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As part of a screendance project Anamnesis that I am developing with Cormac Lally, David Corbet and Bagryana Popov, we have been attempting to work with Final Cut Pro project files collaboratively and online. We use simple ‘cloud’ technology — a programme called Dropbox — that automatically updates the fcp project files (or any files) remotely as I work on a file locally. It informs the others in the project when the file has been updated, and they are then able to open the project file and view the work I have been doing (and vice versa). In the case of video projects, this is of course all dependent on each of us having copies of the media files (about 300GB of data).
We then use google docs to edit and add to notes about our choices, and possible ideas (which has exposed Final Cut as a poor collaborating choice in that there is no way to add notes, or colour code the timelines).
It has been fascinating developing the project this way — each giving the other ideas to push against, to take on board, to leave behind. The final edit will still be Cormac’s, but in this way we are able to keep abreast of the form-content of the project as we all contribute to its video and audio edit.
