u/Available-Witness329

Hi,

Had an interesting one recently. An editor cut a commercial, then a couple of weeks later did an ALT version for different regions. Instead of going back to the offline, he made me put the conformed graded file on top of the offline in the timeline, matched the edits to the offline, then added two more shots at the end sourced from the offline, and had to sent an EDL from that. I think we ended up trimming the online by two frames.

What I don't get is the point of doing it this way instead of just making the changes on the offline and reconforming the whole thing normally. Is it purely to save the colorist from regrading shots that haven't changed, since the graded master already carries those adjustments baked in?

However, I know there are tools to speed this up and copy attributes across from the offline onto a proper conformed timeline, unless I'm missing something.

Interested in hearing your thoughts,

Thanks

Hi folks,

I’m thinking long term about eventually relocating and building my own edit house, maybe even growing it into a small agency. As I’ve been thinking about that, I’ve started questioning where post production is heading.

At my current job in London, we’re very much an offline only facility. Editors edit, assistants assist, and the conform and online are handled elsewhere. It’s a very specialised workflow, and at the high end I completely understand why. Those roles exist for a reason, and when you’re working on top tier commercial work, having specialists at every stage makes perfect sense.

That said, I keep seeing opportunities in my job where we could offer conforming and final delivery as an additional service, but we’re pretty rigid about not doing it. It makes me wonder if we’re leaving opportunities, and revenue, on the table.

I’m originally from Europe, and what I’ve noticed is that there’s a growing trend, especially on commercial work for major brands, where clients and agencies increasingly expect the edit house to handle both the offline edit and the conform and delivery. With tools like Premiere and Resolve, it’s become much more achievable for smaller facilities to offer that kind of hybrid workflow.

London, at least from my experience so far, still feels much more specialised and offline focused though things are changing very very fast. But as I think about building something of my own, I’m wondering whether the sweet spot is somewhere in the middle.

I’m not talking about replacing high end online artists or colourists. Those specialists will always be essential. But as someone building relationships with clients and editors, it feels like having those additional skills, being comfortable in Avid for offline while also being able to conform and deliver in Premiere or Resolve, is a real advantage. It gives you more flexibility and lets you offer a broader service without necessarily needing a huge team.

Do you think the industry is moving towards more hybrid offline and online workflows?

If you were starting an edit house today, would you invest in building conform and delivery into your services from day one?

I’d love to hear perspectives from people working in London, elsewhere in Europe, the US, or anywhere really.

Cheers

Hey avid folks,

I’ve always been a docked panel editor, mostly because when I started out in an agency, I had the luxury of multiple monitors. I’d spread out my bins, move things around, and it was all good. Now, in more assistant roles (especially in the commercial world), the luxury’s gone, I’m on a single monitor. I’ve got workspaces for making bins bigger, and I use a Stream Deck.

But I’ve seen a lot of old-school editors rocking floating panels. Obviously, it makes sense: you could have the bin in the background and just call it up with a quick Command-9 to bring it to the front, then go back to the source/record timeline with Command-4 or cycles tabs Command + ‘.

So I’m curious: with one screen, do you all find floating panels helpful? I’m trying to be less rigid with my workflow.

Would love to hear your thoughts!

Hi folks,

I’m in a bit of a bind at work and could use some advice.

We’re trying to get a commercial into Avid, but production didn’t have the budget for a DIT, so the original XAVC camera rushes were transcoded to MXF OP1a instead. Unfortunately, we can’t get the original camera drive shipped to us, so all we have are these OP1a files.

Since we don’t have access to the original high-resolution XAVC media, I’m wondering if it’s possible to simply re-transcode the OP1a files into MXF OP-Atom for use in Avid.

I know this isn’t ideal and that it would mean working from already-transcoded media, but given the circumstances, would there be any major issues? My understanding is that it shouldn’t introduce any additional problems beyond another generation of compression (assuming the OP1a files are high quality), but I wanted to check if there are any pitfalls I’m overlooking.

I also understand that if the OP1a files are already DNxHD 36, it might be possible to rewrap them to OP-Atom instead of doing a full re-encode, which would avoid generation loss. Is that correct?

Also, would Avid’s Consolidate function do this, or does Consolidate only work once the media is already in Avid’s native OP-Atom format? If anyone has experience with this workflow, I’d really appreciate any advice on the best approach.

Has anyone had to deal with something similar?

Thanks!

Hi folks, been considering an iPad Pro with the M chip for editing and wanted to hear from people actually using it. The idea of hooking up a drive and cutting ProRes Proxy at 720 while traveling is appealing, seems like a solid companion for quick assemblies, rough cuts, and selects on the go.

