Switcher Stories: Christian Moriarty

I’ve been an Avid editor since 1995. Prior to that it was Grass 200s, Sony 9100s, ADOs and Chyrons. The great aspect of this workflow was that every interface sat on it’s own. There was trust and reliability, but client satisfaction came at a price. Linear was going away and the big rooms and their editors sat on a crumbling throne. Avid was an off-line tool. Then Version 5 came along with AVR 27. Client changes became painless and the linear rooms were sold off. There were a few hold out editors tagging spots and programs. I was the first to switch over. Initially my forte was EDL export to the Sony controllers. Wow, I could online a 30 minute program while away at the movies as the assistant fed the beast with tapes.

As I gained trust in Avid as an online system, I started to output to tape via an RGB to Component transcoder. Learning the Avid interface was inspiring and cutting edge. Navigating the timeline was the trick. It was easy to get lost and you knew that any issue was most likely you and not the software interface. Again I was the first to switch. The client was amazed and satisfied. Photoshop was fun, logos were a breeze. Life was good…for a while.

New Kid on the Block

In 1999, Apple introduced Final Cut Pro v1.0. What was this, a toy editor? Well if Apple made it and it only runs on a Mac, then it must be cool. So I checked it out. Dropped “white” frames, out-of-sync audio. I can’t make any money with a tool that I can’t trust. But hey that DVD Studio Pro and SuperDrive are pretty cool. So I backburnered FCP while Avid embraced the PC. What the heck. I was outraged as editorial houses asked me if I was Mac or PC, as if that made any difference.

The Avid PC houses looked down on the Mac editors and there was a great divide between the two. As time passed I became the “go to DVD guy”. Digitizing many different formats, export a QuickTime reference, encoding and authoring in DVDSP. The bulk of my media was coming from FCP masters with a countdown on the head of the program which clearly labeled it as FCP. Occasionally there were dropped frames but now the audio was in sync and the FCP editors were making money.

Apple also pushed Avid into Xpress DV. Now I could work at home or on location, strap my firewire drive to any Avid Adrenaline and output. Very cool and very affordable. But now a familiar question was being asked. “Are you Final Cut Pro or Avid”? Boy did I have a lot of rehearsed negatives for FCP (which got me nowhere). It was difficult to blame an editorial house for installing 10 FCP seats for the price of one Avid but I held out and the Avid was where I was staying…until the Varicam.

Turning Point

Varicam tapes were being dubbed to DigiBeta for SD - the Avid HD upgrade was expensive and 24P on Xpress needed a Mojo. Something was wrong here. HDV and P2 cards worked seamlessly on FCP. HD was a reality. Final Cut Pro was now at version 5. The Varicam owner operators pulled me to the side and clearly made a parallel from linear to Avid and Avid to FCP. Affordable HD but without editors. Young guns are on the rise without client skills. So how do I make the switch? Training.

Taking the Plunge

Where do I get it, how do I do it? The cost of training is expensive. I added up 3 classes and came to the conclusion that I could just buy a system and teach myself. As i did my research I found that FCP Studio was bundled with programs that round-tripped.

Motion is clearly easier than After Effects, Soundtrack Pro is ProTools. No exporting just “send to”. HD timelines compress to SD for DVD output. Sound effects, replicators & generators are all built in. Text behaviors are quick and easy. 24P is a breeze. Man I’m there. Not one editor could explain this to me…or the interface.

It’s Out There

Turns out unlike the Avid, FCP training is a click away. Start up tips and tutorials are online and everywhere. Podcasts and forums abound and the FCP community cares. FCP is different to Avid but in a lot of ways the same. I’d say better. Clearly more tools to do the same task, many ways allowing anyone to stylize their workflow. Click on a clip in a sequence and use Option-Up Arrow to move it up one track. Multiple sequences “hot” at anytime. Multiple projects and formats open at once. Twirl bins in the browser. Bins inside bins. Real time multicam. Real time HD. Round tripping and all within a bulletproof operating system.

Heck, FCP only runs on a Mac and compressing your edited sequence to your new video iPod is just too cool.