What's the big deal about FCP?

A little birdie asked me quite recently. "Really, what is the big deal about FCP?" Especially now, with Avid growing in leaps with every new release. So I pondered...

What really is the big deal with FCP? Is there even a big deal in FCP? Sure, here is a bullet point list of the important features that make FCP score over Avid.

Some of these differences may not apply to the absolutely latest Avid ver 5.0. But for most Avid ABVB, Meridien, or even Adrenaline owners, ver 5 is a huge upgrade. So, for them, these still apply.

So,  in India, in 2010, the big deal about FCP is...

Huge format support
Apart from Beta/DigiBeta/DV, FCP can import and edit Red, Canon 5D/7D, XDCamEx, DVCProHD, JVC HDV, P2, NXCam, AVCCam, AVCHD and many more that Avids older than maybe 2009 cannot.

Smoke-Flame quality
FCP uses the same Aja Kona hardware that Smoke, Flame and even Lustre use, so the video quality of FCP is identical to Smoke, Flame and Lustre. No offline-online with FCP, both same same.

Compositing while editing
Any motion graphics kind of stuff - DVD moves, resize, skew, keyframed moves, crops, rotates etc - can be done while editing. Avid can't even rotate a frame.

Import without convert
FCP uses most file formats without creating new media. Avid needs to import everything and create new media.

Multi resolution
FCP has no project setting as such. You can happily mix HD, SD, PAL, 24, 25, NTSC, YouTube movies, MP3 files, CD audio, BWF audio, all in one project. Even place them in one timeline. Avid needs you to make a project of a fixed setting and prohibits you from importing anything of a different setting.

'24-25 thing' easy
In PAL-film land the '24-25 thing' comes back to bites you from time to time. FCP allows you to interchange from 24 to 25 in a flash - picture and sound.

HD without tax

All FCP systems after about 2004 can do HD. In fact almost all FCP capture cards can do HD from about 2006. So, FCP has HD without costly DNExcel cards, HD upgrades, MojoDX boxes that cost lakhs of Rupees for Avid owners.

Easier to use
For the novice, FCP is easier to use. And master.

Scalable over systems
FCP is the same whether on a laptop, an iMac or a desktop MacPro. All that changes is the hardware that's used for capture or monitoring. And that's optional.

XML interchange
FCP sequence information can be exported as XML which carries more info than EDLs do. Letting you carry over multi-track edits to other systems like Smoke, Quantel eQ and others. XML works great for subtitle work too.

Online review and approval with iChat
Edit and show your timeline to someone hundreds of kilometers away whilst still being able to make changes on the fly. With iChat sharing.

Easy speed change tools
Motion effects don't need to make new media. And ramps are easy drag and drop too.

Easier to keep upgraded

FCP has a software update about every year or so. And upgrades cost less that Rs 20,000 mostly. You don't need to buy costly annual maintenance plans to get upgrades. Most Macs support the next version for at least 3 years.
By that time, FCP has made you so much money you can afford a new Mac. Most likely, your cards will work with the new version.

Final Cut Studio
Final Cut Pro is only a part of a suite of products collectively called Final Cut Studio. All bundled with FCP. They are… Motion, Soundtrack Pro, Color, DVD Studio Pro, Compressor, Cinema Tools.

Advanced colour correction in Color
Colour correction that could only be done in million dollar DaVinci and other systems can now be achieved in Apple Color. A good colorist and a 'grading panel' can make this into a full-fledged grading suite.
Sequences can be sent to color and returned without any EDLs. Even DPX, and 4k is possible withinFCP and Color.

Motion graphics in Motion
Easily send your sequence or some clips to Motion and do complex match moves, stabilize, tracking, chroma keying and other advanced 'online' stuff.

Complex title graphics in Motion or LiveType
Amazing title work within Motion or LiveType with older Final Cut versions.

Sound design in Soundtrack Pro
Pro Tools like sound design work is possible within Soundtrack Pro. Even easy Dolby surround work. FCP and Soundtrack automatically synchronize timelines so change the edit in FCP and the sound work changes automatically. Great clean up and noise removal tools too

Royalty free sound samples
Final Cut Studio ships with Gigabytes of free sound. If you know how, you can compose an entire background music, or even song track for a long film too.

DVD/Blu-ray making directly
Make a DVD or Blu-Ray directly within FCP.

DVD authoring in DVD Studio Pro
For advanced authored DVDs with chapters, menus and sub-menus and stuff that's sold in shops, DVD Studio Pro lets you make them. And send them off to a duplicator to make thousands or lakhs.

Media database and film workflow with Cinema Tools
All the 24-25 stuff, telecine logs, cut lists pull lists. Even managing Red and Canon files, is done within Cinema Tools. Frame accurate, perf accurate.

