Earlier this year we updated our editing equipment. Before we were using a 20″ iMac with 2gig of memory, and couple of LaCie firewire drives. Then, within 3 days, two of our 4 macs had a hardware failure. This, naturally, came amidst a pressing deadline. With a speedy re-installation of FCP on the old, trusty Quicksilver G4, we managed to send the film just in time. But I learned, that we needed a dedicated editing machine.
After some soul- and google-searching, the decision was to go for a Quad G5. Upgraded to the next best grahics card (we are doing some Motion graphics, but not so much that we should pay the premium for the fastest, meanest graphics card.) Memory was upgraded to 4.5 gigs, then the question came to what sort of display. The geek in me wanted a 30″ Apple display. But after some calculation, as to how many pixels one gets for either one 30″ or two 23″, it became clear, that the two-screen solution would be the one to go for. Reading up on the Apple discussion forum I noticed some buzz around the Dell 24″ displays. Looking at the specs, it soon became clear that they were a definite contender for the Apple 23″. Yet the Apple pieces are gorgeous. Hmm…
To my rescue came a friendly Dell account manager, that came just with the right offer. I ended up ordering two of the Dells, and paid only slightly more than what one single, lonely, individual, isolated, lone, secluded, solitary Apple display would have cost. With the added advantage of being able to switch inputs.
In the future I want to upgrade our 3rd monitor – the broadcast CRT. For now it is a JVC 9″, which also doubles as field monitor. This one gets its signal from a Sony DSR-11, which we bought late last year. I also added a Behringer tactile mixing console, which looks magical when in use, if a little bit noisy. For input we use a customized FCP keyboard (which has been doing its job since I bought FCP 1.25), a contour jog shuttle and an Apple 3 button mouse (boy, was I happy the day I could remove the MS 3 button mouse – this meant that finally our office was PC free). For audio monitoring we are using some fancy-ish computer speakers, but they will be upgraded in the not too far future. For critical sound-work, headphones are used (also for reasons of ambient noise from the street; did I mention that our office is only 3 minutes from the beach?).
All put together, it does look pretty impressive. And I love the screen saver I installed. It simply displays random magic-related words or phrases on either screen. Lovely understatement.
Now, let’s finally get to the headline of this post.
The last couple of months we have been mainly working on our own projects, especially our – so far – longest project, a 45 minute documentary. Here I have enjoyed the processing speed of the Quad mainly when it came down to doing complex filters, and of course burning DVDs.
Today I had an editing session for an insurance company. New for me, the client was attending the session. So speed was of essence. And how well we worked; after 4 1/2 hours we had managed to log 2 miniDV tapes and 1 DVD, transfer the needed sections into FCP, cut it, add some nice animated graphics, do some basic colour correction, add fitting soundtrack, and put the finished 7 minute piece all on a DVD. This I could have never accomplished, had it not been for the speed of the G5, the experience with knowing which filters might be the right ones, and heavy useage of the F10 key.
So, what I learned again (and have found proven over and over again in the camera world), is that, yes, the creative mind/eye behind the machinery is the single most important factor in making a successful storytelling. But, with proper equipment, this creative mind can achive its full potential.
In other words, yes, an excellent editor can tell a story with iMovie. But (s)he will tell it much better with FCP and proper hardware.
