Five extra DVDs have been released by the producers of Keanu Reeves' documentary SIDE BY SIDE. The film looks at the history, process and workflow of film production featuring interviews with directors such as James Cameron, Martin Scorsese and David Fincher. Walter Murch's extended interview features on one of the new discs where he talks about film editing and of course Final Cut Pro.
Walter Murch is of course no stranger to Final Cut Pro. Cold Mountain was edited by Murch on FCP 3, the success launched the app into the traditionally Avid based Hollywood. Although he hasn't really taken to FCPX yet, (even though the filmstrip views echo his post-it note storyboard methods of organisation) it is always interesting to hear his thoughts. Walter has a pretty impressive credit list having edited films such as Apocalypse Now, The Talented Mr Ripley, Ghost and of course Cold Mountain.
Here is an extract from the recently released extra DVDs from SIDE BY SIDE. It's from volume 3 which also features extended interviews with James Cameron and Edward Lachman.
SIDE BY SIDE, the feature documentary produced by Keanu Reeves and Justin Szlasa and directed by Chris Kenneally, it premiered at the Berlinale in 2012. The reviews have been very positive and it's a film that we missed first time, so it is now on the watch list, There is always something to learn from listening to experts in your craft. With the release of the extra DVDs, we can now learn more from Walter.
Chris Kenneally, director, SIDE BY SIDE EXTRA "During the course of shooting SIDE BY SIDE we captured a tremendous amount of material. Most of it, of course, didn’t make it into the final film. Keanu and the team are really happy to make some of the in-depth conversations available in this collection—serious students of filmmaking will really enjoy it."
Justin Szlasa, producer, SIDE BY SIDE EXTRA "SIDE BY SIDE has become required watching in a lot of film programs—this collection responds to that and goes deeper than what we could do in the feature doc. For the DVDs, we took a lot of care to author the menus in a way that is very rich. It would allow a teacher to access exactly the clips she might want to use to support her lesson."
As you can see from the above, we think these DVDs being of great use in film schools where the extra detail will help in classes. Walter's DVD is going on our Christmas wish list too!
I am the Editor-in-Chief of FCP.co and have run the website since its inception ten years ago.
I have also worked as a broadcast and corporate editor for over 30 years, starting on one inch tape, working through many formats, right up to today's NLEs.
Under the name Idustrial Revolution, I have written and sold plugins for Final Cut Pro for 13 years.
I was made a Freeman of Lichfield through The Worshipful Company of Smiths (established 1601). Though I haven't yet tried to herd a flock of sheep through the city centre!
Current Editing
2020 has been busy, the beginning of the year was finishing off a new property series (cut on FCP) for Channel 4 called The Great House Giveaway. I also designed and built the majority of the graphics as Motion templates. It has been a great success and the shows grabbed more viewers in the 4pm weekday slot than any previous strand. It has been recommissioned by C4 for 60 episodes, including prime-time versions and five themed programmes. The shows have also been nominated for a 2021 BAFTA.
Although both were postponed to later in the year, I worked again on ITV's coverage of the Tour de France and La Vuelta. 2020 was my 25th year of editing the TdF and my 20th year as lead editor. The Tour was the first broadcast show to adopt FCPX working for multiple editors on shared storage.
BBC's Snooker has played a big part in my life, I've been editing tournament coverage since 1997. I'm proud to be part of a very creative team that has pioneered many new ideas and workflows that are now industry standard in sports' production. This is currently an Adobe Premiere edit.
Covid cancelled some of the regular corporate events that I edit such as trade shows & events. I was lucky however to edit, from home, on projects for Amazon Kindle, Amazon Black Friday, Mastercard and very proud to have helped local charitable trust Kendall & Wall secure lottery funding.
As for software, my weapon of choice is Final Cut Pro and Motion, but I also have a good knowledge and broadcast credits with Adobe Premiere Pro, MOGRT design and Photoshop.
Plugin Design & Development
I'm the creative force behind Idustrial Revolution, one of the oldest Final Cut Pro plugin developers. It hosts a range of commercial and free plugins on the site. One free plugin was downloaded over a thousand times within 24 hours of release.
I also take on custom work, whether it is adapting an existing plugin for a special use or designing new plugins for clients from scratch. Having a good knowledge of editing allows me to build-in flexibility and more importantly, usability.
FCP.co
Now in its 10th year and 4th redesign, running FCP.co has given me knowledge on how to run a large CMS- you are currently reading my bio from the database! Although it sounds corny, I am pretty well up on social media trends & techniques, especially in the video sector. The recent Covid restrictions has enabled live FCP.co shows online. This involves managing a Zoom Webinar through Restream.io to YouTube and Facebook.
The Future
I'm always open to new ideas and opportunities, so please get in touch at editor (at) fcp.co. I've judged film competitions, presented workflow techniques to international audiences and come up with ideas for TV shows and software programs!
