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FCP X and the Future of Editing
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[Bill Davis] “At the design stage, EVER narrowing is an elimination. How can you assess whether your core list of “needs” is proper if you’re starting out with the very group for whom “core needs” are the MOST rigidly pre-defined?”
If you are making a product, any product, that’s primarily geared towards consumers or infrequent users you should study that demographic. If you are making a product that’s primarily geared towards an established/frequent user base with established goals you should study that user base. The core needs for both will not be the same.
IMO step one to offering something new to someone is to completely understand each step of their existing process. If you don’t examine and totally understand why things are the way they are before changing things you are being disruptive just for the sake of being disruptive. I’ve built, modified, and in some cases, totally blown up workflows at a number of companies/shows over the years but my first step is always to embrace the existing workflow and understand why and how it works for them. Sometimes what looks useless at the onset is actually pivotal once you understand how the whole process works in concert.
[Bill Davis] “How can you expect to find insight when you only talk to people who have been largely doing the same things in the same way for 50 years?”
So post production workflows and tools in 2012 are pretty much the same as they were in the ’60s?
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[Walter Soyka] “The more I think about it, the more I’m surprised by the Apple 10.0.6 PIOP implementation. Of all the features to bow to pressure on, why did they pick this?”
It was a valiant attempt to save valuable internet bandwidth by stopping the interminable discussions on here about PIOPs, sadly it seems to have failed.
Steve Connor
‘It’s just my opinion, with an occasional fact thrown in for good measure” -
[Andy Neil] “I’m just trying to figure out why so many people are irate about the new behavior.”
I’m not sure it’s so many, as far as I can see it’s only two or three people on here that actually use FCPX are annoyed about it.
Steve Connor
‘It’s just my opinion, with an occasional fact thrown in for good measure” -
[Andy Neil] “I’m just trying to figure out why so many people are irate about the new behavior.”
Because it broke something good about fcpx.
Start here, and watch the thread devolve:
https://forums.creativecow.net/readpost/335/43876
Here’s an earlier thread after I had a chance to mess around for a while:
https://forums.creativecow.net/readpost/335/42991
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[David Lawrence] “But remember, In and Out marks don’t have to be used together. We’re talking about In and/OR Outs. Editors commonly use In and/or Out marks separately, simply as markers with no intention of setting a range?”
So why use an IOP instead of a marker?
Defining a range prepares you for the next operation, whatever it is.
[David Lawrence] “Yes, but in a three-point edit, only one side of the edit is a range. The other is marked. The marked side doesn’t care about extents. It’s irrelevant. The editor needs to be able to mark this transition point and shouldn’t be forced to use a range selection tool to do it.”
In a three-point edit, the range of the one-point clip is defined by the duration of the two-point clip.
FCPX handles three-point edits perfectly well.
[David Lawrence] “What I imagine is a special type of markers, accessible from the keyboard, which would behave much as you describe above. When set by the editor, they persist and take priority over other selections until cleared. They can be used separately or together. If used together to define a range, only one pair is allowed per visible clip instance. They have a different graphic UI so they’re visually distinct. They appear in list view. Their use is totally optional. If you don’t use them, everything works as before 10.0.6. I think making them distinct and separate from the range selection UI is the key to making them work and would be a much simpler to understand solution than the SIOPs concept (which is quite interesting, btw). “
I am still not really following. This makes two classes of operative ranges in FCPX. I think a command to recall the last (ghosted but visible) range — or even allow its re-selection with a mouse click — preserves the existing selection model without adding too much more complexity.
But maybe I am missing something? How would you define the problem that your proposed solution sets out to solve?
Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events -
[Aindreas Gallagher] “the software does not exist. This software, in terms of being paid to edit, which is different to reading (and god how tired am I of that literacy argument), if you are looking to be paid to edit, there is absolutely no sign that you are going to be paid to have learned the completely non-standard practise dreamt up in FCPX.
that is an issue, and getting to 18 months after launch, with a lot bolted on, and absolutely no employer movement, this is an existential question for the softwar”
Not trying to get into a flame war, I’m just curious: Why is this? I’ve just checked broadcast now, mandy.com and grapevine ( 3 big recruitment/freelance sites here in the UK) and there is absolutely nothing for FCPX editors. There are some people listing it as a skill, but no job listings
As I say, there are plenty of people getting a lot out of this package. Why is no-one advertising jobs founded on it here in the UK?
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[Bill Davis] “Well, if I wanted to build a sustainable business around it – the answer would be simple.”
