Edit to the Maxx - The Art of the Digital Cut - Part 3

Bins, SuperBins, and Other Ways to Capture

In this episode we will learn a second way to capture media. We’ll also learn to create and use Bins.

 

Power-up your camcorder or deck and plug the FireWire cable into it and then into your computer. Launch FreeDV. When FreeDV is launched, the application will connect to the Internet and present Go or Later buttons. Click the Later button.

 

 

Now you will be presented with the Select Project dialog box.

 

Select the Project you previously created and click the OK button.

You may now see one or more informational boxes. For example, the warning below. Click OK.

 

 

You likely will then see a dialog box appear. Click Cancel.

  

Multiple Free DV windows will now open on the screen. They should be in the same arrangement you used the last time you used Free DV.

 

If the arrangement is not the same, issue the Tools > Capture command to open the Capture Tool window. You’ll see the Select Tape dialog box open.

 

 

You should see tape T01 listed and selected. Because you are going to work with the same tape, click OK.

 

If the windows are not in the same position, drag and resize the windows as shown in the screenshot below. The clips in the SuperBin will be those you captured last time.

You can view clips in a Bin, three ways. You are currently looking at “picons” (picture icons) that represent a frame of video in a clip.

 

Click on the Brief tab and you will see a list of information about clips. You will also see the SuperBin become smaller. You should drag the SuperBin higher on the screen, resize it, and then drag back into its original position.

  

 

Then click on the Text tab and you’ll see a list of more extensive information about clips. You should drag the SuperBin higher on the screen, resize it, and then drag back into its original position.

  

 

Then click on the Script tab and you’ll see a box into which relevant script can be entered. You should drag the SuperBin higher on the screen, resize it, and then drag back into its original position.

 

 

Now click on the Frame tab to return to picons.

 

To Open a New Bin, click the New Bin button in the Project window. The new Bin will open in the SuperBin. In this case, name it Lesson 2 Bin. The new Bin will open in exactly the same location as the SuperBin. Why does this occur?  This is the magic of a SuperBin.

 

To learn about SuperBins and to also learn how to use the Free DV Help function, select Help > Avid Free DV Help…. Click the Index button and then the “s” item. Scroll down to SuperBin. A list of notes will appear. You may have to look at several notes to find a definition. (This is an example of why on-line documentation is so often useless. The item “SuperBin” should lead directly to a definition.) Nevertheless, you will find lots of information on the use of a SuperBin.

 

Make the new Bin a Frame-style Bin by clicking on the Frame tab. Next, click in the Bin and press [CTRL+L] or 3 times to increase the size of clip icons. If you have a low resolution screen, the values should be “3” while if you have a super high resolution increase you could use “4.”

 

You can use Bins to hold the contents of multiple tapes. Since each tape has a short name like T01, you could give each Bin the appropriate Tape Name. For example, T01 Bin.

 

However, by choosing other alternatives you can better manage your clips. For example, if the tape contains media shot at only one event, you could give it a compound name. For example, Thanksgiving.T01 Bin.

 

If, however, your vacation occurred in multiple cities and a tape contains shots from several cities, you could create multiple Bins. Assuming the first shots on the tape are from Boston, you would create a Boston.T01 Bin and a second New York Bin. You will capture the whole tape into Boston.T01 Bin. Later, you will move the New York shots from the Boston.T01 Bin to the New York Bin.

 

Conversely, if the shots for a given subject are on several tapes, you can use a different strategy. For example, for two tapes of Boston you could make one Bin: Boston.T01.T02 Bin.

 

For a complex production, you’ll want to create a Bin for each Scene (e.g., Beach Bin) or Topic (e.g., Red Wines Bin) in the project. You can leave the word Bin off if you wish.

 

For a complex project, you can create Bins inside of Bins. For example, the Red Wines Bin could contain a Merlot Bin, Shiraz Bin, and a Chianti Bin.

