So when they set up their project and sequence settings in Final Cut Pro, they could operate at 24fps. This meant they could edit the film at the same speed that the audience would see it when it was finally projected — vital for a film in which the visuals had to be perfectly synchronised with the soundtrack.
Two important factors in their choice of technology were portability, and the ease of connecting peripherals to the hub. Editing on their PowerBooks meant that Luke and Steve could transfer the rushes to DVCAM, and since they stored all the footage on their FireWire drives, they weren’t tied to an edit suite. “I edited whole sections of the carnival part of Pulse in a hotel room in Lisbon”, laughs Steve. “I had my Sony DV walkman, connected with FireWire and I could watch the footage on my hotel room TV”.
By copying the 200GB of raw footage onto their LaCie FireWire PocketDrives, the two partners could work on different parts of the film and email each other their cuts to check and amend. They also emailed sequences to their producers in the United States, who would output from Final Cut Pro to iDVD and burn DVDs to distribute. “Within 24 hours the producers could be watching DVDs of our latest edits”, says Steve. “To do that using other technology would be prohibitive — we’d have to fly to the States ourselves”. And once everyone had the media on their drives, the sequence itself would only be about 2MB, which could easily be compressed into small files. They would then just have to reconnect the media.
“Using the Apple platform enabled us to run an amazing system”, says Steve. “Having two editors and four producers in different countries all working together was amazing, marvellous! Most edits are done in a darkened room. This is a much more open way. You can complete a sequence and get your feedback the next day, so it makes for a very relaxed approach. It’s more creative, and it saves a lot of money. I imagine this is going to become more and more common — it certainly made sense to us”.
Find out where you can see “Pulse: A Stomp Odyssey” by visiting www.pulsethemovie.com.
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