Debe
Forum Replies Created
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Oh, and in the meantime, you could try trashing your FCP preferences and repairing your OS permissions.
Repairing permissions is done in Disk Utility usually located in [main hard drive]>Applications>Utilities.
For info on trashing prefs, look at this site…
https://www.lafcpug.org/trashing_fcp_prefs.html
The following is a nifty little program that stores and trashes prefs for you. Just be careful backing up the first time. Make sure you’re backing up clean prefs.
https://fcprescue.andersholck.com/
debe
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I’d start with more RAM.
How many MB are these PICTs, and how many do you have strung together in a row? Compare that to how much RAM you have, knowing the FCP likes a whole gig to itself under “normal” circumstances. You are then adding these huge files…and the OS needs some of that RAM…
Not knowing how large your PICT file sizes are, it’s tough to know if I’m barking up the wrong tree or not…
debe
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And Shane Ross is the reason I figured I’d skip the specifics. Hopefully while he’s folding his skivvies, he’ll come up with more thoughts for you!
He is so organized. I hoped he or Kevin or Michael would address your numbered litany point by point, as best they can or chose to, but you also have to realize that that is an incredibly overwhelming list of gripes. My head started swimming after about #21. I merely skimmed the rest. Those guys are trained more than I am, and some of them even teach. They are all better prepared to go up against your list point by point if they choose to.
Again, I understand your frustration because I put myself in the same boat six years ago, but you have to realize you’ve walked into a Jeep Convention bitching about 4-wheel drive. You’re not going to get nearly as much help with that attitude as you would instead coming in with the understanding that FCP isn’t what you’re used to, and choosing less inflammatory language, like, “I’m stumped, with Avid I can do this, how does FCP handle that, or what can FCP do that will yield the same results?”. And before you even start to say that’s what you’ve done, go back, take a deep breath, and re-read what you wrote from outside the box. You can try to soften it all you want with your “ok, venting’s done, have at me…”, but most people stopped really reading before they got there. You’re cuteness evaporated before it had a chance to soften your gripes. Your complaints aren’t completely off base. I even share some of them, but you aren’t going to get the kind of help you need and deserve if you continue to come out of the gate loaded for bear with both barrels blazing. Now, I apologize for being harsh. This is me trying to help you help yourself.
To answer some more of your questions, but not all, because, dagnabit, I’m not at the top of my game today…
If I were organizing 40 hours of footage, you bet yer sweet bippy I’d be logging and capturing it as I go, not dumping it in and slogging through it all at once. I’m old school, from the days when media drive space was at a premium. I organize first, because that’s the way my brain is wired. I tend to recall things much better if I go one tape at a time and get to know the footage as I capture. And, yes, if I got to choose, for a long-form doc that was more organization than compositing, I’d lean towards Avid.
I will say I did “discover” the beauty of DV Start/Stop Detection last week in my stupor as I recover from surgery. I didn’t log, I just broke my tapes up into 20 minute chunks and Batch Captured them. I changed my tune on “Always Log THEN Capture” after I realized how ham-dandy that little feature is…at least with miniDV. Any one know if it works on DVCam, too? 😉 However, I’d still log tapes to omit footage I know is not going to be used so as to not clog up my drives and get in my way when I’m looking for footage.
Your workflow, even for an Avid, actually is very foreign to me. I don’t organize on the timeline, I organize in bins. I make copious notes in the bins. I use my notes I made in the bins to build my first pass. I then pass it off the producer for round one of their notes. When the producer remembers a shot I didn’t use, my notes takes me right to it. That and my stellar memory from logging the footage.
For projects that are mainly straight cuts and dissolves, for something that’s going to finish in a “real” online suite, for speed and speed alone, I’d pick Avid every time I get to choose. Anything that I’m finishing, or that’s NOT going to finish in audio post or an online suite, FCP, hands down. The integration with Motion, LiveType, and Soundtrack beats Avid and any other compositing program in my book. Anything over three layers? FCP. Anytime I’m going to want to trim multiple layers at once and speed is of the essence? Avid. Multicam? Used to be Avid…I haven’t had a FCP multicam project yet.
Now I need a nap.
Again, respectfully,
debe
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I won’t address any specifics.
I understand your frustrations. Many of them you’ve created yourself by trying to force FCP to be something it’s NOT…Avid.
I say this as an Avid editor (certified in ’93) and a FCP editor (since ’99. certified in 2004).
I wrestled with many of the very same complaints you outlined here for five years over many versions. I finally realized that I was doing myself and my clients a huge disservice spending my days trying to find “Avid workarounds” to FCP. FCP isn’t designed to be an Avid. I wasted so much time trying to force the software to fit my understanding of what an NLE should be. I took the Apple training course in 2004 and have a whole new appreciation for FCP. I still acknowledge it’s limitations, especially the Media Manager. But your complaints about Color Correction mean you haven’t even tried to read the manual on Color Correction. You certainly can see your other shots, if you use the Tool Bench. You can’t expect to sit down at a whole new piece of software and just “get it”.
The more you try to shoe-horn FCP into the Avid model, the more disappointed you will be.
You need to either take the course or at the very least, go through the PeachPit Press Pro Training Series on your own to really appreciate FCPs strengths. There are many, and of course, there are weaknesses.
FCP has a different architecture and a different design from Avid. It will never BE an Avid, and if that’s what you need, then stick with Avid. I personally use them both, love them both, and understand each one’s strengths and weaknesses. When I’m lucky, I get to choose which app I get to use for each project. There’s nothing like having two great tools to do the job and getting to choose which one is the right one!
As for your specific complaints, a great majority of them would be moot if you had some training. The rest, those you are more than free to use to prove FCP is “inferior” to Avid. Before you can make that argument, you need to be able to know which complaints are fixable by learning something, and which are limitations of the app.
Respectfully,
debe
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Use the Reconnect Media function. Right-click or CTRL-click on the flies and choose “Reconnect Media”. It’s also a Menu item, but I don’t recall where. You may have to navigate to where you have put the media files.
You now will not be able to work on the project at home unless you upgrade. You can still use the one that’s still on your system at home, of course, but any of the work you do on the version that’s been upgraded to FCP 5 has to stay FCP 5.
I would’ve been here sooner, but I’ve not been able to access the COW for over a day. I had no problems with any other part of the internet…but since there are posts here, I’m guessing it wasn’t that the site was down…curious!
debe
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I find this frustrating, too.
I have taken to picking up the clip from it’s place in the timeline, dropping it at the end of the timeline, changing the speed, exporting it out as a self-contained movie, importing it back in and re-editing it back into the sequence where it all started.
It’s a pain in the tushie…but it solves two problems. It takes care of the rippling issue, and when I run Media Manager, I end up with an independent clip of my speed-adjusted video to archive, since Media Manager seems to have issues with managing media that had speed changes.
debe
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Be careful.
Last I checked, “FCP HD” was FCP 4.5.
FCP 5 is FCP 5. Or FCP Studio if you’re buying the whole package, for those who are buying the whole package.
debe
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Maybe FCP can’t see it all, but when you’ve got FCP, Motion, LiveType and Photoshop all open….
debe
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It seems that the double post is created when one “post direct”s…
I’ll be previewing from now on!!
debe
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It’s an extra step, but until things get fixed, I’ve been exporting out freezes as stills and exporting out speed changes as self-contained movies and reimporting them back in. Then I have real media for when I archive, or for times like these.
It is a pain, but it’s better than the current alternative!
debe