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November 2015

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POST POSITIONS www.postmagazine.com 43 POST NOVEMBER 2015 THE UNHOLY TRINITY: AVID/PREMIERE/FCP7 ately, whenever someone asks me what edit system I'm working in, it usually falls between these three: Avid Media Composer, Adobe Premiere Pro or Final Cut Pro 7, although in the case of the latter, it's being phased out due to lack of support from Apple. However, those are still the three systems many post houses still have access to for a myriad of reasons, whether it's due to legacy projects or editor preference. My personal preference is any of the above. It all depends on the job, and other circumstances (I have Premiere and FCP 7 on my laptop, but not Avid at the moment — although that is about to change). My decision is initially visceral: I can't consciously say why I choose one over the other, although it soon becomes apparent that it has to do with what the job requires in terms of file type and speed. With Premiere, like FCP 7, I can load the job and get started pret- ty quickly, while with Avid, things have to be imported and converted to MXF files, which takes a little more time (you can use AMA, but it's not as stable). Speaking of stability, Avid, to me, is still more stable than Premiere in a lot of ways. However, I enjoy the experience of working in Premiere (as I do FCP 7), so it's always a little bit of a tossup. Again, this comes more from deciding what's right for the job. Then there's FCP X. Let's not talk about that. First, because I don't know it and second, because it's too polarizing. I believe editing software should be trans- parent. It shouldn't take up too much thought, like driving a car. You can't leave yourself open to where the project can take you if you're thinking too much about the mechanics. EDITING IN THE REAL WORLD At the moment, I am working on two projects. One is finishing and the other is just beginning. The one that is near completion is with DeVito/Verdi for the University of Chicago Medicine (cut in Avid), and the other is through the pro- duction company, Xenon, and director Juan Delcan, for the healthcare company Fidelis (cut on Premiere). The UCM spot utilized footage from many different sources to tell the incredible story of Grant Achatz, a famous chef, whose restaurant, Alinea, was named the sixth best in the world. Achatz was diagnosed with tongue cancer and so the story fol- lows how University of Chicago Medicine helped save his life. I chose Avid for this because the last project I worked on that used multiple sources (Bernie & Phyl's Furniture, also out of DeVito) was a bit of a hassle in Premiere (and, believe me, I am not trying to knock Adobe or Premiere — I love it, but I definitely en- countered some bugs). The spot for Fidelis was shot with the Arri Alexa and my choice to cut in Premiere had a little bit to do with the ability to take the job home over the weekend if I chose to, but also because of the fact that I just enjoy working in Premiere. Also, because this was a single camera source, stability was not really a concern, and the edit couldn't have gone more smoothly. As for FCP 7, I still use it pretty fre- quently. In the most recent case, editing my short film, Acoustic Space (which I also wrote and directed), I needed to have the ability to work anywhere, from my home office to Dunkin Donuts. We shot the film in TriBeCa last November and I had to cut pretty quickly in order to make the festival deadlines we were targeting (it was completed January 1 of this year and we've screened in the Cannes Film Festival, WilliFest, NY New Filmmakers, and upcoming NYC Independent, Big Apple, and Chelsea Film Festivals). FLEXIBILITY IS KEY Needless to say, I was able to cut every- where and anywhere using my MacBook Pro and a Glyph drive. Flexibility is what it's all about and we're working in an era right now where that is the key to every- thing. So, maybe, at the end of the day, that's the thing that drives my decision above and beyond anything else. As for FCP X, maybe I'll get to it eventually. It does interest me in the way that learning another language interests me. But, for now, I think I'll stick to the transparency the other systems provide and concentrate on what I care about most: the work. I don't know if this really answers all of the questions regarding why editors choose one type of software over another but, what I can say is, there are a lot of options out there. And editors do love options, right? BY ANTHONY MARINELLI EDITOR/PARTNER TWOPOINT0 NEW YORK WWW.TWOPOINT0.TV DECIDING WHAT TOOL IS RIGHT FOR THE JOB L Avid, Adobe and Apple all offer compelling reasons why editors should choose them for the project.

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