Behind the Seen Read online

  Sean and Walter come away from their meeting feeling that DigitalFilm Tree will be their “men in Havana,” but they haven’t quite decided to adopt FCP. They need to know more. Sean, Walter, and DFT agree to divide the next round of research. Walter will talk to editors who have done work on Final Cut Pro. Sean will investigate whether FileMaker, the program they use for organizing their code books, logs, and databases, will work well with Final Cut. DFT will look into the remaining technical hurdles and design issues.

  After the meeting, Ramy calls his contacts at Apple to give them the headline: Walter Murch is interested in using Final Cut Pro on his next feature film. “I’m chatting with Apple people who are enthusiastic—I’m talking to higher tier managers, foot soldiers, not with the people who run the company. And I’m telling them that Walter’s here, and they’re downright giddy.” Ramy informs Walter and Sean that Apple is excited, that the company loves the idea of him using FCP.

  At this point, Ramy reaches across the country for more help, getting in contact with Zed Saeed, a FCP fellow traveler on the East Coast. Saeed had put Oxygen Media on Final Cut Pro, the first television network of any substance to use the application. When he began working at Oxygen they had two Final Cut Pro systems; when he finished they had 200. Zed in New York, much like Ramy in Los Angeles, saw the future possibilities of Final Cut Pro in film editing. And since he was one of the few people on the East Coast to understand both technical and user needs, Zed had most of the new opportunities to himself. He also became a post-production consultant to Showtime Networks, designing and managing their film-based editing systems using Final Cut Pro.

  Zed Zaeed, senior post production coordinator at DigitalFilm Tree.

  Born and raised in Pakistan, Zed Saeed came to the U.S. in 1983 to attend Hampshire College in western Massachusetts. By 1984, he had won his first Student Emmy Award for his short film Back to School. Of all the Final Cut Pro specialists none might be more excited about Murch using the system than Saeed. “There was nothing I ever wanted to do more than just make films,” he says. “My friends and I, we lived films: we ate film, we made films, we slept films. When I was in college we were obsessed with The Conversation, because as film students we were taught it was the height of sound design. We actually recorded the soundtrack of The Conversation from the videotape to ¼-inch audiotape—just like Harry Caul! We would be in our dorm rooms playing the reel-to-reel, listening to the soundtrack of The Conversation over and over and over again. I mean, that’s how obsessed we were with Walter Murch’s work. And it wasn’t like we thought it was a Coppola thing; we knew it was a Murch thing. We had researched it and found out he had put it together and it was his ideas. I’m not making this up after the fact. You can call my friends up and they’ll tell you, ‘Yeah, yeah, we used to do the reel-to-reel thing all the time.’”

  Ramy Katrib and Zed Saeed first met in Las Vegas at NAB, the National Association of Broadcasters annual electronic media trade show. “We had a hysterical time in the hotel room where the DFT guys were all staying,” says Saeed. “Right then and there we both agreed that somehow, some day, I’d have to come out to L.A.”

  Harry Caul’s reel-to-reel tape recorder from the film, The Conversation. Zed Saeed: “We would be in our dorm rooms playing the reel-to-reel, listening to the soundtrack of The Conversation.”

  After Murch and Cullen return to the Lot to complete K-19, Ramy continues talking to Apple about Cold Mountain and the kind of assistance DFT needs so that it can help Murch and Cullen. “The response was fabulous, giddy, salivating,” says Ramy. “I can point to like four or five different individuals who were giving very positive feedback. It was all positive.”

  Murch informs director Anthony Minghella about the possibility of using Final Cut Pro on Cold Mountain. Minghella, who is an Apple user and also savvy about digital editing, begins his own research into Final Cut Pro. In an April 28 email to Murch, he reports on his findings. “I see Soderbergh just made Full Frontal using Final Cut and may do the same for Solaris... there was mention that the system can now make change lists. True?” Minghella is open to Murch using Final Cut Pro, but he also knows enough about editing and digital technology to maintain a healthy skepticism.

