question about FCPX naming conventions

[Rick Lang]

Tom, Craig, and others comments have eloquently answered the questions you asked me earlier.

Just remember though, an Event is not limited to the media of one Project. You could (but who in their right mind would) put your lifetime’s video media in one Event and produce hundreds of Projects, including James Cameron’s next opus, using the same default Event folder. At the other extreme, as Tom mentioned, your Project could be associated with only one Event and all your unique projects would have corresponding unique event folders. But you may not stick to that method if you don’t want that. In reality, you’ll likely use a few Event folders (at least one unique and others with shared media) for each project. After a while, it’ll all be second nature and you’ll whiz around all your events as source material for your current project.

If this sounds chaotic, as was mentioned earlier, when you SAVE the project by using DUPLICATE for a snapshot in time, you can chose to save only the project edit information (small amount of information) or the project with the subset of clips used by the project timeline or the project with the Event media used in the project. Hope I have that right…

Rick Lang

iMac 27” 2.8GHz i7 16GB

[Andrew Richards]

Attempt at Drawing Parallels

Events are kind of like global bins, since the media lives inside them (logically, if not physically). The big difference is that media is sub-organized entirely by metadata filtered lists instead of spatially by placing media in bins.

Projects in FCPX are a lot like Sequences in legacy FCP. There is essentially one timeline per FCPX Project. Projects must be associated to a default Event to exist at all, but any media from any Event can be used in any Project. The closest analog to legacy FCP I can think of would be to think of FCPX’s Project Library as being like an always-open master project in legacy FCP that you store all your sequences in.

Instead of bins, Events contain Keyword Collections and Smart Collections. With bins in legacy FCP, if you drag a clip into a bin it moved into the bin. In FCPX, when you add a Keyword to a clip, the clip is listed in the corresponding Keyword Collection, but it can also be in other Keyword Collections and still appears at the root of the Event. If you use Gmail and organize your email with Labels, this is much the same principal. Smart Collections let you define a filter that will dynamically fill the Smart Collection with any clip matching the filter. If you’ve ever used Smart Folders in the Finder or Smart Playlists in iTunes, Smart Collections are much the same concept.

You can make Folders in both the Project and Event Libraries. In the case of the Project Library, you are able to create folder trees to organize your Projects much as you would in the Finder. Event Folders can only be used to organize Keyword Collections and Smart Collections. You can’t put media in an Event Folder like you could in a Bin with legacy FCP (cue jeers).

Keywords can tag pieces of a clip, and this essentially replaces subclips.

The Motion tab of the Viewer in legacy FCP is essentially replaced by the Inspector in FCPX. The Inspector is more universal though, and its contents changes contextually depending on what is highlighted. The legacy Filters tab is also replaced with the Inspector for certain contexts.

The Effects tab in the legacy FCP Browser is replaced by the Effects Browser drawer in FCPX. There are dedicated drawers for Titles, Generators, Themes, Transitions, Music & Sound, and Photos. Music & Sound and Photos catch flak for referencing iTunes and iPhoto by default, but the Music & Sound Browser has a pulldown that you can sue to point it at any stock audio library you have on your Mac with search and preview right in the drawer. The Photo Browser also plays with Aperture Libraries.

There is dual monitor support, but no tear-away tabs. You can send either the Event Library or the Viewer to a second display. Everything else is married to the main window.

Speaking of the Viewer, there is only one instead of the old Viewer/Canvas two headed layout. There is a two-up view available when trimming, but it is highly contextual.

Some Relevant Opinions

My chief concern is that a serious workstation will accumulate a lot of Events and Projects and having the system always showing them all the time seems like it could eventually overwhelm the application. But I haven’t seen this happen, and it probably would depend a lot on how much RAM the host Mac has and how fast the storage is. Regardless, I submitted a feedback requesting a way to hide Projects and Events in a more elegant manner than the current workaround.

I don’t think a dedicated Viewer/Canvas is essential (many around here vehemently disagree with me). I do say Apple needs to be more liberal with the two-up view available for trimming operations and expand it to be available any time the Precision Editor is engaged. I have submitted this as a Feedback request as well.

There ought to be a way to turn off GUI animations, some of them are quite gratuitous.

I like how dragging Projects and Events from drive to drive within FCPX facilitates passing work among multiple computers or editors. Now they just need to enable shared Event and Project Libraries on shared storage…

I like how color correction is not a filter, but rather a core adjustment for any clip (like scale or opacity).

In general, I like the idea of a GUI that morphs to suit the context of the work being done at any given time.

Best,
Andy

[Andrew Richards]

[Herb Sevush] “The idea that a single Event is at the heart of the editing process is a strange one. It does seem like it relates to the story about the Imovie vacation video.”

Don’t get caught up in the semantics though, they are only named Events. Functionally speaking, they are logical containers for media that you can chose to correlate to any organization scheme you wish. There is a date and time default in the UI for sorting Events, but that can be disabled.

Compartmentalize what the interface elements are called from what they can do, and FCPX starts to look a lot less consumery.

Best,
Andy

[Herb Sevush]

Actually one of the reasons I started this thread WAS to discus the semantics. I believe the designer’s choices in the naming of things tells a lot about their vision for X, precisely because those names are so different from industry norms. I realize that no one is married to the designers intent, but I find it useful in evaluating what the future development might be.

