Chris Harlan
Forum Replies Created
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[Jamie Franklin] “And apple exploited that less-than speed bump just a smidgeon and turned their backs quite drastically. Not saying anything about their decision, they are doing just fine, just a small irking feeling that I must have spent 30,000$ off the top of my head the last decade on products that now have minimal support at best and am now looking to replace with other brands from a “brand” that was only taken seriously enough to position themselves into a gadget store…We’re not asking for Henry VIII’s head, he asked for ours…ouch
“I agree. I think the iPhone was such a powerful game-changer inside the company, that it is just not the same company anymore. One of the divisions found “the ring to rule them all,” and there is simply no going back. I think most of the folks who believe that FCP X is just in its infancy and will grow into something full-bodied will ultimately be disappointed. To my mind, the design of FCP X is based primarily on the needs of Apple’s hardware buildout, secondarily on desire for continuity and symmetry within their app ecosystem, and only thirdly as an NLE. Some folks see big things for FCP X; I think its destiny is as the video version of Pages.
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[Ben Holmes] “Use FCPX if you want to work quickly in editorial environments “
Oh, yeah. Those of us who choose the others do so because we want to work more slowly. Sorry, I think your analysis is suffering from .0 release bugs.
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In the linked chart of Apple revenues, FCP X is a small percentage of the 5% slice marked as other. Once upon a time Apple equipment sales were driven by Pro Apps. Now, they are probably no more than a minor annoyance to produce. The change in the financial status of Apple over the last decade is, or is nearly, unprecedented. We ain’t even a small pothole, let alone a speed bump.
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[David Lawrence] “The bottom line is it’s just not that big a deal. Certainly not worth ditching all the benefits of tracks, open space and industry compatibility for the one or two special cases where ripple and collision avoidance are a nice convenience.
“This is the crux right here, right? All of this trackless insanity exists because this kind of edit is slightly more awkward to make than other kinds of edits? That’s madness.
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I just use ctrl-V to split all my tracks, then “t” or insert edit to move all else over, then I heal as needs be. I can do exactly the same thing in Avid. The truth of the mater is that unless each edit is very self contained, an insert is going to through something off. magic timeline or not. For my work, splitting and healing is generally ideal because it keeps everything in sync. The music will generally need readjustment, but it would require it in the magic timeline as well.
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[David Lawrence] “On the other hand, what if there’s a much easier explanation?
What if they simply blew it?
“OR–and I bet you have NOT considered this–it is a multidimensional program that sits across the local multiverse and is only partially visible in our world, until Dec. 2012, when the doors between universes open and we have an ice cream party. At that point, you will be able to multicam across time and the boundary between alternate realities.
I think, using Ockham’s Razor, this has to be it.
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[Herb Sevush] “I don’t know about Tim but i definitely need the ability to have nothin’ attached to nothin’ but with the ability to reattach at will.
“Me three.
[Herb Sevush] “I want to treat my audio like it’s mag track on a moviola – sync code when I need it, but otherwise total freedom to move it around completely disconnected with the video.”
Yup. And at least every couple of projects, I’m faking someone’s dialog over them actually saying something else.
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Man, you are obstreperous.
[Jeremy Garchow] “I appreciate the explanation. “
No, actually, I really don’t think you do. I think you actually ignored much of what I was saying.
[Jeremy Garchow] “I guess I am ignorant. I still don’t see anything that can’t be done in FCPX. “
I never said that there was anything there that can’t be done in X. I said that most of the stuff there is something I don’t want to do in X. That I judge it a disadvantage for ME to use FCP X in the given situation. I can understand that YOU might think the tradeoff ( a magnetic timeline for tracks) is somehow worthwhile, but yes, if you can see no value in tracks at all then I DO think you are being willfully ignorant in defense of FCP X. If you really can’t understand why somebody–or groups of somebodies–other than yourself might prefer the ease of X,Y (in 5 sec, down 5 tracks) than I will never be able to explain it to you.
[Jeremy Garchow] “Yes, you probably wouldn’t be as fast as you are in fcp7 on the first one, but you’d get faster. “
Sigh. I could go back to paper cuts and punch tape as long as everybody else was on the same playing field. Thank God I don’t have to.
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[Jeremy Garchow] “Fair enough, but help me understand. I do sit in supervised sessions, but they are pretty rare these days. It’s to the point now that clients almost sit in your lap as they almost want to operate the keyboard.
Help me understand “no way”. Just curious.”
I’m not sure I can make you understand, because to me it is obvious, and yet, it does not seem to be so to you. First, maybe you are not aware of the number of ingredients in a high energy :30. If it is reality or procedural cop/medical/etc., its 26 seconds of non-plate material can sport somewhere between twenty and forty (or more) separate images. Lines are pared down to their bare minimum, and what seems to be a simple full sentence is almost always cut down by a third or a half or more. These sentence will run underneath 2-3-4 images. On average there will be at least three pieces of music that interrelate with each other and represent different parts of the spot, and there will be somewhere between 15 to 35 sfx cues, including whooshes (singular, or in series) thuds, body blocks and falls, mental clangs, glass shatter, small ramps, gun shots, thunder, tweeker effects, etc. Almost all of this stuff overlaps some of the rest of the stuff.
So, for me, that’s a lot to keep in my head, especially when it is shifting around, and a lot to not have strong visual references for when working with others. You may not need to, but I need to see the whole structure at a glance, and then to zoom in and out of it at will. I need to be able to point at a series of clips and say “if we move THIS here than it is going to conflict with THAT.” I need to have my effects on an X/Y access so that I can locate something immediately, X=time, Y=track. When five or six 7 frame visuals share the same whoosh, I don’t want to wonder what it is attached to who. When I have to step out for whatever reason and another editor or an AE needs to do some things, I want them to know before even looking at my project where things are.
I can also see patterns and easily communicate them to others. If the timpani I’m burying underneath the thunder at the request of the CD doesn’t pay off on the third hit, I want to see immediately why, peripherally, without really having to dig for it. I want to glance down at the waveform in my music track and be able to say “I think the cellos in the piece we just moved here are canceling out the lower end of the midrange in the timpani, which is why you don’t think it is as powerful,” or conversely, I want to look up at the SOT track, and say “that deadening is coming from that traffic noise behind his dialog. That bus, right there. I can’t separate him unless we get an ISO, or some ADR, which I bet they don’t have.”
Does this help?
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[Jeremy Garchow] “I guess the part I’m most confused about is how the proposed edit environment benefits tracks. Are you saying that you don’t know the timeline well enough to do a replace edit? Or stack a few new SFX clips and turn off the ones you don’t need? Or haven’t explored what Auditions can really do?”
Jeremy, I can tell by your questions that you have either a) not been in the kind of scenario I’m talking about, or b) are a truly extraordinary individual. Now, I’m guessing it is “b,” so I’m just asking you to take pity on us muggles who need our visual crutches to make it through a tight afternoon in the speediest way we can.