Scopes

(From The Yahoo Avid User's Group)

You'll love this one.

I get a call from a crew in Torino.

They're watching show playback of elements they've fed and felt some of the shots were too hot. I asked what it looks like on their scope.

Their reply -- "We don't have a scope, but it looks good on the laptop."

I told them I didn't have the time to chase this down, since they have no idea what levels they're sending.

As much as editors not having scopes fills some people with disgust, the fact is many excellent editors know nothing about scopes.

I remember going to a couple of AVID MASTER EDITOR CLASSES where the instructors, many of whom had
ACADEMY AWARDS or multiple national EMMY'S to their credit, didn't know a lot of the basics about "power editing" on an Avid. They have assistant editors who handle all of that crap.

I wouldn't make fun of WALTER MURCH because he can't read a scope.

I had another well known feature feature film editor in an
AVID 101 CLASS in London several years back. When we came to the digitizing module, he got up and walked out saying,
"I have assistants to do that stuff!"

For years CNN didn't have scopes in its tape-to-tape edit bays, and for all I know some bureaus never got them.
Of course, just because there's a scope in a room doesn't mean anyone knows how to use it.

Look at packages from CNN Library tapes, especially older ones, and you'll see just horrible level changes from shot to shot, or between packages on the same archive tape.

The old timers around CNN will still tell you CNN stands for "Chroma Not Necessary."