First you have to stack up five layers of video and reposition them to mimic the setup. This is easily done using the scale and center settings under the motion tab of the viewer window. If you prefer to work in the canvas, just make sure your wireframe is turned on. Then drag from a corner to re-scale and drag from the middle to re-position.
STEP 2: Adjust Your Picture
Now you have your five screens where you want them, but it’ll still feel very two-dimensional. Each screen, because of its position in relation to the viewers, receives a different amount of attention. This plays a huge role in editing the story, so you’ll have to adjust your picture to emulate that feeling. Using the distort tool, you should be able to simulate a 3D look. Simply select the distort tool (either from the tool palette or by hitting D on the keyboard) and drag each corner until you’re happy with the look. With a little imagination, you can envisage what those five screens would feel like if you were standing in the middle.
STEP 3: Using FCP's Dynamic Playback Setting
Now that you’ve re-scaled, re-positioned and distorted five tracks on top of each other, we’re going to have to render constantly, right? Well, not really. I was pleasantly surprised when working on my own project that even after adding filters and making speed changes, I barely had to render to preview the cut. Our footage was captured at DV 23.98 so that definitely helped, but I think the real star for us was Final Cut Pro’s new Dynamic playback setting. No matter how many layers I stacked up or how I altered them, FCP was a workhorse and pumped out the timeline in real time. Of course, I did have to render occasionally, but far less often than you would expect. Now, wrapping your head around editing five screens at once is a different story.
STEP 4: Go Long with FCP
So there it is— a simple workflow to handle a very complex and totally custom installation piece. It was done without the use of expensive "online" machines like a Smoke or a Flame— just my dual 2.7 GHz G5 and FCP. When you’re in a pinch, you’d be surprised at some of the things you can use FCP for. Its vast tool set, mixed with your creativity, will take you a long way.
YOUR GUIDE
Jody Leggio
Editor
PlasterCITY Digital Post
Jody Leggio is an editor for PlasterCITY Digital Post in Hollywood, CA. He has credits ranging from commercials and music videos to television shows and feature films and has won numerous awards for his work, including an Emmy and a Telly. PlasterCITY Digital Post is a nonlinear high-definition post production facility specializing in post supervision, offline editorial, online, color correction and graphic design for film and TV.
Jody Says Keep In Mind...
Recently, we were approached to post an installation piece. The installation puts the viewers in the center of five projection screens— one front and center, one front left, one front right, a rear left and a rear right. The setup allows the viewers to be completely immersed in the story which, in our case, is a 10-minute action short. The same story is playing on all screens, but not the same image. Sometimes you see different angles of the same action, sometimes there are simultaneous sub-plots happening at the same time. It’s a total assault on your senses and timing is everything. For this reason, it would be impossible to edit each screen individually. It’s absolutely essential to view all five screens simultaneously during the offline process to monitor how they interact with each other. Since we don’t have video cards that monitor five individual tracks of a timeline I had to come up with a workflow.
Support Gear:
Apple Mac G5, Final Cut Pro and a Fibre Channel SAN
PlasterCITY Digital Post www.plastercitypost.com
6500 Sunset Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90028
ph. 323.469.9800
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