A few questions for anyone who's tried it:

How many multicam streams can you realistically run smoothly?

Battery life is my main concern. Does it hold up, or are you basically tethered to a plug (airport outlets, etc.) during a real session?

I mainly cut in Avid, but Resolve is a close second, so that's the main contender here, curious to hear from FCP users too.

Cheers

Hi folks,

Coming from Premiere where this isn't really a thing, one of the first things I noticed moving to Avid was how much editors swear by Frame View, rows of 5, rows of 8, everyone seems to have their preference.

My question is about organisation: do you keep your frames in shooting order (the order they were actually filmed) or do you reorganise them to match the board/script order (scene 1, shot 1, shot 2, etc.)?

My instinct is that keeping shooting order has a real practical benefit, especially when a director says "try the version we shot later in the day" or "that set up was after lunch," you can actually navigate to it spatially. If you reorganise by board order you might gain editorial clarity but lose that chronological shooting context entirely.

On commercials specifically, which is where I work, shooting order feels more useful since the board is often loose and takes are the real unit of currency rather than script pages. Board order probably makes more sense on tightly scripted narrative work where the script supervisor's notes are your bible and everything maps cleanly to a scene and shot number.

Curious how others approach this and whether it changes depending on the type of project.

Thanks

Hi all,

figured this was the best place to ask since a lot of you are online editors and conform artists too.

When I send an AAF from Avid, it relinks perfectly fine on the other end, no issues there. But the names showing up are the modified names I renamed in Avid, not the original source filenames (e.g. A001C006_260512_RNRD). I'd like the original filenames to carry through instead.

Is there a way to get the AAF to reference/display the original source filename rather than whatever I've renamed the clip to in Avid? Or is this more of a "rename a specific column before export" situation?

Thanks!

Hi folks,

Two related questions from a project I'm cleaning up.

1. Recovering original filenames after a rename with empty Lab Roll

My usual workflow is to duplicate the Name column into Lab Roll before renaming clips, so I always have the original filename preserved. On this particular project though, I've found both Lab Roll is empty AND the Name has already been changed, so I've lost the original filename entirely from what I can see in the bin.

Is there any other way to recover the original filenames? Source File Path is empty too, and Tape is another issue (more on that below). Or once Lab Roll is empty and Name's been overwritten, is that information genuinely gone, meaning I'd need to go back to the original camera card backups and match by timecode instead?

2. Generic Tape name across all clips (A001RNRD) instead of per-clip source name

On the same project, Tape isn't populated with the source filename like I'm used to seeing in Resolve, instead it's the same generic value (something like A001RNRD) across every single clip in that reel/card. I'm guessing whoever ingested the footage assigned one Tape name per card during transcode rather than pulling it from embedded clip metadata, which is presumably why Avid is showing a single Tape value across that whole folder.

My question is whether this is a problem for conform. If every clip from that reel shares the same Tape name but still has unique, correct Source Timecode, is that enough for an online conform to match correctly (Tape + TC range), or does sharing one generic Tape name across that many clips create some risk, e.g. if two separate reels accidentally end up using the same Tape name and TC ranges overlap?

Thanks!

Hi all,

Saw someone editing where instead of selecting the tracks they wanted to delete, they seemed to select the tracks they wanted to keep, then trigger some kind of inverse action that deleted everything on the unselected tracks. So basically the reverse of how you'd normally do it (select what you want gone, then delete).

Is there an actual command or modifier for this in Avid, some kind of "invert selection" before delete, or am I misreading what I saw and it was just manual track selector toggling? It wasn't Shift + Command + H to hide tracks either.

Would love to know if this exists, could save a lot of clicking on multi-track sequences.

Thanks!

Hi folks,

Currently working on a short commercial in Avid and trying to nail down a solid system for tracking VFX changes. Right now when I send a shot out for temp VFX, I burn in BITC showing the sequence timecode it came from plus source timecode. Has worked fine so far but I'm pretty green on the VFX side and want to make sure I'm doing better.

Should I be including other info in the burn-in, like sequence name, so I can always trace it back properly? Or is there a better overall method people use to keep VFX versions/changes organized on a relatively light VFX commercial?

Would appreciate hearing how others handle this, especially on faster turnaround commercial jobs.

Thanks!

Anyone know where to find the setting that shows color transforms on source viewer when matching back in Resolve?

I remember there was a relatively new feature added to DaVinci Resolve that lets you view the color space changes applied to your log material in the color page, directly in the source viewer when you match back instead of seeing the raw log signal. I cannot for the life of me find where it lives. Anyone know exactly where it is?

Cheers!

