A recent interview by Steven Awalt with Steven Spielberg reveals that he is now starting to embrace the industry standard Avid. There are 2 main things to get here. The teamwork aspect is the one I wasn't expecting.
First and foremost, he is making the jump to a digital world. His editor, Michael Kahn has used computers to edit many times before, but Spielberg has steadfastly stuck with film. This is big news because he's really resisted the digital world when it comes to picture editing. His resistance has been rooted in the creative process, not some holier than thou hatred of a Mac. He explains this in the interview quite well. He has said what other editors have told me before. The time required to make an edit on film allows for the creative juices to flow at a bit slower pace. He says digital editing is too quick and you need time to absorb the edit. I've only edited "Gunsmoke" footage on film and have never cut a project, but I can certainly see where he is coming from. This team effort of editing the picture can be hindered if the creative process is not allowed to flow freely. When editing, the editor and director collaborate as a team. They bounce ideas off each other and try different ways of cutting the film together. With digital editing, this is too fast for him, and many others.
Next time you're feeling that nervous tick in the edit room, take a walk and think through your edits. Clearing your mind away from the suite may help. I know one editor that like to go to the gun range and get some range time in. He says it really clears his mind. I don't know if that will work for you. You'll have to find your own way of doing this. Good luck!
Sunday, November 27, 2011
Tuesday, November 8, 2011
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
Walter Much speaks out on FCPX, not sure where the "Pro" part went
This past weekend at the Boston Supermeet, Walter Murch spoke about his experience with FCPX to date. As the video below demonstrates, he's not sold yet. I think he's in line with the rest of the post world. If their main cheerleader isn’t sold, then they have trouble. Ever since Walter edited Cold Mountain on FCP, the world has been at Apple’s fingertips, but it seems they have been hell bent on being different, just for the sake of being different.
Where did FCP go so wrong? Is it part of a bigger plan? If so, why alienate your core customer so much that they take numbers to get in line to jump ship? Although I haven't edited a complete project in FCPX, I have played around with it enough to know I can't use it for the work I do. It seems that with the departure of Wes Plate from Automatic Duck to Adobe, Premiere stands to fill in where FCP strands people.
With this, news comes that Automatic Duck is now FREE!! I can only surmise that there will be a new product coming shortly. However, this is still great news. Since FCP 7 will not be around much longer (yours still works,) you’ll want to get your projects off FCP and bring them over to Avid MC or Premiere. Doing all of this archiving for free sounds good to me!
As for the latest FCPX update, it does address a few concerns. XML support is a must that should have been included with the original release. “Roles” are their idea on how to handle tracks?? Not quite. Shared network support was added as well. However, the elusive shared projects idea seems to fall on deaf ears. This alone causes most professionals to avoid this program. It’s a big reason why FCP is not the market leader with film and TV editors.
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