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Post work-rush thoughts about FCP-X
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[Herb Sevush] “What precisely would be your workflow for a 5 camera shoot where some of the sources are not locked by time code? What would the sync button do for you?”
Sync the track. I’ve used it a bit, and it seems to work. But a 5 camera shoot of a concert video is worth a good test.
You’d put the media on a drive. Connect to the drive. Create the event. Select all the media from all 5 cameras. Right CLick. Sync option….wait to see what happens.
Ostensibly, a new compound clip is created with all the clips in sync, stacked on top of eachother.
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[Herb Sevush] “What precisely would be your workflow for a 5 camera shoot where some of the sources are not locked by time code? What would the sync button do for you?”
Herb was he talking about how X syncs through sound?
As long as all 5 cams had sound you wouldn’t need TC right? For me that was another selling point. Not having to worry about jamming TC anymore.
You select all 5 clips from the cams and hit sync. Line them up and use the v key to toggle the cams into the main monitor. Then break out the blade tool and start cutting.
Isn’t that how Mark did that drummer boy video. That was smok’in BTW
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[tony west] “Yes you could use your markers and notes but why couldn’t a person break down and tag out that interview like I would tag out a backwards k by Carpenter?”
I work with interviews a lot. Tagging has limited value when dealing with actuality. There’s no substitute for actually knowing exactly what words were said. Transcripts are way more important. Boris Soundbite solves one half of the problem. If someone could come up an auto-transcription program that really worked, it would be truly game changing.
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David Lawrence
art~media~design~research
propaganda.com
publicmattersgroup.com
facebook.com/dlawrence
twitter.com/dhl -
I guess I don’t understand why David.
You would still log the interview as normal.
You would note it.
But In a clip that let’s say is 50 min long a person talks about dogs in one section and cats in another.
I want to go right to the dog section within a long interview. I don’t need to know her exact words, I just want to get into the range of the topic faster.
I just interviewed a woman in different States. I tagged her in the cities first, then her topics.
It seems limitless to how detailed you could get with these tags.
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[David Lawrence] “Transcripts are way more important. Boris Soundbite solves one half of the problem. If someone could come up an auto-transcription program that really worked, it would be truly game changing.”
David,
I agree with the fundamentals of this, however, as someone who’s done a LOT of corporate interviewing over the years, I find transcripts to have their own unique limitations. They codify and subsequently expose what was said, but seldom contain a clue to how it was said.
I’ve looked up way to many quotes to discover that while the words were precisely “this is a great bottle of whiskey” when you go to look at the footage, what you actually find is “Uh…what…oh yeah, uh, this (looks at the bottle with distain) is a “great” (obviously meaning terrible as he sneers at the bottle) – long pause while he glances off camera at the PA – then sneers back at the bottle, stifles a belch – and mumbles ” bottle of whiskey.”
A transcript tells you nothing about the reality of the clip – only the words being said.
A simple keyword locking that clip into the “negative comments” collection is a whole lot more useful than any transcript.
Tho both are obviously very useful tools in many situations.
Actually, let me take this farther. If in the next line in the same interview, the guy says “Naw, I’m being harsh, this stuff – it doesn’t suck.” In X, you can label the whole thing as “negative comments.” Then range just the last three words as “positive comments.” and find each.
That’s pretty sweet.
FWIW.
“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
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[Richard Herd] “Ostensibly, a new compound clip is created with all the clips in sync, stacked on top of eachother.”
OK, now you’ve got this compound clip.
Of course first you would have scaled each clip back and re-positioned them so they are all visible as the same time; it doesn’t work if you only see one angle while your trying to cut.
So now talk me through actually dropping the correct full frame clips down on the timeline in sequence, and changing angles after your first pass, and tightening up audio as you go, because I’m not talking about a concert with a fixed length piece of audio, but rather a one hour cooking demo that has to be cut down to 9 minutes.
Or maybe you’d rather work with a real multi-cam feature, which is how all the other 6 current NLE’s handle it.
