Moving to Avid? These Resources Will Help You Make The Jump
Here’s a roundup of FREE resources to help get your started video editing with Avid Media Composer, especially if you’re an experienced Final Cut Pro editor.
Avid Media Composer is probably the video editing system you’ll hear about most frequently when watching behind the scenes featurettes of big Hollywood films or in interviews with network TV editors. This is largely because of its shared storage capabilities and the way in which its much easier for multiple editors to work on the same project at the same time. If you are starting out in the industry today and wondering which NLE to start learning, I would recommend starting with Avid. Its been around the longest, a lot of the big post production operations are already firmly embedded with it and if you want to one day be editing features and TV they’ll most likely be cutting on Avid. That said – it never hurts to know more than one editing platform!
2 Hour Lecture with Long Form Documentary TV Editor Mark Chesak
When you get started with this video jump to 6:30 and then sit back and enjoy a great lecture with editor Mark Chesak, who talks through some of the differences between Final Cut Pro and Avid Media Composer. He then goes on to share some of his editorial tips and tricks, especially when it comes to wrangling hundreds of hours of footage in giant documentary projects. This is a great introductory lesson for new Avid editors, especially those moving from FCP7.
Tips for an FCP Editor Moving to Avid
Oliver Peters has some great tips for Final Cut Pro editors moving to Media Composer in this post in which he shares how Avid and FCP are actually more similar than they are different. This is a great post if you already understand FCP and are trying to figure out how to do similar things in Avid, for example working with multiple sequences and projects, ProRes and Avid’s ‘smart tool’.
Steve Hullfish – Tips for FCP Switchers
Steve Hullfish has a great video tutorial course on Class on Demand ($99) for Final Cut Pro Editors moving to Avid. He’s also posted a three part blog series on Pro Video Coalition, sharing some insightful Avid ‘translations’ for FCP editors.
In part 1 Steve shares the essential keyboard shortcuts you’ll need to actually get editing and how to remap the keyboard to a more Final Cut Pro friendly set up. For a taste of Steve’s Class on Demand class check out the tutorial below, which also walks through how to remap your keyboard in Avid.
More Avid Media Composer Tutorials
If you want even more Avid Media Composer tutorials then check out this page on the Avid community site which lists where you can find some of the best tutorials on the web (including for Avid Symphony. Also included are a whole load of free PDF white papers on different Avid workflows, such as stereoscopic editing. There is also a link to a 32-part free video tutorial series from Kevin P McAuliffe over on Creative Cow on learning Avid Media Composer 6. Tons of great info!
Have you recently made the switch to Avid?
What things do you like/dislike? Share in the comments!
