[Bill Davis]

Well congrats, Andrew.

Your sleuthing has revealed a huge hole in my personal knowledge of Apples plans from years back.

I’m devestated.

It appears that just like the local pro TV reporters filing the story I posted, I was unaware of what Apple was working on out here and that it was general industry knowledge for the “better informed” among us. Two whole stories out of the hundreds (sic) passing by on the Internet in that time period and I somehow missed them. Good catch.

Still Interesting to me how Apple is invested in solar energy generation here in the sunbelt in advance of possible changes in how … Oh I don’t know, “stuff” might increasingly need to be powered in a future less dependent on hydrocarbons for power generation.

Idle speculation for sure.

Nothing to see here.

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

[Bill Davis]

By the way…

Since everyone has conviententy ignored your original question, I thought I’d actually answer your question directly.

Apple publicaly said in 2011 when they released the FCP X re-code that they had a 10 year plan for it.

My personal bet is that since it’s the only software that’s truly pushed the innovation bar very far recently – it’s got a whole lot more to contribute to the industry.

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

[Bill Davis]

[Herb Sevush] “This is so wrong it’s scary. Stabilization is something to be applied sparingly in that it often doesn’t work the way you expected and it changes the composition of the entire clip it is applied too, even if the fault you were seeking to fix is in only one place.”

Dang it. I forgot again that everyone else is supposed to work like you guys. And think like you guys.

I’ll change everything I do now, because I’ve finally realized that everyone shoots 14 cameras and follows steaming shaky pots in kitchens whilst clinging to a technique that’s usefull sometimes – but I use it always cuz We X editors are just that dumb.

Seriously, OF course there are types of gigs where any one particular strategy will fail.

And hopefully a thousand others where it will succeed.

And knowing the difference is what experience is all about. Herb, you still have NO experience with X. So keep focused on how it will never do what you want it to do. And for sure keep telling the guys that use it daily – how it works – cuz that’s fun to read. I’m sure that will remain comforting for at least another five years for you.

Enjoy those months.

Heck, maybe I’ll join in and tell you all the things I imagine other software doesn’t do based on how well I don’t understand IT! It’d be FUN for everyone! Really.

; )

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

[Bill Davis]

[Joe Marler] “By contrast an experienced editor by necessity will immediately tackle J and L cuts, media management, multicam, etc. I’d like to see the novice who can figure out how to stabilize edited multicam clips on the timeline in FCPX.

Wouldn’t we have known during prepping our clips for Multicam editing that we should apply stabilization (or have the AEs do it!) via Open in Timeline) before our multiclips are created?

Part of the X zeitgeist for me was to learn to engage my editors brain prior to the storyline stage to think about candidate processes that I can globally apply to clips early – so I get the benefit of more “perfected” resources in all my subsequent uses.

Heck, to me that’s what X’s Reject Functionis all about. Perfecting resources for further use.

And in that same spirit, any shakey clip that needs to be stabilized in my current program – would just need to potentially be stabilized again for the intro, flashback or part two of a series if they showed up there – so rather than thinking “in the timeline” I’d likely prefer to correct it once upstream on the source and then it’s done for all global uses.

Color, sound, stabilization and more can become part of prep – just like keyword application – and doing so drives lots of backend efficiency.

A small part of learning to think of an X workflow on it’s own terms.

BTW I do these things all the time still (find myself still solving workflow challenges in X with non- X thinking.) but when I think it through later and can suddenly see how the database or a metadata manipulation can make things easier- I try to stop doing it the old way and re-condition my thinking.

I am in awe of those of you who can bounce around between the NLEs and keep your heads on straight about gaining and losing capabilities all the time as you switch. I imagine that would drive me nuts!

FWIW

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

[Bill Davis]

[Charlie Austin] ”
Telling people that X is a completely “new way of editing” is a pet peeve of mine. (what is a peeve anyway??) It’s not reinventing the process, as a editors we are doing the same thing in X as anything else. “

The thing is, I don’t remember anyone EVER arguing this.

I remember in the early days constantly saying things like “Editing in X is different than what you might be used to.”

And one reader can read the word “editing” in that and think about operating the software – and another person reads the same sentence and reads the same word as referring to the sequencing of ideas. The term itself has more than one use. We all know that.

But considering how often what I said back then got instantly filtered through the very active opinion lynch mob of the day – I’d argue none of these word issues were actually driving the problem. if people were mentally inserting “completely” before the word “different” – that would not have surprised me one bit.

I’ve come to believe that real problem of those days were hurt, fear and insecurity. With a not insignificant overlay of moderate corporate warfare involved, too. On all sides.

