A Note on FCP

[Michaelrosenblum]

I am having enormous success with FCP7 and marrying it to iChat.
You are able to talk to (and see) the editor working with FCP while screening rough cuts right off the timeline.
This has had a big impact on the way we work.
Now pretty much everyone can work from home but we are able to screen rough cuts and final cuts and give notes face to face any time from anywhere.
It means no more need for edit suites - but with iChat it is just like standing in an edit suite watching over the editor's shoulder.
This has obvious impacts for newsrooms, but also for clients who want to see rough cuts and then can comment directly to the editor.
Pretty good stuff.

 

[zac love]

It means no more need for edit suites - but with iChat it is just like standing in an edit suite watching over the editor's shoulder.

I agree to a point, but mostly disagree. I think a lot of this was captured in the movie "Up In the Air" as to why face to face interactions are important & often necessary.

I like to be mobile & have done a lot of editing remotely. I think it is great & sing a lot of praises about it. Now, there are people that I don't like being around, but I would err on the side of having too much face to face, than not enough.

E-mail, texts, chat, etc. can all be useful, but they all have limits to their communication. (It is hard to hear sarcasm in an e-mail.) Over all I see these tools as a a means to an end, and they will work wonders when you need them too. But if you try to use a power screw driver as a saw, you're wasting a lot of time & money.


Also, I think there is a lot to be said in having a dedicated editing suite. Abbey Road Studios is really just another building. It doesn't hold some acoustics that only exist in that location. But there is something special about the space that kept bringing the Beatles back to it.

I doubt that there are many creative editors that thrive hovering over a latop on a tiny table at Starbucks. I think editors that can really create magic probably prefer to have their own space, ie an edit suite.

I think things like the iChat feature in FCP7 make it possible for someone to set up their suite in their basement w/ furniture from Walmart, but just b/c the setup didn't cost $50k I wouldn't NOT call it a suite.


Though I think the biggest point to be taken away from your post is that you are using the tool in a productive way that improves your workflow. And no matter what it is, from software updates to free pop in the fridge, I think anything that improves workflow, efficiency & team morale is something to be praised.

 

[Michaelrosenblum]

While it is not for everyone, a lot of folks seem to prefer working from home, and that being said, they have some pretty sophisticated (and quite comfortable) set ups at home. No one I know is editing in Starbucks. (not that you can't)

 

[2000lux]

A friend of mine has been using Skype. It has a "show screen" option that allows the client to watch her screen and while she edits. It's pretty low rez' but it works for rough cuts. Otherwise her current client has to travel an hour and a half each way to attend sessions.

 

[adam]

I continue to be amazed at the consumer software options that are perfect for broadcast and production business. I'm in one of the hundreds of stations that use "inews" and it is amazing how poorly it compares to myriad other off the shelf options, many of them free. Google Wave was seemingly invented for newsroom operations but will likely go unused. The fact is that the built in software on most macs could be adapted to handle a significant amount of field work that we do.