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Ever seen a 40 feet-long timeline?
One of the most interesting presentations I saw at the FCPXWorld Tour event during IBC was the one from the award-winning British/Finnish editor Ben Mercer.
Besides being one of Europe’s most sought-after editors with almost two decades of work for numerous directors and production companies covering cinema, TV and advertising, Ben is a wonderful person, a great presenter and a good friend. And what I like most about him: he does not talk about technical stuff but rather focuses on the art of storytelling. No mater what NLE you prefer, I think you will like this:
It’s a short presentation (10 minutes), but I have also added the much longer sessions I did with him at IBC 2016 and Barcelona 2017 if you want to see more about his vision on editing fiction.
– Ronny
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10 Replies
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Very nice, thanks for posting Ronny
\”Traditional NLEs have timelines. FCPX has storylines\” W.Soyka
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Hi Ronny,
thanks for sharing.
The IBC 2016 interview was great indeed.
But after that public interview there was another recorded interview with Ben at the opposite side of the room, and it was an absolute inspiration. I was on my way out but I just stood there until the interview was over. I was told that it will be published on the net but I must have missed it.
Do you happen to know anything about it?thanks,
Peter -
Hi Peter,
Yes, that footage will be used in a movie that is currently being finished. I will keep you posted.
– Ronny
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Thanks for the link, Ronny. I only watched the 10min video, but I think it’s one of the best and most concise examples of how and why X can work that I’ve ever seen. I’ll have to check out the other videos when I get more time.
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Thank you, Andrew.
The IBC 2016 video is a 40 minute interview-style presentation where he also talks about his work on ‘Rebellion’, a 20 million dollar drama tv-series he cut for Irish national broadcaster RTE, the Sundance Channel and Netflix.
The 20-minute Barcelona 2016 video is a more detailed version of his thoughts about visual storytelling. This one was recorded at the renowned Blanquerna Film School, for an audience of 250 film and television professionals.
– Ronny
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[Ronny Courtens] “Hi Peter,
Yes, that footage will be used in a movie that is currently being finished. I will keep you posted.
– Ronny”
Thanks Ronny, looking forward.
Peter
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It is very impressive to see these expert editors use FCPX efficiently and with so much power, especially without invoking the sometimes tiresome argument as to whether it is better than PP or AVID. On the other hand, it illustrates how little of the power of FCPX, I use at the moment. Very inspirational.
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Very enjoyable presentations.
– Oliver
Oliver Peters – oliverpeters.com
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One of the best presentations I have seen to date on X.
Mercer is talented, brilliant and funny.
It’s rare to see some one point out the importance of organization this strongly.
When he said “There’s nothing more unsexy than talking about organization” he’s right. It’s boring but so important.How can you achieve your best work if you leave some of the best footage on the cutting room floor.
When he made the point about the actor raising an eyebrow in a scene and then says, “but where is it?” the audience laughs because they know the feeling. Looking for stuff is a pain and slows down the process.
It didn’t matter how much footage was thrown at him and how fast. He knew it all and could get to it super fast.
One of the many things I like about X is there are multiple ways to do multiple things. He took advantage of all the organizational tools in X and made some points that hadn’t occurred to me.
I could have listened to him all day.
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These are great presentations.
I also enjoyed this presentation from the same event, as I think it does a really good job of showing the speed and power of X, in a truncated way to fit a demo. I think it goes a long way to show people that have never used X some of the capabilities of the software.
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