-
Oh dear, we will switch to fcpx!
Finally, my friends. We will switch from fcp7 to X at our shop. We do mostly Documentaries and some PR/Corporate videos.
The pain of missing tracks, the missing features (Keyframing) and the, quite frankly infantile language (Events?) and messy timeline (what are all those compulsory Spaghettis-Links for?) is for the moment outweighed by good will, hope for speed, easiness and curiosity.
I never thought it would come to this, but I promise, I will report back in a year or so…
Final Cut Pro 7, you will be missed! (except of course your “estimated” rendering time:)
-
91 Replies
-
Good luck, Mark. Many of us are using it successfully and enjoying the process. “We Love X!”
However, I feel your uneasiness. A lot of people here don’t mind or fret over the garbled language — Libraries, Projects, Events — which work fine but perversely scramble the logic of editing. But it bothers me. Years of making movies tells me that I have a Project in which I try out different Sequences using clips from my Bins (or Reels, or Clip Collections).
It IS of concern because it possibly expresses Apple’s overall intent to keep X skewed consumer and not so much pro. “Events” is a concept shared with the Instamatic-like iPhoto app, and makes you feel that Apple sees everyone as a Mom & Pop Home Movie Maker, who in turn see the stuff that comes out of their camera as an important “Event” in their lives: Baby’s first step, Grandma’s birthday, Vacation at the Shore etc.
Couple that with Tim Cook’s scary pronouncement the other day, speaking about the new IBM enterprise partnership, and the fact that Tim personally does 80% of his work on an iPad: “There’s no reason why everyone shouldn’t be like that. Imagine enterprise apps being as simple as the consumer apps that we’ve all gotten used to. That’s the way it should be” …
Maybe there will be an enterprise version of FCPX that uses “Campaigns, Strategies and Resources.”
Doug D
-
Don’t worry so much about the switch. Once you get into, you will find the power of FCPX that makes it much faster and more effective than FCP7.
Suggestions would be to get Ripple Training and also not try to make your X work like FCP7. I don’t even think in terms of tracks anymore and when I do edit on FCP7, PP or MC, tracks seem to get in the way.
Good luck and have fun!
Scott Witthaus
Senior Editor/Post Production Supervisor
1708 Inc./Editorial
Professor, VCU Brandcenter -
[Mark Snow] “The pain of missing tracks, the missing features (Keyframing) and the, quite frankly infantile language (Events?) and messy timeline (what are all those compulsory Spaghettis-Links for?) is for the moment outweighed by good will, hope for speed, easiness and curiosity.”
Hopefully, you’ll quickly find you like the new way of timeline organization. I personally am much faster with the FCP X timeline than I ever was using tracks (I’ve been editing for 20 years). And I do similar kind of projects to what you do. As far as I am concerned, there simply is no better documentary editor than FCP X.
Sometimes I wonder if those who can’t handle the FCP X timeline have difficulty learning new things. Or they’re just impatient. It really was no problem for me.
-
[Brett Sherman] “I wonder if those who can’t handle the FCP X timeline have difficulty learning new things. Or they’re just impatient”
Or perhaps you just might want to consider if, and this is purely conjecture of course, they might have (emphasis on might) a somewhat different editing style than yours, different editing priorities you might say; one that isn’t as conducive to the X paradigm. Of course your probably right, they’re probably impatient, learning disabled neanderthals, but what the hell, why not give some of them the benefit of the doubt.
Herb Sevush
Zebra Productions
—————————
nothin’ attached to nothin’
“Deciding the spine is the process of editing” F. Bieberkopf -
[Douglas K. Dempsey] “It IS of concern because it possibly expresses Apple’s overall intent to keep X skewed consumer and not so much pro. “Events” is a concept shared with the Instamatic-like iPhoto app, and makes you feel that Apple sees everyone as a Mom & Pop Home Movie Maker, who in turn see the stuff that comes out of their camera as an important “Event” in their lives: Baby’s first step, Grandma’s birthday, Vacation at the Shore etc.”
Have you played with Resolve? I was playing with the transform tools. I wanted to move the x position and the y positions. I couldn’t find them anywhere! Nothing labeled position or X or Y! Oh, wait, there’s “PAN” and “TILT.” WTF? We can’t all agree on x and y position? There’s not even a virtual camera involved and they gotta call it pan and tilt, which is of course completely inaccurate in a 2D world anyway. Might as well call it scroll and crawl.
-
[Mark Snow] “The pain of missing tracks, the missing features (Keyframing) and the, quite frankly infantile language (Events?) and messy timeline (what are all those compulsory Spaghettis-Links for?) is for the moment outweighed by good will, hope for speed, easiness and curiosity.”
I used to miss tracks at the beginning but now they seem to get in the way. Sure, tracks might be of some use for certain things but the timeline strategy in X works great. Will take getting use to but it is just plain awesome.
Agree with you on keyframes, which has never been a strong point of Final Cut Pro (any version) or with that of another NLE of choice. Motion and After Effects are much better suited, still learning them in Resolve 11 at the moment.
As far as libraries, events, and projects go, this was something else that caused initial confusion. After watching a few videos, it began to make sense. Projects in FCP X are the timeline, the sequence and should not be confused with the terminology used in versions previous. I name the events in the context of the overall program and associated media. For example, a vacation video would have events with the location we went to, keywords would then further organize the clips.
I am an avid user of FCP X!
-
[Brett Sherman] “Sometimes I wonder if those who can’t handle the FCP X timeline have difficulty learning new things. Or they’re just impatient. It really was no problem for me.
“Yes, so many of the editors that I know that started cutting on physical film and then moved to a linear bay and then moved to an NLE like Avid and then moved to FCP Legend and are now moving on again lack the proper temperament and mental faculties to learn new things.
The ‘If you don’t like X you must be a dumb dinosaur’ tropes need to die.
-
[Mark Snow] “Finally, my friends. We will switch from fcp7 to X at our shop. We do mostly Documentaries and some PR/Corporate videos.”
Certainly keep us posted, Mark. I mainly do long form unscripted work so I’m always curious to hear how effectively X tackles that type of work.
-
[Brett Sherman] “Sometimes I wonder if those who can’t handle the FCP X timeline have difficulty learning new things. Or they’re just impatient. It really was no problem for me.”
Brett,
This doesn’t really add to the conversation.
If you are genuinely interested in why some don’t want to use X, ask. You’ll get answers.
Franz.
-
[Bret Williams] “Nothing labeled position or X or Y! Oh, wait, there’s “PAN” and “TILT.” WTF? We can’t all agree on x and y position? There’s not even a virtual camera involved and they gotta call it pan and tilt, which is of course completely inaccurate in a 2D world anyway. Might as well call it scroll and crawl.”
lol – okay, I thought I was the only one bothered by that… technically, they should call it dolly(L/R) and crane(up/down), if they want to use the nomenclature of camera movement… but I agree, it makes a LOT more sense to use 2D coordinates than virtual camera moves (and the wrong ones at that).
Shawn
Reply to this Discussion! Login or Sign Up