[Herb Sevush]

David –

As someone who multi-cam edits on FCP all the time I have to disagree with you on this.

When it comes to multi-cam I am one of the lucky ones – most of the time I work with material shot in the ideal situation you described.

But often enough to cause what grey hair I still have to go white I come up against the same problem Per described.

The multi-cam feature in FCP works very well and is quite elegant in many ways — as long as you have the right material – but an editor can’t control the material he is given and while FCP’s “clip” based multi-cam is ingenious it offers exactly zero improvements over a timeline based multi-cam, such as Premiere Pro has now or Discreet’s now orphaned Edit* had 5 years ago. There is nothing a timeline based system can’t do that a clip system can, but there are many things you can’t do with a clip based multi-cam editor.

I wish apple would re-think their approach. It’s not at the top of my wish list, access to multi-core rendering from within FCP has that honor, and I doubt that Apple will do anything. But to claim that FCP works “wonderfully well” in all situations and that Per is wrong in his analysis does not make any sense.

Herb Sevush
Zebra Productions

[Herb Sevush]

Per

As someone who cuts multi-cam 90% of the time I can appreciate your position. You are unfortunately correct that other than creating new clips dedicated to each camera angle there is no way to make final Cut’s multi-cam feature work for you, and no 3rd party plug-in will help. Before FCP version 6, when there was no multi-cam feature someone developed a third party multi-cam application that worked totally outside of final Cut, and the results could somehow be re-imported back into FCP for finishing, but at the time I thought it too cumbersome.

the work around of lying all your material out on a timeline and then cutting and moving to the highest track does work, that was how I cut multi-cams before version 6. It’s been many years since I’ve done it that way and I don’t remember the particulars of my workflow, other then saving an untouched master timeline as a reference for when things got “ugly” in the middle of a cut.

Actually Adobe Premeier Pro has a timeline based multi-cam feature, if that’s still an option you might want to look at it.

As for Apple’s monitoring this forum or listening to users complaints — I wouldn’t hold my breath. Final Cut is loaded with bizarre problems: from media management, to an inability to digitize over time code breaks, to the bizarre behavior that when you “mute” a video track you loose all renders in the timeline. These problems have been around for at least 5 years and they’ve never been fixed, adn not for a lack of complaints. The problems with a “clip” based multi-cam feature have been voiced since the feature was installed – all we get from apple are the sounds of silence.

Good luck.

Herb Sevush
Zebra Productions

[Herb Sevush]

Wayne –

discreet/ autodesk has already done that, with disastrous results (see edit*), and I can’t imagine that they are at all interested in getting into the editing side of video post again.

Herb Sevush
Zebra Productions

[Herb Sevush]

Nick –

I will have to disagree with everybody else that’s posted here – I think creating a “crappy video” comparison test runs the risk of making you look silly and unnecessarily negative.

I think the best thing you can do is nothing at all; just wait till your clients try doing this themselves. After they crash and burn they will come back to you with a greater appreciation of your skills.

Herb Sevush
Zebra Productions

[Herb Sevush]

David –

I don’t want to Kiss the year good-bye so much as I would like to drive a stake thru it’s heart.

Not that I’m complaining.

Herb Sevush
Zebra Productions

[Herb Sevush]

Ron –

Not in a sense of argument but only to continue what I find to be an interesting conversation:

When I was in my twenties I remember talking to a friend of mine who much preferred the Beatles to the Stones because to him the Stones were too negative, too dark. It’s pretty hard to listen to Rock, a music based on the blues, and object to music based on all kinds of suffering, all kinds of abuse. If “darkness” was out then Robert Johnson should not be listened to, for his indeed was the devils own music – and if Johnson is out then where is John Lee hooker, Muddy Waters – yah da yah da. This was my argument with him. Being 22 I thought this was an argument that could be “won.” I’m a little older and don’t often make that same mistake.