Change is hard.

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

[Bill Davis]

Oliver,

I actually think a part of the process IS different in this way.

Virtually everything about the mechanical processes of the storyline – except the magnetic reactions that anyone can learn in a week – are pretty much the same NLE to NLE. Not exact, for sure – and constructs like the timeline index and Roles and even X’s specific Share system take study – but they are all at least somewhat similar to what any editor might expect to need to learn to do in any NLE. They make at least some historic senseto my thinking, if not the X implementation of them.

I’m not sure the keyword and tagging and hide/reject system is in the same class.

Maybe editors with more experience than I have with other systems can school me here, but I’ve never seen an NLE with a front end organizational system that’s bolted directly into the interface that has the simple power that this one does.

I’ve been working with it for nearly 5 years and I’m still learning new tricks and techniques to improve my results with the various types of projects I find myself doing.

Perhaps an editor who does the same type of work day after day or year after year finds one way to tag and access their work and sticks with it. But I have at least a dozen distinct strategies that I use regularly for different types of work. And I refine within those for each new challenge. It’s part of what keeps my editing excitement high with X. How can I use these database tools to make my work easier for this gig. That’s where each job begins for me. It’s fun!

YMMV

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

[Bill Davis]

Don’t get me started about this.
I spent two hours last night in the phone with a Producer/Editor friend just back from a shoot who wanted to “edit” on her long flight back home.
But as usual, they did at least half a dozen dumb things on the shoot that will make things harder for them to get to work fast. (Turn in poorly labeled finder copied shot files in folders each with 8 embedded audio tracks, only two of which are useful? Really?)
She’s in her first six months into X and still ALL she wanted to do was slap things into multi cams and start cutting away.
Over and over I had to pull her back into rejecting the 70% of the overall footage she’ll never need to see again – proper prep – disabling all the camera audio tracks to isolate the lavs – and setting up her Roles assignments properly.
For her “editing” has been exclusively what happens AFTER you get things in a timeline. In X, it’s ALSO how you prep for metadata flow.
More than anything else, for me this is why it’s usually easier to train newbies in X. You don’t waste all that time constantly saying “STOP – before you do what you’re used to doing – if you do THIS stuff first everything will work so much BETTER!”
Newbies X KNOW they need to learn things systematically. Old Pros just want you to show them how to do what they already KNOW how to do – the way they they want to keep doing it – using the new tools.
Yes, it’s unfair to some old school editors who adapt brilliantly to the new system. But it’s also a very real thing IME.

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

[Bill Davis]

Darren right.
This typically happens when newish users think that clicking on Import and being able to “get to work” means the entire import process is complete.

Very often it isn’t.

The only way to make absolutely sure your imported clips are completely imported is to open the Render Manager (click on the circular render progress indicator on the Dashboard in the center of the interface) and then make sure all import process progress bars are complete before you close X down. If you do this consistently, the problem will go away.

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

[Bill Davis]

Hi Tim!

I was just having fun with the “waterproof” tag. That’s all.
All the ratings you note relating to water resistance and failure mode testing are fascinating. Since they all include the fact that at some point or pressure, the water wins – it appears that none of them seem to be “waterproof” in a common colloquial sense.
That the iPhone 7 coming soon is nearly as water proof as an Android was two years ago, seems to me to be about as interesting as the fact that Premiere Pro gained a robust Proxy workflow 5 years after X. To the editor working NOW – they each have a better experience. Win/win. And that’s the actual advancement.
That said, I appreciate what I learned from your post. So thanks.

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

[Bill Davis]

[Dominic Deacon] “Bill seemed to be saying that Iphone need to ditch the audio out so it could be waterproof but Samsung has it and is more waterproof.”

Just to be clear, I doubt that there’s a “more waterproof metric” out there – since that’s kinda oxymoronic.

Apple only claims water resistant. What is interesting to me is that instead of trying to seal everything totally – like I can with a waterproof external case right now (I bought a pair for my wife and I for our recent Hawaii Trip cuz rain and general beach time) Apple engineered a way to actively expel water from the connection if it gets compromised. That’s interesting thinking. Those waterproof housings were a bit meh – I do think the switch to a single lightening connector ala the new MacBook is a way to keep things thin and simple. I bought one of those for my wife, and I have to say it’s a lot of capability for something so light and thin. Plus I’m eyeing it for my voice recording work, because it’s completely fanless – which means it makes no sound at all when you’re working with an open mic.

Sometimes the new thinking improves things in ways that might not be totally obvious – that’s all. : )

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