On this ongoing collection, we’re going to check out many frequent points, questions and confusion that revolve round some (which is perhaps thought-about to be) frequent workflows that editors encounter every day inside Media Composer, what it’s best to think about and the right way to navigate by means of them.   

One factor that’s exceptionally essential to remember, with regards to tasks inside Media Composer, when you’ve made your determination on the body fee you need to go along with, that’s it.  You’re locked into that body fee with out the power to alter it inside the mission.  Many individuals suppose it is a hindrance of Media Composer, however I really suppose it’s a fairly intelligent workflow.  In Media Composer, you by no means set your mission for the footage you shot.  You set your mission for the timeline(s) that you simply need to export if you’re finished along with your edit.  If you need a 23.976 grasp, when you’ve set your mission to 23.976, come hell or excessive water, that’s the one kind of sequence you’ll have the ability to export from Media Composer.  Now, understand that you’ll be able to change your raster dimension all you need (body dimension), however the body fee is locked in.  It’s a distinct strategy to work than in most NLE’s.  Premiere and Resolve allow you to create a mission with as many various sequences with completely different body charges as you want.  In Media Composer, every time you create a brand new timeline in your mission, that timeline’s body fee matches the body fee of the initially created mission.  So, with the above mentioned, listed here are another essential issues to remember when creating a brand new Media Composer mission.

Native vs System vs Exterior Tasks

I’m at all times nonetheless very shocked that that is nonetheless an possibility in Media Composer, as most editors that I do know don’t use it.  You actually have three choices the place you need to preserve your Media Composer tasks.  Person, Shared and Exterior.  First – the native person, which means that the one one who would have entry to the mission after they log into the system is the editor presently logged on.  Not a giant deal in case you are the one editor working in your content material.  Second – the Shared customers.  Which means that anybody that logs onto the system would have entry to the Avid Tasks folder.  That is higher, however not best in case you ever have a system downside, as you’d lose your mission and the Avid Archive backup.  Final, however definitely not least is the Exterior possibility, which is admittedly best.  For me, the very best workflow method is at all times exterior. 

Have your Media and your Tasks on an exterior drive, with the media additionally backed up (digital camera originals/and so on), backed as much as both an LTO or different safe drive/location.  Your tasks can keep on the exterior drive, and if there may be ever a drive failure, you’ll at all times have your Avid Attic in your essential system and media safely backed as much as one other location, so your downtime in getting again up and working can be at an absolute minimal.

Too Many Undertaking Choices

That is one query I get requested on a regular basis.  Which “New Undertaking” settings ought to I select, as there are alternatives like “Colour Area” and “Stereoscopic”.

To be trustworthy, apart from the “Format” and “Identify” choices, every thing might be left on their default parameters (assuming that you simply don’t want a selected coloration area or stereoscopic choices), apart from one, that’s tucked away down on the backside.

Raster Dimension (Social Media) Presets

One factor I see folks publish about on a regular basis is about social media side ratios (9×16 and 1×1), and the way you’d set these up in Media Composer.  Properly, the Presets within the New Undertaking window is the place you’d do this.  Take note, although, that after you set them up the primary time, you don’t have to do it for future tasks.  Create them as soon as, they usually’ll seem within the mission so that you can swap backwards and forwards to (assuming you want to do this).  Take note, nonetheless, that, very like along with your essential mission, you’ll solely have entry to the presets that match the body fee of your present mission.  Right here’s the right way to create a preset fast and easy.  First, hit the “Handle Preset” button to name up the preset Supervisor.  Now, merely press the “Add button” so as to add a brand new preset.  Now merely fill in all the small print, and press OK.

Remember the fact that you may also swap your Format to “Customized” in case you’re working in a facet that’s distinctive, enter all of the related data (Raster/Body Fee/and so on), and after you have it the way in which you need, merely hit “Save Preset” on the backside of the window, and also you’ll now have entry to that preset in your mission as nicely.  This workflow is right for video boards the place they’ll have very “distinctive” side ratios, and it is a easy strategy to set issues up.

One factor that’s essential to remember is that in case you’re a solo Media Composer editor, which means that you simply’re not utilizing MediaCentral to work in a collabrative setting, you’ll be able to twirl that possibility up on the botton, because it’s usually twirled down by default, and I discover a variety of new editors really feel they should enter data in right here, which you don’t, so twirl it up and ignore it.

Now, all that is effective and, for probably the most half, would appear like frequent sense and customary data to most editors, however there’s one thing that crucial that editors want to contemplate about this course of that’s distinctive from different purposes.

Metadata

There’s a phrase everyone knows.  Metadata.  There’s metadata that we will enter, and there’s metadata that Media Composer will tag to media that may not be readily obvious.  Media Composer’s power is within the MXF media information and media file folders that set up its transcoded and consolidated media.  That’s why so many editors select it however, as Uncle Ben would say, “with nice energy comes nice accountability”, and extra so a terrific understanding of how Media Composer associates media in its tasks.  When you begin taking footage and consolidating or transcoding it into precise “Avid Media”, that media is tagged with being related to that particular mission.  That’s the place issues can develop into exceptionally problematic, with regards to media administration and extra particularly deleting media.  Most individuals will use both the Media Device or MDVx, a incredible media administration software that I take advantage of on a regular basis.   Nonetheless, that is the place issues can get a bit dicey.  The Media Device and MDVx, depend on that mission metadata that’s tagged to every piece of media, so it’s displayed correctly, when doing a media search.  In case you, or one other editor, have been pulling media from completely different tasks, that media can be tagged with that mission’s metadata, and received’t show correctly in both software.  Because of this, it’s exceptionally essential, particularly in Media Composer, that in case you’re going to make use of the identical piece of media throughout a number of tasks, it’d simply be greatest to consolidate/transcode it for every mission, in order that the metadata tagging is right, versus working into issues afterward, with regards to managing/deleting media.

OK, I believe that’s sufficient about mission arrange in Media Composer.  Within the subsequent “in-depth”, I’m going to check out the Avid Attic, the place it’s, the right way to set it up, and the way to return to older tasks, in case you ever have the necessity to.