Now you did say, as opposed to my old friend, that what you object to is music that “glorifies” violence, as opposed to being informed by it. That’s a reasonable position. But I do differentiate the artist from the art. I have no doubts that many of my musical hero’s have feet of clay – the less I know about them personally the better. But I can’t see giving up the Stones because Keith and Mick were whoring junkies or not listening to John Lennon because in a fit of pique he dropped a dime on Paul McCartney or not listening to The Who because Pete Townsend might have watched kiddie porn – I can carry the list to authors and poets and painters and comedians – I’m not willing to give all that up because I disapprove of the artists lifestyle. To contradict Mr Jagger – it’s the song, not the singer.

I am sympathetic to the idea that art should take us on a journey – when I read a book I love or listen to music that moves me I have to feel that I’m in communion with the artist – or else there is no art. However it is the artists soul I am in communion with, not his real life – his better-self, not the one that whacks his dog on a bad day.

As for Opera – my problem with European music in general is the belief that all of music is to be found in the notes, whereas I believe that what’s best in music cannot be notated. An operatic voice is trained to hit all the notes, but there is no notation that sounds like Van Morrison when he’s listening to the lion. I find the whole idea of the operatic voice, no matter how beautiful, to be anti-human – it treats the human voice as if it were an oboe, not a person. When I can hear an opera where the signer growls, roars, shouts and speaks – then I might give it a listen.

Just one man’s opinion.

Herb Sevush
Zebra Productions

[Herb Sevush]

Ron –

It was only because I knew how wide ranging and eclectic your musical tastes were that I wrote to you – it surprised me that you had such definite limits – it shouldn’t have, we all do. Mine is Opera – can’t hear it, won’t try.

Herb Sevush
Zebra Productions

[Herb Sevush]

Ron –

Back in the Pleistocene era when I pretended to go to college I would, can you believe it, smoke some weed and get what they used to call “high.” And while I was mostly listening to The Band, Procol Harum and Jimi Hendrix in these situations, I would occasionally find myself sitting on my couch around 4pm with the TV on watching Hee-Haw and the Lawrence Welk show – and with the help of chemical stimulation I found I could enjoy the music there-in. It was like listening to something from another planet, but I figured music was music and I could dig it on those terms.

Dean Martin can be a little hard to take, especially if it’s anything either in Italian, about Christmas or recorded after about ’65, but it should be remembered that Deano was one of Elvis Presley’s favorite singers and an early model for him – which may not count for much, depending on how you view the King.

As for Sinatra – again, as long as you avoid anything recorded after the Beatles came out – he was the greatest interpreter of lyrics I ever heard. You just can’t be influenced by the fact that so many a**holes like him, or that he was a major jerk as well. That would be like not watching John Wayne movies because of his politics –

Anyhow, just imagine your never heard big band music before and treat it like you are listening to something just recorded in Malaysia – it’s not your thing, but it’s not bad.

Herb Sevush
Zebra Productions

[Herb Sevush]

Bradley –

PBS specs call for stereo on 1&2, and a mono mix on 3&4.

Herb Sevush
Zebra Productions

[Herb Sevush]

Yes Rich, you’re absolutely correct, re-installing the OS is very time consuming and in many, if not most cases, is absolutely unnecessary –

However …

If, on the other hand, you ARE one of those other cases, which are not infrequent, where after installing a totally new version of FCP you’re encountering all sorts of bizarre bugs; and after spending many hours trying to troubleshoot these problems, that often arise, as luck would have it, in the middle of an editing session under tight deadlines, with clients in the room, you post a message of help on the COW, you will be told, in no uncertain terms and a note of condescension to do a FRESH INSTALL, which would have been a lot quicker and a lot lest costly to do in the first place.

Yes, it’s possible to go through life without fire insurance on your house, and it’s a sound financial idea, as long as you know for a fact that your house isn’t going to burn down. I say pay the fee, sleep at nite.

Herb Sevush
Zebra Productions