[Bob Woodhead]

Why is it that this forum (and techniques) seem to be far more active than the others?

Could it be that we’re done editing sooner, and thus have more time to post?

[Bob Woodhead]

Good idea, Bill. I’d overlooked that method. Must be getting lazy these days. Thanks!

[Bob Woodhead]

Prepare forehead to be smacked…. 😉

Just grab the secondary storyline bar above the clip. It appears as soon as you add transitions. Grab it, move it, all follows.

[Bob Woodhead]

Thanks Charlie, but XIE (?) requires the clips to be in a timeline and have markers laid down. Too much for the 1000’s of clips that are in this project.

But a neat tool for other image export needs!

[Bob Woodhead]

I can’t offer specifics, other than your concerns (the major one especially) are not an issue on either my 2012 (?) rMBP or my 2014 MP. Other than when it’s rendering waveforms, or some other not-really-background task, I’ve never had an overall slowdown. Especially jumping between Projects. Skimming, it’s just another keystroke you’ll use constantly. Keystrokes don’t slow me down – using the mouse does. RGB curves = various plugins. The one from Graeme Nattress is quire good.

All that said, what DOES slow me down is the %$#*@ filters/generators/etc display. Yeah, I may have a few, but so what? I shouldn’t have to wait while X draws a couple thousand filter thumbnails and the app beachballs. OFFER A TEXT ONLY DISPLAY OF FILTERS. (did I yell that loud enough?)

My #1 enemy in X.

[Bob Woodhead]

Shane, you Luddite. 🙂

For me, in the edit room, I don’t see anything other than a new Wacom (to replace the one my daughter stole for art school). New MP and a 2 yr old rMBP, still doing amazing things for such small boxes.

Outside of the mushroom farm, for sure going to pick up an Atomos Shogun for the GH4. For greenscreen work on the road, you’ve got incredible performance in a tiny package (see a trend here?). 10-bit 4:2:2 ProResHQ onto SSDs from a small, lightweight camera. I’m doing a job this spring where I’ll travel with 2 of those shooting 2-angle greenscreen at 4K, and it’ll all fit in a carry-on. Wow.

And we’ll probably get a DJI Inspire heli to replace our DJI Phantom. Another genre of game-changing tools.

My son’s getting into the business, and I wish I’d never tossed the spot reel box of 2-inch Quad videotape with it’s associated paper-punch tape EDL. I love to be able to tell the story of walking 5 miles through a snowstorm to get to work and then editing on that beastly stuff. (snow added for dramatic emphasis)

[Bob Woodhead]

OK, got it. Don’t plug in any T-bolt drives with “Property of Kim Jong-un” stenciled on it.

[Bob Woodhead]

Odds are there’s some Smart Collection tutorials on MacBreak Studio. But they’re pretty self-explanatory, and identical in nature to Smart Playlists in iTunes.

HOWEVER, a bit of searching the pasture found THIS: https://forums.creativecow.net/thread/344/25129#25129
Aka, the LittleKeywordExtractor !

I just tested it, and it should do just what you need. Take the output of LKE and open in a spreadsheet, database, whatever. It’s a comma-delimited file of keywords and timecode.

[Bob Woodhead]

Posts about how prevalent Legacy still is, and how slow to change large facilities can be, has got me saying… “thank god I don’t have to bend to anyone’s will on which NLE to use”. Seriously, if someone told me I’d have to switch from X to Legacy because “the numbers tell the story”, I’d tell them to take a hike, and return to billing vigorously using X. To be stuck using 7 year old software? Ugh.

I edited with non-magnetic tracks for as long as anyone here who was on tape before that, and after a couple years of X, I’d rather not go back to tracks. The X timeline and it’s metadata strengths have done more for my productivity than anything since non-linear started.

That said, there’s plenty in X that needs improvement. I used to have a number of feature/workflow/etc update priorities, but lately believe the best changes that could be made in X lie in further increasing it’s minute-to-minute productivity. Eliminate those things that slow me down from creating content.
The beachball when I navigate plugins…. yes, I’m a plugin glutton, and have many, but why do I have to sit for several seconds watching a beachball as it draws up the list? And does it every time I do a search, or clear a search. And why do I have to look at thumbnails of effects? Why not a FAST text list? One that I can make favorites out of?
The interface – no good reason not to have savable layouts. Thin out that center bar… even on my dual 2K monitors it’s wasted space.
Stop telling me about what happens when I trash clips…. I KNOW ALREADY.
A keystroke command to replace clip/add to audition/etc. Don’t force me to use the mouse…. ever! The keyboard rules. (That comes from my old Avid days.)

Basically, as long as X keeps improving for professional use, I really don’t care (thank god) what the other kids are using.

[Bob Woodhead]

You could create “top level” keywords to group related keyword clips.

And don’t forget about Smart collections; “show me clips with top-keyword “A” AND sub-keyword “g” AND keyword “good soundbite”. I find Smart collections are incredibly useful as the # of clips increase. My template Library (a Library that contains some often-used graphics and Smart and regular keywords) has Smart collections called; Timelines (which are projects – snapshots), Comps (grouped clips), Stills, Audio, Multicam, and Unused.

I didn’t answer your question, but perhaps helped in another way.