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anyone using FCP to edit feature film?
Is anyone using FCP to edit feature films? I saw the Walter Murch book on editing Cold Mountain with FCP, and it seemed like 360 pages of problems he had to solve.
I’m getting ready to direct a feature and the prodco uses Avids. I know FCP and used it on 20 short projects, but never on a feature. I’d rather use FCP for this, but I don’t know if it’s ready.
Is anyone using FCP with the intent of doing a negative cut?
The only time I edited a film with FCP, I simply had the keycode numbers burned into the letterbox at the the telecine house. Then I just made a list of the keycode numbers from the final edit and gave the list to the negative cutter. It worked great. My stuff is comedic narrative, so there aren’t that many cuts, and very few opticals.
As for FCP, all this cinema tools stuff seems like a lot of extra work and importing/exporting and many stages where something can go wrong.
Is anyone doing features with FCP? Is anyone consulting on this? I really want to use FCP for this feature, but I need a good argument for the prodco. I don’t want to make mistakes on their dime. And boy, that Walter Murch book just screams “don’t do this unless you have a huge budget and plenty of time for mistakes!”
thanks
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14 Replies
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[David Willis] “Is anyone using FCP to edit feature films? I saw the Walter Murch book on editing Cold Mountain with FCP, and it seemed like 360 pages of problems he had to solve.”
Well, he cut “Jarhead” with FCP so I guess it couldn’t have been too bad and from what I understand, he is continuing to use FCP.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
https://www.biscardicreative.comDirector, “The Rough Cut”
https://www.theroughcutmovie.comNow Posting “Good Eats” in HD for the Food Network
“I reject your reality and substitute my own!” – Adam Savage, Mythbusters
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Hi,
I’m currently assisting on 4 features in FCP. Everything is fine except for 2 major problems:
1. The media manager problem that has been described on MacWorld + groups like this, where the program will mess up time-varied clips and still frames.2. Unexpected playback errors, that are only fixed by deleting all of the renders with render manager. Sometimes audio or video clips just play the wrong media. This can add huge amounts of time to making an output, but appears to be the only way of being sure that playback is correct.
-karim
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Final Cut Pro works great for feature films, but you need to understand the process and plan properly before starting, just as with any computer system.
The method described in Murch’s book about Cold Mountain is much different than the method used for Jarhead, as the tools keep advancing. To understand the Jarhead method so you can make a choice, you should get the DVD from LAFCPUG October 2005 where Murch and assistant Sean Cullen discuss Jarhead:
https://www.intelligentassistance.com/shop/
Also, if the production company uses Avid, and you have reservations about using FCP, then maybe you should use Avid. I’ve worked on films where there were producers who knew nothing about editing systems, and they were sure that all our problems were because we weren’t using Avid. (In fact, the issues were video card driver issues because they insisted on using a capture card that I argued against.)
Producers usually won’t tell a DP what camera to shoot with, but they don’t hesitate to tell an editor what system to edit with.
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[Steven Gonzales] “Producers usually won’t tell a DP what camera to shoot with, but they don’t hesitate to tell an editor what system to edit with.”
That’s a great point, I’ll have to remember that one for a special Producer.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
https://www.biscardicreative.comDirector, “The Rough Cut”
https://www.theroughcutmovie.comNow Posting “Good Eats” in HD for the Food Network
“I reject your reality and substitute my own!” – Adam Savage, Mythbusters
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I’ve cut many features with FCP. We’ve done a film cut on three of them. All of them perfect with not a single miscut. Just as with an Avid, you need an assistant (or yourself) who knows the details of film, the edit system, and Cinema Tools. You’ve got to understand the workflow of film to telecine to FCP. Do some quick tests if have any doubts. Take one Flex file and do an import via FCP 5 (no need to go through CT directly anymore) Batch capture using the correct Non Drop Frame preset in FCP, reverse telecine, edit some clips and pull a cut list to compare. The process is just like an Avid with a few extra steps.
FCP/CT is not good at tracking most effects. It only knows fades, dissolves and simple speed changes. It will pass by a flop without ever telling you. Many of these things you need to manually flag and keep a database of.
The trim tool still isn’t as organic as the Avid trim tool, but it’s close. Most Avid editors will complain about this but will get used to it after a week or so.
That’s about it in a nut shell. It’s a breeze to cut a feature in FCP. But like with any system, you’ve got to know what you’re doing. You can’t just wing it.Michael Alberts
Ambidextrous Productions, Inc. -
100% right. You need a crack assistant who knows the technical ins/outs of FCP – especially someone with experience with CT and keycode if you’re going to cut neg. Otherwise FCP 5 has been completely relaible and solid for us on long format work. Plus it’s been a joy to edit with (why we left AVID 🙂
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Is it true Apple pays Murch, or he gets some sort of incentive to use FCP…thats what Ive heard but Im not sure if its true or not….
Paul
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Kids, I did it in FCP 2 and beta of FilmLogic in PAL 🙂
Seriously, doing feature for negative cut in FCP was little hassle back then and it is almost silk-smooth now. That is if you now what you are doing.
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This is fiction…Apple didn’t even support his use of it for Cold Mountain…they actually advised him against it in the beginning because they didn’t want the pressure of a 80 million dollar movie on their shoulders.
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[mike] “This is fiction…Apple didn’t even support his use of it for Cold Mountain…they actually advised him against it in the beginning because they didn’t want the pressure of a 80 million dollar movie on their shoulders.”
I’m just curious, what’s your source for this? Apple ran a huge print ad campaign featuring Cold Mountain when the film was released.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
https://www.biscardicreative.comDirector, “The Rough Cut”
https://www.theroughcutmovie.comNow Posting “Good Eats” in HD for the Food Network
“I reject your reality and substitute my own!” – Adam Savage, Mythbusters
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