Avid NewsCutter 1.5 Windows NT Quick start guide

a

tools for storytellers™

Avid

®

NewsCutter

®

Getting Started Guide

Release 1.5

for the Windows NT

®

Operating System

2

Avid NewsCutter Getting Started Guide • Part 0130-04438-01 Rev. A • November1999

3

Contents

Chapter 1 Introduction

About NewsCutter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

NewsCutter Hardware

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

Starting Your System

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

Starting NewsCutter

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

Electronic Licensing

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

How to Proceed

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

Using Help

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

Finding Information with the Help Topics Dialog Box

. . . . . . . 19

Using the Contents Tab

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

Using the Index Tab

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

Using the Find Tab

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

Using Buttons in a Help Topic

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

Printing Help Topics

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

Adding a Note to a Help Topic

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

Using Online Documentation

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

Chapter 2 About NewsCutter

Editing with NewsCutter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

Basic Editing Steps

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

Understanding the Pieces

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

Organizing Your Work with Projects and Bins

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

How Media Is Stored

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

The Attic Folder

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

4

Chapter 3 Starting Your Project

Starting NewsCutter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

Creating a User

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

Creating a Project

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

Opening an Existing Project

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

Understanding the Project Window

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

Working with Bins

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

Creating a Bin

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

About Bin Views

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

Text View

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

Frame View

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

Script View

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

Creating a Quick Effects Bin

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

About Trash

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

Customizing Your Work Environment

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

Mapping Keys and Buttons

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

Setting Up Workspaces

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

Chapter 4 Recording

Selecting Settings for Recording. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

The Record Tool

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

The Audio Tool

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

The Video Input Tool

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

Record Preparations Check List

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

Recording to the Timeline

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

Recording and Logging at the Same Time

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

Recording On-the-Fly

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

Recording from an IN Point to an OUT Point

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61

Batch Recording

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62

Rerecording a Sequence

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64

5

Chapter 5 Getting Ready to Edit

Using the Command Palette. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67

Using the Tool Palette

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70

Mapping Buttons to the Tool Palette

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71

Mapping Menu Options to the Tool Palette

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72

Using the Keyboard

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72

Mapping Buttons to the Keyboard

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73

Mapping Menu Items to the Keyboard

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74

Using Workspaces

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75

Modifying Workspaces

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76

Controlling Playback

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77

Using Position Bars and Position Indicators

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77

Using Buttons

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78

The Play Button

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79

Step Buttons

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80

J-K-L Keys (Three-Button Play)

