These are custom bin views for the Codebook and VFX pulls. They are posted in both the Codebook module of FFAEI and the stand-alone Codebook classroom. You should find these helpful when working with the Codebook or going through the Codebook module.

Three stories crossed my desk this week that every editor should know about. Two are about Hollywood making room for AI. The third is about a new model, and a reminder to read the fine print. 1. Culver City is turning into an AI studio town. The LA Times counts a cluster of AI filmmaking companies moving in: Promise, TrueShort, Native Foreign, PhantomX and Luma AI, which took a 7,000-square-foot space for its Dream Lab. Promise works hybrid: real actors on real soundstages, with AI handling backgrounds, visual effects and synthetic humans. Not "push a button, get a movie." Real crews, new tools. (The unions are watching closely, and they should be.) 2. AI studios now have a manager. Variety is reporting that former UTA agent Dante DeSario launched Collage, a management and investment company that walks AI-first studios through the guilds, the studios and the copyright questions. Backers include Black Bear, Roy Lee and Marty Bowen. Clients include Asteria, Native Foreign, Obsidian and Jason Zada's Secret Level. When Hollywood builds representation for something, it has decided that something is real. And his word for what separates the good ones? Taste. 3. A fast, free video model... with a catch. Hao AI Lab released FastH3 Omni, a sped-up version of MiniMax's H3 model. Feed it reference images, clips and a voice, and it gives you video with sound, up to about 12x faster than the original by their own numbers. It already works in ComfyUI. Everyone called it "open." Here's the thing: the license on the model doesn't cover the US, the UK, the EU or South Korea. If you're here, you have to ask MiniMax for permission first. Read the license before the benchmark.

Avid and Google Cloud made an announcement at IBC in Amsterdam, which wrapped yesterday. Every assistant editor should read it, because the jobs it names are ours. What they showed: • Media Composer running inside the Chrome browser. • A feature Avid calls Ready to Edit. You type a plain request, and it syncs media, transcribes and aligns dialogue, and organizes project bins. • A Gemini panel (Google's AI) inside Media Composer that can tag and log media, translate, find stock footage, and generate B-roll. • Avid Content Core, their media library, writing transcripts and descriptions as footage comes in, so you can search for a shot in plain words. Sync. Transcribe. Organize bins. Log. That's day one on any show. Before anyone panics, three things: 1. This was a trade show demo. No price, no ship date. 2. It's built around Content Core and Google Cloud. My read is it shows up at big facilities and broadcasters first, not on a freelancer's laptop next month. 3. The headline number, 79% of editors using AI, comes from a survey of 120 Avid customers. Useful, not the whole industry. So what does it mean for us? The prep isn't going away. What's changing is who does the first pass. Somebody still has to catch the sync that's a frame off, the transcript that puts a line in the wrong character's mouth, and bins that make no sense to the editor who has to live in them. Software can build a bin. It can't know how your editor likes to work. That's the part of the job to get very good at: • **Checking the machine's work.** Treat AI sync and transcripts like the first pass from a new hire. Spot-check all of it. • **Writing down your standards.** Bin structure, naming, metadata. That's exactly what you'll be telling the software to follow. • **Learning what's already in the box.** If you haven't used ScriptSync and PhraseFind, learn them now. They're the closest thing to this you can use today.

Paramount/Warner Bros. merger deal put on hold until next June. Here's a quick summary of where things stand: The Deal Paramount Skydance is acquiring Warner Bros. Discovery in a $110 billion mega-merger announced February 27, 2026. Paramount is paying $31/share in cash for all WBD shares, backed by the Ellison family and RedBird Capital Partners.[paramount] What Happened This Week On July 14, a coalition of 12 state attorneys general led by California's Rob Bonta (and including New York's Letitia James) filed an antitrust lawsuit to block the deal, arguing it would "extinguish competition" in film, television, and streaming.[latimes] On July 20, U.S. District Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín in Oakland granted a 14-day temporary restraining order, saying the merger "raises serious questions" about antitrust violations. The order blocks the companies from closing or taking any integration steps.[usnews] The companies had been targeting a July 22 close. On July 22, the European Commission approved the merger (with conditions that Paramount exit its Universal distribution partnership in Europe), and the U.S. DOJ had already cleared it.[variety] What Happens Next - August 3: A hearing on the states' request for a preliminary injunction, which could extend the hold for months. - The states are seeking a trial date in April 2027. - Paramount has until June 4, 2027 to close the deal under its merger agreement. - If the deal hasn't closed by September 30, 2026, Paramount must start paying a "ticking fee" of roughly $7 million per day to WBD shareholders. If the deal is ultimately blocked entirely, Paramount could owe a $7 billion termination fee.[economictimes]

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.