Philip Bloom Asks Seven Editors to Share Their FCP X Experiences

[Lance Bachelder]

I will continue to have my complaints about FCPX…and FCP 7…and Avid…and Premiere.

True words and don’t forget Vegas Pro! At least these paid Editors gave it a fair shake and tried it on some paying gigs, that’s really the only way to get into it and make a real decision.

Funny how all the haters just can’t stand that FCPX might actually catch on…

Lance Bachelder
Writer, Editor, Director
Irvine, California

[Tony West]

[Herb Sevush] “Which is why X works for you.”

Old fc worked for me also. Just not as fast because it was 32 bit

X hasn’t really changed the way I come up with my ideas.

I might be driving in my car and something will hit me. (hopefully not another car hahaha)
A song that would work with a shot.

X seems like it would work for me even if I didn’t know what I wanted because it’s so easy to slide things around. The whole auditions thing seems meant for that. Try this try that. The whole preview a look before you make it thing. That’s for when you don’t know how you want it to look. You’re trying things.

[Bill Davis]

[David Lawrence] “The Primary Storyline.”

Actually, “That spine thing” has had an industry standard name and meaning for over 20 years:

The Sequence.

(couldn’t resist either)”

Wow, must be great for cutting science fiction films.

Since I had single projects that incorporated half a dozen “sequences” from my many years with Legacy – that means I was creating beasts with half a dozen SPINES.

Yikes! Run for your lives!

(smile)

“Before speaking out ask yourself whether your words are true, whether they are respectful and whether they are needed in our civil discussions.”-Justice O’Connor

[Herb Sevush]

[Leo Hans] “If you read about people dropping FCPX all are the same: It’s iMovie Pro. What do you have to learn from that?”

I disagree.

I have found a lot to learn in the posts of Walter Biscardi, David Lawrence, Franz Bieberkopf, Walter Soyka and others who are not using X as yet, along with some editors who are really straddling the middle like Simon Ubsdell. Even Aindreas has not totally written off X as yet.

It is true that I have nothing to learn from those who have never tried X, just as I have nothing to learn from those who won’t try anything not made in Cupertino.

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

[Chris Harlan]

[Lance Bachelder] “True words and don’t forget Vegas Pro! At least these paid Editors gave it a fair shake and tried it on some paying gigs, that’s really the only way to get into it and make a real decision. “

Well, Lance some of can’t even try it yet in our paying gigs. I know, in theory, that broadcast monitoring is now in Beta, but the reports I’m reading say it is still seriously flawed. I’m sure that will be worked out, but it ain’t yet.

Also, in this thread which posts do you see as being from haters who are afraid of FCP X succeeding? I don’t see any, but maybe I missed something.

[Chris Harlan]

Bill, the term “spine” in regards to story structure is actually new to you? I’d have thought that someone with your experience had come across it many, many times.

[Bill Davis]

[Walter Soyka] “I think there are only a handful of people making an absolute argument against FCPX, just as there are a handful of people making an absolute argument for it. In the middle, reasonable people may reasonably disagree.

Fear of change is real, but not every criticism of FCPX is based on fear.”

I agree with this.

But it’s still instructive how loudly (and most of all) how FAST the vocal minority rose up against it.

My central contention has always been that most of the angst was generated by those who simply never took the time to look at the reality of the program – but merely got stuck on what they “thought” was missing – and how it that alone made them feel..

That short-sighted view (my opinion) is fading, is testament to the fact what while features have been added – the primary design of X is exactly the same as it was when it first came out.

What’s changing isn’t the program. It’s peoples’ understanding of it.

Essentially, I’m arguing that anyone who didn’t spend SIGNIFICANT time using it – was simply unable to make informed judgements about it’s capabilities. But that didn’t stop most people from popping up here and doing so.

Some took a “wait and see” attitude (you prominent among them, Walter) and always tried to achieve some balance. Others simply kept yelling about how terrible it was, long after it had shown that it was in no way “terrible” for anyone who was open to some change.

From the distance of a few months, we’re able to see it better. Software that works for many, but not all video editors.

Which is precisely what it was on “day one” of it’s release.

“Before speaking out ask yourself whether your words are true, whether they are respectful and whether they are needed in our civil discussions.”-Justice O’Connor

[Craig Seeman]

“few months . . .” misses the point. Note that most of the authors also weren’t all that keen about FCPX. This release began to change things for many people. Ask people who have actually used it extensively in the last week. I’m seeing and hearing very similar sentiments to that of the authors.

[Neil Goodman]

ill tell you, i was one of those people who balked at FCp x, and YES, the common discussion around LA at least is that most editors wont even touch it with a ten foot pole. In fact that attitude is even being adopted by students and newbies, just cause they know the more experienced are balking at it.

That said, i installed the demo last night of 10.0.3 after dabbling with the initial release and it has come a long way.. a very long way. Mainly in the feel of it, the responsiveness, etc..

i still wont be using it to cut anything anytime soon but i dont doubt in the next couple years that it becomes everything we wanted it to be and then some. When it does come to fruition, it will just be another tool in the box.

Neil Goodman: Editor of New Media Production – NBC/Universal

[Bill Davis]

[Chris Harlan] “Bill, the term “spine” in regards to story structure is actually new to you? I’d have thought that someone with your experience had come across it many, many times.”

I won’t take this as a ham-fisted attempt to cast aspersions on me, tempting as that is.

Instead, I’ll treat it as a legit question.

And answer it thus…

I’ve casually studied the concept that I think you refer to as “finding the spine” over and over in more disciplines than I’d care to remember.

It was noted when I learned “news writing” in college.
Similarly in “creative writing” and even “poetry” classes.
When I started writing and voicing video narrations, early in my career, I remember actually using the word itself – (I think the paragraph was something along the line of “to a homebuilder, the HVAC system is often the spine that determines subsequent room layout and location” – something I scribbled about 25 years ago in a homebuilder script.
And, of course, the term “spine” is pretty useful in the medical narrations I’ve done over the years. (yuk, yuk)

It’s a nice “utility” metaphor since everyone has one, I guess.

I think I understand the “search to reveal the spine” way that you and Fritz are coming at it. And I appreciate the value of a process like that. I just don’t think it’s always the way projects need to be assembled.

Sometimes “searching” for the storyline is smart. Sometimes something else DEMANDS a particular storyline. Give me a project outline – I’ll find my own spine. Give me a script – I’ll try to deliver one close to the one the script reveals. Give me a work of art (remember the discussion of Dr. Seuss?) and I’ll lay that down without altering a word and work around the exiting “spine” because to do otherwise would presume that I could do it better – and frankly, I don’t know anyone who can out-write Mr. Giesell.

So “approach to the spine” is yet another thing that I don’t see as as “constrained” a thing as you might.

Or put more simply, sometimes I need to “search” for the spine via my editing, and some times, frankly, I don’t.

There you go.

(grin)

“Before speaking out ask yourself whether your words are true, whether they are respectful and whether they are needed in our civil discussions.”-Justice O’Connor