How do you open an Avid project without Avid Media Composer?
Media Composer projects are normally opened in Media Composer, so without it you have two routes. You can ask whoever has Media Composer to export the cut as an AAF, which most editing software can import. Or you can use software that opens the Avid project folder directly. In both cases you also need the drives with the footage, because the project points at media rather than containing it.
You have been handed a drive with an Avid project on it. Perhaps the show is moving on, or a producer wants to pull a scene from an old cut. You do not have Media Composer, and you want to see what is in there.
What is in an Avid project
A Media Composer project is a folder. Inside it are the project settings and the bins, one file per bin. The bins hold the clips and the sequences. The footage itself lives elsewhere, usually in a separate media folder on the same drive or on shared storage.
That matters because opening the bins without the footage gives you an edit you can read but not play.
Your options
- Ask for an AAF. Anyone with Media Composer can export a sequence as an AAF. Most professional editing software can import one. You get the timeline with its cuts and audio tracks, though effects may need rebuilding.
- Ask for an EDL and a reference video. An EDL is a simple list of edits with source names and timecode. With a reference video you can at least see the cut and find the shots.
- Use software that opens the project folder directly. This is the most complete route when it is available, since you get the bins as well as the sequences.
- Borrow a Media Composer seat. If you need to keep working in the original project with its original team, this is still the simplest answer.
Before you open anything
- Copy the project folder first. Work on a copy, so the original stays exactly as it was handed to you.
- Find the media. Ask where the footage is, and whether it is the camera originals or edit copies.
- Ask what was finished in Avid. Titles and effects made in Media Composer may not travel to other software.
How B/side handles it
You drop the Avid project folder into B/side. Its bins, cuts and multicam groups open intact. Opening a whole project folder is part of the Production plan, and an AAF opens on Creator and every plan above it. Effects that Avid and B/side both have arrive applied, and anything that does not come across is named on the frame.
Anything that does not come across is named on the frame, never silently dropped. You can also open an AAF if that is what you were sent.
If you learned to cut on Media Composer, the keyboard and layout will feel familiar. B/side has Source and Record monitors with three-point editing, and JKL shuttle works the way you expect.
When something else is better
If the show is still being cut in Media Composer by a team sharing that project, stay in Media Composer. Opening it elsewhere is for reading an old cut or carrying on alone, not for joining a team that is still working in the original.
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