Pinnacle Systems Interplay Assist - 1.4 User’s Guide

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Avid® Interplay® Assist

User’s Guide

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Product specifications are subject to change without notice and do not represent a commitment on the part of Avid Technology, Inc.

The software described in this document is furnished under a license agreement. You can obtain a copy of that license by visiting Avid's Web site at www.avid.com. The terms of that license are also available in the product in the same directory as the software. The software may not be reverse assembled and may be used or copied only in accordance with the terms of the license agreement. It is against the law to copy the software on any medium except as specifically allowed in the license agreement.

Avid products or portions thereof are protected by one or more of the following United States Patents: 4,970,663; 5,267,351; 5,309,528; 5,355,450; 5,396,594; 5,440,348; 5,467,288; 5,513,375; 5,528,310; 5,557,423; 5,577,190; 5,584,006; 5,627,765; 5,640,601; 5,644,364; 5,654,737; 5,715,018; 5,719,570; 5,724,605; 5,726,717; 5,729,673; 5,745,637; 5,752,029; 5,754,851; 5,799,150; 5,812,216; 5,828,678; 5,842,014; 5,852,435; 5,999,406; 6,038,573; 6,061,758; 6,141,007; 6,211,869; 6,532,043; 6,546,190; 6,596,031; 6,636,869; 6,747,705; 6,763,523; 6,766,357; 6,813,622; 6,847,373; 7,081,900; RE40,107; D352,278; D372,478; D373,778; D392,267; D392,268; D392,269; D395,291; D396,853; D398,912. Other patents are pending.

This document is protected under copyright law. An authorized licensee of Interplay Assist may reproduce this publication for the licensee’s own use in learning how to use the software. This document may not be reproduced or distributed, in whole or in part, for commercial purposes, such as selling copies of this document or providing support or educational services to others. This document is supplied as a guide for Interplay Assist. Reasonable care has been taken in preparing the information it contains. However, this document may contain omissions, technical inaccuracies, or typographical errors. Avid Technology, Inc. does not accept responsibility of any kind for customers’ losses due to the use of this document. Product specifications are subject to change without notice.

The following disclaimer is required by Apple Computer, Inc.:

APPLE COMPUTER, INC. MAKES NO WARRANTIES WHATSOEVER, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, REGARDING THIS PRODUCT, INCLUDING WARRANTIES WITH RESPECT TO ITS MERCHANTABILITY OR ITS FITNESS FOR ANY PARTICULAR PURPOSE. THE EXCLUSION OF IMPLIED WARRANTIES IS NOT PERMITTED BY SOME STATES. THE ABOVE EXCLUSION MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU. THIS WARRANTY PROVIDES YOU WITH SPECIFIC LEGAL RIGHTS. THERE MAY BE OTHER RIGHTS THAT YOU MAY HAVE WHICH VARY FROM STATE TO STATE.

The following disclaimer is required by Sam Leffler and Silicon Graphics, Inc. for the use of their TIFF library:

Permission to use, copy, modify, distribute, and sell this software [i.e., the TIFF library] and its documentation for any purpose is hereby granted without fee, provided that (i) the above copyright notices and this permission notice appear in all copies of the software and related documentation, and (ii) the names of Sam Leffler and Silicon Graphics may not be used in any advertising or publicity relating to the software without the specific, prior written permission of Sam Leffler and Silicon Graphics.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED “AS-IS” AND WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS, IMPLIED OR OTHERWISE, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION, ANY WARRANTY OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

IN NO EVENT SHALL SAM LEFFLER OR SILICON GRAPHICS BE LIABLE FOR ANY SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, INDIRECT OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OF ANY KIND, OR ANY DAMAGES WHATSOEVER RESULTING FROM LOSS OF USE, DATA OR PROFITS, WHETHER OR NOT ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF DAMAGE, AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, ARISING OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE USE OR PERFORMANCE OF THIS SOFTWARE.

The following disclaimer is required by the Independent JPEG Group:

This software is based in part on the work of the Independent JPEG Group.

This Software may contain components licensed under the following conditions:

Redistribution and use in source and binary forms are permitted provided that the above copyright notice and this paragraph are duplicated in all such forms and that any documentation, advertising materials, and other materials related to such distribution and use acknowledge that the software was developed by the University of California, Berkeley. The name of the University may not be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software without specific prior written permission. THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED ``AS IS'' AND WITHOUT ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

Permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute this software and its documentation for any purpose and without fee is hereby granted, provided that the above copyright notice appear in all copies and that both that copyright notice and this permission notice appear in supporting documentation. This software is provided "as is" without express or implied warranty.

Permission to use, copy, modify, distribute, and sell this software for any purpose is hereby granted without fee, provided that the above copyright notice appear in all copies and that both that copyright notice and this permission notice appear in supporting documentation, and that the name of Daniel Dardailler not be used in advertising or publicity pertaining to distribution of the software without specific, written prior permission. Daniel Dardailler makes no representations about the suitability of this software for any purpose. It is provided "as is" without express or implied warranty.

Permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute this software for any purpose without fee is hereby granted, provided that this entire notice is included in all copies of any software which is or includes a copy or modification of this software and in all copies of the supporting documentation for such software.

THIS SOFTWARE IS BEING PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTY. IN PARTICULAR, NEITHER THE AUTHOR NOR AT&T MAKES ANY REPRESENTATION OR WARRANTY OF ANY KIND CONCERNING THE MERCHANTABILITY OF THIS SOFTWARE OR ITS FITNESS FOR ANY PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

This product includes software developed by the University of California, Berkeley and its contributors.

The following disclaimer is required by Nexidia Inc.:

Manufactured under license from the Georgia Tech Research Corporation, U.S.A. Patent Pending.

The following disclaimer is required by Paradigm Matrix:

Portions of this software licensed from Paradigm Matrix.

The following disclaimer is required by Ray Sauers Associates, Inc.:

“Install-It” is licensed from Ray Sauers Associates, Inc. End-User is prohibited from taking any action to derive a source code equivalent of “Install-It,” including by reverse assembly or reverse compilation, Ray Sauers Associates, Inc. shall in no event be liable for any damages resulting from reseller’s failure to perform reseller’s obligation; or any damages arising from use or operation of reseller’s products or the software; or any other damages, including but not limited to, incidental, direct, indirect, special or consequential Damages including lost profits, or damages resulting from loss of use or inability to use reseller’s products or the software for any reason including copyright or patent infringement, or lost data, even if Ray Sauers Associates has been advised, knew or should have known of the possibility of such damages.

The following disclaimer is required by Videomedia, Inc.:

“Videomedia, Inc. makes no warranties whatsoever, either express or implied, regarding this product, including warranties with respect to its merchantability or its fitness for any particular purpose.”

“This software contains V-LAN ver. 3.0 Command Protocols which communicate with V-LAN ver. 3.0 products developed by Videomedia, Inc. and V-LAN ver. 3.0 compatible products developed by third parties under license from Videomedia, Inc. Use of this software will allow “frame accurate” editing control of applicable videotape recorder decks, videodisc recorders/players and the like.”

The following disclaimer is required by Altura Software, Inc. for the use of its Mac2Win software and Sample Source Code:

The following disclaimer is required by Ultimatte Corporation:

Certain real-time compositing capabilities are provided under a license of such technology from Ultimatte Corporation and are subject to copyright protection.

The following disclaimer is required by 3Prong.com Inc.:

Certain waveform and vector monitoring capabilities are provided under a license from 3Prong.com Inc.

The following disclaimer is required by Interplay Entertainment Corp.:

The “Interplay” name is used with the permission of Interplay Entertainment Corp., which bears no responsibility for Avid products.

This product includes portions of the Alloy Look & Feel software from Incors GmbH.

This product includes software developed by the Apache Software Foundation (http://www.apache.org/).

This product may include the JCifs library, for which the following notice applies:

Avid Interplay contains components licensed from LavanTech. These components may only be used as part of and in connection with Avid Interplay.

Attn. Government User(s). Restricted Rights Legend

U.S. GOVERNMENT RESTRICTED RIGHTS. This Software and its documentation are “commercial computer software” or “commercial computer software documentation.” In the event that such Software or documentation is acquired by or on behalf of a unit or agency of the U.S. Government, all rights with respect to this Software and documentation are subject to the terms of the License Agreement, pursuant to FAR §12.212(a) and/or DFARS §227.7202-1(a), as applicable.

Trademarks

888 I/O, Adrenaline, AirPlay, AirSPACE, AirSPACE HD, AirSpeed, ALEX, Alexis, AniMatte, AudioSuite, AudioVision, AutoSync, Avid, Avid Advanced Response, Avid DNA, Avid DNxcel, Avid DNxHD, AVIDdrive, AVIDdrive Towers, Avid DS Assist Station, Avid ISIS, Avid Learning Excellerator, Avid Liquid, Avid Mojo, AvidNet, AvidNetwork, Avid Remote Response, AVIDstripe, Avid Unity, Avid Unity ISIS, Avid Xpress, AVoption, AVX, CamCutter, CaptureManager, ChromaCurve, ChromaWheel, Conectiv, CountDown, DAE, Dazzle, Deko, DekoCast, D-Fi, D-fx, DigiDelivery, Digidesign, Digidesign Audio Engine, Digidesign Intelligent Noise Reduction, DigiDrive, Digital Nonlinear Accelerator, DigiTranslator, DINR, DNxchange, do more, D-Verb, Equinox, ExpertRender, Face Robot, FACE ROBOT, FastBreak, Fast Track, FieldPak, Film Composer, FilmScribe, FluidMotion, FXDeko, HIIP, HyperSPACE, HyperSPACE HDCAM, IllusionFX, Image Independence, iNEWS, iNEWS ControlAir, Instinct, Interplay, Intraframe, iS9, iS18, iS23, iS36, ISIS, IsoSync, LaunchPad, Lightning, Lo-Fi, Magic Mask, make manage move | media, Marquee, Matador, Maxim, MCXpress, Media Browse, Media Composer, MediaDock, MediaDock Shuttle, Media Fusion, Media Illusion, MediaLog, Media Reader, Media Recorder, MEDIArray, MediaShare, MediaStream, Meridien, MetaFuze, MetaSync, MicroTrack, MissionControl, MovieBox, NaturalMatch, Nearchive, NetReview, NewsCutter, Nitris, OMF, OMF Interchange, OMM, Open Media Framework, Open Media Management, PCTV, Pinnacle MediaSuite, Pinnacle Studio, Pinnacle Systems, ProEncode, Pro Tools, QuietDrive, Recti-Fi, RetroLoop, rS9, rS18, SalesView, Sci-Fi, ScriptSync, SecureProductionEnvironment, Show Center, Softimage, Sound Designer II, SPACE, SPACEShift, SpectraGraph, SpectraMatte, Sputnik, SteadyGlide, SubCap, Symphony, SynchroScience, TARGA, Thunder, Thunder Station, TimeLiner, Torq, Trilligent, UnityRAID, Vari-Fi, Velvet, Video RAID, Video Slave Driver, VideoSPACE, Xdeck, and X-Session are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Avid Technology, Inc. in the United States and/or other countries.

Footage

Arri — Courtesy of Arri/Fauer — John Fauer, Inc. Bell South “Anticipation” — Courtesy of Two Headed Monster — Tucker/Wayne Atlanta/GMS. Canyonlands — Courtesy of the National Park Service/Department of the Interior. Eco Challenge British Columbia — Courtesy of Eco Challenge Lifestyles, Inc., All Rights Reserved. Eco Challenge Morocco — Courtesy of Discovery Communications, Inc. It’s Shuttletime — Courtesy of BCP & Canadian Airlines.

Nestlé Coffee Crisp — Courtesy of MacLaren McCann Canada. Saturn “Calvin Egg” — Courtesy of Cossette Communications. “Tigers: Tracking a Legend” — Courtesy of www.wildlifeworlds.com, Carol Amore, Executive Producer. "The Big Swell" — Courtesy of Swell Pictures, Inc. Windhorse — Courtesy of Paul Wagner Productions.

