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FCPWorks sessions from NAB posted.
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Just go to the FCPWorks website and watch two videos. First Phil Hodgetts Lumberjack/Lumberyard Demo.
Then watch the last session about DirectTV.
One explains some of the system design concepts about how to save time on set that Lumberjack is implementing quite rapidly. The second is real world workflows that prove the theory.
It’s no longer just guys like me saving it’s faster. It’s more and more folks in the trenches.
You want to wait for a formal study fine. I’ve been hearing for more than Two Years from real editors that they are getting home from work on time and aren’t needing to do overnights anymore. I don’t know how much clearer the signals can be.
The Focus team. Issac Waltron at TED, Ben King at the BBC, Marc Bach at Direct TV. Ronny Courtens at Belgium Online – the list goes on and on and on. Many of these guys started taking X seriously two, three or more years ago. But sure, wait some more. I’m sure there will be qualified folks for hire in the open market and that internal development of your own teams expertise over time to get up to get rolling after ignoring the system for 5 years rather than 4 because there wasn’t a “study” available won’t be a problem.
Yes, I’m teasing you.
But honestly the more demos I watched the more real the time savings I see every week solidified.
Used as designed, X is a wicked fast editorial system. Period.
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, I’m teasing you.”
I am not the one ‘waiting’ Bill. I see the end results and talk to editors as they hand over for finish. Lots of editors are either waiting or have moved to Pr or Avid mostly. So few have moved to X that I don’t get such reports so teasing out hype from reality is a fair response. Indeed I think it good business as it ultimately affects my bottom line.
Because I am not hearing such things directly I am asking if there is really a big efficiency saving. Isn’t that a fair question. Surely it is more than hearsay that directs where hundreds of thousands of post dollars go or are producers swayed by some editors enthusiasm?
So by all means tease but I will keep asking until I get a fair answer.
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And all I can tell you is that IF the “X is pioneering a more efficient workflow” is a fantasy, it’s the largest and most successful hoodwink in the history of this industry. Remember, this is one of the largest, most innovative and financially successfully technology companies in the world. Four years ago they very publically announced a major initiative to reinvent modern editing ideas because they thought there was LOTS of room for improvement in an industry largely still operating on techniques and ideas inherited from the analog era. Every single pundit that said they were “dumbing down” their approach has proven to be dead wrong. And there are hundreds of thousands of editors out there who will passionately tell you that. Its not dumber if qualified operators are getting their work done with ALL the quality they require, faster and more efficiently. And there’s a rising chorus of folks who will tell you just that. Yeah, it takes effort to re-train people to “get” the X approach to workflow because it IS different.
And it’s because it IS different that it’s growing consistently stronger and better so rapidly. But to get the benefits of software like X the single necessary KEY is you have to be willing to commit to change your thinking.
It’s clear you are not. You need assurance and safety. So it’s likely that Premier or AVID will be a much better path for you. They are both wonderful reflections of the very best of what editing tools have been designed to do for the past few decades. Judicious innovation wrapped in a comforting cloak of traditional thinking. Good luck on your path.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, I am using Resolve and occasionally Pr because I needed to move on from Legend as a finishing tool. I use them for their tool set and their ability to work in collaboration with the many editors that feed me their work. I don’t edit but what editors do affects me. Never in my career has anyone accused me of being safe or old thinking. That is no-one who knows anything about me.
So spare me the lecturing motherhood statements. I have heard it all before. When I ask a simple question “is the efficiency real, imagined or confirmation bias” and ask for something other than the odd endorsement from editors who are not working in my area of production, I just get this same old shrill hectoring. Spare me the lecture and feed me something real for a change.
‘New paradigm’ and ‘old analog brain’ fantasies that you spout really have no place in an intellectual debate. Wasting my time discussing anything with you again.
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I think part of what clouds the waters regarding efficiency is that in the case of all the examples, other elements of the end-to-end workflow were also changed. These also result in efficiency. For example, the use of Sync-N-Link X or Lumberjack or an all-native media workflow or improved ingest methods. For me, X certainly has introduced many efficiency improvements, so I don’t question that. I just think many of the extreme claims are all attributed to X when in fact there are many other factors in play.
Oliver
Oliver Peters Post Production Services, LLC
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com -
[Oliver Peters] “I just think many of the extreme claims are all attributed to X when in fact there are many other factors in play.
