10 little things I don’t like

[Walter Biscardi]

[pol_de_mol] “1. The capture tool is horrible. I want a capture tool with TC display, 16/9 viewing when capturing, an eject button and it should be possible to type when capturing. Also when closing the capture tool and re-open it, the reel sets back to default when in fact the same tape is still in the machine.”

16:9 viewing does happen on my machine when capturing anamorphic or 16:9 material. Are you using the proper setup? You can use the drop down menu to re-set your reel, FCP assumes a new tape is being used each time you go back to L&C, not a big deal, just one click to reset.

[pol_de_mol] “3. Where is the TC display when I play my source footage? I wan’t a TC display (source TC and timeline TC).”

Your source footage in the timeline? You only see that by double clicking the clip into the viewer. Why do you need to know your source TC when it’s in the timeline? I can’t think of ever needing to know that while playing a clip in the timline.

[pol_de_mol] “4. Adding multiple dissolves would be nice (I know there is a workaround but I don’t like it)”

All you do is highlight the section in the timeline and apply your dissolves all at once. This isn’t a workaround, this is the way FCP does it. Not really sure how else you expect FCP to do this because it’s quite easy as it is.

[pol_de_mol] “8. When I set an in and out point and want to delete a section of a clip with a dissolve I get the error message ‘can’t split a transition effect’. I don’t need that, just delete the transition effect with the portion of the clip.”

That I totally agree with. should get a question like “Are you sure you want to remove the transition as well?” and let us say Yes or No, don’t refuse to make the cut.

[pol_de_mol] “9. I would like curves with the color correction tool.”

Look at Silicon Color’s Final Touch color corrector. It is very tightly integrated with Final Cut Pro via XML right now and Apple is working with Silicon Color to make the integration even tighter. It appears that Apple can see the benefit of this third party CC tool because no other NLE has anything close to this and this will essentially become the high end CC tool for FCP. We run Final Touch HD here in the shop.

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
https://www.biscardicreative.com
HD Editorial & Animation for Food Network’s “Good Eats”
HD Editorial for “Assignment Earth”

“I reject your reality and substitute my own!” – Adam Savage, Mythbusters

[David Roth weiss]

[walter biscardi] “Your source footage in the timeline? You only see that by double clicking the clip into the viewer.”

Actually, you can set FCP to display source timecode of all tracks in the canvas, but it only displays when you’re parked, it goes away when playing.

I’d like to see FCP handle this like Discreet Edit, which could be configured to display the souce timecode, record timecode, and duration of every clip in the timeline right on the clips themselves. I think the more information you’ve got the better.

DRW

[Walter Biscardi]

[David Roth Weiss] “I’d like to see FCP handle this like Discreet Edit, which could be configured to display the souce timecode, record timecode, and duration of every clip in the timeline right on the clips themselves. I think the more information you’ve got the better.”

Again, why do you need this information in the timeline? I’ve never had a use for this, even back in the old Media 100 days. Just curious, why do you need source TC in the timeline?

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
https://www.biscardicreative.com
HD Editorial & Animation for Food Network’s “Good Eats”
HD Editorial for “Assignment Earth”

“I reject your reality and substitute my own!” – Adam Savage, Mythbusters

[Ben Broad]

I am a fan of information – I have tc displayed as an overlay in FCP; I have it above the viewer in Avid – very useful. Even more useful would be the ability to use these numbers in computations like in the old Sony 9100.

I’m still a newbie with FCP, however, I’m am surprised no one mentioned having the ability to monitor audio while digitising – it freaks me out not being able to hear what i’m recording. The mac can show me what I’m recording, I would think it is an easy thing to handle audio (even just the meters).

Oh, and could we get a WYSIWYG text tool? Avid’s Type Tool is pretty bad, but it is better than this.

That said, I do like the way you can adjust audio levels while playing a clip.

My 2c worth.

Ben Broad.

[Sean Lander]

I use source TC in the canvas all the time. Here’s and example why. Currently editing a travel show that has a racing element to it. There are several teams. Each team has a crew. All crews at the beginning of the day lock their cameras to time-of-day code. Now when I look at a team in the timeline I can see what time of day it is and go to another team’s clip and look at that same time code to figure out what they were doing at the same time.
Extremely handy. I agree with some of the pet hate. In particular I too hate Log and Capture. I want big track buttons on the main interface that show V1 A1 A2 A3 A4 TC etc. So I never ever have to recapture something because I forgot that either the A or V was off. I want the video on the screen to be able to be switched off if I don’t want it. I too want to be able to type while capturing. I want Final Cut to tell me how long the current clip that I’m capturing is and how much longer there is to go over all.

As for media manager. The solution is simple.
1.FCP must treat sub-clips as if they are one shot sequences. This way you can match back to master clips.
2. When recapturing sequences, sub-clips FCP must only capture the cut material with or without specified handles not ALL the media used to clips. That is just silly.
3. All meta-data must point at: Tape and Timecode not Clip names. Clip names must only be used if Tape and TC do not exist. i.e. Graphics, Animations.
4. When “Consolidating” FCP should be smart enough to know that you don’t need to break a clip in two
if both parts intersect when handles are added.

My two cents. 😉

[John Calhoun]

Audio meters in L&C.

Phantom Marks

Hardware: Lighted Keyboard like MacBook Pro

[Jeremy Garchow]

[pol_de_mol] “3. Where is the TC display when I play my source footage? I wan’t a TC display (source TC and timeline TC).”

https://www.digital-heaven.co.uk/bigtime/

Jeremy

[Jeremy Garchow]

[Ben Broad] “I’m am surprised no one mentioned having the ability to monitor audio while digitising – it freaks me out not being able to hear what i’m recording.”

What do you mean? Why can’t you hear anything? It sounds like something is not set up properly. Do you have a capture card?

[Chris Borjis]

[Ben Broad] “Oh, and could we get a WYSIWYG text tool? Avid’s Type Tool is pretty bad, but it is better than this.”

Have you tried the Boris 3D Titler that comes with FCP 5.x??

It’s WYSIWYG and way better than fcp standard titler.

[David Roth weiss]

[walter biscardi] “Again, why do you need this information in the timeline? I’ve never had a use for this, even back in the old Media 100 days. Just curious, why do you need source TC in the timeline?”

Walter,

This is the very same information displayed in an EDL or on-screen during an online. Very simply, every clip in every project is defined by source-in/out, record-in/out, reel#, and duration, and if, like me, you come from a film background or a linear tape background where these numbers are always right there in front of you, you become quite used to referencing those numbers all the time, especially if you can reference them without having to stop what you’re doing and without having to make any keystrokes. Its ingrained and automatic, I can’t even think of all the times during a typical edit session when I refer to the numbers, but I can tell you that when their not right in front me I miss them greatly.

DRW