[Misha Aranyshev]

Well, alternative history genre is often silly. FCP value is not in its tech. It is in the interface that makes sense. Unfortunately an interface that makes sense never was a serious requirement for software.

[Misha Aranyshev]

Apple did offer Shake source code to anybody for 50 grands. Of course Shake was just a huge collection of scripts and FCP is a different story. It has hooks to QuickTime and some licensed code. Looks like the chances are zero.

[Misha Aranyshev]

When FCP says “Preparing video for display” it doesn’t actually means video. It means it needs time to redraw the timeline.

[Misha Aranyshev]

Generally color grading comes after VFX so your VFX guys should be comfortable with flat unsaturated look. Motion graphics like titles and logos is another story. Often international deliverables must be without titles so it is often makes sense to grade first when create motion graphics. Now with technology advancements it is possible to “pregrade” — have your look in a separate file like look-up table or Color Decision List. That allows VFX guys to turn the grade on and off while working. The grade is not baked in.

[Misha Aranyshev]

[Bill Davis] “What DOES define a proper editing environment.”

Quiet, neutral colors, no light reflections on the monitors, no sound reflections from the walls and the furniture. Enough space for you and your clients to not bang heads. Thick enough walls to play sound loud. AC’d and properly ventilated.

[Misha Aranyshev]

1024×576 comes from an After Effects guy who needs to deliver anamorphic PAL but likes to work at square (squarish) pixels. And then forget to resize on render.

1024×576 clip squished when dropped on 1024×576 timeline in FCP means “Anamorphic” is checked on the source clip. Picked up from metadata in the source file probably.

FCP can handle it. Output to the broadcast monitor will suffer though.

[Misha Aranyshev]

Lets say it’s a piece of motion graphics and the guys keep changing the design. I’d rather reconnect than go through import–replace.

[Misha Aranyshev]

[Craig Seeman] “Sony
a trail of dead formats including D2 and BetaSX”

NLE software too. XPRI and a bunch of Fast clones

[Misha Aranyshev]

CinemaTools tells you that the files have interframe compression. ProRes is intraframe codec. So your files are probably rewrapped but not converted to ProRes.

[Misha Aranyshev]

Conform slo–mo footage to 24 fps before you bring it into FCP7. CinemaTools will do for 60p. For 60i you might want to go via Nuke or AfterEffects.