[Andrew Rendell]

I would make the spot in the dimensions you filmed in and then make an SD sequence and cut it in to that.

The settings for the SD sequence should be:
Frame size 720 x 576 (CCIR601)
Pixel aspect ratio PAL-CCIR601 with the Anamorphic 16:9 flag ticked
Field dominance lower
Editing Timebase 25
Compressor type DV-PAL quality 100% / scan mode interlaced / aspect ratio 16:9
Audio 48k 16bit

The FCP scopes are just about ok for determining safe vision levels, audio must strictly adhere to not exceeding PPM6 (assuming you’re in Europe, which I’m guessing from the PAL requirement) but you’ll need to check with the broadcaster which safe title area you have to conform with (16:9 safe, 14:9 safe or 4:3 safe).

[Andrew Rendell]

What is the point of the question?

My opinion is that these things matter because the technical standards exist for the purpose of reliably transferring the experience from the makers to the viewers.

As a viewer, my screens are set to show a particular brightness range and my speakers have the gain in a narrow range, so the question comes down to how important is it for me to not have to adjust the screen settings and volume to see and hear the programme in the way that the makers want it to be seen?
(How can I possibly know what it’s supposed to look and sound like?)

So flip that back and it becomes: do you care what your viewers’ experience of your programme is?

[And if you don’t care about that, what else don’t you care about?]

[Andrew Rendell]

I’m actually using two computers at the moment to do media management because my client’s files are spread over seven drives…

There are loads of ways of saving time by sharing the load with other editors. A couple of weeks ago I was opening the project that another editor was the main cutter on and doing layered effects for him. I’ve cut individual back story sections while someone else was cutting the “what’s happening now” bits and a third editor was compiling them into a master timeline and adding the comm. I’ve done sound design on one computer while the other was rendering effects. Recently I’ve been using a second computer to script/ read transcripts/ make notes in an effort to reduce the amount of paper we use.

[Andrew Rendell]

link to govt web site
https://www.ipo.gov.uk/types/copy/c-ownership/c-commissioned.htm

It should be written in one’s contract who has copyright, usually the production company want it and it’ll be written in the contract something like “In consideration of the fee… the freelancer assigns intellectual property rights to the company…” or “…non-exclusive, royalty free, irrevocable licence to use…”.

Technically (although it’s complicated, see the government link), and in my opinion morally, if there isn’t a contract which specifies who has the copyright and payment hasn’t been made then creative work remains the copyright of the creator. However, if your friend doesn’t have a contract or the contract doesn’t specify the intellectual property rights ownership then arguing about it is most likely to be a world of pain where no one will ever come out well and any victory will be a pyrrhic one. He/she might have a case to pursue the outstanding payment through the small claims court (IANAL and I’m guessing here because I don’t know the full facts but a court judgement against the production could put a distribution company off handling the film so a ‘letter before claim’ might elicit payment to avoid it getting to court).

TBH, if it was me I’d walk away from the copyright issue, put it down to experience, and be more attentive to my contracts in the future.

I’d chase the payment though.

[Andrew Rendell]

I tend to keep a copy of the cut at various stages so that I can go back to them if I need to, which means that I end up with multiple sequences, which adds hugely to the project size. So what I do is create a separate project for all those saves, so my master project only has the current cut that I’m working on and the rushes in it, that works for me.

[Andrew Rendell]

Yeah, I’m still using it from time to time. Like Shane, I’m freelance so it’s quite frequently not my choice to make.

I’ve mostly gone back to Avid, but there are still a few around over here: the BBC still have quite a few around (their whole IT infrastructure is up sh1t creek at the moment* so no effort is being put into the relatively minor, for them, issue of what editing systems to use), and we cut this series https://military.discovery.com/tv-shows/ultimate-warfare on FCP7 late 2012/early 2013 because the facility we used has a very stable system using multiple FCP7’s networked with media storage on ISIS, so it was an easy decision for the producers to go with proven reliability.

TBH, I’ve been expecting every FCP7 job I do to be the last for over a year now, but it still keeps coming up.

*it’s been in the news over here and a senior manager has, er, left his position over it, so I’m not revealing anything by referring to it here.

[Andrew Rendell]

I’m not in a position to give a full answer, but I would make the observation that FCP4 only runs on pre-intel macs or in emulation under Tiger or Leopard, which I believe has been lost in the latest incarnations of OSX. More recent software would most likely require more recent hardware/operating system, so it might be a much more expensive step than you’d think. If you have FCP4 and it’s working for you then I wouldn’t tell you to change at this point.

[Andrew Rendell]

I’m biased because I actually use Genelec 8020’s – I got a deal from HHB a couple of years ago which saved me £100 off list (check out their web site from time to time).

I do think you need to have speakers that let you hear everything that’s there because if there is a lot of, for example, LF noise/rumble on your recordings you need to know about it in order to deal with it otherwise you’ll get odd distortions and not know why.

But I also have a pair of Behringer MS16 powered speakers and some cheapies that I got from Maplin, and I use those for judging what it’ll sound like in the “real world”.

[Andrew Rendell]

TBF, when the BBC flogged off the contents of Bush House last year, i.e., the kit used by the World Service, that was even more pitiful than this one.

[Andrew Rendell]

Picking out an element that’s one colour and giving it a different grade to the rest of the picture isn’t too hard (same clip on two layers and the keyer of your choice), but isolating a person including clothes, face, hair, etc, is harder. I have isolated a person in order to treat the background differently using Animatte, it’s rather tortuous if you need to do more than a few seconds/shots but is a possibility if the subject movement isn’t too extreme.