What are the biggest issues with FCP?

[Ben Holmes]

Hi Dean

I don’t really have any issues with FCP – it’s very stable, and has a nice GUI. It’s as usable as AVID once you’re used to it, and it’s well supported.

Ultimately, it’s just a tool, and it really comes down to what you’re used to – the actual process of editing is pretty much the same on every system.

Color is OK – if you want some heavy duty CC work, but it’s not as stable as the rest of FCS and has a very different GUI and workflow.

Motion is OK for some quick motion GFX – but it’s eclipsed by After Effects in almost every way.

All of the suite is in need of a major update to keep up with AVID’s price-cutting and Adobe’s growing integration and better architecture.

Ben

Edit Out Ltd
—————————-
FCP Editor/Trainer/System Consultant
EVS/VT Supervisor for live broadcast
RED camera transfer/post
Independent Director/Producer

[Paul Harb]

I use both Avid and FCP regularly on projects. I have a love/hate relationship with both systems…FCP is very flexible, from the way it uses media, to the interface…very user friendly and a dozen ways to do the same thing depending on what your most comfortable with, this however is a double edged sword…due to this IMHO there are constant issues arising specifically stability.

I am finishing up a 2 year documentary in FCP, I have all the biggest and best hardware, smoking fast RAID doing 540MB/s Kona3 blah blah blah…this documentary is DV mind you, but if I try and skim around my timeline to fast, watch out, Im begging for it to crash hard…and it does…multiple times a day…FCP seems horrible on longer projects…not sure why but it just does…Avid just doesnt crash as much on long form projects…does it crash… for sure, but not the way my FCP does…also this “project” has been growing out of multiple “projects” over the years, if I need to go to an old cut from an older project that is also large, instant hard crash…and when it crashes it doesnt even remember where my windows were set up for dual screen edit….I find myself trashing prefrences a lot.

The trim mode in FCP is basically worthless…its like they looked at AVid and said we can do that, then decided to put a 2 year old kid on the task of implementing it…I dont get it…can I SEE the tracks as I trim them…please?

This said, I love FCP..I really do…FX keyframing in FCP blows AVid out of the water, audio mixing and editing although a lot of people will disagree with me I think is better in FCP, open timeline that you can just grab things and manipulate in FCP is great(Avid segment mode…ugh)….

Bottom line, I use what will do the job best at the time, or if its a feature, the studios pretty much make you use Avid, although that is starting to change VERY slowly. From an investment point of view hands down IMHO FCP is the way to go…you really cant beat the price point for what kind of quality you can crank out…just be ready to turn into a video/computer tech…cause you will have issues and the only saving grace is the Cow….:) Hope I didnt ramble to much…I need sleep…good luck.

Paul

Paul Harb-Producer/Director
Wrong Beach Multimedia
Dual 3.2 GHz Quad/10.5.2/4GIG RAM/FCP 6.0.2/QT 7.4.1

[Walter Biscardi]

[Dean Stapleton] “What are some of the biggest issues (problems) that you have with FCP?”

End Users who don’t set up a properly configured system and then complain it’s under-performing with not enough realtime or that it’s unstable. Configure the system properly for your needs and expectations.

Read the manual and take the tutorials so you understand what FCP can and cannot do.

Color is an amazing application that can rival a daVinci in the right hands. I’ve been using the app going on three years now and in addition to about 50+ HD broadcast episodes graded with it, we just completed our first feature film color grading job. But you need to invest time to properly learn the workflow to get your project in and out of Color with minimal issues. It has a very limited workflow as far as codecs and what you can and cannot put into your timeline that’s going to Color.

We have multiple episodic television series that are scheduled to start Post in 2009 along with four feature length documentaries and all will be going through Color.

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Biscardi Creative Media
HD and SD Production for Broadcast and Independent Productions.

Read my Blog!

STOP STARING AND START GRADING WITH APPLE COLOR Apple Color Training DVD available now!

[Paul Harb]

[Dean Stapleton] “What are some of the biggest issues (problems) that you have with FCP?”

FANBOYS that assume too much, come on here and ATTACK others for stating an opinion, and claim to be working on the next big studio feature with FCP and have talked the studio into using Color for DI…come on….lets have some sense of realism here….IMDB doesnt lie.