  MAY 7, 2002—BERKELEY, CALIFORNIA

  While Walter completes the sound mix on K-19 at the Saul Zaentz Film Center, Sean wraps up his work in Los Angeles and sees to it that the film negative cutting is underway and going smoothly. In the months since K-19 entered its final finishing stages, vast changes have taken place in the Cold Mountain universe: Tom Cruise, originally cast as Inman, has been replaced by Jude Law, and Nicole Kidman, Cruise’s ex-wife, has been signed to play Inman’s lover, Ada Monroe. Equally far-reaching, the production has shifted from the United States to Romania, where more than 70 percent of the film will be shot. The plan is for Murch to leave for the United Kingdom after a few weeks’ break, then set up the Cold Mountain edit in London while film production gets underway in Bucharest. Then, on May 11, Walter receives word from Anthony Minghella that editing for Cold Mountain will not begin in London as originally planned. Instead, Anthony wants Walter to set up shop closer to the set, in Bucharest.

  * * *

  To: Walter Murch

  From: Anthony Minghella

  Date: May 11, 2002

  Dear friend, a wave to you. I am pretending to examine the script but am, in fact, hostage to issues of schedule, budget, score, etc. The more I learn about Romania, the more I feel that there would be some real wisdom in your being based in Bucharest rather than London. I can’t imagine how I could profit from your work during shooting otherwise, and it looks like John [Seale, director of photography] will be using the lab there. I’m particularly thinking about the Crater sequence at the beginning of the movie and how it will need your help in ensuring we’ve collected the material we’ll need in the cutting room. Where are you? How is your inner being? Your outer one? Love and blessings. Ant.

  * * *

  Walter responds to Anthony with a series of questions: What’s the support system like there? The lab? The telecine? Anthony does not immediately know the answers. “We were already stretching the envelope, but if we were doing the stretching in London, at least we’d be in the orbit of people who knew about these things. But Romania?” asks Walter.

  A few weeks later, on May 30, out of the blue, Ramy is asked to join a conference call with some Apple executives. “They said they had weighed the pros and the cons, and they would not engage Cold Mountain, Walter, or any part of our effort,” Ramy says later.

  Now Ramy has to call Murch with the bad news: “Walter, I don’t know how to say this, but Apple said we shouldn’t do this, and that they will not be involved at all.”

  “Why? Why are they doing this?” Walter wants to know.

  “My best explanation is I think the liability is too high for them,” Ramy says. “They think that this project is too big for Final Cut Pro, that Final Cut Pro isn’t ready for something like this. I think some of the people I was talking to don’t appreciate who you are and what you represent to the community. Some of them weren’t the same people who had been enthusiastic, who did appreciate it.”

  “Well, what if I still want to do it,” Walter asks firmly, “in spite of Apple? What if I still want to do this?”

  There was such forcefulness in his voice that Ramy responds without hesitation. “We’re there! We’ll go with or without Apple.”

  “There was no fear in the fact that Apple wasn’t going to go,” Ramy says late one night two years later, sitting at his desk across from Zed Saeed. “It was the strength of his voice, the way he said it. To me, it was just certain. There was nothing that I had to talk about to my partners. We were going to go. That’s when it started to settle in that we were going to be on a long ride—that this was going to change our lives.”

  Zed jumps in, as is his wont, finishing Ramy’s thought with exuberance and passion. “This is Walter Murch, man, who’s seen action o
n Apocalypse Now! He’s asking us to jump into the fire with him. Hell, yes! What are we going to say, ‘Sorry, Walter...’?”

  Adds Ramy, “We couldn’t say, ‘Well, if Apple’s not going, I think we’ll pass.’”

  “We’re there,” he says softly, reliving the moment.

  The day after the conversation in which Ramy and Walter tentatively decide to proceed with plans to edit Cold Mountain on Final Cut Pro, Walter sends him this email: “Dear Ramy: Good talking to you yesterday, and I am hopeful it will all work out. Any chance of getting a phone number for Steve Jobs? Thanks, Walter M.”

  Chapter 4. Give me a Reason Not To

  Walter Murch’s office, upstairs in a converted barn.

  * * *

  From: Walter Murch

  Subject: Final Cut Pro

  Date: 6/2/02 10:44 PM

  To: Steve Jobs

  Dear Steve Jobs:

  Greetings, and thanks for all you have done for the world through Apple and Pixar, and most likely many other things I don’t know about, but from which we all have reaped an indirect benefit.

