Breaking the Speed Limit -- Editing Phantom High-Speed Footage in Final Cut Pro 2 of 2

Once we have the actual shot, we can then control the downloading of footage from the camera using Vision Research’s software. Thus far they’ve only released a version that runs on Windows. In order to preserve the Mac-loving image of Simplemente, we decided to run it on a MacBook Pro with Boot Camp. We can then select the ins and outs of any particular shot. Typically the exact moment you want to save is a tiny fraction of that 6 minute take and the rest is a lot of frames with no activity you can delete. The selected portions are then saved out to a hard drive using Vision Research’s proprietary Cine file format.

This is where the Final Cut Pro workflow can be tricky. You can use Vision Research’s software to create a QuickTime .MOV file at up to 2K for use in Final Cut Pro. This is nice because it means you don’t have to do any further conversions to get into FCP but it also means you have to wait for the conversion to finish when you really just want to start editing. Not to mention you’re throwing away some of the sensor data unless you go QuickTime uncompressed, which results in huge files.

Another workflow and the one we decided to go with at Simplemente involves a special third-party plugin from Glue Tools. The Phantom Cine QuickTime Toolkit allows you to load the native Cine files directly into Final Cut Pro. This is great because it means we can start cutting instantly. The real-time performance is not quite as speedy as you might be used to coming from say DV. Then again we’re talking about full 2K uncompressed so I’m just happy to have it there in the first place. Glue Tools is neat because we can also use their DPX Toolkit to go straight from the Cine files to logarithmic 2K DPX files. This maintains all the dynamic range goodness of the original footage, say if we wanted to finish in Color.

The responsiveness is more than enough to scrub through and quickly assemble an edit. We’re also not having to worry about sync sound at 1,000 fps which makes the editing process even more straightforward. We were able to put together the footage for the theatrical reels very quickly this way. We then did an export to 1920x1080/24p ProRes HQ from our 2K timeline.

The theatrical screening was also very FCP-centric. We were able to get a Sony 4K SXRD digital projector and hook up to it via HD-SDI. We used an AJA IO-HD box to connect from a MacPro Quad Core to the Sony projector. We then played out the ProRes 1920x1080 directly from Final Cut Pro. It looked really amazing up on the big screen and I was struck not only by how fast we got it all together but by how easily I was able to jump up to full-on 2K uncompressed using the same Final Cut Pro I’m used to cutting “mere” standard definition and 720p DVCPROHD with...

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