Encoding to various formats with Compressor
After editing one almost always needs to send out stuff to the web - YouTube, Vimeo, H.264, Windows media and many other formats created automatically and in the background.

Disclaimer…
I have only 6 years experience editing on Avid systems on a daily basis. And the rest of the 10 years following, I worked mainly on FCP.

I don't use Avid as extensively as I used to, therefore, maybe newer versions of Avid have addressed some of the inequalities above, which I may not be abreast with.

But you know what? Most Avid owners can not or do not upgrade when a new version is available. Because in Avid land, an upgrade can often mean new hardware even a new PC or Mac. Even two year old Avids used Avid hardware that costed lakhs of Rupees. Which have now been replaced with hardware that costs only tens of thousands.

Final Cut Pro 7.0.2 XML bug fixed

One of the most vexing of FCP issues in recent months has been with FCP 7.0.2. It would have affected anyone who made subtitles in FCP and exported an XML for creating an STL for DVD Studio Pro, or like me, to do XML manipulation to do global changes in subtitles. What happened was that ALL the line breaks were lost. Really frustrating leading to a workaround consisting of reinstalling a 'ghost FCP 7' and running that for making XMLs.

Apple yesterday updated Final Cut Studio in an update called  

Pro Applications Update 2010-02. 

 (Link here http://support.apple.com/kb/DL949)

This update has fixed the 'lost line breaks in XMLs' issue according to the release notes, and added some features.

This update will upgrade your FCP apps to

Final Cut Pro 7.0.3
Motion 4.0.3
Color 1.5.3
Compressor 3.5.3
Apple Qmaster 3.5.3

I haven't tested all the apps yet and will install this first on a non-production system to check if anything else has been broken. More on the updates as I get some hands on time with them.

From Apple's site, what has been fixed is...

Final Cut Pro

Real-time compatibility with Sony XDCAM HD422 720p24/p25/p30.
Log and Transfer compatibility with Sony NXCAM SD.
Control-G not closing the correct gap in the Timeline under the playhead.
Closed captioning data is now preserved when outputting to AJA Io HD with Print to Tape/Video.
Performance issue when importing AVCHD with LPCM audio.
AVCHD thumbnail images in SD are now the correct 4:3 aspect ratio.
XML export now retains the carriage return when working with text and third-party applications.
Several memory fragmentation issues have been resolved.
Localized versions of Final Cut Pro now recognize HDV devices that use the 1080i60/1080i50 FireWire Basic Easy Setups.
Log and Transfer supports ingesting more than one format recorded to the same SD card.

Motion

Corrupted display of the camera controls with certain graphics processors.

Compressor

Adds a compression setting optimized for iPad and iPhone 4.

Color

Adds compatibility with XDCAM HD422 720p24/p25/p30

IBC 2010 Day 1 - 2

I'm not at IBC this year due to some earlier commitments of the domestic kind.
But from what I've followed through newsletters and conversations with friends, here are some of the highlights so far...

Avid released a software version of DS. This will have all the features of a 'real DS' including HD, 2k, 4k, conforming and finishing. Anyone who has relied upon Avid's media management, conform, relink, decompose, consolidate, will have a respect for this software over any other. Even Smoke.

It will be available in October for US$ 10,000 which should price it lower than Smoke on Mac. And it has more features than Smoke on Mac plus close integration with all Avid products especially Media Composer and ProTools which Smoke does not do. Note that DS works on Windows and Smoke on Mac (and Linux). Maybe you might be able to run both on a Mac, with DS running under Parallels.

Speaking of Smoke, Autodesk announced 'Flame Premium' - the MS-Office for online work. This is a suite consisting of Autodesk Smoke, Flame and Lustre as one package. I have no idea on price or shipping, but this can be lethal if Autodesk markets it correctly. And if studios can get people to run all three. Let's wait and see.

Panasonic showed a 'DSLR killer' camera the AG-AF101. DSLR size sensor, compatibility with film lenses, no aliasing issues. Can run Canon and Nikon lenses with an adapter. HD-SDI output too so you can record to HDCamSR tape or KiPro if you don't like the compression they are using. Available December for Euros 5000, this might prove to be a Red killer rather than a DSLR killer.

Aja also announced a smaller Ki Pro the Ki Pro Mini. It records any HD-SDI or HDMI signal as Apple ProRes HQ, SQ, LT, or Proxy files. To CF cards. its small and can mount like Anton Bauer battery packs to the rear of most cameras. Available October for US$ 2000.

Aja also introduced an evolved Kona3, the Kona 3G that adds support for 3D over HDMI and many other I/O capabilities. This will be priced lower than the Kona 3 and available in October. US$ 2400 with the break out box.

