editing process – we are focused on improving our solutions and the customer experience. One of the reasons Media Composer continues to get high marks across the industry is because we do listen to our customers and make sure we build a product that helps fit their workflow – no matter how big or small their budget may be.
Where do you see your products heading in the future?
AM: Our focus is to continue to work with customers to deliver features and solutions that help them solve their unique business needs. I can promise you that you will continue to see Media Composer become more open to work with more formats, 3rd party devices, etc. We will continue to focus on innovation and quality.
What are your core markets?
AM: We have customers across the world, on pretty much every continent. In some cases the needs are different depending on geography and where they fall in the segment of the market (a broadcaster, for instance, may have different needs than an indie filmmaker.) However, our approach with these customers are the same: keep the lines of communication open, understand their business and workflow needs and work together to develop products and solutions that help to address those. Our customers range from what we call creative enthusiasts who may be creating music or videos at home with solutions like our Studio consumer editing product or Pro Tools SE bundles – to independent professionals using Media Composer and Pro Tools to create compelling content you see on TV or in the theatre – all the way up to large studios and broadcasters creating content that is viewed by millions each day.
