Mathieu Ghekiere
Forum Replies Created
-
Hi Michael,
well, some things to think about:
– with an app like Sync”N Link you can have your Roles correctly (even mic per mic) attached to your video footage of a whole day just by exporting an XML, bringing it into Sync’N Link, exporting an XML from there again, and done. Seconds. A couple of clicks. For every mic. The sound guy must have done his job correctly however, tagging his recording on set.
– You can import new footage in a keyword collection. Then select all of them. Hundreds of files. And give them the same Role with one click. (music for instance).
– The most important thing here is, in my opinion, are 2 artistic things. First, you don’t label things anymore with track 1-track 4 for instance. Now it’s DIALOGUE. ADR. Titles. Etcetera. This goes back to CONTENT organisation, and not onto a tracking system that can be random. It’s understandible for anyone to read.
Second, you should do all of this Roles organisation BEFORE you edit. You can even do it afterwards, but I think doing it before gives you much better options. What this means is that you do all this organisation when you are in a ‘organising your edit’ mood. But when you are ready for the creative process… Cutting, removing things, putting them somewhere else, trimming, etcetera,… It all gets out of your way, and you can just go along with that flow. I think this is a very important point.– Again, with a couple of clicks and an XML, you can have all of these organised in tracks for ProTools. From what I’ve heard (because I don’t have experience with this myself but a lot of people here do) these are often the cleanest AAF’s they have ever gotten.
I do hope Apple extends timeline features with Roles (color coding, grouping, a Roles-based mixer) like everyone does. But I like the concept of Roles a lot more than tracks.
-
Hi Timothy,
from what I’ve heard in an video-interview with Spielberg, he indeed said he cutted War Horse digitally, but he didn’t like it and I remember (but I’m not sure) that he said he would go back to flatbed cutting for the next one.
He’s reasoning was nice though. He said: with flatbed cutting, I ask some cuts and adjustments, and I go for a 30-60 minute walk because it takes that long to make those adjustments. In that walk I can process a bit more on my decisions, think about them, think about the general cut. Then I get back with those thoughts.
With digital cutting, it all happens instantly, and I can’t reflect on it anymore.Hard to argue with a filmmaker like Spielberg. If that is what works for them, I hope he can hold on to it, if he keeps producing results like that.
-
Indeed. You see it back in a lot of classic movies. I think it’s just because he grew up with those and those were his inspiration.
But his work is now an inspiration for a lot of us 🙂Thanks for the article, I read it. Big fan of Citizen Kane, btw. One of those movies of which I felt the hype was very deserved.
-
Spielberg has talked about it a lot. He said he likes to make scenes where in a way, the audience does their ‘own’ cutting.
I don’t agree with it completely, because his staging is as such that he really draws your attention to stuff.If you haven’t seen this already, you really are gonna like these videos:
https://vimeo.com/94684922
This last video, check it out at 2.55, the long shot from Jurassic Park. Check the timing of those movements. When Tim says to the Sam Neil Character: I’m gonna be in YOUR car. How the movement of the camera, really gives you this FEELING about the change in Sam Neil’s feeling.
That shot is amazing because it’s subtle but genius at the same time. He really is one of my biggest inspirations, Spielberg 🙂Some contents or functionalities here are not available due to your cookie preferences!This happens because the functionality/content marked as “Vimeo framework” uses cookies that you choosed to keep disabled. In order to view this content or use this functionality, please enable cookies: click here to open your cookie preferences.
-
Interesting post, Simon, although I don’t think it has anything to do with FCPX.
I’m a big fan of long shots. Spielberg is one of my Favorite directors and watching The staging and pacing of his long camerashots always feels like The best film school anyone could ask for.
-
I think the strength in a the magnetic timeline lies in the fact that, next to the fact that it for a lot of editing operations it works quicker (sometimes you have to learn to edit ‘differently’, think differently, and sometimes it ISN’T faster… But for most stuff, I have the feeling it is), is that it’s content-based.
The whole idea of having a trackless system, BUT with Roles as an organizing system, is content-based.No clip collisions, no track one, track two, no patching… With Roles you can think in content (Titles, Dialogue, Music… or with subroles, the options are endless).
Of course, in that case you need to organise your footage first, but organising things in X is very quick.I think we are all agreeing that Roles can be made a lot better (grouping, color coding, an audio mixer based on it, etc. …). But the whole idea behind it, I think is actually genius. And that you then just can choose what to export in your last step…
It takes a lot of time to think differently with the magnetic timeline. Normal rough assemblys… no. That goes fast. But more complex edits, it takes more time to think in ‘terms’ like primary storyline, how to move those clips, how to tackle an edit. But now that I do, I really have difficulty working in a track-environment these times because it’s like my brain thinks like X now, because I use it so much (grew up with Premiere Pro and before X spent most of my young professional career in FCP 7 – I switched to X since 10.0.3 for small projects, and used it on a bigger scale in the firm where I do all my freelance work, switching them completely since 10.0.6)
And, like Oliver said, sometimes there are some things missing in X, or just because of the way it works, that some stuff works slower then in another NLE. In my mind, X wins most of the time, but your mileage may vary.What I’m saying is… with X you think much more content-wise. I’m not an editor because I love the technical nature of editing (although of course there is a big part of me that likes it a bit). I like to tell stories. I think X is more appropriate for artists then a lot of other NLE’s because of this. The magnetic timeline seems to have a more direct connection – again, most of the time – between what you want to achieve and achieving it. Like moving a clip downwards, and everything just automatically adjusting.
-
Hi Herb,
to answer your question, YES, there is a Camera Angle in the Inspector.
So you can select a bunch of clips, and in the Inspector give them a number or a letter or a name, under the Camera Angle metadata field.If you then make your multicam clip, you can have an Automatic option of Angle Ordering.
Then it puts clips from the same Angle on the same ‘track’ in the Angle editor.
It’s pretty nice. Can’t compare with Premiere Pro though.A good experience I had was with making Compound Clips first, because I was working with a blue key interview. Both cameras needed a seperate background.
We made Compound Clips with the 3 clips having the different background. Then selecting those 2 compound clips and making a Multicam clip.So a Multicam clip with 3 angles, all 3 blue keyed, with different (motion!) background on them. All Prores. It all played back nicely.
Regards,
-
Yes, but this only became possible since update 10.1 or something from FCPX. So if you are still running Mountain Lion and/or an older version of FCPX, you should upgrade to get the option. But it’s possible now.
-
Interesting article.
We also use compounds a lot in our workflows, but how he used them – with changing Roles etc – was very smart.
-
As Marcus said…
It’s not the first time that Pixel Studios has stolen from MotionVFX, they once have stolen stock shots too…
MotionVFX makes high quality stuff, with an affordable price tag.
Pixel Film Studios steals, and their stuff is often crap when you try to use it. Get the real one instead, they deserve your support:
https://www.motionvfx.com/mplugs-33.html