[Justin Crowell]

Just so we’re clear…

Al retracted that tweet. I know you can’t REALLY do that…once it’s out there, it’s out there…but he copped to making a big mistake, and regrets it.

Editor, Producer, DP
JustinCrowell.com

[Justin Crowell]

I don’t want to have to select a clip. I want to watch, hit spacebar when I’m close, move frame by frame with arrow keys, grab mouse and blade. The point is to not do any mouse scrubbing, so I can be as exact as I want. This is pretty simply done in Legacy and PPro.

Editor, Producer, DP
JustinCrowell.com

[Justin Crowell]

Unfortunately, I can’t use command+B for this because I have a layer above my main video for a graphic with an alpha channel. So that’s what it cuts automatically.

It SHOULD be parked at the first frame of the second clip, but it actually ends up parking at the second frame. This behavior is totally unique to FCPX, and IMHO, completely useless. It also strikes me that I should be able to use the blade tool if I want to…if not, why is it there?

Here are a couple of photos of what I’m talking about.

Editor, Producer, DP
JustinCrowell.com

[Justin Crowell]

If there is a conflict, I’m wondering if it might show up in the Console. Maybe you should try and leave that open while you work?

Editor, Producer, DP
JustinCrowell.com

[Justin Crowell]

I just want to weigh in here to say that I’m seeing similar things to what the video is showing. The most frustrating is dragging a clip in from the browser and having to wait for the timeline to figure out what’s going on. I love FCPX’s timeline, but I can’t stand that lag.

FWIW, I have a similar machine to the one in the video (i7 Sandy Bridge with adequate throughput from a raid).

Editor, Producer, DP
JustinCrowell.com

[Justin Crowell]

Thanks Tony. That seems like a pretty good system. It’d be nice if FCPX gave us some sort of priority tags other than favorite or reject, though that might bog us down into FCP7 territory. Better yet, maybe they could make available customizable global tags that would color the clips? Now maybe I’m just gettin’ crazy…

I still think, however, that the biggest problem is that I have to favorite, stop playback, grab the mouse, click the favorite and hit enter, title it, and then restart playback. Also…are you able to unfavorite multiple ranges at once? I can’t seem to figure out how to do that.

If Apple were to institute a more formalized logging system–something that combines the flexibility of keyframing with the unique naming approach of favoriting, and adds back in the efficiency I really need, then I would be REALLY excited…

Editor, Producer, DP
JustinCrowell.com

[Justin Crowell]

The problem with the Favorite approach is that it means I have to review ALL of my footage twice: once to Favorite, once to Keyword. For long interview sets with quick turnarounds, that’s untenable. Also, I know I can favorite and unfavorite, but it’d also be nice fi there was a Favorite-style tag along the lines of “Subclip.”

[Patrice Freymond] “The logging feature in FCPX is hailed by most as one of its best features, with a reason. But it takes a bit to get used to and used efficiently. MAybe a trip down the manual can help too.”

I take pretty strong issue with that…if you search these forums you’ll find many are frustrated with logging (especially long interviews). Many have to make use of workarounds (like Markers). I’m deeply familiar with the software (watch plenty of tutorials and have been working steadily with it for a while). I just find it frustrating that what I can do in Premiere/FCP7 without moving my hands from the home-row now takes multiple run-throughs, hitting escape, or some other extra process. I don’t care about maintaining my old modes of behavior…I DO care, however, about maintaing my former efficiency.

Furthermore…I should say that when I’m subclipping I don’t necessarily want keywords, even. I want to make descriptions that are searchable later. Again, people discuss this stuff in the forums, and there are workarounds–but they all require some awkward extra motions (ie naming Favorites, which you have to use the mouse to do).

Editor, Producer, DP
JustinCrowell.com

[Justin Crowell]

Thanks guys. Good thought, Charlie.

Andy: for your method do you work like this?
1) Set In
2) Set Out
3) CMD+K, type keyword (or keywords)
4) Hit Escape
5) Repeat!

Editor, Producer, DP
JustinCrowell.com

[Justin Crowell]

Thanks Herb.
This may actually be a good time to ask a question I’m wondering about: What sort of backup systems do you all use?

I’m leaving a production company to return to the freelance world. My plan is to do
– SSD for system, of course
– a 4TB (to start) internal RAID 0 for Media,
– a 2TB internal RAID 0 for cache/exports
– An ESATA drive (haven’t decided which yet) for nightly backups (thoughts on software?)
– and USB 3 or ESATA for archiving.

The company I’m leaving uses ESATA sleds with WD Greens for archiving, and I’m considering going that way (it’s cheap, fast, and I don’t end up with a 100 different types of drives lying around).

Apologies for extending the OTness…

Editor, Producer, DP
JustinCrowell.com

[Justin Crowell]

Todd…do you have any insight into the degree of surprise that this may be causing on the team? I’m pretty shocked at how many people seem to be voting full on for speed!

Editor, Producer, DP
JustinCrowell.com