[Bill Davis]

HUD display of frame accurate timecode. Sub frame accuracy baked in for audio handling. Timecode math including search and seek, trim and increment available in the MIDDLE of the editing interface.

Yeah, I’d call that “robust timecode support” since none of those elements are of much interest for someone who’s just slapping together a “trip to the beach” video.

What’s YOUR take on how FCP handles Timecode?

I guess someone looking to genlock to a BetaCam deck might find the lack of a pathway that enables an analog TC signal via BNC port a problem. But at some point you just have to let the past go.

Or would you like to take the FCP-X engineering team to task for failure to support RS-232, 422 as well?

“Before speaking out ask yourself whether your words are true, whether they are respectful and whether they are needed in our civil discussions.”-Justice O’Connor

[Bill Davis]

Yes, I think so.

Tho the obvious best goal would be to look at this through as many lenses as possible so that whatever discussion takes place is useful for those who DO want to build asset catalogs – even if I don’t.

Again, I’m trying to seek out ideas without artificial limitations on thinking.

We’ll see what pops up – and I’ll be sure to come back and post anything I hear.

Bill

“Before speaking out ask yourself whether your words are true, whether they are respectful and whether they are needed in our civil discussions.”-Justice O’Connor

[Bill Davis]

[David Roth Weiss] “[David Roth Weiss] Forgetting about proper color, which is highly subjective, how about fields-related issues, which involve no subjectivity?

How exactly can you properly QC the output of FCPX without being able to see mismatched fields or reversed field order, both of which require proper video monitoring?

Evidently, you failed to listen even after saying you’d “be happy to listen.”
“

First, David, I can’t find time to visit here enough to see everything.

If I’d responded to that at the time here’s what I should have said…

Proper color is another slippery slope. I know too many art directors who regularly decide to replace skys, tint frames, and plenty of shooters who use of “color tricks” like warm cards that technically “screw up” color with intent. I could argue that “proper color” was more critical in the days when broadcast was the DOMINANT game – and a mis-set proc amp anywhere in the chain could mess up that INTENT. In the NLE era, once you get the values correct at ANY point in the chain, you can expect them to remain pretty constant since they’re digital values that will largely be maintained by data error checking routines.

Same with fields issues. Fields are an NTSC broadcast requirement. If your work isn’t gong to be broadcast, fields are functionally irrelevant. Again you’re shoehorning video into YOUR definition of PRO – one that might not be shared by the majority of the others who are playing the game today.

So I am listening. You might not be if you continue to argue that the ONLY video worth value is that which is shoehorned into a classic broadcast environment.

Haven’t you even NOTICED that a huge amount of video is being produced today in 23.97 PROGRESSIVE formats – anathema for the 29.97 broadcast world since it requires the hassle of a 3:2 pulldown for use..

Good luck checking that progressive stuff for “field order.”

“Before speaking out ask yourself whether your words are true, whether they are respectful and whether they are needed in our civil discussions.”-Justice O’Connor

[Bill Davis]

But “paid for their work” is kinda fluid, isn’t it?

Every small business in America seems to be in a rush to put their message out in video form. So since the lawnmower repair guy down the street wants to put out videos designed to support a money making business, the wife drawing a paycheck from that business who makes their web videos is arguably being “paid” to do so.

So she’s a video pro? I doubt that’s what’s being alleged here. So what is? What’s the threshold that separates the amateur from the pro?

It’s a slippery slope. One person’s amateur, after all, is another persons pro.

I’m not arguing, by the way, for or against that classification for anyone. Just trying to examine whether the definition of a PRO might actually sometimes need to be narrower and sometimes broader than our individual prejudicial definitions presume.

The point is that there might not actually be just ONE definition of a “professional editor”, but many.

“Before speaking out ask yourself whether your words are true, whether they are respectful and whether they are needed in our civil discussions.”-Justice O’Connor

[Bill Davis]

Jeremy,

At this point my goals are not that specific.

I’m not starting out with any pre-conceived notions. That’s the whole point. I’m not used to thinking about this kind of very flexible and open system for search and sort inside a NLE environment.

So I’m starting from scratch to learn. I know a few things about how computers operate at the taxonomic level, but I also understand how much I don’t know. So I’m trying to educate myself in the broadest possible terms.

So this is a personal quest for knowledge. Nothing more. I also believe that since so many people will be coming to the new FCP-X toolset, that any open discussion of “best practices” in the area of clip, project, event, and/or data naming will be likely to help a lot of others as well.

