Semi-OT: Is it time to just call it “FCP” again?

[Michael Gissing]

[Charlie Austin] “But anyone cutting in X professionally should have all the tools to do a professional job. And seriously, it’s not that much $$ and you pay it once. The fact that your clients don’t want to do that isn’t a problem with FCP X. At all.”

Absolutely agree but my experience has been that because it was built into 7 all editors could deliver both picture & sound. With X I have to ask. Not often because most jobs are not X but you might be surprised how often there is resistance to spending extra on a plugin just to get sound out.

I am going to try an experiment with the next job. I will ask the editor (who has X2Pro) to export an fcpxml picture and sound and import it into the free version of Resolve. Then export the Resolve file and bring that to me with the media. From Resolve I can export the AAF and I know that it works because I have used it a few times and know how to drive it. (The X2pro guys might not want this free workaround public) I will also request an AAF from X2Pro to compare.

With OMF or AAF I am quite happy for editors to leave clip level and transitions as Fairlight treats both these as virtual and I can alter transitions. Clip level can be globally reset but what I prefer to do is copy the editors tracks & clips a set amount down the Fairlight timeline so I can reference if they set a clip level right down for a reason. But the biggie is that OMF gives me all I want and it has become bomb proof. In the early days of OMF it was such a disaster that I often jokingly called it NOmf as it was often quicker to reload via an EDL.

So I get what you are saying but in the indie doco world X is a slightly more convoluted workflow and requires more input and is harder for me to fix but I think Resolve may end up being the ultimate tool kit on collaborative workflows, even if you aren’t editing or grading with it.

[Charlie Austin]

[Michael Gissing] “So I get what you are saying but in the indie doco world X is a slightly more convoluted workflow and requires more input and is harder for me to fix but I think Resolve may end up being the ultimate tool kit on collaborative workflows, even if you aren’t editing or grading with it”

I hear ya… Resolve actually does pretty well with X audio (via fcpxml) but it gets a little messed up with multichannel sources. In my case meaning audio that’s tied to picture. (most of my pix sources have split DME tracks). I use Resolve to get picture AAF’s to MC from X when post houses want an “Auto Duck”. A few caveats, but It’s a pretty good “Rosetta Stone” 🙂 Be interested to hear how it goes when/if you get the chance to try it out…

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~\”It is a poor craftsman who blames his tools.\”~
~I still need to play Track Tetris sometimes. An old game that you can never win~
~\”The function you just attempted is not yet implemented\”~

[Michael Gissing]

[Charlie Austin] “Be interested to hear how it goes when/if you get the chance to try it out…”

I’ll let you know. Resolve still is not great at linking audio and the export functionality is a bit limited but improving. I know it is a tub I thump often but NLE software that doesn’t support standard file interchange formats without a plugin is inviting a layer of complication. X really is the odd one out.

If I had my perfect NLE it would export audio as AES31. Pity the format developed by the audio world didn’t catch on rather than the AAF format that requires licensing and keeps getting fiddled with.

[Craig Alan]

Personally, I’d like them to keep the X but pronounce it “EX”
“FCPX (ten) 10.2.3” is ridiculous.
They should have called it FCP 8.__.__ , FCP 9.___.___ …
(or even FC 8 as in it’s not just for pros)
and gotten rid of the OS X (ten) cats and mountains which were/are insanely stupid. Nick names for the developers are fine but years later who remembers the order these cats came out?
Wouldn’t it be nice if the OS had been OS10, OS11, OS12 …

Mac Pro, macbook pro, Imacs (i7); Canon 5D Mark III/70D, Panasonic AG-HPX170/AG-HPX250P, Canon HV40, Sony Z7U/VX2000/PD170; FCP 6 certified; FCP X write professionally for a variety of media; teach video production in L.A.

[Jeff Kirkland]

Personally, I just edit in Final Cut. I leave which version to their imagination…

[Ronny Courtens]

I can understand that for some people who only need to export AAF for audio once in a while, having to purchase X2Pro may seem an extra investment they don’t really want to make. But I don’t think any professional editor will ever mind paying a few extra bucks for this, especially since it seems to work extremely well.

Many of the people I work with send their audio from FCP X to ProTools using X2Pro, and all I can say is that they are very happy with this workflow. The ProTools guy at Swiss national tv even told me that the AAFs he gets from their FCP X suites now via X2Pro are much cleaner than the ones he got from their Avid workstations. So I think this all depends on what business you are in and how often you need to do this. These guys surely seem to like X2Pro a lot: https://news.creativecow.net/story/882113

– Ronny

[Darren Roark]

[Ronny Courtens] “The ProTools guy at Swiss national tv even told me that the AAFs he gets from their FCP X suites now via X2Pro are much cleaner than the ones he got from their Avid workstations.”

My regular audio mixer thought I developed OCD the first time I sent him an AAF from X2Pro.

He remarked “Doesn’t Avid own Pro Tools? Why doesn’t theirs work this well?”

The part that gets lost in the conversation about this is these specific 3rd party functionalities are looked after by professional experts who continue to refine them.

The other NLEs that have it built in they maybe get bug fixes but once they are ‘finished’ they don’t really get any improvements, maybe just bug fixes.

The entire cost of everything needed to create feature film deliverables and turnovers is just over a grand. The kicker is because FCPXML actually can access nearly all the metadata they are actually better. The faster part is just a bonus.

[Michael Gissing]

I agree Ronny that the cost is not a consideration to a professional. But I am dealing with indie doco makers, often the director being the editor or short films for emerging film makers. They just don’t understand workflows and are shocked to learn they have to shell out for a function that was built into the more expensive FCP7. It doesn’t matter that all up X & X2pro is cheaper, they just get a surprise at the end of their production (and budget and credit card limits).

If Resolve can build it in for free software, I wish X had done it. The fact that X has not fiddled with their xml for a while helps third parties like Marquis who I think are doing a great job.

There is no doubt the X can work well in collaborative workflows. Many of my clients however do require more hand holding when they have cut on X. I wish it were otherwise but that is my experience.