Do you miss sitting in a decked-out editing suite with your team members and poring over the tiny details in a new cut? Shifting to remote work has brought on a sense of nostalgia for many editors.
Getting feedback and aligning on the best version was as easy as walking down the hall. Now you’re stuck in a time-consuming, frustrating editing loop that takes endless rounds of revisions to close over Zoom.
Whether your production company is new to remote collaboration or you’ve got an experienced remote-work post-production team and are looking for new tools to make the process feel less, well, remote, you’re in luck.
There are plenty of tools that are compatible with Media Composer and will enable your team to stay in sync from the first cut to the last.
Does Media Composer offer a native collaboration feature?
Avid has a remote, cloud-based collaboration tool called (unsurprisingly) Cloud Remote. This tool was designed to give teams the ability to upload footage from anywhere in the world while editors continuously edit.
Pros and cons of Cloud Remote
Pros:
- Integrates directly with Media Composer
- Allows editors to work with footage as it’s being uploaded
- Affordable
- Allows users to write comments to accompany each change to add context
Cons:
- One of the major limiting factors is you need to apply changes before your teammates can see what you’ve changed.
- There’s no “live chat” feature to communicate with your team, only comments you can view after they apply changes.
This integrated cloud collaboration feature is a huge step forward for remote video editing teams and makes it easy and affordable for even small indie teams to integrate source control into their workflow.
Now, if you want to take your collaboration to the next level, there are some additional collaboration platforms that provide even more features that allow your team to work together seamlessly within Avid Media Composer.
Tools that can help your team collaborate in Media Composer
Tool #1: Evercast
Evercast is a video streaming and communication platform specifically built for creative teams that need to stream professional creation workspaces while chatting with their team.
With Evercast, you and your team can be working inside of Cloud Remote while your team lead streams their workspace to the whole team. Not only that, you can talk face-to-face while you edit, creating a virtual editing suite that anyone you choose can dial into.
Pros:
- Ultra-low latency (less than 150ms on average) means that you’ll be able to chat in as close to real-time as possible.
- On-screen annotation and timestamped notes help you keep project notes organized and frame accurate.
- The platform allows for simultaneous video chatting, text chatting/note-taking, and workstation streaming, all under one clean interface.
- No additional software is required for participants just joining a meeting; they simply need to follow a link to join.
- It not only works with Media Composer but any and all creative software.
Cons:
- Requires some setup time and configuration for editors who want to stream their workstations (this is just a one-time setup).
Create together remotely, in real time
Tool #2: Frame.io
Frame.io is a fantastic platform that you can custom-fit to your workflow to allow you to share, annotate, and manage all of your media throughout a project. This is great for reviewing new assets and clips and getting instant feedback. It’s also a popular way to keep external stakeholders in the loop on their own schedule.
Pros:
- Frame-accurate comments.
- On-screen annotation tools for visual notes.
- One-click comment/task clearing.
- Version tracking.
- Works with any type of media exports.
Cons:
- No video chat integration.
- You need to upload your project files to make comments and notes, which can take time for more extensive projects.
- Not designed for applying edits while notes are given.
Tool #3: Wipster
Wipster is a video review and proofing platform that was built to help streamline the draft review and approval process for both internal collaborators and external clients. Similar to Frame.io, this is a great platform to use when you’re looking to get fast feedback from other teams or external stakeholders on individual assets or new drafts.
Pros:
- Supports the review and approval of a wide variety of media files such as video, audio, PDF, and images.
- Includes version tracking so you can see how the project has changed over time and which versions are currently in review.
- Includes on-screen annotation and other feedback tools to make it easy for collaborators to make clear notes on the project.
- People just giving feedback don’t have to download additional software.
Cons:
- Not designed for a “live” feedback session. Instead, files are uploaded, and then collaborators make notes as they choose.
- Not a lot of storage included in the free or team accounts.
- Team accounts are priced by the user, which means costs can add up quickly.
Tool #4: Vimeo
Vimeo has recently released a set of collaboration tools designed to allow video creators to collaborate remotely. It includes tons of annotation tools similar to Wipster and Frame.io and has some features unique to its platform, like video notes.
Pros:
- Review features are supported on any device.
- Includes unique feedback tools like video notes where collaborators can record themselves giving feedback and get notifications when team members view or comment on their recording.
- All plans include ample storage space (1TB minimum) for larger assets.
Cons:
- Not designed for a “live” feedback session. Instead, files are uploaded, and then collaborators make notes as they choose.
- Does not work inside of Media Composer (requires files to be exported).
- Lowest-cost plans have a weekly upload limit of 20 GB, which may not work for larger projects. You don’t want to find yourself back at square one with storage restrictions, sharing Dropbox files.
Now you can collaborate from anywhere
The biggest benefit of all these remote collaboration tools is that they allow your team to expand beyond the boundaries of your local area.
Your core team may be headquartered in L.A., but you can now onboard a freelancer from New York, London, or Barcelona, because you can broadcast your editing session everywhere. You can start drawing from a global talent pool, which means building the perfect team just got a lot easier, because all they need is an internet connection.
Not only that, your current team members can now have much more flexibility in where they choose to work without sacrificing creative collaboration.
We could not be more thrilled to see how many tools are now available to help creative teams do better work at a distance, and we can’t wait to see what they’ll enable you to create next.
