Chris Kenny
Forum Replies Created
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[Mark Suszko] “Here I’ll suggest a new plug-in for FCP-x, since it seems to have more audio fixing capabilities already: on ingest, it should listen to the first ten seconds of any take for an audible spoken slate off the shotgun mic channel, use voice recognition to convert that to text and enter it as metadata, looking for the key words “take” plus a number, “Scene” plus a number/letter. I don’t have time to write on log sheets while shooting, but I certainly *can* say a phrase at the start of every take. Whaddya think?”
This would be great if it could be made to work well, but it would probably be pretty spotty with current speech recognition tech. Also, not much help if you’re shooting dual system audio with no scratch track going to camera and the whole reason you want your video to have scene/take metadata is to figure out what audio to match it with.
An easier way to solve this problem, now that cameras are mostly going file-based, is on set. Cameras should provide a way to input this data as you’re shooting, the way most digital audio recorders do. Ideally from a wireless remote, so someone in the script department can worry about it, rather than the camera operator having to be concerned.
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Digital Workflow/Colorist, Nice Dissolve.You should follow me on Twitter here. Or read Does FCP X make project files obsolete? on our blog.
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[Andy Mees] “Question: Whats that little icon up in top left of the filmstrip for the above selected shot (Phantom Ahead) ? It’s not shown on all clips and the icon in the detail view is similar and also reflects the same disparity (not the same as the other “clips” in that list). “
Interesting question. This exercise really makes you realize the extent to which figuring out an interface is an interactive process, difficult to do from static screen shots.
It seems timeline-related. Perhaps it indicates a clip in use in the current sequence?
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Digital Workflow/Colorist, Nice Dissolve.You should follow me on Twitter here. Or read Does FCP X make project files obsolete? on our blog.
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[Erik Lindahl] “The metadata centric workflow is good but I’m waiting with anticipation how they sort multiple-sequence projects and multiple-projects for that matter. This is something FCP handles very flexible today (given confusing for new users perhaps).”
Pretty sure I figured that one out.
Basically, no more project files. Sequences are stand-alone documents (but you can open more than one at a time), footage all lives in a single library where it’s organized into “events”.
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Digital Workflow/Colorist, Nice Dissolve.You should follow me on Twitter here. Or read What is FCP X’s relationship to iMovie? on our blog.
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[Tom Wolsky] “Does the Xcode download install components? All the apps seem to go directly to the Apps folder, no installer. Not sure what FCP X is going to do about this either. Where will the codecs live and how do they get installed? Or will FCP X be the first app that downloads an installer.”
I haven’t downloaded Xcode from the App Store, but it would have to install components; it’s not just an app it’s a new release of the whole developer tool chain. I don’t know how it handles this. There are basically three approaches, that I can see: download an installer that the user manually runs, download an installer than runs automatically, or just download an app to the Applications folder, and have it install components where they need to go the the first time it’s launched.
As far as I know under the App Store rules Apple applies to third-parties only the last of these is currently possible, but as I said before, it’s Apple’s store; they can do what they like.
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Digital Workflow/Colorist, Nice Dissolve.You should follow me on Twitter here. Or read What is FCP X’s relationship to iMovie? on our blog.
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Nobody (who’s allowed to talk) really knows anything, but it’s worth pointing out that even iMovie supports XML exporting, so the idea that FCP X might not is not especially plausible.
There may be changes to the structure of the XML files, of course. Those have happened with past releases. Blackmagic seems to be in fine form these days, and I’m sure they’ll catch up quickly if it proves necessary.
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Digital Workflow/Colorist, Nice Dissolve.You should follow me on Twitter here. Or read What is FCP X’s relationship to iMovie? on our blog.
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Hmm, the document icon there, apparently being used in association with a sequence, is extremely interesting. Combine that with the way the Event Library looks:
Notice the Event Library is rooted on the storage device, with no reference to a specific project file (there’s “Audi”, but the icon makes me think that’s just a collection of footage), and the the Event Library doesn’t list any sequences mixed in with the clips.
