[Adam White]

A good post.

At this stage it feels to me as though FCP is finished as a professional NLE.

I say that for 2 reasons – firstly, there is now absoloutley NO reason for any Editor to trust Apple. As the article says, trust is an absoloutey vital element to consider when choosing the software vendor that you base your livelihood on. From the freelancer right through to the post production house, this year Apple have shown they are utterly untrustworthy. I’m not sure they can do anthing to resolve that; the damage done this year has just been too severe and from the conversations I’ve had with people the biterness and frustration hasn’t really abated since the Summer. Those that are most ‘zen’ about the situation are so because they have already moved to another platform or have already made the decision to.

Secondly – whatever add-ons or bug fixes come along, Apple are locked into some fundamental design decisions that the vast majority of professionals find simply abhorrent. We all know what these are, and I fail to see how the most deeply ingrained of these can ever be made to work in a professional environment. Call me shortsighted in this regard, but I still cannot for the life of me figure out how trashing a century’s worth of practices, paradigms, terminology and established workflows was ever anything more than hubris in the extreme. The only way this thing can survive is if it becomes the NLE of choice for a new generation, but speaking as a young (24) editor I know that the priority when your starting out HAS to be to understand, respect and conform to the standards of the industry you want to be a part of. Playing by those rules, FCPX is a total non-starter. I’m sure some geat storyellers will be able to do good work with this, but its an ISLAND and if it doesnt fit in to the rest of the industry why on earth would you consider using it if you aspire to work as an editor in any professional capacity?

This whole debate seems kind of pointless now doesn’t it? Hasn’t the dye already been cast? I’m not even sure what I’m doing here, just still trying to keep learning, processing and trying to make the soundest decisions I can for my career I guess.

[Adam White]

I can’t see the Mac Pro being refreshed. Its difficult to see any other outcome than it being dropped entirely at this stage.

It may well be that Thunderbolt provides new kinds of desktop setups that are very different to what we know at the moment.

But, as with the FCPX fiasco, the real problem is that Apple never explain where they are headed and will never, ever provide any kind of meaningful roadmap. This is the central problem! It is incedibly tiresome for companies backed into a corner and forced to play guessing games when they are trying to make good, solid purchasing decisions that aren’t going to disintegrate in a few short months.

I’m rapidly reaching the conclusion that FCPX was a VERY clear statement of intent and that its time to move on, certainy in terms of software but quite possibly in terms of hardware too. It really just doesnt seem prudent to build anything around Apple hardware of software right now.

[Adam White]

That seems like a really useful App! Will definatley make a note of that for future reference.

[Adam White]

I’ve seen this error a few times with 5D material.

As Shane says, it happens when the original file structure from the card hasnt been retained. It can happen even if the card has been mirrored using Disk Utility.

The best thing to do is to transcode the MOV files from the 5D to ProRes manually in a batch (MPEG Streamclip is free + much better at this task than Compressor).

Also – a word of caution with using Log + Transfer for 5D footage: I’ve had an awful lot of issues where big chunks of clips arent transcoded so half or more of the clips go missing. FCP doesnt give you any warning to tell you this has happened so you wont realise until you start editing.

In my experience transcoding the files to ProRes in another app + then pulling them into Final Cut is much less accident prone!

[Adam White]

No worries John, I hope there’s some helpful stuff for you there.

[Adam White]

Thanks for all the insight guys, some really good tips there that have already made editing quicker and more intuitive.

[Adam White]

Hi John,

My immediate answer would be ‘yes’.

Quick answers to your specific questions;
* We haven’t had any issues with overheating as yet
* Yes you have to re-start recording when it times out. It’s certainly an irritation and isn’t ideal for interview scenarios at all, but I wouldn’t say it’s a deal breaker
* The add-ons do need to be considered as part of your initial expenditure – although this might seem a downside when compared with the HDV world, the flexibility this provides is actually one of the best aspects of the DSLRs

We specialise in online video content and we used to use the Sony Z7 almost exclusively. Over the past 6 months or so we’ve gone from that to shooting about 75% of our stuff on the Canon 5D. From your description of what you do, it sounds very similar to the kind of work we do every day.

