[Craig Alan]

So the ASUS External Monitor holds the viewer and no viewer is on the lap top? Does this require a third party driver? This does allow for more vertical space for the timeline which I really like having. Are you using any breakout box cause I see you have speakers too. What about storage, no raid/media drive?

Mac Pro, macbook pro, Imacs (i7); Canon 5D Mark III/70D, Panasonic AG-HPX170/AG-HPX250P, Canon HV40, Sony Z7U/VX2000/PD170; FCP 6 certified; FCP X write professionally for a variety of media; teach video production in L.A.

[Craig Alan]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3R58ler6C1c

https://tyfordaudiovideo.blogspot.com/2012/03/non-shotgun-boom-mics-for-interiors-and.html

MKH50 is considered better than the AT4053b but its twice the price and the AT is really quite good for dialog and holds up well. Lots of use and small and light.

The Schoeps is really sweet ($1600). Its my favorite and most expensive mike i have used.

But I would say that mike placement, the talent, and the acoustics in the place you are shooting may be more important variables than the difference between these three mikes. All else being equal you get what you pay for.

Yes the 302 needs to be connected to the recorder be it the camcorder or a separate one. I haven’t used that Canon but Canon usually has pretty good audio compared to other brands at that price point.

If you get a zoom/ tascam make sure it has XLR inputs. I have no experience with these. SD makes really good mixer/recorders for a lot more money. You can get a 633 for $3,229.00 which would give you both a mixer and recorder for $1429 more than the mixer alone. Very good quality.

Mac Pro, macbook pro, Imacs (i7); Canon 5D Mark III/70D, Panasonic AG-HPX170/AG-HPX250P, Canon HV40, Sony Z7U/VX2000/PD170; FCP 6 certified; FCP X write professionally for a variety of media; teach video production in L.A.

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[Craig Alan]

If you are doing one man band interviews and the subjects are fixed in terms of location I would get a SD 302 and mount it on a C stand arm close to your camera. It has a nice LED meter that will easily allow you to monitor the sound. It will be a solid investment and will accept up to three inputs.

This mike is a great interview Hypercardioid:

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/642499-REG/Audio_Technica_AT4053B_AT4053b_Hypercardioid_Condenser_Microphone.html

Only $600 and really good quality and really stands up. With a Hollywood-stand, and an extra arm, a couple sand bags, and any boom pole and a Rycote shock mount you could float the mike really close to the subjects, set the level on your mixer with a little extra headroom and get really clean interviews. Not as good as a dedicated audio tech and boom pole operator but really decent. Sensitive mikes will pick up b.g. noise. But if you place the mike close and direct it away from unwanted sources you’ll be happy.
Yes you could do the same connected directly to your camera. But the 302 is a solid investment. The mix pre D is underpowered and not as good. I use both. But the only time I use the mix pre now is when we are using a DSLR camera that has no ability to provide phantom and xlr connections. That’s kind of its market.

Mac Pro, macbook pro, Imacs (i7); Canon 5D Mark III/70D, Panasonic AG-HPX170/AG-HPX250P, Canon HV40, Sony Z7U/VX2000/PD170; FCP 6 certified; FCP X write professionally for a variety of media; teach video production in L.A.

[Craig Alan]

We light a white cyc with banks of green LEDs. Gives us a pretty wide key. As long as the talent is out of the spill area and the subject is lit well it works fine. I find the NLEs a lot less picky than they used to be and there are plug in apps that will make keying even better. The only thing that makes it a bit tricky is the key lights need to not dilute or cast shadows on the CYC. But with enough separation this isn’t too hard. I’m not saying a green wall isn’t better but this allows us fast set ups and many other b.g. options when not keying. The LED banks have several colors of bulbs that are controlled by a panel.

Mac Pro, macbook pro, Imacs (i7); Canon 5D Mark III/70D, Panasonic AG-HPX170/AG-HPX250P, Canon HV40, Sony Z7U/VX2000/PD170; FCP 6 certified; FCP X write professionally for a variety of media; teach video production in L.A.

[Craig Alan]

I like using binder clips to attach to the horizontal arm. Works better than grip clips for fabrics.

Mac Pro, macbook pro, Imacs (i7); Canon 5D Mark III/70D, Panasonic AG-HPX170/AG-HPX250P, Canon HV40, Sony Z7U/VX2000/PD170; FCP 6 certified; FCP X write professionally for a variety of media; teach video production in L.A.

[Craig Alan]

Did you make your purchase yet? If not do you know how large tour room is and what your budget is? I’ve been teaching Video Production a long time and could help.

Mac Pro, macbook pro, Imacs (i7); Canon 5D Mark III/70D, Panasonic AG-HPX170/AG-HPX250P, Canon HV40, Sony Z7U/VX2000/PD170; FCP 6 certified; FCP X write professionally for a variety of media; teach video production in L.A.

[Craig Alan]

Thank you! One of my favorite forums. Combo of old and new school and really generous dialog.

Mac Pro, macbook pro, Imacs (i7); Canon 5D Mark III/70D, Panasonic AG-HPX170/AG-HPX250P, Canon HV40, Sony Z7U/VX2000/PD170; FCP 6 certified; FCP X write professionally for a variety of media; teach video production in L.A.

[Craig Alan]

https://www.premiumbeat.com/blog/adding-metadata-comments-and-notes-to-media-in-final-cut-pro/

I think this is evolutionary not revolutionary. Organization was always part of the workflow for complex or long form films. FCP X improved the tools. As have other companies. It’s a good thing. But I don’t see how that means that the craft/art of editing has changed fundamentally. Tools are all about ergonomics. Art is all about expression and composition.

