swapping two shots

[Scott Witthaus]

[Walter Soyka] “Herb’s personal experience has no bearing on whether his argument is right or wrong.”

I have no problem with anyone voicing an opinion or argument, but my point is the opinion and argument must be taken within the context of experience. Herb clearly stated that. I mean, I could argue nuclear physics, but who the hell would listen to me on that!

🙂

Scott Witthaus
Senior Editor/Post Production Supervisor
1708 Inc./Editorial
Professor, VCU Brandcenter

[James Ewart]

[Herb Sevush] “I’m the “or not.””

Hey Herb

I enjoy your input because it helps me understand X better having to (in my mind at least) understand the trade offs and assess the benefits to me.

I can say from my experience that I no longer notice the trade offs or things I have ‘lost’ from FCP7 but still am very much aware of the things I really enjoy about FCPX that I know I did not have available to me before.

I am surprised that curiosity has not got the better of you by now and that you haven’t downloaded the free trial. I think you may even surprise yourself!

https://www.apple.com/uk/final-cut-pro/trial/

Go on … you know you want to.

best regards

James

[Herb Sevush]

[James Ewart] “Go on … you know you want to.”

If only I were that kind of guy, but I’m not. When it comes to software I don’t play the field, I’m a serial monogamist. Currently I have LIghtworks downloaded on my PC. I’ve had it downloaded for over a year
and I’ve opened it exactly once and learned nothing useful that day. I’m plenty curious but I know that unless I completely immerse myself in a piece of software to the exclusion of all else I will not get anything out of the experience. Which is why I ask questions of others and kick the tires from a distance. I have no doubts that if my business dictates that FCPX is the way to go it will satisfy my needs and I will be delighted with some things about it and be grumbling bitterly to myself about other things, which is my exact experience with every NLE I have ever used. 9 months ago when I jettisoned FCP7 my evaluation was that Ppro was the best fit for my needs and nothing since then has led me to question that decision, which doesn’t mean that I don’t grumble at what I perceive to be it’s shortcomings as well.

Herb Sevush
Zebra Productions
—————————
nothin’ attached to nothin’
“Deciding the spine is the process of editing” F. Bieberkopf

[James Ewart]

[Herb Sevush] “which doesn’t mean that I don’t grumble at what I perceive to be it’s shortcomings as well.”

I know I’m straying off topic here but out of interest what would they be compared to FCP7?

I nearly went the Premiere route and got up to speed on basic level and it felt very like FCP7 to me.

[Herb Sevush]

[James Ewart] “what would they be compared to FCP7?”

Mostly it’s the little things. No “close all timelines except this one” command, no ability to copy and move a clip in one stroke as in FCP7. The TC indicators waste space by showing empty tracks and lack the color coding that indicated when tracks are in sync. In FCP7 whenever you entered a time code number into a field, you only had to enter the numbers you wanted changed, so that to enter a “go to” command to 1:12:37:10 if you were currently at 1:12:12:05 all you had to enter was 37:10, in Ppro you have to enter the whole number every time. The command for “joining all edits” is ridiculously complicated, there are still some bugs with aspects of switching audio when editing in multicam … it’s a bunch of little annoyances, but I’m easily aggravated.

On the other hand there are some truly amazing and often unexpected treasures that more than make up for it.

Herb Sevush
Zebra Productions
—————————
nothin’ attached to nothin’
“Deciding the spine is the process of editing” F. Bieberkopf

[James Ewart]

[Herb Sevush] “On the other hand there are some truly amazing and often unexpected treasures that more than make up for it.”

And you don’t want to share them with us Herb?

[Herb Sevush]

[James Ewart] “And you don’t want to share them with us Herb?”

Beyond the basics of a timeline that can handle any codec/frame rate/frame size you want without trans-coding – which at this point is the minimum requirement for a modern NLE I’d say Ppro has 3 huge advances over FCP7 –

The ability to change and refine the multiclip after it’s been made. This has many ramifications – dealing with start and stop of cameras on specific angles, color correction of entire angles, replacing HD with 4K at any point —

The audio track mixer – I can now assign basic filter packs and levels to specific tracks – sync, efx, music – each gets their own specific treatment and all I have to do is put a clip on that track for the efx to be applied. So for instance if a bit of sync suddenly needs to become bckgd efx, all I have to do is move it from track 1 to track 4 and it goes from my sync compression/eq to my effects package of compression/eq.

Send to Audition. Audition’s spectral analyzer allows you to fix all sorts of problems with background noise and it is an easy round trip away. A huge time saver for me.

Those 3 items would be hard to live without now that I’ve switched to Ppro. Some of these tools are available in X, but then I’d have to give up the spatial organization that I prefer.

Herb Sevush
Zebra Productions
—————————
nothin’ attached to nothin’
“Deciding the spine is the process of editing” F. Bieberkopf

[Herb Sevush]

[Scott Witthaus] ” I mean, I could argue nuclear physics, but who the hell would listen to me on that!”

Science is a bad place to go for that analogy; you could be a clerk in a patent office or a sickly child in a remote Indian village and if your argument had merit everyone would listen, eventually. It’s the ultimate arena where the argument trumps the author.

On the other hand I’m neither Einstein nor Srinivasa Ramanujan, I take no offense that my inexperience colors your reaction to what I say.

Herb Sevush
Zebra Productions
—————————
nothin’ attached to nothin’
“Deciding the spine is the process of editing” F. Bieberkopf

[James Ewart]

[Herb Sevush] “When it comes to software I don’t play the field, I’m a serial monogamist.”

Monogamy is an adorable quality in relationships with human beings. BUT When it comes to software I think you should live a little Herb. Get out there. Dance with the devil. You might like it!