Oscar winning editor Walter Murch (“Apocalypse Now,” “The English Patient”) switched from an Avid system to Final Cut Pro running on Power Mac G4s for “Cold Mountain,” the new film he’s editing for director Anthony Minghella. FCP gives him more creative flexibility and power than Avid for much less cost, according to a Tech Central article.
In fact, the movie trade publication, the Hollywood Reporter says that Murch’s decision “sent ripples of surprise through the editing community.” His decision is causing others to take a closer look at Apple’s high-end videography solution and hardware, the article adds.
Murch said he was able to get four Final Cut Pro systems for what it would cost him to rent a single Avid Film Composer station. According to the Hollywood Reporter, the “backbone” of Murch’s system consists of four Power Mac G4 dual gigahertz systems running Final Cut, Film Logic/Cinema Tools, and DVD Studio Pro. Four Aurora Video Systems IgniterRT 311 video-capture cards have been installed to handle real-time, 24-frame-per-second digitizing.