The enforced idleness of the last few months has resulted in several positives. I walk more. I talk to my family more. And I’ve lots of research to share with you, dear reader. In late February, 2020, I was approached to take over the edit of a Hallmark movie titled Christmas in Vienna. It is very nicely shot, the actors are good and the locations are fantastic. The producers wanted to get from the director’s cut to network cut with a different hand, so I was sent a very tiny, half the size of a pack of cigarettes, G-Tech drive with the compressed media and the Premiere Pro project.

The side benefi t of this movie was to inspire me to more deeply research Adobe’s editing system, how to improve its performance and how to work more effi ciently. And here are a few things I found.

Pancake Timeline: Premiere Pro can have multiple sequences in the timeline, in tabs, but can also have two sequences on screen at the same time. Here, the source timeline is opened above the record timeline, allowing for a very visual editing experience. You can edit with the traditional insert/overwrite, but you can also drag-and-drop from source timeline to record. Or cut and paste. A very handy way to deal with a large amount of source material.

Sound: Premiere Pro has a wealth of great tools to work with sound. The source monitor displays the sound clip’s waveform, a great way to edit sound. With music, you can see where the beats are, see the music’s structure, to help fi nd the right piece. You can also set the edit timeline to allow subframe audio editing. Premiere Pro also has Bezier audio keyframes where you can fashion curves for effects, and individual parameter controls per keyframe (wet-dry mix, eq, etc.).

Integration with Frame.io: Defining itself as a ‘cloud-based collaboration hub’ Frame.io is sort of like the cloud video sharing site PIX, only easier to use. The producers had already set up Frame.io as the platform to share cuts and post notes on this project. There is a plugin that allows cuts to be posted directly from Premiere Pro to Frame.io, and where producer notes can be imported directly back into the timeline.

Adobe has reached out to ACE members with instructional videos, training resources and a direct email for questions and problems. Please contact Jenni McCormick for more information.

Ripple Training for Premiere Pro, FCP X: www.rippletraining.com
YouTube channel “chinfat”: 52 instructional videos, to date, on Premiere Pro. www.bit.ly/2Klzxuk

Stream Deck from Elgato is a revelation! (Um, despite the crappy picture). I’m prone to liking external control devices like programmable keypads, mice with multiple buttons, Avid’s Artist Mix controller, et al. The Stream Deck is the next level up. I invested in the 32-button model. Each button can be set up to trigger a number of functions such as open a program, go to a URL or trigger a complex macro. Pictured here are programs that would activate when pushed.

What makes this device so amazing is that it senses which application is selected and allows for custom buttons for that application. The entire interface can change with a different program, say switching from Avid to Premiere.

What really drives this device is the integration with Keyboard Maestro, the best keyboard macro program available for Mac. In an application such as Media Composer, buttons can be set up to trigger simple to very complex macros, controlling a great number of editing functions. Unfortunately, the only way I’ve found to add Avid button icons is to create them myself.

Keyboard Maestro Field Guide from MacSparky: www.learn.macsparky.com/p/km

Avid Control with iPad: Did you know that an iPad can be set up as an external audio mixer for Media Composer? The app PT Control has been able to link to a Media Composer’s over Wi-Fi for several years. Avid has now updated the app, renamed it Avid Control and updated the interface.

Hmm. Maybe there will be an iPad Pro in my future… .

Avid Media Composer Tutorials: www.bit.ly/2yDdDjy

Kevin P. McAuliffe: Let’s Edit with Media Composer: www.bit.ly/2VNxqoB

Freddy’s Big List of Avid Links: www.freddylinks.com

Chris Bove’s Always Editing: www.alwaysediting.com

NeoFinder and DiskCatalogMaker: Do you have a lot of hard drives (yep) and need a way to catalog them (yep)? There are two good macOS solutions: NeoFinder and DiskCatalogMaker. They are similar, but NeoFinder has recently added cataloging features. It will drill deeper into the files on your drives, being able to make snapshots of images, movies, audio and text.

10.15.4 Catalina: I’m avoiding this version of the macOS as long as possible (‘like the plague’? Hmm. That may be an idiom that needs to be retired). Avid has released a Catalina compatible version (2020.4). But the 32-bit components (Title Tool, QuickTime reference) no longer work. Catalina in general breaks so many software programs that the update is more disruptive than useful.

Other Learning Resources
Learning: Join through MPEG for Avid Media Composer, Premiere Pro, Pro Tools, DaVinci Resolve, mocha Pro. www.linkedin.com/learning

ScreenCastsOnline for Mac and iOS applications: www.screencastsonline.com

Boris FX for BCC, Sapphire and Mocha: www.borisfx.com

And those are a few things I’ve found under lockdown. Now, you’ve the time – start studying!