  My name is Walter Murch, and I am a film editor and sound mixer, working mostly in the Bay Area for the last thirty-three years. I started out with Francis Coppola and George Lucas in the early days of American Zoetrope, back in 1969 when we all moved up to SF from LA.

  I am going to be editing “Cold Mountain” for Anthony Minghella, for whom I edited “The English Patient” and “The Talented Mr. Ripley.” The studio is Miramax. The film is based on the best-selling book by Charles Frazier about the closing days of the American Civil War. We start shooting in the middle of July. The film stars Jude Law, Nicole Kidman, Renée Zelwegger, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Donald Sutherland, and will be an expensive, high profile project.

  We intend to use Final Cut as our editing program, and we have had conversations with a company in LA, DigitalFilm Tree, about advising us. They have personal links to people at Apple who were instrumental in the development and promotion of Final Cut, and when initial approaches were made in March of this year, the attitude at Apple was very receptive to the idea of our collaboration, to say the least.

  But last week there was a follow-up phone conference between Ramy Katrib at DFT and Apple. This time around, Apple declined to give us the logistical support that they were enthusiastic about offering a couple of months ago.

  I am still optimistic that this will work out. I have been using Macintoshes in the cutting room since 1986, and “English Patient” was the first digitally-edited film to win an Oscar for editing. My assistant Sean Cullen is very much for it, and extremely knowledgeable about how to make sometimes difficult situations flow easily. Ramy Katrib at DFT is also still enthusiastic. Is there anything that you can do to help us?

  Anthony Minghella is a good friend of Steve Soderbergh’s, and in private conversations (notwithstanding the Soderbergh/Final Cut ads that Apple is currently running) not only was Soderbergh’s advice to Anthony not encouraging, it turns out that he (Soderbergh) will not be using Final Cut on his next film. If we now find that Apple itself won’t offer us support, even in token, it makes it more difficult for me, politically and technically, to move forward with Final Cut Pro on “Cold Mountain.”

  I hope that you will see the advantage to everyone in somehow making this work.

  My sincere good wishes, and thanks for taking the time to read this email, Walter Murch

  * * *

  The following morning, less than eight hours later, Steve Jobs sends a brief email reply to Murch. He writes that someone from the Final Cut Pro team will contact Murch. Jobs then asks Murch why director Steven Soderbergh no longer feels favorable to Final Cut Pro.

  Murch tries to find his own answer to that question. He contacts Sarah Flack and Susan Littenberg, editor and assistant editor, respectively, of Soderbergh’s Full Frontal.

  June 3, 2002, Murch’s Journal

  Talked to Susan Littenberg who assisted Sarah, even though she is an editor herself, and is working on Solaris. They have reservations about FCP, don’t think it is ready for working on features.

  Later that same day, as Steve Jobs promised, an email exchange ensues between Murch and Apple’s top Final Cut Pro product managers, Bill Hudson and Brian Meaney.

  * * *

  Date: Mon, 03 Jun 2002 17:12

  Subject: Final Cut Pro

  From: Bill Hudson

  To: Walter Murch

  CC: Brian Meaney

  Dear Mr. Murch,

  Our friends at Digital Film Tree tell us you are exploring the use of Final Cut Pro for your next movie, “Cold Mountain.” We are flattered that you would consider using our product for this important film and we’d like the opportunity to speak with you so we can fully discuss Final Cut Pro’s capabilities and limitations.

  Let us know how best to reach you.

  Regards,

  Bill

  ------

  Bill Hudson Strategic Accounts Manager

  Professional Applications

  Apple

  * * *

  * * *

  From: Walter Murch

  Subject: FCPro

  Date: 6/4/02 3:40 PM

  To: Bill Hudson

  Dear Bill:

  Good talking to you today. I have passed your email and phone number on to my assistant, Sean Cullen, and he will be contacting you in the next day or so to discuss in more depth the issues that you raised.

  I am excited about the prospect of using Final Cut Pro on Cold Mountain, and particularly excited by the prospect of helping the program evolve to a point where it becomes the standard in the film industry.

