Avid systems cut with field one dominance in interlaced projects. However, some live switched events, material cut with certain older edit systems, and NTSC film transfers with pulldown may all have split frames: the first field of a frame is the end of a shot, and a new shot starts on the second field of that same frame.
Sometimes when editing this footage, you can't simply trim out a frame to remove the extra flash field. Perhaps that would throw out the audio sync, or you need to maintain cadence, or there is some action in the shot that requires you to cut at the point in between fields one and two of a given frame. For these cases, you can convert individual Avid cuts into field-two dominant edits using this simple technique. It will move a cut transition between the outgoing and incoming segments by one field.
- Create a two-frame dissolve at the problem edit.
- Add two more keyframes in between the start and end keyframes, so that you have a keyframe on all four fields of the effect.
- Set the Level parameter as follows:
-
| KF |
Level |
|
|
| 1 |
0 |
| 2 |
0 |
| 3 |
100 |
| 4 |
100 |
- Shorten the dissolve to 1 frame. This cut is now a field-2 dominant edit. (If your flash field was at the head of the incoming clip, make the transition effect alignment STARTING at the cut. If instead the flash was on the tail of the outgoing, use ENDING at the cut.)
- Drag the above effect to a bin to use as a template, and drop on any other cuts as needed.