Chris Harlan
Forum Replies Created
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[Oliver Peters] “[Chris Harlan] ” followed by Legacy, which still gets an amazing amount of use for a tool 2 years EOLed.”
That’s the funny part. After 2 years of beating on X and having worked with Avid since the early 90s, I still prefer the way I edit in FCP 7, even though PrProCC is trying to come very close. Something about it just isn’t quite there. The bottom line for me is that I feel like Apple did the best job of “nailing” timeline editing in FCP 7, except for MC’s better trimming mode. Right now I’m left with not being completely satisfied with any of them any longer 😉
“For sure. I’m working on a Legacy project right now, and enjoying myself immensely. With the exception, of course, of out of memory messages. The thing that I love the most about it, as you pointed out in one of your fine articles, is the fluidity of the interface. Premiere is technically there, and yet I agree, it doesn’t feel quite as easeful an approach. I truthfully don’t know if its because I’m not used to it yet, or if there is actually something a bit cleaner about the FCP design. I am happy that somebody thinks its important to do that, though, and maybe when I start to take that Adobe window-docking procedure as second nature, I’ll be completely on board.
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[Oliver Peters] “FWIW – few of the broadcasters I deal with care about DNxHD. Many have standardized on ProRes (mastering) and H264 (deliverables to the server). Also variations of MPEG2.
“For me, for delivery, it is generally either ProResHQ or DNx. That’s also what I get as source material from the studios or networks that I’m dealing with. Here, it would be a bit of a detriment to try to get by on just one of those. When tape was seriously around, it wasn’t really quite the same issue, because tape offered a solid no man’s land between platforms, and the CODECs were so far apart that no one expected anything other than machine or tape conversion. In the last four years, or so, those walls have broken down quite a bit. So, for me, that Premiere can read and write both ProResHQ and DNx is just all-caps WOW. It is something that is probably quite necessary for it to make inroads into the studios, here, where Avid is still king, and also, is something that Apple couldn’t or wouldn’t do.
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[Ronny Courtens] “Most of our clients have been with us for many years now as there is not really any fierce competition at our level, opposed to what you find in LA.”
Ah. Got it.
[Ronny Courtens] “To most of them it does not matter what equipment we are using as long as the work gets done perfectly, in time and within budget.”
That was becoming more the case here, largely because of FCP Legacy’s influence, and I hope it continues. Avid’s still on top though, followed by Legacy, which still gets an amazing amount of use for a tool 2 years EOLed. I was beginning to see a rapid Premiere pickup, but I’m not sure what the CC-only wildcard has done to that. It could quash it, but Anywhere and the metadata services that Adobe is offering might accelerate it as well. Plus, the idea of being able to expand and contract seats at will, as well as treating it all as a service could prove quite enticing to the powers that be. The coin’s still way up in the air.
[Ronny Courtens] ” It’s only hard- and software after all. To me our people are far more important because they make the real difference, not the equipment.”
No argument there. All we’re really doing is discussing hammers, here.
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[Ronny Courtens] ” I understand that for you the DNx and control surface support are a big deal, while for me these are irrelevant. “
I’m amazed that you can be working on broadcast materials and think of DNx as irrelevant. Here in LA it is, hands down, the most relevant CODEC out there.
[Ronny Courtens] “I sometimes envy people who can use different NLEs in their workflow. In a post house like ours with many editors working together on fast turnaround projects we need to develop a seamless workflow based on very specific choices. “
Again, here, every post house I’ve been associated with offers both Media Composer and FCP to their clients. Its been that way for about the last half dozen years, since FCP became industrially accepted. But you are speaking of teams of people in a way that makes me think that wherever you are defines a post house differently from how it is defined here. Here, a post house is a facility site that competes with similar sites to offer an array of post production services to both individual productions and entertainment conglomerates. The goal, for them would be to offer as many options as possible.
As for fast turn-around, and seamless workflow with “many editors working together” there is no question, in my mind, that that still belongs to Avid, with ISIS and Sphere. Of course, its relatively expensive, and its quite possible that eventually Anywhere may challenge that. I don’t see FCP X developing anything in that direction, though possibly 3rd party folk will fill that out somehow.
As far as envy goes, its not really an option, here, as much as it is a requirement. I’m also still curious which version of Pr you were comparing CC to. Was it 5.5 or 6?
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[Oliver Peters] “Thanks. That’s what I was looking for. It’s simply very hidden in the Adobe world.”
It does get a bit labyrinthian, especially when you have to sort through advice/links/videos for older versions, as well.
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[Ronny Courtens] ” Premiere CC has got some minor attention, but after all that’s an app that definitely still needs a lot of improvement.”
Wow. We must be looking at very different versions of Premiere CC. Or, maybe, do very different things. The DNx support alone is worth an upgrade. As is the control surface support. As are the many improved editing functions.
You say “it definitely needs a lot of improvement.” I don’t think there is anything definite about that at all. I think its a mature, extremely well-thought out NLE. I’m glad that X is suitable for you for broadcast work; it still isn’t there for me yet, but I hope that someday it will be. Parts of it look like a lot of fun. Right now, for what I do, both Avid and Premiere are far more useful, though.
Oh, and by the way, I don’t know what you’ve been working with, but there is no CS 6.5. There is 5.5 and 6. I HAVE read that there is a cracked, pirated version of the software going around that has the number 6.5, though I don’t know if that’s true.
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Oh, yeah. sure, sure.
But none of that is a sign
that anyone is an amateur. -
[Craig Seeman] “Apple but to call it not pro, is itself, a sign that person is truly amateur”
While I appreciate symmetry in construction, its probably more likely a sign that they haven’t been around it recently and/or feel burned by the change. Not everybody hugs the net like we do.
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[Oliver Peters] “nstead you have to use Prelude or AME to transcode first, or you have to suffer through often long renders/exports at the end of the line”
It’s funny. I just think of Prelude as an extension of Premiere.
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Yup