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Yesterday, for the first time, just for a while, I found myself wishing I had FCPX
Yes, you read that right.
It only lasted a while, and FCPX as a whole is still not my cup of tea, but there are parts of it- namely, the “multiple in and out areas per clip” feature that have become very appealing to me now that I’ve realized that they fully solve the biggest drawback issue I saw with file-based shooting as opposed to tape-based cameras.
When I first read about this feature, I thought of it in the context of the source monitor trimming aspect of in-and-out points, and when I looked at it that way I saw it as something gimmicky that was added on, possibly at the last minute, to make FCPX even more “different” than other NLEs. Until it occurred to me that this same practice of adding multiple in-and-out points has been going on for ages- but not in the source monitor. I did this same thing myself back in my tape shooting days.
It’s been a good while since I last captured a tape, and everything I’ve shot lately has been mostly single-camera “event” type stuff, so I haven’t needed to go in and break a clip apart into multiple smaller clips very much- so I never gave this any thought. But yesterday I shot something that got me thinking about it again.
A guy from a place that exhibits and sells watercolor paintings came to my church and did a presentation about the history of watercolor painting and what his institution was all about. He brought a bunch of paintings with him and had them set up on easels as he was talking, he occasionally pointed at one and started talking about it specifically. I thought it would be good to have a close-up shot of whichever painting he was describing, but I didn’t want to pan around wildly. So I decided to stay focused on him and then get a shot of all the paintings from up close afterward to use for b-roll, then cut to the CU of the one he was pointing at.
For some of them, I stopped recording in between paintings, but a lot of them were done as one continuous shot with multiple paintings. Afterward I thought about that and started wondering how I was going to do this. Since each file can only have one in point and one out point, What would be the best way to break this single shot up into multiple independent clips? If this was recorded to a tape I would log all the clips that I wanted and capture. But what do I do now?
As I started thinking about the various possible ways that I could go about this with Premiere, the thought occurred to me that if I was using FCPX, this wouldn’t be an issue. At all. Because I’d be able to set multiple in and out points on the file.
As I thought about my dilema, and thought about the multiple in-and-out feature of FCPX and how much easier my situation would be if I had it, I slowly realized that this feature isn’t and expansion of the source monitor’s functionality- it’s the file based equivalent to logging footage on a tape before it’s captured. And once I saw it that way, my opinion of it changed drastically. And for the first time I actually started to really, truly wish that I had FCPX.
Now of course, that feeling faded away after I got my workflow in Premiere sorted out and thought again about the magnetic timeline and the limiting nature of the “primary storyline” paradigm, and thought about how nice it is being able to copy and paste between Premiere and AE and do a dynamic link. But I did want to say that I really like that multiple in-and-out feature, now that I understand its advantages better- especially now that the “persistent in and out” fiasco has been resolved.
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“Up until here, we still have enough track to stop the locomotive before it plunges into the ravine… But after this windmill it’s the future or bust.” -
23 Replies
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I’m going to sound stupid here – and also like someone who hasn’t spent near enough time with premiere (no more than X said everyone ever) – but I went nuts watching a guys workflow with PPro – one of the things I noticed was that the marker ranges are exposed really nicely?
this thing?
https://i.imgur.com/IDbajfy.jpg
**edit pause** ok – having done a bit of reading – this is heavily tilted towards prelude – I won’t even get into the irony that FCPX tagging preflight is imploded in to the main app – which is a fab feature – but nevertheless – adobe is actually adopting randy ubillos’s actual first cut scenario that then lead to imovie and X. The marker range scenario above in the pic comes out of pre-flight analysis apparently. Adobe are asking you to concentrate the task into prelude. Which is kind of crazy to think about really, given how all this worked out.
Still – I really do like the look of it – in later assemblies, that smart marker bin seems to be actively representing ranges and notation across multiple clip sources within a single selects timeline? If so that’s pretty interesting stuff.
you’d think I would actually check any of this out.
https://vimeo.com/user1590967/videos http://www.ogallchoir.net promo producer/editor.grading/motion graphics
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[Aindreas Gallagher] one of the things I noticed was that the marker ranges are exposed really nicely?
this thing?
https://i.imgur.com/IDbajfy.jpg
That does look nice. Now that I think about it, I do vaguely remember reading something about this when CS6 first came out. I’m still in CS5 Land, so I’m not familiar with Prelude. It seems pretty cool though.
Well, now that I know about this, my brief (very brief) positive view of FCPX is at an end. It would be nice to have this sort of thing built right into Premiere, but I’d rather do it in Prelude than switch to X.
It is nice to see, though, that beneath the ultra-simplistic facade and the flashy circus animations, there IS still some well thought out professional-oriented stuff in there…
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“Up until here, we still have enough track to stop the locomotive before it plunges into the ravine… But after this windmill it’s the future or bust.” -
Just as a thought exercise, here’s how I’d approach it in X.
Lay the base video into the primary. (Range select it and hit W)
If you want the whole thing, your base edit is done in one click drag and one keystroke.
