Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/19885
Superfad promos reflect 1920s L OS ANGELES — Superfad (www.superfad. com) with locations in Los Angeles, New York and Seattle, recently collaborated with HBO on several promotional pieces for the series Boardwalk Empire.The campaign includes promo el- ements and show packages for several supplemental documentaries that will be broadcast alongside the short-run cable TV series. The Superfad team worked closely with HBO to create designs that complemented the beautifully- Tips: By the Book Mastering multicamera editing:The ‘Thrash Group’ technique One problem with editing multicamera shows is when cameras start and stop at random. Sometimes it is to change a tape or the card runs out of space, other times it’s a battery change or a cameraman’s itchy trigger finger that breaks up shots.It is quite troublesome to group these types of shows for multicamera editing. A quick workaround for grouping broken clips in Final Cut Pro is to tr y what I call the the “Thrash Group” technique. The first thing to do is create the SyncMap sometimes kno wn as a 24-hour timeline.You do this by syncing up the clips vertically on separate tracks by timecode, audio waveforms and visual references. The SyncMap will show you at a glance where each camera was rolling, where they stopped shooting and where they overlap for potential multiclips. 1. Create add edits across all the tr acks wherever a clip star ts or stops.You can use quick keys like arrows to the next in- point and Ctrl-V for add edits. 2. Highlight the common clips between the add edits, copy and paste the new master clips into a bin called MultiCam P arts. Do not drag the clips to the bin.This would make affiliate clips and in-points will not match. 3. Make multiclips by in-points from the resulting clips. Set up quick keys for speed. 4. Drag the multiclip onto the top track above the common clip selection you just made.Audio will follow below the audio tracks. 5. Repeat for every common group of clips in the SyncMap.You can use the same bin to copy and paste all the par ts.The new batches will highlight for you as you go along, so you don’t need to worry about “fishing” out the new parts and you can contain everything in one bin. In minutes, you will have a fully populated SyncMap with multiclips. Next, copy the sequence and delete everything except the multiclips and you are ready to edit. By Mitch J For more tips like this one, check out Jacobson’s book, “Mastering Multicamera Techniques: From Preproduc- tion to Editing and Deliverables” (Focal Press) www.facebook.com/masteringmulticam. Trimming Media Composer visual effects This documentary open was modeled in Maya and animated using After Effects. shot footage from the series.The studio referenced the work of baroque painter Caravaggio and used dramatic lighting and gritty textures to create the ani- mated promos. In the :15 Speakeasy Tour open, for example, the viewer is taken through the a series of doors and rooms, and behind curtains before ultimately winding up in a fancy bar area where liquor is being served. Elements were modeled in Maya and animated in After Effects. Show packages for supplemental documentaries that will air alongside the HBO series use historical references to the 1920s. Some of these documen- taries include Atlantic City:The Original Sin City, The Color Barrier, Set Tour with Bob Shaw, Making of Board- walk Empire and About Boardwalk Empire. Geraint Owen executive produced for Superfad. Simon Benjamin was designer, and Edward Tasick, Joe Perno and Carlos Foxworthy handled the animation. Todd Alan Peleg and Angel Negron provided 3D, and Chris Lohouse served as compositor. Media Composer offers some of the most powerful trimming functions in any editing application, but for years when you trimmed a visual effect, strange things could happen. Specifically, keyframe posi- tions would move in time (left/right), scaling their positions relative to your trim. If you had a keyframe in the middle of an effect before trimming, it would still be in the middle of the effect after- words.This was helpful in cer tain situations, but more often than not, it meant moving all your keyframes back where they were after the trim. But now Avid offers two visual effects models, dubbed “standard” and “advanced,” and with ad- vanced keyframes you have a choice — your keyframes can be “Elastic” or “Fixed.” Elastic keyframes move proportionally when an effect is trimmed. Fixed keyframes don’t — they stay put. To choose your keyframe type, first apply your effect, then open the Effect Editor, right click in an effect track and make your selection from the track’s contextual menu.Your choice applies to all keyframes in the selected track. If you want all the keyframes in an effect to stay where they are when you trim it, right-click in the Effect track and select Fixed. Fixed keyframes won’t move when an effect is trimmed.To help you tell the difference, the two keyframe types employ different icons. But you’ll only see them in the keyframe graph. Elastic keyframes display the traditional pink triangle. Fixed keyframes are similar, but add a bump on the bottom. Adapted from the new book “Avid Agility:Working Faster and More Intuitively with Avid Media Composer” by Steven Cohen,ACE. www.postmagazine.com November 2010 • Post 11 acobson, Director/Editor, Category-5 Studios, NYC ©2010 CATEGORY-5 PUBLISHING/MITCH JACOBSON