 

Get ready to capture by confirming the following status information is displayed in the already open Capture Tool.
• Video: “OHCI”
• Audio: “OHCI”
• Res: “DV25 411 OMF”
• “Generic DV Device—NTSC”

 

 

If you do not see the latter status message, you will likely see a NO DECK indication. Click on the No Deck button. Select the Auto-configure option. Answer “Yes” to the auto-configure question. If you still see a NO DECK indication, power on and off the camcorder. You should now see a Select Tape dialog box. Click the Cancel button. If you have a problem with FireWire, remember this is the time to use Avid’s Support Forum at www.avid.com/exchange/forums/38/ShowForum.aspx.

 

Click the V, A1, and TC buttons in the Record Tool. This will cause video and timecode, plus the left audio channel, to be captured to disk.

 

To capture video and audio, follow these steps:

1.   Select, by single clicking in its window, the Bin that will hold the DV tape, e.g., Lesson 3 Bin.

2.   In the Record Tool, check the Bin: name. It should be the name of your new Bin, for example, Lesson 3 Bin.

3.   In the Record Tool, check the Tape Name? button. It should be the name as last time, e.g., T01. If not, click the Tape Name? button. The Select Tape dialog box will open as shown below.

  

 

4.   Click in the New Tape field and type in the name of the tape you captured last time (e.g., T01) followed by return. Load the DV tape into your camcorder if it is not loaded. Click OK.

  

 

5.   Click the tape Play button on the Capture Tool. You should see and hear your video. You should also see a green bar bouncing up and down for the A1 channel in the Audio Tool (VU Meter).

6.   Play your DV tape until you see the start of the video you want to capture. Click Stop.

7.   Click the Capture Tool’s } button or press i to “mark” the In-point.

8.   Fast-forward (>>) to the end of the video you recorded on your tape. Click Stop. If you have gone past the end, backup (<<) until you can see the last few seconds of video. Click Stop.

9.   Click the Capture Tool’s { button or press o to “mark” the Out-point. (Yes, I agree the shape Avid chose is the opposite of what makes sense.

 

 

10.  Click the Capture Tool’s red Record button. This square indicator to the right of the button will blink during capture. You should see and hear your video. You should also see a green bar bouncing up and down for the A1 channel in the Audio Tool (VU Meter).

11.  When you have captured the marked clip, the capture will automatically halt.

 

The tape contents will be stored on disk as one Clip. (If, however, there are timecode breaks on the tape, you may find multiple Clips.) After the Clip is captured, it will have it’s Bin Name appended by a number, for example: Lesson 3 Bin.01.

 

To view the captured clip, double-click on the clip’s icon located in the Lesson 3 Bin. A small monitor window will popup.

 

 

 

I am dedicating my Edit to the Maxx tutorial to “Cookie Monster” who died this week, at the age of 15, from Kidney Failure after suffering from breast cancer three years ago. She is survived by her brother Karna, the big cat on the right.

 

In the monitor, you will see the first frame of the clip. Click once in the window. You can then drag the blue bar to move through the clip. You can also use the keyboard’s left and right arrows to move frame-by-frame.

Avid’s keyboard-driven j k l Shuttle control is a fast way to look at a clip’s contents:

j       Reverse     Edit by watching/ listening at rates from 8fps to 240fps

l       Forward      Edit by watching/ listening at rates from 8fps to 240fps

 

Close the monitor window by clicking the [Close button] or the .

 

To quit Free DV, issue the [File > Exit] or command.

 

In the next episode, we will learn a third way to capture video.

 

Sometimes your videos need more than talking heads. Next time you're shooting, try to get some "B-roll." This is the secondary, cutaway footage that you'll see in any news report, TV show, or movie. An interview with an architect would be mixed with B-roll of buildings they designed. Your child's baseball game could be mixed with B-roll of the coach, the crowd, and the dugout. B-roll breaks the monitony of boring shots; good B-roll also helps to tell the story.

 

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Steve Mullen owns Digital Video Consulting located in Las Vegas. DVC has been supporting videographers for over a decade with seminars, consulting, training, and tutorials. A Contributing Editor for Video Systems for many years, he has also written for A/V Video, Camcorder, DV, Etown, millimeter, The Perfect Vision, Video Pro, and Video Review. Steve taught at Rutgers University and the University of the Arts, and most recently has published two eBooks: the Sony HDV Production Guide and the JVC ProHD Production Guide.