Ergonomically, I think the browser in FCP X has set the bar. Not so much in the inspector. But its cropping tools are really good at least on my level of skill. Keying is really good as well. I like the new way of applying many modifications as effects that can be set independently for each clip. I think audio could be a lot better. And the timeline itself I’m finding often doesn’t have enough room – too much mousing around to see what I need. Really like the speed ramps. Really like magnetic behavior in combo with positioning tool.

I would like compound clips – at least by default – to just be a timeline edit and not ripple to other uses of the ‘clip’ and not populate the browser. You compound it, you expand it, you re-compound it. I like all that. I would like the option to save one to the browser but only if for some reason I would want to use the compound in other projects which I could do anyway by opening the two libraries and copying it to the other library. But saving to the browser would be cool for a portion of the timeline that isn’t working but might come into play later.

All these “in their own timeline stuff” I find confusing. You probably have a better handle on this than I do.

Mac Pro, macbook pro, Imacs (i7); Canon 5D Mark III/70D, Panasonic AG-HPX170/AG-HPX250P, Canon HV40, Sony Z7U/VX2000/PD170; FCP 6 certified; FCP X write professionally for a variety of media; teach video production in L.A.

[Craig Alan]

your point is well taken. Rules need to be set in a collaborative work flow at all levels of production. otherwise things get messy.

I was talking about being able to change the clip names in camera not after the fact. And if this is being done it should be done consistently for the entire production. And yes not when the clip names are already copied to storage.

I have played with batch renaming in FC. But not editing in a collaborative workflow. I don’t remember it breaking the link with the original named clips in the finder.

In Aperture, I always do a batch rename either upon copying to the library or after and that has proven really helpful. I think it could be in FC as well but would need to learn more about how to do this without creating any unexpected results.

Mac Pro, macbook pro, Imacs (i7); Canon 5D Mark III/70D, Panasonic AG-HPX170/AG-HPX250P, Canon HV40, Sony Z7U/VX2000/PD170; FCP 6 certified; FCP X write professionally for a variety of media; teach video production in L.A.

[Craig Alan]

[Bill Davis] “Or it’s that some of us who have spent decades editing one way – and now are editing another way – are actually getting more work done in less time and understand precisely why.”

Maybe some of that is because we have moved to all digital workflows and things have gotten much faster and metadata has become plentiful. Apple did not invent metadata, or digital capture devices, they just organize it well and know how to design clean interfaces. Sometimes too clean.

You still shoot with a camera and import them into a NLE in a browser in which you organize the clips and then sequence that media on a timeline using appends inserts and overwrites trims transitions and a variation of layers. Its 99% the same basic tool. Did the electric then cordless tools revolutionize wood working?
Construction, yeah. Cabinet making? less yeah. Sculptures? hmmmm. It’s both and not either or. Don’t throw out the wisdom of the old film makers

The interface and features that FCP X introduced and the need to learn a new program helped create some re-thinking as did the move to all digital tools. However, if Apple EOL FCP X and you needed to use another NLE, I’m sure you would carry with you most of this new work flow. Do other programs work as fluidly in the browser as X? X is most likely the best there is at the moment at clip organization. But editors and tutorials have been recommending this organization as a work flow forever; even as far back as keeping a spreadsheet of all media and sorting it various ways and adding names to clips to match that organization. Screenwriters used index cards to sort an entire movie by shots and scenes. In house they would use large index cards on a wall to discuss the scenes in an episode. FCP 7 editors would use log and capture to have editors learn their footage well as they selected what clips should be imported. Scene and reel and custom names would organize this footage. Even those dreaded meaningless labels camera companies assign to clips in a digital “reel” if we bothered to read and master the manual can be changed to label clips with something meaningful. Apple for the most part does not invent new concepts but rather packages them in a cleaner interface that encourages end users to adopt their benefits. And the browser in FCP X is a good example. But it A: could be better still. B: did not apply to the inspector and effects and audio and color correction interfaces. (all of which are improving)

A: how could it be better still?

Well the browser could toggle to full screen with a simple short cut.

Excel has a cool feature in which you can sort by more than one column. So, for example, sort by date and then by name (which is done by default in most sorts and name is clip/file name). But you could instead sort by date and then by column x then by column y then z in other words any other column of metadata that you create or is already there. Very cool.

And this can be done on the fly with one spreadsheet not multiple folders containing various subsets and not rearranging the columns to display in a certain order. So sort by date then by angle then by character then by mood Oh there’s the 3-26-16 CUs of Sue and Joe having an argument. Oh wait, on 3-27-16 there is another CU of Sue – not angry – but breaking into a mock smile and that would be a cool transition before she suddenly gets angry. And it could foreshadow the same look she throws when they make up. All from one full screen sort of all clips not folders which would hide all but the keyworded clips.

Also I am all in with FCP X. I’m not the bad guy, Bill. I’m not putting it down. But I’m not going to assume its the last word or the new word on editing. Some of the greatest movies of all time were shot on film and edited by cutting and taping the film back together. I still like the look of projected film better than digital. But I never could afford it and still can’t. It would be really cool if they came up with a way to project an analog image as a wash of light from our digital exports. Fast is not always better.

Mac Pro, macbook pro, Imacs (i7); Canon 5D Mark III/70D, Panasonic AG-HPX170/AG-HPX250P, Canon HV40, Sony Z7U/VX2000/PD170; FCP 6 certified; FCP X write professionally for a variety of media; teach video production in L.A.