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Real time multi scopes in FCPX
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[Gary Huff] “[Bill Davis] “But other than that, when I’m editing, I want to concentrate on content – not engineering.”
I find that when people say they prefer to concentrate on the “art” rather than the “craft”, they rarely can deliver on either.
“Bill’s original comment was perfectly valid, many editors don’t concentrate on the levels and corrections until the final pass, that’s what he said his workflow was.
Not sure that justifies the comment you made.
Steve Connor
There’s nothing we can’t argue about on the FCPX COW Forum
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I don’t think the bulk of this thread is in keeping with the one rule of this forum [link], “no posts about other posters.” Let’s elevate the tone.
Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events -
[Jeremy Garchow] “Do you just have the scopes positioned behind the FCPX layout?
Is this using ScopeLink? How does that work, is it a filter?”
Yes I use ScopeLink. And I just put the scope layout usually parade – WF – VS.
You can resize and customize any way you want. Lots of different scopes and even preview (that I never use in ScopeBox.
Scopelink is just an output chosen in FCPX prefs.
I put the Scopebox app at the bottom behind FCPX, and just shorten the hight of FCPX just enough to see the scopes. They could also be on a different screen if you like.
If I output to my SDI interface then I don’t use SB for scopes, I use real scopes, looped through my eval monitor. Though you could if you looped the signal back into a MBP using a Black Magic Decklink. And then it is really a perfect for very critical calibration. This also is great on location or in the studio.
Olof Ekbergh
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Awesome. Thanks, Olof!
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Agreed, Walter.
My “just sayin’” post was a polite way of saying what Steve has reiterated: a highly-technical, comparing-shot color and density-along the way workflow is not a given. And following a “story-edit first, technical finish later” workflow doesn’t inherently indicate incompetence or inattention to craft.
This forum started as the “FCPX or Not “discussion, and much talk has been about “easy to use” or even “fun to use” features vs pro workflows like traditional organization and export of audio to ProTools, etc.
Bill’s comment, I think, fits neatly into that discussion. FCPX’s easy-to-access-and-use scopes means they are nearby … but if you find them intrusive, you don’t need to see them. Part of FCPX’s appeal is a boldly graphic, neat and easy to see/read interface – meaning you can choose an almost iMovie level of simplicity to your workflow, dragging, dropping and trimming shots … or complexify things as you turn toward technical & other “craft” issues.
We’ve said that part of the magic of FCPX is the $300 price for a basic NLE, and leaving the “build out” of more complex features to third-party apps.
The original post about seeing several types of scopes onscreen at the same time, optionally on a second screen, brings to the fore that discussion.
If you want to monitor several scopes as you cut, comparing shots, matching shots and creating your “look” along the way … this sounds like a nifty app/workflow. A kind of middle ground between FCPX’s very simple, one-at-a-time scopes, and Resolve’s dedicated, full-featured workspace.
But sometimes in documentary, if you start fussing with and eliminating shots as you go because they won’t correct or “cut” well – you’re dead. Your first task is often to look for “storytelling pieces” … and often those selects are made on a content basis alone. You almost don’t want to acknowledge what might be “wrong” with a shot at that stage, because it may turn out that you HAVE to use it, quality be damned. THEN the craft of matching, altering, filtering and other techniques to make the poor quality an asset rather than a liability, begins. No less an “art” but pursued only after the “content” edit/workflow is complete.
Doug D
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[Douglas K. Dempsey] “But sometimes in documentary, if you start fussing with and eliminating shots as you go because they won’t correct or “cut” well – you’re dead. Your first task is often to look for “storytelling pieces” … and often those selects are made on a content basis alone. You almost don’t want to acknowledge what might be “wrong” with a shot at that stage, because it may turn out that you HAVE to use it, quality be damned.”
This is so dead on Douglas.
I’m cutting a doc right now and I have to fight the urge to keep tweaking on shots that may not even end up in the doc.
I know better, but it’s hard to stop.
I need lay out the story and then come back and start cleaning everything up just like you said.
It’s hard : )
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[Gary Huff] “I find that when people say they prefer to concentrate on the “art” rather than the “craft”, they rarely can deliver on either.
“Well, here’s a screen I built last year for an LAFCPUG presentation with still caps from projects from my prior couple of years work. Haven’t had time to update it.
To be scrupulous, C, G and H (left to right, top to bottom) had others behind the cameras but the works these screen caps were pulled from were ALL edited by me. If you want to see where the editing fell on the brilliant to mediocre scale, they’re mostly =on my website as clips (https://www.newvideoaz.com)
You’re certainly free to post a verifiable list of your own work and then everyone can judge for themselves how well one of the other of us may or may not fit the “who can deliver” metric.
There are plenty of people here whose work blows mine out of the water – for both quality and prestige. But for you to imply that I haven’t earned the right to my opinions via month by month, year by year in the trenches video production over nearly 30 years of sweat is not something I feel comfortable letting pass.
Perhaps I just didn’t get the memo announcing that you’d inherited the mantle of “Scope God” – which I think has actually been Steve Hullfish’s in the modern era?
HIM I’ve seen in the booth for Tektronix at NAB the past few years. You, Gary, not so much.
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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I have seen some non-full time editors that have just enough knowledge to barely function in an NLE get a rough cut done very quickly because they couldn’t give a damn about the audio quality or the visual quality or even what track the clip is on. ALL they cared about was getting the story and weren’t distracted by the art of editing.
Not completely analogous, but I remember when I first started learning X, it was on a project my wife was producing. We had a transcript of interviews made, and I diligently began logging and key wording all the different answers from the different interviewees with all the great new X tools so that I could begin qualifying what would go in the edit. Before I was even halfway done with that process, my wife had physically cut out soundbites from the paper transcript and taped them to a piece of paper in the order she wanted, completing the first rough cut before I had even begun to think about editing.
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[Bret Williams] “I have seen some non-full time editors that have just enough knowledge to barely function in an NLE get a rough cut done very quickly because they couldn’t give a damn about the audio quality or the visual quality or even what track the clip is on. ALL they cared about was getting the story and weren’t distracted by the art of editing.”
But then it’s up to someone else to actually finish it up and make it work, right? And probably to shine the rough edges as well.
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Sorry, I shouldn’t have pushed back on the above. Stressful day.
Suffice it to say that my wife just got the call from a client on a nice, juicy 5 figure project that we’ve been working on for seven freekin’ months – saying they’re going with us and are ready to sign the production contracts. So my mood has changed significantly.
Ignore whatever I said above.
Self-employment is such fun!
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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