I want to create a ton of social media sequences from 200+ clips. Each sequence is just 15-30 seconds. Each clip .5 sec - 2 secs. There is software out there (Magisto online or MAGIX FastCut) that will randomly (and rather well with some AI), automatically do this. However, each has significant flaws. Is there anyway to do this in the avid?
FYI 0 magisto will, using a cloud interface, put some (almost never all) into a sequence of X length.
FastCut allows you to make a "sequence" with preset edit points. Then just adds in the clips.
However, both have seriously limitations. So, could I do either one of the following
A.) insert clips back to back, whether whole or in part, to a sequence of X length. Also, what if I wanted to put 100+ still pictures back to back but RANDOMLY do this... possible?
OR
B.) insert randomly clips selected into a sequence with edit points (say, on the beat of music for example...
surprised I can not find a way to do this with an avid... any advise would be appreciated
No you can't do this in Avid and no surprise you can't.
Avid was created for story telling based on the ideas of the Firector/editor. Nothing random about that. It's a very specific creative process.
Media Composer isn't the tool for making random edits.
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I have been editing on an AVID since 1995 on and off, so not at all a newbie here, I just don't post. Only system I use. This is a feature that should be developed, period. I could give numerous case uses in addition to the one I just posted. Not everything requires human editing. ALSO, some limited AI (articifical intelligence) editing could spit ideas on which to further edit. Even in feature films (say, a flashback or dream sequence with rapid cuts.) manually making them when you have lots of potential source material to work with takes hours, whereas this could take a few mins.
While I'm sure it's possible for an AI to do what you want, I think an editing forum populated by editors who make their living by editing is probably not the best place to be advocating for software that will eliminate the need for 'human editing'.
"There is hardly anything in the world that some man cannot make a little worse and sell a little cheaper, and the people who only consider the price are this man's lawful prey." - John Ruskin (1819-1900)
Carl Amoscato | Freelance Film & Video Editor | London, UK
If you need certainly use MC to do that, hmm....
The trick is finding your way to group-change filenames to random index number for shuffling. Total Commander has that feature, or you can use other tools or self-written script to do that.
Possible semi-automatic solution A is:
Other advice B is:
But for flexible production scripting in Adobe AE is more powerful tool for your purposes/
Again, I am not at all advocating whatsoever for the elimination of human editors. I have edited on an avid for over 25+ years and love it. Features, shorts, docs, tv shows and more. But there are specific examples (such as mass creating rapidly edited social media clips) where this tool would be useful. Additionally, as I stated, there are specific situations where such randomness could be done and then a human could change it. I am talking about a tiny fraction of 1% of all editing being done this way. You should check out what Magisto and FastCut can do, they can abolsutely NOT in anyway whatsoever edit a narrative film/show. There is simply no reason who avid should not be able to do this for the use cases I have suggested.
Yes, After Effects has solutions to sort of do this, one is a 3rd party plugin. Which again, would point to the need of avid adding this as a feature. I believe premiere also can do this via a plugin. Some really inexpensive consumer editing software also had random insert of clips feature. But all have limitations. And Avid seems to have zero.
MichaelQ:Again, I am not at all advocating whatsoever for the elimination of human editors.
{earlier in the same exchange}
MichaelQ:Not everything requires human editing.
That's contradictory.
MichaelQ:...they can abolsutely NOT in anyway whatsoever edit a narrative film/show.
Not today they can't, but right now Google and Facebook use AI to make movies out of users' uploaded photos and videos. What you are arguing for is the next step on a path that ends with all of us out of work.
There is most definitely a bean-counter at some corporation somewhere that is salivating at the idea of replacing human editors with AI, and if you think there's not you're naive. There's not one of them that knows the difference between a film editor, a news editor, or a YouTube editor. To them we're all just negative numbers on a balance sheet, and they're much less interested in our editing talents than they are in how much more money their company could make if they replaced us with software.
And if you think that's hyperbole, they're already replacing the customer service reps, food service workers, security guards, train drivers, and a bunch of other jobs that no longer require a human. We're not next, but we're also not invulnerable.
Please check out the software I mentioned first. Your reply is not understanding what I am asking and not factual in the least and not helping this discussion. Again, for the third time, there are very specific limited uses that would in no way, NONE, contribute to the decline of human editors. You are grossly overexaggerating.
