Please tell me why avid is industry standard...

[JaddziaDax]

Pinnacle claims to be an offshoot of AVID

[Castor Troy]

I've been heavily considering getting a mac to learn final cut pro since the video editing job market demands it. From what I learned by asking people on video editing messageboards is that premiere has had a bad rep from being a "hobby" software with it's lack of functions in comparison to avid and final cut. Premiere Pro has now upped it's ante and the BBC is using it, but it still hasn't caught on to the FCP and Avid enthusiasts.

Literally 95% of the jobs I've been looking at are FCP this, avid that.

If I actually do get the mac with FCP, I'll probably make my newest video in it.

[DeinReich]

I'd say go for it, especially if you wish to make a career out of your editing.

Also, FCP was developed by the same person (at the helm) that developed the pre-Pro versions of Premiere. The reason that pre-Pro and current Premiere are noticeably different is because it was rebuilt from the ground up by a new team.

As far as Pinnacle goes, it is a product of Avid for the consumer market, with not so much of an inkling of similarity to proper Avid rigs, aside from that it is a NLE.

[Castor Troy]

I'd say go for it, especially if you wish to make a career out of your editing.

Also, FCP was developed by the same person (at the helm) that developed the pre-Pro versions of Premiere. The reason that pre-Pro and current Premiere are noticeably different is because it was rebuilt from the ground up by a new team.

As far as Pinnacle goes, it is a product of Avid for the consumer market, with not so much of an inkling of similarity to proper Avid rigs, aside from that it is a NLE.

Well, I've been looking to spend my college graduation money on something big and it looks like I found the thing I've been looking for.

There's no guarantee I'll get more gigs, but it should raise my chances alot more.

Thanks!

[DeinReich]

Your chances of getting jobs will increase with how many jobs you have. Start small, take anything, even if it is volunteer. It will get you valuable contacts (and some not so valuable ones) that will help you move up the pro-editor food chain.

Best of luck to you, man!

[Ashyukun]

As it was explained to me by one of Sesame Workshop's editors (my ex-wife works there, and I edited together a wedding video on one of their Avid suites one weekend), Avid is the standard because it was one of the first computerized editing systems and thus it was what almost all of the old editors who were in the habit of physically cutting and pasting film together to edit it first used and therefore adopted as its standard.

That's also why (in my not-so-humble-opinion) it's such a royal pain-in-the-ass to use- it was originally designed to be analogous to the old physical way of editing film so many of its commands and such are throw-backs to those days. I.e., unlike modern (Premiere, Vegas, Final Cut) programs that were designed from the ground up to be truly non-linear editing programs Avid is still grounded back in the 'old days'. As more of the 'old guard' in the industry age and retire, I expect we'll see an even stronger move toward the newer much more flexible programs until Avid eventually disappears except as a niche program.

About the only advantage that editing suite I worked on at SW had over my own box at home (I many times over the weekend griped that I could have done the video in half the time on my AMV editing system at home...) was the fact it was designed to interface with the DigiBeta decks that they use for broadcast TV. Other than that, despite costing lots more (a good bit of which can likely be accounted for in the whole DigiBeta interface thing...) from my observations my not-particularly-cutting-edge PC at home was snappier and more responsive than the Avid suite was. And infinitely less frustrating to work with.

[blaku92]

