Avid Media Composer 6.x Cookbook: What better way to learn the professional editing possibilities of Avid Media Composer than by trying out practical, real-world examples? This book has over 160 hands-on recipes and guidance covering both basic and advanced techniques.

Determine a location for a folder that will hold items relating to your project that will not require being moved.

Create a folder and name it something that is clear and concise, for example, either [Project Name] Materials or [Project Name] Assets.

Inside that main folder, create additional folders for Avid Project Backups, files you will link to using the Avid Media Access (AMA) feature, Music, Sound Effects, Imports_Stills, Imports_Motion Graphics, Photoshop Masters, Fonts, After Effects Projects, and any others you think you'll need.

Go to the Tools menu at the top of your screen.

Select Media Creation.

Proceed section by section to set defaults for the resolution of the media that you create, as well as for the destination for that media. See the following How it works... section for details.

Capture and/or import your video into the corresponding projects based on the frame rates.

Decide which project will be the main/primary project that you will actually work within to edit and craft your movie. Most likely, this will be the project that contains the majority of your footage or matches the final delivery format that is required.

In your main project, ensure that no bins are currently selected in the Project Window.

Go to the File menu and select Open Bin…. (Alternatively, you will find the Open Bin... selection under the Project Window's Fast Menu as well as in the menu that will appear when you right-click in the Project Window.)

In the dialog window, navigate to the project that's at the other frame rate and contains the bin file that you want to open.

Select the bin and either double-click on it or click on the Open button in the dialog window.

The bin will open in your Project and you can access the contents.

Once the bin is open, it will be inside a folder created by Media Composer labeled Other Bins. This is short for other projects' bins. It means that the bin file does not reside inside the same folder as your Project's bin files.

Open the Capture Tool by going to Tools menu | Capture Tool.

Begin the Capture from tape (the red light is blinking).

While the capture is in progress, press any of the keys F3 or F5 through F12 on your keyboard. F3 or F5 = Red Marker, F6 = Green, F7 = Blue, F8 = Cyan, F9 = Magenta, F10 = Yellow, F11 = Black, and F12 = White.

See the There's more... section of this recipe for details.

Begin capturing (red light is blinking).

Press the F1 key when you want to begin a new Subclip. If you want to update the location for the beginning of that Subclip to a later point, press the F1 key again. You can update the In point at any time. It is not locked in until the F2 key is pressed.

Begin typing to name the Subclip, if you want to.

You, optionally, can also press the Tab key to move the cursor into the Comment Entry Box and begin typing to add a comment.

Press the F2 key to end the Subclip. If you want to update the location for the end of that Subclip to a later point, then press the F2 key again. You can update the Out point at any time. It is not locked in until the F1 key is pressed again.

Press the F1 key to begin a new Subclip and repeat the preceding steps.

Open or create a bin.

Open the Tools menu | Capture Tool.

In the Capture Tool there is a pull-down menu labeled as Bin. From that menu, select the bin where you'd like your logged clips to be placed.

At the top of the Capture Tool, change the tool's mode from Capture to Log. To do this, click on the button near the Trash Can icon that says CAP so that it reads LOG and displays a pencil icon.

Log clips using the keyboard. You can control the following features using the keyboard keys:

Use the F4 key to log a clip into your selected bin.

Go to the Project Window.

Click on the Settings tab.

Open your Keyboard settings by double-clicking on it.

Go to the Tools menu.

Select the Command Palette.

Click on the tab labeled Play.

In the bottom-left of the Command Palette, select Button to Button Reassignment.

Drag the Record button to your desired location.

Open the Capture Settings by either of the following methods:

In the Capture Settings window, click on the tab labeled as General.

Deselect the setting labeled as Activate bin window after capture.

Select all the clips that you want to calculate the duration for. Methods include Shift + clicking to select a range of clips, or going to the Edit menu and choosing the Select-All command.

Right-click on one of the selected Master Clips.

From the menu select Get Bin Info.

The Console window will open.

There will be an entry in the Console that reads Total duration of selected items:. The duration is displayed as Hours:Minutes:Seconds:Frames (refer to the screenshot below).

Open the Tools menu | Capture Tool.

Click on the Drive Selection menu. It's located directly below the Bin Selection menu and the Resolution Selection menu (refer to the next screenshot).

