[Mark Dobson]

I thought it was just me that found the Titles, SFX and Generator move to the Event Browser really annoying!

[Mark Dobson]

[Oliver Peters] “A lot of folks here taught the advantages of owning (Apple) versus renting (Adobe); yet from an accounting standpoint, if you are a small production company up to a large enterprise, renting/subscription makes more sense. OTOH, if you are a single user who occasionally edits – such as a director or DP who sometimes cut their own stuff – then FCPX is likely a better choice – if they can wrap their head around the approach.”

FCPX is remarkably good value. A one off payment with substantial updates every year or so. ( However I have bought 3 new Apple computers in that period as well)

When I think back I can’t help but feel that Apple would have been better off to launch FCPX in tandem with FCP 7, rather than giving FCP 7 it’s EOL. And I also feel that the software was released too early, that we were all participants in a large beta programme. The difference in functionality in FCPX from the day it was launched to now is staggering, for me I’d like to experience less crashes and hiccups, but the whole concept now works.

I do sometimes think about switching to Adobe, their software is brilliant and I subscribe to their photographic apps, but I just couldn’t face unlearning all the techniques and workflows I’ve built up with FCPX, let alone discarding the huge investment I’ve made in plugins etc. Apple, like Sony have done with their large sensor cameras such as the FS7, have really started to listen to user / customer feedback and that, after the last 6 sometimes very painful years, is encouraging.

[Mark Dobson]

Great article Oliver.

Always a well considered unsanctimonious voice on this forum.

I’ve been using it from day one and in the intervening period have cut everything our company has produced on it. That’s broadcast quality, educational, training and corporate work. The fact that I’m still using it must say something. I depend on it to make my living.

But yes, even on 10minute productions, on a top end iMac, things get sticky. I still get the spinning wheel, I still get the broken cmd z undo fault, these are what might be called unforced errors. Sometimes I even have to do a force shutdown on my machine.

But despite these problems I have enough faith in the software to continue using it on time sensitive jobs. I know it will deliver eventually. When things are running smoothly I love FCPX and the fact that I can, together with occasional trips to Motion, produce all the supporting graphic components within the application.

But whether I’d recommend FCPX to someone else is another question.

[Mark Dobson]

I’ve ever really embraced roles but think this new iteration could get me involved in the workflow.

Generally 10.3 looks like a rich reward for those who have persevered with FCPX through all it’s changes since its fitful birth all those years ago.

Mark

[Mark Dobson]

Hi James,

I’d recommend creating a specific library for your loops and then have that sitting in the background for when you want to drag them into your current library / event. I do this for my stockpile of BBC sound effects.

How are you getting on with 10.3 apart from this issue? Can’t wait to install this update but need to finish a large project first.

Mark

[Mark Dobson]

I’ve met Larry on many occasions at trade shows or Apple events and have always found him to be a very approachable and knowledgable guy and obviously right on top of how these reiterated NLE’s work.

But to me his teaching style is very old school, avuncular, tell it once, tell it again and then run though it a final time to make sure everything is fully understood. This style for me just doesn’t chime with the ability we have of reviewing any video based training material. So I stopped buying his products.

Ripple seem to keep it fresher and release themed training packages with a high production value, and they are constantly providing free training material to the NLE ‘community’ through their 5 minute training releases.

So I feel that maybe if Larry had changed his style, stepped back a bit on the presentation front and packaged his material in a different way he would have had more financial success with his training products.

But then again maybe these new generation NLE’s are so well engineered and designed they enable people to learn as they go. Whereas when I first started using FCP I found it incredibly complicated and really did need to buy training materials.

And good luck to Larry, an unusually decent and generous guy in what ever ventures he gets involved in. I’m sure we will be seeing a lot more of him.

[Mark Dobson]

[Bob Woodhead] “Right, now just need Canon/Apple/someone to give us a native import for 444.

OT – anyone know which external recorder works with Canon RAW? That is, it records RAW. We have a Atomos Shogun, which sees the RAW, but records as ProRes 422.”

Hi Bob – a bit late to this conversation, but as I’m preparing to use C300 Mk2, are you saying you can record 4k externally as a ProRes 422 file? If that is the case do you know the bit rate?

thanks

[Mark Dobson]

Well I’m about 40miles south of London in a small market town and whilst you are all welcome to come and visit and see how we use FCPX for Broadcast Spec HD and 4K editing I don’t think you would all fit into our small house.

But you could take it in turns to come into our editing room and I think we could just about find enough mugs to make tea for you all.

Seriously though from what James Ewarts says in his post I think that it’s likely that FCPX is mostly used by self shooting Producer / Directors and small production companies such as ours.

I just did a quick Google Search and I think there are a few companies in Brighton, lovely town to visit, who are using FCPX. One of these is a company called Can-b ltd.

https://can-b.co.uk/video-production

[Mark Dobson]

[Oliver Peters] “What if the 3D text bolt-on was the same as the FCP 7 upgrade – something to appease the masses and to look like progress?

What if FCP X is essentially “done” and there’s not much more there than new window-dressing and keeping up with the OS changes?”

3D text was so ‘so what’ and if a third party company had developed it I wouldn’t have bought it. I’ve used it once professionally and think I’ll leave it at that.

As to the overall development of FCPX, I’d say that the software is now at the level it should have been when it was launched all those years ago. And I know all about that because I’ve been using it solidly since then and have had too many totally frustrating experiences to mention. As I look back now I’m amazed at how undeveloped the software was at launch. And I have every sympathy for those jumped away to other platforms.

But as I work on it now I find it is an almost stable proposition, sure it still crashes and goes weird from time-to-time but generally it is as well behaved as my ageing dog ( Springer Spaniel 17 years old ). But it has only been my inertia, call it laziness, that has kept me using FCPX. I just couldn’t bear to have to learn a new set of commands and editing conventions on another editing package.

So really I’d have to agree with you Oliver, that FCPX is basically built and on a general service cycle with each OS upgrade. I would change my opinion if there was a substantial upgrade on the audio side or if the measly set of tools that have been provided for file selection and analysis were expanded.

But either way this is the horse that’s going to carry me through the next few years. I’ve invested too much in plugins to start again and as I sit here editing on the 27″ 5k iMac life isn’t really that bad.

[Mark Dobson]

As of 3 days ago I can now comment on this thread with absolute authority in that I’m now the owner of a 5K iMac. I chose a special build with the 4 GHz Intel Core i7 and AMD Radeon R9 M295X 4096 MB.

I had been waiting for the next iteration of this well reviewed machine but here it is on my desktop working just fine. The 5k display is gorgeous and flatters everything you put on it and with the new processor FCPX rendering time has definitely speeded up.

What prompted me to buy the machine now rather than waiting for the next upgrade was that I had both a Samsung 28″ UHD monitor hoping to have 4K on the cheap only to discover, due to lack of research that it would only work on newer machines than my 2012 27″ iMac, so that prompted me to click the the buy button.

So the 2 screens work very well together, the Apple screen is obviously higher quality but the Samsung U28D590 is remarkably good value. At the moment my 4K acquisition and editing is limited to GoPro 4, DJI Inspire and Sony RX10 11 but it is a pretty addictive resolution and I’m hoping to upgrade my C300 to the Mk2 version in the autumn.