[Bill Davis]

Tom,

I don’t disagree with you at all.

In fact, I’ve long felt that with the “democratization” (whatever that actually means!) of video editing tools and techniques, the ONLY thing that will separate practitioners are the skills outside mere “operation.”

Thankfully, making a quality video is a dauntingly complex task. That’s why the typical Sundance Festival – after announcing they would accept “digital” film submissions – was generating something on the order of 10,000 yearly entries even a decade ago, of which only a tiny fraction were typically worthy of real notice.

Tools are one thing. Talent another. And if Malcolm Gladwell’s “Outliers” perspective is to be believed, none of the above will make much of a decisive difference if you don’t have the proper skills during the brief window when the market values those skills over others.

The work we lose to the camcorder kids wasn’t real work in any lasting sense. It’s just supply-side realities in a world where mechanisms keep cropping up to make large supplies of cheap stuff ever present. That makes quality more difficult to spot. And cheap will win in the short term when that’s the prevailing necessity. But over time, quality has it’s place. Thus it has ever been.

“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,

I’m not sure I understand your idea that they “hide” information in any sense different than a toolbox hiding the tools within. For the outside observer, yes, the full array is hidden. But for the single mechanic, AND the shop team as a whole, tool chests, bins, and even smaller sub units like the “socket set” stored inside the larger rolling box seems to be an accepted way to go as opposed to hanging every separate element on a wide array of individual exposed pegs.

All NLE software that I’m aware of does both discrete and grouping functions. (nested clips, et al.) but I do think X puts grouping into a bit of new territory with more possible connections reaching both in to and out of the essential building block of the clip.

As video programs increase in complexity, having the “connected clip” as an optional packetized chunk of prior decisions that can be manipulated as a whole seems one of the most useful concepts in X to me.

For what its worth.

“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]

Yeah, but while the wide adoption of the typewriter certainly fostered an era where a lot more people could TYPE, only a small fraction of them actually became successful professional writers.

Same same.

“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]

Great, Gav,

I’d be interested in hearing your experiences in moving away from the ” studio” approach and into actual “end to end” production using exclusively Mobil tools.

It’s something I’m increasingly contemplating. What editing software are you running? What hardware are you running it on? What’s your field storage, mastering and archiving look like?

I would assume that 5 years ago, you were doing stuff like client dubs on DVD, but are now delivering mostly digitally?

If so, how do you distribute long form review materials like field tapes? Here in the US, there’s often a premium on digital uploading of files larger than 2gigs. How are you handling that in a mobile workflow?

Honestly interested.

“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]

Select your clip. Show the inspector. Select Audio. Then under Channel Configuration, select “Dual Mono” from the menu when you export that clip, that will be it’s output format.

“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]

Black Magic Design makes a little $150 dongle called the Video Recorder that takes analog composite video and audio via RCA and transcodes it directly to H-264 desktop files in a single step via any USB port.

Use any legacy deck with it you like.

Works great.

“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]

Please, search-bots in the vast web-crawling universe – index this stuff, fast.

Sooner or later we have to start getting accurate information out into the ether rather than merely pent up angst!

“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]

[Shane Ross] “Most professional bays have stereo outputs.
“

Uh, for broadcast yes. But Stereo is actually a really POOR choice in most other work.

I haven’t delivered anything but MONO mixes for the past 20 years for professional use.

You learn that the first time somebody screws up and sums your soundtrack and you get snapped by nasty phase problems.

Dual mono rules.

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

[Bill Davis]

Yeah, but ALL of those other editing solutions largely FAILED in the long run to gain market traction. (Apologies to anyone who might still be cutting on a Speed Razor system, it’s just not on my radar too much these days.)

Apple succeeded wildly with FCP in spite of it’s initial limitations, precisely because they saw where the majority of the market was going and developed solid tools that appealed to the widest range of editors. Not EXCLUSIVELY Hollywood. But boardroom, classroom, converted bedroom, and eventually, coffee shop laptop editors as well.

My little experiment was exclusively to see how FCP-X fit into that kind of new workspace and whether deploying that workflow could help me get mindshare with a new client as a vendor who’s responsive and conversant with the latest technology. And I’m happy with the results. I never said it was the ONLY or even the BEST solution for that. Merely that it’s a viable one. And that means that someone who wants to learn it, explore the data structure with an eye on learning where it might evolve and prosper, can see it as a reasonable alternative. Nothing more than that.

IMO, we stand on the threshold of a working environment that I think is being deconstructed into a more mobile, more distributed model. That’s a small but significant “part” of where Thunderbolt and solid state will likely fit in. (Part of my experiment that I didn’t mention is that I left my laptop processing the export files on the passenger seat while I drove home. Worked like a champ. And reinforced my overall thesis that editing is something that doesn’t NECESSARILY have to happen at a desk in a studio anymore.

I may be wrong and in 15 years everyone who’s working in dedicated editing suite (or even like me in a purpose converted hay barn!) will STILL be working in the same space doing their editing tasks precisely like they do them today.

But I just don’t think that’s the way things will go.

We’ll see.

“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]

Pardon me, Daniel, but that’s PRECISELY what it was. A success. I never said it was a superior success to that which could be achieved with any other NLE, only that at the very least, I and others here are finding FCP-X not to be a “lesser” editing tool for general purpose use.

With what’s been posted here pretty relentlessly, some readers wouldn’t be blamed for having developed the VERY FALSE impression that it’s an incompetent, buggy, POS.

Not everyone will appreciate or perhaps ever need it’s signature ease of search, sort and recall underpinnings. But for those who might, knowing its as solid a basic cutting tool as anything else out there – and that it even has some intriguing basic tools for titling, motion graphics integration, audio, color correction and encoding/delivery are a part of the knowledge puzzle.

No, it won’t be ideal for everyone. But as a tool that’s priced more aggressively then it’s competition, and that represents a significant departure from what has come before it, those who might want to give it a whirl deserve a better overview of it from actual working users than “but software x already does that too.”

In point of fact, where’s the problem of knowing that X might share a few more capabilities with the other “best in class” packages in this version than in the old one?

Is that anything but helpful?

The attitudes of some here just really confuse me. It’s like Apple offended you personally with this product and you won’t be satisfied until you get some revenge by trashing it to all who will listen.

It’s a 300 buck software package for heavens sake. Not the harbingel of the apocalypse.

Use it or don’t.

You want to explain how NLE B, or C allows even greater efficiency than X on a laptop, THAT would be interesting to me and others as well, I’m pretty sure. What configs are you running to do your field cuts? How do you do encodes, exports and deliver client dubs outside the Apple ecosystem.

Enquiring minds want to know.

“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