[Alban Egger]

Check “optimize” only when your system has trouble with h.264/AVCHD/mp4.

I use it on GoPro footage, but not Canon DSLRs, because those play fine on my on my systems.

[Alban Egger]

You cannot import files from almost any camera like this.

First you save the card´s content or connect the camera.
Then you choose “Import from Camera” and either point at the camera´s card or the directory where you saved the card´s content.
Now you get a Import dialogue that is self-explanatory and the same for XDCam, P2 or XFcam.
Press “Import All….”, now you can close this dialogue and instantly edit away, while FCPX imports the media in the background into its event under “Original Media”.

For P2 you don´t need anything. For XDcam and Canon´s XF you need their plugins from their sites.

It is never a good idea to import the pure mp4 or mxf files fromcameras, because they will miss the audio, metadata or simply won´t work.

[Alban Egger]

[Walter Soyka] “Of course I would agree with you that any blanket statement that FCPX is unsuitable for professional work is utter poppycock — but I do remain sympathetic to cases where a specific tool may not be used, regardless of its merit, for external workflow or systemic reasons.”

We are on the same page then 😀
After all I still use FCP7 on all projects where I need to export 8-OMF tracks for the client´s audio-division.

[Alban Egger]

[Walter Soyka] “If FCPX is so big with such huge sales and is so ready for professional editorial, why are there zero freelance gigs in London that require it?”

Well that is two-fold: for one the networks are the last to make a switch, because it is immensely expensive to install hundreds of new NLEs. So network-jobs here in Austria are still in FAST (which was later bought by Pinnacle and AVID and sold as Liquid); in 2012!! So the networks do not care what software can do as long as it fits their budget and timeframe.

The other side of this are the freelancers: I usually get asked what I WANT TO use. Avid or FCP7? And when I say FCPX then well….let´s use that. They don´t care as long as it works. And if I need to use FCP7 in the end to export my MXF, they don´t care either, because all they are interested is the film in that MXF.

So while there are basically no freelance jobs for FCPX in London. that does not mean that nobody would allow you to use it, but it is so new in terms of network-timeframes it is not even on their horizon yet.
But it will and FCP7 will soon be out of there, once PP and FCPX editors will walk the door out earlier than the FCP7 editors….time is money.

[Alban Egger]

[Franz Bieberkopf] “You’ll still have to explain why you’re comparing X to 3 year old software, but charts are persuasive”

I compare it to 3 year old software, because in this thread people are claiming FCPLegacy is where the money is, because that is what people ask freelancers to edit on NOW.

PP6 is also faster than FCP7, because it is 64-bit as well. But not everything is processor-speed, a lot what people here claim as “faster” is quicker turnaround in many workflows, becuase the media-management and editing process are more efficient than what they used before.

[Alban Egger]

[Franz Bieberkopf] “People come to me because of the quality of my work – my abilities, my sensibility, my reputation.

[Bill Davis] “Unfortunately the old standbys like “quality” or “reliability” or “professionalism” are also decreasing in value.”

This is utterly untrue to my experience. What I see more and more is a craving for quality, engagement, responsibility.”

Absolutely agree with you. Edit and edit well are two different things and the most important for a freelancer (NOT an artist, but a professional freelancer) is reliability.

And since I use FCPX I beat deadlines many times days earlier while in FCP7 I just met them.
This allows me to a) spend time on the next project or/and b) spend time with my family. So FCPX is helping me to be more reliable and professional.

And while Chris and Herb might have certain workflows that are not feasable yet with FCPX, I have shown FCPX to people who are now in London and while there are no calls for freelance FCPX editors there this time, that is due to small issues e.g. FCPX doesn´t support XDCam Disks properly yet (mxf-export)….otherwise everyone I showed FCPX to was pretty much agreeing it is faster and better for something like a sports-cast promo or news edit or to manage weeks of footage that will be edited over the course of months later on with the keywords that are dropped on it during the Olympics.

I have edited at the Ironman World Champs in Hawaii already last October and I was quicker than anyone in the room around me (NBC used FCP7 for their highlight-show of the Ironman). But we had to use FCP7 also, to get the programs on XDCam Disks to uplink them to Europe.
The next Olympics (in 2 years in Russia) there will be NOT ONE FCP7 anymore. There will be FCP-XI and PP7.5.

[Alban Egger]

CMD-S turns on clip-skimming as Jari suggests. This way you can “kind-of-solo” any clip any time and also see its timecode.

[Alban Egger]

we often layer 10 tracks of sfx, music dialogue that does NOT connect to the video – it’s independent of the video ..so the statement “audio should always connect to video” simply doesn’t exist in real life editing for documentaries and features.

Sorry Andy, but I don’t understand this. How do you have audio not connected to video in a timeline? Every film/show/spot/doc starts somewhere and even has chapters. If you have audio that just flows beneath everything then at least the start of these chapters has to be your connection point.
And just like in other NLEs you can create a “track” – with either functions of a storyline or as a mere clip for something like an underlying – but not connected – sound or a logo/watermark-graphic that is composited over the whole film.

A lot of these “theoretical” issues are easily solved in practical use in FCPX.

[Alban Egger]

[Shane Ross] “[Jerry Hofmann] “6. Smart collections make organization nearly automatic.”

“nearly?” Don’t you have to label things, take the time to do what it takes to put them into Smart Collections? That’s still manually organizing things.”

Nope, you don´t have to do anything else than select metadata, even if you did not label anything.
e.g. you can select all files shot by cameraA in 720p in over crank-mode from a certain range of 3 days in March with one person in it (and not 1080p25 and not 720p50 and not from before or after or any other camera). You would not have to label anything. I never use any of the auto features (I rather log the CUs, wides and 2 or 1 person shot etc myself), but it is possible to narrow down thousands of clips without ever looking at any of them VERY easily and instantly. I just tried this above example and it took me 33 seconds (small project with 500 clips, selecting 10 of 150 that were shot on that weekend).
Once you have logged and key worded your footage and even added roles, this can go very far in organizing years of material.

And about FCPX being the fastest NLE in the world….hmmm….it is on some tasks, and it is not in others. No NLE can say it is perfect, but it is clear to me when someone tried FCPX it is a huge step back to CS6 and Avid, because of the limitations of tracks and mediamanagement.
They have their advantages and they have some features that are needed for many workflows (and FCPX does miss the audio mixer among other features badly), but as an editor and mediamanager itself I take FCPX over both of them easily and it seems the number of people thinking like that is increasing.

[Alban Egger]

What was your “last Macbook”? It worked on my 2008 MBP without crashes and wasn´t sluggish since 10.0.1, but got sluggish with projects with 1500+ clips. It worked fine with a few hundred clips, but was constantly on the 4GB RAM spike.

In my new MBP I got 16GB during a project and suddenly everything went much faster even in rendering; also in Motion and the rest of my software. So FCPX is not the only 64-bit app that is hungry.