[Mark Dobson]

I saw an earlier version of this somewhere.

Keeping an iPad screen clean is one thing but imagine how grubby a 27″ monitor would get.

Not for me – looks a really clumsy way of achieving a precision job.

I’d much rather edit with a ‘Minority Report’ type virtual screen and really throw things together including the past, the future and the present.

[Mark Dobson]

[Brian Mulligan] “Funny how basic functionality is applauded. Only Apple could get away with that.”

Yes – you’re right there!

Just imagine what we will be saying when we get our 2nd viewer back.

[Mark Dobson]

Quite a dramatic way to check it’s working!

I’ve done some trials where I’ve duplicated files, set up an event and imported them, edited a trial project then shut down, trashed the files and reconnected to the originals.

And it all works really smoothly.

So it’s a relief to have that facility again.

[Mark Dobson]

[Simon Ubsdell] “It sometimes happens that you have a shot that is over-exposed and you want to try and restore some of the missing information in the blown-out areas. TKY Over Exposure Rescue (gotta think up a catchier name!) is designed to help you with with that recovery process.
“

How about ‘Blown Out’

Thanks again Simon.

[Mark Dobson]

[Oliver Peters] “if Apple had, in fact, named it “iMovie Pro”? (I’m not meaning this as a pejorative.) Or if they had released it as an “editing assistant” application? Sort of a good “pre-editor” or maybe even just a “rough cut editor”?”

Sure there are still a lot of shortcomings with this software and the launch was similar to that of the Titanic, however with each update more editors are taking a second look.

The fact that the interface looked similar to iMovie, that many actually called it “iMovie Pro” alone will have ensured that many ‘pro’ editors would not be seen dead operating FCPX.

Image and association are powerful drivers in life and FCPX has been well tarred and feathered. However beneath it’s tarnished exterior there is a lot to be said for this new kid on the block.

Give it more than a cursory glance, spend time with it on real projects, look beyond the magnetic debate and many would be reluctant to return to the more conventional editing packages.

I’m 7 months in now and, whilst I sometimes howl with frustration at the lack of maturity that FCPX frequently displays, I’m confident that this much more than an ‘editing assistant’ and Apple for all its faults are starting to open up as witnessed by the recent access to 10.0.3 release that has resulted in 7toX.

[Mark Dobson]

[Oliver Peters] “You should do well with FCP X based in the description. Lately, it’s been common to shoot with a couple of DSLRs and a separate sound recorder and sync the 3”

Well – I’ll create a post describing my experience once I’ve finished editing the job. 3 Cameras filming a whole days workshop!

Not going to be fun to edit.

[Mark Dobson]

[Oliver Peters] “This will likely be an easy and pleasant m-cam cut in X. Figure out your audio issues first. If it’s just speaker audio direct to camera without any combination of isolated mics, then you should be fine.”

sorry, did I mistake this thread and for slow response – UK time – We are using 2 XF305s My plan is to have a wireless mike on the speaker – or get the sound engineer to take a feed from the PA desk – and feed the clean signal to one of the 2 cameras – the other camera will pick up reference sound with its on board mike.

Wasn’t quite sure what you meant by isolated mics.

I’ll be using this job to get started with FCPX multi cam and will do a dry run tomorrow.

[Mark Dobson]

So I’ve been asked to film a workshop on Monday which includes 2 cameras filming 6 different speakers during the day.

Is this fairly simple set up going to be a doddle with the FCPX multicam facility?

Once the 2 cameras are synced up what do I need to watch out for in the edit?

This must be the most basic implementation of multicam – a good place to start for me.

[Mark Dobson]

[Jim Giberti] “Fortunately after talking with Peter Sheffield about EMA I realized that Magic Bullet had released Cosmo as a stand alone for FCPX just last week. It’s a direct smoothing plug based on Colorista and Looks but much faster to facilitate and speed is what I need for all this grading and rendering.”

Jim,

Yes Cosmo is included within MBL2 which I bought last weekend. I’ll take a look at Cosmo next time I need to smooth things out.

Be nice if it worked on bank statements!

[Mark Dobson]

Hi Jim,

A very quick and effective skin smoothing technique is to simply duplicate the clip you want to apply skin smoothing to and place it directly above.

Apply a gaussian blur at about 5% to the lower clip.

Change the blend mode of the upper clip to ‘add’ at an opacity of around 40%.

Obviously all these parameters can be adjusted ad-infinitum.

To only affect the face will require slightly more compositing with masks. ( Mask8 points Alex4D )

Mark