Arizona Images — KNTV Production — Courtesy of Granite Broadcasting, Inc., Editor/Producer Bryan Foote. Canyonlands — Courtesy of the National Park Service/Department of the Interior. Ice Island — Courtesy of Kurtis Productions, Ltd. Tornados + Belle Isle footage — Courtesy of KWTV News 9. WCAU Fire Story — Courtesy of NBC-10, Philadelphia, PA. Women in Sports – Paragliding — Courtesy of Legendary Entertainment, Inc.

News material provided by WFTV Television Inc.

GOT FOOTAGE?

Editors — Filmmakers — Special Effects Artists — Game Developers — Animators — Educators — Broadcasters — Content creators of every genre — Just finished an incredible project and want to share it with the world?

Send us your reels and we may use your footage in our show reel or demo!*

For a copy of our release and Avid’s mailing address, go to www.avid.com/footage.

*Note: Avid cannot guarantee the use of materials submitted.

Avid Interplay Assist User’s Guide • 0130-07606-02 B • June 2008

Using This Guide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

Symbols and Conventions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

If You Need Help. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

Accessing the Online Library . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

How to Order Documentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

Avid Training Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

Chapter 1 Getting Started with Avid Interplay Assist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

Uses for Logging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

Basic Interplay Assist Workflow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

Starting Avid Interplay Assist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

Mounting Workspaces on an Avid Unity MediaNetwork System . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

Mounting Workspaces on an Avid Unity ISIS System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

Mounting a Workspace for Send to Playback . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

Starting the Avid Interplay Assist Application . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

Using Interplay Assist Help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

Working with MultiRez and Dynamic Relink . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

Understanding Source Mode and Shotlist Mode. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

Understanding Undo and Redo. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

Undoing and Redoing: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

Changing the Font. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

Printing the Logging Panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

Chapter 2 Preparing to Log . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

Understanding Asset Markers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

Navigating to Assets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

Interplay Assist Search Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

Organizing Folders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

Loading Clips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

Updating the Application Display . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

Chapter 3 Customizing the Research Panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

Changing the Research Panel and Logging Panel Sizes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

Using the Research Panel Display. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

Asset Icons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

Working with Column Headings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

Displaying Resolutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

Creating New Columns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

Enlarging or Reducing Column Size . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

Working with Layouts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

Column Headings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

Opening Multiple Tabs in the Research Panel. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

Changing Writable Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

Updating Assets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52

Chapter 4 Playing and Marking in the Video Monitor. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

Video Monitor Controls. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

Changing the Video Monitor Size. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

Using Large Monitor Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56

Using Medium Monitor Mode. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

Using Small Monitor Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

Resizing Panels. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

Selecting Functions from the Video Monitor Context Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60

Playing Video . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61

Playing Video Clips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62

Using the Position Bar and the Position Indicator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62

Using the Transport Controls. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63

Playing Footage with the J-K-L Keys (Three-Button Play) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63

Using Timecode to Find a Frame . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65

Displaying Footage at Full or Half Resolution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65

Playing Resolutions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67

Marking and Cueing Footage. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67

Marking IN and OUT Points. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67

Dragging IN Points and OUT Points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69

Cueing the Footage. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69

Monitoring Audio and Video . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70

Creating Subclips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72

Changing the Aspect Ratio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74

Chapter 5 Logging Events With Locators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75

Marking Events with Locators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75

Setting Locator Color . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77

Locator Indicators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77

Displaying Locator Indicators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78

Adding Locator Text in Large Monitor Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79

Restricting Material . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80

Marking a Restriction Locator. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80

Creating Subclips of Restricted Material . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81

Deleting Restrictions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82

Annotating Locators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82

Annotating an Existing Locator. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82

Removing an Annotation from a Locator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83

Defining an Annotation Label . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84

Adding Your Own Annotation Icon Graphic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85

Showing Other Users’ Locators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86

Displaying All Locators and Annotations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86

Displaying Particular Users . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87

Finding Items in the Logging Panel. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87

Moving to Locators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89

Deleting Locators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90

Chapter 6 Working with Metadata . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91

Understanding Metadata. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91

Entering Metadata. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92

Working with Metadata Fields . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93

Displaying a Metadata Field . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93

Adding a Default Value. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95

Adding a New Metadata Field . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97

Flagging an Important Field . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98

Hiding a Metadata Field . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99

Finding Items in Metadata. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99

Chapter 7 Working with Shotlists. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101

Creating a New Shotlist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101

Saving Your Shotlist Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104

Opening an Existing Shotlist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104

Adding to a Shotlist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106

Adding a Source Clip to a Shotlist. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106

Adding a Shotlist to a Shotlist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107

Moving Through a Shotlist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108

Finding Items in a Shotlist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109

Changing a Shotlist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110

Rearranging Shots in a Shotlist. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110

Removing a Shot from a Shotlist. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110

Changing IN Points and OUT Points in a Shotlist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111

Entering Metadata for Shotlists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111

Saving a Copy of a Shotlist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112

Chapter 8 Sending Files Out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113

Sending Material to Playback. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113

Working and Target Audio Resolutions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115

Setting Working Resolutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115

Sending a Shotlist to Playback . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116

Sending a Source to Playback . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118

Sending Clips or Shotlists to the Archive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119

Selecting Interplay Media Services Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119

Sending a Source to the Archive. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120

Managing the Archive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121

Chapter 9 Using the Keyboard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123

Speeding Your Logging by Mapping Keys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123

Assigning Keys to Insert Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123

Assigning a Key Combination to an Annotation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126

Removing a Key Mapping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128

Editing Existing Inserted Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128

Viewing Predefined Key Mappings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129

Using a Mapped Key Combination . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129

Using Predefined Key Mappings. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130

Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133

Using This Guide

Congratulations on your purchase of an Avid® Interplay® Assist application. You can use your application to log, annotate, and archive your work.

The documentation describes the features and hardware of all models. Therefore, your

system might not contain certain features and hardware that are covered in the documentation.

Symbols and Conventions

Avid documentation uses the following symbols and conventions:

Symbol or Convention Meaning or Action

> This symbol indicates menu commands (and subcommands) in the

Bold font Bold font is primarily used in task instructions to identify user interface

Italic font Italic font is used to emphasize certain words and to indicate variables.

Courier Bold font

Ctrl+key or mouse action Press and hold the first key while you press the last key or perform the

A note provides important related information, reminders, recommendations, and strong suggestions.

A caution means that a specific action you take could cause harm to your computer or cause you to lose data.

order you select them. For example, File > Import means to open the File menu and then select the Import command.

This symbol indicates a single-step procedure. Multiple arrows in a list indicate that you perform one of the actions listed.

items and keyboard sequences.

Courier Bold font identifies text that you type.

mouse action. For example, Ctrl+drag.

If You Need Help

If you are having trouble using your Avid product:

1. Retry the action, carefully following the instructions given for that task in this guide. It is especially important to check each step of your workflow.

2. Check the latest information that might have become available after the documentation was published:

- If the latest information for your Avid product is provided as printed release notes,

they ship with your application and are also available online.

If the latest information for your Avid product is provided as a ReadMe file, it is supplied on your Avid installation CD or DVD as a PDF document (README_product.pdf) and is also available online.

You should always check online for the most up-to-date release notes or ReadMe because the online version is updated whenever new information becomes available. To view these online versions, select ReadMe from the Help menu, or visit

the Knowledge Base at

3. Check the documentation that came with your Avid application or your hardware for maintenance or hardware-related issues.

www.avid.com/readme.

4. Visit the online Knowledge Base at www.avid.com/onlinesupport. Online services are available 24 hours per day, 7 days per week. Search this online Knowledge Base to find answers, to view error messages, to access troubleshooting tips, to download updates, and to read or join online message-board discussions.

Accessing the Online Library

The Avid Interplay Online Library contains all the Avid Interplay product documentation in PDF format, including a Master Glossary of all specialized terminology used in the documentation for Avid products.

You need Adobe® Reader® to view the PDF documentation. You can download the latest

version from the Adobe web site.

To access the Online Library, do one of the following:

1. Insert the Online Library DVD into the drive.

2. Double-click the MainMenu file.

How to Order Documentation

To order additional copies of this documentation from within the United States, call Avid Sales at 800-949-AVID (800-949-2843). If you are placing an order from outside the United States, contact your local Avid representative.

Avid Training Services

Avid makes lifelong learning, career advancement, and personal development easy and convenient. Avid understands that the knowledge you need to differentiate yourself is always changing, and Avid continually updates course content and offers new training delivery methods that accommodate your pressured and competitive work environment.

To learn about Avid's new online learning environment, Avid Learning Excellerator™ (ALEX), visit

For information on courses/schedules, training centers, certifications, courseware, and books, please visit (800-949-2843).

http://learn.avid.com.

www.avid.com/training or call Avid Sales at 800-949-AVID

How to Order Documentation

1 Getting Started with Avid Interplay

Assist

Avid Interplay Assist provides you with tools to log and archive footage in several ways. You can log captured material and use locators to mark specific points of interest in footage. You can annotate the locators and note a usage restriction on a portion of the footage. You can also work with shotlists containing more than one clip, and you can archive the logs. Assist supports international character input. Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese, Japanese, French, Italian, German, and Spanish are supported.

Video material comes from the Avid Interplay Engine and shared storage. Avid Interplay Assist can search and browse the Interplay Engine, and it can access workspaces shared with Avid editing applications.

This chapter helps you get started with Avid Interplay Assist. See the following topics:

• Uses for Logging

• Basic Interplay Assist Workflow

• Starting Avid Interplay Assist

• Using Interplay Assist Help

• Working with MultiRez and Dynamic Relink

• Understanding Source Mode and Shotlist Mode

• Understanding Undo and Redo

• Changing the Font

• Printing the Logging Panel

Uses for Logging

Avid Interplay Assist offers a range of functions; one person can use it in different ways, or several different users can specialize in particular tasks. The most frequent uses are likely to be:

1 Getting Started with Avid Interplay Assist

• Logging ingest or captured material, classifying assets based on where they came from, and entering basic information about the material. For example, a college student might be hired to work from a script and add a basic set of comments (metadata) to every clip that comes in.

• Adding locators to the previously identified clips. For example, you can mark all the significant plays in a championship sports event with locators and create subclips from the marked locations.

• Marking restrictions on particular clips or portions of clips. For example, you can mark beginning and ending restriction points to indicate the following: material that should not be used, material that can be used only after rights are available on a certain date, material that the organization will need to pay for upon use, material that has copyright requirements or other legal restrictions that limit its use, and so on.

• Providing a detailed description of the video. For example, a more experienced user of Avid Interplay Assist might use the application to type a running commentary while watching the previously annotated video, tying words and sentences with specific timecodes and creating locators as a result.

• Searching for clips through the Interplay Engine and the archive that are relevant to a particular production, and annotating and creating new sequences. For example, a production assistant might search for master clips, find specific frames and annotate them for use in the production, find or create new sequences, annotate them with editorial notes, and so on.

• Reviewing clips, subclips, and sequences, marking up specific items with notes for the assistant or the editor, creating a rough cut for a final sequence, and sending the video to playback or to an Avid editing application. For example, the producer would review the material prepared by the production assistant, make changes, assemble the final sequence, mark up the production for last-minute changes, and send it to air.

• Archiving video at the end of the production workflow. For example, the archivist or librarian would review and update the metadata content for every clip, sequence, and shotlist going into the archive, assist others in finding material, define the location and hierarchy of stored video, and do other archival tasks.

Basic Interplay Assist Workflow

Basic use of Interplay Assist might include the following steps:

1. Start Avid Interplay Assist.

2. Navigate to the material you want to log or search for clips sharing certain attributes.

3. Load a clip into the Video monitor.

4. Play the material and mark events with locators.

5. Add comments to the locators.

6. Add metadata to the clips.

7. Assemble the clips into a shotlist.

8. Add metadata to the shotlist.

9. Flag restricted material.

10. Save the shotlist.

11. Add metadata to the shotlist.

12. Send the shotlist to play back on a playback device, if appropriate.

Starting Avid Interplay Assist

Avid Interplay Assist runs as a client of Avid Interplay connected to one of several shared storage systems: an Avid so on. Before you start Avid Interplay Assist, you must check to see that you are connected to the shared storage and that you have mounted at least one workspace. Shared storage applications should already be installed on your system; however, if you are not certain if the necessary software has been installed, see your system administrator.

