In this ongoing series, we’re going to take a look at many common issues, questions and confusion that revolve around some (which might be considered to be) common workflows that editors encounter on a daily basis inside of Media Composer, what you should consider and how to navigate through them.   

One thing that’s exceptionally important to keep in mind, when it comes to projects inside of Media Composer, once you’ve made your decision on the frame rate you want to go with, that’s it.  You’re locked into that frame rate without the ability to change it inside of the project.  Many people think this is a hindrance of Media Composer, but I actually think it’s a pretty clever workflow.  In Media Composer, you never set your project for the footage you shot.  You set your project for the timeline(s) that you want to export when you’re done with your edit.  If you want a 23.976 master, once you’ve set your project to 23.976, come hell or high water, that’s the only type of sequence you’ll be able to export from Media Composer.  Now, keep in mind that you can change your raster dimension all you want (frame size), but the frame rate is locked in.  It’s a different way to work than in most NLE’s.  Premiere and Resolve let you create a project with as many different sequences with different frame rates as you like.  In Media Composer, each time you create a new timeline in your project, that timeline’s frame rate matches the frame rate of the originally created project.  So, with the above said, here are some other important things to keep in mind when creating a new Media Composer project.

Local vs System vs External Projects

I’m always still very surprised that this is still an option in Media Composer, as most editors that I know don’t use it.  You really have three options where you want to keep your Media Composer projects.  User, Shared and External.  First – the local user, meaning that the only person who would have access to the project when they log into the system is the editor currently logged on.  Not a big deal if you are the only editor working on your content.  Second – the Shared users.  Meaning that anyone that logs onto the system would have access to the Avid Projects folder.  This is better, but not ideal if you ever have a system problem, as you’d lose your project and the Avid Archive backup.  Last, but certainly not least is the External option, which is really ideal.  For me, the best workflow approach is always external. 

Have your Media and your Projects on an external drive, with the media also backed up (camera originals/etc), backed up to either an LTO or other secure drive/location.  Your projects can stay on the external drive, and if there is ever a drive failure, you’ll always have your Avid Attic on your main system and media safely backed up to another location, so your downtime in getting back up and running will be at an absolute minimum.

Too Many Project Options

This is one question I get asked all the time.  Which “New Project” settings should I choose, as there are options like “Color Space” and “Stereoscopic”.

To be honest, other than the “Format” and “Name” options, everything can be left on their default parameters (assuming that you don’t need a specific color space or stereoscopic options), except for one, that’s tucked away down at the bottom.

Raster Dimension (Social Media) Presets

One thing I see people post about all the time is about social media aspect ratios (9×16 and 1×1), and how you would set those up in Media Composer.  Well, the Presets in the New Project window is where you would do that.  Keep in mind, though, that once you set them up the first time, you don’t need to do it for future projects.  Create them once, and they’ll appear in the project for you to switch back and forth to (assuming you need to do that).  Keep in mind, however, that, much like with your main project, you’ll only have access to the presets that match the frame rate of your current project.  Here’s how to create a preset quick and simple.  First, hit the “Manage Preset” button to call up the preset Manager.  Now, simply press the “Add button” to add a new preset.  Now simply fill in all the details, and press OK.

Keep in mind that you can also switch your Format to “Custom” if you’re working in an aspect that is unique, enter all the relevant information (Raster/Frame Rate/etc), and once you have it the way you want, simply hit “Save Preset” at the bottom of the window, and you’ll now have access to that preset in your project as well.  This workflow is ideal for video boards where they’ll have very “unique” aspect ratios, and this is a simple way to set things up.

One thing that’s important to keep in mind is that if you’re a solo Media Composer editor, meaning that you’re not using MediaCentral to work in a collabrative environment, you can twirl that option up at the botton, as it’s normally twirled down by default, and I find a lot of new editors feel they need to enter information in here, which you don’t, so twirl it up and ignore it.

Now, all this is fine and, for the most part, would seem like common sense and common knowledge to most editors, but there’s something that very important that editors need to consider about this process that is unique from other applications.

Metadata

There’s a word we all know.  Metadata.  There’s metadata that we can enter, and there’s metadata that Media Composer will tag to media that might not be readily apparent.  Media Composer’s strength is in the MXF media files and media file folders that organize its transcoded and consolidated media.  That’s why so many editors choose it but, as Uncle Ben would say, “with great power comes great responsibility”, and more so a great understanding of how Media Composer associates media in its projects.  Once you start taking footage and consolidating or transcoding it into actual “Avid Media”, that media is tagged with being associated with that specific project.  That’s where things can become exceptionally problematic, when it comes to media management and more specifically deleting media.  Most people will use either the Media Tool or MDVx, a fantastic media management tool that I use all the time.   However, this is where things can get a bit dicey.  The Media Tool and MDVx, rely on that project metadata that’s tagged to each piece of media, so it’s displayed properly, when doing a media search.  If you, or another editor, have been pulling media from different projects, that media will be tagged with that project’s metadata, and won’t display properly in either application.  This is why, it’s exceptionally important, especially in Media Composer, that if you’re going to use the same piece of media across multiple projects, it might just be best to consolidate/transcode it for each project, so that the metadata tagging is correct, as opposed to running into problems later on, when it comes to managing/deleting media.

OK, I think that’s enough about project set up in Media Composer.  In the next “in-depth”, I’m going to take a look at the Avid Attic, where it is, how to set it up, and how to go back to older projects, if you ever have the need to.