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80

Home, End, and Arrow Keys

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81

Using the Mouse

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81

Stepping with the Mouse

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82

Shuttling with the Mouse

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82

Marking IN and OUT Points

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83

Creating Subclips

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83

Chapter 6 Creating a First Cut

Viewing Your Clips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86

Navigating in the Timeline

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89

Using the Position Indicator

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90

Using the Scroll Bar

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91

Using the A and S keys

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91

Displaying More or Less Detail

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91

Using the Track Selector Panel

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92

Selecting Tracks

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94

6

Patching Tracks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95

Monitoring Tracks

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95

Making the First Edit

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96

Using Digital Audio Scrub

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97

Splicing Versus Overwriting Audio and Video

. . . . . . . . . . . . . 97

Splicing or Overwriting an Audio Clip

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98

Splicing or Overwriting Video into a Sequence

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99

Marking Clips for Storyboarding

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100

Using the Go to IN and Go to OUT Buttons

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102

Moving to the Head or Tail of a Shot

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103

Undoing an Edit

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103

Redoing an Edit

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104

Splicing a Shot into the Middle of a Sequence

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104

Chapter 7 Refining the Edit

Editing in Segment Mode. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106

Guidelines for Editing in Segment Mode

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106

Identifying Segment Mode Buttons

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107

Rearranging Footage with Extract/Splice-in

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107

Removing Footage with Extract/Splice-in

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108

Removing Footage with Lift/Overwrite

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108

Overwriting Shots into a Sequence

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109

Rearranging Shots

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110

Overwriting with the Three-Point Edit

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110

Removing Footage with Lift

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111

Basic Trim Procedures

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112

Trim Using Top and Tail

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112

Entering Trim Mode

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113

Selecting Between Trim Sides

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115

Sync Locking Tracks

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115

Performing a Basic Trim

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116

7

Dual-Roller Trimming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117

Single-Roller Trimming

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118

Exiting Trim Mode

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119

Audio Editing

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119

Adjusting Audio Level

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120

Adjusting Audio Pan

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121

Chapter 8 Adding Effects

Effects Editing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124

Creating Motion Effects

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125

Creating Freeze Frame Effects

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125

Creating Variable Speed and Strobe Motion Effects

. . . . . . . . 126

Displaying the Effect Palette

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127

Effect Types

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128

Transition Effects

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128

Segment Effects

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129

Applying Effects to a Sequence

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129

Working in Effect Mode

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129

Adding Transition Effects

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130

Adding Fade In

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131

Dissolving Between Shots

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132

Insufficient Footage for a Dissolve

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133

Creating Audio Dissolves

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133

Adding a Fade Within the Sequence

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134

Creating Quick Effects

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134

Adding Keyframes

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135

Adding a Picture-in-Picture Effect

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136

Repositioning the Image

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138

Adjusting a Parameter

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139

Dissolving the Picture-in-Picture On and Off

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141

Rendering an Effect

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142

8

Chapter 9 Creating Titles

Working with Titles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145

Understanding the Title Tool Window

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146

Adding Text

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147

Formatting Text in the Title Tool

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148

Selecting Objects in the Title Tool

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149

Choosing Colors and Setting Transparency

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150

Selecting a Color

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151

Creating a New Title

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151

Working with Title Templates

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153

Creating a Title Template

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153

Using a Title Template

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154

Editing a Title Template

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154

Removing a Title Template

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155

Repositioning Text and Objects

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155

Applying a Color

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156

Applying a Shadow

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156

Saving a Title

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157

Editing the Title into the Sequence

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158

Editing an Existing Title

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159

Chapter 10 Output

Preparing for Output. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161

Preparing Tapes for Frame-Accurate Recording

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161

Previewing a Digital Cut

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162

Recording a Digital Cut to Tape

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163

Enabling VTR Play Emulation

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165

Appendix A Using the NRCS Tool

Opening the NRCS Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168

Understanding the NRCS Tool Window

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171

9

Using the Directory Panel. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173

Opening a Story

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174

Making a Shortcut to a Directory

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175

Removing a Shortcut to a Directory

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175

Deleting a Story

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176

Editing a Story

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176

Editing Text in View Mode

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177

Entering Edit Mode

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177

Formatting Text

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178

Rearranging Text in a Story

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178

Marking Text as Normal

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179

Marking Text as Presenter Instructions

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179

Marking Text as Closed Captioned

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180

Adding a Production Cue

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180

Deleting a Production Cue

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182

Saving Changes to a Story

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182

Finding the Read Time of a Story

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183

Building a Sequence from a Story

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184

Sending Mail

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185

Disconnecting from the Server

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186

Index

10

Figures

Figure 1-1 NewsCutter Hardware Components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

Figure 2-1

Project Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

Figure 2-2

Bin Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

Figure 3-1

Project Window — Bin View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

Figure 3-2

Project Window — Settings View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

Figure 3-3

Project Window — Info View. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

Figure 3-4

Bin in Text View. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

Figure 3-5

Bin in Frame View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

Figure 3-6

Bin in Script View. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

Figure 4-1

Record Tool. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

Figure 4-2

Audio Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

Figure 4-3

Video Input Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56

Figure 5-1

Command Palette Move Tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68

Figure 5-2

Command Palette Play Tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68

Figure 5-3

Command Palette Edit Tab. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68

Figure 5-4

Command Palette Trim Tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69

Figure 5-5

Command Palette FX Tab. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69

Figure 5-6

Command Palette Other Tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69

Figure 5-7

Command Palette More Tab. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70

Figure 5-8

Default Tool Palette . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70

Figure 5-9

NewsCutter Default Keyboard Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . 73

Figure 5-10

Record Monitor Position Bar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77

Figure 5-11

Source Monitor Position Bar. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78

Figure 5-12

Position Indicator in Timeline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78

Figure 6-1

Source Monitor. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87

11

Figure 6-2 Record Monitor. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88

Figure 6-3

Pop-up Monitor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89

Figure 6-4

Timeline. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90

Figure 6-5

Timeline Track Selector Panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93

Figure 7-1

Trim Mode Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114

Figure 8-1

Effect Palette . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127

Figure 8-2

Effect Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130

Figure 8-3

Insufficient Source Dialog Box. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133

Figure 8-4

Picture-in-Picture Effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138

Figure 8-5

Picture-in-Picture Effect with Softness . . . . . . . . . . . . 141

Figure 9-1

Title Tool Window. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147

Figure 9-2

Title Tool Color Picker. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151

Figure A-1

NRCS Settings Dialog Box — NRCS Tab . . . . . . . . . . 168

Figure A-2

NRCS Settings Dialog Box — Avstar Tab. . . . . . . . . . 169

Figure A-3

NRCS Tool — Login Dialog Box . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170

