Avid's Script Integration by Todd Busch & Andrew Loschin If you remember the Ediflex, the point-and-click script interface was perhaps that system's most remarkable feature. At the time, an assistant had to manually type the script into the computer. When Ediflex closed shop, Avid picked up the copyright to the company's patented Script Mimic function. In Avid's current release, getting the script into your Film Composer is as easy as importing it as a text document from B.C. Software's Final Draft scripting program (with scene numbers off). Final Draft even has an "Export as Avid Script Based Editing" feature. Large files can slow your system - and have been known to crash Film Composers - so it is best to work with scripts in scenes or sequences. You'll want to assign scene numbers once the script is in the Avid so that you can use the "Find Scene" function. You can then search the script by scene, page or text, and also locate your bin from the script. To assign clips to the script, highlight a section of text and drag the clip(s) onto the highlighted area. By using the Add Script marker, you can mark the start and end of each line of dialogue in each take. The program interpolates any unmarked footage. The process of watching the dailies in real time and marking the dialogue can be automated as well, making the most difficult part of inputting data a little less painful. Once the footage is marked, you're ready to cut. If all your footage from a source bin is on the script, cutting can be done directly from the script without ever opening a bin. One of the nicest features of Script Integration is the "Scan Across" function, or playing back multiple takes of a given line reading in succession. To do this, shift-click on the takes you want and hit the Play In To/Out button. The takes will play back to back in a loop until you hit Pause; however, to do this you must have already marked the head and tail of all your dialogue. Just marking the heads will result in playing back additional material. The most significant drawback to the Avid's scripting feature, like its predecessor on the Ediflex, is the amount of time it takes to set up. Depending on how much coverage there is, a three-page scene can take up to two hours to prepare, and only after dailies have already been digitized. Also, Script Integration works best with dialogue scenes. Large action scenes can overwhelm your work space with frames, and without dialogue for marking ins and outs, the interpolating function doesn't help much. It would be nice if marked dialogue outboarded from the Film Composer, as well. Then an assistant could be logging the script while the Avid is used for more important functions. With new tools like dailies on timecoded CD-ROM, this process is becoming possible. It might also be nice to cross reference locator information from within the script. In summary, Script Integration is a great tool for the editor, but a lot of work for the assistant. The more feedback Avid gets on this feature, the better it will be for everyone.   Reprinted from The Motion Picture Editors Guild Newsletter Vol. 20, No. 4 - July/August1999   Guild Home | Newsletter Home | Top of Page   Copyright © 1999, All Rights Reserved by The Motion Picture Editors Guild, IATSE Local 700