Darren Roark
Forum Replies Created
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[Gene Rosati Jr.] “It’s all squared away but I’m being told it the project has to be edited with 4K proxies for reframing. “
Curious, why not use the FCP X proxy workflow? All the reframing is 1:1 between the 1/4 res proxies and the cam originals so nothing has to be redone later.
What I do is work in proxy mode on Red footage, if reframing needs to happen I flip back to original, zoom in to the desired framing then once we know that’s going to look acceptable I flip back to proxy.
The F55 footage should work in FCP X, it just has to be imported a specific way.
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Could this be something that could be done with Lumberjack?
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> I’m lately seeing a number of tempting half-off type offers for different FCP-X plug-in products and the like, all kind of urgent in their cut-off dates.
Which in particular?
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Yeah, the angle editor isn’t ‘magnetic’.
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[Oliver Peters] “So what more was swept under the rug?”
On Deadpool they had developers working alongside the editors, since this isn’t the Watergate scandal, it’s just software, it’s a reasonable assumption they aren’t going to openly go negative in a case study article. They had dedicated developers working with them, you become close working on a movie with people.
The decision to go with this NLE or that is a reflection of the decision maker too, are they going to want to say the regret going with “NLE X” when they should have been using the industry standard Avid? It will be telling if they do PP on Deadpool 2 or switch to Avid.
A lot of it has to do with Adobe’s focus on making their CC apps work well with each other and put less emphasis on leaving Premiere. Similar issues I’m having now with multicam clips and detached audio on the documentary. I’d be happy to privately discuss the specifics I was told.
The Whiskey Tango articles came out around the same time as Deadpool, only one of those productions said the NLE they chose bought them ten weeks of time.
[Oliver Peters] “Avid owns the established workflow and editors know the keystrokes like the back of their hand. What’s the incentive to change?”
The same thing that always drives any big changes, cost and efficiency. What I was saying earlier is that Avid has done a great job scaring people into even trying FCP X here in LA. So in the talent pool war, Avid is still winning that one.
There are other advantages, the veteran editor I’ve worked with on two features has said, she misses FCP X after she goes back to Avid because her wrists hurt after a day of working in MC.
I’m working on a feature now, I know when they lock picture I have only a few hours of work to do to get it to color and sound. All the difficult work has been done, all the mics are labeled as subroles according to character lav or boom mics. Sound effects and music were given roles on import.
The best part is there is no conform to do with the Red files it’s a flip of a switch back to originals. I’ve done a few tests with Resolve 12.5, the picture comes in to the frame accurately. This hasn’t always been the case but I’m hoping it sticks for a while.
I’m not saying FCP X is perfect, it’s just that even in it’s current form the total sum of advantages it has outweigh the other options in my experience.
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[Oliver Peters] “The trouble is that the presentation has passed the 90-day mark. Obviously a release version wasn’t “just around the corner”, which is usually the case when Adobe does this.”
As you have probably been seeing, the last release was not one of their best. I had to roll back the documentary I’m working on for many reasons.
[Oliver Peters] “That begs the question: was what was shown simply a ginned up demo version that isn’t anywhere close to release? If so, that speaks pretty poorly of Apple’s development effects.”
I wasn’t there, but I’m guessing it was so they wouldn’t have people saying this sort of thing all over NAB. It was a very positive sign and a major step towards being more open. At every otherwise ‘private’ event which never seem that private they always say the same thing, NDA or not “We are listening to you and we care about what you are saying.”
It amazes me that each attempt to be more inclusive gets turned around to mean the opposite.
If XML and multicam editing came with v10.0 I think the conversation would be much different now.
Personally I would rather wait until something is ready rather than find out the hard way it doesn’t work, or worse damages your work. To me anyway this shows they learned their lesson from 2011, don’t release something that isn’t ready again.
To me this is only a good sign.
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[Andrew Kimery] “BMD is also a private company and private companies don’t have to follow the same rules the publicly traded companies do (rules set to protect the investors). All the SOX stuff, for example, only applies to publicly traded companies AFAIK.”
Yes, this is true, SOX still applies to privately held companies as it comes down to retaliation against whistleblower employees for complying with law enforcement regarding reporting fraud and other financial slight of hand. So in a way, they have to operate in a similar way to publicly traded companies.
