[Morten]

I would use Audition for this kind of advanced audio cleanup.
You can sample background noise from an area without voice, and use it as a filter for the clip – but experiment with the settings, in order to avoid a robotic sound appearance.
Anoterh option is to show the “Spectrum” instead of Waveforms, and then visually find the noise and pint it out with the healing brush. This also requires a degree of experimentation. But it works.

– No Parking Production –

Adobe CC2014, 3 x MacPro, 3 x MbP, Ethernet File Server w. Areca ThunderRaid 8

[Morten]

The software is called BRU producers edition, and is what you want. It will work with most LTO recorders on Mac, but they also sell a bundle. https://www.tolisgroup.com/index.html

– No Parking Production –

Adobe CC2014, 3 x MacPro, 3 x MbP, Ethernet File Server w. Areca ThunderRaid 8

[Morten]

We also used to backup on Blueray, but shifted last year to LTO5 package from BRU, which I can recommend.

Plan to switch one of our two EOS C100’s to a uesd C300 for better viewfi der and higher bitrae. Will wait and see how 4K evolves before diving in. For now sticking to a almost 100% Adobe cc2014 workflow. We have 2 subscriptions and use it on 4 computers.

– No Parking Production –

Adobe CC2014, 3 x MacPro, 3 x MbP, Ethernet File Server w. Areca ThunderRaid 8

[Morten]

If you are used to FCP7 then I would suggest shifting to PremierePro – you can setup the keyboard setup to match FCP an will be home after short time. You will find that you can do a lot of basic compositing (titles, layers) directly in Premiere with no performance penalty. Premiere runs fine on any newer Mac with a decent graphics card – even an iMac will give you a good result.

– No Parking Production –

Adobe CC2014, 3 x MacPro, 3 x MbP, Ethernet File Server w. Areca ThunderRaid 8

[Morten]

The footage from our archive appeared to be H264 in a Quicktime wrapper, which makes Pr’s bad performance understandable.

We originally shot on AVC-Intra, but was Media managed into H264 in order to fit on BlueRay media (this was before we got our LTO drive).

– No Parking Production –

Adobe CC2014, 3 x MacPro, 3 x MbP, Ethernet File Server w. Areca ThunderRaid 8

[Morten]

Or put Speedgrade to work. This is where it excels. Might even be able to separate skin tones through a secondary grade.

– No Parking Production –

Adobe CC2014, 3 x MacPro, 3 x MbP, Ethernet File Server w. Areca ThunderRaid 8

[Morten]

We come from FCP7 and have found Premiere to be the perfect replacement. And wirh the latest integration with Speedgrade, it feels like what FCP and Color should have been.

Have tried FCPX but it ****ed up a project because of re-link issues. Will not trust it on a real job, but it does offer an intuitive approach to editing. But I do prefer tracks. Also we work on the same projects from different suites, and Apple makes this too complicated.

– No Parking Production –

Adobe CC2014, 3 x MacPro, 3 x MbP, Ethernet File Server w. Areca ThunderRaid 8

[Morten]

What is your footage codec?
The recommended transcoding codecs are suitable for both Mac and PC.
DnxHD is an AVID Codec. ProRes is an Apple Codec. Both are high quality, and good for archival.

– No Parking Production –

Adobe CC2014, 3 x MacPro, 3 x MbP, Ethernet File Server w. Areca ThunderRaid 8

[Morten]

If you transcode it is possible to trim clips including handles (see right side).
I guess if you include clips that are not used, they will be trimmed to the in and out points.

– No Parking Production –

Adobe CC2014, 3 x MacPro, 3 x MbP, Ethernet File Server w. Areca ThunderRaid 8

[Morten]

Guess you could run the display at not full resolution when using the video apps.

Regarding getting PC’s instead of Macs, just be sure you do not rely on ProRes for your output.

– No Parking Production –

Adobe CC2014, 3 x MacPro, 3 x MbP, Ethernet File Server w. Areca ThunderRaid 8