In every
major cities in the world, the subway systems are the main essential
transport for the everyday life. Millions of people ride the subways to
work, to play, to school, to everywhere. For the people in Hong
Kong, the MTR is an essential part of our daily life. Carrying an
average of 3.4 million passengers every weekday, the MTR is regarded as
one of the world's leading railways for safety, reliability, customer
service and cost efficiency. Today,
we take the ride into the MTR Headquarters to find out what role Final
Cut Studio 2 take on, to make Hong Kong’s MTR as one of the best in the
world.
Millions of people take the MTR
every day. The network comprises of nine railway lines serving Hong
Kong Island, Kowloon and the New Territories, with the addition of a
Light Rail network serves the local communities of Tuen Mun and Yuen
Long in the New Territories while a fleet of buses provide convenient
feeder services. The MTR Corporation also operates the Airport
Express, a dedicated high-speed link providing the fastest connections
to Hong Kong International Airport and the city's newest exhibition and
conference centre, Asia-World-Expo. From Hong Kong, passengers can
travel with ease to Guangdong Province, Beijing and Shanghai in the
Mainland of China using the MTR's intercity railway services.
To
maintain such high efficiency among thousands of staff at the
same time, a training regiment must be place to keep the wheels well
oiled. This is where our clients come in. We first met staffs from MTR
Corporations when they attended our Apple Certified Final Cut Pro and Motion classes. We later learn that they are from Operations Training Department, Training Support, based in the MTR headquarters.
 
copyright to FATBARS LIMITED 2009
| Recently,
I had the privilege of taking the ride into their headquarters, to take
a peek into their production setup. Continuous ongoing training play an
important role inside
this massive operations. When I reached the Operations Training
Department, Training Support department, I was invited into a full
sound recording studio and a blue screen studio for chroma keying.
It
was explained to me that the chroma key solutions are used because the
person being filmed, cannot be at the location due to technical or time
difficulties. One unique problem was their production shooting hours.
Because MTR stations cannot be blocked or shut down for productions, so
all the shots needed inside the MTR stations are done during 2 am to 5
am, the graveyard shift!
From
training programs to internal video newsletter, live events to the
videos shown in the MTR stations, those productions are mostly done in
this department. Together with Final Cut Studio 2, they also use Maya,
3D Max, After Effects and Avid in their productions. Many of their
ideas for their productions projects comes from print ads first. 3D
animations are often used for visualization when the actual locations
are not completed yet. Final Cut Studio 2 play a big part in their
production as they moved towards a full HD production workflow.
Like
most post productions, they also have to deal with budgets and
deadlines. But they get to see areas of the subway systems that we just
pass by everyday. So the next time you take the train, thanks to all
those training, you get to ride one of the world's best.
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