Michael Hancock
Forum Replies Created
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[John Rofrano] “I’m not aware of 16GB modules for the iMac 5K but since it maxes out at 32GB it doesn’t matter if you use 2 x 16 GB or 4 x 8 GB.”
The newest iMac systems can take 64GB of RAM. Kits are sold here:
https://eshop.macsales.com/shop/memory/iMac/Retina-5K2015/DDR3L
I’d recommend the 2 x 16GB sticks, that way you could keep two of the sticks that will ship from Apple in the machine, giving you more than 32GB of RAM. Or, if you don’t want to mix RAM, it will still leave 2 open slots if you wanted to go to 64GB in the future.
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Michael Hancock
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Select the secondary timeline first, then paste. It might work.
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Michael Hancock
Editor -
When Simon write “Multiple simultaneous timecode displays.”, I imagine he’s thinking something like this (from Avid), and hopefully he’ll correct me if I’m wrong:
https://content.provideocoalition.com/uploads/avid-long-timecode-window.png
It may not be useful to some people, but it’s incredibly useful to others. And the best part is that it’s customizable. If you want to use it – it’s available. If you don’t, just don’t open the window. Everybody is happy.
[Bill Davis] “So what does timecode really provide in the modern era that couldn’t be supplanted over time with video systems moving to GPS based clock time with local offsets applied? “
Perhaps over time this will be happen and will be awesome, but today it’s not happening. Today we still use timecode, so why shouldn’t Apple build in some extra functionality that’s useful and requested?
[Bill Davis] “I was working with Phil Hodgetts and Greg Smith at NAB last year on a production demo and what almost screwed things up wasn’t timecode – the BlackMagit cameras and switchers all had that in spades. It was that nobody had taken the time to set the real time clocks! “
If FCPX had all the timecode functionality of some of the other NLEs it wouldn’t have been a problem. You just calculate the timecode difference between the cameras and make an Aux Timecode and use that for syncing. Pretty simple stuff, and solves the error that was made on set.
[Bill Davis] “Traditional “start at zero'” completely internal TC is isolated to a small group.
Time of day is global.”
Time of day isn’t always a good idea, especially if you’re shooting over multiple days with cameras that are likely to repeat file names. You’ll end up with a bunch of clips with the same name and same timecode, which can make relinking and finishing a nightmare.
Maybe timecode won’t be necessary in the future, but it’s still very important and necessary today. It would be great if FCPX did more with it.
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Michael Hancock
Editor -
You can use the timeline index to make it faster, if you haven’t explored it much.
Example: If you have a keyword collection called “BRoll” and you didn’t tag those cilps as NAT or BRoll or whatever role you want them to have (audio or video), you can use the timeline index to quickly do that to your sequence. Go to the Tags column, search for BRoll, select everything, then apply a role. Or if it’s just one specific clip you can search the Clips column, select all instances of that clip in the timeline index (which selects all the clips in your sequence), then apply a role and it will be applied to all of them.
It helps a lot, but it’s still not as elegant as updating a sequence would be, or applying a role directly to a keyword at the event level.
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Michael Hancock
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[Mike Warmels] “music is always music… and sound effects are always sound effects.
“99.99% of the time, yes. Which is why I’ve also requested that you be able to assign a role to a keyword, so as soon as you drop your footage into the keyword collection it assumes that role.
But since you can have a clip in multiple keyword collections, I would like to see the program become aware of which collection you edit from. So if you edit from the Music keyword collection the audio is cut into your timeline as Music. But if you have a music track you want to also use as SFX you could drop it into your SFX keyword collection, with the SFX role added to the keyword, and when you edit the music from that collection it carries the SFX role into the sequence. So you could have multiple roles assigned to one clip, and the role that is applied it tied to a keyword collection.
There is a ton of possibilities with roles, keyword collections, events, etc…, but Apple doesn’t seem interested in exploring or expanding on any of them. It’s very frustrating and reminiscent of Avid in a lot of ways. They develop an incredible and powerful concept but it’s implemented in a very basic way, and it’s never improved upon.
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Michael Hancock
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[Mike Warmels] “We’ve discussed this before, but I find it strange that if you change the roles in the source clip, it doesn’t change it in timeline. “
I encourage you to make a feature request that there be an “Update Project/Sequence” option that ripples changes to source clips into the selected project/sequence (like Avid’s Update Sequence). I wouldn’t want source clip changes/roles to automatically be applied to all projects. But the option to apply them to selected projects? Yes please. I’ve requested it several times already, but having multiple people request it would be even better.
