[Alban Egger]

[David Roth Weiss] “So, now that we have that out of the way, will you please list all of the “many ways” you think FCP X is better than FCP 7?”

Gladly…..
– Media Management and the whole keyword-structure…don´t think I need to explain why that is better than the old FCP bin where I never knew where I was and when I looked for something needed a loupe for it; now just type a keyword;and in fact it looks like bins still
– smart collections are on top of all that without subclipping (e.g. best/crane/evening/talentB/crowdnoise)
– Skimming: Open your Event and skim through hours in minutes; no more double clicking dozens of clips to see what´s in them and it allows you to be a little careless with your keywords if need be;

editing: I list a few simple tools that make life easier for me
– again skimming: no more aiming for the timebar; move your mouse to where you want to start, hit SPACE or some other key….done; BTW you can turn it off and use JKL…surprise
– primary storyline (full ripple-mode): I often get back to my edits to tighten them. This time I don´t need to watch for collisions and lost sync on various tracks. Maybe again I can edit a little more careless, but why is that bad? If I need more “freedom”, use the P tool to position clips down the line
– Trim-Start / Trim-End / Trim to Selection: these save hours every week and I missed them since I saw them on Edius.
– the new replace commands are a faster way of the 3-point edit. Select the clip (one click instead of click in, set I, click out set O; but you can still do that and then you can still insert, overwrite the selection or set a connected clip above)
– this time round nesting works: compound clips and especially the secondary storyline help arranging sidetracks of the story and stay connected to the exact moment in the primary storyline where you want them no matter what you do; if I need them in certain tracks I need to be innovativ, that´s true, but I can manage that because you can move compound clips up and down; say you have graphics for different languages….compound them; stack them and toggle them on / off
– timeline index: longtime missing in FCP
– audition; although I didn´t use it much yet, when I did it was a solid help
– Titles/Effects from Motion: some of you pure editors don´t need this if you have graphics departments, but for smaller houses this new motion-to-FCPX plug is very practical. And trust me your graphics artists will surprise you when they publish new graphics into your project without you noticing it 😉

I could go on, but I need to work on. These are just a few tools that make me edit faster. I understand if you have an assistant editor who logs everything perfectly and puts it into bins then the media is there for you, but if you edit from scratch like many of us (and yes we still feel we are pros) the mediatools are a huge improvement.

Editing is just faster; you just don´t have to think about what-might-be-down-the-timeline that much. But that´s my experience and you are be right: I should clearly state all this as my opinion and not as a fact.

And you are all right about the missing features to work in groups (edit/audio/grading). They have to soon offer ways to export timelines for other programmes and co-workers on them.

edit: ONE HUGE factor why it is better than FCP7 that just jumped into my mind when I left the post: on many operations FCPX keeps playing! It doesn´t stop for every trim or audio-levelshift…it plays.and it plays in the background while you maybe adjust a motion effct or work in Photoshop or read the Cow

[Alban Egger]

No, h.264 or AVCHD is the same in that context. Both are used native or transcoded to ProRes depending on your importsettings.

[Alban Egger]

I belie e the “extend edit” shortcut is Shift-x. Not at a FCPX machine now.

[Alban Egger]

Conclusion of the megatest
https://fcpxmegatest.blogspot.com/2011/07/qc-survived-fcpx-success-story.html

There will be more positngs and findings and I will also add a few tipps in the next days….

And here is the trailer for the first broadcast:
https://www.servustv.com/cs/Satellite/Article/Peakbreak—Das-Alpenrennen-011259386298399

[Alban Egger]

?? Normal import format?

Here´s the import procedure:
1. Import and have everything unchecked:
FCPX creates a 4kb link to your native h.264 file and you edit with it. Done. No import really.

2. Import and have “copy” checked:
FCPX will copy your h.264 file into its own structure. When you start editing you edit the original, when copy is down FCPX will automatically use the copy. If you plan to use the original in another program (like FCP7) I recommend to copy! Otherwise it could be that FCP7 or any other program rights metadata into the original and then FCPX loses the connection!! BEWARE of that!

3. Import and have “optimize” checked
FCPX will transcode your native h.264 into a ProRes file that is stored in its structure. Withh.264 this is the best way to do it, because ProRes is an editing codec and less power consuming on your CPU/GPU.
Again you can edit straight away; FCPX will first use your native material and when COPY and/or transcode are done will switch to the Prores files automatic.

[Alban Egger]

Some of the product is wrong, but it has way more upsides than downsides and it is already better than FCP7 in many ways.But it is not a complete NLE yet.

The rollout was definitely wrong. And to EOL FCP7 in such a harsh manner tells you how Apple is a business and not a welfare company for editors; they seem certain their new product is good, so why support the old one. They won´t abandon FCPX because they need it in the future so the iPhone generation can stay in their Apple-cosmos.

In the perspective of a customer this is good deal: you get a great NLE for 299; who needs all these OMFs, XML and tape-broadcastoutput? just a few of us. Even here in this forum not everyone needs it, and we are in general maybe the more qualified users. But FCPX will be sold in millions.

So, if I need OMF – buy it extra; but maybe I don´t need tapeoutput, so I don´t need to pay for that. In fact I like that idea (well, right now we can´t buy any of it, but we will )

This modular (App-Store modular of course) scheme for FCPX will be a unique selling point. Mind you how many people are just now coming into the market. They won´t buy AVID or ADOBE even at their discount prices because they are still double or triple the price and you STILL HAVE TO BUY a AJA card. So why not buy FCPX for 299 and then buy the AJA card.

We, who have been in this for years or like me decades, can either drop it or see what´s happening and then decide. And that´s what Apple is betting on. Any sane businessperson will wait, because FCP7 still works, it didn´t stop working suddenly, it´s still on my drive and still running. This “war” is not won in a few weeks, Apple knows that and they will come back after the initial feedback and they are probably hammered with automatic crash reports, heck I have sent dozens, and they will fix it and they might listen to a few complaints and they will make a lot of money with a product that will be the standard for a big part of the industry.

[Alban Egger]

I don´t really understand that. So if checker boarding your timeline (which is a task on its own) is the workaround for something that can be achieved easier, why not go with the easier method and why does it make your editing cumbersome?

[Alban Egger]

“optimized Files” are transcoded to ProRes422

[Alban Egger]

try “Import from Camera”, then select the folder. If you have the footage in its structure as it was in the camera, then that´s how you do it.

[Alban Egger]

New entry in the blog. First documentary is currently at quality check 😉
https://fcpxmegatest.blogspot.com/2011/07/output-part-1.html

This explains how we got to output 8 dedicated audiotracks (with the help of FCP7, mind you)