What's My Workflow?

Hello Masters of Editorial!

I have a project coming up that was shot in the Ukraine with a PAL Canon XL H1 at 25p HDV. Due to some lens they were using, the images are upside-down. (yeah, I know!) Anyway, this is a project for PBS and there is also a small chance that it may be transferred to film for theatrical release.

So, my question is...what's the best way to tackle this mama?

Any preference or advantage for Avid vs FCP? (I would rather not have to do the on-line finishing on FCP so maybe Avid would be better because it would make for a cleaner transfer to audio and video finish?)

Should the 20-25 PAL tapes be captured straight to hard drive (and work in a PAL project, and wait until after editing to xfer to NTSC) or be transferred to NTSC in 24p DV or HDV and then captured? Is it worth the extra hard drives to capture in HDV? And if I use FCP, should I work in ProRes422 or HDV?

Now, what's the best way to flip the picture right-side up? Can that be done in the PAL to NTSC transfer? If I do it in the edit with a flip fx, I would have to apply it to the raw clips (thereby creating subclips from which I would edit) which makes me concerned about matching back to the actual original clips and also would be an added layer of fx to render.

Lastly, I need to lay off CDs or DVDs of the interviews (which are not in English) to go to a translator. Is there a way to slave the TC onto a CD or DVD when you burn it? Or do we need to rely on just a window burn fx? (I know Avid has that, I'm don't know if FCP does)

I need the master-mind group to help me to avoid a mine-field of problems that are possible to step on in this project.

Thanks in advance,
C=-

Chaz Shukat
Author of "EDITING REALITY"
www.chazmoedit.com