Tricky Overdubs

Logic Pro makes it easy to edit his 24 tracks of interview, music, background effects, sounds, and various language translations. (His DVD includes English and German soundtracks and subtitles in English, German, and Japanese, which he created in DVD Studio Pro).

“I desperately need Logic to do the translation overdubs,” says Obenaus. “I can automate the levels to bring down the luthier while the translator does the dub, then bring him back up at the end of the section. It’s tricky, because you want to still faintly hear the luthier speaking. I could not do this without Logic. Remember,” adds Obenaus, “we’re talking about milliseconds of fading in and out, so the precision of the Logic automation is very important.”

First-Time Director

“The Best Luthiers” represents Obenaus’s first professional use of Final Cut Pro. “It’s wonderful,” he says, “because I can import two or three different camera angles, sync them, and add tracks — like still photos of the musicians the luthier references in his interview. Then I can jump back and forth to see which cuts, angles, or close-ups I want to use.”

“What I really like is being able to jump between Final Cut Pro and Logic and Motion and Livetype.”

Because he likes to experiment with content options, Obenaus appreciates Final Cut Pro’s non-destructive editing. “I can try something and with one click I’m back to the original,” he says. “This is very cool.”

He even calls Final Cut Pro’s color correction tools “very musical.” He explains: “I know we’re talking about visuals, but it feels musical to me because the process is very similar to doing EQ in the recording studio. When you have a great piece of EQ gear, you just turn the knob and it sounds right — it’s not distorted or strange. I love color editing with Final Cut Pro because it’s like that — it immediately does what I want it to do, and I know I’ll get results that please my eye.”

Dancing and Wiggling

As an experienced Logic Pro user, Obenaus says, “there was a lot I just transferred from Logic” when he started with Final Cut Pro. “It’s a great piece of software. It’s so intuitively usable. Then Motion came out and I said, ‘Let’s see what it can do.’ I just opened it up and tried something.

“What I really like,” he continues, “is being able to jump between Final Cut Pro and Logic and Motion and Livetype. I can use Motion to create little tags that identify a speaker, and bring them into Final Cut Pro. Then I can compose some background music in Logic and import it to Final Cut Pro to see how it works with the video edit. I can create letters in Livetype and put them in Final Cut Pro to see how they dance and wiggle as I’m listening to the music and seeing the background.”

Ultimately, it’s about watching the movie take shape as he creates it. “I can see how it will all look together so I don’t have to guess,” says Obenaus. “And it’s a lot of fun!”

Night Renders, Stunning Clips

Using Final Cut Studio allows Obenaus to save time during the day. “I can import things without a lot of rendering,” he explains. “It’s easy to do a lot of work in a little time, because I can watch it now and render it later that night. That’s very helpful to me.”

He uses iTunes and his iPod to review and share the work he’s done in Logic Pro and Final Cut Pro. “I can export a Logic track to iTunes, put it on my iPod, and let someone check it out,” he notes.

Now that he can even see the action, it’s even better. “The whole iPod video thing is breathtaking,” he says. “It doesn’t pixelate — I can see every detail of my clips. I take it on the plane and show my work to musicians, luthiers, other filmmakers. It’s super cool.”

Obenaus is swept away by the image quality of the QuickTime codec. “QuickTime H.264 is absolutely stunning,” says Obenaus. “I’ve never seen anything better for little streaming clips. We love that because we’re putting lots of clips from our DVDs on our website.”

Going Left, Going Right, Staying Real

“The most important thing about our DVD series is to document and preserve the knowledge these luthiers have and to show that there are different ways to solve each problems,” says Obenaus. “You can go left or you can go right — and the variety makes it interesting.”

Too, he says, “there’s something about real handmade instruments that’s so beautiful and so different from all the plastic, fast-food music that’s out there. We want to show people that there are still craftsmen who build those instruments.”