Goodbye FCPX

[Aindreas Gallagher]

anecdotal – but I just showed the direct timeline link to speedgrade to a small production house that got CC in recently. they’re in the process of transitioning to premiere. When he saw the grading pass round trip back into the premiere master timeline the owners eyes popped out of his head. He didn’t even know that was in CC.

They spend quite a lot of money on a weekly basis sending corporate film edits to baselight in soho for half day grades. I pointed out a place a few miles from him that would sell him a tangent wave for around a grand. He’s used to looking at the three balls in expensive suites in the middle of town.

The idea that they could pretty cheaply and more or less instantly whip up a perfectly fine grading suite out of their own kit – for low to mid projects – interested him quite a lot.
It’ll be interesting to see how many editors get into SG the way many got into colour back in the day.

Have you (anyone) tried speedgrade much? I just started getting into it – it might be no davinci resolve, but then again I haven’t a raging clue how to run davinci. You can get fairly competent in SG in a couple of days for primary, secondary and cc masks i found. then bang a look on top on an adjustment layer to taste. there’s a trick to the order of primary operations going from offset and that – the guy who worked on 18:20 has a really nice run through.

I’m still slightly mind boggled that we actually have the thing we used to dream about with FCP – an extremely advanced colour room you can just send the entire live timeline to in seconds and back again. Adobe really have done more on the active link in 12 months with SG than apple did with colour for the years they had it.

oh CC. sigh.

https://vimeo.com/user1590967/videos http://www.ogallchoir.net promo producer/editor.grading/motion graphics

[Douglas K. dempsey]

Lance, I have been using X for mostly small projects, and I find its simplicity a relief from the overkill of FCP7. I spend less time moving clips, adjusting clips, enabling and un-enabling clips, fretting over sync and squinting to see what I’m doing. And I read with interest the posts from editors who are doing ambitious, well-paid work in long-form docs, TV and apparently some features.

BUT I must agree with you about the nomenclature which is embarrassing, something I almost want to hide from anyone looking over my shoulder. Those terms are perhaps the best evidence for the initial “iMovie Pro” ridicule.

Events instantly evokes the lamest form of consumer functionality: “This Event was December 10th, my daughter’s birthday. This Event is March 15th, our trip to Costa Rica.” Projects being contained WITHIN an EVENT is even more ridiculous. It’s the scrapbook aesthetic that still drives iPhoto. “Okay, it’s Saturday. I’m going to start a new Project. I’m going to make a movie from our Costa Rica trip. And I’ll even use still photos from my Costa Rica Event in iPhoto. This will be fun!”

I find the notion of Project inside an Event so confusing that I begin every new Project– er, excuse me, Library … by creating an Event called “Sequences” or “Edits” and all my “Projects” reside in that folder.

Doug D

[Steve Connor]

[Aindreas Gallagher] “Have you (anyone) tried speedgrade much? I just started getting into it – it might be no davinci resolve, but then again I haven’t a raging clue how to run davinci. You can get fairly competent in SG in a couple of days for primary, secondary and cc masks i found. then bang a look on top on an adjustment layer to taste. there’s a trick to the order of primary operations going from offset and that – the guy who worked on 18:20 has a really nice run through.”

Been playing with Speedgrade a lot, it certainly isn’t as good as Resolve, but for most jobs it doesn’t need to be, tracking isn’t bad and it’s layer based which can be easier to pick up than nodes. Big thing for me is that it doesn’t suck resources like Resolve does it seems to run much faster on my systems.

Steve Connor

Class Bully

[Bret Williams]

It’s neat but falls short in 2 main areas, which I’m sure will be fixed soon. You can’t monitor on the canvas and to the grading monitor at the same time. Seems kinda important to me. And you can’t monitor with BMD devices. Other than that, the little I’ve played with the round tripping is genius.

[Bret Williams]

If you check out the personal site for the guy who designed iMovie and X, you’ll find all he seems to do is travel to exotic locales. Hmmmm.

[Scott Witthaus]

[Douglas K. Dempsey] “Events instantly evokes the lamest form of consumer functionality: “This Event was December 10th, my daughter’s birthday. This Event is March 15th, our trip to Costa Rica.””

I mean, who really cares? It’s not like my client is looking over my shoulder going “wow, that’s really corny”. They just look at their project as it’s being built. They don’t care a rip what it’s being cut on.

Apple is being pretty smart making iMovie and FCPX look alike and work alike. Will make the transition of all the kids playing on iMovie now that much more simple when they are in college and beyond to FCPX. And let’s admit it, for $299 it certainly fits in the 80/20 rule to MC and Premiere. Like I have said, Apple is not looking at Lance or any of us old guys. They have the cash to wait it out. Avid and Adobe don’t.

Scott Witthaus
Senior Editor/Post Production Supervisor
1708 Inc./Editorial
Professor, VCU Brandcenter

[Aindreas Gallagher]

Yep. I know in my head its no resolve, not that I know resolve at all – but for my own purposes I really prefer the layering metaphor? its what my mammy raised me on. node trees have a tendency to bring me out in boils.

moviola had a really good run through of SG with robbie carman last year – most of it stuck with me. SG is definitely way less arcane than davinci and you can get some fairly serious stuff done. I really want the guy to pick up the tangent wave just so I can mess with it. SG would definitely stop me staggering off with the timeline to AE layers madness and colour finesse.

https://vimeo.com/user1590967/videos http://www.ogallchoir.net promo producer/editor.grading/motion graphics

[Aindreas Gallagher]

[Bret Williams] “You can’t monitor on the canvas and to the grading monitor at the same time. Seems kinda important to me. And you can’t monitor with BMD devices.”

yeah, I read about that, from an ill-informed distance. not exactly ideal alright, but mind you at the rate they’re putting it together…

Also, I’m not sure I wouldn’t just be a knacker for low to mid projects going online/presentations and work the whole thing off the 27″ imac. it seems muckily doable?
I mostly want SG for the toolset and speed, that insane round tripping and – ideally – the three magic balls for a grand.

those three balls used to be up on mount olympus quite recently like.
has anyone used the tangent wave? scott simmons did a pretty positive review I think. bit plastic overall but the balls were solid apparently?

https://vimeo.com/user1590967/videos http://www.ogallchoir.net promo producer/editor.grading/motion graphics

[Lance Moody]

“I mean, who really cares?”

Well, not everyone, obviously but I do.

[Steve Connor]

[Aindreas Gallagher] “Yep. I know in my head its no resolve”

I’m no expert on Resolve but it is a monster, it’s not a bad basic editor and I found it has an Audio Mixer as well

Steve Connor

Class Bully