FCP X and Premiere Pro CS

[Chris Conlee]

Yes, we use Media Composer, in a shared environment with 3 editors and 3 assistant editors. We have anywhere from 250 to 1000 VFX shots per episode. They get pulled and counts are delivered to our VFX vendor as EDLs, one per layer for multi-layered effects. They are then returned to us with 12 frame handles. The show is fluid and often-times changes are made to the cut between the time the counts are delivered to the vendors and when they return, so we can’t count on always having the same amount of handle on each shot (ie, sometimes a shot has been trimmed, meaning we now have more handle, and sometimes they’ve been rolled out a bit, meaning we have less handle).

Because of this, we find an easily identifiable piece of action within the shot: perhaps somebody’s hand crossing a particular object, etc. Then we find the same frame in the delivered VFX shot and simply press “Replace Edit” to replace the shot on the timeline with the shot in our source window (the matching frame serves as the anchor point). If we didn’t have a “replace edit” function we would be forced to always match to the first frame in the shot, which isn’t always a good candidate for eye-matching.

Also, we don’t actually replace the existing shot, we place it on a video layer above the original dailies take, so we can always compare. Each successive version gets stacked one track higher, because sometimes the producers want to go to an earlier version.

Media Composer makes this easy too, by simply putting your locator bar over the shot in question and pressing “t” it will set an in and an out for the shot, then you can simply arm the track above and use the same “replace edit” key. Because Media Composer treats empty track like media (ie: slug or leader) it will happily “replace” the empty track with the new VFX shot.

I’ve also written a small app to automatically name locators on the MC timeline and create a SubCap file so we can also get visual identifiers for each VFX on the timeline. If anybody is interested in that app for Media Composer, you can get it for free here:

https://www.chrisconlee.com/Loc2VFX.htm

Chris

[Charlie Austin]

[Chris Conlee] “Media Composer makes this easy too, by simply putting your locator bar over the shot in question and pressing “t” it will set an in and an out for the shot, then you can simply arm the track above and use the same “replace edit” key. Because Media Composer treats empty track like media (ie: slug or leader) it will happily “replace” the empty track with the new VFX shot.”

“Also, we don’t actually replace the existing shot, we place it on a video layer above the original dailies take, so we can always compare. Each successive version gets stacked one track higher, because sometimes the producers want to go to an earlier version.”

Actually, Auditions in FCP X would be a really nice, clean way to do this… Using “Replace and add to Audition” you could keep every revision to each VFX shot in the timeline if you wanted to, with no piling up of layers, and easily flip between/review them, until you’re done with the cut.

Well, except for the fact that there’s no Match Frame Replace edit available. :-/

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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”~

[Andy Neil]

Thanks for the locator app. Very cool. I’m amazed that there are so many VFX shots in a tv series. Considering there are less than 500 in The Matrix and you’re breaking that practically every week. The VFX guys must be chained to their Flames.

Andy

https://www.timesavertutorials.com

[Chris Conlee]

Yes, I think we’re probably setting a record of some sort. The show uses virtual sets quite a lot, so in many scenes EVERY shot is a VFX shot. Then we have the usual CG specialty shots, wire removals, 3d creatures, you name it. Our vendor is definitely cranking ’em out, with as few as 15 days to get an episode’s FX delivered!

We work for a couple months before the season’s shows starts airing, getting the FX in the pipeline. But it definitely gets hairy once in a while. Lots of 80 and 90 hour weeks at the beginning and the end of the season.

Chris

[Brett Sherman]

Moving a clip with audio and video from one part of the timeline to another where there is an audio track already there.

Lengthening an video clip puts a gap in your music track because you have an edit in it. So do you trim the audio and video together or do you trim the video then cut the gap you’ve created out.

Or worse, you try to shorten your video clip by trimming it, but you can’t because two audio clips that abut each other won’t let you.

There are always these sort of problems to solve when your trimming. Yes, there are ways to solve them. The same is true with FCP X. There are always solutions.

[Chris Conlee]

Okay, I guess it’s just a case of differences in perception. I don’t necessarily see those situations as “conundrums,” but as “editing.” The nice thing about Media Composer is that it has wonderful asynchronous trimming, so you can decide in advance which side of abutted clips you want to trim and how to deal with music beds under video clips, etc. There will, of course, be times when you have to clean up the results of an edit, but because every edit is unique, I don’t know how a software package could know what I want to do in all instances. I’d rather be the one in control, I guess.

Chris

[Brett Sherman]

[Chris Conlee] ” I don’t know how a software package could know what I want to do in all instances. I’d rather be the one in control, I guess.
“

I think that’s my point. No software eliminates these things. I think it’s wrong to presume that FCP X doesn’t let you control things. The particular user interface motions may be different but both Avid and FCP X sometimes require multiple actions to make the edit you want. By the way, I edited with Avid for about 8 years.

[Simon Ubsdell]

[Charlie Austin] “They need to update the definition, and turn the damn thing on! (which is what i just wrote in the feedback form)”

One does have to wonder, after all this time of not turning it on, whether it’s really just a matter of flicking the switch on an already developed feature.

I’d really have to think that there are some fundamental design problems that have prevented them from implementing this up to this point.

Which, if true, would be interesting …

Simon Ubsdell
http://www.tokyo-uk.com

[Charlie Austin]

[Simon Ubsdell] “I’d really have to think that there are some fundamental design problems that have prevented them from implementing this up to this point.

Which, if true, would be interesting …
“

That’s probably correct… It seems like every “clip” in X, source or timeline, has to have a defined range. I think that’s why you need to create storylines from connected clips to add transitions. 2 single ranges join to become a single range. I dunno…

So in the current replace from end or start, there’s a target timeline clip range – even if you only select an I or O point the range gets completed to the tail or head , and a source clip range. And the first or last frame of each clips range is the “anchor” when replacing. But it seems there’s some voodoo required if you want the playhead to be the anchor… They’ll figure it out, hopefully soon…

On a related note, Don’t know why I didn’t think of this, but I just realized that there’s a dedicated Motion feedback page as well, so I’m bombarding that with Keyer feedback. 🙂

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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”~

[Chris Harlan]

[Steve Connor] “I know, it’s terrible, without tracks I can’t deliver anything? If only FCPX had tracks I could finally join the “real world”
“

Glad you finally see it!