Liam Hall
Forum Replies Created
-
[Bill Davis] “Walter,
I absolutely understand your desire for “absolute performance” since you work in the part of the pipeline where real time compositing, rendering and the hard core calculation makes the difference between you being more or less productive.
But I have to wonder whether the FCP-X model of expressing EVERYTHING as metadata is seriously changing that.
With the new X construct, I know I’ve simply moved “final output calculation” well downstream in my workflows. As I work in X, I’m really just building text lists that avoid almost all the processor heavy lifting – leaving the big calculation load i to after the client has viewed and approved my inter-stage work – that’s probably why I’m finding X so responsive in the laptop world.
I think more and more software is going to work this way. Less crunching code to do stuff in real time – and more simply building and manipulating metadata journals – not just in the database, but to express the actual editorial functions as well.
That “two stage” process – fast decisions now – optimal quality later when I need it – is driving HUGE efficiencies in my work.
It’s clearly the central factor that’s driven all the “change this small thing and wait for the section to re-render” mode that was so integral to working in Legacy.
And the fact that it’s gonna take my laptop overnight to calculate finals isn’t always a gig problem for me. What I need to do FAST is editorial – which in the world of X is kinda now all just metadata journaling.
As long as I can park on a frame and see the ultimate quality represented, I’m good. I can then get back to work making my decisions in a lower rez stream, and even email that stream out for editorial approval via email. I find this to be amazingly efficient in X compared to my years in Legacy.
I personally am rooting for whatever The 2013 “Pro User” refresh that Tim Cook has hinted at to be something that has some type of “scaleable” rendering engine under the hood – perhaps using TBolt and/or Grand Central to leverage additional horsepower. That might even provide for guys like you who currently require the big iron approach – and also let the same software work for someone like me with lower rendering requirements.
Seems like a pretty smart approach rather than requiring all of us to run on “big iron” whether we want to maintain a business infrastructure to support those kind of hardware arrays or not.
Fun to speculate.
“Before speaking out ask yourself whether your words are true, whether they are respectful and whether they are needed in our civil discussions.”-Justice O’Connor
“I’m intrigued Bill, what do you actually make with FCPX? Honest question, not bating, I promise.
Liam Hall
Director/DoP/Editor
http://www.liamhall.net -
I love Promax.
https://www.maximuscle.com/promax
But it does make you itch…
Liam Hall
Director/DoP/Editor
http://www.liamhall.net -
Don’t you love the way they publish unsubstantiated claims made by anonymous readers? That email “quote” was floating about everywhere last night – including here. I wouldn’t read too much into it.
Liam Hall
Director/DoP/Editor
http://www.liamhall.net -
[Bobby Mosca] “On top of that, creative professionals (musicians, photographers, filmmakers) all tend to be liberal as well.”
You might want to replace “all” with “some”.
Also, you’re confusing political theory with commercial reality. Apple is a company, it’s job is to make money.
Liam Hall
Director/DoP/Editor
http://www.liamhall.net -
[Bret Williams] “Perhaps you’re in the wrong profession if your eyes aren’t that good”
Not sure if that aimed at me or not Chris, but to clarify, my comment was tongue-in-cheek; having 2880 pixels on a 15″ laptop is not the same as having 2880 pixels on a 30″ monitor. Same number of pixels, but doing different jobs. Oh, and size matters…
Liam Hall
Director/DoP/Editor
http://www.liamhall.net -
[Bill Davis] “I know a lot of you do work that requires you to keep working inside traditional offices. And it’s good that there are more traditional equipment vendors ready to meet your needs.
But I’m fully ready for a new, more mobile life with a toolset that doesn’t tie me to the same desk, seeing the same cubicle walls every day of the rest of my working life.”
I doubt you are more mobile than me Bill (I shot in 22 counties in the last year alone). One thing I always like is coming home and moving from my laptop to my tower. I guess thunderbolt will help the transition to a non-desktop based edit suite, but it’s not a great solution IMHO.
Liam Hall
Director/DoP/Editor
http://www.liamhall.net -
[Oliver Peters] “The 15″ is 2880 wide at 220dpi. That’s a 30″ screen crammed down to a laptop size.”
You’ll have to sit very close to the laptop to get full value out of that display…
Liam Hall
Director/DoP/Editor
http://www.liamhall.net -
It tells you all you need to know about FCPX really.
Liam Hall
Director/DoP/Editor
http://www.liamhall.net -
[Tim Wilson] “A lot less than you’d think.”
We paid around £80, 000 for our first system in 1992. As a commercials editor agencies insisted upon using it despite the fact it was slow and unreliable. I bought a Lightworks a couple of years later for the cut-down price of £42, 000 – still my favourite NLE…
Liam Hall
Director/DoP/Editor
http://www.liamhall.net -
[Lance Bachelder] “In the old linear days of cutting film with Moviola’s and flatbeds”
Editing film on a Moviola, Steenbeck, Kem or whatever was a NON-linear process.
Liam Hall
Director/DoP/Editor
http://www.liamhall.net