AVID

I remember my first ever Avid class. I hated it. I'm pretty sure everyone hated it. It looked so ancient and horrible and not as cool as Premiere Pro. Okay I admit, I was being a little judgmental before even trying out the software. The classes went well and I learnt most of the basics for Avid. I wish were were given more than just 4 lessons though.

As I had chosen Avid as one of my specialisms, that meant that I was able to edit the studio shoots. Whether it be for my group, Group A / Green Group, or the other group, Group B / Red Group. I chose to edit for my group as that was the one I was apart of and knew much more than the other group. Throughout the whole of the filming for my groups work, I hadn't a clue as to what the whole thing was about. It wasn't until I started edited and putting things in order, where I finally understood.

I began by setting up Avid with all the correct settings we were told during our first lesson. I then imported all of the footage, labelled and colour coded everything. For example, all the footage focusing on a specific character, I labelled with that characters name, i.e. "mum". This took a good couple of hours to do, but was definitely worth it as I had everything in order and easy to find when it came to actually editing it.

General Avid layout

General Avid layout

Before going in the next day to edit my sequence, I read through the script thoroughly to ensure I understood what clips went where. Although we were given the option to not follow the script, I decided to follow the script exactly as is, as this is what is done professionally, and we worked so hard in filming, I wanted to see how it would have turned out.

Having done all these steps prior to actually conjuring a sequence prepared me for when it came to editing as I had everything in order and it was all easy to find. This made working quick and efficient.

Before constructing a sequence, I needed to find the perfect background music. When I edit, I like to edit with sound/music. I love syncing the shots/sequences perfectly with the beat of the music. The background music I chose was "Calming Space Ambient Background Music. Interstellar Movie Tribute" - found via YouTube. I chose this piece of music because it was very eerie, calm and dream-like. I played it to a few people and they had said that it reminded them of a dream. Which was perfect as the setting for our short film was in a dream. I placed my music on the timeline and was ready to begin making a sequence.

Timeline of clips

Constructing the sequence was easy. These consisted of raw shots. I then added in little break away shots / shots from different angles. It was a good thing my group shot multiple different angles of the same scene. This made the whole sequence look more interesting. I got things done fairly quickly; I spent most of my days in the Avid editing suites, and soon came to realise that I had grown a liking towards the software. I spent many hours playing round with different effects and areas so that I could increase my knowledge and skills. Soon, I was almost complete with my work and helping others in the class, (some of whom hadn't even started). I love Avid!

One thing that was most difficult were the credits. I was able to find 'Titler' and construct my credits, but for some reason, the layout wouldn't work the way I wanted it to. Phillip, the Avid tutor, suggested I work on it in After Effects. I knew this would probably be the easiest solution, but I had already started on Avid and wanted to complete it on Avid. Eventually, I was able to do this and I must say, it looked brilliant... and professional.

Titler to create credits

Credits

After having my main sequence, with edits/effects (such as simple fades), background music and credits, I was able to go into Baselight to colour correct my footage. Before doing this, I decided to remove all sound from each clip. The reason for this decision was because some clips hadn't any sound, but most importantly, you don't usually hear certain sounds in a dream; You only ever hear key sounds. Unfortunately, my group had only recorded a few extra sounds. Although it wasn't my role, I helped Manon, (sound recorder) in recording extra sounds that we needed for the film. This also helped others in my group who were editing in Avid as they also needed these extra sounds. For example, typing on a keyboard for the receptionist.

Recording extra sound With Manon

Recording extra sound

Back to Baselight. I managed to set up, with the help of Darius (film student) and easily found my way around. I began by colour correcting all my clips, before going into more detail. I attempted to make it look more like a dream, using 'Video Grade' to add colours and adding an eclipse fade with colour. However, this did not look good at all! I struggled a little in finding the best effect. Thankfully, Phillip was able to help and showed me the best effect to make it look slightly faded with subtle white glows and waves. Unfortunately, I forgot the name of this effect. After having a few students from Film Production view my work, with no knowledge of the concept, they all said that it looked like a dream. Success! One of the hardest things I found with Baselight was masking. Colour correcting the first clip, (a simple shot of the setting) was difficult due to it contrast from starting dark, to then panning to bright white walls and then back to dark. Again, Phillip was amazing and able to help me with this - after I had failed a few times. It was easy once we were able to mask the first shot; 'Tracking Backwards' once placing the mask. My favourite masking that I had achieved was the scene with the dark hands covering the 'sleep paralysis guys' face, slowly panning to our 'main guys' face. I wanted almost all the colour to be gone from the 'sleep paralysis guys' face to emphasise the pain and struggle of having sleep paralysis. Whereas the 'main guy' will be of normal colour. I must say, this looked brilliant.

Baselight - Colour Correcting

Baselight - Failed Dream Effect (pink glow)

Baselight - 'Sleep Paralysis Guy' and 'Main Guy'

Baselight - Masking Clip 1

Now that I had constructed a sequence, edited/colour corrected each clips with effects, had my background music and credits, it was time to work on the title and sound effects which then needed to be synced to each clip. I began with the title, which I wanted it to be hand written onto the screen, then slowly fades off to the side in little glitter type particles. I had a lot of help from Darius with this, as I wasn't confident with After Effects. Once this was complete, having used all the ProTools skills I learnt from choosing it as one of my specialisms, I was able to successfully put together sound effects with cool edits, such as reverse, echo, etc to enhance the effect that you're in a dream. I placed my Avid sequence into ProTools and began placing each sound aligned with to correct clip. I didn't want sounds such as footsteps, as you don't normally hear these in a dream. I wanted to have as minimal sound as possible with tremendous effects to create that dream-like feeling when listening to them. Having spent a few days in the sound editing rooms, I was able to complete my sound effects, all synced to my sequence. Exporting was slightly difficult as it needed to be in a certain setting for the sound to pan once exported. After having done a few tries and going to and from the Avid and sound editing rooms to check that my sound worked, I finally achieved the exportation of my sound so that it panned in any device you listened to it on. Obviously sounds better with headphones.

ProTools - Editing Sound Effects

ProTools - Using EQ's to adjust sound

ProTools - Panning Sound

Now that I had all these complete, I put everything together in order, adjusted the levels of the sound, and successfully exported all of my work. Overall, I enjoyed Avid. It was the many hours I had spent exploring everything I could about Avid whilst editing my work. Also, being able to help others felt so great as I knew what I was doing. Not only helping in Avid and Baselight, I helped Cristina record her own sounds and helped her with using ProTools. It had been a while since I had those few lessons of ProTools and began slow, but I remembered everything - whether it be using the recording room and editing sound.

I believe I did an outstanding job with sticking to the script and editing something that actually looks like what the concept was all about. I received good feedback from peers and students from the Film Production course, and am proud of what I was able to accomplish. Considering I hated Avid during my first ever lesson. I am happy to have the knowledge to be able to use industry software and feel prepared and more confident when going into the industry of editing.

Adjusting volume levels & syncing

Export Settings