From the Drive Selection menu select Change Group….

A dialog window will open, listing all the available drives.

Press cmd/Ctrl and click to select your desired drives.

Press the OK button.

Open the Capture Settings by either of the following methods:

In the Capture Settings window, click on the tab labeled as Batch.

Enable the selection labeled Switch to emptiest drive if current drive is full.

Enable the selection labeled Log errors to the console and continue capturing.

Select the clips. Some methods include Shift + clicking to select a range of clips or going to the Edit menu and choosing the Select-All command.

Open the Modify window by using either of the following methods:

In the Modify window, click on the pull-down menu.

In order to change the:

Select the clips. Some methods include Shift + clicking to select a range of clips, or going to the Edit menu and choosing the Select-All command.

Press the Shift key and the cmd/Ctrl key at the same time. As you're pressing these modifier keys, it changes the menu selection from Relink to Unlink.

Select the Unlink command by either:

If the clips have become unselected, be sure to select them.

Open the Modify window by either:

In the Modify window, click on the pull-down menu.

Choose Set Tracks.

Select the tracks you want to add.

Click on OK.

If the clips have become unselected, be sure to select them.

Open the Relink window by either:

Relink the clips.

If the clips have become unselected, be sure to select them.

Begin the Batch Capture process by either:

Optionally, if you only want Media Composer to capture the media that's missing, then in the Batch Capture dialog window, enable the selection that says Offline media only.

Optionally, if you also need to capture new media files and at the same time get rid of the previous ones, then in the Batch Capture dialog window, deselect the option that says Offline media only. For example, you realize that you need to recapture the video at a different resolution.

First, you're going to determine where the media files have been stored. Select the bin that contains all of your clips in order to make it active.

Change the bin display to Text View from the Bin Display menu at the bottom-left of the Bin window.

Open the Bin Column Selection window using any of the following methods:

The Bin Column Selection window opens. From the list of possible columns of information types, select Drive and click on OK.

Take note of the media drive(s) your clips are referring to.

Open the Media Tool by going to the Tools menu and selecting Media Tool.

In the Media Drives column of the Media Tool, select only the media drive(s) that your clips are referencing (those listed in the Drive column in your bin).

Click on the button labeled as Current Project, since you'd generally want to display media that belongs only to the currently open project and no other. If you did want to display media from other projects, you can Shift + click to select the additional project names.

Select the Master Clips checkbox. Note that in the end, you'll still be looking at media files. It's just that they will be displayed in a more familiar way, as Master Clips.

Deselect both the check boxes for Precompute Clips and Media Files and click on OK.

A window will open titled Media Tool. This window has all the features of a bin.

Arrange your Bin window and the Media Tool window so you can see both of them at the same time.

The next few steps are going to ensure that only the correct clips become selected in the Media Tool. Start by selecting the clips in your bin.

Go to the Bin Fast Menu at the bottom-left corner of the bin and choose Select Media Relatives. Note that the clips in your Media Tool have become selected.

Click on the top title portion of the Media Tool so that it is selected/active. Make sure that when you select the Media Tool, you don't mistakenly deselect the clips.

Press the Delete key on your keyboard.

The Delete Media dialog window will open.

Enable the check box for each track of media you want to permanently delete and click on OK.

Another dialog window will open. If you are positive that you want to permanently delete the media files you've selected, click on OK.

Close the Media Tool.

The unnecessary media is now deleted, but you are left with clips in your bin that are still looking for that media even though it isn't there or, in other words, is Offline. This can be very confusing during editing, so the next set of steps will fix that. If the clips have become unselected in your bin, be sure to select them before continuing.

In order to modify the clips, we have to temporarily break the connection (the Link) between the clip(s) and the media file(s), which is called Unlinking. To do this, press and hold the Shift key and the cmd/Ctrl key at the same time (this changes the Relink menu selection to Unlink).

Select the Unlink command by either:

If the clips have become unselected, be sure to select them.

Open the Modify window by either:

In the Modify window, click on the pull-down menu and choose Set Tracks.

Deselect the tracks that no longer have media to link to, since you just deleted it. In other words, make sure only the tracks that still have media available on the drive(s) are selected. Click on OK.

If the clips have become unselected, be sure to select them.

Open the Relink window by either:

Relink the clips. Additional information on Relinking is available in the Avid Media Composer Help.