Walter Biscardi
Forum Replies Created
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[David Roth Weiss] “Had Apple simultaneously released FCPX and the fully functional 64-bit FCS 4 most were expecting, how many of you would be paying attention to this forum?”
That never would have happened. X would have had to have been released as iMovie Pro to separate the two platforms.
One had to die for the other to live. Hmmmm, I think there’s a good story in that line somewhere.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Editor, Colorist, Director, Writer, Consultant, Author, Chef.
HD Post and Production
Biscardi Creative Media“This American Land” – our new PBS Series.
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[John Davidson] ” Oh, and it took 90 seconds to import a 30 second clip in prores. There’s no way I’m going back to that.”
You don’t import a ProRes Clip, you use AMA for that. It comes in near instantly. Took me a little while to figure that one out too.
[John Davidson] “We tried premiere and playback didn’t work right on both a screen and external monitor using Kona 3. I hear about enough little glitches in premiere to where I don’t have any desire to go further.”
Need to be on an 8 core minimum machine to make ProRes work with AJA Kona board.
There are more “gotchas” in Premiere Pro than Avid, but it’s pretty easy to pick up, especially if you use Richard Harrington’s book.
In both cases, Avid / Adobe, workflows are much faster than cutting with FCP 7. Our clients have noticed because they no longer have time to have coffee, read emails and play games on the computer because Log and Transfer is gone. We are literally trimming hours off some edits just by not transcoding anything. So not sitting still on FCP 7 is already paying dividends for us and our clients.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Editor, Colorist, Director, Writer, Consultant, Author, Chef.
HD Post and Production
Biscardi Creative Media“This American Land” – our new PBS Series.
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Well first off, we’re running Avid MC6, Adobe Premiere Pro CS 5.5.2 and FCP 7 all on the same machine, two machines actually, and we can even run them all at the same time. All with the AJA Kona 3 boards. So it’s a GREAT time to be an editor. 🙂
Both Adobe and Avid are faster than FCP 7. By that I mean they are much more efficient with digital media formats not needing to be converted to a codec of choice just to edit. Get the footage on the system and go.
Both are easy to use, both can use all the FCP hardware from cards to storage devices. There are excellent training materials for both to make it a pretty easy transition for any FCP editor to move over.
Both are metadata rich.
Avid has much more solid tape controls than Adobe at this time.
We have completed broadcast projects with both Adobe and Avid. The end product doesn’t look any different.
The DNxHD codecs are lighter on our systems than ProRes and we’re really glad to see so many third party companies coming on with that codec as I now prefer it to ProRes. In testing we determined that to run ProRes with Adobe Premiere and the AJA Kona board, that requires an 8 core machine. However Avid Media Composer 6 can run ProRes on a 4 core machine. We’re really not sure why. Same machine, same Kona board, but there you go.
There are things to flat out love about both Adobe and Avid. There are things to hate about Adobe and Avid. What those things are will depend on you and what you like and don’t like about each.
For us, it’s all be pretty good making the change. The fallout from FCP X really forced me to take a good long hard look at Adobe and Avid to see if there was an alternative. Myself and the editors at my shop have been pleasantly surprised at what we’ve found. We’re really happy with the alternatives both from an editing standpoint and from a business standpoint. Going Adobe / Avid opens us up to a cross platform workflow so I’m not longer tied directly to Apple products and waiting for them to advance their computers. I can build three Windows edit workstations for the price of one top of the line Mac Pro. That’s the same argument I used to make for buying FCP over Avid.
We know for sure we’re going to support both Adobe Premiere Pro and Avid Media Composer 6 in our shop. Being an independent post house, there’s no reason not to. We’ll make the decision shortly which will be our “primary” NLE, but whichever that one turns out to be, we’ll also stay up to speed on the other.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Editor, Colorist, Director, Writer, Consultant, Author, Chef.
HD Post and Production
Biscardi Creative Media“This American Land” – our new PBS Series.
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[Greg Jones] ” I’ll probably end up with Final Cut Pro 7, Final Cut Pro X, Premiere Pro, Avid, After Effects, etc. on my box. I think its smart to stay well versed in all the software.”