For example, I am finally finishing going through 15,000+ travel photos of the last 20+ years and putting the best 1000-1500 through lightroom. I would like to throw them all in randomly into a sequence, each clip showing for 10 seconds (I know I can drag them all in, set in/out, etc but this will not randomly add them and will put them in an specific order which is exactly what I don't want as then similar photos are shown one after another, I want to make a long, random video presentation of my travel photos with said 1000-1500 photos randomly shown.... SIMPLE).
I also have a project where I need to make 100's of social media post from approxmiately 500+ clips I own copyright too/shot myself... mini-teaser trailers. My clips (really subclips) are all .5 secs to 10 secs in length. I want to make 100's of short sequence 10 secs to 30 secs in length to post on social media.
You are proposing that for each one of these mini-clips I do 10-15 mins of human editing and spend 50+ hours to make my batch of 100's of social media clips.
FASTCUT could do this is in maybe 90% less time. Hoqwever, it has its limitations. And again, this is simply for social media. AVID should have this capability for the specific situations I am mentioning. AFTER EFFECTS, PREMIERE (via 3rd party plugins) are offering this as are the top-tier decent consumer stuff (Sony Vegas type software).
Yet if AVID does it, you think its the decline of the human editors? Stop, please. Saying less than 1% of editing does NOT requrire a human is NOT contradicting what I just said. If AVID refuses to implement this, the choices are A.) Don't make the project/s because they are not worth the time and effort or B.) Use another software (which looks like I have to do).... so I guess human editors are done since other software can do it, including major competitors like AF/Premiere, etc.... or maybe C.) AVID can implement this and human will still be around?
MichaelQ:Your reply is not understanding what I am asking
I understand exactly what you're asking for.
You seem to think the capability you want could only be used as you envision it, and therefore it's not a threat to a human editor. But I know, because I've met them, that there are producers who look at your proposal and think, 'If I had this only for Reuters and AP feeds instead of photos, I could get rid of news editors!'
And I know, because I've read their internet posts, that there are people with YouTube channels who would like nothing more than to be able to make 100s of short movies out of the thousands of clips they've shot themselves without hiring an entry-level kid off of Upwork or Fiverr.
I get why you want an AI to edit for you. I don't understand how you can be so shortsighted about what AI editing would mean for everyone else.
O brave new world, that has such people in 't!Shakespeare has a quote for anything. Totally agree with Pat and camoscato, regardless of whether Premiere, After Effects or any other software that you care to name can do it. And like camoscato,
O brave new world, that has such people in 't!
camoscato:I don't understand how you can be so shortsighted about what AI editing would meanI no longer come here as often as I once did, but boy! What a beaut this thread is!
camoscato:I don't understand how you can be so shortsighted about what AI editing would mean
Got it. Lets bury our heads in the sand while every other competitor offers it and complain it will ruin all of us while none of that is factual.
Oh, by the way, they already can do that with Magisto. Probably why it was acquired for $200 million by Vimeo. That's 1/8th of the market cap of AVID by the way. Delaying this does nothing but lower the value of avid and its editors. And again, it will NOT replace humans.
Hi,
Avid MC has a randomness embedded deep in its structure.
All you have to do is perform group transcoding / consolidation of linked clips and the ordering of new clips in the trash is completely random. In 25 years, I have not found the key in the order in which a larger number of clips are consolidated / transcoded. Which is a feature I "love" when it crashes and I need to find the remaining files.
V.
MichaelQ: Got it. Lets bury our heads in the sand while every other competitor offers it and complain it will ruin all of us while none of that is factual.
I'm not burying my head in the sand; I'm clear-eyed about where the world is going. You seem to think you're immune, and right now you are, but there's already software that will do a crap job on a narrative edit. When it finally learns to do a good job, we're all out of work.
MichaelQ: Oh, by the way, they already can do that with Magisto. Probably why it was acquired for $200 million by Vimeo. That's 1/8th of the market cap of AVID by the way. Delaying this does nothing but lower the value of avid and its editors. And again, it will NOT replace humans.
Your wholehearted embrace of the technology that will eventually eliminate you is disheartening. You are naive.
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