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Musings on FCPX’s most powerful feature.
Having recently finished cutting a long form doc on wine with hours of field footage in record time, I realized the ability to rapidly skim through the footage clips in the event library, then directly input and outpoint edit points, was a tremendous help. I realize I could do this in 7 but the implementation of this technique in X was much quicker and accurate. Perhaps this is FCPX’s strongest feature offering to date.
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100 Replies
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[Don Scioli] “Perhaps this is FCPX’s strongest feature offering to date.”
Sadly, it’s traditionally been a capability that editors who simply try to “learn” X by launching a timeline and studying how X’s storyline operations work – tend to push way down their learning curve.
They also used to tend to come here and yell about how lame X is as an editing process before they ever understood that there actually WAS an event library and how X’s coordinated editing functions actually work in consort with it.
But things are better now.
The people who don’t like X now are increasingly that smaller group for whom it’s unique attributes just aren’t relevant – which is fair, in my estimation. I think we’re finally beyond the stage where people trash it just because the timeline doesn’t work like the one in Legacy.
Well, most people. ; )
So that’s progress!
Know someone who teaches video editing in elementary school, high school or college? Tell them to check out http://www.StartEditingNow.com – video editing curriculum complete with licensed practice content.
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[Don Scioli] ” I realize I could do this in 7 but the implementation of this technique in X was much quicker and accurate”
There was nothing even remotely similar to this function in FCP 7.
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[Bret Williams] “There was nothing even remotely similar to this function in FCP 7.”
You can scrub through thumbnails in 7. I think that may be what he meant.
Tim
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[Bill Davis] “The people who don’t like X now are increasingly that smaller group for whom it’s unique attributes just aren’t relevant “
Whether that group is smaller or larger has never been established. Your stating it does not make it so. Otherwise, a reasonable posting.
Herb Sevush
Zebra Productions
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nothin’ attached to nothin’
“Deciding the spine is the process of editing” F. Bieberkopf -
Herb,
Let’s please have another discussion about made-up numbers.
That’s Numberwang!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXZKv6CT2aQFranz.
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Yes, but you can only scrub the thumbnail in list view, not in icon view. And you can’t set ins and outs on the thumbs either. Have to click on them to scrub as well. Plus, they’re literally the size of a thumbnail.
The finder is actually a much more efficient and powerful way to preview media in FCP 7 land. Before I switched over to X I found myself using the finder to search clips. The icons could be huge, and all you had to do was press the spacebar and then arrow left right up down through the clips.
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To me and alot of others, theres no denying the skimmer is great, and lots of other features are amazing but the timeline still needs tons and tons of work, and imo thats the most important feature.
Neil Goodman: Editor of New Media Production – NBC/Universal
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“Numberwang” Franz? Brilliant!
Steve Connor
‘It’s just my opinion, with an occasional fact thrown in for good measure” -
[Steve Connor] “”Numberwang” Franz? Brilliant!
“Indeed! I think that the forum’s thumbs-down button should be replaced with an icon of someone with the “NO” sack over their head.
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[Neil Goodman] “but the timeline still needs tons and tons of work, and imo thats the most important feature.”
If your orientation remains that editing begins and ends in the timeline, I’d fully agree.
The whole point about X is that it’s built to challenge that historical view.
In X, your editing can easily begin in the event browser. And if you understand that, when you finally get into a storyline, you can conceivably have an extremely large amount of your actual editing already done.
This is one way X can drive immense efficiency.
But you’ve got to understand the difference in order to benefit from it – and it’s still my contention that most editors who have trouble with X (not ALL, but most) do so because they’ve not yet come to understand this new two stage process.
FWIW.
Know someone who teaches video editing in elementary school, high school or college? Tell them to check out http://www.StartEditingNow.com – video editing curriculum complete with licensed practice content.
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