Semi-colon and Command-1 to put the play head at the top of the edit and open the EB.
Skim or high speed play through the “B-roll” – and “Favorite” a few second range on a nice locked down shot of each painting (I, O and F)
Choose “Favorites” in the EB filter pane to limit the EB display to just those clips.
Then I’d play down arrow to each EB Favorite – play the base track and – and tap Q each time I wanted to insert the correct painting cutaway at the playhead location.
Other than a bit of possible trimming or positioning of the cutaways or at worst needing to freeze on a few paintings to extend their lengths I’d kinda be done.
If I decided the base track needed to be refined, I could do it before or after attaching the cutaways – in X it doesn’t really matter since they always stay relative to where I put them.
A few setup tasks, then a simple Q key insert for each painting still.
Magnetism does the rest.
I honestly think X would kinda freeking fly through this.
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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FCPX often works like this.
For instance, you have some shortcuts to put something from the primary storyline into a connected clip and vice versa. In the beginning, I thought: why would I use this? work like this?
At some point during a job, I thought I needed it. I started using it, in the beginning a bit uncomfortable. Now I use it all the time, depending on the shot etc.
Multiple in and out points are great for, for instance, interviews. You just go to trough the interview, and everywhere you have a good answer, you just push the shortcuts. Then, with one shortcut, E, bam, it’s all there in the primary storyline. Just connect some b-roll trough the Q shortcut.
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I’m not following; how this is any better than going through an interview on Avid using in&out points and subclipping with a new bin with a couple of keywords in the subclip name..
Am I missing something? Perhaps the time for another look is coming near.. -
Well, there are significantly less steps involved.
Avid or FCP7:
1. Set IN
2. Set OUT
3. Make subclip
4. Rename subclip (several keystrokes)
5. Go back to parent clipFCPX:
1. Set IN
2. Set OUT
3. Apply keyword or favorite (usually just one keystroke)Repeat this all day and it makes a huge difference!
Keyword ranges can also overlap and be filtered in many ways, something which is much more powerful than organizing footage using bins and keywords in the subclip names.
And also when editing there is no need to keep removing subclip limits as in FCP7.
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A while ago I tried to use fcpx in the way atilio described but the one key thing fcpx lacks here is a useful description of the piece that has just been keyworded or favourited.
I usually add a short description of what the subject is saying to the name of the subclip. Doing this in fcpx is very awkward. The only way I could get it to half work is to create compounds for each piece, but a really annoying thing about that is the compound goes to the root level of the EB, and doesn’t go into the selected bin (keyword selection) ala premiere, fcp7 and avid. Creating keywords with labels like I would subclips gets messy with loads of keywords that still need to be tidied to folders etc.
I really wanted fcpx to work for this but I had to go back to premiere.
Maybe I missed something obvious in fcpx, but for now the subclip method works really well.
Dave
https://www.solidmedia.ieMacbook Pro 17″ i7 2.2 8GB
PC i7 32GB Self Build
FCP 7 FCPX Adobe CS6 Vegas 12 Nuendo 4 -
If you’re looking more just for subclipping, just mark as a favorite, and call the new favorite clip whatever you want in the event.
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Hi Brett,
Tried labelling favourites, won’t let me, do I need to click on the star or something? (Which would seriously slow down my subclipping)
Dave
https://www.solidmedia.ieMacbook Pro 17″ i7 2.2 8GB
PC i7 32GB Self Build
FCP 7 FCPX Adobe CS6 Vegas 12 Nuendo 4 -
Dave,
You’re quite naturally trying to make X work like your traditional muscle memory. It doesn’t. Using keywords is not like using folders and bins at all. The mere application of a keyword functionally separates the range the keyword is applied to from everything else. That range can be added, subtracted, eliminated, or isolated from others depending on how you learn to use keywords and the database. Adding more keywords can put the same range in multiple collections. These identified ranges can be called up instantly, grouped, sorted and otherwise manipulated with speed and tremendous flexibility.
When you learn it – it becomes a HUGE organizational problem solver and efficiency leverager that’s built right into the dashboard of X.
But it’s also NOT particularly intuitive at first because it’s kinda like an address book application. When you first open that, it’s not particularly useful because it doesn’t have any names or addresses in it. Over time, if you learn to put ALL your contacts into it, it becomes MASSIVELY useful, since you can not only search and sort out the information you want quickly, you can also add your own fields and do all sorts of other useful things to organize the information you put into it.
The database in X is like that. It grows with use and gets MORE powerful the more you use it.
You start to develop strategies for HOW to use not only the dashboard tags like Favorite and Reject, but to build your own unique system of filters, ratings, and keywords that help you work the way that you prefer to work – but much faster.
It’s like magnetism. When it’s a foreign idea, it’s hard to understand how it will be helpful – but after you live with it, you start to see where it makes some common editing tasks hugely easier – and for others where it’s not appropriate, you just work without it.
FWIW.
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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