[Forrest Burger]

Thanks, Michael.

I’ve read the threads and am aware of the crossgrade promotion. I was just trying to get a general handle on what I might be able to expect to pay in upgrade costs in the future if I decided to add MC to my set of tools.

My past experience with Avid, albeit somewhat limited, has been that it has been a relatively expensive pay as you go model once you factor in upgrades and their support fees.

Forrest

[Forrest Burger]

[Allen Cordell] ” just mean something that shows off some impressive editing”

Please…so I guess you don’t think “Citizen Kane” was a very good movie because it wasn’t edited on FCP7, PPro or Avid?

[Forrest Burger]

Bill,

You’ve struck the nail directly on its head…

Forrest

[Forrest Burger]

Is your image on the primary storyline or on a secondary storyline?

[Forrest Burger]

Have you tried looking at Ripple Training? For $40 they have a pretty good set of tutorials that will get you started with X.

First of all, you should be able to add the photo to the primary storyline, highlight the photo, then hit command+T to create a dissolve at both ends of the photo. If you just want to add a dissolve at the beginning (or end) just click at the end of the photo (it will highlight in yellow) and add your dissolve there.

Here’s a couple of other suggestions to fade your photo in and out. Make a secondary storyline and add the dissolves to the photo there. Or, highlight the photo, hit control+V to open up the video animation window and fade the opacity in and out manually.

As far as it being like other Apple apps, it is a very different way of working, but once you get the hang of it it can be very quick.

Forrest

[Forrest Burger]

Herb,

I totally agree with what you’re saying. Apple should have been more forthcoming when it comes to post houses and the broadcast industry. They made a huge mistake by handling this the way they did.

I was at NAB but didn’t want to deal with the crowd associated with them taking over the supermeet. What was Apple thinking? Or, were they?

But, since I’m like many out there who are heavily invested in Mac computers, and have come to really dislike sitting in front of a windows machine, I have to adapt to survive.

Do I need to know Premier and AVID? Maybe, because I do occasionally freelance. I did, however, load Premier on my Kona machine and played with it for awhile yesterday. But, it wasn’t too long before I went back over to my laptop with X installed to learn more about it.

I’m not one who usually needs tech support, but the idea of having to pay AVID for a phone call rubs me the wrong way. They could use a few lessons from AJA there.

The growing pains here are enormous, but I’m going continue to learn X and grow with it. I just hope AJA (LHi in my tower) and Matrox (MXO2 mini for my laptop) get the drivers going for external monitoring. I think there is potentially a great upside to this software, we just have to be patient for now and continue to use FCP7.

FB

[Forrest Burger]

It seems as though this thread has gotten a bit off topic. To answer the question of “who was the target of FCP X? At least to some degree I believe it was people like me, the small independent who has to do it all. I produce, direct, shoot, write, edit, and narrate most of my videos.

I spent many years as a “professional” shooter and editor for network television news, working in Asia and New York. But, I decided to exchange prestige for quality of life and moved back to the Pacific Northwest to raise my family. I now make a fairly good living doing mostly corporate, healthcare and fundraising videos.

Several years ago I saw our industry was beginning to change and decided that I needed to change with it. Most of us small independents need to wear many hats to survive and FCPX, albeit in its somewhat rough form, fits our needs quite well. Because I do a lot of one-man-band shoots, I’ve gone mostly DSLR and FCPX brings in my GH2 footage like a dream.

I don’t have to be an After Effects artist to make fairly decent graphics. The FCPX workflow seems quite a bit faster for the kinds of work I do, which are probably like the majority of videos out there…mainly cuts and dissolves. FCPX lets me concentrate on what makes me a “professional,” simply telling compelling stories that my clients appreciate.

Granted, I don’t normally need XML, OMF support or have to lay off to tape. I really feel post houses that need those. I also feel Apple totally mucked up the roll-out of FCPX.

But, I also ask the question to many of the “professional” editors out there…how could you not see this coming?

I’ve downloaded the trial version of Premier, and I’ll likely check out AVID. But, I like FCPX and can’t wait for most of the bugs to go away and for features to come back and others to be added. I still have FCP7 and will for some time.

There are many of us “professionals” out there who edit at home in shorts and slippers, with a day or two of growth on our face and spend time with our kids. And, like it or now, that business model is growing. I really believe we’re the ones that FCPX is targeted at and I’m not sure there’s anything wrong with that.

Forrest

[Forrest Burger]

FWIW, up until about 5-6 years ago I edited on with windows based software. I had to tell people it was similar to FCP or Avid.

Since switching to FCP my business has improved dramatically. So, there you have it…

Forrest

[Forrest Burger]

I haven’t used iDVD, so I can’t really help there, but here’s how to do it using Photoshop and DVD Studio Pro.

Make a Photoshop graphic/bkrnd in DV Widescreen
Change DVD Studio Pro preferences to 16×9
Import your mpeg2, audio stream and Photoshop assets into DVD Studio Pro
Drop your Photoshop backround into menu window
Drop a button of your choice (right side of DVD Studio Pro) onto bkrnd
Pull mpeg2 and audio stream over onto button
Drop onto button using create track/asset option
Click simulate at top of DVD Studio Pro
Click on Button, video should start to play
Exit simulate
Put blank DVD in and press burn at top

This hopefully will work for you. You can put text under or on the side of the button if you’d like.

Using Photoshop you can customize your menu look with a logo, etc if you’d like.

You can also just use one of the DVD Studio Pro menus if you’d like.

Forrest

[Forrest Burger]

Try this if you’re in a hurry:

Create 5 sec black before video starts
Export video (including black )as a self contained QuickTime movie
Right click on movie to get info, change to open with QT player
(This step may not be necessary, but I do it anyway)
Import movie into compressor
Apply DVD Fastest Encode-90 minutes
Go to quality settings, change from good to best
(I find this setting as good as two pass, best encode)
Submit (Render)

In DVD Studio Pro import assets (mpeg2 and audio stream)
Delete menu window
Drop both video and audio assets into track 1 window
Right click on window, set to first play
Make DVD

The video will automatically play, starting in black (5 sec). For the settings on the DVD player that your using at the event, make sure it is set to letterbox the video, so even though your DVD is created in 16×9 it will automatically letterbox to fit the screen correctly. Also, when the DVD is played on a widescreen TV it will display correctly.

I don’t produce 4×3 DVD’s anymore, expecially since everything I do originates in HD.

Hope that helps.

Forrest