a wishlist for FCPx

[Craig Seeman]

Andy, those arrows tell Bruce the Yak which way to enter the screen from.
The camera icon is the direct input from the iSight/FaceTime webcam.
The stars to the right of that connects with Facebook’s like button.
The key unlocks new levels when you complete your first edit on time and on budget.
The next one is the white flag on the computer which is “I quit”
Andy the Cheshire cat is grinning at you. 😉

[Chris Kenny]

Hmm, the document icon there, apparently being used in association with a sequence, is extremely interesting. Combine that with the way the Event Library looks:

Notice the Event Library is rooted on the storage device, with no reference to a specific project file (there’s “Audi”, but the icon makes me think that’s just a collection of footage), and the the Event Library doesn’t list any sequences mixed in with the clips.

Right now the primary “documents” Final Cut Pro works with are project files, i.e. collections of sequences and media. From what I can make out, this is no longer true in FCP X. Rather, sequences are now stand-alone documents (and I think Andy has in fact identified the control for switching between multiple open sequences), your footage lives in a unified library, and projects are no more.

This strikes me as very flexible approach, but cue the hate in 3…2…1…

—
Digital Workflow/Colorist, Nice Dissolve.

You should follow me on Twitter here. Or read What is FCP X’s relationship to iMovie? on our blog.

[Craig Seeman]

[Chris Kenny] “This strikes me as very flexible approach”

Think of were this leads to. You can keyword search for a type of B-Roll content which may be part of another thing you’re working on. Of course this would work best of all your sources remained online . . . or proxies of them did at least. And all this might lead one to think there might be some server management system if this were to be truly valuable. I can’t help but think something like an FCS Server may still be in the mix someway, somehow.

[Paul Dickin]

[Chris Kenny] “…the Event Library is rooted on the storage device, with no reference to a specific project file…”
Hi
As is all the organised metadata.
Does everything – media management, clip timecode and metadata – all get handled at a global (total) level by the OS rather than the application?

(Which sort of is the current FC Server’s methodology, as I understand it).

[Andy Mees]

[Craig Seeman] “The key unlocks new levels when you complete your first edit on time and on budget.”

Ha! I’ll be stuck for ever on level 1 then.

[Andy Mees]

[Chris Kenny] “(there’s “Audi”, but the icon makes me think that’s just a collection of footage)”

What you are calling “a collection of footage” is what Apple calls an “Event” (hence the Event Library) … this same Event icon is used in iMovie ’11.

Question: Whats that little icon up in top left of the filmstrip for the above selected shot (Phantom Ahead) ? It’s not shown on all clips and the icon in the detail view is similar and also reflects the same disparity (not the same as the other “clips” in that list).

It looks a bit like a clip with attached audio as seen in the timeline … I’m thinking it may denote a clip that has linked second sound audio via FCP X’s pluralise type thang (or perhaps some other form of “Merged” clip).

[Chris Kenny]

[Andy Mees] “Question: Whats that little icon up in top left of the filmstrip for the above selected shot (Phantom Ahead) ? It’s not shown on all clips and the icon in the detail view is similar and also reflects the same disparity (not the same as the other “clips” in that list). “

Interesting question. This exercise really makes you realize the extent to which figuring out an interface is an interactive process, difficult to do from static screen shots.

It seems timeline-related. Perhaps it indicates a clip in use in the current sequence?

—
Digital Workflow/Colorist, Nice Dissolve.

You should follow me on Twitter here. Or read Does FCP X make project files obsolete? on our blog.

[Ben Scott]

will be the first to try the new FCPx out, I have to learn it quickly so I can train with it.

what I have listed in this wishlist is what I see as necessary for a product moving forward
If and when these features are implemented is important as getting this new final cut pro to be accepted as not some type of imovie, but instead the product it sounds like it actually is, could be problem.

I need to sell this product to people as much as anyone and if it looks silly it wont be good, I however am not one of the sceptics on the forums, I believe it will be a really great improvement on FCP7.

I cannot see the problems many others are making out from the very sneek preview. In fact I cant see much at the moment because I havent actually used the tool.

Adding a wishlist for software when Apple are clearly putting out feelers for what the appetite is at the moment in the editing community is probably a good thing and I suggest others put sensible wishlists to see if they listen. If they actually paid any attention up until now is another matter, the apple evaluations page to me seems very anonymous and feels a bit like helping by shouting over a wall with no reply.

That FCP7 was a real let down is an understatement, it just fixed things that werent working and should have been fixed long ago. FCP has really only had 3 major developments in my opinion, VS1 and the fact it was made, vs3 where the software worked well with DV decks and introduced colour correction and later developments with XML support and FXplug. We have been waiting quite a long time for this version of final cut pro that actually properly uses the OS, lets hope all the things which work well are kept and that we see some essential new features introduced.