Just because they are private, there are still private investors.
But you are right, they have more flexibility especially since they buy liquidated tech from failing companies.
[Andrew Kimery] “Avid isn’t subscription only.”
Again, true to a point, the support contracts essentially are, so if you want updates you either subscribe or you buy the contracts AFAIK. Since most places I deal with are stuck on v7 of MC because of ScriptSync they are in a pickle either way.
[Andrew Kimery] “Either you subsidize your software with hardware sales or you find an alternative business model like freemium, ad supported or subscription. I mean, in what way could Adobe compete the ‘$299 and free upgrades for life’ business model Apple has with X?”
All I can speak to is what I see them doing, as soon as the outrage the FCP X launch caused they offered ‘switcher deals’ to FCP 7 owners, then Avid followed suit. 1/2 price CS suites and MC licenses just before they went subscription based.
Both Avid and Adobe have switched the narrative by reframing Apple’s credibility for putting professional content creation tools in the hands of more people than ever as a toy company who ‘seem to not care about professionals anymore.’ The phrase ‘feeling abandoned’ was aggressively put everywhere in the twitters, blogs, press releases. Even the Conan editors got on board.
What they did is throw cocktail parties in LA with themes of “We’re listening to you, we have your best interests at heart.” and won hearts and minds of the influencers which keeps the aspirational market, as in the future users with the impression that “If you want to work on real stuff you should learn Avid”
And then Adobe sneaks in there with Gone Girl, Hail Caesar and Deadpool. All three films had major problems using Premiere, but nobody talks about that. The headline is “Amazing filmmakers the Coen Brothers use Premiere.” (Because they didn’t have to learn anything new after using FCP 7)
Adobe have Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign which are still the industry standard image design apps. They are effectively competing because it’s hard to argue with that level of credibility.
The reason Avid keeps it’s stronghold on the high end film and TV market is they do one thing better than the other two, and that’s shared workflow. In my mind the tradeoffs to working in Avid, that one thing doesn’t outweigh the modern benefits of FCP X.
It’s effective and it has been working, finding an editor willing to use FCP X in LA is still three years after it was ready to do features is like finding a field of nothing but four leaf clovers in the winter.
Thankfully Apple is doing official training at MPEG at the end of the month so I’m hoping that helps that situation.
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[Tim Wilson] “That is, you can’t “recognize the revenue” of a sale until the transaction is completed: the point at which customers HAVE this product or feature you “sold” them.”
This is right on.
The way the SEC rules changed back in 2009 and were applied in 2011, if the company both creates the hardware and the software as Apple does, then you can update at will. That meant goodbye nickel and dimeing for every new ‘feature’. OS updates can be ‘free’.
This is how BMD gets around it too. Resolve is a ‘feature’ of the ultrastudios and other i/o products.
By that logic then, that would mean that any Apple made software that is only licensed to work on a mac that you own are value added features to the hardware. Technically you don’t own FCP X, it’s just licensed to you to use on a compatible mac that you own. (I read the terms.)
What I find really interesting is the other two “A” NLE companies have turned the idea of paying a monthly fee as a form of peace of mind that you will keep getting new ‘stuff’ on a regular basis. That they are working away to earn that money.
Because that raises the uncertainty needle every time there are longer gaps between updates, especially when it comes to the pro side of things.
It’s the same with hardware, Intel, nvidia and AMD have all said they are slowing down and have added a year to release cycles. Since Apple switched to Intel chips that they usually refresh hardware when significant updates are possible.
The greatest win Adobe and Avid have is convincing customers that they are better off for paying forever for their products because they promise not to abandon their users.
That’s more like ‘protection money’.
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[Andrew Kimery] ” Who knows, maybe some of the X team go pulled to work on Sierra and that’s why X hasn’t gotten much love lately.”
That’s one I haven’t heard in a long time since the Leopard days.
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[James Russell] “After making the archive copy, can just back that whole folder up to another drive??”
The ‘best practices’ are to keep the camera archives as your ‘master copy’ and then have FCP X import the footage from it. There is a rewrap process that takes place so the files that are imported become wrapped QT files.