Missing FCPX Features

[Tim Wilson]

Hi Oliver,

Since you’re one of the folks here who works with multiple systems, I’d love to hear your specific thoughts. Are there Avid features that YOU miss when you’re in FCPX?

Does Premiere Pro ever make you miss it when you’re in either FCPX or Avid? I’ve tried to make that sound less snarky, because I don’t mean it to be. I’m just acknowledging that it’s not unusual to work in all three, or add Resolve to make four.

I know that many, many people hear lament everything that they miss from FCPX when they’re in other NLEs, but I hope (as with this very pro-FCPX fellow) that we’re far enough along that nobody will feel an overwhelming need to ride to FCPX’s “defense”. No defense needed because no offense implied. Everything has its advantages for some people and contexts, which means that it has disadvantages for others, or none of this means anything.

So, as one of poly-est polyglots, how does all this work out for YOU?

[Oliver Peters]

I work in FCPX, MC, PPro, and Resolve and there’s pretty much something in each that I miss when I’m in one of the others. Since I tend to work with other editors, Premiere Pro is generally the common language for us and I tend to find it the closest to the style in which I like to work. But then I miss fluid skimming and especially skimming on clips in the bin.

I also like the customizability of the MC and PPro UI. And I miss actual track mixers when I’m in FCPX. As far as Avid MC, the biggest thing is when I have to work in a true team collaboration on the same project. Nothing still matches what Avid does, even with PPro Productions. As far as specific features, though, there are more things in PPro that I would bring to FCPX than there are things in Avid MC.

But there’s plenty about FCPX that I like and I use it as often as the project situation warrants. I just know that I will not be able to hand off something I’ve started in FCPX to any of my colleagues. That might be different in other markets and/or other shops.

However, I also know FCPX is what it is. I know Apple has a different approach, so I’ve long given up on seeing a real track mixer in some version of FCPX down the road. Those that think a 10.5 is going to be some revolutionary new version with all of the features they think they want just haven’t been paying attention. So I try to appreciate it for what it is and work around what it isn’t

[Neil Goodman]

Havent tried to use FCPX for quite some time because lets be real – no ones asking me to 🙂 but I agree with alot of this, and Ill add my biggest one – TRIMMING.

FCPX trim is just not even close. Even Premiere which I loathe does it better.

[Tony West]

I like his list and his videos. The only one I’m not sure about is 11. He looks to be grouping clips in a bin in Avid but X is designed to group clips by keywords so I wonder why he wouldn’t just tag them and group them that way instead of wanting to move the clips themselves around. I also wonder if he uses the filmstrip mode in X instead of the single frame poster stamp look that other NLEs use. I can see more in the X filmstrip mode, for example I can see where she turns that bird toward the camera. As opposed to the Stamp look. I see this as more of an advantage than a shortcoming.

[Oliver Peters]

It’s a pretty common way for Media Composer editors to work. There are no constraints to clip organization within the bin in the frame view. Media Composer has 3 bin views as well as ScriptSync (an option). So in the frame view you have freeform control over clip position. Premiere also added this a few versions back. So it’s a visual method of organizing, which many editors like.

If you want to sort using something like Favorites, Keywords, or Smart Collections in Media Composer, then you can enter custom info in a column with the bin in list view. Then sort by that column. MC actually allows for a two-level sort.

There’s also Custom Sift, which is a mode to show/hide clips based on custom criteria. Let’s say you have a ratings column with an X for a circle take. Then Sift by any clip with an X in that column and all other clips in the bin are hidden – much like show/hide favorites.

The biggest advantage that FCPX has with Keywords is the ability to have the same clip show up in more than just one Keyword collection. As well as to have clip ranges appear. You could do something similar in Media Composer, but that would require creating subclips.

I absolutely agree with the benefits of seeing the filmstrip.

[Tony West]

I’m guessing it’s pretty common to work that way in MC because there is no filmstrip mode in the program or in Pr either. While it has those 3 view options, none of them are showing me what I really want to see most. That video made me wonder how many people are using “Stamp mode” in X for their clips and not taking advantage of the visual information that X offers. I’m all for Apple adding thing to make my edit more efficient, but adding the ability to push “stamp frames” around a bin when X doesn’t even really have “bins” seems a waste. Work on that mixer instead : )

[Oliver Peters]

While MC doesn’t have a filmstrip view, you can scrub through the thumbnails and use JKL playback within the frame. Same as Premiere’s “hover scrubbing.” But to get a better sense of how and why Avid editors use this view, check out some of the many interviews with feature film editors who cut with Avid.

Since it’s freeform, each editor has their own way of making the bin layout work best for them. Check out these links about Eddie Hamilton. Note the image in the first link that shows the bin layout on the left display.

http://www.avidblogs.com/kingsman/

http://www.avidblogs.com/eddie-hamilton-editor-mission-impossible-rogue-nation/

But an FCPX mixer? Don’t hold your breath

[Oliver Peters]

PS: I’m not quite sure what you are calling “stamp” view. But this article might be helpful in regards to using FCPX for a feature.

https://www.fcp.co/final-cut-pro/articles/1895-organising-and-managing-480-hours-of-footage-in-fcpx-editing-one-of-europe-s-major-feature-films-of-2017

[Tony West]

Thanks Oliver, I actually asked him directly on the Youtube page and he gave me a very thoughtful response. I’ve come around a bit on it because even pushing all the way down to a single frame in X it still retains the data of favorites and used in timeline (which I use all the time). He’s kind of pushing for a combination for both. X could add the freeform and Avid could add the used and favorite data. It could look like this…….

[Tony West]

I joking call it that when you are zoomed so far down you are looking at one frame until you skim. I just like to see more because I can in X. I see him pointing at his neck and I know that’s the section where he’s talking about the Owl’s vertebra. I don’t have to skim and look for it, I can see it right there and go to it faster. I guess I’m impatient