Jonathan Dortch
Forum Replies Created
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[Banks Meador] “ALL YOU CAN COPY AND PASTE ARE EFFECTS. Can’t copy and paste transform, crop, distort, etc.”
HUGE HUGE issue. Mind boggling that this is missing.
JONATHAN DORTCH
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[Jamie Franklin] “And how do you reference with confidence? You can’t grade it, so what do you do?”
You can’t reference on an NTSC monitor yet… really lame. Probably have to wait on third party support, the software is only a day old.
There are scopes and full color correction tools at least as powerful as FCP7 from my limited use.
[Jamie Franklin] “How do you deliver audio? Can you deliver separate dialogue and M&E track?”
No OMF but there is still the ability to export Audio only from the timeline, and it’s actually easier/quicker to do in a variety of formats (AIFF, AAC, CAF, WAV). You can separate your audio into proper stems and export accordingly.
JONATHAN DORTCH
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[TImothy Auld] “As I recall it’s
just big fun to do 26 half-hour shows that way.And, aren’t you the least bit curious where it went in the first place.”
Totally curious. Have you used the software? I’m not even sure how they would implement without the Viewer window. It’s going to take some re-thinking of how it works.
Oh the days. I cut three seasons of a three-camera broadcast show in FCP 4.5 without Multicam, so about 45 episodes. I’d sure love to have it back though 🙂
JONATHAN DORTCH
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[Jamie Franklin] “Question. As a small studio, can you say you can use this program to deliver broadcast quality material?”
If you’re delivering a program stream to FTP then yeah probably. We’ve delivered all broadcast spots that way for the last three years through DG Fastchannel.
But yes FCPX is still an editing program. You can hit a runtime, edit in Prores at 1920, do a mix and apply your broadcast safe filters. Encode your program stream in Compressor and you’ll be out the door.
If you need to output to tape, then you’ll need to stick to FCP7.
JONATHAN DORTCH
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[Michael Hancock] “Genuine question – what tedious tasks is it making easier? I haven’t used the software and may not ever, but I’d be interested to hear what they’re doing to improve editing.”
Using the Metadata for logging, labeling, organizing, searching, media. It’s like having a little robot for an assistant.
I keep my stock music library in iTunes, so having iTunes access via the program with instant drag/drop into the timeline instead of bouncing to iTunes, finding the track, making sure it’s converted to AIFF, importing to FCP and then dropping it in… takes about 2 seconds now instead of 2 minutes.
Might start doing the same thing for Aperture or iPhoto for any photos used an edit.
The structure of the Event system keeping track of an copying all files used in an edit greatly facilitates wrapping out/transferring projects. No more manually making sure all of your elements are sourced to the client drive.
Very intuitive integration with Motion for the first time to create FCP effects/transitions/text.
JONATHAN DORTCH
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Sending clips from a sequence to Motion was always a huge pain in the ass. I never even really saw the point except for keying, which Motion was never very good at anyway. I’ve done it a few times for using the stabilizer, but FCPX has that feature now.
Much more of a fan of using Motion to create elements for use in FCP. Text, titles, transitions, effects, filters. I think they nailed it this time around. The transition is seamless, and saving from Motion doesn’t send a stupid .motn file to be rendered in my FCP sequence, it sends a native effect into the effect browser that can be adjusted in FCPX. Very cool.
JONATHAN DORTCH
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You should use the program first before jumping to any conclusion. It feels stripped down, especially compared to how robust FCP5-7 became, but I think it’s silly to try and interpret Apple’s entire market strategy based on FCPX 1.0. There are some insanely powerful elements to the software. I like that Apple is thinking outside the paradigm of how we expect an NLE to be organized, and pushing native a Prores timeline is a good thing IMO.
You can actually share projects pretty easily in my limited testing so far. “Events” keep all of your media organized on your source drive. “Projects” save to a different folder. Transfer the “Event” and the “Project” folder and all of your stuff is there. I’ll be testing transferring a “Project” folder to a different user while referencing an “Event” on network storage later, but I see no reason why that won’t work. There is an entire subchapter in the manual about duplicating and sharing Events.
It’s impossible to wrap your head around a lot of the new stuff in FCPX without taking it for a test drive. Just consider it a beta and keep FCP7 rolling.
JONATHAN DORTCH
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Totally agree Mark. I just find it funny that so many people are lamenting it not being included in 1.0. I used FCP for a many years without it to cut many many projects, but I agree it’s necessary to have for a lot of workflows. I remember some shops finally migrating to FCP from Avid when Multicam finally made it’s debut.
It’ll be back, probably done by some combo of multiple range selectors and the compound clip system.
JONATHAN DORTCH
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Not sure if you’ve played with the software yet, but the metadata features are totally revolutionary. The tagging and keyword system to organize, search, and access footage quickly and efficiently is very cool. You can even keyword tag a selection of footage, replacing the wonky sub-clip feature. It changes the entire way you import and access your data.
Also high on my list of wow factors is the overall integration. The “Send To” feature in FCP was always really awful. Motion and FCPX feel like companion programs for the first time ever, both in GUI and how quickly you send things between them. Not just opening projects as sequences, Motion can create custom FCP text, transitions, and effects. Save in Motion and it instantly appears in your Effects browser in FCPX ready to use. You can edit parameters directly in FCP or right click to bounce back to Motion.
Color correction matcher is really slick — plugins that did the same thing used to be insanely expensive. Logic Audio plugins a big plus.
I’m still trying to figure out the intricacies of the Magnetic timeline, but it’s very bizarre to throw out the “track” system that has been the paradigm since… well… forever with software NLEs. A lot of people are complaining that it’s too simple, but the more I poke around I’m not sure I agree… a track based system is a lot easier to understand. Clip connections, Compound sequences, the new Gap system, Duplicating Storylines… it’s all very different. If throwing “tracks” out the window isn’t a paradigm shift I’m not sure what possibly could be. Also love the visual re-timing indicators.
The well documented missing pro features are a legitimately huge concern, but short of going all Minority Report on the interface, this is about as different of a NLE as I’ve seen.
JONATHAN DORTCH
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You can also push Enter to rename an Event like renaming in After Effects. It will change the name of the folder on your hard drive as well.
I did encounter a bug where I couldn’t change the name of a folder in the Projects browser. All the double clicking and pushing Enter in the world did nothing. I quit out and changed the folder directly in the Finder and FCPX reflected that change.
JONATHAN DORTCH
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