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scrutinising FCPX and john davidson’s timelapse.
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Here you go – it’s not available in the FCPX Techniques forum, but you should be able to see this now.
https://blogs.creativecow.net/blog/12353/7-primary-school-fcpx-on-air
John Davidson | President / Creative Director | Magic Feather Inc.
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And for the record, This went from me reading Aindreas’s post at 3:33p to read, recorded, edited, compressed to 1080p, and online by 4:15.
That’s FCPX for you, baby.
John Davidson | President / Creative Director | Magic Feather Inc.
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[Aindreas Gallagher] “interesting recommendation there? discussion thing? does that make the apple timeline more interesting/less interesting to anyone involved? “
I posted this on another thread but… In the “article” I wrote here a while ago, one of my points was that I avoided the primary. However… I’ve been cutting stuff in X long enough that my comfort level is high enough to throw another wrench in it, so to speak. Thus, I’ve started cutting using the primary. Know what? it’s pretty nice. 🙂
No problem cutting “to time”. It’s no more difficult than any other NLE in that regard. And what’s really cool is using connected clips to “rough out” sections, and then just drop ’em into the primary and move on. They pop out just as easily if needed. Moving sections, shots, etc is EZ, and would probably be even smoother on a newer computer. The X GUI seems faster on my new Air at home than my Mac Pro at work. 😉
The biggest sticking point is, once again, training the old muscle memory… Tilde key is uh… key, but also using the position tool. I’ve spent almost 2 decades hitting A by default… P needs to become the default. I could remap the keyboard, but that’s cheating! 🙂
As a PS… Until apple gives us grouped Roles… Here’s a link to a 3 min silent .aif if anyone needs a “track” separator. 😉
5260_silentspacerdelete.aif.zip
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~”It is a poor craftsman who blames his tools.”~
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class. and rather insanely quick.
ok – stupid question – not many secondary story lines? mostly connected clips? what’s the edit process to introduce the clips? mostly drag in?
does it basically feel like old style V1 above the primary? what are the differences if any?hopefully generally broad stuff while zipped up.
https://vimeo.com/user1590967/videos http://www.ogallchoir.net promo producer/editor.grading/motion graphics
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[Charlie Austin] “And what’s really cool is using connected clips to “rough out” sections, and then just drop ’em into the primary and move on. They pop out just as easily if needed. Moving sections, shots, etc is EZ, and would probably be even smoother on a newer computer.”
with regard to the connected clip scratch approach – and I literally only mean this in the broadest sense – do you think this is an approach you have modelled yourself in answer to any deficiency in the primary?
I do get that apple have allowed different editing conditions between the primary and secondary – but no more than the promo example – do you feel comfortable with the space provided by the primary for your day to day stuff?
Are there any alterations you would like to see? or does this just work when you get your head around it?
https://vimeo.com/user1590967/videos http://www.ogallchoir.net promo producer/editor.grading/motion graphics
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John is certainly not alone in his use of the primary in this way.
On a recent series of promos for a major Canadian retailer, I found that for the early part of the edit, it made the most sense to keep my footage as all connected clips. The “backbone” of the edit would have been a VO, but as a general rule I tend to avoid putting audio into the primary storyline.
But as the edit progressed and I became more sure of certain shot selections, I push them down into the primary- I guess you can say I’m “committing” to them (not that they can’t be removed or altered later).
In fact, I’ve sort of worked out a system wherein I’ll “check-in” and “check-out” material into the primary using the lift/replace primary storyline keys.
From a 1000ft perspective, I think much of Apple’s thinking on workflow is that old trope of what is going to work for 80% of people 80% of the time. It makes assumptions about the most common thing that you might want to have happen for any given action. And where those assumptions aren’t valid, there’s an override to negate it. Such as the “P” key to override the magnetic timeline, or the “~” key to override clip connections.
Undoubtably, this is going to drive some people nuts, and I can certainly speak from personal experience that you have to work with the software for a while before you realize you’re no longer working “against” the software. For myself, once I made that transition, the new workflow was faster for me in almost all cases than it was in Legacy. And in the rest of cases, it wasn’t any slower- so it was definitely a net benefit for me and my productivity.
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[Aindreas Gallagher] “I only asked this – I’m not qualified to go near the issue of the primary? “
Oh, go at the primary all you like. It will survive that because if you ask the VAST majority of the increasing class of X users – you’ll find that nearly all the working X editors see the Primary as exactly what it is. The central hub of a new way to edit that provides HUGE conveniences when it’s used as intended.
Having the Primary Storyline (AND magnetism!!!) at the heart of the X interface solves a tremendous range of common editing problems.
Just this morning I had a business video on deadline for a sales presentation happening in Florida on Monday. Typical sale meeting lobby loop. The structure of the deliverable was Content A – Commercial A – Content B – Commercial B – Content C – Commercial A – Content D – Commerical B.- to be played in an electronic loop in a private sales meeting room.
