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Why I am angry.
I originally posted this in response to a bit about the magnetic timeline, I’m reposting it in the vague prayerful hope that someone from apple checks the forums and that they will grok the scale of the problem with what Randy has done to the editing system.
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my two cent on the magnetic timeline – the position tool is not an annulment of the magnetic timeline. FCPX can have no gaps – you can hold a modifier and – horror of horrors – allow a clip to traverse the timeline and impact on other clips – this is not clip behaviour – the magnetic timeline is permanent.
moronically, if you move a clip using the position tool, the gap will not be allowed to exist – a slug will appear. That is stupid. if I need to perceive what is going to, or should happen in a space, i cannot simply slide the next three or four clips down the track, leave a breather, and begin to place clips into the black, trying to consider in my mind the number and type of shots I feel should be there.
Personally I find this the most galling point, more so than the immediate attachment of V2 clips to V1 – Randy, the overweening idiot, has chosen to remove the space for me to calmly place and slide my clips around in the as yet unexpressed parts of my edit – particularly in short form, in emotive pieces where what happens over two seconds of a vo punch and a music crescendo, where what happens there is critical and I don’t yet know what it is, to have clips re-arrange, or when temporarily halted by the position tool, to have moronic slugs appear for no reason, angers me on a fundamental level and I will tell you why – in those moments, I am not an adherent to FCP, I believe that that stuff, the stuff that space is allowing me, is the basis of editing.
Apple, in their engorged moronic hubris chose to screw with the most basic conceptual precepts of editing. We cant even see the clip and the target at the same time.As Walter Murch (may buddha shine on his soul) pretty brilliantly outlines, editing is kind of in us. It’s in the way we blink, when we pan and perceive a room, it was in us, before there were tools to synthesise it. The tools created to this point have been fairly sensitive to basic requirements.
That apple would see fit to screw with our basic creative pathways, that they would merrily lobotomise the tools we reach for when trying to express an edit, simply in order to make a fast buck from a 720p iphone user, is annoying in the order of loud blackboard scraping mindbogglingly annoying.
http://www.ogallchoir.net
promo producer/editor.grading/motion graphics -
22 Replies
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You hit it.
I don’t feel like an editor in this timeline. I feel like a monkey. I don’t want to be a monkey. I want to work how I want…I’ve only been doing this for 10 years, but I kinda thought that was usually all an editor needed…customization and control.
I’m surprised to see even one editor defend this wretched “timeline”. After 3 days with it. I want to punch it in the face. And punch myself for pounding away at it listening to a lot in the “timeline” defense crowd saying how much I’ll love it and I just don’t get it yet…
I got it, I don’t like it. But, what surprised me here the most, I really really don’t like it. It’s wretched. It’s a shame though, I wanted to…
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[Aindreas Gallagher] “moronically, if you move a clip using the position tool, the gap will not be allowed to exist – a slug will appear. That is stupid. if I need to perceive what is going to, or should happen in a space, i cannot simply slide the next three or four clips down the track, leave a breather, and begin to place clips into the black, trying to consider in my mind the number and type of shots I feel should be there.”
How does the slug that appears in a gap prevent you from doing this? IMO this ‘gap slug’ behavior is a very nice feature, because it allows gaps to be treated like normal clips. Want to delete one? You don’t have to just a special ‘close gap’ command; just delete it like any other clip. Want to extend one? You don’t have to switch tools, select every clip that follows it on the timeline, and drag them all further back. Just drag it out to be longer like any other clip, and everything else ripples.
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Digital Workflow/Colorist, Nice Dissolve.You should follow me on Twitter here. Or read our blog.
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Oh no – I’m not going down to crazy town with you again Chris – we’re doing enough of that below. I’ve stated my thoughts above, they are my own.
http://www.ogallchoir.net
promo producer/editor.grading/motion graphics -
[Aindreas Gallagher] “Oh no – I’m not going down to crazy town with you again Chris – we’re doing enough of that below. I’ve stated my thoughts above, they are my own.”
You claim the new gap behavior makes it harder for you to edit. But as far as I can see, it’s easier to insert gaps, easier to delete them, and easier to change their lengths. And insert/overwrite operations work the same with gaps in FCP X as they did with gaps in FCP 7.
And now you’re not willing to explain what you were talking about.
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Digital Workflow/Colorist, Nice Dissolve.You should follow me on Twitter here. Or read our blog.
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Like it, or don’t like it. You should be able to de-activate it when you want to. There’s no reason that a magnetic behavior could not exist in a traditional timeline structure. This would make everyone happy.
This is the main reason the Avid was so popular when it first revolutionized editing. It had all the old-school concepts available, but also had some interesting new ways to do things. Compared to other things on the market at the time (Matrox Video Cube, Media 100, etc), it had a ton of options. When first learning it, I remember thinking “This is so frustrating, there are a dozen different ways to do the same thing.” After about a week of editing on one, I remember thinking, “This is awesome, there are a dozen ways to do the same thing.”
Isn’t that the ultimate goal of good software? To be flexible enough to make it useful and enjoyable for your user, regardless of how that user is wired? Photoshop has been around for 20+ years because its creators fully embrace that concept.
Professor, Producer, Editor
and former Apple Employee -
Chris baby, if apple introduced a feature where they delivered 50 volt shocks every 90 minutes through the keyboard, I strongly suspect you would be telling me how it is essential to keeping the editor alert on the longer edit sessions. I”m afraid I’m not actually engaging with you on this post – I’ve made my thoughts clear above, my thoughts are my own.
Famous Quote from Ben Franklin:
“Randy Ubillos, you total ass, FCP7 wasn’t a multitrack editor, editing is a multitrack operation, editing systems are intended to be an expression of that truth.”http://www.ogallchoir.net
promo producer/editor.grading/motion graphics -
[Aindreas Gallagher] “I’ve made my thoughts clear above, my thoughts are my own.”
You’ve said the way FCP X handles gaps interferes with the way you edit, but you haven’t explained how, given that insert/overwrite operations on top of sequence gaps in FCP X work the same way in FCP X as they do in FCP 7.
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Digital Workflow/Colorist, Nice Dissolve.You should follow me on Twitter here. Or read our blog.
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[Chris Jacek] “Like it, or don’t like it. You should be able to de-activate it when you want to. There’s no reason that a magnetic behavior could not exist in a traditional timeline structure. This would make everyone happy. “
As has been pointed out repeatedly, use the Position tool.
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Digital Workflow/Colorist, Nice Dissolve.You should follow me on Twitter here. Or read our blog.
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Also – there’s no need to switch tools to disassociate (demagnetize) a clip or group of clips from the rest of the timeline assets. Try using the < or > keys after making a selection. It works pretty well …
-paul.
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Try using the < or > keys after making a selection. It works pretty well …
Paul,
That is entirely to simple. I mean why not push Command,alt,option,plus 5 instead? Effiencency is not a widely held concept in this forum. Actually they should have released foot pedals with Final Cut X as well. A hardware solution to compliment the complexity that old schoolers are looking for.“Get on the bus or get run over by it.” Love that quote.
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