RED cameras, iMacs and MacBook Pros for editing, three female filmmakers, industry pros as mentors, and Final Cut Pro (10.4) to “glue” the filmed  material into short films, served Apple’s goal: to show the latest version of its NLE.

In Los Angeles on a Saturday morning in November, a crew of 10 students from Hollywood High School, helmed by 17-year-old director Celine Gimpirea, are transforming a corner of the Calgary Cemetery into a movie set. That’s how the story starts, according to the article by writer and editor James Hughes published at Apple Newsroom.

Celine Gimpirea is one of the female filmmakers chosen for this experience. Coincidentally, the two other filmakers are also women, Krista Amigone, a stay-at-home mom and first time editor, and Jean Balest, an instructor with the non-profit group Mobile Film Classroom, which serves to bring filmmaking to underserved youth of LA.

Celine, Krista and Jean are the leaders of each project, a short-film each of them had dreamt about. The month-long filmmaking workshop created the conditions for the teams to work with powerful tools from Apple, RED Raven cameras for shooting, always helped by the Apple Retail experts and with the input of industry pros.

The DIY film community We Make Movies provided post-production supervision to help the filmmakers realize their visions. During the two weeks of post-production, well known figures from the industry were brought onboard to serve as mentors. Valerie Ferris (director of Little Miss Sunshine) and TJ Martin (Oscar award winning director of Undefeated) among others, shared their experience and views. Teams also consulted with Apple Retail Creative Pros during the editing process, using FCPX.

In the end participants revealed that “with this latest update of FCPX, when combined with the RED Raven camera, for the first time really ever, independent filmmakers finally have the tools and workflows to tell truly professional stories that compete, without compromise, with the look and feel of what Hollywood can offer, but at a fraction of the price and complexity that Hollywood currently operates with”.

According to Apple, participants agreed that “The new color and HDR features in FCPX for the first time allow a clean way for filmmakers to approach finishing a movie all in one app without having to learn the traditional extremely complicated and expensive process of turning over a movie for color correction. For the first time, you can shoot, edit, and finish a movie all on your end and have no compromises for how that finished product looks even if you don’t have a large finishing budget. This is a huge thing for small video teams, businesses, and independent filmmakers who have been paying tens of thousands of dollars for high end finishing that can now be accomplished for free in Final Cut Pro X, with its simple, powerful, and easy to use tools.”

They also added that : “If you have an idea that you’re passionate about and are willing to learn your craft… there is now officially nothing stopping you from making the story in your head look as professional as anything Hollywood can do. Apple is giving artists full control over their stories, and opening up a pathway for new voices to be heard as the world of visual storytelling is now fully democratized. Basically, the workflows used on these movies are true game changers for creative artists.”

To read the whole story, follow the link to James Hughes’ article at Apple Newsroom.