i invite discusion: does apple know about these “issues”

[Mark Raudonis]

Bob,

Many of your observations have been discussed over the years. Is Apple listening? Yes. They DO monitor these boards for user feedback.

As for acting on these features, it’s always a battle for resources and priorities. What bugs you may not be at the top of their (or anyone else’s list). However, keep posting, ’cause it’s the squeaky wheel that gets the grease!

#8: Have you seen this? https://www.contourdesign.com/shuttlepro/ Several of our editors swear by the them.

mark

[Shane Ross]

1. Slo-mo. This is the way the application works. If the clip is already in the timeline and change the duration, FCP assumes that you want the entire clip to have the speed change. Why would it assume otherwise? You chose your IN and OUT points, you told FCP what portion of the source clip you wanted. It then assumes that you want that clip, that you told FCP you wanted, sped up or slowed down. If you want a clip to be a certain speed, but to fill a certain hole, change the duration BEFORE you drop it in. If other NLEs do things differently (as they are oft to do on MANY fronts) then get used to how this one works.

2. Just make sure that you double click the clip and load it into the viewer and click on the timeline bar in the Viewer. If you don’t, then you fly all over the timeline. I admit, I hate this too.

3. One frame remnants aren’t invisible, just really small. What is FCP supposed to do about that? Many times people want single frames on the timeline. How is FCP supposed to know when you don’t? I don’t know what NLE gets rid of these. This is operator error.

4. This is my biggest gripe with FCP. I don’t care if there is a transition there, blow it away and overwrite it with what I am putting there. I also dislike how if there already is audio on one track on the timeline, but not another that I have targetted to place a clip, IT WON’T ALLOW ME TO PLACE THE CLIP due to…who knows what. It won’t allow it. WHY? I want to overwrite that. If I didn’t, then I wouldn’t target that track, would I?

5. Mark out doesn’t include an extra frame. It includes the frame you are parked on. It assumes that you want to end on the frame you are looking at, not the one before it, not the one after.

7. Yes, that would be nice.

Shane

Alokut Productions
http://www.lfhd.net

[Dave Kulawick]

TC display, audio metering/monitoring, and logging during capture.

—
Dave Kulawick
Instructional Media
Carleton University

[Jeremy Garchow]

https://www.apple.com/feedback/finalcutpro.html

[Bob Flood]

Hey Shane

love yer reply. got some comments:

“then get used to how this one works.” sorry. not acceptable,
Becuz we live in a world where nothing is bound in stone and changes must be made rapidly, i feel that HAVING THE OPTION to modify the speed in the timeline and not affect the duration is a great increase in productivity. besides i dont like machines that “assume” for me.

“One frame remnants aren’t invisible, just really small” like one frame right? BUT in some cases they are really invisible. no matter how far you zoom in they are not there, nor do they appear when you scroll, shuttle, or play through them. its only when you try and put a transition on the clip before they show up and get in the way…trust me. this is not a feature

.”Mark out doesn’t include an extra frame. It includes the frame you are parked on.” absolutely. my bad. HOWEVER other systems and fcp assumeing for me aside, my point is its one extra step to back up one frame when you do not want to include the frame you are on, like marking a range of clips.

bee eph

Bob Flood
Greer & Associates, Inc.

[Ben Holmes]

[Bob Flood] “3. invisible frames: there are situations when for what ever reason there are single frame remnants of clips in the timeline but they are invisible. you can usually tell they are there when you try and put a transtion in and its only one frame long. lets fix the gui, guys”

Again – tried to duplicate this and can’t at the moment. Have you tried a search to see if anyone else has reported it? See if you can give us a step-by-step to creating one, then someone can probably sort this for you. It MAY be FCP, or it MAY be your own methodology for replacing shots – I speak as one who is self-taught….

I’ve used most NLE’s for at least some time, and they all have drawbacks and workarounds that are required. I think the problem with some of the options you mention (such as the last-frame on the out for example) are that the user interface becomes infinitely configurable and hence infinitely complicated. Also, that in a pro environment, each system will be used by a number of users, who need to be able to work with out re-setting endless options. It also makes a system far more daunting to pick up and play with. Above all, what Apple wants is a user base within the pro and semi-pro communities that is as large and broad as possible – so they can sell more computers, right? So you make it as simple as you can, whilst still making it a powerful product.

I’m no zealot – I just want the job done, but for my money, FCP is the most elegent and accessible GUI in the market, and whilst the bugs will eventually be gone (let’s not forget a bug is never a simple one-line fix) the experience will NEVER be all things to all people.

