[Kevin Zimmerman]

[Chris Kenny] ”
Lion adds system-level versioning features. I don’t know if we’ll see FCP X adopt these immediately, but they’re probably not unrelated to Apple’s long-term approach to this issue.”

Interesting, absolutely. I’ve read about Lion’s new approach to saving/versioning on the system level. And I hadn’t thought about it in terms of FCPX.

But my instinct is that it would still be the wrong type of organization for the creative process… as I understand Lion (and trust me, I’m the first to admit that I haven’t seen it in action, only read in blogs), there’s no such thing as “saving” for situations such as a crash or a mistake. One can move backwards through “saves” like moving through incremental backups, perhaps?

Part of the process of versioning for NLEs is that just because a version is newer doesn’t make it better. Versions need to be separate and discrete to be of value — it’s not simply an evolution of one concept. Again, multiple paths need to be pursued, and available for review, in one arena. Version 106 can beget version 106b can beget version 106b3 while version 176 is still being evaluated. I know it sounds like I’m beating a dead horse, but effortless versioning is the one, single idea that pushed digital NLEs past analog NLEs (i.e. a Steenbeck).

[Kevin Zimmerman]

[Craig Seeman] “I think you’re assuming the use of the word “project” is the same as it was in previous versions or even other NLEs. It would have been easier if Apple changed the word

A Project contains the timeline.
An Event, not a project, contains the media.
You can have as many projects (timelines) as you want per event.
. . . and a project can have media from any number of events.

It’s much more open ended. You can version as much as you want.”

Understood. Although it’s not the Project I’m primarily concerned with, per se. It’s the Timeline.

I insist that it’s a fundamentally flawed concept in that one you are viewing all of your Events (i.e. the source media for all of your different jobs) simultaneously by default, while only being able to view one Timeline.

Another parallel I thought of today was that Apple has developed a “session” based NLE. Sort of a video equivalent to ProTools. Again, there’s something completely tone-deaf in regards to the idea of a professional editing job being primarily a singular act. The fact that when one duplicates a Project, you need to click through a dialog box asking if you’d like to duplicate the associated Events, or just reference them, speaks volumes.

I’ve received a few interesting emails from users with different work-arounds for versioning within projects, based around Compound Clips and Audition Groups. Compound Clips is nothing new to an NLE, but Audition is, and I think it’s one of the more interesting developments in FCPX.

But the key idea is “work around.” It’s insane that we have to use creative problem solving to show two cuts back to back. We should be using that part of our brain for editing.

At my most optimistic, I genuinely believe this can all lead to something great. But it’s going to take more work on Apple’s part than on the end user’s part.