Unity™ MediaNetwork system, Avid Unity ISIS®, LANshare, and

Starting Avid Interplay Assist

For information on mounting workspaces, see the following topics:

• “Mounting Workspaces on an Avid Unity MediaNetwork System” on page 20

• “Mounting Workspaces on an Avid Unity ISIS System” on page 21

Your Avid Interplay administrator must set some site settings before you use Interplay Assist. These settings are stored on the Avid Interplay Server and are used by Interplay Assist when it is retrieving media objects managed by the Avid Interplay Engine. The settings include target and working resolutions, user permissions, the Workgroup and MediaIndexer settings, and so on. For more information, see the Avid Interplay Engine and Avid Interplay Archive Engine Administration Guide.

For information on installing the Avid Interplay Assist application, see the Avid Interplay

Assist ReadMe

www.avid.com/readme. To start the Avid Interplay Assist application, see “Starting the Avid

Interplay Assist Application” on page 24.

You can start the Interplay Assist application from within Interplay Access by

double-clicking an asset; Interplay Assist logs you in with your Interplay Access user information. For more information about Interplay Access, see the Avid Interplay Access

User’s Guide.

on the Avid Interplay installation DVD or on the Knowledge Base at

1 Getting Started with Avid Interplay Assist

Mounting Workspaces on an Avid Unity MediaNetwork System

If your system is connected to an Avid Unity MediaNetwork, you can mount an Avid Unity MediaNetwork workspace before you begin your Interplay Assist session by using

Unity Connection Manager.

Avid

To mount Avid Unity MediaNetwork workspaces on your system:

1. Make sure Avid Interplay Assist is not running.

2. Click the Connection Manager icon in the Windows® taskbar, and select Configure.

The Avid Ethernet Attached Client Configuration dialog box opens.

You need to add the name of your server to the server list. If you are not certain of your Avid

Unity configuration, see your system administrator.

3. Do one of the following:

t Select “Get a list of servers from License Pool Server(s),” and then in the Server

List text box type the name of the server you want to use to locate the Ethernet Attached Server to which your client system is connected.

t Select “Manually specify Ethernet Attached Server(s),” and then in the Server List

text box type the name or the IP address of the server to which you want your client system to connect.

4. Click Add to add the new Ethernet® server to the list of available servers.

Starting Avid Interplay Assist

5. Click OK to close the dialog box and save the change.

6. Click the Connection Manager icon in the Windows taskbar, and select Manage

Connections.

If you are logged in to Windows using a valid Avid Unity MediaNetwork user name and password, the Avid all the Avid

Unity MediaNetwork workspaces to which you have access. (If you are not

Unity Connection Manager dialog box opens and displays a list of

logged in with a valid MediaNetwork user name and password, you are prompted to supply them before the Avid

Unity Connection Manager dialog box opens.)

Workspaces that are already mounted appear selected in the workspace list.

7. In the workspace list, select the workspace or workspaces you want mounted.

8. (Option) To select all workspaces, click the Select All button. To deselect all workspaces, click the Clear All button.

9. (Option) If you want the selected workspaces remounted the next time you log in, select “Automatically remount these workspaces the next time I log in.”

10. Click Apply.

The Connection Manager mounts the selected workspaces on your client. When workspaces are mounted, the square in the top right corner of the Connection Manager icon changes from red to green.

Mounting Workspaces on an Avid Unity ISIS System

If your system is connected to an Avid Unity ISIS media network, you can mount an

Unity ISIS workspace before you begin your Interplay Assist session using Avid Unity

Avid Client Manager.

1 Getting Started with Avid Interplay Assist

To connect to the Avid Unity ISIS network:

1. Do one of the following:

t (Windows) If the Client Manager icon is not available in the Windows taskbar,

select Start > All Programs > AvidUnityISIS > ClientManager.

t (Windows) Click the Client Manager icon in the Windows taskbar.

t (Windows) Right-click the Client Manager icon and select Unity ISIS Client

Manager.

t (Macintosh) Double-click the Client Manager alias icon on the desktop, or

double-click the Client Manager alias icon in the dock.

t (Macintosh) If the Client Manager alias icon is not available, select Go >

Applications, and then double-click the AvidUnityISIS folder. In this folder, double-click the UnityClientManager file.

The Avid Unity ISIS Client Manager opens.

Menu panel

Connections list

Sort menu

Fast menu

2. In the Menu panel, click Connections.

The Connections list displays all available System Directors.

Starting Avid Interplay Assist

3. Select the System Director you want to connect to from the Connections list.

You can sort the Connections list by clicking the Sort menu and selecting Hostname or Connection Status.

4. Do one of the following:

t (Windows) If your ISIS system is configured to use the Windows user name and

password for your local system, select OS Login. By default, the Username and Password text boxes are inactive when you select this option.

t (Windows) If your ISIS system is configured to use a separate Avid Unity ISIS

client account user name and password, select User Login, and then type your account name in the Username text box, and type your password in the Password text box.

t (Macintosh) Type your Avid Unity ISIS account name in the Username text box,

and type your password in the Password text box.

5. Do one of the following:

t Click the Connect button.

t Click the Fast menu, and select Connect.

The Connect button changes to green when the connection is complete.

6. (Option—Windows only) If you used the OS Login option, and you want to connect to the network automatically every time you start your system, click the Auto Connect button.

The Auto Connect button changes to blue.

Mounting a Workspace for Send to Playback

On Avid Unity ISIS, if you need to write to a drive or use the drive for Send to Playback, your target voice-over workspace must be mounted with lettered drive mapping (for more information about selecting your target voice-over workspace, see “Editor Database Settings” in the Avid Interplay Engine and Avid Interplay Archive Engine Administration Guide). If your drive is already mounted as letterless, do following to mount it as a lettered drive.

To mount a workspace as a lettered drive:

1. Open the ISIS Client Manager application.

2. Right click the target voice-over workspace and select Unmount.

3. Right-click the target voice-over workspace again and select Mount To.

4. Select a drive letter.

1 Getting Started with Avid Interplay Assist

Interplay Assist does not support voice-overs, but you still need to have the target voice-over workspace mounted so you can send to playback.

Starting the Avid Interplay Assist Application

To start the Avid Interplay Assist application:

1. Do one of the following:

t Double-click the icon on your desktop.

t Click the Start button, and select All Programs > Avid > Avid Interplay Assist.

The Avid Interplay Assist Login window opens.

2. Type the name of your Avid Interplay Engine in the Asset Manager text box.

3. Type your name in the User Name text box.

4. Type your password in the Password text box.

Interplay Server passwords are case sensitive.

5. Click Login.

The Interplay Assist application opens.

Using Interplay Assist Help

Your Interplay Assist application comes with a Help system that contains the same information as this guide.

To view the Help:

1. Select Help > Avid Interplay Assist Help.

The Help opens.

2. For more information about using the Help, click the Contents tab and explore the Using Help topic.

1 Getting Started with Avid Interplay Assist

Working with MultiRez and Dynamic Relink

MultiRez (a term derived from “multiple resolutions”) allows you to associate a clip with multiple media files of different resolutions. For example, you can associate the same audio clip with low-resolution MP2 or uncompressed PCM, and the uncompressed files can be associated with more than one sample rate or bit depth. MultiRez works with both audio and video files.

When you work with MultiRez, you can easily switch between the different resolutions. This switching is referred to as dynamic relink. Dynamic relink is useful when you want to work with low-resolution media and create your final output in high-resolution media.

When your Avid Interplay administrator enables dynamic relink, Assist loads video and audio clips in your working resolution (see

page 115). When you send a sequence to playback, the media clips are automatically

relinked to the target resolution. If dynamic relink is disabled, Assist loads clips using the resolution the media clips are currently linked to, and Assist does not relink media when you export it.

To check if dynamic relink is enabled:

1. Select Help > About Avid Interplay Assist.

“Working and Target Audio Resolutions” on

2. Click the MultiRez tab, and check that the Dynamic Relink Enabled option is set to Yes.

3. Click OK.

Understanding Source Mode and Shotlist Mode

In Avid Interplay Assist, you work in one of two modes: Source mode or Shotlist mode. You can add locators and metadata to either source clips or shotlists.

Source material comes from capture. To log material, you move through it, mark IN and OUT points, create subclips, and note significant events with locators, annotations, and metadata.

Shotlists are composed of source material. A shotlist can be an ordered set of clips that ends up as a rough cut for a sequence in an Avid editing application, for example. It can also be an unordered set of similar clips from which the best instance is chosen or which is archived as a group. Shotlists can be marked with locators and metadata.

Most of your work, after you find and navigate to clips and shotlists, is done in the Video monitor and the Logging panel. You click the Source button to enter Source mode, and the Shotlist button to enter Shotlist mode.

Video monitor Source tabs Shotlist tabsSource button Shotlist button

For more information, see the following topics:

• “Playing and Marking in the Video Monitor” on page 53

• “Logging Events With Locators” on page 75

• “Working with Shotlists” on page 101

• “Working with Metadata” on page 91

Understanding Undo and Redo

You can undo many of the actions you carry out in Interplay Assist. Undoing reverses the last operation you performed.

Also consider the following:

• If you are working on a source clip and then load a new clip, the Undo history starts over. You can’t go back to the first clip and undo your actions.

• If you are working on a shotlist and then create a new shotlist, the Undo history starts over. You can’t go back to the first shotlist and undo actions.

• The Undo history is separate for the Source tabs and the Shotlist tabs. If you are in the Source Locators tab, for example, and then click and work in the Shotlist locators tab, you can still return to the Source Locators tab and undo an action. You don’t lose your Source tab Undo history by working in a Shotlist tab; the reverse is also true.

You can redo an action.

1 Getting Started with Avid Interplay Assist

Undoing and Redoing:

To undo an action:

t Do one of the following:

- Select Edit > Undo.

- Press Ctrl+Z.

Certain operations cannot be undone. These are noted in the appropriate sections in this book.

To redo an action:

t Do one of the following:

- Select Edit > Redo.

- Press Ctrl+Y.

Changing the Font

You can change the default fonts and font sizes for the following areas of the Assist interface using the Fonts menu options:

• Locator and metadata text

• Directory panel

• Research panel

Font changes are saved as user settings and do not affect other Assist systems.

To change the font in Assist:

1. Select Preferences > Fonts > [font option].

The Select [font option] font dialog box opens. The dialog box allows you to select and preview options other than Font and Size, but those options do not take effect in the application; you can change only Font and Size. You must have locators displaying in a Locators tab if you want to change the locator text font.

2. Select a font and a size, and then click OK.

Printing the Logging Panel

The font in the Interface area you selected changes.

To restore the default fonts in the Assist interface:

t Select Preferences > Fonts > Restore Fonts to Default.

Printing the Logging Panel

You can print the currently open tab in the Logging panel. You can select a single locator or clip for printing or you can print the entire tab. You can print the contents of any of the tabs.

The Logging panel must be visible to print it. If you are in Large Monitor mode and are

viewing the Video monitor, you need to click the Display button to return to the panels view.

“Using Large Monitor Mode” on page 56.

See

To print the contents of a tab:

1. (Option) Select File > Page Setup, select options in the Page Setup dialog box, and click OK.

2. Do one of the following:

t Select File > Print.

1 Getting Started with Avid Interplay Assist

t Right-click in a locator or a clip and select Print. (Do not right-click in the header

area.)

A standard Print dialog box opens.

3. Select one of the following:

t All: the entire tab prints.

t Selection: the currently selected locator or clip prints.

t Pages: specify which pages you want to print. In general, it is more effective to

select All or Selection.

4. Select other options and then click Print.

Headframes that are not visible on the screen might not be fully loaded when you decide to

print. The print function waits for the headframes to load; after a certain period of time, you might see a message box asking you if you want to wait longer.

The contents of the tab print. The header information from the tab, such as user name, working resolution, and so on, does not print. A default header prints, however, containing the name of the clip or shotlist, the name of the tab, and the date and time. If you print more than one page, the pages break at locator or metadata boundaries.