“To riff on this, and I’m not doubting anyone that uses X and credits it with getting them home from work sooner, but I was at the TED presentation at FCPWorks and most of the talk was about the complete hardware overhaul of their workflow. The video is up so you can watch it yourself, but basically around the same time they switched from 7 to X they also did things like switch from old Mac Pros to new Mac Pros and from sneaker-netting terabytes of data from their 12 camera shoots to recording directly to their shared storage. X certainly was in play, but the workflow and hardware improvements seemed to be the real game changers for them in terms of speed.
The presentation is very interesting but it’s certainly heavy on hardware workflow and data management (which I’m always curious about) and surprisingly light on X.
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[Andrew Kimery] “To riff on this, and I’m not doubting anyone that uses X and credits it with getting them home from work sooner, but I was at the TED presentation at FCPWorks…”
I was specifically thinking about that when I made the comment. I watched it last night and if you watch at about 35 min. in, you see a very elaborate revamp of how media was ingested using a custom capture/consolidate process created by their IT guys. In fact, the presenter pointed out that the way they had wanted to use XML (in a fashion as they had used with FCP 7) didn’t actually work the way they’d hoped with X. My feeling at the end, was that all of the editors weren’t completely sold on the success of X itself, other than the presenter.
The second part, was that they never actually used a true multi cam workflow with FCP 7, preferring instead to use track-based timeline sync maps. Part of the reason was that the recording devices they had used at the time (BMD Hyperdecks) recorded 16-channels of audio times 12 cameras. Obviously a PITA with 7. When they switched to X they also completely changed the ingest process, which also streamlined the track count. With X, they used the multi cam mode.
So honestly, it seemed to me that the improvements were more a complete change in workflow, rather than the change in one specific tool. Sometimes you really have to go past the story headlines to digest the content 😉
– Oliver
Oliver Peters Post Production Services, LLC
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com -
TED continues to evolve their workflow, learning from each experience as every wise post team should. We experienced this ourselves with the FCPWORKS broadcasts. I’m incredibly psyched we have all of them online so soon after NAB concluded. And we learned a ton of ways we could do it even better next time.
Noah
FCPWORKS – FCPX Workflow
Call Box Training -
Hi Oliver,
I agree with what you are saying that with production realities vary greatly when it comes to post. When I have the luxury of being involved before production begins, things go much better.
The biggest use of Sync N Link is that it actually makes the subroles for you automatically by character if the sound mixer labeled the mic properly.
On a short shot on Red Dragon for a horror anthology series for Showtime, the directing team edits in FCP X, the budget couldn’t afford a dedicated DIT so I suggested renting more than enough cards so you don’t have to erase them. Then have a competent person make disk images of the cards to a drive on set, then clone that drive overnight to a backup every night.
I asked them to be sure and rent a Lockit box, found out that the sound person already labels takes the preferred way.
After wrap of the three day shoot, they brought me one of the drives, I was able to sync and batch relabel all the takes using the audio file names. Then a quick ‘select all’ and then transcode proxy media on my 12c (newish) mac pro, I went to sleep and woke up with everything done. The thing that took the most time for me was spot checking the sync in the takes.
Lockit boxes and the even better and less expensive Timecode Buddy tools have come down in price to the point where they should no longer be optional. A sender/receiver bundle rents for about $70 a week, that’s $12 per shoot day.
I have to say, having worked with what Mike has been saying for the past three and a half months on a lowish budget action movie in FCP X, everything Mike is saying is true if his instructions are followed.
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[Darren Roark] “After wrap of the three day shoot, they brought me one of the drives, I was able to sync and batch relabel all the takes using the audio file names. Then a quick ‘select all’ and then transcode proxy media on my 12c (newish) mac pro, I went to sleep and woke up with everything done. The thing that took the most time for me was spot checking the sync in the takes.”
You don’t have to convince me. I was doing that same thing nearly 2 years ago on a feature with FCP X, RED and Sync N Link X. But I’ve also had the other experience, where in spite of my requests, I didn’t get the ideal out of the sound team. Editors can only ask and suggest. Then it’s a matter of dealing with whatever you get later.
– Oliver
Oliver Peters Post Production Services, LLC
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com
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