Has anyone used FCPX to cut a proper documentary for broadcast.

[Jules Bowman]

perhaps not. but you can export straight to YouTube. how cool is that?

[Jason Porthouse]

I’d be interested in this too, though your workflow (whilst perfectly fine) is ‘traditional’ in it’s conception. With X having no tape layback, you’d be looking at doing this some other way – I’ve always let the dubbing mixer layback audio on the master, but I guess in X you’d need to export a final QT, and use something like Blackmagic’s Media Express for layback to SR. And you’d be looking at roles for export to ProTools rather than tracks (seeing as there ain’t none!)

As to how well broadcast safe filter works – well that would be a test, assuming it’s not going through a legaliser.

I can see no reason why it shouldn’t work – but as you say, living on the bleeding edge can be a precarious place. It hurts when you fall off.

_________________________________

Before you criticise a man, walk a mile in his shoes.
Then when you do criticise him, you’ll be a mile away. And have his shoes.

*the artist formally known as Jaymags*

[Jonathan White]

I cut a 25′ drama doc last Christmas….didn’t do everything on your list…. I found it wonderful for the editing process… Got footage from RED… imported in FCP7…. edit in X…. grade in X… getting an OMF was a nightmare… used x27 to get into FCP7 and export OMF but lots of issues…. hopefully x2pro will sort this… mastered to digibeta in FCP7…… basically used FCP7 to fill the gaps but the editing process on x was a dream, never cut a programme so fast… grading was good too… used broadcast safe filter in fcp7 for final output….
Johnny

Seanchas Productions, Galway, Ireland

[Neil Patience]

[Jason Porthouse] “though your workflow (whilst perfectly fine) is ‘traditional’ in it’s conception.”

Whilst you may think this is somehow ‘traditional’ this is what just about every broadcast documentary has to go through.

At least in the UK where Sean and I are based.

In terms of programme delivery to broadcast stations there is a common file delivery format that is being agreed by UK broadcasters under the banner of the Digital Production Partnership.

From their website:

“Through the DPP, seven major broadcasters (BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Sky, Channel 5, S4C and UKTV), have all agreed the UK’s first common file format,” . . . .
. . . After a period of piloting, file based delivery will be the preferred delivery format for these Broadcasters by 2014.”

Of course that will not mean the end of tape delivery in 2014, just the beginning of file delivery.

So tape is going to be around for a while.

Obviously it will decline as a delivery format after 2014 however anyone making documentaries, especially those that use archive, which is many of them, are going to still be faced with archive and library sources from tape for years after that.

So as forward thinking as FCPX may or may not be, Apple’s tapeless utopia is still quite a way off.

Still at least they may just about have made it work by 2014.

Hi Sean – hope you are well.

best wishes
Neil
http://www.patience.tv

[Richard Herd]

[Jonathan White] “the editing process on x was a dream”

Exactly.

There’s more to do than edit of course, but they have done that right. Any editor who takes the opportunity/risk to just cut some pic in X will be amazed at how cool it is.

[Neil Goodman]

theres alot things for me that make it uncool. No 3 point editing into anything other than the primary = lame.

The slip and slide functionality is broken. No match frame in the traditional sense of the word. Audio is a mess. Too much mouseing around, not too keyboard friendly.

Ive tried to use it, i did some interviews stuff with a music bed and broll.. worked great for that minus the sluggishness,beachballs, etc.. I really couldn’t imagine cutting narrative stuff on it tho. The match frame thing for me is a killer, and coming from a background in Avid, i still find 3 point editing to be my fastest way of getting stuff down.

Neil Goodman: Editor of New Media Production – NBC/Universal

[Franz Bieberkopf]

Sean,

I’m more interested in large project and long-term stress-tests.

With the project that I finished in November, I first started cutting in September of 2009. It involved well over two hundred hours of footage and well over a hundred sequences, organized into about ten projects in FCP6. Most of the cutting was done on one system, though I did do a few weeks with a drive of selected media on my own system with FCP7.

FCP7 has it’s own bloat issues but I know how to work around them; even setting aside the co-operative workflow issues, with the few things I’ve read about X I can’t imagine anyone starting a larger project on that software.

But I’d be interested to hear about it …

Franz.

[Franz Bieberkopf]

Neil,

Interesting, thanks. I found this directly related news item for those interested:

https://www.televisual.com/news-detail/DPP-unveils-new-standards-for-file-based-delivery_nid-1114.html

Franz.

[Richard Herd]

I ain’t the ambassador!

[Neil Goodman] “No 3 point editing into anything other than the primary = lame”

These are tough discussions to have because the nomenclature has changed. For example, I’m thinking, you can do compound clips that are not the primary. Also you can stack secondaries on top of the primaries. I had to spend a lot of time reading the manual. Fortunately, I like to read.

What do you mean match frame thing? Do you mean the precision editor?

I found cutting a narrative easier than 7, especially with regard to Js and Ls.

Audio has two aspects: (1) the “tracklessness” which I wrote about below; and (2) Effects, the effects blow away 7.

[Chris Steele]

Hi Jonathan, we got X2Pro up on the Apple Mac App Store https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/x2pro-audio-convert/id501688639?ls=1&mt=12. It takes the FCPX XML and creates an AAF with all the audio embedded. No levels, automatic gain or fade handles yet, but they should be in an update we’ll post in a couple of weeks. Love to hear how it goes.

Chris Steele
Product Manager
Marquis Broadcast