Not to be outdone, Blackmagic came out with their evolved Blackmagic Decklink Extreme HD in the form of a Decklink Extreme 3D+. This too offers 3D easily over HDMI 1.4 on TV sets that support this standard. HDMI 1.4 allows full resolution HD 3D over one cable rather than the side-by-side that HDMI 1.3 offered that had only half HD resolution. Decklink's Extreme 3D+ will go for only US$ 1000. And its available now.

In the US, of course some snoots will continue to swear by Aja. But in years of using both, I can't see what's so special with Aja cards over Decklink and I haven't come across any scientific study that proves one is better than the other. Though Decklink have been more cost effective. And have had vastly better support in India.

Blackmagic is also shipping the Resolve on Mac... finally. US$ 1000 for a full featured DI grading software that can run on a properly equipped Mac and co exist with FCP on the same system. It will work with the Tangent Wave panel. They have a configuration guide at their site which should make it easy for anyone to set it up. And this guide will ensure that anyone and everyone sets one up. With interesting results.

The same Resolve Mac system could well have supported an Autodesk Smoke. Since both Resolve and Smoke use the Nvidia FX 4800 for their GPU work. Except that Autodesk Smoke needs a Aja Kona 3 card, while the Resolve uses a Blackmagic Decklink HD. Too bad. Maybe this will change some day.

This is the news at the end of 12 Sep. More surprises could be lurking in the shadows. or maybe even after IBC. I will be looking out.

The new iPod Touch

If you've been waiting to buy an iPhone 4 or an iPad, do head over to Apple's web site and take a look at the new iPod Touch. Announced at a special event by Steve Jobs himself.

It is everything that an iPhone 4 is, but its slimmer and doesn't make calls. Has the same processor as the iPad. Of course, a smaller screen. Record HD video and edit it on the iPT itself. Anywhere

Price is 
8 Gb $ 230 - about Rs. 15,000
16 Gb $300 - about Rs. 20,000
32 Gb $ 400 - about Rs. 26000
and available now. No unlocking no jailbreaking. Works over wifi.
It doesn't have GPS, but does an approximate map location based on wifi location. Just like on an iPad non-3G.


Great gaming platform too.


Another announcement last night was that iOS 4.1 will solve some bugs of slow performance on the old iPhone 3G. And iOS 4.2 will offer new features to iPads and multi-tasking and bring all iPhone devices to a common OS. Available in some months.


120 million iPhone devices - iPhone 2G, 3G, 3Gs, 4, iPad, iPad G, iPod Touch - sold so far.


A new AppleTV was announced too. Is just $100 but has no storage. Only streaming. With Internet speeds like we have in India, it might be challenging to watch movies online, except for YouTube. Of course if you have another Mac in the house, this is a great device to watch your movies and photos on your TV set. over wireless.

Canon 5D/7D in Mumbai with accessories

I got this post comment from Accord Equips who rent out cameras in Mumbai.
It was for a post I made in March 2010...

Available with Accord Equips, Mumbai, India - Canon 5d & 7d with all filming accessories like follow focus, matte box, view finder, shoulder mount etc with choice of Canon and Carl Zeiss filming lenses.
Visit www.accordequips.com. Call Jeki 9594070007 / Bhupen – 9594066077 / 26740066 / 64553300

The phone numbers are in Mumbai. If you are outside Mumbai you should dial the +91 prefix.

Buying a new iMac

Here is a simple method of choosing which iMac you should get if you're looking for an iMac and can't choose between the models available now. This information is probably good for any time between now, Aug. 2010 and about the 1st quarter of 2011, or until Apple issues new models, whichever is sooner.

Mac choices.

There are 2 sizes.
21.5 in. And 27 in.
21.5 has a screen resolution of 1920x1080 (full HD)
27 has a resolution of 2560x1440

21.5 has two variants.
One with 256 Mb video RAM, one with 512 Mb
One with 500 Gb Hard disk, one with 1 Tb

The 27 has a 1 Tb hard disk, and 1 Gb video RAM

The 27 has a 2.8 GHz i5 processor.

All 4 have the same number of ports.
1 Firewire 800, 4 USB, 1 SDXC card slot.
All 4 come with the Apple keyboard and mouse.
For sound buffs, all 4 have optical digital in and out.
It's in the form of a mini jack so you can get a mini to Toslink Adapter and a toslink cable and you can connect to a range of high-end audio interfaces and home theatre sets.

Buying advice...

If budget is a constraint, get the lower 21.5 variant.
If you do consider the higher 21.5 variant, then consider the 27.
It costs a little more but has better graphics, a larger screen, and a much faster i5 quad core processor.

