POLL: How much work(network / feature) is now being done on FCP

[Shane Ross]

Nont much network episodic (stuff like West Wing and CSI) is being done other than SCRUBS and NIP/TUCK. It is HUGE on cable networks like MTV and VH1 (Bunim Murray, which does THE REAL WORLD, has some 100 FCP setups, although about half are used by actual editors) and HTGV and the Food Network…The History Channel has some shows done with FCP. Oh, and SHOWTIME series are almost all done with FCP and have been for several years (since FCP 3 was released). Commercials, Music Videos, and nearly ALL Theatrical movie trailers are FCP.

But the bulk of network TV is still using AVID, and will for quite some time. Because the companies that edit them, or the post houses they go to already have their money invested in them, and they work. Why change if it works? And money isn’t too much of an issue on shows like that. On cable where budgets are thin is where you find the bulk of FCP systems in use.

I can only name 2 big time features using FCP…and both cut by Walter Murch. JARHEAD and COLD MOUNTAIN. Again, because companies are invested in their Avid, or use companies that have all Avid systems, and they work gangbusters, why change?

It took a loooooong time for Avid to be accepted. Because what was in place worked. But back then editing on a computer was a new thing, and a whole new world was opened up. Now, it is just another product that has hit the street…so FCP has a tougher battle in Hollywood. But where it is winning is the corporate, wedding and event worlds. Where Media 100 and Premiere Pro were king, FCP is making huge advances.

[Michael Horton]

There isn’t a list anywhere for network/feature shows cut on FCP anymore than there is a list for Avid shows. Well, maybe in Boston and Cupertino but none where I live. No way to give a definitive list just what we’ve heard. Plus the new TV season is underway and I’m betting FCP is a bigger part of it this year what with all the HD shows.

Michael Horton
lafcpug
https://www.lafcpug.org

[Vince Sanchez]

We just finished doing all the post for a new syndicated Show, “Coolfuel Roadtrip” produced by an Australian Co. A lot of UPN stations have picked it up and its will air on KABC in LA. Now the producers have ordered five more episodes for the end of the year. They’ve done previous shows on Avid systems and claim there’s no way they’d go back, they love the flexibility that FCP has given them both in work flow and expandability. We started with 2 editors and at times swelled the ranks to 7 workstations, parceling out parts of the edit (throws to break, graphics, etc.) inorder to speed up the process. As a direct result of this project we are in negotiations for another series, this time for a large cable sports network. Last season this particular show was edited on an Avid, but the producers like the work flow we were able to develop on FCP.
All this from a studio located in a barn on the top of a mountain in Santa Cruz, CA. FCP and the AJA IO have been hugely responsible for our rapid growth into episodic TV.

Thanks,
Vince Sanchez
G5 DP2.0ghz 2.5gig ram
AJA IO
OS10.3.9 QT7.01
3X250gb SATA Hitachi HD 8meg cache stripped in array
Sonnet 133mhz Sata card
OWC firewire card

[Walter Biscardi]

[Vince Sanchez] “Last season this particular show was edited on an Avid, but the producers like the work flow we were able to develop on FCP.”

That’s a huge part of the reason for changing over to FCP. I’m cutting a series in HD right now for the Food Network that’s cut first on an Adrenaline in SD and then I conform it to HD. The Automatic Duck allows them to continue to the cut the show in-house on their own AVID. Then I take the OMF and re-cut the show in HD. It’s a great workflow that a few other folks are looking at as well.

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Creative Genius, Biscardi Creative Media
https://www.biscardicreative.com

Now in Production, “The Rough Cut,” https://www.theroughcutmovie.com

“I reject your reality and substitute my own!” – Adam Savage, Mythbusters

[Lexerton]

I’m cutting a 13 part series for Discovery in the UK at the moment. I am in a facility surrounded by Avids and freelance editors and all of them come into my suite and want to see what my FCP rig can do (it gets hard to get any work done sometimes.)

Not once has a senior producer or comissioning editor asked what system I was using (I suspect they don’t care) as long as I deliver the cuts on time.

A lot of guys in the UK are using it for corporate or independent movie production but it still feels a bit like Avid’s poor second cousin. The editors love it but FCP only facilities are stuggling a bit.

Alex

http://www.lex.dircon.co.uk

[Burt Hazard]

I’m pretty sure INTOLERABLE CRUELTY and SKY CAPTAIN AND THE WORLD OF TOMORROW were edited with FCP.

[Chris Tompkins]

I read in the trades about a year ago that NBC’s Scrubs” is cut w/ FCP

[Tony]

FCP is also used alot by major theatrical trailer editorial houses here in LA. I did a video for Apple (FCP 3) in which we profiled one high end trailer house that dumped all their Avid systems and replaced them with FCP stations.

Tony Salgado

[Andrew]

thanks for the info, now i can tell these guy/girls something that will give many of them hope in finding a job, lol.