Preface

Whether you're just beginning your use of Avid Media Composer or you've been using it for some time, I believe this book contains a great deal of useful, time-saving, and frustration-reducing information for users at all experience levels. Further, I believe this book fills a particular gap in the Avid Media Composer publications that are currently available.

Because the features and abilities of Avid Media Composer are so broad, encompassing editing, sound design, color correction, and visual effects, I decided to focus this book primarily on the core story-telling needs we have every day; essentially, getting footage into the system, editing, and audio mixing.

I first began learning Avid Media Composer in 1994 through trial and error. Nonlinear editing and the Internet were still in their infancy, and there weren't any books on Avid Media Composer. So, I did my best to learn by reading the manual. My frustrations came when I'd read about a procedure or tool in the manual, but it didn't include a definition of it or context for when it would be useful. So, in addition to providing the step-by-step instructions, as cookbooks published by Packt Publishing promise, I've included many definitions of industry and Media Composer-specific terms, explanations of why tools and functions behave as they do, and situations when they would be helpful. In many ways, this is one of the books I wish I had had all those years ago.

I'd also like to mention that some incredibly knowledgeable people have helped me by reviewing this book's content while I was writing it: Michael Phillips, Oliver Peters, and Roger Shufflebottom. These very generous gentlemen are talented professionals whom you may find yourself meeting, consulting, or working with in the future. I encourage you to read their biographies, which are included in this book, and you'll see how fortunate I was to have them on the team.

Lastly, I truly hope you find this book to be helpful.