Hi all, Currently assisting on a picture cut in Avid Media Composer and my butt is starting to clench - which can only mean one thing... soon I will have to spend a considerable amount of time making an Optical Effects List of each reel of the film for the DI. In the past, I've dropped markers on clips that have effects - typing the effect and percentages into the marker text window, then file export. You know the drill. You also know how long this can take, especially when there's changes and updates are needed. Multiply that by each production, and you start to wonder if your pet dog has a better life. It's 2026. AI is taking over our lives. Surely there must be a better way to create Optical Lists. I've recently come across Parser IO (https://parserio.com/) — found a demo on Youtube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCHQ0bhFw_c) that explains it well. It works like a dream, but it's a bit pricey. How is the MTWF community dealing with this task? I've heard that making a sequence report in Avid is sufficient... but I haven't tried that workflow myself. @Richard Sanchez, what is your secret source? Can we expect a new Opticals tab on the Digital Codebook any time soon? Very best regards, Matt

Hello. I'm considering the full course. Could someone tell me if the course is only for Avid users?

Is anyone interested in attending the InfoComm 2026 Pro Video Summit together? I received an email from FMC about Team Pass discounts: a team of 3 is $599/person, and a team of 5 is $549/person, which is cheaper than registering individually. The summit focuses on professional video, corporate/event video, AI post-production workflows, live/virtual production, and branded/social media content. If you’re interested, feel free to message me. Maybe we can put together a 3-person or 5-person team pass. https://www.infocommshow.org/pro-video-summit

We know of an assistant editor job opening on a low-budget feature that needs to fill the spot pretty much immediately. This is a non-union project. You'll need to know the full assistant workflow as taught in FFAEI: prepping dailies, manual syncing, turnovers, and finishing. There's also a chance you'll get to do some cutting. One requirement: we're only putting forward people who have completed the quizzes and earned their MTW certificate. If you're interested and you qualify, DM me here with your resume and cover letter.

I just spent two days at Amazon/MGM Studios in Culver City at AI on the Lot, the biggest AI filmmaking conference in the world. Paul Schrader, the man who wrote Taxi Driver, among other classics, stood up and walked the room through how he's writing with AI now. Studios that wouldn't say the word two years ago were on the main stage with their names on the work. Films are shipping. This isn't a prediction. It's happening, right now, in Culver City. And I want to say something to those of you who've been dragging your feet, or worse, nursing a grudge about it. I've made this argument before. When the Avid came out, I was one of the first to cut a studio project on it, and I spent a lot of time telling my friends to learn it before it passed them by. Some did. Some crossed their arms, said "That's not real editing," and waited it out. You know how that turned out. I'll be straight with you: the Avid was an easier sell. It obviously made our job better, faster, and more our own. This one's harder, because it doesn't feel like a new tool, it feels like it's coming for the job itself. I understand why that's scary. But hear me: it is not coming for you. Not if you're the one driving it. Here's the part nobody's saying: AI doesn't erase the editor. It puts the editor at the center. Everything becomes post. The person who knows story, rhythm, and how to finish a piece becomes more valuable when the tools get faster, not less. But only if you pick them up. You don't have to love it. You don't have to use all of it. You just have to stop pretending it's going away, sit down, and learn enough to have an opinion based on the tools instead of the fear. I wrote up the whole conference, every session, in this week's AIography newsletter. Read it. Not for the clicks, but so you can see with your own eyes that the people in our business are already doing this. Here is the link to the full newsletter.