MM: You are editing the film on Final Cut Pro. Can you talk a bit about how you like editing on FCP
JF:Yes. Final Cut Pro is very easy to edit with. My only complaint is that it does tend to crash sometimes, but you can always go into the Autosave Vault and find your last changes. Except sometimes one or two, if you have worked in the last ten minutes before the crash. I set the FCP to save every fifteen minutes, and even then it drives you crazy, because it always saves in the middle of your thought process. I have not worked at 24 fps, just 30, but it seems to be fine with the negative list. I have heard that at 24 it can miss a frame or so on some cuts, but I haven't had the experience, so I can only go by heresay. Other than that, once you alter your thinking on how to approach getting to the same place with FCP or Avid, it just requires a slightly different mindset to get the job done. With FCP, most of the work goes on WITHIN the Timeline. On Avid it does too, but external tools are used as well. The best place to finally learn either machine's short cuts is on the keyboard, so you can eliminate a lot of work with the mouse. MM: You've edited on an Avid - How much of a learning curve has there been for FCP, knowing the Avid System.
JF:The learning curve is slow at the beginning, but within a few days you can cut, and then you learn as you go with the rest, and of course it helps by having a great assistant who knows the FCP well. The more you do, the easier it gets. By the end of your first show, you pretty much know what you're doing.
MM: I know you began editing on Film - What do you like about editing digital vs film?
JF: Digital has opened up the possibilities, and the inital first cut, or assembly(although I hate that term, for it implies you do less, when in fact it is the biggest challenge) is much faster on digital. There are drawbacks, but not enough to return to film.
One is that you can easily overcut if you don't watch it, and the other is that the editor does so much more than just cut picure. Since you can effectivley finish a film in the digital world, we are now music and sound effects editors, as well as the optical and title house. But do we get paid what these people used to make collectively? NO!!! I love the digital editing world, though, because one can obviously have more control over the finished product. The only other drawback is I find a lot of digital editors without film experience tend to cut for the tube, but not for the theatre. In the theatre, it takes more time to read the image, because it is bigger, but editors don't always keep that in mind when working on small digital screens. Runnings in theates are important, so that you can see where things might need to be lengthened, and also you can discover soft focus shots and replace them before the film is released. All of this aside, I do love the ease with which you can cut on digital.* Murray Mintz is a friend of Michael Pressman, who wrote and directed Bad Business one of the first feature length films shot with a MiniDV camera. Michael Pressman had a featured cameo, as "Money Man" in Bad Business playing opposite the film's star Chris Mulkey.