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Events: Good or Bad?
How do people feel about the Event paradigm compared to the “free for all” in FCP7 when it comes to accessing media in a shared environment?
For us it simply gets in the way and adds a layer of complexity when in a large shared environment. The need to virtualize the media via aliases when linking to media is of no benefit.
We require all edit rooms to access all the media on our Xsan. We cannot present media in Events as it locks it away for every other user. This is certainly the opposite of sharing, and having to make and manage copies is untenable.
The only way I see is to use a MAM like CatDV to send media to projects, which of course requires an Event. Essentially we are forced to use Events to support the Project’s media management requirements.
The first step to improve sharing is to share Xsan locations where the first to open the location has read/write and subsequent users have read only. What happens when the “owner” removes the location? Who has write then? It’s a tricky issue and ultimately needs a centralized database to manage.
Apple, and others, confuse sharing projects with concurrent use of media. While one can use media concurrently with FCPX it’s far more complex than FCP7 and needs improvement.
We’ve built a large powerful shared environment and the act of creating a project in FCPX essentially unshares and locks away all the media that project requires.
Thoughts on how Apple can improve project sharing and concurrent use of media?
Thanks
John Heagy -
86 Replies
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It is highly dependent on what you mean by “sharing” and what exactly is you need to do.
There is a lot to like, at least in my opinion. The rest of it still needs work.
The alias system could be great, but it is rather limited as FCPX is bad at sending alias links through the app itself, you have to do that through the Finder, but that also can cause issues.
I do not mind the Event and Project structure, and XML is improving. Sending an Event as an XML is actually ok.
[John Heagy] “We require all edit rooms to access all the media on our Xsan. We cannot present media in Events as it locks it away for every other user. This is certainly the opposite of sharing, and having to make and manage copies is untenable.”
This is why the media needs to sit outside of the Event, and only import an alias. If you are working with more than .mov source material, you will need third party workflow enhancers to help with this, or you convert everything to .mov masters.
[John Heagy] “The first step to improve sharing is to share Xsan locations where the first to open the location has read/write and subsequent users have read only. What happens when the “owner” removes the location? Who has write then? It’s a tricky issue and ultimately needs a centralized database to manage.”
I think the ultimate in flexibility will be to not have one person be able to r/w to a database (and the rest read only, FCPX doesn’t even allow you to mount read only Events) but FCPX should be allowed to have multiple people write to one database, perhaps through a user system. The structure of Events and Projects seems to want to warrant this system, but perhaps that is my optimism getting in the way of the reality of gravity.
[John Heagy] “We’ve built a large powerful shared environment and the act of creating a project in FCPX essentially unshares and locks away all the media that project requires.”
I would be curious as to how multiple users can work on one project in your current environment.
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[Jeremy Garchow] “I would be curious as to how multiple users can work on one project in your current environment.
“We simply duplicate the project file and append the editors initials. No worries about access to media with FCP7.
John
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[John Heagy] “We simply duplicate the project file and append the editors initials. No worries about access to media with FCP7.”
Right, so you never work off of the same project.
The same goes for FCPX.
You can export an XML of the Event, reimport it wherever else you’d like and add the editors initials, or whatever works the best for you.
You can then, using the Finder, move this Event (with aliases) to whatever SAN Location you want OR out it in it’s own folder and mount that as a new SAN Location.
Projects are even more portable.
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[Jeremy Garchow] “You can then…”
That’s my point. In FCP7 there is no “You can then…”
Events for the sole purpose of enabling a project to link to media is complexity with no value.
John
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[John Heagy] “Events for the sole purpose of enabling a project to link to media is complexity with no value.”
I guess it depends on how you look at it. It’s not FCP7 so I don’t treat it as such. Perhaps you are skipping the benefits.
The media management capabilities in FCPX aren’t bad, but they need to work better with aliased media.
If you could do everything that’s capable in FCPX now, but keep the aliases, you wouldn’t even have to leave FCPX. Simply create a new SAN Location, dupe the Event in to that Location with aliases, Remove the Location, then the other person mounts the SAN Location with everything in tact. At that point, they can either transfer the Event to their Location or just keep it where it is.
Easy.
With Events, I can import someone else’s organization and completely start over with my own (or add my own style or whatever), but also leave the original method in place in case someone wants to pickup where they left off.
I simply can’t do that in FCP7 without duplicating all the assets in the FCP7 project as the bin system is so rigid.
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[Jeremy Garchow] “With Events, I can import someone else’s organization and completely start over with my own (or add my own style or whatever)”
That’s a nightmare scenario in an organized shared environment! As I mentioned earlier a MAM is the only way I see us using FCPX and in that case changing the clip metadata in FCPX is pointless. A shared environment means sharing media with consistent metadata. Individual Events where people can rename and add metadata only to be lost when they import the media again from the MAM is waisted effort.
