Reddit reviews Avid Agility: Working Faster and More Intuitively with Avid Media Composer, Third Edition
We found 2 Reddit comments about Avid Agility: Working Faster and More Intuitively with Avid Media Composer, Third Edition. Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.
Used Book in Good Condition
I actually disagree with /u/greenysmac - The first book "Make The Cut" is aimed at people who want to enter the industry as assistants and how to be a good assistant. "Jump Cut" is a sequel to that, it is aimed at people who have become established assistants and want to move up to editor.
"Make The Cut" is a great place to start. I wish I'd read it earlier in my career. Most of the technical stuff in that book is outdated at this point, but the tips on etiquette and the insight into what makes an editor happy is extremely valuable. If you are to the point where an editor is interviewing you, they assume you already know how to do the duties required. They just want to decide if they can spend all day every day with you. Avid Agility is a great resource for technical knowledge.
As far as AE duties, "transcoding, ingesting, grouping, and syncing" is a very good description of what an assistant does when working in reality TV. Ingesting yes means importing footage. Here is a great tutorial on grouping. Grouping basically means that after you sync the cameras together, you are making a new clip that contains multiple camera angles, so that the editor can switch between the angles as they are cutting. Your duties will also include doing outputs, labeling b-roll, and probably offering tech support to your story team.
Due to the way the contracts and the union works, you have to work (I think 100) days of non-union (but eligible) work before you are eligible to join the union. This can be done by working on indie projects, or reality/documentary TV. There are some projects classified as "new media" now (internet video jobs) that do count toward your days, but there are a lot of internet jobs that do not count. You can find out if your job counts by contacting Contract Services. Some people look down on others for taking reality jobs, but in my experience the knowledge I gained while working in reality has been invaluable to me now that I have moved to scripted work.
If scripted work is what you want, the AE duties are somewhat different. If you are on a big enough project, usually the transcoding and ingesting is done by a dailies facility, and you get your media delivered already labeled and organized in a bin. Your duties include more paperwork (updating the lined script for you editor), preparing the bins in the way your editor likes them, sound work, temp VFX, outputs, editing recaps, and coordinating deliveries with other departments. I have found it to be a much more creative job than when I assisted in reality.
Well that turned into a wall of text - if you have any questions on all of that feel free to ask!
Books that helped me:
Great book, although only current to AMC 6.6 I believe....Great info; as we know Avid does not like to change things up too much, so the information is still quite relevant on the bare-bones side of things. You can supplement your reading with support materials from the Media Composer website regarding current versions.
Comes with a rich companion website with a lot of material to download. While Wadsworth teachings can be taken any which way; it's a good insight to how one person thinks it should be done. He doesn't specifically focus on software* here. Conversely, he says you can use the support-materials in any NLE you'd like. But, if you're in Avid - it's easier accessing what he has provided because the author was as well when building these materials out.
Another book with a fairly strong companion website. You can access RED and Alexa files with a detailed walkthrough on how to access them (the files) in a number of ways within AMC. This book really digs into the NLE I feel...