How long did it take you…..

[Walter Biscardi]

[peter pop] “How long did it take you folks when you first switched over to fcp? Am I too long in the tooth to be taught new tricks? Are there any ex-edit*ors (I am seeing a good few names in here that I know from the edit* days) that have ‘that’ dynamite layout I dream of at night? “

After 6 years on Media 100, took me about 2 weeks to figure out the buttons on FCP and about 3 months to really get comfortable. In 6 months I was much faster on FCP than I ever was on Media 100. This was all back in 2001 when it was just FCP 2.

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Editor, Colorist, Director, Writer, Consultant, Author.
Credits include multiple Emmy, Telly, Aurora and Peabody Awards.
Owner, Biscardi Creative Media featuring HD Post
Biscardi Creative Media

Creative Cow Forum Host:
Apple Final Cut Pro, Apple Motion, Apple Color, AJA Kona, Business & Marketing, Maxx Digital.

Read my Blog!

Twitter!

[Peter Pop]

Hi Walter,

I Wish I could say the same.

In practical and technical terms FCP is without doubt the better editing tool, and while I look back with a certain fondness for Edit*, you would have to nail me to a seat to force me to go back to cutting much with it.

Its hard to describe, maybe its muscle memory, maybe its autopilot syndrome, maybe its mental illness, but I still find myself trying to do things ‘the edit* way’; I am forever trimming single clips instead of ‘rolling’ the head and tail of two clips. Forgetting to deselect clips in order to zoom into my timeline position instead of the selection. Pressing ‘W’ to zoom into selection. All that kind of thing.

I have most likely picked up so many bad habits trying to emulate the edit* feel over the last few years that I fear I have irreparably gimped myself on FCP!!

Anyways… I’ll stop whinging… at least I now have zoom on the mouse-wheel.

[Shane Ross]

I came from a solid Avid background…and it took me about two weeks to convert. OK, I lie, about a month to fully acclimate. Always hitting Z or X to cut footage into my sequence. But I have mapped a lot of the keys I had in Avid to FCP, because of my Avid habit, plus my not needing a lot of the FCP keyboard options. When I go back to an Avid it takes me about week to get back into that workflow and keyboard set…then another week when I go back to FCP.

DVision…man, that’s OLD. 10 years old.

Shane

GETTING ORGANIZED WITH FINAL CUT PRO DVD…don’t miss it.
Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def

[Peter Pop]

It’s older than that!

I cut my first feature on Dvision2.2 back in 1996.

I remember being told that AVID and MEDIA100 had to be ruled out because ‘they’ ran on a mac and that a mac would never access more than 5Gb drives..far too little HD space for a feature. So we HAD to have a dos based system. So began years of ‘dealer’ nonsense.

I remember spending a week or so with an Amiga running ‘video toaster’…. So in theory that was my actual first Non-Linear.

My only real regret about moving non-linear is the lack of ‘comfy headrest’ cushion on the sony 910!!

Anyways… Sorry for turning this into some ‘good/bad old days’ reminiscing blurb.. but you never know.. maybe in a decade i’ll be back asking how you’re all adapting to the new ‘edit by thinking about the shots’ software and the new holographic codec!

[Kristin Leys]

I started on Grass Vally linear systems, old fashioned numbers on screens. No wimpy timelines here, and god help you if you didn’t keep your list clean manually.

Shifted to Avid Media Composer about 10 odd years ago. Did the courses, and a lot of hours. Developed some serious hard wired muscle memory.

Took a job on FCP v5 I think? About 5 years ago. Freaked for a couple of days, then had it sorted by the end of the week.

It was about three months before I was any where near as fast in FCP as I was on an Avid.

These days I’m completely suite agnostic. I switch between Avid and FCP frequently. It’s not unusual for me to drive both systems in one shift working across several projects. In those situations when I change over it takes maybe 10 minutes for my brain to ‘flip the switch’ and things to become instinctive again.

Although I customise my keyboard on both systems, I don’t make FCP into Avid or vice versa. I keep the basic defaults in place. It means I can walk into any suite, reset to defaults and be cutting in no time.

Handy trick for a freelancer like myself.

[Chris Mccarville]

I did one short by crash editing using two vcrs. But since then I have only used FCP. It is way easier!

~ guess how I made my user photo and win a prize! ~

[Herb Sevush]

Peter –

I’m an x-edit*or and have been using FC for about 5 years. Took about 3 months to totally get edit* out of my head, and more importantly, out of my hands. After about a year I could no longer operate edit* without a manual nearby, on the rare instances when I needed to update something.

There are many things I miss about edit*, many ways in which I think it was a better cutting tool, but gone is gone.

I never tried to make FC act like edit*, never tried to make an edit* style keyboard work, just accepted the differences and limitations as they were. When you start dating Sally, it’s best not to call her Nancy.

Herb Sevush
Zebra Productions

[Joe Widmer]

Hi. New guy here. Long time lurker, first time poster . . .
I too am currently transitioning to Final Cut Pro.
Really cool but my head is about to expode! I’ve been locked in my edit suite and doing a crash course . . . about 2 weeks now. I’ve put out a couple 30 sec. spots with it already, but I’m still basically lost. Just coming off of Media 100 v.8. Worked with Avid on a pc before that.

Actually, it’s kind of fun to look back at where non-linear systems are now. The first one I worked with was an Immix VideoCube. Then the VideoSphere and StratoSphere. Then a Media 100, next to Avid on a PC, then back to Media 100 on a Mac. Now I’ve completely lost my mind and have stuck my head into a FCP version 6 system. Did someone say it gets easier in about 3 months? Come on December! Really, Final Cut Pro is awesome, but it’s been a bit challenging for me to learn on my own. Ain’t got time for no classes! 😉

Joe