Apple claims that FCPX is all about ease of use. It is for “one man bands” but “facility” shared environments then have to work around all the hand holding with multiple “easy” steps that in the end add no value.
I don’t ever see Apple making it easy/direct for us at the expense of the single user.
John
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[John Heagy] “That’s a nightmare scenario in an organized shared environment! As I mentioned earlier a MAM is the only way I see us using FCPX and in that case changing the clip metadata in FCPX is pointless. A shared environment means sharing media with consistent metadata. Individual Events where people can rename and add metadata only to be lost when they import the media again from the MAM is waisted effort.
Apple claims that FCPX is all about ease of use. It is for “one man bands” but “facility” shared environments then have to work around all the hand holding with multiple “easy” steps that in the end add no value.
I don’t ever see Apple making it easy/direct for us at the expense of the single user.”
Do you need to share project data, event data, or media metadata?
Maybe you need a MAM, maybe you don’t. Do you have one now? How do you handle all of this now?
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Events are intended be a managed media workspace. The design intent was to do exactly what Avid has done with their MediaFiles folders. Apple really, really wants you to import media into the Events folders, but has allowed linked aliases as a concession. This is actually much the same as how Aperture works with media libraries.
– Oliver
Oliver Peters Post Production Services, LLC
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com -
[John Heagy] “How do people feel about the Event paradigm compared to the “free for all” in FCP7 when it comes to accessing media in a shared environment?”
Let’s please start this more accurately…
Hey fellow large scale facilities operators who represent a tiny fraction of the overall editing industry.
We have a crisis at hand in that we only have two of “three A’s” catering to our whims!!!This is unacceptable. We must have ALL the popular editing systems working at top speed to meet our rarified needs.
So let’s try to present a unified public face and shame Apple into working even harder to grow this third tool into something that meets OUR needs over all else.
It’s unthinkable that we’d simply allow it to start simple and small as a superb personal editing tool then grow and mature slowly and thoughtfully (as we allowed the original FCP to do) into something more “facility robust.”
And perish the thought that we just use something else until it meets our needs. Nope, that’s unacceptable. We must question it’s very foundational thinking!
Events? Poppycock. The only people who love Events are the LITTLE people. The Unconnected people. Those bereft of servers and tech support and minions to do their vile bidding. EVENTS are the PROBLEM, don’t cha know? They allow those little people to sort stuff. To organize stuff. To make their editing work easier. Hell, they even use it to PRE-EDIT stuff that then can then REUSE at will. How DARE they!
Stand FIRM oh fellows of the great EDITING HEGEMONY firmly against this blasphemy.
Armageddon is NIGH!!!
(OK, that was fun. Haven’t unfurled the Rant-o-matic with all the Snark attachments in far too long. Now I can finally have a happy holiday and rest till the first of the year. Merry Christmas to the Christians! Happy various celebrations to those who aren’t. And happy New Year to ALL!
Whoops, forgot to answer John’s question.
I f***ing LOVE events. (excuse me, “the Event Paradigm”) And further I think it’s going to re-shape a lot of editing workflows in the future because a dedicated place to pool and access pre-editing work that can be shared across events while staying connected forwards and backwards to asset states ROCKS massively IMO.
FWIW.
Wait…damn. I didn’t get an analogy in, did I? Sorry. Uh, wait a second….ok, here you go…
The Event Browser is mature BINS on steroids with embedded communcations links. Your problem isn’t the EB dude, it’s with the current plumbing and the fact that this new BOILER hasn’t settled on the pipe fittings standards yet and so you can’t bolt it onto your existing building. But some of us know the water is HOT even tho the power requirements are super efficient! The new plumbing is excellent – the few initial drips have been addressed, AND there are increasing attachments and fixtures available so that I can get lots and lots and lots of things heated perfectly – things I never even expected to use my boiler for! It not only provides for killer showers and dishwashing – it steam cleans my floors, cooks perfect tamales, and keeps my BREAD from getting too crusty. It powers my treadmill and after I bought a cheap “steam trumpet” it wakes me with a muted Purcell’s Trumpet Voluntary so sweetly played that I arise day after day with a smile.
I can’t wait to see what they build for it next.
Seriously. The boiler isn’t industrial-sized quite yet, but when it comes to boiler design – I think it’s a keeper.
Just try not to get too upset if you try to bolt it onto a freekin LOCOMOTIVE and it dosn’t work yet. It’s young.
: )
Know someone who teaches video editing in elementary school, high school or college? Tell them to check out http://www.StartEditingNow.com – video editing curriculum complete with licensed practice content.
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[Oliver Peters] “This is actually much the same as how Aperture works with media libraries.”
And how FCP7 projects work.
It’s not a concession, it’s by design.
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