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The new way of editing
First let me say that I am glad that I have found this place, many of you seams to know what you are talking about.
I have worked as a freelance editor for a couple of years, mainly in Final Cut Studio 2 (not 3 because waiting for an upgrade). Have done very complex projects involving integrated motion files and soundtrack work and I have been living with these programs for quite a while.
Now, Final Cut Pro X. My experience. Did happily download it, opened it, hated it, closed it. Got mad because I really had high expectations. Opened it again, got mad and frustrated because I couldn’t understand how I could cut anything. Swore something about iMovie. Closed it. Looked up the price on Media Composer (that I have worked very little with) and checked out Premier Pro. How could Apple mess this program up?
I opened it, browsed and closed it for a couple of times, experienced bugs. Tried to read the manual and find workflows. I haven’t got the chance to edit some work project on it, but I have played around with some of my own projects. And it is a new experience.
Of course, I HATE that you cant open up old FCP6/7 projects, thats the dumbest thing I have heard, in the combination of stop selling FCP7. As well as the import/export EDL/XML and the lack of multi camera editing. And its buggy. BUT I really like the new way of editing, something that I haven’t seen that many people talk about. It is much more fluid then the older way. Haven’t learned the fast shortcuts and trix yet, but I like the feeling of the system.
I have more control right now in FCP6, but I WANT to edit emotionally in FCP X. Hate for example in FCP6/7 the effort in moving things around (if you want to edit something in the center of a project), or having to move a file to the end of the timeline to edit it’s speed. Or that people at the office that I mainly work at have project files spread out on several disks and different folders (am a folder fascist myself). FCP X is a different process, no viewer, scrubbing without clicking, browsing in the files, the meta-data categorizing and the new timeline. It feels less clunky, but not perfect. My workflow is starting to feel better in FCP X.
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46 Replies
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If only other people were to work through learning the “new language” like you have. FCPX is much faster to organize and edit with than FCP6 or FCP7. Yes, it’s missing a lot. Yes, some things are too many keystrokes. But Yes, I think those things will be fixed. It’s a great engine and the improved chassis is on the way.
Personally I think a large portion of the “haters” refuse to believe a new way might actually be better/faster. They won’t spend time to learn. They try to do things the “old” way and will inevitably be frustrated.
I’ve worked 30 years in post ranging from editor to engineer and it’s been a long time since I’ve seen an NLE with this much promise. Yes, only “promise” at the moment but there is so much that works and so much flexibility, I believe the rest of the feature set will come along in the ensuing months.
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Retiming hint:
A little workaround for changing clip speeds in FCP6 without rippling the sequence or moving the clip to the end:
Park the playhead on the clip in question in the timeline.
Press “F” to bring up the master clip in the viewer
Adjust the speed of the master clip in the viewer
Then press F11 to “fit to fill” this adjusted clip back into the space occupied by the old one on the timeline.As long as you haven’t moved either playhead (on the timeline or the viewer) then you should have the speed adjusted clip in exactly the same place as it was before. So for example if you matched frame on the first frame of the clip in the timeline, then F11 back into it, the first frame should remain the same.
The retiming tools in FCP7 are far superior but still not perfect. Haven’t seen what they are like in FCPX yet
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[Christopher Travis] “The retiming tools in FCP7 are far superior but still not perfect. Haven’t seen what they are like in FCPX yet”
FCPX supports Optical Flow. X wins.
Despite missing Fit To Fill, X makes ramp style retiming effects much easier and better looking. While 7 had more keyframe control over the ramp, you had to go to Motion to convert to Optical Flow.
In FCPX you can make the clip connected and adjust speed there. It will not cause any rippling while you do that. It’s one of the nice things about Connected Clips. -
I wasn’t saying FCP7 retiming was superior to X, only to 6.
Good news about optical flow I suppose but TBH I’ve never achieved particularly good results with it, always end up with that ugly “aura” effect around any areas of movement.
No “fit to fill”? Thats a scary thought. I’ve come to use that tool a lot, especially in one of my more repetitive corporate jobs. Is there an similar/equivalent tool for getting the frame from the viewer onto playhead the canvas? I guess I could just insert/overwrite as appropriate but I think I would definitely mourn the loss of fit to fill.
Sorry for thread hijack btw.
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Oh, and are the retiming tools in x similar at all to 7? I love the way you can drag frames up and down the timeline to adjust speed. I like it because so often the goal of changing speed is not to make a clip a particular speed, but to get an action to happen at exactly the moment you want it to, and FCP7s method seems very natural to me.
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[Christopher Travis] “always end up with that ugly “aura” effect around any areas of movement.”
Good Optical Flow always depends on how the content was shot. It’s not a replacement for a Phantom camera.
[Christopher Travis] “Is there an similar/equivalent tool for getting the frame from the viewer onto playhead the canvas?”
Canvas? What’s that? 😉
Please see my post. I explained how to do this. Not as easy as FCP7 though but no risk of rippling either. Just make Connected Clip and Retime to match duration of clip in Storyline. -
It’s easy to grab the speed change points and move. You can also select range and change speed and it will ramp in and out. I think retiming in X is much easier than 7.
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No Fit-to-Fill and no Replace.
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[Craig Seeman] “Personally I think a large portion of the “haters” refuse to believe a new way might actually be better/faster”
Personally I think those few who say FCPX is better than FCP simply don’t know FCP well enough.
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“Not as easy as FCP7 though but no risk of rippling either”
That’s the whole FCPX philosophy – it’s not as fast, good, etc, but it stops the stupid editor from making a mistake. Of course if you’re not a novice it slows you down, oh well, let them go use Avid.
Herb Sevush
Zebra Productions
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