Avid News On Red

[Sanjin Jukic]

Thanks Rob,

the greatest news about FCP in the last 4-5 months.

Soderbergh is FCP guy now.

[MichaelP]

Not his first choice... had metadata export and basic transcode been made available at the same time as the cameras, then it would have been a different scenario. He had the choice with Ocean's 11-13, The Good German, etc. They were Avid.

Michael

[Steve Sherrick]

Uh oh, I see a avid-fcp thread developing. Remember, to each his own, and choose for all the right reasons. Features that meet your requirements, comfort with the interface, support, etc.

I think it's great if Avid and FCP both support Red right out of the gate. Means greater acceptance of the Red workflow into the industry.

Steve

[Gavin Greenwalt]

"right out the gate" sometimes implies the product was released before it was really ready.

I often appreciate Avid's slow and thorough approach to software design. We might not be able to edit RED right now natively in Avid but when we can we will know it'll work right and fast.

[Steve Sherrick]

Don't know if I can totally agree with this Gavin. Avid's stability is not as strong as it once was in my opinion. There have been some issues with P2 implementation, 24P support in general, etc. Not saying it's a bad program but not infallable.

Having said that, FCP has its own issues. Bugs just seem to be a reality in software these days. Upgrading sometimes fixes things but then will break something else. I've been getting frustrated lately with this but what can one do. If you want to use some of the new features you take the plunge.

Getting back on the Avid situation and to keep the thread on track, I did notice that Avid says it has some big announcements to make in February and they seem to be company wide changes. Read about it here.

http://www.avid.com/company/releases...omer_avid.html

Steve

[MichaelP]

I do not want to start an FCP/Avid thread either. I was responding to the comment of "he's an FCP guy now" to which I wanted to clarify the reasons as to why he is editing his RED shot films on FCP. Each user will choose their program of choice based on a variety of reasons - sometimes those choices are restricted.

Now back to how to provide workflows and solutions...

Michael

[Dylan Reeve]

For what it's worth, Rob clarified on another thread here that FCP is more or less a 'beta' platform for RED. Avid's lack of support for RED is not a result of their decisions at the moment, but of the fact that as yet the RED format is still a format that's in development and isn't available to manufacturers beyond RED's existing development partners (in this case Apple and Assimilate - I would suggest it might have been an Alphabetical thing, but Adobe has been left out too, so I guess not).

This is really reasonable when you think about it - when building a new format (and clearly it is still being built - as evidenced by various beta releases of firmware, codecs and support tools) it's sensible to work with a smaller pool of partners, rather than have everyone trying to keep up and integrate, you only have to worry about two platforms, and can worry about all the rest when it's all locked down somewhat.

Also, as for the Avid/FCP thing - I don't think many rational editors these days would deny that FCP has an incredibly impressive and diverse feature set, but at the same time, few would disagree that Avid is generally the more efficient tool for straight up editorial work - while the Xpress and MC line may lack the finishing features of FCP, they are really good for editing.

Given the choice, for editing, I will always choose Avid to cut with. But FCP is going to be winning away most of my finishing work for the foreseeable future.

[D~C]

Now back to how to provide workflows and solutions...Michael

Michael, for a feature film shot with RED, is there any way (currently) to use Avid to edit? Is MetaFuze the only upcoming solution? Will we eventually be able to edit DPX files natively (like with MXF files)?

I don't know a whole lot about the camera and workflow. A friend of mine said that the producer of a new feature film (shot with RED) might consider him to edit it. But he has Avid. He's coming to me asking questions and I don't really know the answers. He has edited some short films on Avid Xpress Pro; I think he'd be in over his head with a major project like this. So, I think his chances are slim to none anyway.

Given the choice, for editing, I will always choose Avid to cut with. But FCP is going to be winning away most of my finishing work for the foreseeable future.

Just out of curiosity, Dylan, what does "finishing" mean for you? Where does Avid "stop" and FCP "begin/end" for you?

[Dylan Reeve]

Michael, for a feature film shot with RED, is there any way (currently) to use Avid to edit? Is MetaFuze the only upcoming solution? Will we eventually be able to edit DPX files natively (like with MXF files)?

I don't know a whole lot about the camera and workflow. A friend of mine said that the producer of a new feature film (shot with RED) might consider him to edit it. But he has Avid. He's coming to me asking questions and I don't really know the answers. He has edited some short films on Avid Xpress Pro; I think he'd be in over his head with a major project like this. So, I think his chances are slim to none anyway.

I obviously can't comment on what Avid may or may not have - but it is certainly possible to edit from RED with Avid, but there are a few intermediate steps involved that make it less than ideal. However on a feature, with an assistant editor who can work the wee hours setting things up that may be okay. Once you get into a grove with the workflow it shouldn't be too much hassle, but for little jobs here and there it is pretty tough.

Just out of curiosity, Dylan, what does "finishing" mean for you? Where does Avid "stop" and FCP "begin/end" for you?

Finishing will generally mean final preparation for broadcast - Avid will stop at the end of cutting basically. At this stage we're not using Automatic Duck, so if I can't transfer it in an EDL, I'm not really going to be worrying about it in Avid (except for illustrative purposes with some effects and stuff).

But we do a variety of work, mostly smaller jobs, so I'll tend to evaluate this on a case by case basis.

[D~C]

I obviously can't comment on what Avid may or may not have - but it is certainly possible to edit from RED with Avid, but there are a few intermediate steps involved that make it less than ideal. However on a feature, with an assistant editor who can work the wee hours setting things up that may be okay. Once you get into a grove with the workflow it shouldn't be too much hassle, but for little jobs here and there it is pretty tough.

I see. But what exactly are these "few intermediate steps?"

Finishing will generally mean final preparation for broadcast - Avid will stop at the end of cutting basically. At this stage we're not using Automatic Duck, so if I can't transfer it in an EDL, I'm not really going to be worrying about it in Avid (except for illustrative purposes with some effects and stuff). But we do a variety of work, mostly smaller jobs, so I'll tend to evaluate this on a case by case basis.

Thanks for responding!