Thanks to social media, we now have a unique opportunity to take a sneak peek inside professional film editing timelines! All the Feature Films and TV Shows below were cut on Avid Media Composer which is the industry-standard editing software for drama... I'm sorry Premiere, I do still love you!
I first came across Avid whilst sitting in with an Editor as a Post Production Runner. I stared at Avid on the screen and my brain internally fried. It was one of the strangest and most intimidating interfaces I had ever seen. I don't know what that bit means... There's so much on the tracks. I wonder what the colours do? How on earth can I get my timeline to look like that?
I can assure you that Avid becomes easier to learn over time, as having started off completely bewildered, I'm now using it professionally every day. Mastering Avid is likely to be a never-ending process. New features are frequently added and discovered and we'll all probably be 5 years down the line and someone will say "Omg, did you know you could do this?" and we'll be like "What?? No! I've been doing it the other way for 5 years!"
A good place to start is to know that you don't need to know what every single feature does right now. Being a Trainee, Edit Assistant or Runner is all about learning. Some Editors are much more creatively minded and leave most of the technical Avid tasks to their Assistants.
If you would like to learn Avid Media Composer for beginners, download Avid First (it's free) and have a look at these tutorials, courses and books.
The Rough Cut is a great podcast featuring interviews with Film and Assistant Editors. They also have a YouTube channel which posts Timeline Tours!
My one-to-one mentoring sessions are now open for booking! Are you a Student, Runner, Edit Assistant, Trainee or 2nd Assistant Editor who would like to learn the scripted workflow or refresh your skills? You can book your next session here.