5. (Option) If the Logging panel is too wide and the right-hand edges of the locators print onto a second page, do one of the following and then repeat the printing procedure:

t In the Print dialog box, click Preferences, select Landscape, and then click OK.

t Click the right-hand edge of the application and drag it to the left to resize

application to a more narrow width.

2 Preparing to Log

Before you can log your material, you need to find, organize, and load the clips you need.

See the following topics:

• Understanding Asset Markers

• Navigating to Assets

• Interplay Assist Search Options

• Organizing Folders

• Loading Clips

• Updating the Application Display

Understanding Asset Markers

Assets can carry two different kinds of markers:

• Reservations: Reservations protect assets from deletion and moving. Assets protected by a reservation are marked by a circular red icon. You cannot set reservations in Interplay Assist. Shotlists you create in Assist might have reservations automatically placed on them depending on how your system administrator has configured your Interplay system. For more information about reservations, see the Avid Interplay Access User’s Guide.

• Restriction locators: Restrictions mark limitation warnings on the use of assets. Assets that include a restriction locator are marked by a triangular red icon. For more information about restrictions, see

“Restricting Material” on page 80.

2 Preparing to Log

Reservation marker Restriction locator marker

Navigating to Assets

Before you load assets for logging, you need to navigate to its location in the Interplay Engine using the Directory panel. You can use the hierarchical display of folders to navigate, or you can search for particular assets.

To navigate through folders:

t In the Directory panel, navigate to the asset you want to log and click the folder.

The navigation results appear in the Research panel.

DIrectory panel Research panel

To navigate by searching:

1. Do one of the following:

t Select File > Search Media.

t In the Directory panel, right-click and select Search.

Navigating to Assets

The Media Search tab appears in the Research panel, and the Search functions

opens.

area

2 Preparing to Log

Search functions area

2. Type the text you want to search for in the Text text box and then select options:

t Click the arrow to open the Search In area, and select a folder to search.

t Click the arrow to open the Types menu, and select a type of asset.

t Click the arrow to open the Category menu, and select one or more categories of

assets.

t Select a range of creation times or modification times during which you want to

search.

See “Interplay Assist Search Options” on page 35 for descriptions of the search options. For the best response times for your search, make it as specific as you can.

3. Click Search.

The results of the search appear in the Results tab of the Research panel. As the search progresses, the number of items found appear at the top right corner. The number increments while the search is ongoing, and then reports the total number found when the search is finished. The search finds up to the first 2500 assets that meet your search criteria. A subsequent search replaces the previous results. If you want to keep more than one set of search results open at a time, you can “pin” the results display to preserve it as a tab in the Research panel and then open new search results as a separate tab. This way, you can keep multiple search results open at once.

Double arrow

4. To return to the Search functions area, click the double arrow.

Interplay Assist Search Options

Search text

Pin button

Number of items found

5. To keep the results of the search open as a tab, click the Pin button.

The search is preserved as a tab in the Research panel.

After you preserve several searches, you might not be able to see tabs for all of them. This depends on your screen size. You can close tabs you opened earlier to see newly preserved searches.

Interplay Assist Search Options

Search Category Options Description

Text User-supplied text Allows you to search all text-based entries, for example, Name,

Tape, or Comments.

Search In Allows you to search in any project, bin, or folder.

Types Master Clip

Subclip Sequence

Allows you to specify the type of asset for your search.

2 Preparing to Log

Search Category Options Description

Category Local News

Politics International Sports Weather

Time All dates and times

Last 10 minutes Last hour Last 24 hours Last week Last month Last year

Organizing Folders

To organize your folders, you might want to create new folders in which to store material, create a shortcut to a folder, or remove a folder. You should create a folder in which to store your shotlists, for example. You create new folders in the Directory panel.

It is possible to create a new folder, load a clip in the Video monitor, open the new folder in the Research panel, select Source mode in the Video monitor, and click the clip and drag it to the Research panel. If you then click the same clip and drag it to the new folder in the Directory panel, it appears and now exists twice in the same folder with the same name. If you do this, make sure you change the clip’s name to something unique.

Allows you to specify which category to search. The specific categories are defined by the system administrator.

Allows you to set a time parameter for your search.

To create a new folder:

1. Navigate to the folder in the Directory panel.

2. Right-click the icon for the folder, and select Create Folder.

Organizing Folders

The Create Folder dialog box opens.

3. Type the folder name in the Name of Folder text box, and click OK.

The new folder appears.

To delete a folder:

1. In Interplay Access, delete the contents of the folder.

You can’t delete the contents of the folder from within Assist.

2. In Assist, navigate to the folder in the Directory panel.

3. Right-click the icon for the folder, and select Delete Folder.

The folder is deleted.

You can save time accessing projects or folders you use often by creating shortcuts to them in the Directory panel.

To create a shortcut to a project or folder:

1. Navigate to the project or folder in the Directory panel.

2. Right-click the icon for the project or folder, and select Create Shortcut.

The shortcut appears in italic above the server name in the Directory panel.

2 Preparing to Log

Shortcut

To rename a shortcut:

t Right-click the shortcut name, and select Rename Shortcut.

To remove a shortcut to a project or folder:

t Right-click the shortcut name, and select Delete Shortcut.

The shortcut is removed.

You can move or copy clips and shotlists to other folders in the Directory panel in order to group and organize various types of material based on project needs.

To move clips or sequences from one folder to another:

1. In the Research panel, select the clip or sequence that you want to move.

2. Drag the clip or sequence to the destination folder in the Directory panel, and release the mouse button.

When you copy clips from one folder to another, any custom columns that you created in the first folder are also copied to the second folder. The custom columns appear in the order in which you created them.

To copy clips from one folder to another:

1. In the Research panel, select the clip or sequence that you want to copy.

2. Press and hold Shift+Ctrl as you drag the clip to the destination in the Directory panel, and release the mouse button. This creates a link to the original clip, and hence a copy of the asset within the new folder.

3. (Option) To create a duplicate of the original clip, press and hold the Ctrl key, drag the clip or sequence to the destination folder in the Directory panel, and release the mouse button.

The duplicated clip refers to the original media; the media can be deleted accidentally when

the duplicated clip is deleted.

Loading Clips

When you load a clip, locators created by other users are not visible unless you choose to show them; for more information about showing locators, see

Annotations” on page 86 or “Displaying Particular Users” on page 87.

Loading Clips

“Displaying All Locators and

To load a clip into the Video monitor:

t Click the head frame of a clip in the Research panel.

You cannot undo this operation. Click the head frame of another clip to replace a clip in the Video monitor.

The clip loads into the Video monitor at the head frame. Existing locators for that clip that were defined by the current user are shown in the Source Locators tab.

2 Preparing to Log

Timecode

Head frame of clip

Clip Name

Video monitor

Existing locators

Research panel

Updating the Application Display

If material is ingesting as you are working or other people are working in the same project, you might need to update the application display to see the latest content.

To update the application display, do one of the following:

t Select View > Refresh all.

t Press F5.

The Directory panel, the Research panel, the Source tabs, and the Video monitor update to the latest content. In the Research panel, this includes only the tab in front if you have more than one tab. Tabs that are behind the active tab don’t update. If you try to update before a previous update operation has completed, Assist ignores the second attempt. Search result tabs are also not updated.

To refresh the tabs that are behind the active tab:

1. Click the tab you want to update to bring it to the front.

2. Select View > Refresh all.

The tab updates to the latest content.

To refresh just the Research panel:

t Click the Refresh button.

Refresh button

To update a search result tab:

t Execute the search again.

Updating the Application Display

2 Preparing to Log

3 Customizing the Research Panel

You can modify how the Research panel displays information about the assets stored on the Interplay Engine. You can also specify the information you want to view about each asset by customizing column headings and column displays.

Your system administrator needs to set your user privileges so you can modify the Research panel. If you are having problems, see your system administrator.

For more information, see the following topics:

• Changing the Research Panel and Logging Panel Sizes

• Using the Research Panel Display

• Opening Multiple Tabs in the Research Panel

• Changing Writable Properties

Changing the Research Panel and Logging Panel Sizes

You can adjust the sizes of the Research panel and the Logging panel to maximize the display area of the panel you need for your work. The Research panel and the Logging panel sizes are connected: when you make one larger, the other becomes smaller.

3 Customizing the Research Panel

To change the Research panel and Logging panel sizes:

1. Move the mouse over the Resize bar at the top of the Research panel.

Resize bar

The cursor displays arrows pointing up and down.

2. Click the Resize bar and drag it up or down to resize the panel.

Using the Research Panel Display

The Research panel provides you with information on all Avid assets stored on the Interplay Engine, including audio and video clips, graphics, and text files. See the following topics:

• “Asset Icons” on page 44

• “Working with Column Headings” on page 45

• “Displaying Resolutions” on page 47

• “Creating New Columns” on page 48

• “Enlarging or Reducing Column Size” on page 48

• “Working with Layouts” on page 49

• “Column Headings” on page 50

Asset Icons

An icon identifies the type of asset for each asset, as summarized in the following table.

Asset Type Icon Object Description

Master clip A clip that references audio and video media files formed from captured footage

or imported files

Using the Research Panel Display

Asset Type Icon Object Description

Subclip A clip that references a selected portion of a master clip

Shotlist or Sequence A media element, partial or complete, that you create from individual clips

Audio clip A clip that references audio media files formed from captured sound or imported

audio files

Restricted clip A clip containing restricted material.

In-progress master clip A clip in the process of being captured; when the capture is complete, the icon

updates to the standard master clip icon.

In-progress audio clip An audio clip in the process of being captured; when the capture is complete, the

icon updates to the standard audio clip icon.

Working with Column Headings

You can select individual or multiple column headings that you can display or hide in the Research panel.

Column headings

Frame column

Your system administrator needs to set your user privileges so you can modify column headings. If you are having problems, see your system administrator.

“Column Headings” on page 50 describes the default column headings. For information

about displaying resolution columns, see “Displaying Resolutions” on page 47.

You can sort the information in all of the columns except the Frame column. The Type column sorts alphabetically depending on the type of object (audio clip, master clip, sequence, subclip). Date columns sort chronologically.

To sort information in columns:

t Click the column heading. To reverse the sort order, click the column heading again.

3 Customizing the Research Panel

To move a column in the Research panel:

1. Click the heading of the column that you want to move.

The entire column is highlighted.

2. Drag the column to the position you want, and release the mouse button.

The column appears in the new position, and columns to the right are moved to

room.

make

To hide a column:

t Right-click the column heading and select Hide this Column.

When you hide columns, they are listed on the menu below the Hide this Column option. You cannot hide the Frame column.

To display a hidden column:

t Right-click a column heading and select Show heading.

To select a working set of columns:

1. Right-click a column heading and select Select Working Set of Columns.

The Select Working Set of Columns dialog box opens. The dialog box displays the same set of system properties as the Field Dictionary in the Metadata Field Editor.

Using the Research Panel Display

2. Select the columns you want to show in the Research panel.

3. (Option) To clear the selection and start over, click Clear Selection.

4. Click OK.

The columns you selected appear in the Research panel.

Displaying Resolutions

Among the column headings you can show are the resolutions associated with the clip, subclip, or sequence (see the resolution column describes the resolution status of the clip, subclip, or sequence as shown in the following illustration.

The circles indicate the following:

• Filled circle: online

• Half-filled circle: partially online

• Empty circle: offline or not available

“Working with Column Headings” on page 45). The information in

Online resolution

Offline or not availalble resolution

Partially online resolution

3 Customizing the Research Panel

You must click the clip, subclip, or sequence in the Research panel to accurately display the resolution status. When you click the item, the system retrieves the latest resolution status. The status might not be correct if you are viewing an unselected subclip or sequence.

For more information about resolution status, see “Viewing Media Status” in the Avid Interplay Access User’s Guide.

Creating New Columns

You can create new column headings in the Research panel. If the new heading has the same name as a system property or a user property the new column displays the properties for the heading already in the database. When you create a new column heading, it also appears in the list of system properties in the Field Dictionary of the Metadata Field Editor. You must exit Interplay Assist and log in again for the new property to appear. For more information about the Metadata Field Editor, see

“Working with Metadata Fields” on page 93.

