Hello All, 

I've got an 'interview' at a post house next week and they want to see what I can do. I know that they want me to online part of a show in Symphony. 

So far, I know that i'll need to grade in Symphony and do titles etc...

Has anyone got any tips/tricks for what else I should consider doing? 

The only reason I ask this is that currently I do all our offlines in Avid MC7 then online in Resolve. Are there certain things that are standard practice to online in Symphony? Any 'checklists' that you go through?

Thanks in advanced!

No replys to this, Possibly because its a difficult one to answer.

An online editor is responsible for compliance but you are already doing that in resolve. Symphony has some additional color correction features that MC doesn't so it would be good to swot up on those.

How will they want it outputted? AS-11 is the UK delivery method for Broadcasters nowadays. And Avid can do that direct.

But there are some workflow shortcuts if you are across it and that can save time.

Also UK title safe has been expanded recently (now 5% instead of 10%) Loudness checking as well (if audio comes from a dub then that should be ok)

I went for the 'interview' and came back with some feedback. Wasn't great but they have given me the chance to come in again in two weeks. 

One of the feedback comments were 'there were some blanking errors'. I'm not too sure what this means? Any help with this?

Everything else was fine, colour correction and grade, title safe etc. Just unsure about this one?

Thanks in advanced!

With digital technology "blanking" is really an obsolete concept.  I suspect that they were using the term to refer to black at the edges of the frame where no black was intended.  If you were dealing with standard definition media in NTSC you may also have encountered the 480/486 vertical pixel issue that you can run up against.  Because I work in the PAL domain exclusively nowadays I'll leave that issue to someone else to explain.

In the analog days a television line consisted of sync region, blanking, picture content, blanking, then back to sync and start over again.  The blanking was a black region at either end of the television line.  Misadjustment of video timing could cause blanking to creep into the edges of the frame, resulting most usually in a visible black line at either side of the frame, or less commonly at top or bottom.

( That explanation of course ignores colour synchronising components in analog signals before anyone decides to point that out.  Colour burst was one detail too many for my simplified explanation and was only likely to lead to confusion.  I also chose to ignore vertical blanking, VITC, pre- and post- equalising pulses and broad pulses. )

AnEditAssistant:

One of the feedback comments were 'there were some blanking errors'. I'm not too sure what this means? Any help with this?

Blanking errors can sometimes be hard to see if they're only the odd pixel wide. Of course, you'll need to have your monitor's overscan function correctly set to see it at all. Some monitors can display an active picture box as part of the action safe/title safe display options.

The usual method of fixing blanking errors is to zoom in on the image 1 or 2 percent. I always used the Pan and Scan tool for this, as I felt the quality of the blow-up looked better than using some of Avid's other re-sizing tools.

AnEditAssistant:

they have given me the chance to come in again in two weeks. 

Given that everything else was ok, I would suggest getting hold of the tech/delivery specs and reading through these documents thoroughly. It's amazing how silly little details can cause the broadcaster to fail your programme during QC. Things like line-up (position, duration and type) and holds at the end of parts can often trip us up, as we should never assume the offline editor has put in (say) exactly 10 seconds of hold. I've seen QC failures come back simply because an end of part hold was 1 frame short.

Examine the specs for things like whether they require textless elements at the end or does it need a Harding (photosensitive epilepsy) test?

Include in the record report anything you see that could possibly be regarded as a potential failure, and what you've done to try and remedy it. Things like stuck pixels, drop-outs etc could be things that the QC person might consider failing you on, but if you've done the best you can on improving things (rather than hoping they won't spot them), they'll be inclined to be more lenient with you.

Showing your prospective future employer that you are both aware and on top of these issues, will give them confidence in your abilities to get your onlines through the approvals process with the minimum of fuss.