TALENT AND TIPS TOP TIPS
Here are a series of useful editing tips from well-established editors working in some of the UK’s leading post production houses
DAVID ARMSTRONG SENIOR EDITOR, EDIT 123 Making files easier to find and manage through better titles
“One of the frustrating things when editing is most projects contain loads of title tool text, which is often difficult to manage and make changes to. So, when you have finished creating your title text, highlight the first three or four words of your text and press control + C. After this, press control + shift + S together. Finally, press control + V, and finally press return. This will instantly save the title into your bin with the same file name as the title, making it very easy to find and manage.”
JAMES WILLIAMSON
TECHNICAL MANAGER, EDITWORKS “When working with Canon XF files, drag the MXF files into a bin and transcode to 10:1. The edit then functions as an offline and the Avid processors aren’t overworked chewing over HD files. The native Canon files, if saved elsewhere, will be easily re-linked almost instantly.”
NICK KING
HEAD OF EDITING, EVOLUTIONS “Symphony’s Colour Correction mode offers controls to individually affect a specific aspect of the colour – for example, saturation. When working with the Colour Corrector, and trying out various grades, you can reset the various parts of the tool by Alt-clicking the relevant control.”
JACK COGHILL SOUND EDITOR, ELEVATOR-AUDIO The best way of conforming audio to re-edited pictures in Pro Tools
“When stuck with the daunting task of conforming to a re-edited picture in Avid Pro Tools, I often find the best approach is to just switch into shuffle mode, put your head down and edit away in the ‘old fashioned way’. Conforming programs such as ‘Conformalizer’ and ‘Virtual Katy’, although great products, can often output messy sessions with obscured artifacts, which take as much time to clean up as you would have spent manually conforming the session in the first place.”
RISING STARS
ANDY SIMPSON EVOLUTIONS
Andy Simpson recently started at Evolutions as an edit and media support operator. A graduate of the Broadcast Post Production course at Ravensbourne, his duties include digitising, tape duplication and edit suite support. “The job is so varied and I love that, as everyday I know I am going to be working on something different,” he says. “I work regularly with Avid Media Composer Mojo DX and get to be part of two really important stages of the workflow – getting ready for the offline and the online edits.”
Simpson’s course was very practical, with a lot of hands-on training. His best editing experience so far has been working with director Peter Cregeen on a short drama. “He was great to work with and really understands the importance of timing and reaction,” says Simpson. “Cutting the project on Media Composer, I was able to translate the director’s wishes onto the screen quickly and efficiently.”
LUKE CARTER
ONLINE EDITOR, ENVY “When working in a large project with Media Composer, you may find you have a sequence that’s no longer in use, but can’t be deleted. Simply remove the “t” from “
name.segmenT”. The data will remain but will be removed from the indexer. If you need it again, simply add the “t” back in.”
HEATHER MASSEY NBC UNIVERSAL
ANDY SIMPSON EDIT/MEDIA SUPPORT OP, EVOLUTIONS “I love using Trim Mode in Media Composer. It’s perfect for getting shots frame accurate, especially if you’re cutting to action or movement. In a matter of clicks you can fine tune and edit quickly and with such precision.”
TALENT create
Heather Massey is the post production facilities coordinator for Universal Networks International UK’s On Air Team at NBC Universal. A graduate of Ravensbourne, Massey gained a BA (hons) in Broadcasting Post Production and joined the facility in February 2010 and has since performed different roles. “At Ravensbourne I was trained to use Avid Media Composer as well as other applications,” says Massey. “Here I look after the Avid suites, ensuring they’re running correctly and controlling the drives using the Interplay system.” A recent project was the BAMMA 6 event, which took place at
Wembley Arena over a weekend in May and was shown live on the Syfy Channel. “The Avid kit has everything we need within it to create our promos for TV – bar the audio work of course,” says Massey. “I like the adaptability of the profile settings, keyboard set up, and shortcut buttons on the toolbar for each user.”
Michael Burns profiles two up- and-coming editors currently working their way up the ranks
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