INTERVIEW:
Question 1
Could you tell us something of the history of Avid?
Answer
Avid Technology started in 1987 and we created our first product, the Avid Media Composer,
in 1989. The idea behind digital non-linear technology, whether it is for editing or for
the creation of special effects such as Titanic, Godzilla, or the ability to
do audio, is to bring the flexibility of word processing to editing. With Avid products
you can now move images and sounds around with the same ease and flexibility with which
you move a word or sentence around in a word processor. It is word processing for pictures
and sound. You can be more creative and yet take something, change it around, get it to
the point where you're very happy with it, and always be flexible. That was the
philosophy: to help people to be more creative with tools that are very easy to use.
Question 2
How is Avid used in the world of cinema?
Answer
The world of film is over 100 years old, and film used to be a very manual process. You
would get the film, you would cut it, run it and look at it and then you would change it.
It took a very long time to do. With the digital non-linear technology we are able to put
all the film and all of the audio for the film inside the computer. Once those images and
those sounds are inside the computer, we can move them around very easily. Some of the
films that have used Avid's technology have been Titanic, Godzilla, Tomorrow
Never Dies, the James Bond film. And here in Italy, Salvatores's Nirvana, and
of course the Benigni film, La vita è bella. The availability of these systems and
this technology allows us to work very nicely to a tighter schedule. Of course, creativity
has no bounds. So our technology is here hopefully to help people use this shortened
amount of time but still maintain the maximum creativity that they have, and hopefully the
experience for the user is deeper and more profound.
Question 3
The second thing is the video broadcast.
Answer
We have a lot of experience with video, and there are many markets that use this
technology. For making commercials, for making training videos, for the world of
broadcast. RAI, the BBC, CNN are among the world's broadcasters, of course, and they
utilize this technology each and every day. The programs that you see continually use
digital non-linear technology. It is always easier to be able to work within a structure
of a television broadcast where you have to get the story very quickly, edit it, put all
of the music in, all of the different questions in and then get it out to the viewer. And
sometimes you have to do the same story 3 or 4 times during the day, sometimes 6 times
during the day. This technology helps you to make these versions and get the program out
faster.
Question 4
The third use of this technology is for commercials.
Answer
Most of the television commercials that you see on the air now utilize this technology. It
is also very important in the world of training, in the corporate industrial world to use
view video. It is always easier to train someone by showing them how to do something as
opposed to just seeing static diagrams in a book. So the use of video for training and
commercials is growing. More people are using video, and this technology works very well
not only in the world of film broadcast, but also corporate video and educational. And
many schools around the world utilize this technology.
Question 5
You have mentioned three fields: film, broadcasting and commercials. What are the other
uses?
Answer
Well, one of the most fundamental things that is happening in the world is that digital
non-linear technology is coming in and replacing analogue technology. We have it all
around us. And the use of video is growing rapidly. There are many people buying digital
cameras, buying handy-camcorders. That use of video is growing tremendously. People want
to make programs. They could be personal programs, they could be training programs, they
could be films, they could be films which are shot in video. We are starting to see movies
on the Internet. We are starting to see small television programs on the Internet. So the
worldwide use of video is growing. People will now need technology to take those images,
to edit them together, to put graphics in, to put animation in, and so that fundamental
use of video in our lives is growing. And this is one of the things that certainly lies in
all of our collective future: to see and use more video and have more dynamic programming
so that each one of us has the ability to tell our story.
Question 6
Currently, you can use Avid in broadcasting, but is the same version of Avid used in all
situations or are there different versions of the software?
Answer
At Avid we create software and we create systems which are designed for particular uses
and the expertise of a particular user. So, for example, James Cameron is using an Avid to
edit Titanic, but the same company, Avid, is creating systems for the broadcast
people, creating the same type of software with a slightly different interface, slightly
different functionality for the person who is doing educational training in the
universities. We also have systems for home use: Avid Cinema for Macintosh and Windows
machines is from the same company, but with a slightly different interface, some different
functionality, designed for the different experience and expertise that people have.
Question 7
Do you work on a team or alone?
Answer
The world of film is a breathtaking experience. It could involve one person or 3 people,
or in the case of Titanic, 6,000 people working around the clock. But whether it is
a film of huge proportions, or a training video, or something that you are doing at home,
with material from your holiday or of your children growing up, the most important thing
and what everyone has in common is that you are trying to tell a story. And Avid
Technology is useful to help you tell that story. It is easy to tell stories when you are
working with this type of software. Regardless of whether it is one person or many people,
our aim is to bring this digital non-linear story-telling, these tools for storytellers,
to the world.
Question 8
Have you got some numbers on the size of Avid around the world?
Answer
Avid's products are sold in approximately 76 different countries, and over 30,000 systems
are used worldwide. We have trained more than 40,000 editors, so it's the world's most
popular system not only for professional film, broadcast and video use, but Avid Cinema
is very quickly gaining huge popularity in the consumer marketplace. Currently in the
world, Avid's technologies are used to do about 80% of the commercials you see and
approximately 80% of the films coming out of Hollywood are done with Avid's technology.
Many of the films in Italy - those of Salvatores and Benigni, for example - use all of
Avid's products. So it is the world's most popular system for editing as well as graphics
manipulation.
Question 9
Was it the first to have been invented?
Answer
The term "non-linear" means the ability to move things around in a very
non-linear process. It's really the way we think. Of course the first non-linear system
was film. And now we've taken that thinking in that world and brought it to the digital
concept. We were awarded an Emmy Award in 1994, and in 1995 we received an Academy award
for this technology. So we are leaders in this process. The Avid film composer is the
world's first and only digital non-linear editing system to work at 24 frames per second,
the rate of film.
Question 10
Which film was the most difficult to make?
Answer
Of course every film is different and each one of them has their own challenges. With Titanic
there was an enormous amount of footage with three editors working simultaneously in
different parts of California. So the challenge there was that we were working with live
action film, animation and many special effects. And of course James Cameron is a
brilliant filmmaker and he really pushes this technology. In the case of La vita è
bella, a very simple but powerful story, the use of Avid technology to edit, to do the
audio was such that you could really concentrate on the story. So those are two films
which are very different, each presenting its own challenges. But I would say that because
of all the material and all of the special effects, Titanic is probably one of the
most difficult ones so far. But it was a very satisfying experience for all of us at Avid.
Question 11
Can you explain the process of converting the images from analogue to digital and then
back to analogue?
Answer
Many people ask how these systems work. How do you get the pictures and the sounds from
the film camera or from the video camera inside the systems? Well, it's a process known as
digitization. We take the pictures and the sounds from the analogue film camera or from a
digital video camera and we transfer them into the computer's disks, a process of taking
analogue signals and digitizing them, changing them into, essentially, ones and zeros.
Then that data exists in the computer and we can move it around as easily as you move a
document or a sentence around in a word processor. Once the material and that data is in
the computer, it exists in this virtual form. And you can try ideas out to your heart's
content. Should this sound go before this one? Should this picture go after this one? We
try all of these things. You test your creativity. And then when you're ready, you
literally hit a button and the images and the sounds play back. You can record them back
to video tape. In the case of a film, all of the decisions you made then get remade in
film. The actual film negative is cut, the sound is added to it and that becomes the
original element from which we make all of the film prints that go in all of the theaters.
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