Final Cut Pro X – Update 10.0.6 and the Joys of X

Finally yesterday Apple released another update – the features of which are detailed in full here http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4589

I’ve used the software to edit my main PhD film production  ’Not For Human Consumption’, an extremely ambitious move for a number of reasons. Firstly, the software represents a new editing paradigm with many key differences to their previous flagship professional NLE FCP 7. I’ve been working professionally with Apple’s Final Cut Studio for seven years and I was extremely excited by some of the new features of FCPX, most notably the powerful meta-data engine, multicamera editing, and subframe audio editing. However, in practice the application seemed on first glance to lack many of the ‘professional’ features of FCP studio. This has been written and complained about on many a blog in the blogosphere so this post is really not to go into detail about the complaints I have about the software, rather to highlight that yesterday’s update might in fact allow me to complete the cut and grade of my PhD film inside FCPX.

Last week I purchased FCP X to 7 http://assistedediting.intelligentassistance.com/Xto7/ with a view to sending my entire 23 scenes and 43 mins of edited content back to FCP 7 to enable me to grade with my MacPro and Blackmagic design monitoring and mix the audio via XML in Logic Pro. I was a little dismayed to find that the XML transform (although it functioned pretty well) was not going to work for me. The reasoning behind this lies in a mistake I made earlier on in the edit, when I began I believed I would be able to send from FCPX to Soundtrack Pro and/or Logic Pro in order to mix the final edit. I was wrong. Apple built in no integration with their existing legacy software. Cheers! I thought to myself. The main problem though is not that Apple didn’t do this but that I failed to recognise an important point until I actually tried to save out and transform the FCPX XML back to the old FCP7 XML protocol. My film was shot mainly on a pair of 7D cameras and alas the master clips don’t contain consistent timecode across multiple clips so the XML comes across all over the place – audio is also not quite right. Back to square one. OR so I thought.

Today I’ve gone back to mixing in FCP X. Although I am still loathed to mix without an audio mixer, I am going to persevere and do a first pass mix right inside FCP X. Why? Because the 10.0.6 update finally allows us to expand multi-channel audio files right inside the main timeline. This means I can apply EQ, fix pops, clicks, hum, and many of the common ailments without sending the clips anywhere else. Great. I’m also very pleased that we finally have the addition of a viewer! Now colour matching will be possible without using the automated matching in X which I simply don’t like because I want to control the look and not have the software estimate it for me. The final two noteworthy developments that have really pleased me in my first afternoon with the update is the ability to export a range of the timeline, and the fact that compound clips now appear in the Event browser when created. This means they will behave much more like nested items did in FCP 7 and offer the ability to save out the compound clips as a composite for re-importing much better – all can be done through the new file import menu. I am still anxious about getting this project finished to the required level in FCP X but thankfully Apple have released an update with some significant improvements that might actually make it achievable.

10.0.6 some much needed new features for X

Rock Solid Race – Promo

The last weekend in May myself and Chris Watts of British Technical Films headed over to Escot Park to shoot a promo for brand new obstacle race enterprise ‘Rock Solid Race’. Sherriff HD were commissioned to produce a 1 minute and 30 second action packed video to feature as the centrepiece on the company’s web site  ready for it’s launch at the beginning of next week. We took along two DSLRs in the form of a 7D and 60D as well as 2 Go Pro Hero cams and Chris’ HD Hero 2 and a Sony HDV camera for slow motion / high frame rate in situ shooting, as well as some other toys. So plenty of material was acquired as we filmed 50 or so brave participants pitting themselves against the impressive array of obstacles specially created for the race at Escot. I’ll post the video of course once it goes live but for now here’s a gallery of stills from the shoot itself. The edit also benefits from a really tight production track courtesy of Ben Adams at Riddim Fruit Records,  John Hendicott’s ‘Babylon Shall Fall’,

http://riddimfruitrecords.co.uk

Not For Human Consumption – Final Shoot

The first weekend in May was a somewhat daunting one for me with the arrival of the final shoot for my major PhD film production Not for Human Consumption. With a few days left to go it looked like everything was pretty much under control and that nothing could possibly go wrong. Of course I was being blindly optimistic and in true independent filmmaking fashion there was some minor last minute panic and excitement as one of my lead actors was really ill with food poisoning. Some hasty re-scheduling later and I realised I could use the extra time afforded by one late arrival to shoot additional shots for other planned scenes and generally ease the cast and crew into the shoot at a more relaxed pace. This seemed to do the job and before long we were working well together, it’s great to see people gelling and getting to grips with working with new people. The actors were also eased into the more complicated and lengthier improvised dialogue setups which were filmed on all three days in the afternoon. In all we only dropped two scenes and three setups from the first day which on reflection is nothing! One of these was picked up on the final day of the shoot and the other will be shot in the coming two weeks.

The second day of the shoot saw the arrival of Fleur Poad playing Dr. Francis Wende, Fleur was excellent to work with – she made everyone around her feel at ease and relaxed and her focus and composure was infectious to the other actors. Sam Morgan playing DI Tony Morton was equally concentrated and gave an expressive performance. Kirsty Proffitt   was seriously impressive battling a nasty illness to give a brilliant performance that was moving and heartfelt.