Ben

Editec Broadcast Editing Ltd
EVS and FCP specialists
Current Mac systems All Dual 2.7Ghz with Kona 2 and Digital Voodoo cards, 6Gb Ram, Sapphire, SCSI320 Medea and Huge Arrays.

FCP projects include Sky TV coverage of the Ryder Cup and US Open Golf – Live OB specialists. Edit/slomo vehicle.
http://www.editec.co.uk

[Tom Wolsky]

What would you like it to do with the speed change? In slomo do you want to cut off the clip from a defined distance from the In point? Or cut from the front based on the Out point? If it’s a speed up, do you want it to leave a hole in the sequence?

I like the way it behaves, and I would not want to have to switch back and forth with some preference setting. If you don’t want to change the duration execute as a edit into the timeline. It’s really not a big deal, having to switch prefs back and forth between the two functionalities would be a big deal and a pain. You could have multiple options in the speed dialog window, but personally I don’t think it’s worth the time to code it. I’m much rather see effort go into something else, but hey, that’s what feedback is for. If enough people want it, it’ll get done.

The out point function can either be done one way or the other. It would be onerous to have a toggle that switched it from one behavior to the other. Personally I prefer the logic of the interface as it behaves currently than the antiquated mind set based on tape machines, but again, that’s what feedback’s for.

All the best,

Tom

Author: “Final Cut Pro 5 Editing Essentials” and “Final Cut Express 2 Editing Workshop” Class on Demand “Complete Training for FCP5” DVD

[Steve Connor]

As some “bugs” are fixed others will appear, software is never going to be perfect, that’s the fun of it!

Steve Connor
Adrenalin Television

Have you tried “Search Posts”? Enlightenment may be there.

[Bob Flood]

Tom

“What would you like it to do with the speed change? In slomo do you want to cut off the clip from a defined distance from the In point? Or cut from the front based on the Out point? If it’s a speed up, do you want it to leave a hole in the sequence?”

how about nothing? leave the shot length alone. i never have just one track of video and one of sound. i always have at least 2 or 4 tracks of audio and 2 video, and its a pain to lock them all up so ican change the speed of a shot. Keep the in poiint and slide move where the shot ends, and warn you if you are going to run out of media ie i want to make a shot go 90 fps, but i dont have enough media so the system asks me if i want to go as fast as i can, to me that seems elegant this is digital media not peices of film

“Personally I prefer the logic of the interface as it behaves currently”

so that everytime you mark a set of clips, you get one frame extra at no additional charge?

than the antiquated mind set based on tape machines,”

ooooh low blow, but besides that, why does it behave one way when i mark clip in out and another way when i mark out independently?
my out mark divides what i want to keep from what i want to seperate, not one frame more. i cannot imagine it otherwise. it doesnt make sense. i think its the first thing they should change, and once i threw the switch that changed the behavior i would not throw it back!

“but again, that’s what feedback’s for.”

yes amen for that

Bob Flood
Greer & Associates, Inc.

[Tom Wolsky]

It has to do something. If the clip is slowly down and the shot length is unchanged then something has to get trimmed from the shot. It can’t be any other way. Why would you run out of media if you’re slowing the shot down. You might run out of media if you;re speeding up the shot. By 90fps are you talking about speeding up a shot to run through more frames, or are you trying to indicate an overcranking to create slomo. It’s not really applicable to an digital NLE.

No, you press the left arrow key before you mark the out point. It’s not that hard, and there are little indicators in the overlays telling you exactly what frame you’re on.

It wasn’t intended as a low blow. I worked on tape machines years ago. It’s a way of working that I was used to, it’s just not very logical to me in a software system. I don’t see why you say marking an out point works differently. It always work the same way as far as I can tell. It always includes the frame that’s on the screen. I think the function you don’t understand clearly is what happens when you go to an edit point. The playhead is always in front of the frame you’re looking at. The in point marks the clip at the playhead in front of frame to include the frame you’re looking at, and the out point always marks the edit after the frame you’re looking, to include the frame you’re looking at. It always behaves this way. The down arrow key that many people use to go to the end of a shot, doesn’t actually go to the end of the shot. The down arrow key takes you to the next edit event, and what you see is the first frame of that edit event. So if you want to mark the end of a shot, you’re one frame past the end of the shot because you’re on the first frame of the next shot. So to go to the last frame of a shot you can either use Shift-O to go to the out point if that’s appropriate or use down and left arrow to go to the last frame.

All the best,

Tom

Author: “Final Cut Pro 5 Editing Essentials” and “Final Cut Express 2 Editing Workshop” Class on Demand “Complete Training for FCP5” DVD