I can’t say enough good things about OpenCut. The idea is pure genius- Open Source video editing. While I could explain how liberating the concept is (as far as media democratization goes) I’m going to look at it from a business standpoint. Silverado Systems (the main sponsor) builds/implements ‘SICK’ media systems. A techie’s dream. Thus the more people comfortable with the RED workflow, the better it is for their business. OpenCut has brought them into the light, and created a new user base.

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I’d also like to think that Silverado could cultivate new workers from this program. You have younger guys, far from the LA scene who are building experience and following the moves of Silverado employees. Myself for example, I’ve spent considerable time on some of their blogs thinking, “Gee– These guys have awesome jobs. Perhaps somday Silverado would want to take a look at my résumé.” Their silently building a little fan-base of motivated and “becoming-qualified” up and comers.

OpenCut 1.0 - Susannah is the story of two guys, Jacob & Ed who are vying for the love of Susannah. It was shot on a RED ONE in Southern California. The way the project works, you receive a drive with the .r3d files (Basically a .raw but for video) and the audio files. From there you can go many directions. I used the Red Log and Transfer Plug-in because I was eager to start editing. The plug-in converts everything to 2K ProRes. In retrospect I would have done a basic grade in RedAlert (4k- 4:4:4), that way I wasn’t demanding to much when it came time to fine tune my grade in FCP (2k- 4:2:2). I didn’t use Color because everytime I sent the project over it crashed… So much for round tripping.