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FCPX and skeuomorphism
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[Oliver Peters] “This back-and-forth is premature as it pertains to X. I believe we are talking about is Apple’s (current) incomplete implementation”
Premature after the first two releases… yes, but not after five. FCPX has been out for over a year and they haven’t “finished” the Reel implementation? I can’t think of an easier “feature” then reading a metadata field created by Apple in a file created by Apple.
This back and forth is useful to understand how people use reel and why some dismiss it as “old fashioned”. Apple hates old fashioned and we all know Apple loves to drop legacy tech. Given how they redefined the language of editing in FCPX, I fear Reel is on the chomping block.
I hope my posts about how we use reel will convince others of it’s usefulness and help Apple make the right decision.
John
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See my post above at
Bill Davis on Oct 13, 2012 at 5:29:19 pm
I’ve never said reel names are silly or useless. I just said that I find them wanting when I haven’t touched anything that I’ve understood as a “reel” for years now.
I’ll figure it out when someone uses the term REEL to describe a card. That’s what human brains do. They also tend to think that just because it’s the way it’s been done in the past, that also means they should figure out how to preserve the terms of the past when moving into the future.
Proven jargon is not always smart to trash arbitrarily – but it’s ALWAYS worth questioning when the underlying reality beneath the old terms has inarguable changed as in the reels-cards-files transitional days we’re presently navigating.
FWIW.
“Before speaking out ask yourself whether your words are true, whether they are respectful and whether they are needed in our civil discussions.”-Justice O’Connor
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[Bill Davis] “With X’s database, I’m WAY more likely to need to find “the teacher from UofA explaining fractions in the red dress that I shot 3 years ago.” “
Actually that’s only true if you still have the Events from 3 years ago loaded. That’s highly unlikely. It also assumes the FCP X has not been changed so much in three years that the database format is no longer fully compatible. There is currently no actual database functionality across Events outside of the FC Events folder. FCP X is NOT FC Server. Even so, you are still dependent on having access to the NLE itself in order to be able to read this. Much of this info is not in the FCP X XML either, so it’s not “human readable”.
– Oliver
Oliver Peters Post Production Services, LLC
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com -
[John Heagy] “Premature after the first two releases… yes, but not after five. FCPX has been out for over a year and they haven’t “finished” the Reel implementation? I can’t think of an easier “feature” then reading a metadata field created by Apple in a file created by Apple.”
I didn’t mean to imply there was no value in the discussion. The reason I say premature, is because some of this is dependent on full implementation of the camera SDK and I don’t believe that’s done yet.
– Oliver
Oliver Peters Post Production Services, LLC
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com -
[Bill Davis] “I’ll figure it out when someone uses the term REEL to describe a card.”
Actually camera manufacturers have been doing that for a while. The ARRI Alexa embeds a REEL ID into the ProRes files it records and uses the camera card as part of the identifier. The ID is read AS A REEL in FCP “legacy”.
– Oliver
Oliver Peters Post Production Services, LLC
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com -
[Oliver Peters] “he ARRI Alexa embeds a REEL ID”
So does the the Red Epic/Scarlet and recorders from Aja and Sound Devices.
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[Bill Davis] “You feel you MUST have a field that says REEL. Ok. If you’re in a shop that demands you put a REEL ID on every card, folder, and download, that’s perfectly fine too – whether or not those things have any “reel nature” whatsoever.”
You’re really stuck on the whole media container idea with reel. I’m not… I need a way to identify content within files, and I need it embedded in the file and have it survive encodes in QT.
As far a feeling I must have… I already do have… and just don’t want to lose it. If you don’t want to use it… don’t.
John
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[Oliver Peters] “Actually that’s only true if you still have the Events from 3 years ago loaded.”
Not so fast, Oliver.
A keyword search is ONE way to search for and find visual info in X.
If you prefer, theres’ another way. Export iPhone size versions of your program masters and store them as their own Projects. Then you can find the red dress by scanning through multiple disconnected projects visually. Once ID’d, you can mount the appropriate original host drive and switch to it to get editing access.For visual learners like many of us, it would be easy and fast to find the correct project out of thousands by just scanning for the red coat in the appropriate Project Library folders.
The provides a way for those blessed with massive storage operations (big users) and those with much smaller systems (individual users)
It just requires the organizational step of making a reference iPhone export of your finished work. And slapping it in a new project.
FWIW.
“Before speaking out ask yourself whether your words are true, whether they are respectful and whether they are needed in our civil discussions.”-Justice O’Connor
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[Bill Davis] ” Export iPhone size versions of your program masters and store them as their own Projects. Then you can find the red dress by scanning through multiple disconnected projects visually”
I get what you are saying, but that’s hardly a database. It’s something I could have done 10-20 years ago with any NLE. Heck, it’s something I could have done for the last 100 years with nearly any media format (except maybe quad tape).
– Oliver
Oliver Peters Post Production Services, LLC
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com -
[John Heagy] “You’re really stuck on the whole media container idea with reel. I’m not… “
Not quite sure how exactly it’s being “stuck” on a thing one is actively arguing against the need for – particularly when I’m constantly acknowledging that there are plenty of legit reasons for those who WISH to use it. I’m just asking that Apple not spend a world of effort building in an inflexible way to track a particular term that’s becoming less relevant over time.
But whatever.
“Before speaking out ask yourself whether your words are true, whether they are respectful and whether they are needed in our civil discussions.”-Justice O’Connor
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