You cannot create two headings with the same name. The new column heading does not appear in the Interplay database until you have entered information in it for at least one clip or shotlist. It then appears in the Field Dictionary of the Metadata Field Editor after you restart Assist.

— for example, FPS (frames per second) —

To create a new column:

1. Right-click a column heading and select New Column.

The Add New Column dialog box opens.

2. Type a name for the new column, and then click OK.

The new column appears to the left of the selected column in the Research panel.

3. Type information in the new column for at least one clip or shotlist.

Enlarging or Reducing Column Size

You can reduce the column size to conserve screen real estate, or enlarge it to better view the head frames or the information in a column. If you change the column in which the head frames are displayed, the size of the frame changes. You cannot change the size of an individual frame; you must enlarge or reduce all cells in the column together. When you enlarge or reduce the head frame column, the frames enlarge or reduce in height and width. Other columns only widen or narrow.

To enlarge or to reduce the column size:

1. Move the mouse over one of the borders of a column heading in the Research panel.

The cursor displays arrows pointing outward.

2. Click the cursor and drag it to the right or the left to resize the column.

The column enlarges or reduces.

Working with Layouts

Any time you modify a column, the Research panel maintains the custom layout for the individual folder during your current work session even if you switch projects or folders. When you quit your session, the customized layout is lost unless you save it. You can apply saved layouts to any asset display in the Research panel. The Default layout includes the columns listed in layout.

To save a layout:

1. Open a project and select a folder.

2. Modify the columns according to preference.

3. Click the Layout menu, and select Save Layout As.

“Column Headings” on page 50. You cannot modify or delete the Default

Using the Research Panel Display

Layout menu

The Enter Column Layout Name dialog box opens.

4. Type a name for the custom view, and click OK.

The layout is saved and added to the list of layouts in the Layout menu. You can select any of the saved layouts from the Layout menu.

5. (Option) If you want to save changes to an existing layout, click Save Layout.

To open a saved layout:

t Click the Layout menu, and select a saved menu from the menu list.

3 Customizing the Research Panel

To delete the current layout:

1. Click the Layout menu, and select Delete Current Layout.

A message box appears asking if you want to permanently delete the layout.

2. Click OK.

Column Headings

Heading Description

[Frame] For video clips, displays a thumbnail of the clip. This might be the first frame of a clip (also

called a head frame), or if the clip was checked in from an Avid editing application, it might be some other representative frame. For audio clips, displays a standardized waveform.

Type Type of clip information for each media file.

Name Name of the clip or sequence.

Creation Date Date and time the clip or sequence was created.

Modified Date Date and time a sequence was last changed.

Tracks All tracks used by this media object.

Video Kind of video.

Duration Length of the clip.

TapeID Tape ID number.

Tape Source tape name.

Comments Any comments added as metadata to the media file when it was originally captured.

Opening Multiple Tabs in the Research Panel

When you open a new project folder, it replaces the current folder in the Research panel. If you want to keep the contents of more than one folder open at a time, you can “pin” the folder display to preserve it as a tab in the Research panel and then open a new folder as a separate tab. This way, you can keep multiple project folders open at once.

To open multiple project folders in the Research panel:

1. Click the tab you want to preserve in the Research panel, and then click the Pin button.

The folder is preserved as a tab.

2. In the Directory panel, click a different project folder.

The folder opens as a new Media tab in the Research panel, and the pinned tab remains in the panel but becomes inactive.

3. Click an inactive tab to open it.

The active tab becomes inactive. After you pin several project folder tabs, you might not be able to see all of them. This depends on your screen size. You can close tabs you opened earlier to see newly opened tabs.

Multiple Media tabs Close button

To close a tab in the Research panel:

t Click the tab you want to close, and then click the Close button.

Changing Writable Properties

If you have Write privileges in your Interplay environment, you can change several of the properties associated with assets, for example, Comments or Name. These are called writable properties. If you try to change a writable property that another user modified after you accessed the asset, the Property Merge dialog box opens.

3 Customizing the Research Panel

For example, someone else who accessed a clip in Interplay Access after you loaded the same clip in the Research panel might have changed the name of the clip on the server; when you then try to rename that clip, the Property Merge dialog box opens. The change could have been made in any Interplay application, including Assist, Instinct or the Interplay Window in an Avid editing application.

You can view the original status of the writable property, your change, and the current status of the property on the server, and you can choose to update the asset on the server or to update the asset on your system. You can update the asset on the server by merging the changes; you can also can create the text of the change.

Updating Assets

To update your asset with the change from the server:

t Select Update from Server.

The asset is updated with the change from the server.

To update the server with your change:

1. Select the version of the property you want to see in the Merged Value text box:

- Original - the state of the asset before you accessed it

, Interplay Access,

- Your change - this version is selected by default

- Current (on server)

You can select any combination of the versions. The versions appear in the Merged Value text box in the order in which you select them.

2. (Option) Edit the text in the Merged Value text box to create the change you want.

3. Select Submit to Server. The asset is updated with the text in the Merged Value text box.

4 Playing and Marking in the Video

Monitor

The Video monitor provides you with the controls you need to play, cue, and mark video clips as you log material.

Clip title

Timecode display

Go to Start button

Display mode

Preview area

Duration

Position bar

Create Subclip button

Add Locator button

Mark Clip controlsTransport controls

See the following topics:

• Video Monitor Controls

• Changing the Video Monitor Size

4 Playing and Marking in the Video Monitor

• Selecting Functions from the Video Monitor Context Menu

• Playing Video

• Marking and Cueing Footage

• Monitoring Audio and Video

• Creating Subclips

• Changing the Aspect Ratio

Video Monitor Controls

Control Description

Timecode display Describes the hours, minutes, seconds, and frame number of the current frame. You

can also click the Timecode display and use the numeric keypad to go to a specific timecode. See “Using Timecode to Find a Frame” on page 65.

Clip title In Source mode, displays the name of the active source.

In Shotlist mode, displays the name of the active shotlist.

Display mode buttons Indicates which clip or shotlist displays in the Video monitor:

• Source — source clip most recently selected in the Research panel

• Shotlist — active shotlist currently loaded

Preview area Displays the video for the selected clip or sequence.

Duration Displays the length (hours:minutes:seconds) of the between the Mark IN and Mark

OUT points.

Go to Start button Moves the position indicator to the start of the clip or the sequence.

Position bar Displays a graphical representation of the clip or sequence length and contains the

position indicator. See “Using the Position Bar and the Position Indicator” on page

62.

Transport controls Allows you to step or move through a clip or a sequence. For keyboard shortcuts, see

“Using the Keyboard” on page 123.

Mark Clip controls Allow you to mark IN and OUT points and move to those points. For keyboard

shortcuts, see “Using the Keyboard” on page 123.

Add Locator button Adds a locator. See “Logging Events With Locators” on page 75.

Create Subclip button Creates a subclip from the marked region. See “Creating Subclips” on page 72.

Changing the Video Monitor Size

You might want to work with the Video monitor and the other panels in different sizes. Several monitor modes are available: Large Monitor mode, Medium Monitor mode, and Small Monitor mode. The application opens by default in Small Monitor mode.

Changing the Video Monitor Size

The next time you open the application, it opens in the same mode it was in when you

it.

closed

You select the Video monitor size from the View menu.

4 Playing and Marking in the Video Monitor

Using Large Monitor Mode

In Large Monitor mode, you have the option of displaying only the Video monitor. This might help you as you log footage. You can switch the display when you want to use the other three panels.

To use Large Monitor mode:

1. Select View > Large Monitor.

The application displays either the Video monitor or the other three panels. The Video monitor includes a Locator Editor in the bottom right corner, Next Locator and Previous locator buttons, and a large timecode display to the left of the controls. When you add locators, you can type and edit the locator text in the Locator editor so you don’t have to leave the Video monitor workspace. See

on page 79.

Display button

“Adding Locator Text in Large Monitor Mode”

Locator Editor

Previous Locator

Next Locator

Changing the Video Monitor Size

2. If the Video monitor is open, click the Display button to see the other panels.

The rest of the application appears. You can vertically resize the Directory panel and the Research panel. See

“Resizing Panels” on page 59.

3. To see the Video monitor, click the Display button.

Using Medium Monitor Mode

In Medium Monitor mode, the Video monitor displays with the other three panels. The Logging panel occupies the entire right side, allowing you to work more effectively with shotlists.

To use Medium Monitor mode:

1. Select View > Medium Monitor.

All four panels display, with a large timecode display to the left of the Video monitor controls. You can horizontally resize the Directory panel and the Research panel. See

“Resizing Panels” on page 59.

4 Playing and Marking in the Video Monitor

Using Small Monitor Mode

In Small Monitor mode, the Video monitor displays with the other three panels. The Logging panel shares the right side with the Research panel. This mode might be helpful when you are searching for media and setting up custom layouts in the Research panel.

To use Small Monitor mode:

1. Select View > Small Monitor.

Each panel displays in its own quadrant, with the timecode display in the upper left corner of the Video monitor. You can vertically resize the Directory panel and the Research panel. See

“Resizing Panels” on page 59.

Changing the Video Monitor Size

Resizing Panels

In the different monitor modes, you can adjust the sizes of the panels to maximize the display area of the panel you need for your work. The panel sizes are connected: when you make one larger, the other becomes smaller.

In Small Monitor mode and Large Monitor mode, you can vertically resize the Logging panel and the Research panel. In Medium Monitor mode, you can horizontally resize the Directory panel and the Research panel.

4 Playing and Marking in the Video Monitor

To change panel sizes:

1. Move the mouse over the Resize bar.

Resize bar

The cursor displays arrows pointing up and down for vertical resizing or left and right for horizontal resizing.

2. Click the Resize bar and drag it to resize the panel.

Selecting Functions from the Video Monitor Context Menu

You can select several functions from a context menu in the Video monitor.

To select a function from the Video Monitor context menu:

t Right-click in the Video monitor and select a function.

Playing Video

For more information on these functions, see the following topics:

• “Marking Events with Locators” on page 75

• “Marking a Restriction Locator” on page 80

• “Displaying Locator Indicators” on page 78

• “Displaying Footage at Full or Half Resolution” on page 65

• “Changing the Aspect Ratio” on page 74

Playing Video

You can play video in several ways. You can do the following:

• Play using the Play button; see “Playing Video Clips” on page 62.

• Instantly access frames or move through footage using the position indicator within the position bar under the Video monitor. See

Indicator” on page 62.

• Play or step through the footage using the Transport controls. See “Using the Transport

Controls” on page 63.

“Using the Position Bar and the Position

4 Playing and Marking in the Video Monitor

• Use the J-K-L keys for three-finger play. See “Playing Footage with the J-K-L Keys

(Three-Button Play)” on page 63.

• Move to a particular timecode with the Timecode display. See “Using Timecode to Find

a Frame” on page 65.

• Play or step using keyboard equivalents. For keyboard shortcuts, see “Using the

Keyboard” on page 123.

• For information about playing resolutions, see “Playing Resolutions” on page 67.

Playing Video Clips

To play the video clip:

1. Load a clip into the Video monitor. For information on loading video clips, see

“Loading Clips” on page 39.

2. Do one of the following:

t Click the Play button.

t Press Ctrl+space bar.

When you are in Source mode, you play source clips. When you are in Shotlist mode, you play clips in the shotlist.

To stop or pause playback:

t Click the Play button or press Ctrl+space bar again.

Using the Position Bar and the Position Indicator

You can use the position indicator that appears in the position bar under the Video monitor to move to a specific point in a clip or sequence. This allows you to scrub through the video clip to locate the frame you want to cue or mark.

To access frames within a clip in the Video monitor or to move through the footage:

1. Move the position indicator within the position bar under the monitor by clicking anywhere in the position bar or by dragging the position indicator to the left or right. The speed with which you drag the position indicator determines the speed at which you move through the footage.

Position indicator Position bar

2. (Option) Ctrl+drag the position indicator to fine-tune its movement as you scrub through the video

clip.

