Merry Christmas

[Simon Ubsdell]

[James Ewart] “Pretty dull not being able to go into the middle of an edit and remove a few seconds here and there without going down a generation. And a limit to how often you could do that. Very restrictive way of editing.”

Yes, film was great in this respect – no generation loss, adjust timings whenever and wherever you wanted.

Somebody please bring it back 😉

Simon Ubsdell
http://www.tokyo-uk.com

[James Ewart]

and you don’t feel comfortable in FCPX?

I think a lot of it is habits and who we get used to working. It’s a bloody pain having to learn a new set of shortcuts and doing things a different way when they way you did it before worked perfectly.

X looked ridiculous to me at first.

Now 7 looks prehistoric.

That said I am not under massive time pressure most of the time.

It goes as fast as I can think.

[James Ewart]

… only got involved with lo band Umatic edits (with no TBC) and found it incredibly laborious.

Of course Avid was the saviour (and Lightworks) but I found it too complicated for my brain.

I downloaded a trail Media compose when I was struggling with FCPX and still found the interface really confusing.

So maybe FCPX is a better tool for us “thickos” (that’s not meant to sound chippy)

[James Ewart]

“no generation loss” Except for opticals.

[David Powell]

I tried cutting a project on it, but the track patching drove me crazy. Another thing I always hated about 7.
Spent time going through the tutorials and searching online but I couldn’t get answers as to whether or not there was a similar auto patch function or not. With X in the toolbox I didn’t see much that would pull me from Avid to Premiere.

I do like the fact that X is so different I can jump from both applications without losing muscle memory.

Jumping from one track based editor to another its a pain though.

[David Powell]

James I should have said the shooter editors I’ve come across. Most of the ones I dealt with were primary shooters but hired others to cut. But they knew enough fcp 7 to put together a rough cut with no fuss. I believe this is a selling point for X. Producers who aren’t editors can get the basics without a steep learning curve and make selects.

X is deep. But the toolset is not yet as deep as its competitors. You can’t even consolidate a project with used media. There no tracker system. No keyframable speedramps. Bezier handles. Audio Mixer. You know the list. Its got some outstanding features but is way behind the curve on some basics. Many which are in 7.

I really meant no offense. There are plenty of shooters who know there software well. Plenty of editors who don’t. Storytelling is the sellable skill.

I will edit that out of the post.

[James Ewart]

I leave the audio mix to the audio pros.

I tell the story.

[David Powell]

Michael do you know the name of that command off hand? I could only find a “go to next edit” command similar to Avid’s ffwd, but not one that actually puts you in a trim stance. I would love to know that it exists. So many names of features change from platform. I wish there was a common parlance. Bravo to Apple for adding Top/Tail, btw. That was a most welcome trim tool.

[Misha Aranyshev]

Select Edit is V (watch for your Auto Select and Linked Selection Settings). The nearest edit will be highlighted and the playhead will jump to it. From there you can either call the Trim Window with Command-7 for two-up view or simply hit Backslash and trim with [ and ]. The length of pre-roll and post-roll for play around current are adjustable in the User Preferences.

[David Powell]

It sounds like you’re referring to fcp7. I was referring to fcpX. Yes I believe 7 did have a select edit function. Far as I know it doesn’t exist in X. You have to go to next edit then select edge. You can’t go straight to trimming. Its faster with the mouse in X.