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Steve Kanter: What FCPX CAN Do
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[Herb Sevush] “The problems would all come if you tried to edit with the incorporated footage – at that point mistakes in interpretation would become evident, but if all you are trying to do is create a project containing the proper clips, and have those unedited clips play out the right way, most of these issues would not be crucial.”
How crucial or not is left to the editor. If you send an XML to an editor who’s not you or in the same building, these kinds of issues can be tough to translate as you will have to guess at the editor’s intentions, or how the translation program is presenting the FCP7 timeline in FCPx terms. A lo res reference movie would help, but that might not always be available. For simple cuts only stuff, this will be very easy, but the more layers and the more complex timelines in which the layers interact this process becomes way more difficult to translate.
As I originally said, the simplest way is going to be the “best” but it might not be the most correct.
I hear what Gary is saying, and I think we are saying some of the same things, but it’s really not a simple venture, otherwise it would be in there.
[Herb Sevush] “For someone familiar with X you’re probably thinking, yeah but why would you want to do that?”
It’s not whether or not I would want it to do anything, it’s writing the code to tell it what to do that might be OK or not for all timelines. Yes, there are some generalizations that could be made, but I guarantee that people won’t be happy, or someone that doesn’t know will ask a some forum somewhere “wait, this didn’t come over like it was placed in FCP7!”. Or “I received an XML of timeline that’s 4 years old, all the original media, render files, and editors/producers are gone, I am left to fix it. I have FCPx and some consolidated media. When I run the translation and reconnect, the audio and video is out of whack and things pop on and off randomly. Please help, edit due in four hours!” It is those assumptions that need to be made that make the process difficult.
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[Bill Davis] So, bleeding and contrite, I’ll return to my small quiet corner of the production world to crank out yet more video embedded powerpoint/keynote/ipad delivery work for my current nameless massive global beer company client — and you may return to your next electronic press kit for the LA movie studio industry that appears to be the heart of your work
Bill, what was the point of this? To not-so-subtly imply that you are “better”? Because that’s how I took it.
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I agree with and understand everything you said, and I appreciate your taking the time to explain it. The only thing I will add is that something is better than nothing.
Apple has insisted on nothing at all, and whether or not a simple translator with many limitations would have cause them a lot of headaches, providing nothing at all is provoking a lot of anger.
Herb Sevush
Zebra Productions -
[Jeremy Garchow]Yes, there are some generalizations that could be made, but I guarantee that people won’t be happy, or someone that doesn’t know will ask a some forum somewhere “wait, this didn’t come over like it was placed in FCP7!”. Or “I received an XML of timeline that’s 4 years old, all the original media, render files, and editors/producers are gone, I am left to fix it. I have FCPx and some consolidated media. When I run the translation and reconnect, the audio and video is out of whack and things pop on and off randomly. Please help, edit due in four hours!” It is those assumptions that need to be made that make the process difficult.
Of course people will do this, but they won’t get much sympathy for trying to upgrade their project to another NLE in the middle of a time-sensitive edit. And I don’t think Apple would particularly worry about the support calls concerning this either, considering they are the “You’re holding it wrong!” company.
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[Bill Davis] “Oh, and thanks VERY much for letting me exercise my seldom used passive/aggressive muscles. Feels kinda nice once in a while.; )”
Bill,
Honestly, I’d rather you exercise your passive/aggressive muscles, even if it’s aimed directly at me, than continue trying to be the arbiter of vice and virtue about the proper length of mourning, which you do repeat way too often.
And, with regard to the “caps thing,” there is actually a Cow rule about that, and you are the only person on this forum doing it. Better and more judicious writing is the way to hammer your points home.
David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor/Colorist
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los Angeles
https://www.drwfilms.comDon’t miss my new tutorial: Prepare for a seamless transition to FCP X and OS X Lion
https://library.creativecow.net/weiss_roth_david/FCP-10-MAC-Lion/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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[Herb Sevush] “The only thing I will add is that something is better than nothing. “
From yours and my standpoint, absolutely. Anything would be better than nothing. From Apple’s standpoint, maybe not so much. Again, I am not defending Apple, but I can understand why they wouldn’t take the risk right away. While it might be provoking anger right now, if they released a sort working/hobbled translation system, all of that anger would be deferred until later. This way, they get all of the anger out up front. 🙂 Six of one, half dozen of the other, either way people are angry/upset/whatever.
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[Aindreas Gallagher] “I think it was, AE 4.1 running on the ICEboard”
Yeah I used to be into the Ice boards. Major pain in the ass but would blow other systems out of the water for some things and had a great plugin set. I few years ago I just ended up throwing it away. Such is life.
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[Gary Huff] “Of course people will do this, but they won’t get much sympathy for trying to upgrade their project to another NLE in the middle of a time-sensitive edit. “
Isn’t this a “you’re holding it wrong” thing to say? What if that person only has FCPx? And there were given a 4 year old edit and a little of the media?
[Gary Huff] “And I don’t think Apple would particularly worry about the support calls concerning this either,”
Oh, I think they would. Apple has a reputation to uphold, and bad support is a bad reputation, especially in the video realm.
Wait, isn’t this thread about Steve Kanter’s presentation? 😀
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[Jeremy Garchow] “Oh, I think they would. Apple has a reputation to uphold, and bad support is a bad reputation, especially in the video realm.”
Lets be honest here Jeremy. If Apple was that concerned with their reputation in the upper echelons of post they wouldn’t have released FCPX and pulled FCS3/FCP7 the same day. And they certainly wouldn’t have presented FCPX at NAB as if you could open legacy projects and use it for broadcast work. But they did both. Their reputation has been tarnished – providing at least some way to bring projects forward, regardless of how much work it makes for the editor, is still a better option than nothing. And Apple has said they aren’t going to do that.
I think they’re aiming at a less vocal, less demanding, wider base. This may be part of the plan to push the most demanding customers away.
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Michael Hancock
Editor -
I am being honest.
Sure, I am disappointed that there are missing items in FCPx, but I also see a future in it. Apple knows what they have done here, they have released a version that can’t be used any the upper echelon because it isn’t ready. Just like the iPhone wasn’t ready for enterprise use when it first came out either. Now it is. FCPx is another deliberate Apple release where they publicly beta test the entire system, and then build on it. Do you think not releasing an enterprise version of the iPhone killed their iPhone business? Do you think once they got the enterprise side of the iphone working it helped them? I sure do. There are huge companies that are now buying iPads for all of their employees. Now that it has enterprise support, it is doable. Do you think that Apple did this as a favor to big companies? No. It was intentional. Use the consumers as a test base where missions aren’t as critical, then shore up the enterprise network.
I’ll say it again, if they released a partially ready, sort of busted system, that would have been worse than releasing something that some people can’t use right away.
[Michael Hancock] “But they did both.”
They never did say what exactly it was they were going to release on Day 1, though. Legally speaking, they haven’t broken any rules.
They also said that you won’t be able to open FCP Legacy “projects” they didn’t say anything about timelines/XML. The question on the FAQ says: “Can I import projects from Final Cut Pro 7 into Final Cut Pro X?” From the FAQ: “Because of these changes, there is no way to “translate” or bring in old projects without changing or losing data.”
[Michael Hancock] “I think they’re aiming at a less vocal, less demanding, wider base. This may be part of the plan to push the most demanding customers away.”
Yeah maybe, but I bet they aren’t trying to push the middle away either which is a huge part of their business as well. You know, the people who aren’t editing feature films, and the ones that aren’t just doing it for an expensive hobby, but still need the interchange/connectivity to external systems and devices.
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