FEATURES
I Cover the Keyboard
Bruce Franklin's Invention Aids in Practicing Shortcuts
by Lawrence Maddox
 Apple PowerBook G4 with a Final Cut Pro keyboard cover; courtesy of KB Covers. |
I never perfected an invention that I did not think about in terms of the service it might give others,” Thomas Alva Edison once said. “I find out what the world needs, then I proceed to invent.”
Bruce Franklin certainly exemplified this credo when he joined me in editing our first feature using Final Cut Pro. Not only did he help chart what were at the time some unfamiliar waters for both of us, but he also created a keyboard cover that made it easy for us to practice using Final Cut Pro in our spare time. He didn’t know it then, but he had invented a tool that would soon take off and have an amazing life of its own.
Franklin and I had met at an Avid Effects Class being given at Video Symphony in Burbank, California. I was brushing up on my effects skills, taking advantage of a class sponsorship that the Editors Guild was offering. Franklin, who had previously run his own consulting firm, was fulfilling a dream of learning how to edit. He was going through Video Symphony’s certification program, which included hands-on training for not only Avid, but Final Cut Pro as well.
Months after meeting him, I was offered the editing position on Kabluey, a dark comedy starring Lisa Kudrow as an overburdened mother whose husband is fighting in Iraq. Like many independents, its cast of known stars, attracted by the unique script, belied the film’s small budget. To stretch the 35mm production dollars even further, producer Rick Rosenthal decided to edit the film using Final Cut Pro. Though I had been cutting on Avid since 1995, my experience editing on Final Cut Pro was minimal. I knew I would need a good assistant who could help take a Final Cut show through to the negative cut lists, optical lists and beyond. Franklin, who had become a student of Final Cut and was as eager as I was to complete a feature on it, was the obvious choice.
“I had been studying Final Cut Pro with some true experts–– people like Larry Jordan––and I was fascinated by the whole process,” Franklin says. “I’d never assisted before, but I knew I would get help filling in the gaps of my film knowledge. When I was offered the assistant position on Kabluey, I jumped.”
 Bruce Franklin. |
The Film’s modest budget dictated a tight post-production schedule; learning on the job was not an option. We felt we needed to be skillful using Final Cut’s keyboard commands within the first week of dailies. With no time to go to the Guild office and train with Dieter Rozek, and with only an Apple laptop at my disposal, how could I get up to speed and meet the rigors of a tight schedule?
Franklin and I discussed how we could become not just familiar with the Final Cut interface, but proficient with the keyboard commands. Neither of us liked the idea of having to practice on a cumbersome external keyboard. He reasoned that it made sense to develop a light-weight cover that would easily fit over the laptop keyboard. The keyboard cover would be a facsimile of the Final Cut keyboard interface, and each key would have the icon that the Final Cut keyboard has.
Then Franklin’s entrepreneurial spirit took over. Less than a month later, he gave me one of the first prototypes of his Final Cut Pro keyboard cover. It fit snuggly over my PowerBook G4 keyboard. Typing on the keyboard cover surface was no different than actually typing on the keyboard itself. In addition, the cover also protected the keyboard from dust and dirt. The best part was its portability. Unlike a keyboard attachment, you could roll the cover up and stick it in your pocket.
I took it home, practiced nightly and fell in love with it. I used the keyboard cover to run Final Cut on my G4, and was able to practice all the keyboard shortcuts. By the time I was cutting Kabluey’s first dailies, I had a pretty good handle on the keyboard commands, just as if I had been cutting features on it for some time.
 Apple desktop keyboard with a ProTools cover. Courtesy of KB Covers. |
But Franklin didn’t stop there. “Once I saw how this simple idea was so practical, it was clear that the basic concept could be greatly expanded,” the assistant says. By the time we locked picture in October of 2006, Franklin had developed upwards of 40 keyboard cover products for his new company, KB Covers. He now makes keyboard covers for such common post-production mainstays as Avid, ProTools, Photoshop and After Effects, for both desktop and laptop keyboards.
“My experience assisting on Kabluey taught me that in today’s world, editors need to be proficient with many different programs,” Franklin explains. “If you want to go from, say, Avid to After Effects or to Photoshop, then back to Avid, you can simply switch keyboard covers. You don’t have to worry about sticking anything on the keys or using elaborate charts. Keyboard covers make workstations more portable and more adaptable.”
Larry Jordan, Franklin’s first Final Cut instructor at Video Symphony, was impressed with his former student’s invention. “Bruce asked me to look it over in case there were any shortcuts missing, but it was really complete; I only needed to make a few suggestions,” Jordan claims. “As soon as they became available, we added them to our web store, where they quickly became our top sellers. Plus, we now give them away to editors attending our Final Cut Studio seminars.”
Franklin took his keyboard covers to the NAB show in Las Vegas in 2006, where they were a resounding success. “Our booth was consistently busy and we sold out of several different versions.” says Franklin. “This shows that we have developed a product that people not only need, but want.”
While at NAB, Franklin watched Walter Murch, ACE, an early champion of Final Cut Pro, conduct a demonstration at Apple’s booth using an Apple laptop. “Walter was getting slowed down because he had to use the regular laptop keyboard during the demonstration,” Franklin recalls. Abba Shapiro, one of the lead trainers for Apple’s certified training program, was standing by during the demonstration. Abba had one of Franklin’s keyboard covers on his own laptop. “Abba took his cover off and slipped it onto Walter’s keyboard, facilitating the rest of the demonstration,” he says. “I was very proud to see such an honored person like Walter Murch using one of our keyboard covers.”
Editors have always been innovative in the cutting room, adapting the day’s current technologies to their storytelling needs. Sam O’Steen’s portable rewind and Murch’s “invisible” splicer are two of the more famous examples. Franklin’s keyboard covers are in this tradition as well. His solution to our editing problem on Kabluey ended up being a huge solution for many people.
For more information on KB Covers, visit www.kbcovers.com.
Picture Editor Lawrence Maddox is a Guild member, but is not affiliated with KB Covers; he’s only a fan. He can be reached at lawrencemddx@yahoo.com.
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