Metaphors and terminology

[Jeremy Garchow]

I think Shakespeare said it best when there’s a thin line between love and roses.

Or was it Radio Raheem that said, A hate by another name would still smell as sweet?

I don’t know.

I have had zero problems with the name changes in X with all my collaborators. The trick is to know your audience. Actually, using the words “send me your Project” continues to makes sense. I know this forum has talked about it before, but I think Apple was right to buck convention. Even through a very public berating of FCPX, a lot of the core editing concepts released on that fateful day in June 2011 have largely remained unchanged (a lot has changed with the app, and the core concepts have now taken on new and deeper meanings, but the timeline is still trackless). I think Apple engineers and product managers are sticking to this design, at least for a while.

It happens in other places, too. For instance in Prelude, the Rough Cut isn’t really a rough cut, it’s an assembly/string out at best, and nowhere near what I would consider a rough cut form in today’s terminology and expectation levels.

You could say similar things about the meaning of the word “reel”, yet it persists.

I don’t know how you feel, but things have changed in this business and I think it’s OK to change some of the terminology to suit those changes.

I know I bring this up a lot, but all I have to do is look at my 3 year old and see where he is starting from and the tools that will be available to interact with and make sense of, the issues of his time for better or worse, hopefully better.

When I was born, almost everything was shot on film. When my dad was born, everything was shot on film. While quality and color improved, the medium and shorthand still remained largely unchanged between those times. The same is simply untrue between my son and me. There is a massive gap between three year old me, and my three year old son. Communication has completely changed and is greatly accelerated, and if one believes film (the Royal use of the word film) is a language or perhaps a form of cultural communication, then of course, the tools and terminology will change with it and of course they should change with it.

I don’t know if X was conceived to deal with any of that, my guess is not really, but the termoninology changes do make sense to me on a purely philosophical level, even if they don’t necessarily work for everyone on a literal level.

[Noah Kadner]

A lot of editors argue “Bins” are more appropriate than “Events.” And yet when was the last time you hung a strip of celluloid over a canvas bin? “Decades ago” or “never” are the most common answers.

That versus capturing media from an event of some sort: commercial, concept, feature film, etc with a camera. The real challenge/annoyance is that different applications use different terms to refer to essentially similar functionality and that’s confusing.

Noah

FCPWORKS – FCPX Workflow
FCP eXchange – FCPX Workshops

[Andrew Kimery]

[Noah Kadner] “A lot of editors argue “Bins” are more appropriate than “Events.” And yet when was the last time you hung a strip of celluloid over a canvas bin? “Decades ago” or “never” are the most common answers. “

A bin, like a folder, is a container you put things in so putting virtual media in a virtual container is a an analogy that’s easy for most people to follow. Especially since folders, desktops, windows, etc., have been a part of the computing experience for decades now.

On the flip side, to most people an event is a thing that happens, not a place you store stuff. For example, I shot footage of an event and stored that footage in a bin. Computers don’t technically need virtual containers to hold virtual stuff so one could argue that the Events in X remove a layer of unnecessary abstraction tied to days-gone-by, but on the flip side why toss a way of approaching things that is already accepted and widely understood?

For example, X still uses things like sprocket holes and a razor blade icon because those bits of skeuomorphic UI design still effectively communicate the desired information to the user.

[Noah Kadner] “The real challenge/annoyance is that different applications use different terms to refer to essentially similar functionality and that’s confusing.”

Like ‘project’? 😉

[Phil Lowe]

[Noah Kadner] “The real challenge/annoyance is that different applications use different terms to refer to essentially similar functionality and that’s confusing.
“

For some reason, I seriously doubt Avid and Adobe are going to bend to Apple’s new nomenclature just to avoid confusion. 😉

[Herb Sevush]

[Andrew Kimery] “For example, X still uses things like sprocket holes and a razor blade icon because those bits of skeuomorphic UI design still effectively communicate the desired information to the user.”

This.

Herb Sevush
Zebra Productions
—————————
nothin’ attached to nothin’
“Deciding the spine is the process of editing” F. Bieberkopf

[Herb Sevush]

[Jeremy Garchow] ” all I have to do is look at my 3 year old and see where he is starting from and the tools that will be available to interact with and make sense of, the issues of his time for better or worse, hopefully better.”

My how time passes. I remember in the early days of this forum when you were still expecting. No wonder you don’t post that much anymore – a 3 year old is a handful. Delightful, magical, full of wonder – but definitely a handful.

Herb Sevush
Zebra Productions
—————————
nothin’ attached to nothin’
“Deciding the spine is the process of editing” F. Bieberkopf

[Scott Witthaus]

[Andrew Kimery] “why toss a way of approaching things that is already accepted and widely understood?”

Does the “I would have built a faster horse” analogy work here? 😉

IMHO, those older terms we used in Avid, EMC and the like were pretty damn new too at one point, but we seemed to get over that pretty well….

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

[Craig Seeman]

[Oliver Peters] “I just wonder what others think about this and FCPX’s positioning versus “establish” concepts, terms, analogies, and metaphors.”

The biggest challenge is the lack of translation in the User Guide. Imagine an editor coming from any other NLE trying to search for “Match Frame.” It just isn’t there and they have absolutely no easy way to know what the equivalent feature is in FCPX. Such editor might leave in frustration with the mistaken believe that such function doesn’t exist.

[Herb Sevush]

[Scott Witthaus] “Does the “I would have built a faster horse” analogy work here? ;-)”

Yes, but then you have to establish that you are clearly much faster, otherwise you are just a horse of a different color.

[Scott Witthaus] “those older terms we used in Avid, EMC and the like were pretty damn new too at one point, but we seemed to get over that pretty well….”

Both Avid and EMC used existing terminology as much as possible to smooth the transition for film and linear tape editors. Since the technology was so totally different they wanted to hand-hold the new users as much as possible. With FCPX, since the technology is only subtly different Apple seems to want to use new terminology to emphasize those differences.

Herb Sevush
Zebra Productions
—————————
nothin’ attached to nothin’
“Deciding the spine is the process of editing” F. Bieberkopf

[Don Walker]

[Craig Seeman] “Imagine an editor coming from any other NLE trying to search for “Match Frame.” It just isn’t there and they have absolutely no easy way to know what the equivalent feature is in FCPX.”

One reason that the term “Match Frame” isn’t there (IMHO), is that the Match Frame function as I remember from my linear/AVID/FCP7 days doesn’t really exist in FCPX.

don walker
texarkana, texas

John 3:16