Right now the primary “documents” Final Cut Pro works with are project files, i.e. collections of sequences and media. From what I can make out, this is no longer true in FCP X. Rather, sequences are now stand-alone documents (and I think Andy has in fact identified the control for switching between multiple open sequences), your footage lives in a unified library, and projects are no more.
This strikes me as very flexible approach, but cue the hate in 3…2…1…
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Digital Workflow/Colorist, Nice Dissolve.You should follow me on Twitter here. Or read What is FCP X’s relationship to iMovie? on our blog.
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[Tom Wolsky] “Maybe that’s what they’ll do for Motion. Download the software and purchase the components from the online store on a disc. You could use the app without the content if you wanted. I think DVDSP’s gone as a standalone. Probably the only disc burning will be the basic menus built into Compressor. Maybe I’m wrong about that, but Apple seems so adamantly anti-disc.”
Honestly, downloading 8 GB of content (or whatever it is) for Motion wouldn’t be that big a deal for a lot of people. The 4.25 GB Xcode is already sitting right there in the App Store. (And yes, I’d expect developers to have faster than average Internet connections, in general, but I’d expect the same of media pros.)
It would be a good idea to make provisions for users who don’t have access to connections that can handle this sort of thing, but Apple appears to have no particular objection to making this the primary distribution mechanism even for fairly large software.
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Digital Workflow/Colorist, Nice Dissolve.You should follow me on Twitter here. Or read What is FCP X’s relationship to iMovie? on our blog.
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[Simon Ubsdell] “I can’t help feeling that on balance their mistake was to have treated their FCP client base just the same way as they treat the consumer client base – a little too much showbusiness, a little too short on substance.”
I don’t see that at all. A consumer product never would have gotten a “sneak peek” in the first place — they’d have stayed completely silent about it until somewhere between two weeks and about an hour before it was going to ship, and then had a full, formal product announcement. This is what Apple does with consumer products. Virtually the only exceptions are for platform products that developers need to get their hands on before shipment (OS X and iOS releases) and for products where coordination with external companies makes secrecy impossible.
The sneak peek was Apple deciding to treat pros differently, and give them a little preview of what was coming, trusting that this audience could be relied on to understand the limited release for early information in the proper context. That trust was evidently misplaced.
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Digital Workflow/Colorist, Nice Dissolve.You should follow me on Twitter here. Or read What is FCP X’s relationship to iMovie? on our blog.
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[Aindreas Gallagher] “I’m not talking about the beta or slipping shipping dates: apple reps, in response to direct questions after the event, refused to confirm *anything at all*
the state of XML, the clip viewer, EDLs, OMF – that is what I find both ridiculous and annoying.
Its not a bloody iphone protoype, its the software we use to make a living.”Come on. You know how this works. The product isn’t even formally announced yet. There are significant technical, competitive, PR, and even legal reasons to not let your developers go around handing out arbitrary information about unannounced products.
Really, it seems to me that everyone’s complaints could have been addressed if Apple had just waited for a full, formal product announcement. For all that people are claiming that Apple dropped the ball by not releasing enough information, the message they’re actually sending is “Don’t give any more sneak peeks; if you won’t tell us everything, we’d prefer to know nothing at all”. Personally, I would rather know something than nothing, I saw this “sneak peek” as an encouraging step toward openness in this market, and I hope Apple is ignoring all of the people complaining about it, because if they’re not, their response is going to be to never offer this kind of early preview again.
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Digital Workflow/Colorist, Nice Dissolve.You should follow me on Twitter here. Or read What is FCP X’s relationship to iMovie? on our blog.
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[Aindreas Gallagher] “for my part I’m not satisfied with the way apple have gone about this, the highly selective release of information and the refusal to answer any questions at the event or after. I’m annoyed. Its a ridiculous way to carry on with a professional customer base.”
Virtually all companies are highly selective about what information they release, and companies rarely provide answers to questions posed by random people in Internet forums, especially if they’re already planning formal produce announcements that provide such answers (which is almost certainly the case here).
People in this instance appear to be confused and upset by perfectly routine corporate behavior, and are reading all sorts of unlikely things into it.
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Digital Workflow/Colorist, Nice Dissolve.You should follow me on Twitter here. Or read What is FCP X’s relationship to iMovie? on our blog.