Walter Biscardi “Color is an amazing application that can rival a daVinci in the right hands.”

Walter Im curious what feature your doing? What studio is it for?

Paul

Paul Harb-Producer/Director
Wrong Beach Multimedia
Dual 3.2 GHz Quad/10.5.2/4GIG RAM/FCP 6.0.2/QT 7.4.1

[David Bogie]

Biggest issue with this huge and powerful suite of applications? Simple user error: Failure to RTFM.

bogiesan

This is my standard sigfile so do not take it personally: “For crying out loud, read the freakin’ manual.”

[Dean Stapleton]

Walter, thanks for your reply. Can you give me an idea of where I need to be regarding a good system for FCP? I’ve never used a MAC before – always been a Windows user. I was looking on the Apple site this morning and configured what I thought would be a nice system for FCP. Can you comment on this setup?

(Processor) Two 3.2GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon
(Memory) 8GB (4x2GB)
(Hard Drive) 1TB 7200-rpm Serial ATA 3Gb/s
(2nd Hard Drive) 1TB 7200-rpm Serial ATA 3Gb/s
(Graphics Card) NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT 512MB

[Paul Dickin]

Hi
Factor in some training from an experienced Mac/FCS trainer/user.
Coming from a Windows background can make for heavy weather, not from not reading the fine manuals.
But rather from kind of not understanding them…
From my side of the fence I see the learning curve as easy, but for some people ‘easy’ is the most difficult thing…

In my experience – going on 15 years since my first Mac edit suite – its flawed workflow methodologies that give rise to individual FCP editor’s persistent problems.
Some of that can be corrected by RTFM.
Some can’t be – it will require an analytic expertise to minimise problematic situations.

My experience of FCP’s ability to cope with huge long-form projects with terabytes of assets (NOT huge Project sizes, keeping those to a reasonable size comes down to efficient workflow), is that FCP is as stable as it gets.

Mostly when I get to troubleshoot other people’s problem projects they are doing things in a way I would NEVER do.
But hey to get a Mac with 32MB of RAM and a few 2GB hard drives to spew out online quality video in the nineties took a whole load of cautious expertise… 😉
Nowadays its EASY!

Your computer spec choices are fine, its getting you up to speed that might be the issue.
Remember – its easy!

[Paul Harb]

Great post…..Im sure part of the issue Im having is with the size of these projects…they are huge…but its a documentary with tons of footage, and we have already split this thing into over 20 projects….a very different way to organize to be sure…a bit clunky for my taste…but like I said, I love FCP and if it were my money its the only system I would invest in at the moment.

I get testy with people making it sound like its perfect in every way and the only issues are the people trying to edit with them, ask a feature film editor that has worked on large films with more than one editor on Unity if they think there are any issues with FCP…Im always pushing to try and edit a feature in FCP, but it is a whole other way of thinking through your workflow…anyways…good honest post.

Paul

Paul Harb-Producer/Director
Wrong Beach Multimedia
Dual 3.2 GHz Quad/10.5.5/8GIG RAM/FCP 6.0.4/QT 7.5.5

[Alan Okey]

[Dean Stapleton] “I was looking on the Apple site this morning and configured what I thought would be a nice system for FCP. Can you comment on this setup?

(Processor) Two 3.2GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon
(Memory) 8GB (4x2GB)
(Hard Drive) 1TB 7200-rpm Serial ATA 3Gb/s
(2nd Hard Drive) 1TB 7200-rpm Serial ATA 3Gb/s
(Graphics Card) NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT 512MB “

You’ll want to get a different graphics card, especially if you’re interested in doing any work with Color. The ATI cards are better optimized for Apple’s Pro apps. The ATI Radeon HD 3870 will be a much better fit for Final Cut Studio 2 than the nVidia card.

https://eshop.macsales.com/item/ATI%20Technologies/100435928/

If you’re into 3D gaming on Windows, the nVidia would be the faster card, but for FCS2 that’s not the case.

Details here:

https://www.barefeats.com/harper16.html

[Dean Stapleton]

Thanks Alan, yes…I most certainly am looking forward to working with Color. Thanks for the tip on the card!!!