[Shane Betts]

Hey Danny

I’m looking into third monitor options. Great to hear you’re doing it with the Parhelia.

Thanks man.

Cheers
Bettsy

[Shane Betts]

Hey Dylan

I’m hoping Red release Windows versions before I need them but, if not, I’ll use my MacBook for the (very slow) conversions and deal with it. I’m very focussed on doing the edit at 1080p/24 but if it comes down to me doing my own grade to output for DVD I guess I’ll look for a 2nd hand Mojo or an MXO just for the grade (assuming the output from the MXO is suitable – guess nobody knows just yet.

Of course the great thing about all this is that it’s possible now and I’m still months away from doing the edit. Anything can and most probably will happen in the meantime – and it’ll all be GOOD!

Cheers
Bettsy

[Shane Betts]

Hey Dylan

I’m talking about a low budget feature here. Cuts and dissolves, little time pressure, no clients, I’m the producer and the director (and the caterer and the… etc.) A digital Steenbeck.

Happy to render. My choice and I would like it to be my choice. That’s all I’m saying.

Cheers
Bettsy

[Shane Betts]

Hey Grinner

Man, I’ve bitched about Avid as much as anyone over the years and nobody could be a bigger FCP advocate than me but, at the end of the day, I feel so much more comfortable on the Media Composer interface than I do with FCP. In all honesty, the biggest hardship for me in this will be working on XP instead of Leopard:-)

I’ve cut on FCP, I’ve sold FCP, I’ve installed FCP systems and I’ve worked in FCP development at BMD and I always said that if I had to buy a system I’d buy FCP but if someone was buying it for me to cut on, I’d ask for an Avid. I have friends – great Avid editors – who have made the move from Avid to FCP and would never go back but I just prefer the interface. Maybe I’m just too old a dog to learn new tricks…

As for price, here’s how I see it. Bear in mind I’m not setting up a for-rent facility but wanting something for my spare room to cut my ultra low budget (credit card) feature. The big difference here is that I don’t have a Mac Pro sitting around but I do have my Windows server that has been rendered obsolete by Leopard/Time Machine on my Macs. Right there is a $5k saving (and no, the PC isn’t the machine the Mac Pro is but its about bucks and it will do the job).

So I shoot on Red, no tapes, no decks, no RS422, no video in… I put a $300 dual head card in the PC, (it has 1.5TB of SATA storage in it now), buy a couple of Samsung 24″ screens (@$550 Aus each) and a copy of Media Composer for $3k Aus. Avid keyboard for a couple hundred bucks, pull my amp and speakers from the living room and just put up with whatever I have to go through in terms of render time from R3D to DNXHD36 and full screen display and I can cut my feature.

Now sure, if the money fairies come a-visiting halfway through the shoot or edit and I can afford an Adrenaline box or a Mac or whatever, cool. If not I’ll still be able to cut.

In the end, if I get distribution and need a film out I’ll be able to afford to take my R3Ds and an EDL to a colourist. If not, I’ll be looking at a DVD release and I’ll just grade it on the Avid and hope for a better budget on the next one.

Point is it’s a doable thing and, thanks largely to the Red camera, definitely means the difference between getting my film made and not. My mantra is: “It’s not my last film, it’s my first film”. If I have to spend the next 20 years making features this way I’d prefer that to using the best gear in the world to make dog food commercials. But that’s just me.

Cheers Mate.

[Shane Betts]

Thanks Terence

Who’d-a-thunk it? I’ve done my numbers and, as I own a beefy PC and don’t have a Mac Pro, it’s going to be cheaper to go Avid than FCP. Woo Hoo!!

The Matrox box looks cool – good lateral thinking and one way to get around Avid’s lock-out – but I think I can deal with editing on a couple of Samsung 24’s with full screen mode until the MXO2 is ready. Very exciting.

Cheers
Shane Betts

[Shane Betts]

Hi Kathlyn, any joy?

My MacBook is still doing it after all updates and it seems to get worse. It used to have a bad habit of logging onto one of my neighbour’s network without me knowing – and frustratingly, his router seemed to work just fine! But even his is now dropping off.

It seems that the longer the router is on the list, the flakier it becomes.

You know, I sold my last MacBook for a very similar problem and now, a new laptop and a year later and the same dramas.

Cheers
Bettsy