[Christopher Travis]

I suppose it was clear from my original post that I knew what software options are available to me and that I still intend to switch to Windows. Although I suppose it’s still odd that no one has jumped in to remind me how great FCPX is and that I really oughta give it a try.

FFIW as a freelancer I go where the industry goes and in the places I work no one is even talking about FCPX. I’m the only person I know who takes even an academic interest in it.

Obviously FCPLegacy’s days are numbered which is why I want to get myself setup at home on a windows machine running MC and/or PP (depending on which software I can buy/beg/borrow/steal) and get up to scratch in this environment on my own time while I run out the clock as a professional FCP editor so that I can start confidently applying for jobs on those platforms within a year.

[Christopher Travis]

Thanks Craig,

I know about bootcamp, I also know I’m able to buy Mac versions of MC and/or PP. What I’m interested in is the improved realtime performance of these 2 programs when running on supported hardware. I think my experience in either PP or MC on my old iMac would probably be about the same as I am currently seeing in FCP7 (I just realised my iMac is 2007 not 2009).

Thanks everyone for the tips. I’ve been sniffing around the Zen and DVC sites and it looks like, for the price of a top range iMac (about £1,600) I could get a pretty tricked out windows box with more processing power and a better, CUDA enable GPU. I’m still very interested to hear about any custom builds people have made on here and their experiences with them.

Another question. When ordering MC6 and/or CS5.5 do you get different DVDs for Mac and Windows versions, or is it the same DVD?

[Christopher Travis]

Thanks Herb,

I’m in the UK so can’t but from either of these sites, but it’s a great place to start looking at what I need.

[Christopher Travis]

Mainly because I don’t have much experience producing, directing or shooting. A little, but not much. I’m a busy freelancer who just wants to dip his toe into narrative. I’m in no hurry to produce my own movie just now. I’d rather work with, and learn from more experienced people.

[Christopher Travis]

Show what you’ve done to someone else. Anyone. Your friend, partner, mum, whoever. This works for me EVERY time. The second I press play and show my work to someone else, all of the problems start leaping out at me. Suddenly I am seeing this through their eyes and I have a whole new perspective on the clip. Also, when it’s finished you can get them to tell you what they thought which is also invaluable.

[Christopher Travis]

So you’re already having a nightmare with clients? Don’t you think it’ll be worse when they know you can edit by voice control on your iPad 6 while driving your kids to school?

Managing client expectations and herding them to give comments in a timely fashion is like pushing water uphill I know, but I’d rather try for the sake of my personal life, than roll over and yield to being a 24hr editor-on-a-rope for the rest of my working life.

Maybe I’m overstating this point but I do believe that it’s worth fighting to retain ones personal life in the face of constantly increasing client demands.

I think this applies to both freelance editors-for-hire who will be asked to work in increasingly uncomfortable and unconducive conditions AND one-man-band video producers who will find clients taking more liberties with their spare time.

[Christopher Travis]

Sorry, “just one more thing”

The more I think about it, it feels like the people who really, actually benefit most from this sort of tech advancement (miniaturisation, affordability, portability etc..) are the people who hold the purse strings on productions and not the people actually working on them.

I obviously understand the advantage of being able to work in the field in a pinch but what starts out as a neat little get out or occasional life-saver for us freelancers, will very quickly become the standard as prod companies see how they can save money, office space, and have their freelancers on a total leash if they just pass out a few ipads and logins for their cloud storage.

Anyone who edits on a day-to-day basis and is excited about this prospect is mental IMO.

[Christopher Travis]

Also the original poster sounds like a complete troll.

[Christopher Travis]

FWIW

I just don’t really see the appeal in being able to work on an ipad in a coffee shop, or on a train, or anywhere in the “real world”. Coffee shops are loud, the ipad screen is glary, my fat fingers will obscure far too much of my work space, I can’t imagine a comfortable position in which to work on an iPad for more than 20 mins at a time, and many other complaints besides.

As someone said earlier “just because you can, doesn’t mean you should”.

Also, most frighteningly, once clients get wind of the fact that you can work wherever you are, they will be demanding constant changes at all times of day and night regardless of whether you are in bed, on a train, or cooking dinner.

Don’t try to tell me this won’t happen because as much as you might tell them to keep changes to within certain timeframes, if they know you can do the job whenever and wherever, you’ll start to find that they aren’t watching the screeners you gave them on time, and they won’t be compiling all their comments into one email. Instead they’ll be watching your screeners whenever they damn please and giving you comments in “oh just one more thing” bits and pieces like bloody Columbo.

I’m a relative newbie in this game (5years broadcast experience) and I’m finding that on more and more jobs I’m being asked to work on an iMac, with headphones in an office with other editors, or even a busy production office and it’s a nightmare. Ok, you will argue that these are the wrong jobs to be taking but how much worse would it be to be handed an ipad and told to piss off and find your own workspace?

Just sayin..

[Christopher Travis]

Thanks Mark,

I ended up using this method to get it done.