(ok, I'm not trying to brag or anything by telling you what I'm doing with my life right now because I definitely don't know everything and often times I still feel like a total noob, but I hope this answers some questions.) I'm actually taking a year-long professional course in a post production institute called Video Symphony (rated as the number one certified Avid training facility in the world by Avid) in Burbank, CA because it fully teaches you how to use Avid. It's true that Avid has been around for a while, but for good reason. It may cost a bit more and take time to learn, but it really can do things other non-linear editing software can't. It is set up to handle many projects big and small, and has a film editing feel to it because that's what it was originally made for. It does like to work with it's own resolutions specifications and that's why it takes forever to import/convert a huffy file or most formats for that matter. The program isn't meant to import several files, but rather capture from tape and eventually layoff to tape once the edit is finished. It works in a low quality resolution (something like SD 15:1s) in order to preserve drive space and make playback faster. After the sequence is completely edited, the timecode is saved and can be further edited in an online editing session where they recapture only the scenes that were used, based on the original tape's timecode, and fine-tune the project's color/effects etc (you don't really need high def or superb image quality when you're editing strictly for narrative purposes). As far as work flow goes, I think the only reason why people complain about how long it takes to edit with Avid is because they don't really know how to use it properly. The trimming options in combination with a good keyboard configuration, which you can customize, make editing much smoother than the way Final Cut operates in my opinion. Programs like Final Cut have an easier to understand interface, more of a "build with your bricks" type of work flow, but that method can waste a lot of time. It's true that Avid requires external hardware (Adrenaline/Nitrus/etc.) to run at peak proficiency, but it's all worth it if you need speed and you have to meet the specific demands of the industry. Also, Networks like Avid Unity allow several editing stations to access the same media and project files at once. I'm not saying that one program is better than the other, but you can't deny that more professional industry standard options are available in Avid and that's why it's a requirement for most editing jobs. It's good to know how to use most editing programs though because occasionally you will get those directors who prefer to edit their own movies to a certain extent (i.e. Coen brothers) and in those situations you'll have to work with them on FCP. My Avid Professional Program's experienced film editor/instructors have really been teaching me how the business works. I've had instructors who have worked on everything from Water World to Superbad and they all say the same thing: Know Avid, but don't be too stubborn to learn something new everyday.

[Castor Troy]

(ok, I'm not trying to brag or anything by telling you what I'm doing with my life right now because I definitely don't know everything and often times I still feel like a total noob, but I hope this answers some questions.) I'm actually taking a year-long professional course in a post production institute called Video Symphony (rated as the number one certified Avid training facility in the world by Avid) in Burbank, CA because it fully teaches you how to use Avid. It's true that Avid has been around for a while, but for good reason. It may cost a bit more and take time to learn, but it really can do things other non-linear editing software can't. It is set up to handle many projects big and small, and has a film editing feel to it because that's what it was originally made for. It does like to work with it's own resolutions specifications and that's why it takes forever to import/convert a huffy file or most formats for that matter. The program isn't meant to import several files, but rather capture from tape and eventually layoff to tape once the edit is finished. It works in a low quality resolution (something like SD 15:1s) in order to preserve drive space and make playback faster. After the sequence is completely edited, the timecode is saved and can be further edited in an online editing session where they recapture only the scenes that were used, based on the original tape's timecode, and fine-tune the project's color/effects etc (you don't really need high def or superb image quality when you're editing strictly for narrative purposes). As far as work flow goes, I think the only reason why people complain about how long it takes to edit with Avid is because they don't really know how to use it properly. The trimming options in combination with a good keyboard configuration, which you can customize, make editing much smoother than the way Final Cut operates in my opinion. Programs like Final Cut have an easier to understand interface, more of a "build with your bricks" type of work flow, but that method can waste a lot of time. It's true that Avid requires external hardware (Adrenaline/Nitrus/etc.) to run at peak proficiency, but it's all worth it if you need speed and you have to meet the specific demands of the industry. Also, Networks like Avid Unity allow several editing stations to access the same media and project files at once. I'm not saying that one program is better than the other, but you can't deny that more professional industry standard options are available in Avid and that's why it's a requirement for most editing jobs. It's good to know how to use most editing programs though because occasionally you will get those directors who prefer to edit their own movies to a certain extent (i.e. Coen brothers) and in those situations you'll have to work with them on FCP. My Avid Professional Program's experienced film editor/instructors have really been teaching me how the business works. I've had instructors who have worked on everything from Water World to Superbad and they all say the same thing: Know Avid, but don't be too stubborn to learn something new everyday.

Too bad I live about an hour from Burbank since I live in Orange County (30 min back when I lived in Pasadena) and I'm too poor to enroll in Video Symphony after looking at their super high tuition fees..

I'm still willing to learn more of avid and will do my next year's AWA Pro video in it to learn the ropes. Since I came from a drag and drop generation of editing, it's pretty obvious why I'm having trouble with the program.

Since you live in LA, I'm sure you can also vouch for the majority of the video editing jobs on craigslist and mandy being more geared towards Final Cut Studio. Usually 1 out 10 jobs I see are Avid while the rest are Final Cut. Ever since I finally got the hang of Final Cut Pro about a week ago, I've been applying for FCP related jobs, so I hope one comes my way..

I do feel the best way to learn a program is actually forcing yourself to do something you need (like how I learned After Effects) for a project, so hopefully I'll put aside my differences with avid to complete my AWA pro video for next year.

Good luck with your studies over at the Video Symphony.