Both Avid and P2 use OPAtom MXF files; there is no transcode or rewrap required at all, the Avid reads the MXF hearder information and the MXF files can be thrown into the Avid MediaFiles folder if needed. P2 and Virtual P2 cards are treated as media drives; the files are available immediately and editing can start right away.

For any media to be persistent in an Avid it must be in the Avid MediaFiles folder. So yes, it is a two step process but that’s on purpose. You should look at the first step, Import Clips, as logging the P2 clips. Chances are you aren’t going to want every clip on the card just like you aren’t going to want every frame on a tape. Once the selects are made, and its certainly possible to select all the clips, Import Media will perform a Checksum consolidation of the media to the selected media drive.

The common mistake that’s made is the P2 or Virtual P2 cards aren’t unmounted after use (File>Unmount). If they aren’t, as far as the Avid is concerned the media is now in two places and may link to the clips back to the card. The other common mistake is if the P2 card or drive containing the Virtual P2 card is removed without unmounting. Remember, these are valid media drives, and this is like unplugging a drive with media on it while the Media Composer is running. This will also confuse the database and require a rebuild of the database or restart to get everything straighten out.

The P2 clip information can be imported into a bin and transcoded to a SD resolution without consolidating the media to a local drive. The finished offline sequence can then be relinked to the original DVCProHD for the online. This works very and know a number of people that work in this fashion.

In 3.0 the 720p projects are combined with the like frame rate 1080 and SD projects so this workflow is available for that project type. Also the need to select the exact folder has been removed 3.0 and additionally a folder containing a number of P2 cards can be selected and all the clip information for any number of card imported at the same time. In 3.0 there is Native support for AVC-I 50 and 100Mb codec, no transcode is required, it works like any other P2 media. FCP requires a long transcode to ProRes422 with takes up additional space.

For frame rate conversion DVfilm has MXFX.  It can also rotate clips if a 35mm adapter is used which is a big deal for filmmakers.

FCP must rewrap the P2 Media as a QuickTime file. This is also a two step process and on the fastest computer Mac takes around 1/2 real-time. If you have an hour of footage, its going to take 1/2 hour before you can start editing.

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For complete details check out this link.

In color correction mode, if you sample a color with the eyedropper you can alt-drag (PC) or opt-drag (Mac) the little colored square and drag it to a bin to save it. You can then drag that sampled color back into the Output color area from the bin and match to it later if
you want. Depending on your settings, this will usually give the color a default name based on HTML color naming conventions, but you can change it to any name you want that helps you remember where it came from or what it’s used for, like “Mike’s brown shirt color.”

The matchframe button is quite handy. Park anywhere in your timeline sequence and click it. It pulls up that frame of that clip up in your source side monitor. However, hitting matchframe on a slow-mo or still in the timeline sequence matches back to the slo-mo’d or frozen still. Simply hit matchframe a second time and it will take you back to the original source clip.

There is also reverse match frame.

Load any clip into the source monitor that you know is in the timeline somewhere and click reverse matchframe. The Avid will park you dead center on this clip, providing it’s in the program of course.

So map those matchframe, and reverse matchframe, buttons to the record and source sides of your editing monitors. You’ll be able to find clips much quicker and easier as a result.

Ever see a stuttery slo-mo? Sometimes it is unavoidable. But, here is the best way to make sure you have done all you can to keep those slo-mo’s and fast-mo’s as smooth as possible.

In the end, its just math. The key is to make your frame rates EVEN multiples and divisors of the frame rate you are using (which in our case here in the US is 30fps, and for you PAL folks its 25fps). So, for slo-mo, make them EVEN divisors: 15, 10, 5, and 3 frames per second. For fast-mo, make them EVEN multiples: 60, 90, 120, 150, etc.

You can still use the FIT TO FILL function, but just use it as a way to determine the approximate fps. Then, when possible, defer to the closest EVEN frame rate. This does not mean you can’t use other frame rates or fit to fill. This is just the way to make them as smooth as possible.

Also, the “Duplicated” field rendering choice is the least desirable. If there is movement in the shot (which means there is “inter-field motion”), then generally “Interpolated” is the best choice. If you are on a system with VTR Style rendering, you can try that too and see if it gives you a better result than interpolated. Realize that these choices for rendering will only be noticeable if you are at high resolution (meaning with two fields).

Special Thanks to Ben Hershleder

In the Title Tool, if you DON’T click on the main window first, but set your font styles immediately, (font type, size, color, shadow) then the Avid will remember that as the default style until the software is quit.

In the Title Tool, you can, of course, assign and save styles which is useful when working on a show that has a “look” for certain things like lower thirds, etc. The cool thing is that when you save these, you can assign a Function key to each style. They do not interfere with any keyboard mapping you’ve done to the function keys, since it
only works in Title Tool. That way you can hit a single button to assign a style. Or if you’re trying to pick styles with a producer or creative director, you can assign a different style to each function key and quickly show the same text with twelve different styles.

Just select the drop down arrow next to Styles in the Title Tool and assign your function key!

In a bin… select whatever heading at the top of the bin you want to sort by… name… date… etc… Click the Apple key and the E key or the Control key and the E key on the PC.  You can also sort by the type of item in the bin by clicking on the “icon” heading (column) and doing the same sort command I listed above. This puts all of the sequences at the top, then clips, then subclips and effects.

Being able to copy and save edits to the one event buffer called the clipboard is very handy. The simple use of the feature is to just  hit the “c” key and whatever is marked between your ins and outs (and the tracks that are selected) will be is loaded onto the clipboard. You can then recall this buffer under the hamburger menu in the source monitor (clipboard contents) or you can view the clipboard monitor under the Tools menu. However, my favorite use of this feature is to quickly load a section of my timeline into the source monitor. To do this mark anything in the timeline using IN and OUT points activate the track selectors to define what you want and then hit option + c. Just like that, your selection is copied to the keyboard AND loaded into the source monitor, making it easy to wither sub-clip or to edit into another section of your timeline. Also, because you have loaded the sub-clip into the source monitor, it is easy to recall later from the clips list under the Clip name menu in the source monitor.

So you have media that was captured in Final Cut Pro… now what?

Currently the Avid Media Composer can not import Timecode from Quicktime files. Enter Metacheater.

http://www.staticpictures.com/metacheater

This utility allows you to create an ALE, complete with timecode, that can be
imported into the Media Composer. Importing the file creates a set of offline
Master Clips with the correct timecode in place. These clips can then be Batch
Imported from their matching Quicktimes.

Available for Mac and Windows at the link above.

Identifying Low Resolution Clips:

Finding rouge low rez footage or an audio clip with the wrong sample rate in your Sequence can become difficult over time, especially on longer form projects. Here’s a good way to find these elusive clips. Put the Sequence in a bin by itself, click on the bin’s fast menu, choose Set Bin Display.

Then put a check mark next to “Show reference clips.”

The bin will then be populated by all of the clips associated with that sequence and you can sort it by video resolution or sample rate or anything else you want. Once you have identified the problem clips, you can re-capture, transcode, consolidate, etc… Always a good thing to do before a layoff.

The Top and Tail Buttons:

These buttons were brought over to Media Composer from Newscutter. They’re great for cutting down sequences of interviews especially. With no in point or out point, stop the blue timeline indicator anywhere in a sequence. Then if you hit the Top button, it essentially creates a macro that marks an in point at the top of the clip, marks an out point at the blue timeline indicator and then does an Extract (scissors). If you hit Tails instead, it marks an in point at the blue timeline indicator, an out point at the end of the clip and does an Extract. Using these two buttons, you can FLY through a rough cut, trimming your clips down to the proper length with a single click.