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TED Goes FCPX
Very proud of this little story, hope you enjoy. (And yet feel free to debate away):
“TED made the official transition to FCPX on September 1. “There really was a long runway before officially switching,” says Glass, “but we made that the date at which we would never open FCP7 again in order to edit a talk from scratch,” he says. “If we need to go back into a previous edit, instead of trying to translate from one to the other, we’ll edit in the old software.” Assisted by Sam Mestman from FCPWORKS, the TED editorial team spent six months training in the new version, starting with tutorial on Lynda.com and Ripple Training and moving to one-on-one tutoring with Mestman, especially at the beginning and again during the week “marathon” leading up to the official transition. “This whole process really started almost two years ago,” says Glass. “We knew Final Cut Pro X was there, but we also looked at Premiere, Avid, even Smoke at one point. We narrowed it down to Premiere and FCPX, and once we had the lay of the land from the press and what we could read about it, we took two-to-three-day intro courses offsite to both softwares. That gave us a good handle on where the problems would be, whatever we took on, and also what the advantages would be.”
Noah
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28 Replies
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This stuck out for me.
“It wasn’t unanimous, at first. “Well, honestly, there’s never consensus, but it all added up that Final Cut X was the right decision,” adds Glass. “As much as I had our video delivery team, our engineers and pre-production team embracing FCPX, the editors were the hold outs.
(SNIP)
They went from saying, half-heartedly, ‘OK, I can use this,’ to ‘Wow, this will actually improve my workflow, and even makes editing kind of fun again.’ That was better than even I expected.” – See more at: https://www.studiodaily.com/2014/10/ted-director-of-film-video-michael-glass-on-the-art-of-the-invisible-edit/#sthash.iySboThL.dpufThe line: “The editors were the hold outs” made me smile. As a class, seems we’re kinda resistant to change.
Nice story, Noah. And nice work once again Sam.
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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[Bill Davis] “As a class, seems we’re kinda resistant to change. “
That’s just people in general.
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[Gary Huff] “That’s just people in general.”
Pretty fair observation generally.
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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There is more on the subject also on the Chris Fenwicks excellent FCPX Grill:
https://digitalcinemacafe.com/2014/09/18/fcg082-ted-cuts-in-fcpx-feat-michael-glass/
EDIT: -Sorry forgot to go off topic right away.
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[Gary Huff] “That’s just people in general.”
It seems more true of editors though. Especially “senior” editors. In part I believe they don’t want to give up their edge in knowledge of the ins and outs of the software they use. And they’ve been working the same way for a longer time and are less inclined to try a new way.
I think for something like TED, FCP X is an obvious choice. Fast turnaround web videos with multi-cam. I’m glad they eventually came around.
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[Brett Sherman] “I believe they don’t want to give up their edge in knowledge of the ins and outs of the software they use. And they’ve been working the same way for a longer time and are less inclined to try a new way. “
Very true. I’m literally surrounded by this. And I understand the feeling… kind of. 🙂 In an environment where you’re expected to be good and fast at the same time changing tools can be scary.
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~ My FCPX Babbling blog ~
~”It is a poor craftsman who blames his tools.”~
~”The function you just attempted is not yet implemented”~ -
[Brett Sherman] “It seems more true of editors though. Especially “senior” editors. “
Hear hear. The ones that needed years and years way back when to wrap their head around matters and are now scared out of their minds that their “elite status” will disappear too quickly, along with the endless admiration for for being the only ones that get what all those knobs, buttons and random pop-ups do. That’s why this fancy-shmancy, new and easy-to-use stuff CAN NOT be tolerated! … ¼” TAPE is where it’s at! 😉
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It’s an interesting observation – when working at a certain large British, err broadcasting corporation I was amazed to see two fill kitted FCP7 suites lying dormant in their suites, with post for the series being done in a facilities house. When asked why, I was told by the producer how crappy FCP was and how it couldn’t keep sync etc. I politely explained that this was total BS as I’d done X hours of broadcast material on FCP. Turns out it was the old school Avid editors not understanding the differences, and simply trashing the systems instead of adapting. Result – maybe £100k of taxpayers money lying unused, and a big fat wedge going to a post house somewhere in Soho. Oh, and a bunch of editors kept happy and in employment on antiquated Avids.
Same thing is happening with X at the moment – but slowly people are starting to listen. I’ve no idea if it will ever go mainstream in London – but the mocking voices are abating at least.
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Before you criticise a man, walk a mile in his shoes.
Then when you do criticise him, you’ll be a mile away. And have his shoes. -
I think the last hurdle is some sort of collaboration, but honestly, fcpx is no worse than fcp7 at this point.
I’m just glad to hear that folks are starting to see the creative potential in X.
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I love FCPX. Once you get the hang of it, it is so much easier to use than any other final cut and probably any other edit software. Good choice 🙂
Redefined Media
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