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Effects and the Modern Age
Let’s say I import long interview for a documentary. FCPX wants me to use the new keywords system in the Event Viewer to go through and break this clip down into folders for each topic the interview covers.
Then, I do this same process for several more long interviews. I now have all the talking heads cut into hundreds of shards and grouped together into smart folders for each chapter of the doc.
That’s great, the problem is, FCPX won’t let me color correct any clips until they are in the storyline.
This means I have to hunt through the storyline and manually locate every little clip of a given individual and apply the effect. Then do this for each person!
Isn’t it easier to apply effects to the original long clips before slicing them up so the effects are applied to all of the smaller cuts. Am I missing a better workflow?
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15 Replies
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One way to try, which I haven’t tested properly….
Select your long source clip, ctrl+click and select “open in timeline”
Now apply your color correction or any necessary tweaks.
I believe as soon as you do this it turns your source clip into a compound clip.
Perhaps making a duplicate of your source clip first so that you have a “non compound clip” version to fall back to.
Keyword away.
Cheers,
Brendan
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of course different for everyone, but usually one would color correct once picture is locked. Then you only correct the shots used , can get a better idea of an overall grade for all the clips etc. Not to mention, you wont have anything to render wether it be in the background (which doesnt work till you stop anyways) so therefore the NLE and your computer can work more efficiently .
Neil Goodman: Editor of New Media Production – NBC/Universal
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I’ll have to try dropping the source clip into the storyline as a compound clip and then tweaking and using that version to slice up in the Event Browser.
NEIL: I know a lot of post workflows have the color correction done after picture lock. Most of my projects involve basic studio interviews cut into a doc with simple photos overlayed. We rarely even add b-roll or other dynamic motion shots. Oral history docs essentially.
In FCP 7 we always colored the source clips before cutting. What is the best way in FCPX to efficiently add a color correction across scattered clips in the storyline? I’m guessing the power of the meta-tags in X should provide a fun way to isolate clips.
I know you can copy/paste effects via OPTION-COMMAND-C, it’s isolating all of the children of a source parent that is rough.
Oh, and the “Match Color” feature is completely useless, is this working for anyone? A cool concept if it can be refined.
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[Ethan Young] “Oh, and the “Match Color” feature is completely useless, is this working for anyone? A cool concept if it can be refined.”
I find it works OK, but I just wish that the “match colour” function would put settings into the color board so that we are able to refine it to our own liking. Instead of us having to add a correction on top of that to tweak it.
It’s one of those demo features that has the “wow” factor. But I find you can’t beat the satisfaction of doing your own grade by “hand” though.
Oh and while we are there, being able to reset individual parameters in the color board would make a huge difference.
We are all earning our apple “beta badge” anyway 😉
Cheers,
Brendan
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[Ethan Young] “Oh, and the “Match Color” feature is completely useless, is this working for anyone? A cool concept if it can be refined.”
Colorist (one time Apple Color user moving to Resolve) Patrick Inhoffer wrote a review of FCPX color features. In the comments section you’ll find a “Mr. Bad Back’s” comments on Match Color
https://www.taoofcolor.com/510/final-cut-pro-x-merged-with-apple-color/ -
You can use the FIND command, and the clips from the same interview probably have the same clip name. Highlight them all, and paste attributes.
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David Chai
Writer . Director
http://www.davidchai.com
dc@davidchai.com
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Open in Timeline
select video clip
In Inspector open Color Board.
Correction impacts clip in Event Viewer.Note that in my testing if you open the clip from the Event Browser in the Timeline again and change the grade, it has no impact on clips coming from the Event Browser clip already in a Timeline. That clip will retain the original grade.
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[Brendan Gibbons] “Oh and while we are there, being able to reset individual parameters in the color board would make a huge difference.
“You can reset an individual parameter by hitting the delete key with its control selected. Yeah, I know, not exactly the first thing I tried either. But it is in the docs.
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Digital Workflow/Colorist, Nice Dissolve.You should follow me on Twitter here. Or read our blog.
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Nice tip, thanks.
There are a few not so obvious things about X aren’t there.
Cheers,
Brendan
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BINGO! Great tip and a confirmation that we are just seeing the tip of the iceberg with the potential of meta-tags in X. This sort of selective access is a game changer. I was able to drill down to the specific clips of say, a single interview, isolate all instances in the storyline and simply past effect attributes wholesale.
Match Color remains a loose canon. More often than not it turns my subjects into Smurfs or HellBoy and like Brendan says, the changes it makes are not reflected in the color board settings to be able to pull back. Hopefully Apple will fix that.
“You can reset an individual parameter by hitting the delete key with its control selected. Yeah, I know, not exactly the first thing I tried either. But it is in the docs.”
As it turns out, a lot of very handy features are tucked away in FCPX that people don’t seem to be aware of. Someone should put together a video tutorial showing the top 25 tips no one knows about. Couple that with some version upgrades on the horizon and FCPX will be the real deal.
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