Using the Transport Controls

You can use the Transport Control buttons that appear under the Video monitor to play and step through your footage. You can also use the keyboard to manipulate footage.

Step Forward One Frame button Play IN to OUT button

Step Back One Frame button

Rewind button

To play the clip:

t Do one of the following:

Playing Video

Play buttonFast Forward button

- Click the Play button.

- Click the Play IN to OUT button.

To play the clip backward or forward in one-frame increments:

t Do one of the following:

- Click the Step Back One Frame button.

- Click the Step Forward One Frame button.

To play backward or forward at double speed:

t Do one of the following:

- Click the Rewind button.

- Click the Fast Forward button.

Playing Footage with the J-K-L Keys (Three-Button Play)

The J-K-L keys on the keyboard allow you to play, step, and shuttle through footage at varying speeds. This feature, also referred to as three-button or variable-speed play, allows you to use three fingers to manipulate the speed of playback for greater control.

4 Playing and Marking in the Video Monitor

To shuttle through the footage using the J-K-L keys on the keyboard:

1. Load a clip or shotlist into the Video monitor.

2. Use the following keys to shuttle at varying speeds:

t Press the L key to move forward through the footage at normal speed.

t Press the L key multiple times to move forward through the footage at faster speeds,

as described in the following table.

Press the L Key To Play Footage at

2 times 2x normal speed

3 times 3x normal speed

4 times 5x normal speed

5 times 8x normal speed

t Press the J key to move backward at the same shuttle speed increments.

t Press the K and L keys together for slow forward.

t Press the K and J keys together for slow backward.

t Press and hold the K key and tap the L key or the J key to step through footage one

frame at a time.

To slow or change play direction one speed at a time:

t Press Alt while you tap the J or L key.

Play slows or changes direction one speed at a time from the speed at which you are currently playing.

Backward ForwardAlt+J Alt+L

0-1x-2x-3x-5x-8x 1x 2x 3x 5x 8x

For example, you are shuttling backward with the J key at 2x normal speed. Press and hold Alt and tap the L key once. Play slows to backward at normal speed (1x speed). Hold Alt and tap L once again. Play stops. Continue to hold Alt and tap L once again. Play goes forward at normal speed. Continue to hold Alt and tap L once again. Play goes

forward at 2x normal speed. Continue to hold Alt and tap L once again; play goes forward at 3x normal speed. Release the keys to continue playing forward at 3x normal speed.

Using Timecode to Find a Frame

You can type timecode values by using the numeric keypad on the right side of the keyboard to cue a loaded clip or sequence to a specific frame. Typing a number overwrites timecode from right to left, which allows you to move to a frame near the current timecode by modifying only the timecode values on the right of the timecode display.

To cue to a frame based on timecode:

1. Click in the Video monitor to make it active.

2. Make sure the keyboard NumLock function is enabled.

3. Type the timecode for the frame on the numeric keypad on the right side of the keyboard.

The new numbers appear as bold text, while existing numbers appear dimmed. You can delete the new numbers by pressing the Delete key on the numeric keyboard.

4. Press Enter on the numeric keypad.

Playing Video

The Video monitor displays the frame at the specified timecode.

5. (Option) Cancel the timecode change by pressing the Escape key or by clicking outside the Video monitor.

Displaying Footage at Full or Half Resolution

The Assist application attempts to display footage at full or half resolution as appropriate for the size of the Video monitor. Displaying at full resolution might negatively affect system performance. You can display your footage at half resolution to conserve resources.

To display footage at half resolution:

t Do one of the following:

- Select Preferences > Allow Full Resolution Video so it does not display a

check mark.

4 Playing and Marking in the Video Monitor

- Right-click in the Video monitor and select Allow Full Resolution Video so it does not display a check mark.

To display footage at full resolution:

t Do one of the following:

- Select Preferences > Allow Full Resolution Video so it displays a check mark.

- Right-click in the Video monitor and select Allow Full Resolution Video so it displays a check mark.

Playing Resolutions

You can view video clips of any resolution qualified by your system. Your Interplay administrator sets the target resolution for playback and the working resolution for all users. To mark and trim footage, your working resolution must be at least equal to the resolution of the video clip you want to use, or you must have user permission settings that allow you to work with the necessary resolution. For more information about target and working resolutions, see the Avid Interplay Engine and Avid Interplay Archive Engine Administration Guide.

Your working resolution and your target resolution are displayed at the top of either Source tab. The Shotlist tabs do not display the resolutions.

Marking and Cueing Footage

You can mark clips with IN and OUT points and cue the footage to specific timecodes. See the following topics:

• “Marking IN and OUT Points” on page 67

• “Dragging IN Points and OUT Points” on page 69

Marking and Cueing Footage

• “Cueing the Footage” on page 69

Marking IN and OUT Points

You can mark IN and OUT points for your source clips, which allows you to build a shotlist quickly by splicing the marked clips into place one after another. You cannot mark IN and OUT points on clips in a shotlist; you must mark them on source clips. You cannot undo marking IN and OUT points. The Mark IN point frame and the Mark OUT point frame are included when you create a subclip from the clip or drag the clip into a shotlist.

To mark IN points and OUT points before adding them to a shotlist:

1. Load a source clip into the Video monitor. For information on loading video clips, see

“Loading Clips” on page 39.

2. Make sure you are in Source mode.

3. Play or step through the material.

4. When you find the appropriate frame, mark an IN point by doing one of the following:

t Click the Mark IN button under the monitor.

t Press Alt+I.

4 Playing and Marking in the Video Monitor

If the clip is playing, marking an IN point does not stop playback. If you entered Shotlist mode by clicking the Shotlist button, the Mark IN and Mark OUT buttons are not available. You must be in Source mode. The Mark IN point moves to the selected point to indicate the Mark IN frame.

5. (Option) Use the Mark IN point to scrub through the clip to set an IN point.

This stops playback. For more information, see “Dragging IN Points and OUT Points”

on page 69.

Mark IN point

Mark OUT point

Mark IN button

Mark OUT button

6. Continue playing or stepping through the video clip.

7. Mark an OUT point by doing one of the following:

t Click the Mark OUT button under the monitor.

t Press Alt+O.

If the clip is playing, marking an OUT point does not stop playback. The Mark OUT point moves to the selected point to indicate the Mark OUT frame.

8. (Option) Use the Mark OUT point to scrub through the position bar to set an OUT point. This stops playback. For more information, see

on page 69.

To clear an IN point or an OUT point, do the following:

t Use the preceding procedure to set the Mark IN point to the beginning of the clip or the

Mark OUT point to the end of the clip.

Dragging IN Points and OUT Points

You cannot undo this operation.

To position IN points and OUT points based on visual feedback, do one of the following:

t Click the Mark IN point or the Mark OUT point, and then drag it to a new location.

The clip in the Video monitor plays forward or backward as you move the IN or OUT points.

t Click the Mark IN point, drag it against the Mark OUT point, pushing the Mark OUT to

where you want it, and then drag the Mark IN point back to where you want it.

Marking and Cueing Footage

“Dragging IN Points and OUT Points”

Cueing the Footage

You can cue the footage in the Video monitor to the marked edit points by using the Mark Clip controls. This allows you to move quickly to the IN point and the OUT point or to play the clip from the marked IN point to the OUT point. If you entered Shotlist mode by clicking the Shotlist button, the Go to IN and Go to OUT buttons are not available. You must be in Source mode. For keyboard shortcuts, see

To cue footage to an IN point or an OUT point:

1. Load a clip into the Video monitor. For information on loading video clips, see

“Loading Clips” on page 39.

2. Make sure you are in Source mode. If you are not sure, click the Source button.

3. Set an IN point or an OUT point. For information on marking video clips, see “Marking

and Cueing Footage” on page 67.

4. Do one of the following:

t Click the Go to IN button.

t Click the Go to OUT button.

“Using the Keyboard” on page 123.

4 Playing and Marking in the Video Monitor

Go to IN button

Go to OUT button

To play footage from an IN point to an OUT point:

1. Load a clip into the Video monitor. For information on loading video clips, see

“Loading Clips” on page 39.

2. Set an IN point or an OUT point. For information on marking video clips, see “Marking

and Cueing Footage” on page 67.

3. Click the Play IN to OUT button.

To stop playing footage:

t Click the Play IN to OUT button or the Play button.

Monitoring Audio and Video

You can monitor audio and video in several ways. You can disable tracks so you play none of your video tracks and only selected audio tracks. You can play all or none of your video tracks and up to 16 audio tracks (source clips and sequences can include up to 24 tracks of audio; you can play only 16 at a time). Media from disabled tracks does not use bandwidth to play over the network. You can also select an audio monitoring mix mode.

Disabling tracks is only for playing in the Video monitor. Your actual media is not affected, and the tracks are not disabled when, for example, you send a shotlist to playback.

To set up audio and video monitoring:

1. Do one of the following:

t Select Preferences > Audio/Video Monitoring.

t Press Ctrl+M.

The Audio/Video Monitoring Preferences dialog box opens.

Monitoring Audio and Video

2. Click the button in the “Video tracks enabled” area to select All or None.

When you disable video tracks, Video Disabled appears in the Video monitor.

3. Do one of the following:

t Click the Audio track buttons that you want to play. You can select up to 16 tracks

to play, and you can select discontiguous tracks.

t Click Disable All to disable all audio tracks.

t Click Enable All to play all audio tracks.

4 Playing and Marking in the Video Monitor

If your material includes more than 16 audio tracks and you select Enable All, only the first 16 tracks play.

4. Select an Audio Monitoring Mix Mode option as described in the following table.

Option Description

Mono Maps to a center pan.

Stereo Maps to a left/right alternating pan.

Direct Out Does not combine audio in any way; all audio tracks remain as they are in the shotlist.

Select this option to retain the greatest flexibility to do further audio manipulation after the shotlist is sent to playback.

If you are playing back from your Video monitor through two-channel output such as headphones or two speakers, you might not be able to detect that all audio tracks are playing. The information remains, however.

5. Click OK.

When you disable a track, it stays disabled for every clip and sequence you load as long as the Assist application is open. The next time you start Assist, all tracks are enabled

again.

Creating Subclips

You can create subclips from the master clip. You might want to enter a portion of a clip into a shotlist instead of the entire master clip or you might want to break a long master clip into more manageable pieces. Use only standard characters when you type subclip names. You cannot use the following special characters: \ / : * < > | % , “ ? ’. You also cannot use a period or a double period (..) as a name, and you cannot end a name with a period.

Interplay Assist allows you to save multiple different subclips with the same name. It does not warn you that a previous subclip exists with that name, and it does not overwrite the previous subclip. Make sure the name you type is unique unless you want two different subclips that have the same name.

To create a subclip:

1. Mark IN and OUT points on a master clip.

2. Do one of the following:

t Select File > New Subclip.

t Click the Create Subclip button.

Creating Subclips

The Save Subclip As dialog box opens.

3. Select a location from the Save In menu.

Avid Interplay Assist provides you with a Default folder, but it is a better practice to set up a folder that is named appropriately and that makes sense to you. You cannot select the top-level folder as a location for saving subclips.

4. (Option) Sort the items in the destination folder to check for a previously named item by doing one of the following:

Icon column Name column sortedIcon column Name column sorted

t Click the arrow above the Name column to sort in alphabetical order. Click the

arrow again to sort in reverse alphabetical order.

t Click the Icon column, and then click the arrow to sort by type: folder, clip, subclip,

or shotlist.

5. Do one of the following in the Save As text box:

t Accept the unique default name that appears.

t Type a subclip name.

6. Click Save.

7. Wait until the Save Subclip As dialog box closes before you click the Create Subclip button again.

4 Playing and Marking in the Video Monitor

Changing the Aspect Ratio

You can change the aspect ratio for the current source clip. Changing aspect ratio resizes the video in the monitor.

To change the aspect ratio:

t Select Preferences > Change Aspect Ratio > aspect ratio.

The video changes to the aspect ratio you selected. You cannot undo this operation.

16 x 9 aspect ratio

t Repeat the procedure to restore your original aspect ratio.

