Made In The Shade: Reach for the Stars
Other components of Final Cut Studio have proved to be equally essential. “Soundtrack is very good. Itʼs incorporated lots of Logic software into the effects, and that alone is immensely valuable, so itʼs pretty cool to be able have that ability. The effects are tightly integrated so they can be dropped into the timeline and then sync up the audio, multitrack it, ride levels, and itʼs done. Itʼs very sophisticated, and more than adequate for the needs of most of my projects”.
For Fospero, it’s about possibility and stability. “Very seldom do we get a hardware crash when editing with Final Cut Studio; that used to be fairly commonplace with a non-linear editing system. In the old days if you had one format that wasn’t compatible then the computer just fell over. Final Cut Studio embraces lots of formats in the same sequence, so we can dump whatever we want into a project, adjust the dimensions, and Final Cut Studio says itʼs okay, it can take it and digest it. I also believe that the new Intel processors make a significant contribution to the stability”.
Carl Fospero (left) showing rushes to Ned Abel-Smith on his MacBook Pro.
Fosperoʼs satisfaction with Final Cut Studio is rooted in that fact that, despite his long experience as a filmmaker and broadcaster, Apple technology has bought about a paradigm shift that enables him and his team to do their job much more effectively. “I know plenty of people my age whoʼve been in the television business for many years, and we grin in disbelief about where the business is right now. Itʼs quite a remarkable time".
"We grew up in an era where technicians ruled the roost and you were only able to do your job as a producer, director or editor if there was highly-trained technical staff available. There was a tremendous amount of equipment and technology requiring knowledgeable engineers and temperature-controlled rooms to operate. Travelling with heavy remote gear weighing hundred of pounds was a challenge as well. Today, I can effectively run a small post-production facility on my MacBook Pro”.“Laptop editing is nothing new”, he adds, “but editing HD on a laptop is pretty new, and itʼs astonishing just how easy it is. With the XDCAM EX, I record to a S X S memory card, insert the card into the built-in PCMI slot on my MacBook Pro and load up the HD files. Within 5 minutes I’m editing. Thereʼs no longer any digitizing as you capture the HD video files almost like you would JPEG photographs from a stills camera. The playback is smooth and the image is extraordinary”.
The internet plays an important role for Fospero as stock film footage, graphics and music are all available for licensing on the web and downloadable within minutes. He also exchanges video and graphics files on the company ftp with his long-time collaborator and motion-graphics expert, James Newman. “I’ll provide James with a mirrored hard drive of my rushes and we’ll share fcp project files over the internet and re-connect the rushes to our own individual drives. We work together on the same project from different locations, since I’m based in London and he’s based in Oxford. The computer power is there, the internet bandwith is growing, the software is friendly and the new HD codecs are stunning. There are no longer any excuses; the technology is facilitating our creativity, allowing us to do things that, in the past, required a large team of people and a prohibitively expensive facility”.
But Fospero also adds an important caveat – in as much as technology has simplified and improved the process of making films, and the hardware and software is better integrated, there are some rules that will always remain the same. “In any production you still need brilliant lighting, pristine sound and gear, talented DPs, creative writers, skilled editors, and imaginative motion graphics designers. The power is in our hands, but we have to have a proper idea of what it is weʼre doing and what weʼre trying to achieve. It’s important to collaborate with talented people and if your project is to be broadcast, make sure it’s output to tape at a reputable post-production company”.
“Personally I donʼt feel any differently as a producer or a director than I did when I first started out. I still want to see actors perform well and the shots captured in the correct light, but now I’m at liberty now to take control of my own projects without depending on others to slow me down. I can collaborate with any creative person anywhere in the world and transfer ideas back and forth. I can show up to a shoot with my MacBook Pro and use it as a field production suite. I can take out the hard drives and cut some footage, show the client and determine straight away what works for them and what doesnʼt. After that I can render the movie, feed it into Compressor, output it to a DVD using DVD Studio Pro and hand it over to the client, on the spot, all from the same computer”.
“Itʼs incredible to have such freedom. If youʼve been around long enough to gain experience and build a reputation in production, and people trust you with their products and brands, then Final Cut Studio and the new Macs are perfect partners. They’ve enhanced my creativity, allowed me to decentralise the production process and work collaboratively with other creative professionals anywhere in the world. Now we can produce the best work possible regardless of limited resources or scheduling. It’s about the ability to approach clients like Virgin Galactic and promise great films regardless of obstacles, because now Made in the Shade is flexible enough to meet their requirements.
The fundamentals of good film-making will always be about having the right ideas, the right people and the right equipment, but for everything else thereʼs Final Cut Studio. For Carl Fospero and Made in the Shade, telling the story of Virgin Galactic means the sky is no longer the limit.
