Final Cut Pro 6 - and then some

This is the very latest version of the software that has been taking the post production world by storm, and understandably so. The BBC Factual & Learning department has stated it will ditch its Avids in favour of Final Cut Pro; many feature films have been cut on the software, and it has the added benefit of enabling HDV native working throughout.

Apple’s Final Cut Studio 2 isn't just a video edit suite. It also features a 3D motion graphics program, a multi-track sound edit program, an animated caption generator, a DVD authoring suite, professional-standard colour correction and sophisticated top-quality compression options.

Add to this my mega-spec Mac Pro 8-core, with 8GB RAM, dual DVD burners  and 1.5TB of storage and a Blackmagic Decklink Extreme card which can handle everything from VHS to HD-CAM, including SDI in and out, HD-SDI, component and Y/C, all controlled by the on-board RS422 interface, all viewed on the mammoth 30" Apple Cinema Display and attached to a Sony HVR-M25E HDV/DVCAM machine and a 15” component JVC high-res monitor.

But that's not all. To complement the Final Cut Pro software, I've also invested in Magic Bullet Editors film-look suite, Twixtor 4.5 slo-motion software, giving near-super slo mo quality from normal footage; Digital Heaven, Eureka, Pan Zoom Pro, Volumetrix light effects, CHV and CGM filters and effects make great TV effortless. Need to import an Avid sequence? No problem! I have Automatic Duck, the world's only Avid to FCP (and vice versa) translation software too. I've invested in Flip4Mac WMV Studio Pro HD so I can import - and export - in WMV and AVI formats from my Mac, and Sorenson Squeeze 5 will fast-encode to pretty much every format going (including Flash - that's how my showreel on this site was encoded) for web, mobile and DVD.  For a comprehensive list, please click here.

And when it comes to sound, I've just made life much easier by investing in a Mackie Control Universal - a 'hands-on' sound mixer which works with Final Cut Pro and Soundtrack Pro to make sound mixing pleasant, easy, polished, and to broadcast levels using the Bryant Broadcast BBC-spec PPM Meters. Back to Edit Systems page