Avid Tips: The Three-Button Player in Trim Mode by Steven Cohen
As Useful as the Three-Button Player is in Playing Shots, It's Even More Valuable for Trimming	The Media Composer emulates the three KEM buttons using the J, K and L keys. (As some of you know, I move these functions to the S-D-F keys so I can use the keyboard with my left hand and the mouse with my right). Avid calls these keys the 'Three Button Player'. You can use them to play clips forward or backward. Multiple hits of the forward or reverse keys increase the speed, and holding down the stop and play keys simultaneously will play slowly or a frame at a time. As useful as these buttons are in playing shots, they are even more useful for trimming. Get into Trim Mode any way you like. Select the side of the cut you want to trim. Then use the three button player to play the selected side. You will be playing and trimming at the same time. Use all the speeds built into the three button player to adjust the cut. When you hit the stop key, you're done. Then, simply tap the play transition button to review the cut. If you're not satisfied, use the three button player again to adjust. This is one of the smoothest and most intuitive ways to trim--because you are making your decisions based on moving video. By alternating between the three button player and the play transition key, you can rapidly change a cut, look at it, and change it again until you are satisfied. Also remember that if you tap a mark button while the transition is playing, the cut will immediately be adjusted to your mark and played again for your review. One problem with the three button player is that when playing single frames it offers 'analog-style' audio--which means that it sounds like a synchronizer turning slowly. This feels right to film editors but it's not as accurate as Avid's original 'digital scrub' audio--the sound you get when you hold the shift key down and hit a one frame key. Someday, hopefully, Avid will add the digital scrub function to the three button player. In the meantime, you can emulate it by putting the single frame trim buttons on your shifted keyboard. Put the trim right button (>) on the same key as forward play, and the trim left button (<) on the same key as reverse play. (Hold down the command and shift keys and drag the trim buttons from the command palette to your keyboard settings). The Three Button Player Same Keys with Shift Key Down With the trim buttons under the three-button player, simply pressing shift+forward or shift+reverse will trim by one frame--and because the shift key is down, you'll hear digital scrub audio. But note well: this only works in trim mode. If you use this function when you're in source/record mode you will NOT be moving video but will be slipping whatever clip the blue cursor is parked on. It's possible to slip both picture and sound simultaneously and thus you may not notice the slip! So use this function in trim mode only--if you find you can't avoid it in source/record mode, take it off your keyboard and avoid mistakes. But either way, be sure to try the three button player for trimming.
Steven Cohen is an editor and the author of Avid Media Composer Techniques and Tips Reprinted from The Motion Picture Editors Guild Newsletter Vol. 17, No. 3 - May/June 1996   Guild Home | Newsletter Home | Top of Page   Copyright © 1996, All Rights Reserved by The Motion Picture Editors Guild, IATSE Local 776