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The exponential greatness of the magnetic timeline in FCPX
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[Herb Sevush] “they were always talking about how fast video editing was, while I was always complaining about how crappy video editing was, and beyond the technical differences I always thought that it was the slowness of film editing that allowed for better editing “
One hundred per cent with you. It’s not a race is it? Well of course for some it virtually is a race I know. news in particular but still … time to think yes please.
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[James Ewart] “of course for some it virtually is a race I know. news in particular but still … time to think yes please.”
News cutting and the kind of editing that occurs at large meetings where your constantly publishing news clips of the days events- that is a whole other world from mine. I honestly don’t know what the best tools are for that – if I were cutting that stuff I might be one of the X proselytizers.
As for time to think, I’m being fussy here but it’s actually time to NOT think I value most. Time spent cooking dinner, taking out the garbage and cursing out the Knicks (currently the worlds worst pro basketball team) while your unconscious is happily doing it’s business so the next day ideas, totally unbidden, shout out directions to you as your fingers fly about the keyboard.
Herb Sevush
Zebra Productions
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nothin’ attached to nothin’
“Deciding the spine is the process of editing” F. Bieberkopf -
Second Bill’s comment on the “kids” — my high school students, some of whom are actors from theater class and think of themselves as ‘tech averse’ are thrilled to instantly and intuitively succeed in X.
One of my better students is the daughter of a commercial editor in NYC, who cuts TV commercials on Avid (ever see the Barcardi “Revolution” period-piece spot?). No denigration from Dad.
Some students who are more advanced, usually boys who are already software-centric, will ask to see PPRo and I show them. I have never seen those kids have ANY trouble going from X to PPro.
Doug D
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[Herb Sevush] “As for time to think, I’m being fussy here but it’s actually time to NOT think I value most. Time spent cooking dinner, taking out the garbage and cursing out the Knicks (currently the worlds worst pro basketball team) while your unconscious is happily doing it’s business so the next day ideas, totally unbidden, shout out directions to you as your fingers fly about the keyboard.”
I wholeheartedly agree with you, Herb.
“Downtime” is THE most important time for any creative professional. After all, we’re (hopefully) not being paid just to DO – we’re being paid to imagine what to do. And the time and mental space in which to imagine is very precious indeed.
That said, it was early in my internet conversations with some fellow early adopters in London that somebody mentioned EXACTLY this when they were learning X. They didn’t quite understand why – but they realized that they were getting home for dinner more regularly after learning X.
Please everyone don’t jump on me because you imagine that I’m saying that X users ALWAYS get home earlier than non-X users. That’s rubbish and everyone knows it. The important thing is that SOME X editors in SOME workflows discovered that the toolset in X really did make a significant difference in the time they needed to spend in their chair directly editing.
Their workflows might have been heavily oriented around re-cutting or tweeking their work – or versioning cuts – which I have to say is particularly strong in X since the database work you do in range keywording lets you find and try alternates so rapidly, the more you re-edit your work.
But the overarching point is that SOME X editors DO find that the ability to spend less time in the seat as your edit gets progressively further along. An attribute that I *do* think is related to the database front end and the magnetic storyline keeping your blocks of arrangement intact by default. Essentially some X cutters appear to feel like it’s easier to “fix and move on” with X – than some other solutions.
Sometimes. ; )
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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[Douglas K. Dempsey] “Second Bill’s comment on the “kids” — my high school students, some of whom are actors from theater class and think of themselves as ‘tech averse’ are thrilled to instantly and intuitively succeed in X.
One of my better students is the daughter of a commercial editor in NYC, who cuts TV commercials on Avid (ever see the Barcardi “Revolution” period-piece spot?). No denigration from Dad.”
Not just kids, I work with a DOP who’s never edited before and he’s learned FCPX very quickly!
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[tony west] “Actually that’s been very much debated here Andrew. I’m surprised that it has but that’s the case.”
