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Are NLEs like bicycles?
This one is for you, Bill.
Step 1. Watch this 8 minute video about learning how to ride bike where the handlebar movement has been reversed (left turns you right, right turns you left).
https://dailyliked.net/backwards-brain-bicycle/
Step 2. Debate (what else?)
Seeing this video made me think of Bill (and others, but mostly Bill) talking about how moving to X can be a struggle for experienced editors but at some point it just clicks and it’s smooth sailing from then on. Until, of course, you have to go back to another NLE and you struggle to reconnect those neural pathways again. One thing I wonder, and he doesn’t address it in the video, is if he alternated riding a normal bike and a backwards bike on a regular basis would he always go through a ‘re-learning’ stage or could riding both bikes become second nature?
-Andrew
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73 Replies
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This is essentially what I’ve been dealing with for the last 12-18 months.
Back when I only ever used one NLE (FCP7) I would look jealously over at the growing capabilities of other NLEs and wish my clients would just move on so that I can play with all the shiny new toys. However, now that this has happened, I find myself jumping from one system to another with each job. FCP 7 for two weeks, then Avid for a month, then premiere for 2 weeks, then back to Avid and so on and so on (no FCPX as of yet since there’s not much call for that here in London as far as I can see, but I’m sure it’s coming). Maybe I’ll get used to this in time but I still find I take at least a morning to get comfortable again, and a couple of days before I’m back in the rhythm, using all the keyboard shortcuts etc.
I find it much more stressful now as when I start with a new client on an NLE I haven’t used in a while, and crucially when I’ve just been using another one for a long period, I find that on top of taking on board the demands of the new job, I’m rewiring my brain to their NLE and feeling frustrated that I’m not as fast as I was on whatever I was using last week. Particularly if it’s a new client, I worry that I might look inexperienced.
So far so good tough, and none of this is the end of the world, it’s just another little stress to add to the many that already exist in the life of a freelancer. On the plus side I’m pretty sure all this mental gymnastics is going to help stave off dementia for a while longer at least…
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I felt this way when migrating from Avid to FCP 3 (still have the software). In a couple of afternoon sessions, got the hang of it. When the new version came out, short circuit in the brain felt real, this one took more time to master. Where did the tracks go? Why does it move clips up or down the timeline the way it does? Is this thing possessed?
A bigger challenge was trying to find out what events, projects and libraries were, even trying to figure how they work together. Previous versions, concept was simple. Top of the food chain was a project which had sequences made up of clips. That knowledge made learning FCP 3 easy, just learning a slightly different interface. That was no so cut and dry when X came into existence.
Things changed after watching various videos, it began to click. The challenge is explaining how everything works to someone using a traditional tracked based editor. Even more fun is patching and assigning tracks if you not have done that in awhile.
That video was spot on, new perspective on things now. I want to try that bike out, but with three wheels. At least I won’t be tumbling over every couple of feet.
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Andrew,
What a great video! Thanks for sharing.
This video has to be the absolute best explanation of why we’ve all been arguing about FCP-X since it’s debut years ago. The “backwards steering” bicycle experiment proves that when we’re hardwired to perform something it’s VERY difficult to change that. I’d take it a step further and ask the question, is a “backwards steering bike” a BETTER bicycle? I don’t see any proof of that. Different, yes. Better… the experimenter never says. THAT’S what counts for most people. If you can show me that it’s worth relearning all of my motor skills, then I’ll do it. If at the end of the day,. all I’m doing is batting left handed instead of righty, then what’s the point.
Oh, and as for Bill… he doesn’t ride a bike. That’s so ’80’s (1880!) He rides a hover skateboard like Michael J. Fox in Back to the Future!
Mark
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The bike analogy was less impressive to those of us that fly model airplanes, because making it turn the right direction is a problem that changes from moment to moment, depending on if the plane is coming towards you or going away. Though right and left stick are the same when you’re flying inverted.
Similarly, sailboats that use a tiller teach you to push left to get right rudder.
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[Andrew Kimery] ” alternated riding a normal bike and a backwards bike on a regular basis would he always go through a ‘re-learning’ stage or could riding both bikes become second nature?”
It’s second nature.
I literally do the NLE analog of this every day. I cut stuff in 7 and Pr and X concurrently. X because I prefer it, 7 and/or Pr to more easily swap sequences with other folks here who are clinging to 7. That’s right, I said clinging. 😉 I’m still looking for a good reason to cut in MC, which I own, but it’s not my fave and nobody here uses uses it so I’m neglecting that one…
Seriously, I’ll cut different spots in a couple NLE’s and CMD-TAB from one to another. Sure, there’s the occasional KB shortcut mixup, but it’s really no big deal.
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~ My FCPX Babbling blog ~
~”It is a poor craftsman who blames his tools.”~
~”The function you just attempted is not yet implemented”~ -
[Mark Suszko] “Similarly, sailboats that use a tiller teach you to push left to get right rudder.”
Same with riding a motorcycle (and a bicycle actually), push right, turn left and vice-versa…
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~ My FCPX Babbling blog ~
~”It is a poor craftsman who blames his tools.”~
~”The function you just attempted is not yet implemented”~ -
[Charlie Austin] “Seriously, I’ll cut different spots in a couple NLE’s and CMD-TAB from one to another. Sure, there’s the occasional KB shortcut mixup, but it’s really no big deal.”
I’m not sure how that could be true.
https://vimeo.com/user1590967/videos http://www.ogallchoir.net promo producer/editor.grading/motion graphics
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Bicycles work the same way as motorcycles as long as you are above about 13mph in speed. Its called Countersteering ..
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Fascinating video, thank you Andrew.
With regards to FCPX, I think the reason many editors (myself included) find the transition difficult is because it involves more that just re-adapting muscle memory. If it were just a matter of learning new keystrokes, it would be easy.
But FCPX also requires learning a unfamiliar and inconsistent object behavior model in the timeline. To use FCPX well, an editor needs to understand not just how to place objects in the timeline space, but also the hierarchical relationships between the objects, as well as between objects and containers, and between the containers themselves. In essence, the editor needs to internalize the FCPX timeline data model, in order to get good at using it.
Clearly, many editors willing to make the effort are happy with their efficiency after they get to that point. But speaking as someone who’s never considered “clip collisions” a problem, for me, the magnetic timeline is still a backwards steering bike. 😉
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[Mark Suszko] “The bike analogy was less impressive to those of us that fly model airplanes, because making it turn the right direction is a problem that changes from moment to moment”
Mark, I will now compare this to the “learning fresh” vs “re-learning” from another format.
My Dad flew free-flight models as a kid. No controls, just set the control surfaces and launch it. Then go find it where it lands.
He became a fixed-wing pilot as an adult, Cessnas, Pipers etc.
THEN when he retired, he took up R/C (radio control) models. It was the hardest thing to learn to use the joysticks, because as you note, when the plane turns and comes back toward you, right becomes left, left becomes right. In an instant. The skill is similar to using a geared Worrell tripod head on a big studio camera. (You practice the constant reversing of directions by doing figure eights or following the second hand of a big clock.)
The other guys in the model club, who had never flown, had a much easier time learning the skill. He had to “unlearn” he actual piloting to master this odd earth-bound skill. He crashed a few models doing so!
Doug D
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