High Noon in the Editors' Corral

Creative COW by Debra Kaufman

"It's tough out here in the Wild West. And for the longest time Sheriff Avid has been keeping this Hollywood backwater safe for those brave editing townspeople. And now, fresh from NAB, it seems our Old Friend Premiere has strapped on some new guns spoiling for a showdown with the big gun. Yeah, Kid, Final Cut rode into town a few years back, all puffed up and ready for some action, but it seems the Kid's kinda backed down from the fight...or has he?"

That was the description of a panel of editors who, last week, took "a good hard look down the barrel of today's editing systems." Organized and moderated by editor Herb Dow A.C.E. on behalf of the Hollywood Post Alliance Sales Career Resource Group, the panel featured a group of editors who used some or all of the afore-mentioned editing products.

Lining up at the O.K. Corral were editor Brandon Balin, Digital Media & Technology Specialist Scott Carrey, editor Billy Fox, A.C.E., Intelligent Assistance President Philip Hodgetts, Adobe Senior Business Development Manager Pro Video and Film Mike Kanfer, and Avid Post Application Specialist Michael Krulik.

Balin uses Avid Media Composer 6 but has also used Apple Final Cut Pro. "At one point, I was NLE agnostic," he admits, reporting that for the last three shows he cut, he used FCP 7. Carrey is a fan of Adobe Premiere Pro 6. "It's fantastic for short form content such as commercials and promos," he said. Fox, who edits feature films, said he is primarily a FCP editor but also uses Avid. Hodgetts touted his main tool: FCPX (to which Carrey replied that he calls FCPX "iMovie Pro"). read more...