Fairlight Tips & Tricks #8 A New Way to Lift & Hold, and More about Macros by Andy Somers Hello again and welcome to another collection of Fairlight Tips. In the last column, we discussed using macros as a way of conforming several projects quickly. In this issue, we'll talk about other useful macros you can write. Figure One But first, I mentioned last time that there's a better way to perform a Lift & Hold, and it's helpful to use this method when writing a macro to perform your changes. If you look at the sample change note in Figure One, you'll see that change #14 has a Lift & Hold for change #17. What we want to do is prepare an area to temporarily place all the holds. This area needs to be before the reel on the time line. I typically use the hour before the project, so keep the hour before your reel clear of any other material. (Note: If you make a safety copy of your reel to an hour earlier, you'll need to do it two hours earlier in the timeline instead.) Let's say we're working on reel 4, which is at hour 4 timecode. The hold area will be at hour 3 timecode. To perform change #14, go to 4 0256'+03 and set a range from there for 4'+08. Now place the cursor at 3 0342'+06. This is the position where the held piece will eventually live, minus one hour. Then, in Block Dubber mode, press MOVE, which will move the section to be held to the position it will occupy in change #17, offset by one hour. Having copied this section to its holding position, change to Block Razor mode and press DELETE, pulling up the section that you've held. Make the changes indicated in the list, until you get to the change where the held section is re-inserted (in this case, change #17). To perform change #17, place the cursor at 4 0342'+06 and set a range from there for 4'+08. Next, press INSERT in Block Razor mode to insert 4'+08 of free space. Finally, select a range around the held piece. The range should start at 3 0342'+06 and continue for 4'+08, encompassing the held section. Then place the cursor at 4 0342'+06 and press MOVE in Block Dubber mode, relocating the section to its final resting place. While this method has several more steps than the splice method described in Fairlight Tips #5, the advantage is that it's easier to make an accurate macro for performing the changes. The other advantage is that it places the held material right where it belongs (with a one-hour offset), and that allows you to use an hour offset to check the sync of the held piece against picture before continuing to the next change. Macro Madness One of the aspects of the Fairlight user interface that makes the system so powerful is its ability to turn any series of keystrokes into a macro. This feature allows you to create your own custom commands to do nearly anything you want. I've listed the recipes for a few of my favorite simple macros. I'll assume that you already know how to make a basic macro. Mark True Frame Edge Macro Very often we want to make edits exactly on the frame line: for instance, at a cut to a new scene. The Fairlight, of course, allows you to make edits anywhere inside the frame, but to simplify making an edit exactly on a frame edge there is the "true frame edge" macro. It's a very simple macro to write. After entering Learn mode, press the following keys in order (the DOWN ARROW key is right under the GOTO key): DOWN ARROW (grabs time) BLUE SUBF (toggles subframes on or off) GOTO ENTER BLUE SUBF What this macro does is clear the subframes to zero, putting you on the leading edge of the frame you're currently pointing to. It is designed so that you can have subframes either on or off when you press it. You can add to the macro's functionality by pressing MARK as the last keystroke. This will then mark the true frame edge. I use this macro to quickly go through the video and mark each scene transition. It's then a simple matter to make perspective changes and so forth by just using the yellow marks. Locate Video Macro This macro locates the video to your current point on the timeline. It assumes that you have the video offline and that the video machine is on M1. Write it like this: DOWN ARROW (grabs time) M1 (puts video online) GOTO ENTER To use this macro, position the cursor at the point where you want the video to cue, then press the macro and the video will be located to that point. As a variation, you can press PLAY instead of ENTER; then, when the video locates to the point you've chosen, it'll automatically preroll and play. Solo Toggle Macro This does nothing more than toggle the solos on and off. Simple, yet very useful! SOLO ON/OFF (the softkey at the far left of the LCD display) SOLO If you have some tracks soloed, press this macro and the solos are turned off but you remain in the same menu you were working in. Press it again and that same group of solos are turned back on. That's it for this issue. Next time I'll present several more useful macros. On a final note, we've been using the new Fairlight CD mastering software, which let's you burn an audio CD right from a Fairlight project, and it's a great way to make a quick CD of sound effects that can then be sent to the picture department or wherever. I'll cover this product more in a future issue, but it's so cool and such a time-saver I wanted to mention it here. As always, if you have any questions you'd like me to address in this column, send me e-mail Happy cutting!   Andy Somers is a member of the Guild, and in addition to picture and sound editing, provides training and consultation on the Fairlight MFX series of workstations for union editors and signatory facilities.   Reprinted from The Motion Picture Editors Guild Newsletter Vol. 20, No. 3 - May/June1999   Guild Home | Newsletter Home | Top of Page   Copyright © 1999, All Rights Reserved by The Motion Picture Editors Guild, IATSE Local 700