FCP X and film editing

[Oliver Peters]

[Jeremy Garchow] ”
You can certainly set up the footage and timeline stacked on top of each other, but the programs don’t operate like each other.”

Your image shows the event in a icon view and you talked about playing through them and having that be displayed on your video monitor. Media Composer has had such a feature since the original 7.0 days – over a decade ago.

[Jeremy Garchow] “I can easily skim through all of the footage and since the window is so big I have a very visual and tactile relationship to the footage, I can also mark favorites or ranges and then sort the Browser by those ranges with more keystrokes. It find it easy and creative.”

Agreed.

One feature though that no one can touch (yet) is Avid’s ScriptSync. Granted, I don’t use it, but editors that do, swear by it. One key sortable idea – adapted from the Ediflex Script Mimic routine – is to highlight a line in the on-screen script and have the software play through each take for coverage at that line, thus comparing one after the other automatically.

– Oliver

Oliver Peters Post Production Services, LLC
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com

[Jeremy Garchow]

[Oliver Peters] “Your image shows the event in a icon view and you talked about playing through them and having that be displayed on your video monitor. Media Composer has had such a feature since the original 7.0 days – over a decade ago.”

It’s not the act of playing back footage on a monitor, it is the way you can use the footage in the Browser, add it to the timeline with no patching, make a few selections and sort by those selections in the Browser, and then go back to the main footage with a keystroke without having to arrange new panels/windows/bins.

It’s the whole package, not just one element, that separates this process from other NLE’s, at least in my experiences with it, and of course, my opinion.

[Oliver Peters] “One feature though that no one can touch (yet) is Avid’s ScriptSync. Granted, I don’t use it, but editors that do, swear by it. “

Yes, that would be a very nice feature. Although, on my last script based piece I edited with FCPX, I didn’t have (or need) the pieces to be synced to a script, but the use of Auditions to stack and relate different takes became a very useful tool in the supervised edit sessions.

With the combination of something like script sync, it would be pretty sweet.

[Misha Aranyshev]

[Richard Herd] “for your consideration: Events=Dailies.”

The similarity is superficial. When editing I don’t care about the date and time the footage was shot. I care about the scene number. And all FCPX metadata automagic is totally useless here.

When preparing for editing I do care about the date and time the footage was shot but for the single purpose: match picture takes with sound takes. And all FCPX metadata automagic is totally useless here again.