5 Logging Events With Locators

You can log events by adding markers called locators to master clips, subclips, or shotlists. The system automatically saves your clips with the locators. See the following topics:

• Marking Events with Locators

• Setting Locator Color

• Locator Indicators

• Restricting Material

• Annotating Locators

• Showing Other Users’ Locators

• Finding Items in the Logging Panel

• Moving to Locators

• Deleting Locators

Marking Events with Locators

You can add locators to clips or subclips in the Source Locators tab, and you can add locators to shotlists in the Shotlist tab. You cannot add locators to a shotlist in the Source Locators tab. You can play, pause, reverse, review, and mark your video with locators while it is being captured.

Your system administrator needs to set your user privileges so you can add locators. If you are having problems adding or modifying locators, see your system administrator.

Locators can be labeled with the following additional kinds of information:

• Color: Color associated with the locator, used for identification. See “Setting Locator

Color” on page 77.

• Annotation: Marker identifying particular attributes. See “Annotating Locators” on page

82.

You can also set flags on a marked portion of a clip and use them to describe a use restriction. See

“Restricting Material” on page 80.

5 Logging Events With Locators

To mark events with locators:

1. Load a source clip or a shotlist into the Video monitor. For more information, see

“Loading Clips” on page 39.

2. Move through the material by dragging the position indicator or using the Transport controls. See

“Marking and Cueing Footage” on page 67.

3. When you see an event of interest, do one of the following:

t Click the Add Locator button.

t Select Locators > Add Locator.

t Click the Source Locators tab or the Shotlist Locators tab, and press the Tab key.

t After you have added one locator and one of the Locators tabs is active, press the

Tab key.

A new locator icon labelled with the timecode and user name appears in the Source Locators tab or in the Shotlist Locators tab. The locator appears in the list in timecode order. The icon is accompanied by an empty text

If you add a locator while the clip is playing, you see the message “Loading” instead of the head frame. The head frame does not appear in the Logging panel until the clip stops playing.

box.

Timecode

New locator head frame

User name

Comment text box

4. Type text in the Comment text box. You can type as much as you want to. Pressing the Enter key creates a new line.

5. Press the Tab key to create a new locator and a new text box.

The locator icon displays the timecode of the frame shown when you pressed the Tab key. You can add more than one locator with the same timecode. Your work is saved as you go along. If you already created locators for this clip and press Tab, your new locator might appear after an existing locator, not directly after the one you were in when you pressed Tab.

Setting Locator Color

To set a default color for locators:

t Do one of the following:

- Select Locators > Set Color > color.

- Right-click the Add Locator button, and select Change Default Color > color.

All new locators are created with the color you select.

To change the color for a specific locator:

1. Right-click the locator outside of the text box.

2. Select Change Color > color.

The color is set for that locator.

Setting Locator Color

Locator Indicators

The Video monitor displays locator indicators. Locator indicators appear in the position bar and also in the Video display. A locator selection indicator appears above the currently selected locator indicator. You can choose to show or hide the locator indicators.

5 Logging Events With Locators

Locator indicator

Displaying Locator Indicators

To hide locator indicators:

t Do one of the following:

- Select Preferences > Hide locators in monitor.

- Right-click in the monitor and select Hide locators in monitor.

The locator indicators disappear from the monitor and the menu option changes to Show locators in monitor.

To show locator indicators:

t Do one of the following:

- Select Preferences > Show locators in monitor.

- Right-click in the monitor and select Show locators in monitor.

The locator indicators appear in the monitor and the menu option changes to Hide locators in monitor.

Locator Selection indicator

Adding Locator Text in Large Monitor Mode

In Large monitor mode, you can add and edit locator text in editing mode. You can also manipulate the locator indicators. For more information about Large Monitor mode, see

“Using Large Monitor Mode” on page 56.

To add locator text in Large Monitor mode:

1. Enter Large Monitor mode.

2. Do one of the following:

t Add a locator. A locator indicator appears.

t Click a locator indicator in the position bar.

t Click a locator indicator in the Video display.

The Locator editor is active for that locator. You are now in editing mode.

Locator Indicators

3. Type your locator text into the editor.

Locator editor

5 Logging Events With Locators

As long as the Locator editor is active, you can use the transport controls to move around in the monitor display, and you can use the Next Locator button to step forward or the Previous Locator button to step backward to other locators.

4. (Option) Add additional text or edit the text you have.

5. To leave editing mode, do one of the following:

t Press Enter to save the text.

t Press ESC to cancel the changes.

The Locator editor is no longer active and focus is elsewhere in the Video monitor.

Restricting Material

You can mark a section of a clip with a restriction locator. Examples of restrictions include the following:

• Material that should not be used.

• Material that can be used only after rights are available on a certain date.

• Material that the organization will need to pay for upon use.

• Material that has copyright requirements or other legal restrictions that limit its use.

The restriction appears in the Logging panel as locators with triangular flags at the beginning and ending timecodes of the restricted area. If you bring a shotlist containing restriction locators into an Avid editing application, the restriction and its accompanying comments appear.

The restriction gives you notice that the material is restricted for some reason; it does not

protect the material from being worked on.

See the following topics:

• “Marking a Restriction Locator” on page 80

• “Creating Subclips of Restricted Material” on page 81

• “Deleting Restrictions” on page 82

Marking a Restriction Locator

To mark a restriction locator:

1. Mark IN and OUT points in the Video monitor.

2. Do one of the following:

t Select Locators > Add Restriction.

t Right-click the Add Locator button, and select Add Restriction.

Example 1 Example 2 Example 3

Locators marked with red triangular flags appear at the timecodes of the IN and OUT

points.

Starting Restriction marker

Ending Restriction marker

3. Type remarks about the restriction in the Comment text box of the starting Restriction locator. You cannot type in the Comment text box for the ending Restriction locator.

Your system administrator needs to set your user privileges so you can add and modify restriction locators. See your system administrator.

Creating Subclips of Restricted Material

If you mark a restriction on a clip and then create a subclip, the restriction locator carries over to whatever portion of the subclip includes restricted material.

Restricting Material

The following figure illustrates several examples, with the filled boxes representing restricted material.

Clip

Clip start

Subclip

Subclip start Subclip end Subclip start Subclip end Subclip start Subclip end

Clip end Clip start Clip end Clip start Clip end

For example, the first clip includes a restriction locator that begins several frames into the clip and extends until the end of the clip. The subclip made from the clip includes a restriction locator that begins at the same place and extends until the end of the subclip, because the subclip is shorter than or equal to the length of the master clip. In the second example, the entire subclip is within the restricted area of the master clip, so the entire subclip includes the restriction locator. In the third example, while the subclip is shorter than the master clip, the area of restriction on the master clip is shorter than the duration of the subclip. In this case, the entire restriction locator is also included in the subclip.

5 Logging Events With Locators

For more information about creating subclips, see “Creating Subclips” on page 72.

Deleting Restrictions

You can undo adding a restriction locator within the current logging session. After you leave the session and then reenter the application, you can delete a restriction locator only if you have the appropriate privileges within the Avid Interplay system. See your

administrator.

system

To delete a restriction locator:

1. Select the restriction locator.

2. Do one of the following:

t Select Edit > Delete.

t Right-click, and select Delete.

If neither of these options is available, see your system administrator.

Annotating Locators

You can annotate a locator with a predefined label, as described in the following table. You can also define other annotation labels if you have the appropriate user privileges, and can use your own icon graphic as an annotation label.

Annotation Icon Description

Best Audio This segment represents the “best” audio for the desired purpose, as

determined by the current logger.

Best Video This segment represents the “best” video for the desired purpose, as

determined by the current logger.

The available labels depend on which annotation labels your administrator has chosen to show.

Annotating an Existing Locator

The available annotation labels depend on which annotation labels your administrator has chosen to show. If no annotation labels appear, see your system administrator.

To annotate a locator:

1. Do one of the following:

t Right-click a locator anywhere outside the text box.

t Select a locator, and then select Locators > Annotate Locator.

2. Select an annotation label with which to mark a locator.

Best Audio annotation

Best Video annotation

Annotating Locators

3. (Option) You can add more than one annotation to a locator.

Removing an Annotation from a Locator

To remove an annotation:

1. Right-click the locator.

2. Select the annotation.

5 Logging Events With Locators

The annotation is removed from the locator.

Defining an Annotation Label

If you have Administrator privileges, you can define new annotation labels, and you can choose which labels you want to appear to the user and which to hide from view.

If you don’t have Administrator privileges, Define Annotations is not available.

To define a locator annotation label:

1. Select Locators > Define Annotations.

The Locator Annotations Editor dialog box opens.

2. Type a name in the Name text box.

3. Do one of the following

t Select a preset icon by selecting Icon and then selecting an existing icon from the

list.

t Create a custom icon by selecting Label, typing a one-character label in the text

box, and selecting a color.

A rectangular icon is created in the color you selected with the character inside it.

Annotating Locators

4. (Option) If you make an error or decide you don’t want that annotation, click Delete.

5. Click Add.

The new annotation appears in the Annotation Dictionary.

New annotation with preset icon

6. Click Show.

The annotation moves to the Displayed Annotations list.

7. Click OK.

You can now select the annotation from the Locators > Annotate Locator menu or the Locators context menu.

8. (Option) You can add more than one annotation to a locator.

Adding Your Own Annotation Icon Graphic

New annotation with custom label and color

If you have Windows administrator privileges on systems running the Interplay Assist application, you can add your own icon graphic to the set of icons that came with your Assist application. An icon graphic must be in the form of a 16-pixel x 16-pixel .png file.

To add a new annotation icon:

1. Navigate to the default icon folder at C:\Program Files\Avid\Avid Interplay Assist\Resources\Images\Annotations.

2. Copy your icon graphic into the folder.

The next time you enter the Locator Annotations Editor, your icon appears in the

list.

Icon

5 Logging Events With Locators

3. (Option) For the custom icon graphic to be available on other systems running the Assist application, repeat steps 1-2 on the other systems.

For more information about the Locator Annotations Editor, see “Defining an

Annotation Label” on page 84.

Showing Other Users’ Locators

Because assets are shared, other users might have created locators for the same assets you are working on. You can display the other locators in different ways. For more information about showing and hiding locators, see

86 and “Displaying Particular Users” on page 87.

In locators created by other users, you can add additional comments or edit the existing comments. You can also add or remove annotations on those locators.

Displaying All Locators and Annotations

You might want to display all locators created by all users. Your system administrator needs to set your user privileges so you can see other users’ locators and annotations. If you are having problems, see your system administrator.

“Displaying All Locators and Annotations” on page

To display all locators and annotations:

1. Click the Source Locators tab.

2. Select Locators > Set Visibility > Show All.

You cannot undo this operation.

All locators appear.

The Set Visibility menu also contains Hide or Show options for the names of all the users who entered locators for that clip, as shown in the following illustration.

Current user

Other user who entered locators

Displaying Particular Users

Your system administrator needs to set your user privileges so you can see other users’ locators and annotations. If you are having problems, see your system administrator.

To display or hide locators created by certain users:

1. Click the Source Locators tab.

2. Select Locators > Set Visibility > Show username.

3. Select Locators > Set Visibility > Hide username.

To hide all locators except those you created:

1. Click the Source Locators tab.

2. Select Locators > Set Visibility > Hide all except username.

You cannot undo these operations.

Finding Items in the Logging Panel

You can use the Find function to look for particular text in the Logging panel, and you can refine your search by the kind of object you want to look in. The Find function searches within clips and shotlists for text in locators and annotations. It is different from the Search function, which searches the media database (see

35).

“Interplay Assist Search Options” on page

Finding Items in the Logging Panel

To look for an item in the Logging panel:

1. Do one of the following:

t Press Ctrl+F.

t Select Edit > Find.

The Find dialog box opens.

2. Type the text for which you want to search in the Find text box.

5 Logging Events With Locators

3. Select from the Using menu whether you want to use wildcards in your search or a full regular expression (that is, the exact text for which you want to search).

The wildcards are described in the following table.

Wildcard Description

* Use the asterisk (*) to stand in for none, one, or more than one character. For example,

if you type *boat* in the Find text box, the results include airboat and boats.

