Can't get the music approved on your production? Let Freque take the drudgery out of choosing music and put the creativity back in.
Music, it can be the biggest pain to choose for a production and burn up valuable editing time whilst searching. I have had clients sitting in an edit suite all morning at £300 per hour deliberating over which music track to use!
So imagine in the case of custom composed music where iterations are being bounced between composer, director and editor: the problems are only compounded.
This is where Freque.io can help, it is an online music try out and approval system that happens all in one window. No versions, no emails, no WeTransfers, no swapping a track and uploading another version to be viewed. We have all had the Master_V3_new_music_NEW_USE_THIS_ONE exports in folders at one time or another!
“Freque is the solution because it combines multiple platforms we currently need to do this job”, says co-founder and CEO Justin Michael La Vallee. “Today filmmakers start with a music playlist for their scene, which is on one platform, then give a shortlist of songs to thier editor who brings them in to an NLE and exports a separate film for every piece of music for preview. These videos end up on yet another platform for review and communication takes place via email, messengers, etc. Freque combines this process into one workflow, in one browser window. An industry first.”
Although this might be targeted at the composer/director/editor 'triangle' we can see it being used in smaller budget productions. A rough cut of a show part could be uploaded and then the director could cycle through tracks working out what fits best and where. This would leave the editor to carry on editing and the director to do the choosing offline, maybe even at home.
In this next video, Justin runs through the process of uploading a cut, the music tracks and then showing how to try them out with the approval process.
Here's the good news. Although Freque will have a modest subscription fee, at the moment it is free to use. In the right situation, this could save a lot of time and speed up the music choice process.
I am the Editor-in-Chief of FCP.co and have run the website since its inception ten years ago.
I have also worked as a broadcast and corporate editor for over 30 years, starting on one inch tape, working through many formats, right up to today's NLEs.
Under the name Idustrial Revolution, I have written and sold plugins for Final Cut Pro for 13 years.
I was made a Freeman of Lichfield through The Worshipful Company of Smiths (established 1601). Though I haven't yet tried to herd a flock of sheep through the city centre!
Current Editing
2020 has been busy, the beginning of the year was finishing off a new property series (cut on FCP) for Channel 4 called The Great House Giveaway. I also designed and built the majority of the graphics as Motion templates. It has been a great success and the shows grabbed more viewers in the 4pm weekday slot than any previous strand. It has been recommissioned by C4 for 60 episodes, including prime-time versions and five themed programmes. The shows have also been nominated for a 2021 BAFTA.
Although both were postponed to later in the year, I worked again on ITV's coverage of the Tour de France and La Vuelta. 2020 was my 25th year of editing the TdF and my 20th year as lead editor. The Tour was the first broadcast show to adopt FCPX working for multiple editors on shared storage.
BBC's Snooker has played a big part in my life, I've been editing tournament coverage since 1997. I'm proud to be part of a very creative team that has pioneered many new ideas and workflows that are now industry standard in sports' production. This is currently an Adobe Premiere edit.
Covid cancelled some of the regular corporate events that I edit such as trade shows & events. I was lucky however to edit, from home, on projects for Amazon Kindle, Amazon Black Friday, Mastercard and very proud to have helped local charitable trust Kendall & Wall secure lottery funding.
As for software, my weapon of choice is Final Cut Pro and Motion, but I also have a good knowledge and broadcast credits with Adobe Premiere Pro, MOGRT design and Photoshop.
Plugin Design & Development
I'm the creative force behind Idustrial Revolution, one of the oldest Final Cut Pro plugin developers. It hosts a range of commercial and free plugins on the site. One free plugin was downloaded over a thousand times within 24 hours of release.
I also take on custom work, whether it is adapting an existing plugin for a special use or designing new plugins for clients from scratch. Having a good knowledge of editing allows me to build-in flexibility and more importantly, usability.
FCP.co
Now in its 10th year and 4th redesign, running FCP.co has given me knowledge on how to run a large CMS- you are currently reading my bio from the database! Although it sounds corny, I am pretty well up on social media trends & techniques, especially in the video sector. The recent Covid restrictions has enabled live FCP.co shows online. This involves managing a Zoom Webinar through Restream.io to YouTube and Facebook.
The Future
I'm always open to new ideas and opportunities, so please get in touch at editor (at) fcp.co. I've judged film competitions, presented workflow techniques to international audiences and come up with ideas for TV shows and software programs!