Overall it’s been really positive. The visual quality of our work has taken a giant leap forward. The different lenses that can be used gives the camera operator real creative choices in a way that was totally unthinkable with the Z7. The fidelity of the image is also far superior to what we had before so that, again, we have real choices and far more room for manoeuvre when it comes to colour grading. And most importantly, our clients have noticed this change and are delighted with what we’re able to do now. When we do occasionally work with HDV again, the difference is clearer than ever – it really is like light and shade. It’s very difficult to go back to HDV footage and not feel pretty disappointed with the quality of your material after using a DSLR.

In terms of capturing audio we use the Zoom H4N, which has XLR inputs. It does require extra time to sync up (although the software Plural Eyes makes the process much quicker and easier). After the initial bump of getting used to working with separate audio files you’ll get used to it though and it really doesn’t feel like much of an issue anymore. But it is something that will take some time to get used to. There is the option of recording sound on the 5D itself, but there is no way to monitor it properly so we have avoided doing so. I’m not entirely sure if the same is true of the 7D as we don’t use it.

The downside of the Canon DSLR’s with regard to Final Cut is that you have to transcode to ProRes (this isn’t the case with some of the other NLE’s where you can work with the DSLR files natively). The additional time this requires can be a burden when you’re working to a really tight deadline and it’s an additional part of the process you probably won’t be used to and so may be quite frustrating initially. Working with ProRes Proxy isn’t really a good idea for us, for various reasons, so we use ProRes 422 LT, which works great. Anything above that (422, 422HQ etc) is overkill with bitrates that are over and above what the DSLR’s shoot at. Also be prepared to factor in MUCH larger file sizes for all your media – we have a bulky SAN so this isn’t a big issue for us at the moment, but it’s something to consider if you work locally or need to move your media around on hard drives etc. It’s also important to consider how these bulkier files are going to impact your archiving solution. In general, editing workflow becomes much more important – vital, actually – with a DSLR in a way that isn’t quite true of the HDV cameras. But as long as your clear on what will work best for you from the outset, and you stick to your workflow, you won’t really have any more issues than you would with any other camera format.

So yes, I would say it’s definitely worth it. But, you may well find as we have that the odd job will still come up which a DSLR won’t be appropriate for so it’s good to keep hold of your HDV camera(s) too as they still have the edge when it comes to raw functionality so they will still be useful from time to time.

Hope some of that is helpful – let me know if you need any more specific info.

Best,
Adam

[Adam White]

Yeah – deleting render files can really do the trick for odd error messages like that.

If your project and it’s media has been moved around (you mentioned it was previously done on a different machine) this can sometimes cause corruption issues.

One other thing I’d add as a possible fix is to copy EVERYTHING from your project in the browser, then start a new project. PASTE everything in and save under a new file name. Sounds weird but this once fixed a similar problem I had where the dreaded “general error” message meant I couldn’t save, render or export anything.

[Adam White]

I totally agree!

I have seen many different editors work in very different ways on FCP7. It accomodates many different ways of working, because it’s a pretty open framework.

This is essentially why I think so many editors are nervous or outright hostile to X. That freedom has been taken away.

I also have serious doubts about whether the editing paradigm found in X is a solid foundation for new editors learning their craft. I’m sure some will get very good at getting great results from it, but if X continues to be so at odds with the other NLE’s there is going to be a big divide in the editing community that I can’t see is going tp be helpful for anyone.

[Adam White]

Were in the same position. And there are so many people struggling with the same exact problem.

There is naturally a reluctance to move on from FCP 7 because it is such a solid project, it works so well and there is a whole generation of pro editors who have known little else. These are the younger editors who would probaly have been hitched to FCP indefinately had Apple made the v8 most users wanted. I still find the whole situation pretty remarkable to be honest – here was a product on the brink of taking over the entire industry and essentially wiping out the competition. That looks like a pipe dream for FCPX now.

But I think there is also a sense, speakng from conversations I’ve had with people in the same boat, that we can only put off the inevitable for so long and that the party is over so its probaly time to clear up the mess and move on.