[Alban Egger]

[Shane Ross] I said it wasn’t aimed at my specific market in Hollywood. Because it lacks pretty much every feature we need. EDL support (yes, we still work with EDLs and deliver EDLs), OMF or AAF support for DAWs (Apple didn’t do it…third parties did). Capture from non-firewire tape based decks. Oh…yeah, they rely on third parties to solve that too. It is designed for people to do everything INSIDE the app, including color correction (Yeah, speaking of THAT tool…aimed at beginners, not professionals) and audio mixing.

The Hollywood workflow is that of collaboration. Editor…colorist…audio mixer…VFX. We also still use tape input and output on a regular basis.

You use the word Hollywood as a trademark. Over here in Europe Hollywood is the world of Batman, The Avengers and The Hobbit. I wonder how many tapes will be used to distribute The Hobbit, shot on two REDs in a 3D rig.

What you talk about is a network environment stuck in a 2003 workflow. I am sure Apple did NOT aim at that market, because its workflow will die sooner than later. Our national broadcaster is still producing on IMX tapes in standard definition, although they broadcast in HD. But they at least acknowledge they choose to stay in their workflow (editing with FAST, which is from 1999), because the switch is so expensive, not because their way is better, faster or cheaper on a daily basis.

You talk about a workflow that works. Fine. Agreed. FCPX won´t fit in there right now. It never will on its own.

But for producers who are on a tapeless workflow producing docs and films shot (maybe globally in 50Hz and 60Hz) on C300s, F3s, GoPros, Phantoms and 5Ds all in one EVENT edited in different projects for different distribution-lanes (in-house broadcast, sold broadcast, web and sale) FCPX offers a flexibility FCP7 can´t compete with.
We are working on a global campaign for a few months now. Every spot is shot on F3s and C300s. Edited and mastered in FCPX, graded in a post-house, audio done elsewhere in ProTools, graphics come in from After Effects…….I don´t know where the problem in collaboration should be? Oh yeah. We had to press Export XML instead of export EDL…..that´s about it. Tough. Phew.

When you diss the FCPX colourboard….have you ever tried it and tried FCP7 3-way corrector next to it. HUGE difference in QUALITY! 8-bit vs. 16-bit. You gotta be kidding calling FCP7´s color-correction professional – in 2012.

Collaboration? The future is XML, not EDL. Resolve, not Color. Probably AAF not OMF. Apple dropped the floppy, the FW400 port and other tools we thought essential. But usually soon after we realize they were right. The floppy? FW400? What were we thinking.

So what am I trying to say: If you have a workflow that works, fine. But that does not mean the new way is wrong, just because it is different.
Disclaimer: I don´t say it is right for everyone or the holy grail in NLEs (yet), but for me it works better than my previous NLEs (SpeedRazor, Fast/Liquid, Edius, FCP).

[Alban Egger]

[Christopher Key] “some of it seems more complicated rather than easier, and some of it seems like old time functionality in a new wrapper (instead of grouping its a compound clip) with some new lingo attached – almost as if they just wanted to be different – I hate that – Of course I haven’t actually tried doing an edit with it yet but I’m planning to “

The “Wrapper” is much more than grouping. The compound clip is a timeline in itself and a great organizational tool (e.g. to control 8 or 16 audio-tracks within clips) and the main force in multi cam edits (where the compound turns into a multi clip container with its own functionality).

The only lingo issue is the PROJECT, which is a TIMELINE. I can live with the event name, but project is just wrong, agreed. If they did it to be different does´t matter really, but it seems that way and it does´t work. We still call the timeline timeline here, although we are used to the term “event” by now.

I suggest to you and the OP to get a trial and watch some training (I can recommend Ripple Training, but there are others and also free tutorials out there). FCPX is fundamental different, that´s why these discussions become what they are. But it is fundamental right for modern workflows.

[Alban Egger]

[Chris Harlan] “I find it very difficult to believe that you are asking that seriously. Multiple open timelines. Advanced sync indicators. The ability to customize your screen or screens to your liking. Source windows. Tracks. A mixer. The list just keeps going. You may not use any of this stuff, but I assure that other people do.”

just because you use it in FCP7 doesn´t mean it is missing in FCPX in everyone´s workflow. There are tons of features in FCPX that are missing in FCP7 and once you used FCPX there is just no way back, because FCP7 feels EXTREMELY clunky.

Maybe you have a workflow that only works with these features you mentioned, but in X I never missed a sync marker and also don´t feel the need for rearranging windows and tabbed-timelines. For Exambple I just use the back/forward-arrow, which when you hold them flip-open a list of recently used timelines. So little different, similar functuality.

The mixer….you are definitely right about the mixer, though!

[Alban Egger]

FCP7 is dead. Forget it. Apple doesn’t support it anymore.
PP6 is similar to FCP7, because it is trackbased. But that’s about it.

I have moved on to FCPX and it is exactly what a modern editing software needs. It is not compatible with old workflows, and probably doesn’t have a strong foot in the market, but I wouldn’t be shocked if 2 years from now it is just where FCP7 was 14 months ago.

FCPX is much easier to learn. So if you want to learn a NLE for the future it is great. if you want freelance jobs NOW then you are better off with a traditional one

[Alban Egger]

Jim…I don´t know what the maximum was but my current event has 235 MB and it is not sluggish at all.

[Alban Egger]

[Shawn Larkin] Other times, suddenly certain keyboard shortcuts don’t work and I have to restart the program to get those shortcuts back”

That is something that happened to me in the legacy version of FCP all the time. Never in FCPX. Go figure.

Overall FCPX seems less buggy and has fewer crashes in version 10.0.5 than my FCP7 had (especially when I edited long pieces with thumbnails in the bin and waveforms in the timeline-that caused crashes every two hours in FCP6 and 7).

[Alban Egger]

A minor update to my blog is online. There are also 2 clips now in the entries.
https://www.eggermedia.com/blog/2012/7/12/new-fcpx-findings-after-6-days-peakbreak.html

Not much to report. FCPX works fine with our workflow.

[Alban Egger]

First I help you on your task:
The only way to make a non-standard timeline is via Motion.

a) create a project in Motion in 1280×720; upper/lower field first and your framerate. Drop in some generator and render that file.
b) in FCPX import this non-standard file and make a compound clip out of it. Now this compound-timeline should be 1280i and your graphics might look better.

Second: I don´t think this is the way to go. It might look good with you, but since this is not a standard it won´t look good anywhere else!

Either you avoid the 1280i in FCP7 (probably the best idea) or in FCPX in the event you click on the 1280i clips, go to the settings view and set the field dominance to a setting that looks good (this is faster than de-interlacing with a filter).

[Alban Egger]

We are starting the same project again. This time we have 12 months of FCPX under our belt, so it will be much easier n us….we still will blog. Maybe some new FCPX users can learn from it 😀
https://eggermedia.squarespace.com/blog/2012/7/4/one-year-after-fcpx-packing-for-another-peakbreak.html

[Alban Egger]

[Greg Pasztor] “but it should not make my entire video archive dependent on FCPX. This is the same problem Apple created for iPhoto, where outside of their proprietary software & keywords you have to be patient and lucky to find a file. “

Hmmm..I have to disagree. I believe it is still our responsibility to keep track of the data on the finder level. Naming Reels/Camera/Operator/Day is at first our job. So we can always come back to it fast.
In FCPX i usually create keyword collections out if the folder name, so it matches my finder.
So I know where the file is easily and can find it by its timecode or creation time.

What I do to the name within FCPX has no impact on that.