Despite the fact most of us never set foot on French soil (Is Calais French or British soil, I can never remember !) the Tour is great to work on, especially if you like cycling, which I do. Not withstanding the perennial drug stories it is a sports event of grand proportions and the brutal nature of the event always makes for great human stories.
“Oh, you’re doing the Tour de France” they all say “Ah, la belle France. Wine, baguettes and sunshine.” Er, no actually. For the past three years July has seen me on the top floor of Molinare near Carnaby Street in London working with Brian and James Venner, Chris Littleford and Peter Wiggins producing the Tour de France highlights for ITV.
Editing the Tour de France on Final Cut Pro and Xsan in Molinare
At last this year the organisers have recognised the hardwork done by our small band of brothers in Carnaby Street and decided to bring the start of the 2007 Tour to London to makes us feel part of it. About bloody time !
The edit system designed by Peter Wiggins and James Venner is very impressive. In layman’s terms (which is all I can manage) the race is recorded onto a server and we have access to the pictures just about immediately on Final Cut Pro. This makes the tight turnaround just about manageable.
On the left, escaping the edit suite to see the finish in The Mall