According to Evan Schectman the next major release of FCP X will make it have all the features he’ll need to switch his company over to FCP X so NAB should be rather interesting next year. Since Apple has already let him make that statement, I’m assuming they will at least show up at the SuperMeet. If they take over again though, I’ll probably avoid the event.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Editor, Colorist, Director, Writer, Consultant, Author, Chef.
HD Post and Production
Biscardi Creative Media“This American Land” – our new PBS Series.
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I would suspect soon. Kona 3 is what we’ve been testing MC6 with as I’ve reported previously in my articles here on the Cow. It’s a thing of beauty because we can actually run FCP 7, Premiere CS 5.5.2 and Avid MC 6 on the same Mac Pro. It’s a great time to be a video editor, that’s for sure. Pick the right tool for the right job, no more converting something to anything else just to fit whatever tool you happen to own.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Editor, Colorist, Director, Writer, Consultant, Author, Chef.
HD Post and Production
Biscardi Creative Media“This American Land” – our new PBS Series.
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[Mark Spano] “Aw man, I want the magic too!
Since “unsupported” is shaky ground with Avid systems, I’ll stick with the official word…”
We’re not going anywhere near Lion for a while so we’ll continue to run 10.6.8 for the near term.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Editor, Colorist, Director, Writer, Consultant, Author, Chef.
HD Post and Production
Biscardi Creative Media -
[Mark Spano] “Walter’s telling tales.”
If I’m telling tales then how come we have two systems here running Avid MC6 on 10.6.8? Maybe it’s magic.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Editor, Colorist, Director, Writer, Consultant, Author, Chef.
HD Post and Production
Biscardi Creative Media -
Well, you’ll never get another freelance gig from that old job, that’s for sure.
I will get jobs through another production house from time to time due to overflow or for whatever reason that first production company can’t do the work at that time. If the client calls me directly for a different job, I let them know that I have to contact the original production company first to get their clearance to do the additional work.
That’s how I work. Yes it does cost me some lost jobs from time to time, but I prefer to work that way instead of making it appear that I’m stealing clients directly from other production houses.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Editor, Colorist, Director, Writer, Consultant, Author, Chef.
HD Post and Production
Biscardi Creative Media -
[Shane Ross] “As for the older machines, Gary, I’m using Avid MC6 on my early 2008 Mac Pro…running Lion. As LIon is required.”
Not required, suggested. We’re running on an older Mac as well, 2009 or 2008 but we’re on 10.6.8. You MUST have 10.6.8 if you want to run Snow Leopard but it is supported.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Editor, Colorist, Director, Writer, Consultant, Author, Chef.
HD Post and Production
Biscardi Creative Media -
I don’t know about you but I’m having a lot of fun of late. All that hardware I’ve invested money and time in are now support by three non linear editing systems instead of just one. And I’m no longer committed to Apple desktop towers, Adobe and Avid are cross platform. So for the first time ever I’m considering Windows 7 workstations and have gotten some really great configuration suggestions from a colleague.
We’ve been testing MC6 with the Konas for a while now and it just works and works brilliantly. I’ve heard from folks running the BMD boards that they just work as well. I’m still quite rusty on Avid since it’s been some time, but it’s obvious they moved the application to 64bit with new improved features yet keeping the app continuity for long time users. So now instead of wondering when (if) Apple will ever make a product I can use, I now have two other professional NLEs that are both running in our shop using almost all of our current hardware
As for everything else, I think the tsunami and now flooding have shown the electronics / computing world that manufacturing needs to be spread out a bit to help ensure the supply chain doesn’t suddenly get knocked out of whack. The silver lining of the SR tapes still being in short supply meant that some networks started allowing digital delivery of shows which cuts costs associated with the tapes and mastering.
So yeah, it’s been a crazy year with more changes in less than 12 months for Post than I have ever seen. But of course, the only constant in life is change, so keep smiling and have fun. And get that hotel room in Vegas!
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Editor, Colorist, Director, Writer, Consultant, Author, Chef.
HD Post and Production
Biscardi Creative Media