[Bill Davis]

For me, this is something FCP X has COMPLETELY changed my attitude towards.

If I came back from a 3 day shoot with, say, 12 hours of gross B-Roll, I’d expect to get all the crap REJECTED and out of view in a day (if not on the plane ride home.)

I’d probably be left with 1-3 hours of USABLE shots if I was lucky.

In my practice there’s NO cost to the client for any of that because the Reject stage is something I do anyway.

Then aggregating those onto a storyline magnetically would maybe take 10 minutes.
Setting up a TC burn in for a window dub would take another 2 minutes.

I look at it as a client communication tool. I put a shop logo and sometimes, if I’m REALLY fancy, I tag each shot with a big letter and number ID to make it super easy to communicate with the clients. “Lets swap shot C-10 for E-38…” is WAY easier than exchanging lists of time code numbers. Removing friction for clients and enhancing communications is what we’re supposed to be good at after all!

That might take an hour or two to run, since I have an Automator action set up to place the graphics, and all I have to do is step through and increment the shot numbers.

They get enhanced communications tools. I don’t send out ANY clear shots, at ANY resolution. And we have a super way to communicate from that point on.

The whole shebang in X is nearly all automated and takes minimal labor. I consider it a regular part of customers service and prep. So I can’t imagine charging extra for it. But after all this time, my rates are robust enough that I long ago stopped thinking in terms of incremental charges for “extras.” The project fee should WAY MORE than cover that.

My 2 cents, YMMV.

Creator of XinTwo – https://www.xintwo.com
The shortest path to FCP X mastery.

[Bill Davis]

Yep, and Cindy Crawford STILL has that damn MOLE!!!

I haven’t lost “sync” on anything in about 4 years now. Learn to manage your clips via the X “reference clips” system (embedded audio clips, sync clips, compound clips, and multcam clips) – and you might might never have to lose sync on anything in a storyline again either?

Sync loss happens in my experience to people who rely on either “detach audio” or “break apart clip items” to work on their audio in ways they are more conditioned to in tracked timelines. It’s pretty darn easy to avoid the problem in X. If you have to shift audio, just mute the source clip in place, make a quick audio only copy – and drop it in as a connected audio clip elsewhere. Give it a quick “Wild lines” Role so you can locate it super fast if you ever need to. No need to break anything apart and destroy the sync relationship when everything is just a digital abstraction anyway.

FWIW.

Creator of XinTwo – https://www.xintwo.com
The shortest path to FCP X mastery.

[Bill Davis]

For me, two things stand out about the update.

Range select then hitting “delete” returns to the “kill and collapse” audio behavior from before 10.3

And I just heard from some of my friends in large FCP X based facilities in Europe – and they tell me X performance for large operations and facilities has gotten an VERY significant speed boost via this update.

So the network and movie folk should be smiling today.

Good news all around the X community today!

Creator of XinTwo – https://www.xintwo.com
The shortest path to FCP X mastery.

[Bill Davis]

[Andrew Richards] “you can see that it runs on unicorns and fairy dust.”

Shoot. I only have a license for unicorns and fairy dust LITE.

I’m screwed.

; )

Creator of XinTwo – https://www.xintwo.com
The shortest path to FCP X mastery.

[Bill Davis]

[andy patterson] “It is unfortunate that you are limiting yourself to just editing. Why not try to create logos using Illustrator or edit the photos that you have to use in your video production with Photoshop? Maybe on day you will start to use Cubase or Cakewalk for audio mixing. In that case the touch screen will allow you to manipulate the virtual audio board as easy as using a control surface. In fact some Cakewalk users have stated they like using touch screen over the control surface but everyone will have their own preference. Others have stated touch screens work good for certain tasks but not everything. I agree. “

That answers it for me.

Horses for courses.

I don’t currently value that type of “learn 6 programs and switch between them daily” approach if I can possibly avoid it.

I understand the concept. Each program custom developed to do ONE task as well as possible – providing the user ultimate control with deep access to everything. The thing is, I seldom have time to touch six different things just to get the overall task done.

Part of the beauty if X (for me at least) is that I can stay inside it and get essentially everything I need to deliver my work done in one cohesive place.

With the pace of business today – bouncing between multiple tools just isn’t on my radar if I can have one that gets the job done properly in a single environment.

If I was in my teens, I’d probably still have the vision I used to… that learning 6 deep programs – deeply – was a valuable path. Today, not so much. I’ve bought, learned and ultimately DROPPED more software packages over the decades than I currently use. And now I value the ones that let me get the most work done with the least friction in both learning and execution possible.