  All best wishes,

  Walter Murch

  * * *

  A meeting is set up for June 18 in Berkeley among Murch, Cullen, Hudson, and Meaney to discuss Final Cut Pro and how a working relationship between Cold Mountain and Apple might be structured. A few hours later Murch gets a discouraging follow-up email from Full Frontal assistant editor, Susan Littenberg:

  * * *

  Date: Tue, 04 Jun 2002 18:33

  Subject: Re: Thanks

  From: Susan Littenberg

  To: Walter Murch

  Walter,

  It was an honor to converse with you. A few more points have come to mind that I’d like to share, and possibly coerce you to seriously consider trying FCP on a small project before putting it to the test on a big feature...

  * * *

  Littenberg warns Murch about “real time” rendering of effects in Final Cut Pro, such as dissolves between shots. FCP can easily preview such an effect on a computer screen, but to see it on a TV monitor, or on tape, requires “rendering,” or being saved permanently, which is time-consuming. Since Full Frontal originated on digital video, not film, Littenberg expresses doubt whether FCP can even work in 24 frame-per-second film mode.

  The following day Murch makes a foray to the shop Steve Jobs built. No, not Apple, but his other company—Pixar Animation Studios in Emeryville, California. Jobs bought Pixar from George Lucas in 1986 when it was the computer graphics division of Lucasfilm, Ltd. The success of Toy Story in 1995 put Pixar on the map. Over the following eight years Pixar released A Bug’s Life, Toy Story 2, Monsters, Inc. and Finding Nemo—five blockbusters with an accumulated worldwide box office gross of more than $2.5 billion. And that figure doesn’t include revenue from home video, DVD, or merchandise sales. Pixar combines original storytelling, its highly advanced RenderMan software, smart filmmaking, and voices of the stars to mine an ever-deepening, gold-veined niche in animation. The company is a child of two first cousins: the adventurous, tradition-breaking Bay Area spirit that brought Lucas, Coppola, Murch, and others from Los Angeles to San Francisco in the 1960s, and the entrepreneurial high-tech inventiveness of Silicon Valley, only an hour or so to the south, personified by Apple CEO Steve Jobs.

  The entrance to Pixar Animation Studios, where Murch went to learn more about Final Cut Pro.

  Like a perfect
ly constructed haiku, it’s as inevitable as the seasons that Murch should go to Emeryville so he can run his idea of using Final Cut Pro past two Pixar editors he has known for many years: Torbin Bullock and Robert Grahamjones. After a few email exchanges they invite Murch for lunch and show-and-tell.

  Emeryville had always been a small but puissant blip on the Bay Area map. Even before Pixar arrived, Emeryville was a host for entertainment services, just of a different sort: gambling, card clubs, the Chinese lottery, and the first dog races in the U.S. Its mayors and district attorneys traded places with each other, often with a jail stint in between for extortion, rackets, and other underworld activities.

  Emeryville cleaned up in the 1970s and went straight, using its well-developed political muscle for broader economic benefits. First it courted high-tech companies needing to stretch out beyond the Santa Clara/San Jose area. Then the town sought out biotechnology and software companies such as Chiron and Sybase to locate here. When Pixar outgrew its home in nearby Point Richmond, a similar post-industrial bayside town, Emeryville made Jobs a tax-incentive, development offer he couldn’t refuse. In 1998 Pixar broke ground on a 225,000-square-foot facility, built from scratch on the site of an old Del Monte cannery right across the street from Emeryville’s 1903 Deco-style, copper-domed City Hall.

  Pixar’s two-story building is surrounded by well-kept lawns, and its masonry commingles 515,000 specially made ruby, mojave, coral, brown, and black bricks. The pattern of shapes and colors seems to be random, selected by some imaginative, free-associating bricklayer. One row is set ends out; the next five rows are placed the long-way. But there is a visual code embedded in those walls. Horizontally set bricks are the rectangular shape of digital video pixels, the ones laid square the shape of computer graphics pixels. Squint and you can discern Pixar’s story—computer-generated imagery transfigured into video for all the world to behold.