You can submit feature requests here: https://www.apple.com/feedback/finalcutpro.html
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Michael Hancock
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[Walter Soyka] “As for overly expensive, yes, starting at ~$18k for 14TB of usable space is a bit steep.”
I agree that Avid’s storage is overpriced compared to most other options, but $18K is more of a starting point in negotiations.
You can buy an ISIS 1000 from Videoguys for $14K, and if you use one of their 5% off discount codes you’re under $13,300. For a small post house with a couple editors, wanting to use Avid, that’s very affordable.
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Michael Hancock
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[Robin S. Kurz] “But aside from all that, I think one needs to first and foremost keep in mind that we’re not even talking about STANDARD features or options in Avid, but we are with FCP X. So really it’s not even a reasonable comparison to begin with. Without all the additional, massively expensive soft and hardware, Avid’s sharing capabilities are no better than anyone else’s. Unless I missed something since I last used it (v6?).”
[Robin S. Kurz] “But aside from all that, I think one needs to first and foremost keep in mind that we’re not even talking about STANDARD features or options in Avid, but we are with FCP X. “
What massively expensive software and hardware are you referring to, or nonstandard features that are required for Avid?
If you’re looking for a shared storage solution for FCPX or Avid, a lot of them include Avid project sharing now. You aren’t required to go with a Unity system. Facilis Terrablock, EditShare, EVO, Indiestor – I think I even saw on the LumaForge site that they have bin locking now for Avid, and I know I’m forgetting a lot of them.
If you’re looking for a shared storage solution for FCPX, you’re probably going to end up with something that also supports Avid style project sharing, so the only difference in cost is the NLE. And in the grand scheme of things the NLE cost is minimal compared to the upfront cost of shared storage, which is a healthy investment regardless of your NLE.
And without the shared storage, I would say Avid’s sharing capabilities, sneakernet style, (like FCPX or Premiere) are still a little easier simply because of how the project is presented at the finder level. It’s not a self contained project like Premiere, or a package like FCPX. It’s a folder, and each bin is a separate file. You don’t have to use Media Browser to move stuff over, or export XMLs and import them or copy from only library to another from within the app. You just email the bin you want to share. If they need new media you’ll have to send that, but that’s the same with every NLE.
[Robin S. Kurz] “We are also using Keyflow Pro btw., which even introduces a whole other level of sharing options and media management that no other NLE that I know of and use or have used can offer.”
Can you expand on that? Sounds interesting. I’ve looked into Keyflow in the past but haven’t checked them out in a while. What type of sharing options and media management capabilities is it providing?
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Michael Hancock
Editor -
Everybody works in the same project. No XMLing sequences or duplicating libraries or copying things from one library to another. You make one project and everyone works in it at the same time. It simplifies things, and with bin locking it protects people from saving over your work or you saving over theirs.
EXAMPLE: I’m the first to open the bin “Edits_March9_2016”, so I own it. That means I can make changes to it, I can edit the sequences in it, etc… Anybody else in the project can open it and copy stuff out of it, or open the sequences and watch them, but any changes they make will not be saved (but they will be give the open to save the bin as a copy). It’s a locked bin to them – they cannot change it. Only the owner can.
This is incredibly powerful in practice. You can have assistants syncing audio, adding production notes, marking takes, etc…, all in the original project. Meanwhile, the editor(s) are cutting away. When an assistant finishes syncing audio, setting up group clips, adding notes, marking takes, etc they just save the bin and close it. Then the editor can open it up and they have instant access to the sync clips, metadata, markers, notes, etc…. You don’t have to worry about “last to save wins” or everyone keeping their own copy of the project and having to copy from one to another. It greatly simplifies things in that regard and the bin locking helps to protect people’s work from being overwritten.
Another example – If you want to see how and edit is shaping up while the editor is working on it you just open their bin and play the sequence. You’ll see the most recently saved version. If they change the sequence and save the bin while you’re watching it you just close the bin and reopen it and you’ll see their changes. Because the bin is locked you can’t delete their sequence, change it, or accidentally (or intentionally) save over it.
It’s can be hard to understand just how powerful and efficient it is until you get a chance to see it in person or use it. And no other NLE, that I’m aware of, provides anything close to it.
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Michael Hancock
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[Misha Aranyshev] “Because you cannot slip a clip from keyboard in MC?
“Sure you can. There’s even a keyboard shortcut you can assign to it so you don’t have to go into trim mode first. There’s no equivalent keyboard shortcut for slide, but there’s definitely one for slip.
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Michael Hancock
Editor