Oscar Winners on Final Cut Pro??

[Jason Diebler]

I know “Cold Mountain” was cut on FCP, and was nominated for the Oscar… I think it lost to “Lord of the Rings”.

[Jason Diebler]

“Curious Case of Benjamin Button” also was nominated but did not win… I don’t think an FCP cut film has won an Oscar, an article I read said that Benjamin Button would have been the first… Avid’s first was “English Patient” 1996 I think.

https://digitalfilms.wordpress.com/2009/01/24/oscar-nominations/

Milestones
Aside from my own personal good wishes for the nominees, these films provide some other interesting ingredients. If certain of these films win in their categories, a number of milestones will have been reached. For instance, Avid editing and Pro Tools audio products are well-represented again (as in past years), but a win in the editing category for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button means a milestone for Apple. It will have been the first Oscar winner for editing in which Final Cut Pro was used. This will be as big an event for FCP users as when Walter Murch won for The English Patient in 1996 – the first editing Oscar for a film cut on an NLE – an Avid Media Composer. Another important editing milestone was Thelma Schoonmaker’s 2004 win for The Aviator, which she cut on a Lightworks system.

[Grinner Hester]

Just like in video land, we’ll see the tides turn in film as Avid just does not shine in competing these days. FCP’s upgrades are upgrades with new features whie Avid’s are nor updates to fix bug fixes, often presenting new ones on the fly.
It’s a shame. You guys know there was no bigger Avid fan than me back in the day.

[Tim Allen]

Well there you have it.

Thanks Jason!

–
The Real Tim Allen
https://www.timdan.com

[Alan Lloyd]

Just to be a contrarian PITA:

It’s not the tool, it’s the person using it. Thelma Schoonmaker (to name one) could cut something on an old upright Moviola and do a better job of it than 99.99% of any self-styled hotshot “editors” using any computer platform in existence (or yet to be devised).

[Tim Allen]

I absolutely agree. But when a tool is being used by the majority of the creative elite, it says something significant about the tool.

–
The Real Tim Allen
https://www.timdan.com

[Stuart Hooper]

What about No Country for Old Men? Didn’t it win multiple Oscars? I remember seeing some kind of article about the completely Mac Workflow at the time.

[Oliver Peters]

Thanks for the link to my blog – DigitalFilms. If you go to the Category pulldown and select editing, you’ll find a number of interviews I’ve done with various “A” list film editors, including the Coens. To my knowledge, no film to date that was cut using FCP, has won an Oscar for Editing. A number of them have won Oscars in other categories. In fact, “Aviator” also used FCP in its workflow, because HD versions of the cut were screened for Scorsese using an FCP system, even though Schnoonmaker cut on Lightworks. I think Wikipedia has a running list of the “big name” films that have been cut using FCP in one of its Final Cut Pro entries.

– Oliver

Oliver Peters Post Production Services, LLC
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com

[Mark Raudonis]

Tim,

This thread is so “five years ago”.

Can’t we just edit?

mark

[Tim Allen]

I wish we could “just edit”, but unfortunately there’s all this dang hardware and software that gets in the way.

It’s a love/hate thing with me really. I know that I wouldn’t be able to do some of the stuff I do without Final Cut or Avid, but it’s just so frustrating when the very thing that is suppose to be so creatively liberating and effective is the thing that’s holding you down!

I just think it’s interesting to see what people – who are truly successful and effective at their craft – are using.

I’m not shuttin’ anyone down, or trying to degrade an NLE. Just observing. 🙂

Good talk.

–
The Real Tim Allen
https://www.timdan.com