One of the reasons I got into this business in the first place was for the cool LCD displays, colored buttons, and various joysticks and fader bars. So it’s kind of ironic that less than 10 years in to my tenure in the kind of on-line suites that I’d always loved, I chucked the whole lot for cutting on NLEs like the Avid. No flashing lights. No cool controllers. No feeling like some highly trained fighter pilot (though how many fighter pilots have meals catered in to their “suite?"). I’ve spent most of the last 16 years working at a computer screen feeling like an accountant instead of a fighter pilot (though now, cockpits are starting to look more like computer monitors).
So it was with great joy that I unpacked my recently arrived JLCooper Eclipse controller. But it was more than simply the return of the buttons and various controllers I’d fallen in love with so many years ago. It was a blessing because of the return of EFFICIENCY. That’s what external control devices give the editor and colorist.
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Steve Hullfish has been producing and editing award-winning television since the mid-1980s. He has written four books, countless magazine articles and hosted an Avid training DVD. He has lectured at NAB, DVExpo and the Master Editor seminars. He has edited on Avid since 1992 and was named to Avid's first group of Master Editors. His client list includes: Universal Studios, NBC Television, PBS TV, Turner Networks, The Oprah Winfrey Show, "Investigative Reports" and "Cold Cases" with Bill Kurtis for A&E, Jim Henson Home Entertainment, HIT Entertainment, VeggieTales, Cartoon Pizza, Exclaim Entertainment, United Airlines, Gatorade, Ford, IBM, Sun Microsystems and Avid.