So It's Come to This

...Well, to be honest, maybe that's a bit dramatic. All I'd like to say is that I've begun a rather fascinating transition into Avid. I say 'transition' because, to all extents and purposes, I believe it's safe to say that Final Cut Studio is soon to be dead within the film and TV industry. Those companies that are still clinging onto Final Cut Pro 7 are either having to roll back their new machines to the fading world of OS X Snow Leopard, or embrace change, and I've not heard of anyone jumping to Final Cut Pro X... Sorry about that Apple. That's not to say that there isn't a place for Final Cut Pro X - there's really nothing stopping Apple from polishing it into the jewel that Final Cut Pro 7 developed into, but for the moment everyone's looking to either Avid or Adobe for professional media creation. I have mixed feelings about Avid Media Composer 6. After a week of hard-learning with it, it doesn't seem to present itself as modern or intuitive, but what I am painfully aware of is that it is a powerful and expandable tool, especially when you break into Unity and ISIS systems (if you've got the money). For now, watch this space, and I'll have a more detailed update of what's new in my life shortly.

Final Cut Studio 3 and Mac OS X Lion - Possible but Not Practical

Apple aren't known for their sympathy towards legacy products. When they introduced the first iMac back in 1998, many customers were dismayed to see that they'd neglected to include the option for a floppy disc drive. Years later, and the removal of packaged Apple software from its stores reinforces Apple's stance on what it sees as dated tech; it's over - move on.

Apple have been just as ruthless with their programming as they have with hardware. With the introduction of Mac OS X Lion, Rosetta (a dynamic binary translator that allows you to run applications programmed for PowerPC system architectures) is no more.

When I first heard about this, I was pretty concerned. I've been using Macs now for eight years now, and I've accumulated quite a number of PowerPC applications over that time. What's more concerning from a professional stance, is that Final Cut Studio, a software suite that I've spent many years learning and making a living from, will no longer function under the new Mac OS X environment.

But all is not lost! If, like many people, you have a Snow Leopard install disc, you use it to install Rosetta on Lion, and breathe life back into your old applications.

So you'd assume that that was a problem solved. Chalk one up for old-skool Mac users worldwide. Well, not exactly.

In my current job, I've been trying out how Mac OS X Lion plays with Final Cut Studio 3, and its not always pretty. It all comes down to Lion's apparent improvements in dividing processes between multi-core processors, which solves some problems, but introduces others with general use.

Final Cut Studio was not built with multi-core system architecture in mind. For that reason, you'll find that it's rather infuriatingly inefficient at making the most of your system resources. Slam something into Compressor, and watch in Activity Monitor as your 16-core Intel Mac Pro barely bats an eye-lid at your request. It is possible in this scenario to use the virtual clusters trick to force your Mac to work harder, but this is a bit of a dark art, and can render your entire system unusable if set-up incorrectly.

Lion, however, eats these kind of complicated calculations for breakfast, taking the guess-work out of all of this, carefully allocating processor time to all of the tasks presented to it. Sounds great on paper, but then when you want to edit in Final Cut and transcode in Compressor at the same time, Lion doesn't know which tasks deserves more attention. What you're left with therefore, is a slower, less-responsive and asthmatic editing experience, where every render takes considerably longer.

The problems don't stop there, either. In my experience, Final Cut Pro acts erratically even when you haven't got anything else going on in the background. Recently I was editing together a five-minute piece consisting of nothing but ProRes Proxy QuickTimes and a couple of AIFFs on a ProRes timeline, and consistently found that Final Cut would drop frames on two occasions during playback (anything from about 5-50 frames) before I paused and resumed playback again. All this on a brand-new 17" MacBook Pro with a 2.4GHz quad-core Intel Core i7, 1GB of AMD graphics memory and 4GB of RAM - specs that dwarf the listed minimum system requirements of Final Cut Studio.

My advice? Don't upgrade at this time if you're still hanging onto Final Cut Studio 3 and below. Save the £21.99 that you would be spending on Lion and put it towards something useful, like some FCP X, Avid or Adobe Premiere tutorials. Just remember that if you choose to stick it out with Snow Leopard for the long haul, then it won't be long before Apple leave you and your aging system behind to fend for yourself.

Development Films

For the past few weeks, most of my time has been dedicated to twelve training programmes for Development Films. It's been a long while since I filmed or edited something based on a narrative script (the vast majority of projects that I undertake at Blue Sky are shot and assembled using the same documentary methods that a news and current affairs programme might use), and it's made a welcome change.

What makes this project particularly special to me is that I not only performed the role of second camera and editor (shooting on a Sony PMW-EX3 and editing on a Mac Pro with Final Cut Studio 2, but I also took on quite a bit of producing work, finding suitable locations and cast according to the guidelines set by the client.

The video presented below is currently being shown at exhibitions across the country (Adrian, Kay and Richard will be at the NEC in London tomorrow).



The first series of Development Films is due to go on sale this Autumn, available as a DVD or digital download from The Development Company.

Merry Christmas 2009

I've been trying to teach myself Apple Motion today with varied levels of success. It takes ages to render and crashes quite often. The following clip is just a bit of fun that took me the afternoon to piece together.



Oh, and of course - Merry Christmas!

The things you can do with Garageband

Just something I mixed up with some of the loops included with Apple's Garageband.



For anyone that doesn't know, Garageband can be found on any Mac with the preinstalled iLife suite (so that's pretty much all of them, then). With a little knowledge of music, you can use it to extend, elaborate upon or create entirely new soundtracks, making it an invaluable (if a little limited) tool for editors. The hundreds of included loops are all royalty free and it's quicker and easier to get to grips with than Final Cut Studio's Soundtrack Pro.