[Nick Meyers]

“If you have the film set up on Avid, then it’s less of a hassle to bring in another editor”

this is the big unspoken reason FCP was used on certain productions.
it gave the filmmakers a protective barrier from studio interference and allowed them to be a bit more independent.
granted those filmmakers were and are more likely to have final cut on their own films, but i think FCP (or PP or FCPX) give them a little more security.

nick

[Nick Meyers]

dang! yes it would speed it up rather than slow it down.
sorry, been a bit distracted.

still it does hurt to try it ands what it looks like
really depends on the footage

n

[Nick Meyers]

ProRes422 is probably fine considering you source martial.
i’m not sure if ProresHQ would give you any more benefits. Shane would know better than me.
Prores4444 is complete overkill, and would just be a waste of resources.

within FCP, make sure you’re working with the correct sequence settings,
one that matches your media.
yes, FCP can set a sequence to a clip thats being added,
but you can’t rely on that, you have to have the correct sequence preset selected.

most audio is recorded at 24bit these days.
if that’s what your audio is, then you should duplicate your sequence preset,
and change the bit rate to 24, and save it as a new preset.

while you’re at it, you could also set the Motion Filtering quality (in the Video Processing pane of the sequence presets) to Best

Sequence presets need to be checked to be selected.

=======================================

1) In terms of the computer itself – what settings and preferences would you recommend for a feature film edit?

2 monitors!
if you;ve got some way to play out a video signal to a TV of sort then that;d be nice, but not essential
USB3 ot Thunderbolt would be needed for efficient playback, and for faster exports

=======================================

as for the work ahead, i’d suggest you don’t try to edit the whole film in one project,
FCP can’t handle really large projects.
personally i break the film into (generally) 4 dramatic acts, and have an FCP project for each act.

i dont tend to keep older versions of edits having around in the project, either.
rather after each “mile-post” version, which we generaly have a screening of,
we archive those sequences in their own dated project.

hope that helps,
nick

[Nick Meyers]

“I don’t see a 16pt garbage matte in FCP7, they only have 4 and 8pt.”

sorry, i forgot the 16pt is a custom plug.

get it here:
https://wiwutv51.com/finalcutpro/finalcut.html

[Nick Meyers]

to kick off, the first question has to be:
what format was the film shot in?
camera, codec, frame size?

nick

[Nick Meyers]

sorry, a finger mistake from me.
i meant to say conform from 25 to 29.97
if there’s not to much motion then you can really get away with a lot.

nick

[Nick Meyers]

if the stock footage doesn’t contain a lot of obvious motion,
then you can try conforming the 25fps clips to 23.98 in Cinema Tools

they’ll run a little slow, but you;d be surprised what you can get away with.

nick

[Nick Meyers]

in FCP,
use the 16 point garbage matte
that has enough points to draw around all your corners

nick

[Nick Meyers]

“Anyone know of anything I can do in post to reduce?”

not in FCP.
id look into other solution like after effects.
maybe motion?
actually i wouldn’t be too surprised if FCPX has a solution

nick

[Nick Meyers]

[raju bhai] “What about “motion filtering quality”? Do i leave that at “normal” and then change it to “best” only when i’m exporting? ”

it can improve the quality of blow-ups.

iv’e noticed it give better results when i had a small zoom-in on some imported graphics.
this was back in the Standard Def days, the improvement in quality is probably not so noticeable in HD,
but i tend to leave it set to best.
can’t hurt right?

nick