Starting Out
 

I am about to begin editing a documentary on FCP. The last time I used FCP was for a feature film in 2001 - FCP (v. 1.5) was unreliable in those days. But I hear that's all changed.

Anyway, I would love to hear your thoughts how to capture my media. I'll be working with longish interviews and don't whther to break them up before capture (just in case FCP still can't cope with big files); or if it's now okay to capture entire tapes and subclip and log them later on?

Much obliged. I'm looking forward to trying the latest FCP software on the very latest Mac!

Hi Marguerite,

You ended up in the right house but the wrong room. If you go to the DVI home page and scroll down, you'll see a topic: DV/HDV/DV Post Production...and Beyond. Inside of that is a forum on Non-linear DV Editing on the Mac.

To answer part of your question, FCP -- and the Mac -- have come a long way since v1.5. Faster, more features, and you have to try pretty hard to crash either the program or the Mac.

I've been using Macs since '85 and FCP since v2.

Personally, I would capture interviews individually rather than in one big file. But, that's just me. I like to break any project into smaller & more manageable pieces.

Another resource is the FCP forum at the Apple web site. (Go to Apple -> Support -> Discussions -> FCP). It's really active and there's a lot of expert help available.

Good luck with your project.

Thanks Tom!
 

For both your advice, and for helping me find my way around the forum.

Moved your post to the forum Tom talked about...