[James Witker]

I haven’t yet used FCPX and the magnetic timeline, and so at this point I can’t make an honest judgement about it. What I’ve heard doesn’t excite or comfort me. And I don’t think enough has been made about the advantages of the so-called “open” timeline that we’ve become accustomed to in FCP1-7, a revolutionary workspace that already allows us to move whatever number of clips — or all of them — in precise and varied ways through empty space. Having learned NLE on Avid, the FCP way was at first daunting but ultimately a freeing innovation over the relative constriction of the Avid timeline. Part of the craft of editing is knowing precisely where you want everything to be, and the FCP toolset gives us many ways of accomplishing this editorial precision. Take, for example, the ability to select all tracks forward or backward and deselect from there. Or to select, option-drag to duplicate and insert, shift-paste etc. With practice, all of this becomes second-nature — as does the ability to first vertically move clips from one track to another with ease via option-arrow when we don’t wish to overwrite. (Adding additional tracks is just a right-click away.) In the Final Cut I know and love, every move and command is deliberate, and I know exactly what I’m doing. I’m not so enthusiastic about an interface that is trying to anticipate where I want things, and to automate functionality that I may not what or need.

James Witker
Freelance Editor/Producer