The crew were equally impressive. DOP Chris Watts and 2nd camera Alex White worked hard on multi-camera setups getting the right angles and walking through everything sometimes rather quickly! James Kum did sterling work on sound, often fighting wide camera setups and small box rooms as well as the usual planes, trains, and other such unwanted noises. Subhadra Colley was superb to have as a runner, clapper loader, makeup artist, set designer, and medical adviser - blown away by her ingenuity. Lucy Cole was great to have on board with a brilliant laugh and on it with the clapper board and log sheets. Tamsin Graves made sure that the entire cast and crew were fed and watered with fresh home cooked tasty meals every day and well fuelled for when the cameras turned over. Thanks to Alex White for taking the stills.

In truth this film represents my first foray into the realm of fictional drama. Well almost, my second if you include a seven minute short I made nearly ten years ago. Other than that I haven’t really produced my own fictional film. I’ve filmed other people’s but not my own. For this reason ‘Not for Human Consumption’ holds a pretty special place for me, but beyond this it’s experimental and gleans much from my personal background. Personal experiences as an ‘on camera’  actor in the past have helped inspire my approach to both writing and direction. I have found writing and developing the films’ narrative through improvisation and compiling test shots to be an incredibly liberating experience in the end. Though it’s been a bumpy journey.

The single greatest lesson that I’ve learned from this production so far is to realise that one can alter one’s perceptions of problems and creative barriers and use the negative energy in a positive way. To sound less of a hippy about it – I simply mean that one must look at problems with a constructive and open mind. If something doesn’t look or feel right then it probably isn’t.

The performances and the camera and sound setups have worked for the improvised setups that were employed. Shooting multiple camera has been of real benefit – especially in the key scenes 12, 14, 16, where 3 cameras just about allowed me to capture the best moments over minimal numbers of takes. (5 takes in all for 3 scenes!)

As I write this I have a rough cut pretty much in place that requires sound mixing and basic design and a whole load more cutaways. It looks as though there will be one or two more pick up shoots to finesse the final cut – but well worth it in the end surely? Hopefully that will all happen within the next two weeks. For now the end of this week will see a rough cut go off to George Cooper, (composer) to begin work on scoring and I will be off doing some more field recording for the sound and getting to grips with the titles and a whole lot more.

Final year PhD experimental film – ‘Where I Live’

Places, Spaces and Non-narratives.

The film is to be an experimental non-narrative piece comprising of visual portraits of the city and landscape in which I live. The portraits will seek to show the extra-ordinary in some everyday sights of a typical British city – fusing together a variety of photographic and digital cinema imaging techniques with an improvised soundtrack, intense digital audio sculpting and design and abstract audio interviews. Think Peter Greenaway meets Terrence Malik.

The film will combine content shot using the latest mobile phone camera technology, DSLR video recording, 5K sampled Digital Stills Time lapse – right the way through to 4K digital cinema camera recording. It is my intention to employ the various digital acquisition tools listed here to each of the themes the film will explore that are detailed bellow.

5 Act Thematic Structure.

Although the film won’t have a narrative in the conventional sense of the term there will be a rigorous formal structure in place that orders the visual style. The five parts will be as follows;

1. Flâneur – POV style camera, things as they happen, mobile phone acquisition, walking the city.
2. Architecture – Views of buildings and city vistas.
3. Power and Consumption – Gas and Electricity, Gov, People, Energy, Corporate Greed, Visual Media.
4. Place – Local, global, regional identity, national identity?
5. Landscape – Escape, the nature of being an island, ports, Dartmoor, the solar system – sky timelapses.

Music and Sound Design.

To elaborate just a little further about my current ideas for creating music for the film as follows – each section of the film will be approximately 5 minutes long, so the aim will be to edit the sequences after all the footage has been shot and begin the sound editing process after the picture edit has been roughed out. The workflow would be roughly:

edit images > create 5 video sequences > sound edit and design audio interviews > design foley and location sounds recorded in the field > remix > master out with video image into Logic > CUE and rehearse rough improvisation to 5 sequences in Logic Pro > Remix the film with improvised music added.

The workflow will allow me to use digital instrumentation alongside live instrumentation and pre-programmed sound design and sculpting to affect how we are able to approach the improvisation as musicians. The music will be performed to a projected image in the studio so that there is something in the performance that harks back to the silent era when music was sometimes performed with films.

Samples and Initial Test Shots.

Rough idea for a look on this shot

Above: This is the first test shot I’ve taken for the film it’s a time lapse of the gas towers opposite our flat. The time lapse really needs to be longer but unfortunately I ended up rained off as the large grey cloud loomed ahead. First lesson learnt is that I need a way of waterproofing the camera in case rain occurs during a long time lapse, and it’s also going to be a very good idea to weigh down the tripod especially when it’s windy (as it was the day I shot this), as any movement of the tripod is going to create a wobble in the lapse. Not good. Finally, it would be great to get some neutral density filters so that I can do longer exposures in daylight which will give smoother time lapse. This can be seen in the second video bellow here (longer exposures possible here without ND as it’s night time).

Ignore the music on the following it’s just there to make something dramatic out of a few shots:

These two brief pieces hopefully demonstrate some of the themes articulated in my outline but in the meantime I await better weather before I can begin to shoot the rushes for this project properly.

The stills bellow show the location the following evening and also the gas towers  being photographed.

Flood defences, Gas Towers and Sky