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The FCPX Sweet Spot?
Count me among those who started off as a hater, and is coming around to like FCPX for a very specific few types of projects. I’m wondering if others have found similar sweet spots:
I work in a large multi-site teaching hospital, editing everything from training videos on blood drawing to CEO interviews to marketing pieces. I report to people who do not care what editing tool I use but care a great deal about deadlines.
I switched from FCP7to Premiere Pro CS5 as my primary editing tool this past fall. But I’m finding that FCPX is awesome for cutting quick interviews when Web/intranet delivery is the destination. My FCPX sweet spot is interview and training projects that are <5 minutes and don’t involve complex graphics. For everything else, it’s PPCS5. Without multicam capability or the ability to handle hour-long shows that require me to work with 40 hours or more of raw footage, things are likely to stay this way for quite awhile.
My guess is that people who edit on multiple systems will find at least one sweet spot for FCPX.
As an all-purpose go-to app, fugetaboutit. At least for now and for me. But have any of you come to appreciate it as a limited use specialty app?
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14 Replies
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Why don’t you think it can handle hour long shows?, I’ve done two 120 minute shows on it with 40 hours of footage for each show. FCPX enables you to get through large amounts of footage very quickly. I’ve just loaded 2500 clips for a feature project.
“My Name is Steve and I’m an FCPX user”
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Mark,
I’d be interested to know what it is about FCPX (shortcomings aside) that makes it preferable to PP . Organization? Interface?
Franz.
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[Steve Connor] ” I’ve done two 120 minute shows on it with 40 hours of footage for each show”
Out of curiosity, how did you deal with the inevitable large number of projects (timelines) that this type of editing creates? What strategies did you use to avoid the project bloat and slow downs that have been frequently mentioned by many in various threads here.
– Oliver
Oliver Peters Post Production Services, LLC
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com -
I kept the projects to a maximum length of 20-30 minutes whils editing and then copied and pasted into a final project at the end. FCPX, like earlier versions of FCP, does slow down if you try and edit in a project over about 30 minutes. I ended up with about 15 projects in each event. I also exported projects as I finished each piece as a back up.
The shows had a lot of CC in each project and this didn’t seem to cause any slowdown. I always kept background rendering switched off as it seems to be the number 1 cause of problems.
“My Name is Steve and I’m an FCPX user”
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[Steve Connor] “I ended up with about 15 projects in each event”
So you built the projects in the Event rather than the Project Browser?
[Steve Connor] “I always kept background rendering switched off”
Me, too. I don’t find it to be helpful.
Was your media imported (copied) in the Event or linked as aliases? Did you use the proxy workflow?
– Oliver
Oliver Peters Post Production Services, LLC
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com -
Why don’t you think it can handle hour long shows?
I’ve encountered the same frustrations as many others on this forum: Performance and the need for multiple timelines. In my particular case, the very long shows I need to cut involve multicam as well as some intricate audio sync. I depend on PluralEyes and Presto– neither of which is FCPX ready. (although the former is in beta).
I’d be interested to know what it is about FCPX (shortcomings aside) that makes it preferable to PP . Organization? Interface?
I find that the magnetic timeline enables me to blast through our typical talking head/ soundbite edits quickly and easily. The interface took some getting used to, but I personally have come to enjoy the way it’s built for speed. I suppose that so many years of FCP7 make me much more at home on the PP interface. If I were new to editing, I’d probably find the FCPX interface more intuitive.
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I just linked footage and didn’t use proxies. I’m trying to get permission from the Producer of the feature I’m cutting to post some workflow videos as we go through the edit on it.
“My Name is Steve and I’m an FCPX user”
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[Steve Connor] “Why don’t you think it can handle hour long shows?, I’ve done two 120 minute shows on it with 40 hours of footage for each show. FCPX enables you to get through large amounts of footage very quickly. I’ve just loaded 2500 clips for a feature project.
“Steve I’m impressed with the project length you are dealing with. Could you let me know what kind of Mac you are using and how complex the edit is?
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2008 8 core Mac Pro with 16GB Ram and Radeon 5870 card. Footage was a mix of XDcam 422, XDcam EX and GoPro mp4’s. No footage was optimised. They were not graphically complex shows, basically air show event documentaries, maximum of 3 layers in some places, just name captions on interviewees, colour correction on most clips.
Had 3 or 4 crashes a day, never lost an edit but I was constantly checking for the undo bug.
Also I am using Snow Leopard, I firmly believe that FCPX has more problems under Lion than SL
“My Name is Steve and I’m an FCPX user”
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[Steve Connor] “2008 8 core Mac Pro with 16GB Ram and Radeon 5870 card. Footage was a mix of XDcam 422, XDcam EX and GoPro mp4’s. “
Thanks for that info seems to be about the same setup that I have except at the moment I only have 10Gb Ram – thought I had 14? – but somethings gone amiss, maybe my brain.
[Steve Connor] “Also I am using Snow Leopard, I firmly believe that FCPX has more problems under Lion than SL”
Well maybe that’s where some of the problems I encounter come from. But I had more issue under SL – but then I was also running FCP7 on the same partition.
I found the undo problem better recently but am still getting odd crashes after some pretty mundane activities.
When I have a lot of time I’ll maybe do a fresh install on SL on a spare partition and see if things run more smoothly.
I guess another question is do you reference your files or import them into FCPX?
It would be great to see your workflow if you get permission.
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