FCPX is Ready for prime time

[Chris Harlan]

[Oliver Peters] “[Bill Davis] “After all, pretty hard to bring a “wall of cards” on the airplane if you need to work on something during a long flight”

The point of the cards is not for the editor, but also for the benefit of director, writer, producers and various parties involved. There’s no way these folks have the same direct understanding of how changes in an edited sequence relate to the flow of the story. I think you are hung up on the cards being tied to organizing media in the software. They are completely unrelated.”

I would also add that if you are talking about a blockbuster feature film–nobody is taking the project to work on an airplane. The scale is much different. Project size, team coordination, security. People aren’t sitting in first class chopping up chunks of The Avengers. And security wouldn’t even allow that for promos. That stuff is going in safes at night, and isn’t allowed off the premises of wherever it is being worked on. Its a very fanciful notion to suggest that anybody would be working on something like that on a long flight.

[Michael Gissing]

Fairlight. To buy the AAF option costs $500, something I am reluctant to buy as I don’t need anything that an AAF offers over OMF which is solid

[Charlie Austin]

[Michael Gissing] “Fairlight. To buy the AAF option costs $500, something I am reluctant to buy as I don’t need anything that an AAF offers over OMF which is solid”

Gotcha. FWIW, X2Pro only officially targets ProTools, but it works real well with Logic, and I think Nuendo. There are a few other apps that will open X2Pro AAF’s, I guess AE is another one… lol

I wouldn’t use the LE version for anything professional. No control over Role arrangement (though it does group them) and no ability to trim clips with handles. It sounds like a case of wrong tool for the job, and operator error. I imagine an OMF out of FCP 7 or Pr from these guys would have looked just as messed up, but who knows.

I know it’s immaterial, but I’ve had great success with X2Pro. Flawlessly organizes tracks based on Role, nicely trims handles, and opens right up. It really sounds like, software issues aside, whoever prepped/cut this messed it up.

The fact that OMF isn’t part of X is a valid critique. But I don’t think X2Pro was the problem here based on my experience.

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~”It is a poor craftsman who blames his tools.”~
~”The function you just attempted is not yet implemented”~

[Michael Gissing]

[Charlie Austin]”The fact that OMF isn’t part of X is a valid critique. But I don’t think X2Pro was the problem here based on my experience”

I did advise, based on comments here, that they get the full version. Of course the money they saved was blown by my extra time sorting it. The Marquis people did contact me a while back and ask if I wanted to beta test AAF with Fairlight but I just don’t want to pay for AAF. In time I guess I will be forced to but I already have lots of options to read AAF and convert. Never had AAF issues in the past with all software options that I tried. Almost all clients produce working OMFs so it is a FCPX specific issue for me at this stage hence posting here.

It was definitely a case of new workflow blues. I have not had similar from Pr or FCP7 OMfs from the same people or pretty much anyone for many years. I would love it if the X2Pro people gave an OMF option to make the export much more universal and solid to all NLEs. There is advantage in EOL software.

[Charlie Austin]

[Michael Gissing] ” I would love it if the X2Pro people gave an OMF option to make the export much more universal and solid to all NLEs. There is advantage in EOL software.”

Agreed. I wish I was a programmer type nerd,as it seems like something one could make a few bucks from… Though I think there’s some sort of licensing fee to support OMF, maybe just rumor…

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~”It is a poor craftsman who blames his tools.”~
~”The function you just attempted is not yet implemented”~

[Jeremy Garchow]

[Michael Gissing] “So X2Pro was reluctantly purchased but the lite version”

90 more dollars would have solved all of this.

I am sure that they probably spent that much on some whiz bang plugin to get lens flares and trackers, templates and glows.

I’ve had really good success with x2pro and it has more capability than Legend and OMF, even if it can’t be read in as many places.

I wish the developers would make an fcpx consolidation tool.

[Charlie Austin]

[Jeremy Garchow] “I wish the developers would make an fcpx consolidation tool.”

Bug them about it… I have. 🙂

————————————————————-

~”It is a poor craftsman who blames his tools.”~
~”The function you just attempted is not yet implemented”~

[Michael Gissing]

[Jeremy Garchow] “I wish the developers would make an fcpx consolidation tool.”

Bug them about it… I have. 🙂

Therein lies an irony. Fairlight reads FCP7 XMLs and so I had the option of consolidating just audio with handles, making an XML and it opened in Fairlight. It even opened a flattened video track if the codec was right. If FCPX could consolidate just audio media, I am sure many DAWs could with minimal effort open a FCPX XML. That way all the AAF licensing nonsense could be bypassed and there would be a solid workflow from X to lots of other NLEs and DAWs.

[Bret Williams]

Does your demo reel(s) give any hint? 🙂

[Bill Davis]

[Oliver Peters] “The point of the cards is not for the editor, but also for the benefit of director, writer, producers and various parties involved. “

Then I have to take issue with what I see in your own posted photos.

Neither space, and particularly the one in the second photo – strikes me as set up for anything even remotely suitable for constant colaboration with “directors, writers, producers, et al.”

Clearly (particularly in the second posted photo) the workspace is INDIVIDUAL – with literally NO room for anyone other than the specific editor to benefit from the posted notes without obstructing the view of the working editor.

I can see in the first photo enough room for something like short “walk-through” project conferences with other principals, but I see no note surfaces or chairs or similar work enablers in play that would make that edit environment suitable for anyone but the editor to be engaged in constant on-going collaboration.

Perhaps Walter, at this point in his career, can make stakeholders stand to give him their input. I could certainly see that.

But I don’t find either of those photos indicative of the kind of collaboration everyone here is always harping about.

It looks to me like the totally sensible workstation of a person in command of the “edit” as an individual.

Exactly the type of edit situation where X’s database tools should very potently thrive.

My 2 cents. Opinion and supposition only.

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