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FCP X Design Influences
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[Bill Davis] “Addressing the corkboard, I import the agency storyboard frames into the Project as stills – keyword them as “storyboard” – and a click brings it into the browser. Bye, bye 4x 5 foot of needed wall space.”
One feature Apple could stand to add – but NEVER will – is third-party dockable panels into the UI. There’s a nice one for Premiere Pro called PDFviewer that let’s you import and view any PDF document within Premiere Pro’s interface.
– Oliver
Oliver Peters Post Production Services, LLC
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com -
[Oliver Peters] “One feature Apple could stand to add – but NEVER will – is third-party…”
Apple: “Third party? Like, as in the Green Party for politics, or like, the party that starts after the After Hours party for partying? Because those are the only possible meanings of the words ‘third party’ that we’re aware of.”
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Bill,
I’m just wondering about 1 thing. When editing on a laptop, how do
you separate the OS drive from media drive? Most people I know
(and myself) do this with an external drive as the media drive. Which
works fine when I’m at a table or desk, but if I’m going to be at a desk,
I might as well just be in my normal edit bay with my desktop.
If I’m editing while kicking back on the couch, or on the road on a hotel bed
or in an airplane, the external drive tends to want to come loose if
I move, and that short little cord connecting it just can drive me crazy.
Is there a better way?Gabe Strong
G-Force Productions
http://www.gforcevideo.com -
[Bill Davis] “I spent 11 years at a fixed desk in an office…”
I don’t know that the viability of cutting on a laptop has much to do with FCPX. Certainly that’s part of Apple’s design criteria, but we’ve really had that capability for over a dozen years, going back to FCP “classic”, Avid Xpress DV, Sony Vegas, Premiere, etc.
Just because it works, doesn’t make it preferable. However, an area that Apple did well with X is the easy switching between single and dual screen layouts, so it accommodates both preferences.
For example, as an outgrowth of how I run laptop editing when using an external screen, I’ve taken to redesigning my own suite to use a single larger monitor (27″) centered with a smaller monitor (20″) for the browser offset to the left. If I were using a laptop, then this left screen would actually be the laptop display.
– Oliver
Oliver Peters Post Production Services, LLC
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com -
Gabe.
I generally work on convention projection content and seldom have extremely large projects where the Proxy media that I’d need to have “live” online would exceed the capabilities of my laptop storage – but for long form editors, I can see how it can be an issue.I have a internal 1 gig SSD in my new MacBook – after system overhead it leaves me about 400 gigs for a “current project” – and that’s a LOT of proxy footage. Since I didn’t do that much long form – its been ample for me. So I can work most of the time without an external drive. (I just move the correct sparse disk media bundle to the SSD from my 2tb USB 3 drive launch it and go to work. Since the bundle is a clone – my media is protected by multiple backups. At the close of a project, I clone the skinny FCP X Library without media onto both the laptop and the USB drive for protection. (I also do tiny MXF exports to each, but those are super small)
By the way, I’m now thinking the classic rule of “don’t keep your media on your system drive” seems to be obsolete in the SSD era. It’s super snappy with both reading from the SSD.
If I needed to work with the external attached, I can just move to any surface that supports the drive – I have a collapsable travel desk that works fine if I need the stability.
I suspect as bigger internal SSDs come down in price, it may not be a problem for long. But there are lots of solutions out there for a small, but robust and dependable travel rig.
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] “I don’t know that the viability of cutting on a laptop has much to do with FCPX. Certainly that’s part of Apple’s design criteria, but we’ve really had that capability for over a dozen years, going back to FCP “classic”, Avid Xpress DV, Sony Vegas, Premiere, etc.”
Oliver, I’m not sure why this is always a response to one of my posts about X and mobile editing. YES, other systems edit on the road. At the gleeful risk of a car analogy (just to vex some folk!), there are plenty of compact cars. Some are MUCH better designed for a long road trip than others.
What makes X a particular joy for mobile editing FOR ME is –
A – the single screen optimized interface. Everything is easy to navigate in 15 inches.
B – the killer Proxy/Optimized switch system.
C – the Share system they pioneered that allows you to upload with a single click.
D – magnitism – so I don’t need to constantly zoom in to check edits after I place them.
E – the Logic plug in system so I always get pristine sound.
F – the sweet responsiveness on an SSD laptop. X has been FLYING for me lately – editing as fast as I can think, really. That’s enjoyable for me.There’s more but that’s enough for now.
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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[Bill Davis] “YES, other systems edit on the road. At the gleeful risk of a car analogy (just to vex some folk!), there are plenty of compact cars. Some are MUCH better designed for a long road trip than others. “
I guess from my POV, FCPX has very little to do with this. It may be better in your opinion, but if and how much better is purely subjective. After all, in the context that you presented this, we’re talking about convention support videos. All things being equal, I also would (and do) pick FCPX in this situation. However, that’s a genre that for the most part has been cut on laptops for years before the intro of X. But, I also have just as much if not more seat time (behind the stage, in hotel rooms, etc.) using Avid, FCP “classic” and Premiere Pro. In some cases, X is the better choice, but sometimes it isn’t. So the hardware really dictates the design of X, not that the software drove a change in the selection of hardware.
– Oliver
Oliver Peters Post Production Services, LLC
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com -
[Oliver Peters] “So the hardware really dictates the design of X, not that the software drove a change in the selection of hardware.”
This is exactly right. While FCPX certainly takes good advantage of advances in portable hardware, it’s the hardware that drives the design. Fast, powerful laptops and fast, cheap, portable storage have enabled mobile workflows across the board. All NLEs take advantage of these benefits. NLE choice is again a matter of individual taste and project need. Having used both FCPX and Premiere Pro on a laptop in the field, my experience has been that they both work equally well for the tasks I use them for. I see no reason why this wouldn’t be true for other NLEs as well.
_______________________
David Lawrence
art~media~design~research
propaganda.com
publicmattersgroup.com
https://lnkd.in/Cfz92F
facebook.com/dlawrence
twitter.com/dhl
vimeo.com/dlawrence/albums -
Its just funny that you literally NEVER hear, for example, a group of guitar players sitting around talking – and when one player says he really enjoyed playing his Gibson – there’s always two other guys popping up to say “yeah, but I could have played the same lick on my Fender (or Epiphone!)” Notice how NOBODY does that? It’s like the forum name still implying that X isn’t up to snuff (or Not!) STILL isn’t enough after all this time. Now the other “A” fans have to work extra hard to make sure their software doesn’t get dissed via implication. Perish that thought.
Are all the paid Adobe and AVID ads I see on sites everywhere not enough to keep those products in mind?
Curious.
; )
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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Bill
Thanks for the info, that makes sense, I guess since SSD drives are so fast,
as long as you have room it could work all on one drive. That is actually good
to know and exactly what I was wondering about. And as built in SSD drives get
bigger, this should get even better. Right now I’m mainly working on an old
2009 Mac Pro which has been majorly upgraded to a six core 3.46ghz with
a GTX 980 Ti (6GB) GPU…..and FCP X is pretty fast on it. But I may need to look
at getting a newer laptop for mobile editing as well.Gabe Strong
G-Force Productions
http://www.gforcevideo.com
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