Avid Studio Review: Editing Software

As part of my continually progressing edit studio upgrade, this week I purchased the newly released Avid Studio.  For years I've done the bulk of my editing work on Pinnacle, this is also an Avid product, and although both Pinnacle and Avid Studio are based in the consumer to prosumer series of editing products they're both able to produce professional level results.  I consider this to be the best of both worlds. 

Pinnacle, and now the new Avid Studio, continue on with a tradition of user friendly functions and a wide range of custom options for the more advanced editor.  The long and short of it is that if you've enjoyed Pinnacle, you'll enjoy the refined features (and more ambitious layout) that Avid Studio provides. 
The basic rundown of features looks like this: 

• Sophisticated movie editing tools, including markers and keyframes
• Powerful media management library to organize videos, photos, and audio
• Media editor to apply corrections or effects to videos, photos, and audio
• Unlimited timeline tracks for advanced editing and compositing
• Professional add-ons and plug-ins (valued at over $2,000):
  • Red Giant Plug-in package
  • Complete Avid content package
  • 100 additional HD video transitions
• Comprehensive collection of how-to videos from Class on Demand™
• Motion Titler for adding animated graphics and text
• Audio tools for professional sound quality
• 5.1 surround sound import/export functionality
• AVCHD burning; DVD and Blu-ray disc authoring and burning tools 

The editing I do is largely promotional, largely web-based in HD, and the software I use needs to provide an ample amount of flexibility and user-friendliness to ensure that I can meet the varied requirements of both corporate clients and myself.  The biggest upgrade in jumping from Pinnacle 15 to Avid Studio is being able to carry over the filter features from Pinnacle into the unlimited timeline tracks of Avid Studio.  For more advanced edits, the 3 video and 3 audio tracks in Pinnacle simply aren't enough.  That was a big limitation, and Avid Studio's unlimited tracks are by far the most noticeable and welcome addition.

Avid Studio comes with an ambitious collection of new transitions and filter options, however at least half of them you'll never use because they look like they came from community TV in the mid-90's. I guess this is always the case if you're looking to work off of presets. There are some great effects though, that when tweaked, allow for some very unique looks and titles that you can preview on your clips in real-time.

Capturing video is also made easier as the software will catalogue your individual shots as it imports instead of just showing one lump sum of video.  This makes scrolling your library a breeze, and makes picking and choosing the clips you want simple.

In general, Avid Studio adds a bit more polish to where Pinnacle leaves off.  A more structured (and in some ways, technical) timeline is helpful for larger, more intensive edits, where coordinating specific shots requires the space and markers to do so.  All this is achieved while still maintaining a clean and efficient layout, that even a novice editor could pick up without too much effort. 

As someone who edits on a day to day basis, the strength of this software is in its obvious interface that takes the pompousness out of other programs.  I found it easy to organize and layout numerous tracks of footage, cut between them, and make precision edits.         

I look forward to experimenting and using Avid Studio in combination with my other editing software as I move forward.  I think it's yet another amazing example of just how affordable it's becoming to produce diverse and high-end video on a smaller (and often) individual scale.  If you're passionate and educated about editing, I think you'll find that no one will notice you're using a relatively affordable piece of software - in fact, you'll have others who screen your work asking how you did that and what you were using.  

With so many options, it's a good time to be an editor.


For more info, check out the follow up post I wrote that highlights some of the problems I've come across with Avid Studio and where it could use improvement - CLICK HERE.

Evolution of Editing Luke (2009-2011)

This blog has been designed, re-designed, tweaked, overhauled, and upgraded many times in its almost four year history.  This will likely never change.  I first documented some of the original banners from 2007-2009 in an earlier post, and the reason why I put so much energy into how Editing Luke looks hasn't changed since then.

Keeping an online journal is, for me, about growth, creativity, and change.  I've always felt inspired to rethink my presentation and to keep myself interested in it by not letting my site ever look too familiar.  Most banners only ever last a few months before they're changed or updated.  Sometimes the changes are minimal, sometimes they're more dramatic, but in general I think my banners have become a trademark of my blog and capture a slice of my visual style.

Starting this year I began rethinking my Editing Luke logo, and have since incorporated it into the background graffiti of my latest blog header.  I've also been using the current image of myself since 2010 and I think I'll probably update that at some point this year.  That could radically change the entire layout of the banner, but then again I can't predict where the design will go.  

I'm always trying to refine an earlier idea with a new bit of inspiration it would seem.  As everything is on this site - it's a work in progress.    

From September 2009.

Overnight: Documentary #5

Thrillingly entertaining, bold, harsh, and a remarkable character study, Overnight is a documentary about ego and success in Hollywood.  The film chronicles the overnight success of Troy Duffy, a young musician and screenwriter at the time, who destroyed a golden deal with Miramax resulting from his own arrogance, attitude, and self-destructive behaviour.

As the tagline of the film reads 'there's more than one way to shoot yourself'.

I've seen numerous documentaries about Hollywood and celebrities, but I've never seen one that captured the rise and fall of an individual so intimately.  We're treated to home video after home video of Duffy celebrating with his friends, taking conference calls, having heated debates about his script, reacting to feedback, and so on.  As an outsider your perspective shifts from viewing a talented guy who just happens to be cocky about his success, to viewing a talented guy who really has no clue about how out of touch he is with those around him.

Duffy's persona is that of a spoiled film student who got an easy A, and that's because the deal he was offered was a dream come true.  Miramax bought his script for The Boondock Saints for $300,000, gave him the opportunity to direct the picture with a $15 million dollar budget, allowed his band to release the soundtrack for the film, and Harvey Weinstein even said he'd buy the bar that Duffy worked at.  Troy Duffy essentially won the filmmaker lottery. 

It's the classic tale of money changing the man (or at least revealling more of who he really is) but Duffy does start off with profound ambitions to simply make great movies.  He's passionate, talented, driven, and he wants to take his friends along for the ride.  He's entitled to some celebratory gloating, and really, who wouldn't be pumped? 

It's when the euphoria starts to fade that he doesn't seem to realize how alienating his arrogance becomes.  Here's a guy who bought entirely into the hype of himself and figured it was enough to build a career on.  He starts burning his bridges, but still talks as though he has everyone by the balls. If you watch his friends throughout the film you can just read the levels of disbelief on their faces.

The politics and maze of Hollywood production is fascinating to me, and it's incredible to see such extreme sides of the spectrum.  Duffy deserves what he has coming to him and there's an element of joy in seeing him get his comeuppance - although he has no shortage of people to blame when things start to go sour.  

Overnight combines the candid and blunt conversations that put you right at the source of the chaos, while also having broad enough coverage of the experience to contextualize the arch of the story.  There's no doubt about Troy Duffy when the camera's pointed in his direction, and although the realities that come to light about his personality are unfortunate, they're also responsible for turning a deal gone wrong into a classic slice of documentary filmmaking.

This doc was a lot of fun and I highly recommend it. 9/10