Figure A-4

NRCS Tool Window (Edit Mode) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171

Figure A-5

NRCS Tool — Directory Panel. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174

Figure A-6

NRCS Tool — Production Cue. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181

Figure A-7

NRCS Tool — Read Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184

Figure A-8

NRCS Tool — Send NRCS Mail Dialog Box . . . . . . . 186

12

CHAPTER 1

Introduction

This chapter provides an overview of the NewsCutter system and the

editing process. Understanding how the system organizes tapes, clips,

sequences, and other media objects helps you to edit projects more

effectively. This chapter contains the following sections:

• About NewsCutter

• NewsCutter Hardware

• Starting Your System

• Starting NewsCutter

• Electronic Licensing

• How to Proceed

• Using Help

• Using Online Documentation

13

About NewsCutter

NewsCutter is a nonlinear editing workstation specifically designed for

editing news stories. It offers flexibility and speed to create

compelling, up-to-the-minute news stories. You can edit a story

several different ways and choose the best one, or you can quickly

create different versions of a lead story for three different broadcasts.

NewsCutter allows you to quickly add transition effects, motion

effects, and 2D digital video effects (DVEs) for added impact, with just

a few keystrokes — even after a story is laid out.

With a linear system, you must lay down the first shot, make sure it

ends at the right point, cue the second shot, make sure it starts at the

right point, and then make the edit. You build the sequence by making

sure each transition is correct before moving to the next edit.

NewsCutter lets you assemble a sequence in any order — you do not

need to edit the first shot first and the last shot last. The system’s

strength is that it lets you make changes without reassembling all the

edits after the change. You can update breaking stories quickly and

easily, save them, and then try different versions.

The system maintains frame-accurate links between each alteration of

the objects you work with and the original media files. This allows you

to experiment with every edit you make through multiple generations.

When you play back your work, the system immediately accesses and

plays the appropriate portions of the recorded video and audio.

You can start by editing a rough version of the entire sequence. You

can see how long it runs and where it drags, adjust individual edits

and transitions, replace or remove shots, and tighten or extend scenes.

Because the audio and video are stored on disk, they can be

manipulated and used over and over again without duplication or

degradation.

14

NewsCutter Hardware

The following hardware components make up NewsCutter, as shown

in Figure 1-1

.

n

Your components might differ slightly, depending on the options you

purchased.

• A PC running the Windows NT

®

operating system

•Meridien

™

audio and video interface

• The User Interface (UI) and Playback monitors; recommended

resolution 1024 x 768 with True Color or greater

• Keyboard and mouse

•Speakers

• Audio amplifier if you do not have powered speakers

• Decks or video source to input and output your work

• Storage disks, 9-GB or 18-GB MediaDrives, for storing your

recorded video and audio

Figure 1-1 NewsCutter Hardware Components

VLX

SCSI IDSCSI ID

Slots

Act

Wide

Dualbus

Fans

Pwr 2Pwr 2

Pwr 1Pwr 1

l

O

44.1 kHz

48

PULL DOWN

AUDIO SYNC

VIDEO SYNC

POWER

kHz

l

O

Video Deck

UI Monitor

Keyboard

Mouse

Playback Monitor

Speaker

Amplifier

V-LAN VLX

i

Meridien

NewsCutter

MediaDock

I/O box

PC

15

Starting Your System

Begin your edit session by turning on the components of your

NewsCutter system. If any part of your system fails to turn on, make

sure its electrical cord is plugged snugly into an appropriate electrical

outlet or power strip. See the Avid NewsCutter Setup Guide for

information on setting up your system.

c

If you fail to follow the proper sequence for starting up your system,

you could damage your computer and storage drives and

NewsCutter may not work properly.

Always turn on the devices as follows:

1. Fixed-storage drives: Turn on fixed-storage drives before starting

the computer. Allow 10 to 15 seconds for the drives to spin up-to-

speed before starting your computer.

2. Other peripheral hardware: Turn on all other peripheral units

except the computer. This includes:

• Monitors and speakers

• Tape decks or video source

• Meridien I/O box

3. The computer: Turn on your computer according to your

manufacturer’s instructions.

Once you have turned on your computer, the Avid splash screen

appears and then your Windows NT desktop appears.

c

To avoid damage, do not disconnect or turn off external hard disk

drives while your computer is on.

16

Starting NewsCutter

To start the NewsCutter application:

1. Click the Start button.

2. Point to Programs.

3. Point to the NewsCutter folder.

4. Click NewsCutter.

n

To start the application from a convenient location, Avid recommends that

you create a shortcut and place it in a convenient location. For more

information on making a shortcut, see your Windows NT documentation.