Bill, I don’t think the question was about making “sustainable businesses”, but about designing your own NLE from scratches.
rafael -
[James Mortner] “As I say, there are plenty of people getting a lot out of this package. Why is no-one advertising jobs founded on it here in the UK?”
My experience of it is that it’s going to be a slow uptake. It took a while for Legacy FCP to be accepted, and even now there are pockets of the BBC that won’t touch it with a barge pole, believing that anything that doesn’t have a purple triangle on it will cause their programme to crash and burn in a fiery mess of lost clips and unsynced screwed up footage. Much of this is due to the protectionist mindset certain key Avid editors had when FCP was on the ascendant, putting the fear of ‘here be dragons’ in to the heads of simple producers…
That aside, Apples royal ****-up of the launch of X, alongside the fact that there were deficiencies in the original program (and there still are for some key applications) has meant that post houses (who are very conservative in the main) have been either ignoring it completely or tentatively exploring it’s potential, alongside a known system they can trust. It’ll be a while before it’s talents and advantages result in adoption, and even then wholesale switchover won’t be for a few more years, if at all. It’s fine for small boutique post houses (or in-house setups for production companies) but I feel that it will be an uphill push for it to be accepted widely. And that’s no surprise really – Legacy wasn’t really a player until maybe version 4 or 5 – what’s that, 3 or 4 years after launch?
So I think we’ll see a slow burn for professional acceptance, and the key question will be if the momentum built with 7 has been totally squandered with X. Of course none of this matters a jot to Apple as they’re shifting more units (allegedly) than they ever did with 7, but I think we may be heading back to a time when ‘Pro’ editors use ‘pro’ software once again and the upstart X will be relegated to the (wannabe) ‘Pro in all of us’. I hope this isn’t the case as I don’t believe it’s an accurate perception of X at all, but as I said the ‘missing elements’ on launch and revolutionary paradigm shift meant that as many were put off as were exited by it, especially amongst producers and facilities. I have X, like many bits of it, but still use 7 and I’m brushing up on Avid again (and indeed cutting 3 one-hour films on it, much to my dismay) to ensure my hire ability for the foreseeable future.
Jason
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Before you criticise a man, walk a mile in his shoes.
Then when you do criticise him, you’ll be a mile away. And have his shoes.*the artist formally known as Jaymags*
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[Bill Davis] “I hereby bestow upon you the Ironic Post of the Era award, (with beech nut clusters!!) hands down!”
Gotta chime in here Bill. I understand Aindreas’ point totally. I’m a jobbing editor, and pre X, 7 was definitely in the ascendent here in the UK, in my experience. I’d not done a job on Avid for about 4 years, all my clients (across the board from BBC Broadcast to small corporate producers) were on 7, or happy to cut on my suite running 7. Post X launch, many are still on 7 reasoning (wisely) that 7 still works, ain’t broke, still does what they want… but many are switching rapidly back to Avid. X isn’t even in the shortlist. Now, whatever the rights and wrongs of this are, as an editor who makes a healthy living doing this I’m forced into a situation where I have to use Avid more often (which as an end user I consider to be inferior to FCP7 in a number of key ways, better in others – but I prefer 7) or convince clients to use Legacy, which is fine for the clients who trust me!! So yes – in terms of the people who pay the bulk of my wages, X is non existent in their world. Much as you might wish it otherwise, in the circles Aindreas and I work in it just ain’t happening yet. I suspect that is true for much of the world. It may not be right or fair, and they may all be missing a trick by not drinking the Kool-Aid or taking the red pill and adopting X with loving arms, but it’s the reality we’ve been working with since Apple introduced X. There is a reason for the vitriol, and ‘get over it’ kinda misses the point.
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Before you criticise a man, walk a mile in his shoes.
Then when you do criticise him, you’ll be a mile away. And have his shoes.*the artist formally known as Jaymags*
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[Jason Porthouse] “in the circles Aindreas and I work in it just ain’t happening yet. I suspect that is true for much of the world.”
I’m a massive fan of X and I’ve been using it almost exclusively since launch, but if I had to go back to being a Freelance Editor again then I’d be learning Avid. Based on the launch, I’m not surprised X isn’t being adopted at the moment, I’m sure it will eventually start to creep back into facility and Broadcaster use, but I bet it will take a while and I can’t see it ever getting the dominance that Legacy had
Steve Connor
‘It’s just my opinion, with an occasional fact thrown in for good measure”
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