Editing Pro Film ON A MAC.

John Atala · June 3, 2004

Guys, i've always been a mac junkie, but most of my editing on the university and later, on my short yet productive professional life was done on AVID editing stations. From the past month or so, I purchased a G5 and started to offer editing services with two other mates of mine.

A job I took was to edit a 35mm short feature university film, professionally lit, and finish it on DVD media. The experiance of editing this stuff on FCP and now FCP HD is not to be compared with the AVID. Plus, after the film went through telecine to a Beta media, and later into my HD (using cinema tools) the quality and work flow just went above my expectations. Also, these guys at apple packed 3 more amazing programs: livetype, which I used for titles, Soundtrack (with the upgrade professional kit), which i used for the soundtrack and sound effects, and shake3; this software diserves my honor. I compare it to the SG plataform at ILM. seriously, you can work beautiful effects with chroma key and amazing color correcting filters. the only thing that had to be done out of the apple was the pro tools work, which was done by a PC...

so, why am i sharing this with you guys? Simple: If any of you editors are over the doupt of AVID X FCP, pick the apple. you will not regret it. :D

p.s. sorry for my lousy english

Phil Rhodes · June 3, 2004

Hi,

All this has been possible for years on Premiere. Final Cut is really only fractionally better. Don't know why nobody realised it until Apple started making a noise!

Phil

harryprayiv · June 3, 2004

Hi,

All this has been possible for years on Premiere. Final Cut is really only fractionally better. Don't know why nobody realised it until Apple started making a noise!

Phil

Final Cut is MUCH more than fractionally better. In fact, I been an editor for years and when I work on a project, I have the choice between Avid Media Composer, Avid Xpress Pro with a MOJO, and Final Cut Pro HD. GUess what I choose? Final Cut Pro HD every time lately. FCP has ALWAYS been light years ahead of Premiere and that's not opinion, it's fact.

the only thing that had to be done out of the apple was the pro tools work, which was done by a PC...

Why do you have to switch to a PC to use Pro Tools? I have it on my Mac and it's always been a Mac program. I mean, it only recently got up to par on a PC and it's still not even where it is on the Mac system (IMO). What kind of PT system is your business running?

The only front that PC's are in the lead on as far as professional post work is in 3D Modeling/Animation and real time sample playback capabilities for stuff like Gigastudio, which is still slaved from a mac system into the PC via MIDI in the common pro environment..

Phil Rhodes · June 3, 2004

Hi,

I guess it depends what kind of work you're doing. I do a lot of assembling short stings and five-minute promos which are very effects-heavy; Premiere is generally preferable for this kind of work, not only because it interacts better with After Effects. Final Cut may be better for longform - I've never used it as such.

Phil

harryprayiv · June 3, 2004

I think Final Cut is even better for short form. If you use Combustion like me (which is admiteddly better on the PC) it has it's own built in editor now, so when I am doing REALLy short stuff with a lot of effects, I just use that. I prefer Combustion and Shake to AE anyday, though.

John Atala · June 4, 2004

Well, its just our policy here, and because we've got all the hardware to work with audio on the PC an not on the MAC. The only thing that the Premiere Pro offers which can me merely compared to the FCP system is the color correction, which was enhansed by apple on the HD and 4.0 versions, and you can use SHAKE 3 for the visual corrections.

It seems that apple just launched a new one, MOTION, i presume its called. Any of you editors out there ever used it? is it over After effects?

john.