I keep referring to 'All 4', but the web site shows only 3. That's because there is a higher i7 quad core (8 virtual cores). This is strictly 'money is no object'. And is not readily available but has to be BTO - built to order.

Incidentally, if you can afford the i7 iMac, then you should consider the MacPro desktop Mac. It's just slightly more than the i7 iMac.

And so on...

My posts on Canon 5D, Canon 7D and other HD-DSLRs and workflows

Links to previous posts on my blog on Canon 5D and Canon 7D

http://neilsadwelkar.blogspot.com/2010/07/canon-5d-or-7d-directly-in-fcp.html
http://neilsadwelkar.blogspot.com/2010/06/canon-5d-mkii-directly-to-fcp.html
http://neilsadwelkar.blogspot.com/2010/03/canon-5d-mkii-does-24fps.html
http://neilsadwelkar.blogspot.com/2010/07/zacuto-great-camera-shootout-2010-film.html
http://neilsadwelkar.blogspot.com/2010/02/canon-to-adopt-mpeg-2-for-forthcoming.html
http://neilsadwelkar.blogspot.com/2009/12/backup-for-tapeless-media.html
http://neilsadwelkar.blogspot.com/2009/11/video-dslrs-how-good-are-they-really.html
http://neilsadwelkar.blogspot.com/2009/10/new-canon-1d-mkiv.html
http://neilsadwelkar.blogspot.com/2009/10/canon-7d-hd-movie-mode-post-production.html

I'll posts actual links in a bit. Till then you can copy and paste these to your browser.

Cry for Ladakh

Many years ago, we went to Ladakh. We spent nearly 3 weeks shooting for a TV series 'Bharat Ke Chhap'. It is a beautiful part of India and will always be. 

Much later I was again associated with Ladakh during the production of Farhan Akhtar's 'Lakshya'.

But now, this magnificent landscape is seeing the effects of nature's fury. It has already killed many and will make thousands homeless. And as the weather heads for a winter, the misery of those living there can only be imagined.

One of my friends from 'Bharat ke Chhap', Reena Mohan, one of the editors of this series, sent this appeal. Please do all you can to help.

Dear friends,

Disasters give no forewarning and the aftermath is a lingering nightmare.... while we are surrounded by floods and chaos all around, the misery of the people of Leh is what we are looking at right now as one of the immediate emergencies.

Anshu Gupta, the force behind GOONJ, went to Leh as soon as he could and is still there doing what he can and reviewing the long-term assistance needed.

We need to rally around and contribute whatever we can to add a few valuable drops though there is an ocean of unending needs.

WHAT GOONJ NEEDS

1. Dry rations: rice, grains, sugar, biscuits, milk powder
2. Woollen blankets - of good durable quality.. these`need to sustain in the harsh weather
3. Woollen clothes in decent usable condition, again need to sustain for some months at least.
4. Cooking utensils, buckets
5. Torches and batteries
6. School material
7. Basic medicines
8. Monetary donations. This would help with the costs of transporting and rehabilitation. Donations may be made by cheque or demand draft favouring GOONJ, with your name and full address and phone number and PAN number given at the back.

Do not give any perishable items please.

Please try and do collections in your neighbourhoods and send your donations directly to the Goonj office at J-93 Sarita Vihar, New Delhi.

Visit www.goonj.org for further information and details for collection centres in other cities.

Please inform others... Thank you

Reena Mohan

Panasonic consumer 3D camcorder

Its here! A consumer 3D camcorder.

It shoots with two lenses. To a single video stream using the 'side-by-side' method. Any 3D TV set - like the Samsung 3D LED TV or Panasonic Viera 3DTV available in India now can play this video stream as 3D which you can view through glasses.

Also, if you have a Blu-ray player that can play AVCHD memory cards, you can just pop in the card and see 3D. Its still not a substitute for professionally shot 3D movies, but for simple holiday shoots it should be great.

Cost not announced yet. Details on Panasonic's web site.

FCP media management done right

If you have a Canon 5D/7D project and are grappling with an offline-online workflow. Or you've been through the reconnect hell in FCP. Or you need a better consolidate workflow. Especially for projects that originate with digital files like HDSLR files or some other such. 

Then check out this article over at 2-pop.

http://www.2-pop.com/article/95564

It uses FCP Reconnect from Video Toolshed. It costs US$ 59. I haven't used it yet, but I've seen situations where it would be invaluable especially the situation mentioned in the article at 2-pop. Check out the video at the Video Toolshed site.

Also check out other offerings from Video Toolshed. Many are free and really useful. Also write to the maker Bouke. A very helpful guy.

And please please. Buy it. Its only Rs 2800 or so. After buying it, when it works for you, do please write to Bouke and tell him about it. And copy me with details on how you did it. I could even pay you for it. Really!