Herb Sevush
Zebra Productions
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nothin’ attached to nothin’
“Deciding the spine is the process of editing” F. Bieberkopf -
[Bill Davis] “A transcript tells you nothing about the reality of the clip – only the words being said. “
The exact words being said are a Very Big Deal.
[Bill Davis] “A simple keyword locking that clip into the “negative comments” collection is a whole lot more useful than any transcript. “
Totally disagree.
A simple keyword gives the general idea of what’s being said
Transcripts give exact words. With Soundbite, I can find them instantly. This is way more useful and the kind of detail I need when I start cutting. Tags are great as pointers, but they give much less information about the actuality.
In the end you have to listen.
There’s no substitute for actually hearing the way something is said. Especially if you need to Frankenclip a new phrase together. A word in your “reject” collection may be exactly what you need to save a phrase.
Tags are simply the top level of organization. As you drill down, transcripts, Soundbite, and listening become way more useful.
_______________________
David Lawrence
art~media~design~research
propaganda.com
publicmattersgroup.com
facebook.com/dlawrence
twitter.com/dhl -
[Bill Davis] “I find transcripts to have their own unique limitations. They codify and subsequently expose what was said, but seldom contain a clue to how it was said.”
Of course that’s true if transcripts are used in a vacuum, or if you happen to stumble upon transcripts lying in the street somewhere. But, that’s not the issue. Of course printed transcripts have to be used in conjunction with the recorded material, and sound bytes marked accordingly, just as you would have to place keywords, marks, or other metadata in your NLE of choice, whether it is FCP, X, or Avid. As David Lawrence said, “In the end you have to listen.”
On the other hand, printed transcripts can be distributed and used to collaborate with writers, producers, secretaries, P.A.s, etc. who are off-site and without computers and/or editing apps. That can be invaluable to those of us “dinosaurs” who still collaborate with others during the filmmaking process. 🙂
Considering the enormous amount of time they can save during post for so many people, transcripts are still incredibly cost-efficient when shooting and posting tons of lengthy interviews. It’s unfortunate that many newbies and experienced filmmakers think they are a waste of money, because that can be the worst example of cutting off one’s nose to spite one’s face, as the time spent in post can be the most costly there is.
Transcripts should not be considered extinct yet by any stretch. And furthermore, the metadata and database capabilities of FCPX are really not the “groundbreaking” solutions to all the difficulties of post as you and so many others like to claim. Helpful? Yes. Part of the solution? Absolutely. But, the groundbreaking answer to all our prayers that somehow justify all of those things gone missing? No way!!!
David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor/Colorist
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los Angeles
https://www.drwfilms.comDon’t miss my new Creative Cow Podcast: Bringing “The Whale” to the Big Screen:
https://library.creativecow.net/weiss_roth_david/Podcast-Series-2-MikeParfitandSuzanneChisholm/1POST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY ™
Creative COW contributing editor and a forum host of the Business & Marketing and Apple Final Cut Pro forums.
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[tony west] “Are you referring to the EVS?”
Actually I was referring to XOS ( https://www.xosdigital.com ) a company that makes software for the video departments of football and basketball teams, both pro and college (there are others competing in that market.) Yes they cost way, way, way more than 300 bucks and you need to buy different applications for each sport. For that money you get incredible speed in breaking down and archiving games with a very rich database.
I don’t think it realistic for a TV news department to have them, I was talking theoretically about the value of targeting niche areas in editing.
Just as X might be faster than say Avid in cutting sports there are other specialty programs that would be faster than X. My question is – is that the wave of the future, specific NLEs for specific tasks, or is a general purpose NLE still more valuable?
Herb Sevush
Zebra Productions
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nothin’ attached to nothin’
“Deciding the spine is the process of editing” F. Bieberkopf -
[tony west] “As long as all 5 cams had sound you wouldn’t need TC right? For me that was another selling point. Not having to worry about jamming TC anymore.”
With the present speed of sound traveling in the atmosphere (hope apple don’t change it) just 10 meters distance from camera to camera can means a 1 frame delay.
rafael
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