Avid Media Composer is the only piece of software (other than After Effects) that I’ve lost work by not knowing. Some post houses are all Avid and when you want to work there, you need to know the software. As Avid is still (as far as I’ve seen) pretty embedded in most large, established post houses (who most often just ‘added FCP7’ to their suite) it seems like a common sense tool to learn enough to have in your quiver.

If you’re starting out fresh with no particular piece of software taken to heart just yet, I think choosing Avid would be a wise choice. (Premiere isn’t that established in the post-house world – not like Avid or FCP are at any rate..)

Learning Avid?

So forgetting early editing nightmares trying to learn how to use Avid (I’m talking about over 10 years ago) I’ve been watching through some of the tutorials on the Avid learning site, downloaded the trial and am starting to noodle around. Other than a few quirks and twists (mostly legacy to film days) it’s pretty much the same as FCP7. I mean you’re still sticking two shots next to each other, dissolving audio and doing basic colour correction. Which really means that it doesn’t really matter what program you use, Avid, Apple, Adobe, its all the same result, the journey their is all personal preference. But like a language, the more you use it, the more comfortable you become with it.

Check out their video series for FCP7 editors moving to Avid…