Hi,

I want to export the matte from an AI Magic Mask as a standalone black and white clip, white where the subject is and black where it isn't. Basically the same as viewing the alpha channel in isolation, like you would in Avid or Flame when you alt click a track to see the matte. Not looking for a transparent export, just the alpha rendered out as a luminance clip.

I've connected the alpha output and successfully exported with transparency using ProRes 4444 with Export Alpha ticked, so the mask is working correctly. I just now want to render the matte itself as a black and white clip.

What's the cleanest node setup for this in the Color page and how do you export it?
Cheers.

Hi folks,

Working on a project with a lot of multicam, multiple cameras, stop start throughout. Curious how people approach grouping efficiently without leaving clips behind or creating accidental split groups from start stops.

In the past I've always auto-sequenced my material and built a syncmap where I can visually see on the timeline exactly what clips belong to what take. Takes more time but for me it's bulletproof, I can see everything clearly and nothing gets missed. My colleague was very insistent the bin method is faster, gave it a go and it was a real disaster, didn't like it at all.

If I were to do it in the bin properly I'd probably sort by start timecode first to get a rough chronological order, then rename all cameras for that slate before creating the group, rather than after. My concern is that start timecode doesn't always correspond to A cam being first, so I'd want everything clearly named before grouping to avoid any confusion.

One thing I'm still unsure about is whether it's better to rename each slate's clips and immediately create that group before moving on, or rename everything in one big batch first and then go through and create all the groups at the end.

Is the bin method actually reliable on a heavy stop start shoot or is the syncmap approach just the safer way to go? And for those who do use the bin, what's your exact order of operations to make sure nothing gets missed?

Thanks

Hi guys,

I noticed something today on a different machine that I'm not sure is a feature or a glitch. When holding Option and dragging a selection on the desktop it seemed to keep the previous selection and add to it rather than replacing it. Is that actually a thing or was it a momentary glitch? I've been using Mac for years and never noticed this before if it is.

MacOs Sonoma 14.8.7

Thanks

Hi folks,

I primarily work in Avid on high end commercials and I've known Premiere for years. In Resolve I can hold my own for editing but haven't gone deep into everything it offers, colour grading in particular. Trying to figure out where to invest my time next.

The two obvious options as I see it are going properly into Resolve colour grading, or picking up Final Cut as a third NLE which has always caught my interest. Which would you prioritise and why? Is having a working knowledge of grading as an editor actually useful day to day or is it more of a bonus that rarely comes up in practice (especially in commercials)?

Also curious, is there a second NLE you genuinely enjoy cutting in? Not what the job requires but what you actually like using when you have the choice. Is there something about Final Cut, Resolve or even Premiere that you find more enjoyable to edit in than Avid, even if Avid is where most work happens?

Thanks!

Hi folks,

I work mostly on commercials and from what I've seen on set TOD is the most common by far. I understand the basic differences: free run counts continuously from a set start point, TOD mirrors actual time of day, and record run only counts when the camera is rolling. But I'm curious what people are actually using on set day to day and whether the choice has any real downstream impact in post.

A few things I'm wondering about specifically: does TOD cause any issues on longer shoots or multi day jobs, is there a scenario where record run actually makes more sense, and does it matter to the DIT or assistant editor which one is used as long as everything is jammed to the same source? Are there situations where one causes headaches and another doesn't?

Thanks a lot!

Hi folks,

All my panels are floating but there's still a grey background sitting behind everything filling the screen. I should be able to see the desktop through the gaps but the background isn't going away. Toggled Float All Panels off and on, restarted Avid, still there.

Any suggestions?

I'm assisting on a project that's made entirely from still images.

I was asked to create a custom import setting so every image imports at 10 seconds, which works great for most of them.

However, some images need reframing, so I use Option+Drag to bring the image and then adjust it with FrameFlex in the source settings. The problem is that when I transcode those clips afterwards, they seem to revert back to 30 seconds instead of keeping the 10-second duration.

I can't seem to find a way to change this, and my only workaround so far has been to leave those clips at 30 seconds, which isn't ideal.

Has anyone else run into this? Is there a better workflow for handling stills that need FrameFlex adjustments while keeping a custom default duration?

Thanks!

Hi folks,

Does anyone know if Avid has an equivalent to Select All Matching from Premiere?

In Premiere you can select every instance of the same clip across the timeline in one go, really handy for dropping the same effect across all of them. In Avid I've been using Select by Source Color. Is there a 1=1 equivalent for this in Avid?

Cheers,

When I open the Effect Palette in Avid there's a section at the very bottom that lists effects used across my open bins refercing sequences but it seems to only show colour effects and mattes, not everything. Is that by design or am I missing something?

If I want a full breakdown of every effect used in a cut, is the List Tool / EDL the standard way to do it, or is there a better method people use?

Cheers!