Pretty much that simple.

“Before speaking out ask yourself whether your words are true, whether they are respectful and whether they are needed in our civil discussions.”-Justice O’Connor

[Bill Davis]

I’m already enjoying the responses. Thank you all.

Walter, I agree with your approach to the “inside” key wording. But I’m just as interested in developing a better strategy for camera card archive designations, what to name or rename items in the EVENT BROWSER to better use that capability and other “inside” strategies, rather than JUST the use of keywords inside the X database.

As to the email problem Jeremy mentioned, I guess the old link to the test demo reel I’d forgotten I’d posted isn’t always working so, for those interested, here’s the munged email for me.

new video (all one word) at fastx (replace the x with a lower case Q) dot com.

Thanks.

“Before speaking out ask yourself whether your words are true, whether they are respectful and whether they are needed in our civil discussions.”-Justice O’Connor

[Bill Davis]

Noooooo…

Don’t take away my Project Browser.

It’s the PERFECT supervisory tool for any implementation when FCP-X becomes a workgroup based shared-project system.

The supervisor can manage a LOT directly from the Project Browser – checking to see whether changes have been made, timelines updated, the latest graphics inserted, etc. Plus, since it’s essentially a collection of proxies that reflect back to the arrangement of the timeline, it SIPS resources since it functions without the need for all the full size source clips to be on-line.

I actually think it’ one of the MOST elegant parts of the X interface. It’s a scrubbable window into the current state of any project that gives you VISUAL FEEDBACK instantly and unlike all the other NLEs it doesn’t require you to launch or open ANYTHING to use it.

It’s freaking brilliant, IMO.

My 2 cents.

“Before speaking out ask yourself whether your words are true, whether they are respectful and whether they are needed in our civil discussions.”-Justice O’Connor

[Bill Davis]

John, the “issue” isn’t “too much green” as much as it’s too little “not green”.

Most modern energy efficient light emitters including both LED and fluorescent technologies have “holes” in their visible spectrum output. So to “correct” them, all a filter does is BLOCK more of the spectrum that’s remaining. (filters can only FILTER things, not add something that’s not already there.)

So ALL gel filtering is subtractive.

In both LED and fluorescent technology, they do their best to add coatings to the tubes or emitters to get as close to “full spectrum” as possible, but each falls short typically. So yes, adding “plus green” or “minus green” (magenta across the color wheel) gels to a light can correct the spectrum of an LED or a fluorescent that has a similar color gap and get it “closer” to another source. The amount you need depends on what the original light is putting out.

Look on the LEE filters web site and study their gel swatches and you’ll see that the “color correction” gels are typically labeled with how they raise or lower the color temperature of the light.

Also do a web search on “mired shift” and you can get a lot of info on matching light color temps.

Good luck.

“Before speaking out ask yourself whether your words are true, whether they are respectful and whether they are needed in our civil discussions.”-Justice O’Connor

[Bill Davis]

[Bret Williams] “Along the way, they were getting very excited about the new directions they were headed and lost sight of pro users, since the goal was to make something new.”

In what way did they “lose sight” of pro users? Are you trying to argue that a sub-frame accuracy in edits, robust timecode support, a monster database under the hood and stuff like Roles are built for folks doing birthday party videos and the occasional low budget wedding?

IMO, saying X is “not for pros” simply reveals the radically myopic view that the only “pro” worthy of the name is someone working in Hollywood on a feature. You’re probably watching clips every week in Network Sports Programming searched and broadcast out of FCP-X. That’s professional. Period.

[Bret Williams] “We bought MS Office because it has a “Save As” command. “Versions” is perhaps the most f’d up thing Apple has done in awhile.”

Wait, I thought the Magnetic Timeline still had that title?

Am I falling behind?

“Before speaking out ask yourself whether your words are true, whether they are respectful and whether they are needed in our civil discussions.”-Justice O’Connor

[Bill Davis]

Concur with what Dennis said.

Also, remember that all filters are essentially SUBTRACTIVE – and generally, the more color in the gel, the more you’re lowering the light transmission qualities of it.

So the more correction you add, the more it blocks the full transmission of light.

FWIW.

“Before speaking out ask yourself whether your words are true, whether they are respectful and whether they are needed in our civil discussions.”-Justice O’Connor