Laundry List for Edit suite

Hi All,

My wife and I have an awesome private space that we want to turn into a FCP 5 Uncompressed SD and HDV offline edit suite for people to create their offlines from downconverted HD. We also have a beta Sp deck, miniDV deck, and 3/4 deck (i know... it's Flinstonian technology).

Anyway, does anyone have any thoughts about the marketability of this idea. Also, if you care to give a specific laudry list of the minimum gear I need to get, I would be most grateful!!!

Thank you very much,


Kirk

I guess the first question I would ask is - where are you physically located?

You mention editing downconverted HD and so I need to ask, where does that business come from? and if you are asking about a specific edit suite/bay that will handle all of the above mentioned formats (SD , HDV , HS downconverted to ?)

Your choices are purchasing a G5 Macintosh (if you don't already have some type of MAC that would work).

You would then need a capture card for BetaSP (analog) and some composite (??) for the 3/4" deck, I suppose. An single capture card can do all of the above except real uncompressed HD (if that is what you are talking about)

HDV is a completely different animal. It has about the same data rates as DV and works over Firewire like DV capture does.

My suggestionis that you defing the exact requirements to connect all those toys up and what your budget is - then we can get specific.

Thanks John!

We are located in Studio City, CA which is basically Los Angeles next to all the major studios.

HDV and uncompressed STANDARD def is all I need to handle. So many people I come across have been shooting their features and pilots on HDCAM, then downcoverting it to MiniDV or BetaSP in order to do their offlines. They downconvert at a letter-boxed 16x9 and then put the 24 frame tc in the black at the bottom of the image.

So my goal is to set up super client friendly and comfortable "offline" suite for editors and directors to hang out and cut. Then when they are done with their cut, the would go to an online house and up-rez the EDL. So I guess what I really need to know is:

1) Do you think people would still like an offline suite these days (clean, quiet, beautiful monitor, nice speakers, cokes in the fridge, lots of privacy, etc.), or does everyone want to just sit in Starbuck's and edit on their powerbook?

2) What specific gear do I need (specific cards, breakout box, etc.) to be able to handle my betaSP decks and any HDV or DVCPRO HD decks that people want to plug in to the system.

3) How much storage do I need to handle 30 hours of the highest quality in these formats? I don't need a raid do I?

Thanks so much!!


Kirk

Kirk wrote:

Kirk,

FCP has made the kind of business plan that you're proposing extremely difficult to execute. The simple fact is that FCP is cheap and everyone knows it. Good luck trying to make a profit running a single off-line room. Anyone who has a serious project with a budget attached can afford to BUY their own system. Everyone else will essentially be asking you to give it to them for free.

This is why the established NLE rental houses in LA really hate FCP. They can't make any money on it.

You may enjoy being a "patron" for small projects that are worthy, but don't count on making a living at it.

Mark

Dear Mark,

That's kind of what I kind of expected to hear. What about getting into real HD with online capabilities but not buying the deck. In other words, what if I had terrabytes of storage in raid, a killer monitor, the breakout boxes, etc. and then the clients just rented the deck for input/output? Do you see a future in that kind of a model?

Kirk

Kirk,

Same problem. The data rates for HD are coming down to the point where you really don't need anything all that special. You can probably make more money just renting the empty room (real estate) than you can trying to make a go of it with this kind of system. Pencil it out. The point where you can make a profit is exactly the point where most people say, "Naw... I'll do it my self".

FCP has been an extremely disruptive technology for the classic off-line post rental business. I don't mean to be a pessimist, but the days of "if you build it they will come" are over. Now, the payback period has become so short that with just one project it makes more sense to buy it yourself.

mark

Mark,

Thanks for your insightful comments. You know what, I'm sure you are 100% correct. I guess the real money in post these days will be in having the HDCAM deck to rent to people for their inputs and outputs.

Take care,

Kirk