• Apple Final Cut Pro Legacy

  Precautions for feature film editing.

  Posted by The Dagfather on September 6, 2007 at 8:01 am

  Hi guys.

  I’ve been asked to consider editing a feature film.

  35 mm, about 25 hours of footage.

  For the record: I’ve never done this!

  I work as an editor in a small movie company and edited the pilot for this film.

  They really liked what I did, and wanted me to be their editor on the whole movie.

  They have got a couple of the quads from Apple and Final cut studio 2.
  Any other software needed they will buy, if I ask for it.

  So here’s where I need a little help/briefing:

  1. What kind of software do I need?
  2. What kind of “precautions” do I need to take before starting to log the footage?
  3. What to keep in mind during logging?
  4. What kind of setup, logging bins, sequences, etc….
  5. What to keep in mind during editing. (contact with the lab, etc.

  Since I have never done this before, I’m not sure if I have touched on all the important subjects.

  Another editor I spoke with said: get an editor assistant, primarly a female.
  According to her females are more structured. 🙂

  Please help me out here guys!

  If you know about any articles, short books or just about anything, please alert me!

  Thanks alot guys!!

  The Dagfather replied 18 years, 8 months ago 3 Members · 5 Replies
• 5 Replies

• 

  Misha Aranyshev

  September 6, 2007 at 4:16 pm

  Are you in PAL or NTSC land?
• 

  Walter Biscardi

  September 6, 2007 at 4:46 pm

  First thing you need is Shane Ross’s Getting Organized in Final Cut Pro.

  https://training.creativecow.net/dvd_store/get_organized_fcp/get_organized_fcp.html

  Shane’s done the best job I’ve seen so far for helping people manage projects of all sizes on FCP.

  [The Dagfather] “1. What kind of software do I need?”

  Nothing except maybe Colorista for color grading. Works almost exactly like FCP’s 3Way CC tool, only cleaner and a heckuva lot easier to use than Color if you’ve never touched it. I do have a DVD coming out shortly on Color through the Creative Cow Master Series and that will help you there.

  [The Dagfather] “2. What kind of “precautions” do I need to take before starting to log the footage?”

  Get Shane’s DVD first. Then ensure that you capture the footage to whatever format you are going to mastering to, at least the correct frame size / frame rate.

  [The Dagfather] “3. What to keep in mind during logging?”

  Again, Shane’s DVD. Seriously, if you’ve never handled a large project, you need to be organized.

  [The Dagfather] “Another editor I spoke with said: get an editor assistant, primarly a female.
  According to her females are more structured. :)”

  In my experience, this is absolutely true.

  Walter Biscardi, Jr.
  https://www.biscardicreative.com
  HD Editorial & Animation for Broadcast and independent productions.

  All Things Apple Podcast! https://cowcast.creativecow.net/all_things_apple/index.html

  Read my blog! https://blogs.creativecow.net/WalterBiscardi
• 

  The Dagfather

  September 7, 2007 at 6:33 am

  PAL.

  Scandinavia.
• 

  Misha Aranyshev

  September 7, 2007 at 4:00 pm

  Good.

  Find out how they record production sound. Most likely it is some sort of hard disk recorder. You will be given BWF files on CD/DVD-ROM’s or a back-up HDD. You will need sound reports.

  Find out how do they transfer dailies. You will need 24@25 (picture sped-up ~4%, every film frame is one video frame) tapes, Video TC, Lab Roll, Cam Roll, KeyKode burn-in. You will need telecine log files. If the log files are Scene&Take, that’s great. If not it means more work for you but that’s OK. You won’t need sound synced to picture at telecine
• 

  The Dagfather

  September 9, 2007 at 9:35 am

  Thanks alot.

  Allthough I don’t understand all of it in theory right now, I guess I will understand more and more when I start logging and having contact with the lab, etc.

  The film is actually shot, and is currently stored at the lab. It has been scanned to Digibeta, and the tapes are, as we speak, on its way in the mail.

  I’ve ordered the Shane Ross DVD and are looking forward to getting started.
  I allways feel these things are harder to understand when I don’t have my hands on the gear, tapes, etc.

  The Sound has been recorded on dat and the sound report is really accurate and detailed (thank God!)

  I spoke with the sound engineers when I edited the pilot, and they said the sound recordings had TC recorded on them. We didn’t get this when we logged this in, because we didn’t have the right DAT player. And the fact that we only used 2 sound recordings in the pilot I didn’t feel that this was a big problem.

  I have to read a bit more about the 24 frame issue to really understand it and will spend the week browsing for articles and more info.

  feel free to inform about any articles dealing with this.

  Thanks guys!

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