Really? Huh, I don’t recall that. I remember the lower barrier to learning being used as a knock against it (iMovie Pro, an NLE so dumbed down even a soccer mom can use it!). Well, they do say memory is the first thing to go! haha
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[Bill Davis] “Really, Magnetism isn’t a single “thing” iIMO. It’s part of the cohesive editing system in X. And to isolate it and talk about it in the absence of the database that drives it and connected clips, secondary storylines and the other X vertical relationship “stickiness” elements – can only lead to more misunderstanding and more editors not truly familiar with X missing the larger point. “
Not really.
I find FCPX’s database incredibly useful for quickly logging and organizing footage without ever touching the magnetic timeline. They work together but they also work separately and like any tool, FCPX can be adapted to uses that may go beyond what the designers originally imagined.
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David Lawrence
art~media~design~research
propaganda.com
publicmattersgroup.com
https://lnkd.in/Cfz92F
facebook.com/dlawrence
twitter.com/dhl
vimeo.com/dlawrence/albums -
[Steve Connor] ”
I know there’s not much you’d like to change about FCPX Bill, but some of us would like the OPTION to have Colour coding.”Steve,
That’s actually not true. There are plenty of things I think could be improved about it. My friend Richard Taylor is the keeper of the big aggregated “requested features and changes” list that gets sent to Apple regularly. So I’m fully aware of the imperfections of the program.
I just don’t waste my time thinking about or discussing them too much.
And here’s why.
Many years ago, I did a series of videos with rather famous sports psychologist that works with extremely high level professional golfers. He was talking about some of his theories and told a story about Jack Nicholas that has stayed with me over the years. Seems Jack came off the course after screwing up a shot on one of the holes, so the interviewer immediately asked him about his mistake. As the story was told to me, Nicholas was actually confused by the question. The sports psychologist guy opined that part of what made Jack such a superb performer under pressure was that he spent almost NO time examining what DIDN”T work correctly for him. That stuff he largely ignored. He’d get EXCITED about ONLY the things that pushed him closer to his goals – NEVER getting emotionally involved in things that went wrong. Those he’d try to move past and forget as rapidly as possible.
In these forums, much of what gets posted is the “bad news” exceptions to the normal operation of things. I get that. And I’m not saying that problems or issues should ignored. Just that *I* don’t care much about them unless they affect my work directly. And very few of them actually do.
Basically, I just don’t find much value of constantly staring at the mole on the pretty girls face. It’s there. I know it’s there. But it’s not HER. It’s just a tiny part of her. Since I’m not a dermatologist, I don’t really need to focus on that.
It serves me MUCH better to remain excited by getting to continue to hang with and watch my new partner (FCP X) develop, than it is to sit around and endlessly discuss what’s not ideal about it.
Heck, that constant picky deconstruction of everything is what I kinda expect to be doing when I reach full on “codger status.” Then I’ll get to be one of those old guys sitting around telling everyone that everything was MUCH better in the old days – and how all the young guys don’t know what REAL editing is since they’ve never had to understand the difference between RS-232 and RS-422 ports.
; )
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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[Herb Sevush] “As for time to think, I’m being fussy here but it’s actually time to NOT think I value most.”
Absolutely. Got the stuff loaded in and view a lot of it fleetingly. Now let’s digest it. Maybe tidy the office a bit. Go for a walk. What did I want? What have I got? How is this going to work?. Maybe not think about it at all consciously for a bit. And then something happens and slowly but surely it comes together.
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[David Lawrence] “I find FCPX’s database incredibly useful for quickly logging and organizing footage without ever touching the magnetic timeline. They work together but they also work separately and like any tool, FCPX can be adapted to uses that may go beyond what the designers originally imagined.”
OK. That the exception viewpoint that proves the rule. The way you work is unusual, but perfectly valid, David.
But you took plenty of time to understand X in order to come to the point where you can pick the database from column A – and the traditional timeline from column B.
That’s to your TASTES. And it’s excellent that we all get to have different ones.
I still don’t enjoy sushi. Most people are totally in the “I love sushi” camp. So when my wife and brother-in-law want to go to the sushi place, I have to work around that. It’s a taste I simply don’t have an interest in acquiring right now.
That doesn’t make either me or the sushi lovers more right or wrong than the opposing raw fish forces.
Same with magnetism, perhaps.
Avoid it. Enjoy it only as an appetizer. Or make it a staple of your diet.
Same thing.
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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