? Use the question mark (?) to stand in for one character. For example, if you type bo?t,

the results include boat and boot.

[] Use the square brackets ([]) to include a choice of several specific characters. For

example, if you type bo[ao]t, the results include boat and boot but not bout.

4. Select the kind of object in which you want to search from the In menu.

If you are in the Source Locators or Shotlist Locators tab, the In menu lists Locators, Annotations, and Locators and Annotations. If you are in the Source Metadata tab or the Shotlist Metadata tab, the In menu lists metadata objects. For more information, see

“Finding Items in Metadata” on page 99.

5. Click Find.

The results of the Find operation appear in the Logging panel.

First found item

Moving to Locators

6. Click Find Previous or Find Next to move to the previous or next found item.

Moving to Locators

You can move to a locator in several ways:

• Click the button containing the locator timecode in the Source Locators tab or the Shotlist Locators tab.

• Select the locator in the Source Locators tab or the Shotlist Locators tab.

5 Logging Events With Locators

• Ctrl+click in the position bar to move to the nearest locator.

• Click the Previous Locator button or the Next Locator button in Large Monitor mode.

• Click a locator indicator in the Video monitor.

• Press Ctrl+Shift+Left Arrow or Ctrl+Shift+Right Arrow.

To move to a locator using the Locator Timecode button:

t Click the button containing the timecode for the locator.

Locator Timecode button

Deleting Locators

Your system administrator needs to set your user privileges so you can delete locators. If you are having problems deleting locators, see your system administrator. You can delete locators in the Logging panel or in the Video monitor.

To delete a locator, do one of the following:

t Select the locator and press the Delete key.

t Select the locator indicator in the Video monitor and press the Delete key.

t Select the locator and hen select Edit > Delete.

t Right-click the locator and select Delete.

6 Working with Metadata

Metadata is textual data you can use to identify and describe the creation, contents, and disposition of the clip or shotlist you are logging. Avid Interplay Assist provides access to system metadata; you can also add your own user-customized metadata that fits your needs. You view metadata in the Logging panel in the Source Metadata tab or the Shotlist Metadata

You can add, change, and delete metadata fields for clips and shotlists. See the following topics:

• Understanding Metadata

tab.

• Entering Metadata

• Working with Metadata Fields

• Finding Items in Metadata

Understanding Metadata

The default system metadata includes information about your material such as Category, Name, and TapeID, as well as film, timecode, and other kinds of information. Interplay Assist provides you with an extensive list of system metadata items; see the Avid Interplay Access User’s Guide for a list of the items.

System metadata appears by default in the Metadata Field Dictionary. See “Displaying a

Metadata Field” on page 93.

6 Working with Metadata

You can add your own user-customized kinds of information that suit your particular work environment. Examples of custom metadata include those in the following table. For information on creating custom metadata items, see

97.

Custom Metadata Example Name Example Description

Air Date When the clip was used during the broadcast.

Keywords A collection of search keywords intended to help locate this clip once it

Legal Restrictions Limitations on how and where you can use this clip.

Location Where this clip was recorded.

Reporter The reporter narrating the clip.

Entering Metadata

To enter metadata:

“Adding a New Metadata Field” on page

has been archived.

1. Load a clip in the Video monitor.

2. Click the Source Metadata tab or the Shotlist Metadata tab.

3. Click one of the text boxes, and type information in it. You can speed up your work by using keyboard shortcuts; see

“Speeding Your Logging by Mapping Keys” on page 123.

The metadata shown for a shot in a shotlist is really the metadata for the clip that the shot represents. If you change the metadata here, it changes for all instances of that clip

shotlist.

in the

4. Do one of the following:

t Press Enter to finish the entry.

t Press Tab to finish the entry and move to the next text box.

t Press Shift+Tab to move backward through the text boxes.

You cannot type information in all of the metadata text boxes. Some metadata is set as Read-only by your system administrator (such as VersionComment) or by the system (such as Created By) and cannot be changed. The label for this kind of metadata appears in italic.

Working with Metadata Fields

You can choose which metadata fields to display, and you can create new fields.

See the following topics:

• “Displaying a Metadata Field” on page 93

• “Adding a Default Value” on page 95

• “Adding a New Metadata Field” on page 97

• “Flagging an Important Field” on page 98

Displaying a Metadata Field

Working with Metadata Fields

To display a metadata field:

1. Select the Source Metadata tab or the Shotlist Metadata tab in the Logging panel.

2. Select Metadata > Modify Metadata Fields.

The Metadata Field Editor dialog box opens, with the Field Dictionary comprising the system metadata as well as metadata fields you created yourself.

6 Working with Metadata

System and custom metadata

The Metadata Field Editor refers to (Source) or (Shotlist), depending on which tab you select before you open the field editor. If you select the Shotlist Metadata tab and then select a shot within that tab, the field editor refers to (Shot).

Selected shot in a shotlist

Reference to (Shot)

3. Do one of the following:

t Select a field in the Field Dictionary, and then click Show.

t Double-click a field in the Field Dictionary.

The field appears in the Displayed Fields list and becomes marked through with a line in the Field Dictionary. You cannot undo this operation.

4. Select the field and click Hide to remove it from the Displayed Fields list.

A field that you select to show appears in the Logging panel only for the clip or shotlist that was selected before you opened the Metadata Field Editor dialog box. To make the field appear in all clips or all shotlists, you must mark it as an Important Field. For information about the Important Field function, see

page 98.

5. Click OK.

Adding a Default Value

You can add a default value to a metadata field.

To add a default value:

1. Select a field in the Display Fields list. For more information about adding to the Displayed Fields list, see

Working with Metadata Fields

“Flagging an Important Field” on

“Displaying a Metadata Field” on page 93.

2. Select a kind of default value from the Default Value menu. Options include the following:

-No Default

- User Default, a value of your choosing

3. Type a default value in the Default Value text box.

6 Working with Metadata

Default value

4. Click OK.

The default value appears in the field in the Source Metadata tab or the Shotlist Metadata tab.

Default value

To set the value to No Default:

1. Select Default Value > User Default.

2. Clear any text from the Default Value text box.

3. Select Default Value > No Default.

4. Click OK.

Adding a New Metadata Field

To add a new metadata field:

1. Select the Source Metadata tab or the Shotlist Metadata tab in the Logging panel.

2. Select Metadata > Modify Metadata Fields.

The Metadata Field Editor dialog box opens.

3. Check the Current Field Dictionary to see if a field has already been designed for your purpose. If not, type a name in the Field Name text box.

Working with Metadata Fields

Check your field name carefully. If it is incorrect, click Cancel or change it. Once you click Add, you cannot undo the action, change the name, or remove it from the

Dictionary.

Field

4. Click Add.

The new field appears in the Field Dictionary.

5. (Option) Repeat steps 3 and 4 to add another new field.

6. Do one of the following:

t Select the new field in the Field Dictionary, and then click Show.

t Double-click the new field in the Field Dictionary.

The field appears in the Displayed Fields list and becomes marked through with a line in the Field Dictionary.

A field that you select to show appears in the Logging panel only for the clip or shotlist that was selected before you opened the Metadata Field Editor dialog box. To make the field appear in all clips, all shots, or all shotlists, you must mark it as an Important Field. For information about the Important Field function, see

on page 98.

7. Click OK.

You must click OK to save your changes. If you click Cancel, your changes are lost.

“Flagging an Important Field”

6 Working with Metadata

The new field does not appear as a column heading in the Interplay database or the Select Working Set of Columns dialog box until you have entered information in it for at least one clip or shotlist. For more information about working with column headings,

“Working with Column Headings” on page 45.

see

Flagging an Important Field

You can mark a metadata field as Important. Fields that you flag as Important appear in the Logging panel for every source or shotlist.

To flag a field as Important:

1. Select the Source Metadata tab or the Shotlist Metadata tab in the Logging panel.

2. Select Metadata > Modify Metadata Fields.

The Metadata Field Editor dialog box opens.

3. Select a field in the Displayed Fields list.

4. Click Important Field.

The field appears in bold. It also appears in bold in the Metadata tabs in the Logging

panel.

Finding Items in Metadata

If you flag a field as Important when you are in a source, it appears in the Source Metadata

tab but does not appear in the Shotlist Metadata tab. If you flag a field as Important when you are in a shotlist header, it appears in other shotlist headers but does not appear in individual shots or in the Source Metadata tab. If you flag a field as Important when you are in an individual shot, it appears in other shots but does not appear in shotlist headers or in the Source Metadata tab.

5. (Option) Flag read-only metadata (fields in italic) as Important.

The read-only metadata appears as bold italic.

Hiding a Metadata Field

To hide a metadata field:

1. Select the Source Metadata tab or the Shotlist Metadata tab in the Logging panel.

2. Select Metadata > Modify Metadata Fields.

The Metadata Field Editor dialog box opens.

3. Do one of the following:

t In the Displayed Fields list, select a metadata field, and then click the Hide button.

t Double-click a metadata field in the Displayed Fields list.

The field moves from the Displayed Fields list to the Field Dictionary, and the entry in the Field Dictionary is no longer displayed with a line marked through it.

4. Click OK.

Finding Items in Metadata

You can use the Find function to look for particular text in metadata. You can look in metadata text, metadata fields, or both.

6 Working with Metadata

To find items in metadata:

1. Click the Source Metadata tab or the Shotlist Metadata tab.

2. Press Ctrl+F.

The Find dialog box opens.

3. Type the text you want to search for in the Find text box.

4. Select an option from the Using menu and from the In menu. For more information about these options, see

5. Click Find.

The clips containing the metadata text or metadata fields you searched for appear in the Source metadata tab or the Shotlist metadata tab.

“Finding Items in the Logging Panel” on page 87.

100

Pinnacle Systems Interplay Assist - 1.4 User’s Guide

Specifications and Main Features

Frequently Asked Questions

User Manual

Contents

Using This Guide

Symbols and Conventions

If You Need Help

Accessing the Online Library

How to Order Documentation

Avid Training Services

Uses for Logging

Basic Interplay Assist Workflow

Starting Avid Interplay Assist

Mounting Workspaces on an Avid Unity MediaNetwork System

Mounting Workspaces on an Avid Unity ISIS System

Mounting a Workspace for Send to Playback

Starting the Avid Interplay Assist Application

Using Interplay Assist Help

Working with MultiRez and Dynamic Relink

Understanding Source Mode and Shotlist Mode

Understanding Undo and Redo

Undoing and Redoing:

Changing the Font

Printing the Logging Panel

2 Preparing to Log

Understanding Asset Markers

Navigating to Assets

Interplay Assist Search Options

Organizing Folders

Loading Clips

Updating the Application Display

3 Customizing the Research Panel

Changing the Research Panel and Logging Panel Sizes

Using the Research Panel Display

Asset Icons

Working with Column Headings

Displaying Resolutions

Creating New Columns

Enlarging or Reducing Column Size

Working with Layouts

Column Headings

Opening Multiple Tabs in the Research Panel

Changing Writable Properties

Updating Assets

Video Monitor Controls

Changing the Video Monitor Size

Using Large Monitor Mode

Using Medium Monitor Mode

Using Small Monitor Mode

Resizing Panels

Selecting Functions from the Video Monitor Context Menu

Playing Video

Playing Video Clips

Using the Position Bar and the Position Indicator

Using the Transport Controls

Playing Footage with the J-K-L Keys (Three-Button Play)

Using Timecode to Find a Frame

Displaying Footage at Full or Half Resolution

Playing Resolutions

Marking and Cueing Footage

Marking IN and OUT Points

Dragging IN Points and OUT Points

Cueing the Footage

Monitoring Audio and Video

Creating Subclips

Changing the Aspect Ratio

5 Logging Events With Locators

Marking Events with Locators

Setting Locator Color

Locator Indicators

Displaying Locator Indicators

Adding Locator Text in Large Monitor Mode

Restricting Material

Marking a Restriction Locator

Creating Subclips of Restricted Material

Deleting Restrictions

Annotating Locators

Annotating an Existing Locator

Removing an Annotation from a Locator