Herb Sevush
Zebra Productions

[Tom Wolsky]

“I don’t think a dedicated Viewer/Canvas is essential”

I haven’t tried it, still to early, but we need to find a good workflow for dialog and interviews without a gang function. With only one viewer ganging is obsolete. I’m not sure if Apple will find a solution for this using some multicam-type mechanism.

All the best,

Tom

Class on Demand DVDs “Complete Training for FCP7,” “Basic Training for FCS” and “Final Cut Express Made Easy”
Coming in 2011 “Complete Training for FCPX”
and “Final Cut Pro X for iMovie and Final Cut Express Users” from Focal Press

[Andrew Richards]

[Herb Sevush] “Actually one of the reasons I started this thread WAS to discus the semantics. I believe the designer’s choices in the naming of things tells a lot about their vision for X, precisely because those names are so different from industry norms. I realize that no one is married to the designers intent, but I find it useful in evaluating what the future development might be.”

Certainly, and I posted at length attempting to translate the semantics elsewhere on the thread. I don’t think there is a lot to read into the names of UI elements though. What about the Canvas in legacy FCP? Its name has no industry norm to align with.

I agree the designers introduced an artificial barrier to understanding and a far more abstract metaphor, but I wouldn’t read much into the names of the UI elements in terms of hints at future development.

Best,
Andy

[Herb Sevush]

I’m not being paranoid about this naming thing, I just find it interesting. Maybe after 20 years in analysis I have learned to take insignificant things seriously, and serious things humorously.

You bring up the name “Canvas” in FCP. It’s pretty obvious that the concept was “a blank canvas” in which you could create anything. It’s not better or worse than something like “Event”, it’s just a clue into a thought process.

I never understood why an NLE would run from the simple and descriptive “Source” and “Record” monitor of TV production. Everyone in the business at the time understood it and new kids could learn it as easily as “Viewer” and “Canvas.” Obviously the designers back then were stone cold ignorant of editing conventions and were not interested in feedback from editors. Which also seems to be the case with X.

Herb Sevush
Zebra Productions

[Andrew Richards]

[Tom Wolsky] “I haven’t tried it, still to early, but we need to find a good workflow for dialog and interviews without a gang function.”

From Apple’s own documentation for FCP7:

Final Cut Pro has several options for synchronizing, or ganging, the Viewer and Canvas/Timeline playheads together, so that if you move one, the other moves by the same amount. When the playheads are synchronized, you can control the playheads from the Viewer, Canvas, or Timeline. Playhead sync only works between the Canvas and Timeline windows and the Viewer window.

Why Synchronize Playheads?

Reasons for using playhead sync include:

• Automatically opening sequence clips in the Viewer to quickly make filter adjustments (for example, adjusting each sequence clip’s Color Correction filter).
• Using the Viewer as an alternative to the Trim Edit window, to look at prospective new In and Out points for a sequence clip. Although the end result is the same, this method provides a different experience than editing in the Timeline or the two-up view you see in the Canvas while trimming.
• Temporarily syncing a Browser clip to a sequence, using any sync relationship you want.
• Enabling real-time multiclip editing. When the Multiclip Playback option is selected, the Open playhead sync option is automatically selected.

You can see implicit agreement about ganging being obsolete in the new UI if you consider the following:

• Filter adjustments and keyframing is handled in the Inspector and Timeline, not in dedicated tabs of a dedicated Viewer.
• The Precision Editor is the new way to fine tune an existing edit in the Timeline, though I say they need a two-up display on all the time while this is engaged (presently it is only there wile the Trim tool is actively manipulating a clip).
• Multi-clip is coming, and will probably use some variation on the two-up look you get during Trim operations.

Not saying there aren’t other uses for ganging, but if that is all Apple thinks of ganging you can see why they would consider it obsolete when everything else is designed to work sans-Viewer.

Best,
Andy

[Tom Wolsky]

This product is the logical extension of iMovie. This is the product iMovie users would step up to. It uses the terminology these users are familiar with.

All the best,

Tom

Class on Demand DVDs “Complete Training for FCP7,” “Basic Training for FCS” and “Final Cut Express Made Easy”
Coming in 2011 “Complete Training for FCPX”
and “Final Cut Pro X for iMovie and Final Cut Express Users” from Focal Press

[Chris Kenny]

[Herb Sevush] “The only way it seems to make sense is in the way you laid it out – “What is the Event that you want to make your movie about? – your kids birthday, your trip to Spain, etc.” A very youtube way to think of video production.”

People are reading far too much into this naming. The word “Event” can refer to anything that is bounded in time, and virtually all video shoots start and end at specific points in time.

I think they’re mostly called ‘Events’ because what else were they going to be called? Projects? But they’re not, since they only contain source media. Libraries? And the thing that holds them is now called the Library Library? Collections? But they contain things called Collections. Archives? Vaults? Those feel like they’d be related to backup, not material you’re actively working with. Hey, if the thing you put them in is called a Library, and they hold items, maybe they could be called Shelves? Well, no, nobody thinks of organizing source media on shelves. Bins? Those are something else.

‘Events’ is not an ideal word, but there doesn’t really seem to be a better one.

—
Digital Workflow/Colorist, Nice Dissolve.

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