LA BUENA MUERTE showcases Apple’s FCP 10.4 workflow

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In Online Premiere, Screening Posted February 14, 2018

This past fall I was invited to collaborate with the LA-based Mobile Film Classroom on a short documentary sponsored by Apple to showcase new additions to their FCP workflow and promote their collaboration with RED in releasing the Raven camera in stores. Our film, LA BUENA MUERTE, was released with an LA premiere through the Los Angeles Creative Pro User Group on January 24th, 2018.

More from the Apple Newsroom press release:

While the sun was shining across Los Angeles, the La Buena Muerte crew, headed by executive producer Manon Banta, were hard at work in their darkened editing suites. Reviewing the volume of interviews and B-roll, all captured with kaleidoscopic splendour by cinematographer Elle Schneider on the 4.5K Red Raven camera, initially felt like a daunting task. Fortunately, their metadata was automatically organized after being imported straight into Final Cut Pro X from Shot Notes X and Lumberjack, along with the secondary source audio via Sync-N-Link X, which spared days of hand-syncing.

Perhaps the most constructive feedback about story structure came from TJ Martin, director of LA 92 and Undefeated, the Oscar winner for Best Documentary Feature in 2012, which director Jean Balest has used as teaching material in the Mobile Film Classroom. Midway through the cut, Martin was struck by a plot point he felt required precision placement up front: A daughter, Tara Vajra, is introduced while presiding over a conceptual art altar alongside her mother, Lynn King, who reveals she’s coping with her own pending death after a stage 4 cancer diagnosis. “I’m a huge fan of reveals,” Martin said. “I want to know more about that bomb you just dropped on me. So how do you make that an asset?”