Electronic Licensing

To accept your NewsCutter product license electronically:

1. Read the License Agreement, and then click Accept or Decline at

the bottom of the screen.

n

If you click Decline, the application will not start.

The agreement appears the first several times you start the

application. After you have started NewsCutter several times, a

new button appears at the bottom of the screen.

2. If you do not want to see the license agreement again, click Accept

and Don’t Show Again.

A dialog box appears.

3. Enter the name of your organization in the dialog box, and click

OK.

The Open Project dialog box appears; from here you create a new

user and a new project, as described in “Creating a User” on

page 34.

17

How to Proceed

The following are a few tips for taking full advantage of the

NewsCutter documentation and other resources:

• Begin learning about basic procedures by using the default

settings. As your confidence increases, begin to explore additional

procedures and settings.

• Instead of using the standard menus to find the command you

need in a window, try using shortcut menus. Using the right

mouse button, click in a window to bring up a shortcut menu that

shows the most frequently used commands for that window.

• Keep the Avid NewsCutter Quick Reference available during editing

sessions.

• Make a habit of reading Avid’s newsletters, mailings, and other

trade publications.

• Make use of additional training resources provided by Avid

whenever possible, such as classes and instructional videotapes.

• Check the Avid Web site for listings of courses, schedules, and

locations:

www.avid.com/services/training/training.html

Using Help

This release supports Help for your NewsCutter system. The Help is

automatically installed with the application.

n

You must have the NewsCutter application running in order to access the

Help. If you want to run the Help without having NewsCutter running, use

the Avid NewsCutter Online Publications CD-ROM and run the Help

from there.

18

You can access Help in three ways:

• From the Help menu on the NewsCutter main menu, choose

NewsCutter Help.

• As context-sensitive Help:

a. Make sure your NewsCutter system is active.

b. Position the mouse pointer in the window or dialog box for

which you want help.

c. Press the F1 key on the keyboard.

A window appears, representing the tool or feature for which

you want help.

• By opening What’s This? Help:

a. Position the mouse pointer on a feature.

b. Right-click the mouse button.

c. Select What’s This? from the shortcut menu.

n

If no specific help for the window or dialog box exists, the Help Topics dialog

box appears.

Procedures are displayed in yellow How To windows; background

information and illustrations are displayed in white Reference

windows.

The following sections explain how to use the Help system. For more

information, see “Online Help,overview” in the Help index.

19

Finding Information with the Help Topics Dialog Box

You see the Help Topics dialog box when you open Help from the

Help menu. A topic is a single page of the Help system. The Help

Topics dialog box includes three different methods for finding topics.

• Using the Contents Tab

• Using the Index Tab

• Using the Find Tab

Using the Contents Tab

The Contents tab provides a list of books that contain topics covering

the entire Help system. Each book opens to display a list of topics.

To view the Contents, do one of the following:

• In NewsCutter, choose Avid NewsCutter Help from the Help

menu. Click the Contents tab in the Help Topics dialog box.

• With a Help topic open, click the Contents button, which is located

in the row of buttons along the top of the Help window.

To open a book and display a list of topics, select the book title and

click Open, or double-click the book title.

To open a Help window, select the topic and click Display, or

double-click the topic title.

20

Using the Index Tab

The Index tab provides an alphabetized list of entries, like the index of

a printed book.

To find topics by using the Index tab:

1. From the Help menu, choose Avid NewsCutter Help and click the

Index tab, or click the Index button in a Help topic.

2. In the text box at the top, type a keyword for the topic that you

want to find (for example, type audio to jump to index entries

listed under audio).

3. Open the topic in the list:

• If your typing brings you to the topic you are seeking, click the

Display button, or double-click the index entry.

• If you do not immediately arrive at the topic, scroll through

the list and double-click an entry that makes sense, or try an

alternative keyword in the text box. When you find the subject

you are looking for, click the Display button or double-click

the entry to view the topic.

Using the Find Tab

The Find tab lets you search the entire Help system for words or

phrases and then lists topics that include those words or phrases.

To search for topics by using the Find tab:

1. From the Help menu, choose Avid NewsCutter Help and click the

Find tab, or click the Find button in a Help topic.

2. In the text box, type the word or phrase you want to find.

A list shows topics that contain the words you searched for. As

you type additional words, the list updates.

n

Do not type quotation marks or asterisks in the text box.

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Avid NewsCutter 1.5 Windows NT Quick start guide

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