Every week, Frame.io Insider asks one of our expert contributors to share a tip, tool, or technique that they use all the time and couldn’t live without. This week, Chris Tennant shows us how to create a Changelist using the List Tool in Avid Media Composer.
Create a changelist to compare versions in Media Composer
When working on a large production, you’ll often need to compare different versions of an edit to see the changes that have been made. This is especially important when conforming changes to picture after sound has been turned over. Manually creating a changelist can be a time-consuming process, though. Especially if you have a long list of changes to go through. Fortunately, Avid Media Composer has a powerful tool called List Tool that can help you generate a changelist immediately.
Before you start, make sure you’ve communicated with the recipient of the changelist to get on the same page about metadata and formatting. Different workflows have different needs, and creating a changelist with improper specs can cause headaches down the road.
To create the list, first open List Tool by selecting Tools > List Tool. Check the “Change List” radio button, and select the requested output format from the drop-down menu. In my experience, this is often “Columnar” or “TabbedLists.”
Next, drag your old and new sequences from their bins into the List Tool input tab. Enable only the relevant tracks—often, Video 1 is all that’s needed.
Click on the “List Options” tab and select the relevant metadata for your changelist. You can also change formatting in the “Formatting” tab. For example, a sound vendor may prefer formatting to be set to Footage instead of Timecode.
Hit Preview. You’ll see a list of all the changes that have been made to the sequence. Save this list in the appropriate place.
Before exiting, you may consider saving your List Tool settings as a preset for future use. Under the “Active Setting” dropdown in the top left, select Save As… and give your preset a name.
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