Chris Conlee
Forum Replies Created
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Upright Moviola vs. flatbed debates still rage to this day in some circles. And if you cut with an upright, heaven help you, in some company, if you dared to use takeup reels.
Chris
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You can also use Avid’s built in “Pan and Zoom” effect. It works fairly well, but lacks Stagetool’s rotation features. Personally, I use Stagetools and am very happy with it, but if your budget doesn’t allow, then you can only do what you can do at this juncture.
Chris
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Film tracking and pulldown removal are built into Avid. To generate lists, you use FilmScribe. I’ve always appreciated the Avid way of dealing with film, because you can see your Keycodes and edge numbers right in your editing interface without having to go to another app.
Chris
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Chris,
I think you’re correct about Avid’s predicament regarding high-end/size of market. That’s why they’re diversifying into consumer (Pinnacle) and audio (ProTools) and control surfaces, along with their own overpriced hardware. The studios will continue to purchase their hardware for the sake of robust reliability. But I think Avid is seeing the writing on the wall and are opening up to 3rd party I/O to move more licenses to folks like FCP fans.
You might call Avid’s UI dated, but I still call it the most functional and quickest of the bunch. Moving to another app to cut is like eating razor blades for me after using Avid for nearly a decade. It just works.
Chris
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I don’t really get the “Avid bores the hell out of me” mantra. A screwdriver isn’t that exciting either, but it’s built to do a job and it does it well. So it goes with Avid. I can cut with my eyes closed on Avid, it’s become so familiar.
Chris
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Adobe Encore works well. Just did a Blu-Ray with several menus and whatnot. I’m getting the hang of it; very similar to DVDSP, actually.
Chris
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Hey Rob,
Well I’m definitely prejudiced, because Avid is my preferred tool. However, I own and use FCP 7 when I absolutely have to. My sense is that broadcasters will drift back to Avid, because Avid means “Pro” in the broadcast sense of the word, and they aren’t going to change that. No surprises with Avid, which will appeal to the people making long-term decisions.
I’d recommend sticking with FCP for your immediate projects, and for as long as it continues to work, but definitely learn Avid. It’s a different beast, and you’ll be frustrated with it at first. But if you don’t try to make it act like FCP, and learn to use it instead as it was designed, I think you’ll find it incredibly powerful, smooth, and efficient.
Chris
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Chris, your list is incomplete: we need film tracking, and shared workflow for assistants and additional editors. Taken together, that’s a pretty substantial list of missing elements.
Chris Conlee
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Well, that’s certainly a different way to work, and it might work, but the question is why would you want to do it that way instead of just putting SFX in a bin and dropping them onto preassigned tracks, vs spending time keywording each asset and hoping you remember how everything was tagged?
I’ve been hearing lots of arguments trying to support this new paradigm, but I haven’t yet heard one that makes me want to switch. I guess that’s the beauty of competition. Each person is free to pick their own tool.
Chris
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Rob,
What type of work do you do? For certain types of work, FCP X will be more than suitable. Before making a recommendation, it would be useful to know what you need from your editing application. Do you need deck control? Do you need to track film numbers? Do you need to export your audio for additional sweetening and mixing, or do you do your own mixing in app? Are you solely involved in file-based material with delivery restricted to the internet? No job is any more “professional” than another, but they have different needs.
Chris