ITV Productions: In With the New
Having a central server means different cutting rooms can work with the same material — common title sequences, for example — and also access an extensive music library loaded into iTunes. Westmoreland says: “Because the dramas are music-based, we used to spend a lot of time physically getting CDs from the library and searching for songs. One of the first things we did when we got the Xsan was load our library of 16,500 Sixties tracks into iTunes, and now all the cutting rooms have instant access. We can preview a track far more quickly and search for a relevant song using keywords. Then we just pull the file across into Final Cut. It’s made everything so much more flexible”.
Brearley says of the storage that forms the heart of the system: “We’ve had the Xsan system running for about a year now. It’s a very reliable system that represents a good investment for us. We’re looking to add an extra 21TB of video and 3.5TB audio storage to the system in the near future”.
Westmoreland is also a fan of the Apple technology. He says: “With the previous system, I used to use a lot of 3D tools — not for FX work, but for repairing shots or creating wipes to repair the continuity of a shot change. At first, I didn’t think FCP was sophisticated enough to do all that, but then I realised it had its 4-point and 8-point garbage mattes that are very effective, plus it could do everything that Automation Gain could do in the previous system”.
Such is the success of the Final Cut Pro setup at Yorkshire that two more seats are being added for a new project starting in April, and the role of the systems could be augmented within the productions they are used for. Westmoreland says: “We’ve done a few tests cutting Heartbeat on FCP at uncompressed SD res, which is the way things are going. The beauty of Final Cut is that it barely noticed the difference. It didn’t stress the system at all”.
Brearley, who is a great supporter of the Mac platform and uses an Apple system for admin and day-to-day computing within ITV Productions’ post-production department at Leeds, says: “There’s no reason why Final Cut can’t be used more as a finishing tool and why we can’t develop its role in audio”.
ITV Productions’ head of post production, Lance Tattersall, is equally pleased with the new setup. He concludes: “Final Cut is now a mature edit system which works well. We were concerned about closed-architecture systems dominating the market. So from a management point of view, having a different source of supply for edit systems gives us options and flexibility and helps control costs”.