Sure I’ll take a flyer on a dedicated App if it’s relatively inexpensive or if it specializes in a particular function I need (Like Slice/Track X, etc) but I’ve come to value keeping things “tight” in terms of my desire to expand my program expertise mindshare. Theres just too many things to learn out there – and nowhere near the time available to learn them all.

To each their own.

; )

Creator of XinTwo – https://www.xintwo.com
The shortest path to FCP X mastery.

[Bill Davis]

[andy patterson] “The Surface Pro uses a Core i5/i7 and Windows 10. It has done that for years. Even when it ran Windows 8 it could use an i5/i7 CPU. You can run Indesign and Illustrator on the Surface Pro. You can find videos of people doing this 4 years ago.”

Interesting. How does it handle the heat in that form-factor?

I notice you mention only vector based software. Does it run higher requirement pixel based manipulations like Premiere Pro that has to push a ton more pixels around ?

Thanks for the info.

Creator of XinTwo – https://www.xintwo.com
The shortest path to FCP X mastery.

[Bill Davis]

Isn’t the hope that the as the data pipes continue to get bigger – stuff like an array of GPUs can be moved OUT of the computer chassis where you can isolate the noise and heat to preserve a simple and quiet work environment?

I know I still have to use a separate audio recorder combined with switching to my iPad for script display when I’m doing voice work.

Having a single computer screen for script scrolling while simultaneously recording everthing into the editorial machine would be ideal – but because even my MacBook Pro’s modest fans will infect the audio track, I still have to basically work double system for VO recording.

I had hoped that the 12″ MacBook we picked up last year (fanless) would step up and fill this slot – but I haven’t found a way to successfully adapt the single USB Type C port on it to my current Zoom Tac-2 audio interface that requires Thunderbolt. I can adapt the ports easily enough – but it appears the lack of power transfer to the audio interface keeps it “dead” when connected. Bummer.

The dream of “a single system that does it all!” – remains tantalizingly out of reach for me.

FWIW

Creator of XinTwo – https://www.xintwo.com
The shortest path to FCP X mastery.

[Bill Davis]

[andy patterson] ” Apple has no consideration for it’s customer. I feel the same way about Adobe’s CC paradigm. Apple and Adobe care about profits only. They do not care about making the best products possible for the end user.”

That’s right. Just look at how evil Apple is in forcing their customers to pay continuously to use the products they used to be able to BUY once and use forever. It’s disgraceful.

Wait….what?

; )

Creator of XinTwo – https://www.xintwo.com
The shortest path to FCP X mastery.

[Bill Davis]

And it’s going to get worse before it gets better.

I currently have access to 4 paid content subscription services. Some shows show up on all of them – some on one or two – some are exclusive to only one – and some shows I hear about and would love to watch show up on NONE of them – only via Pay Per View.

Plus the local area services are now getting into the act. My local cable provider Cox Communications, has their Contour Streaming service. Half the time when I watch something on it it’s free. But if I elect to watch something more recent and verypopular (e.g. Guardians of the Galaxy) – BOOM – Commercials appear every 20 minutes in the stream.

The whole thing is a massive MESS out there.

NetFlix has the best model, IMO- but if you decide you want to access something NOT currently on their feed you’re schrooged. It’s a kinda a hybrid push/pull model. You get to “pull” the content you want – but only if they’ve “pushed” it first!

Creator of XinTwo – https://www.xintwo.com
The shortest path to FCP X mastery.

[Bill Davis]

[andy patterson] “Apple’s paradigm = If you want to draw and sketch using a touch screen use our iOS. If you want a desktop OS to draw and sketch go use the MS Surface Pro. And that my friend is why many Mac users have opted for the Surface Pro : )”

Isn’t the Surface Pro just a tablet with a detachable keyboard section? And isn’t it ARM based like the iPad? Or are you saying the shoehorned a desktop CPU into that tablet? That would be cool.

What’s the advantage over an iPad Pro and an Apple Pencil? Apple’s “mimic a sketchpad and pencil.” tools have been out for more than a year and the artists I know who use them love them. Is this different?

Or are you talking about the Surface Pro Studio – the big iMac like honker? That’s a touchscreen too right? Does it have the dedicated drawing capabilities like the Surface Pro or iPad pro?

Creator of XinTwo – https://www.xintwo.com
The shortest path to FCP X mastery.