I noticed that the flow would be better if I could swap the content of the C and D blocks. Guess what? It was stupid simple in X working in the Primary with magnetism. Grab the Primary clips and move them. The dozens and dozens of connected assets that I had in my edit come along fully attached – and when I moved them to the landing area on my timeline – any existing material that could potentially get damaged in the landing zone just moves out of the way. Brilliant! Simple! Took about 5 seconds to re-order my storyline.
The primary storyline isn’t a problem for anyone used to it – it’s a solution. An excellent solution. Can it sometimes be less than ideal? Sure. Can it be messed up by someone trying to use it without much experience? ABSOLUTELY!
Heck, the folks trying to work by AVOIDING the primary are essentially trying to avoid one of the central tools built into the program. It can certainly be done just like it’s totally possible to paint a room using ONLY brushes and forgoing the roller. And if your task is to paint every surface with intertwined leaves and branches, the roller might even suck as a primary tool. But most rooms aren’t painted in complex tiny patterns. They’re painted solid and decorated in other ways. And so a roller is a FABULOUS tool.
Heck, maybe just LEARNING the roller will change your painting style! Since there’s no longer a big efficiency penalty for laying down a quick visual “base coat” over which you’ll decorate later!
In X, the primary storyline is freekin GREAT! And as John and Charlie seem to be discovering – while you might not learn to love the Primary as your FIRST order of business. The more comfortable you get with X, the more you see how it can be a HUGE help in many, many, many editing situations.
Nothing in X stands alone and disconnected. To benefit from all of it – you have to at least get reasonably familiar with ALL of it. You have to understand when connections make sense and when and how to disable them. When to leave the connections alone and when and how to slip elements within them.
The tools are there. The expertise in learning to use them effectively is what takes some dedication, patience and effort.
FWIW.
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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[Marcus Moore] “But as the edit progressed and I became more sure of certain shot selections, I push them down into the primary- I guess you can say I’m “committing” to them (not that they can’t be removed or altered later).”
given the other massive strengths of the editing platform – from my perspective: in terms of footage interrogation, categorisation, and post production, which, in terms of masking and effects beggar all other editing systems – do you feel your approach to the primary represents what apple actually thought was going to happen with the the primary?
Do you have any issues with the primary – or is stepping in and out of it natural and no bother?
https://vimeo.com/user1590967/videos http://www.ogallchoir.net promo producer/editor.grading/motion graphics
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[Aindreas Gallagher] “with regard to the connected clip scratch approach – and I literally only mean this in the broadest sense – do you think this is an approach you have modelled yourself in answer to any deficiency in the primary?
Well… it doesn’t seem like a deficiency per se. What I like about connected clips in X is that you can easily just pop them into the sequence without worrying about clip collisions/overwriting etc. Just SHIFT 1,2, or 3 depending on whether I want A/V, V or A to go in, then hit Q. I don’t have to worry about precision at all. (Being an early adopter here, I still cut in 7 as well, and it drives me crazy that I have to tell the app where to put things! Lame… lol ) Anyway…Then I adjust the clips as needed and drop them down. I do still detach the audio, as I often chop up dialog, but once the clips are in the primary it’s “locked” to picture again. There are times, as John points out, where it’s more efficient to move connected clips around, for example dragging a clip and it’s dialog to another section, or to the end or something, but leaving FX and MX that may be linked to it. In that case a simple keystroke pos the clips out again.
[Aindreas Gallagher] I do get that apple have allowed different editing conditions between the primary and secondary – but no more than the promo example – do you feel comfortable with the space provided by the primary for your day to day stuff?
I think so, yes. As I said, I’m just diving in, but it hasn’t seemed to cause any problems. I still drag bits (as connected clips) past the end of the sequence to “store” them for potential use or whatever if that’s what you mean…
[Aindreas Gallagher] Are there any alterations you would like to see? or does this just work when you get your head around it?”
Well, for me, it seems to just work. But… I’m still getting my head around it. I may come in next week to say I hate it, but so far, so good. 🙂 I’d like the ability to minimize the primary as you can other trac… uh.. clips/roles. The biggest hurdle is learning KB shortcuts. There are a lot. All useful, all new. 😉
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~”It is a poor craftsman who blames his tools.”~
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In terms of keystrokes, what’s cool is I set my i/o in the event and hit q. It’s faster than dragging. The secondary storylines are only created when I add transitions. Snapping is almost always on. We also use the opt + [ or ] to quickly trim elements, with little “,” and “.” for minuscule finessing.
We had to create a system of working outside the primary without ever committing because just because we make delivery, 6 months later we can get a call for a revision and reposting of the spot. So we just stay out. Everybody working the same way keeps things generally consistent. Since every spot has generally been touched by at least 3 people, it makes sense for us to do it all the same way.
Uh oh – Later for dinner!
John Davidson | President / Creative Director | Magic Feather Inc.
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