[Mike Molenda]

Awesome! I’ve been tinkering more with Premiere, and plan to do the same with an Avid MC trial. Either to make the decision to switch outright, or to use alongside FCP as a CYA measure. I’ve been wondering for a while if there were any online resources that were as succinct and comprehensive as this.

The stuff in the manual is pretty easy to pick up playing around on your own, but there are a lot of little “I could do this in FCP, how the heck do I do it here?” things the manual just doesn’t go into. Hopefully this will point me in the right direction.

Thanks!

[Mike Molenda]

Window > Export Queue

This brings up the Batch Export bin. Select all the clips in your timeline, and drag them into the queue. Here, you can choose the settings for multiple files by highlighting them all and hitting the “Settings…” button. Make sure the “Settings” dropdown menu is set to “Item Settings, or it will recompress your video. Also be sure “Make Self-Contained” is checked, as well as “Use Item In-Out” unless you want it to export the entire source clip with the baked-in effect. Finally, click the “Set Destination…” button at the top to choose the folder where the files are saved, otherwise it will default to your Render Files folder.

Optionally, you can use the “Set Naming Options Button” to add a custom extension to the filename if you’re worried about getting the baked clips confused with your originals.

[Mike Molenda]

Damn skippy. I’ve got a lot of respect for all the people who are actively squeezing lemonade out of this lemon. From some (Chris Kenny, David Battistella) it’s delicious, from others it’s about as refreshing as a cool glass of turnip juice.

Even if this comes back to bite him in a year, at least he can say he didn’t go down without a fight.

[Mike Molenda]

Knowing Avid is still a feather you can wear in your cap. Premiere hasn’t quite broken through to that level yet. And it seems like FCP is losing more respect in that arena by the day.

After all, a bad editor can cut together sh*t on any platform. But if they know Avid, it’s industry-standard sh*t.

If you’re considering freelancing, go with the tools that are most comfortable for you to work with. If your resume is well-done, hopefully “X number of years experience in nonlinear editing” without specifying a platform will be enough to get some potential clients/employers through to at least a phone call or looking at your reel.

If you’re targeting a specific employer or sector of the industry for employment (the BBC, for instance), then for God’s sake learn the tools they use! Forgive me if I’m jumping to conclusions, but based on your signature (William & Mary, combined with an obscene number of post suites loaded on the same 15″ MBP) I’m guessing you’re a student? If so, cherish this opportunity to take advantage of internships at these places. You will learn things they will never teach you in class!

[Mike Molenda]

Pfft. Anyone can see it’s for the same reason as the jump from Quicktime 7 to Quicktime X (10.0). Because the numbers 8 and 9 are the sign of VIIX, leader of the Underground Soviet Lizard People Shadow Government that operates from a secret bunker beneath the North Pole. Read between the lines, sheeple!

[Mike Molenda]

You’re right, I have benefitted from reading the reviews of early adopters. But after the months of speculation on how exactly FCPX was going to “revolutionize” post-production, I figured it might be prudent to tread carefully. I’ve gotten pretty comfortable with my usual workflow. Turns out “revolutionary” to some means (at least temporarily, fingers crossed) abandoning legacy pro/prosumer compatibility for amateur/consumer compatibility, so I guess I bet on the right horse there.

I’m sure you made your upgrade in good faith. After all, Apple has given us a product we could rely on for years (I cut my teeth on pre-FCP HD). But at the end of the day, you’re paying for publicly untested and hitherto barely seen technology, so you can’t know for sure what you’re getting.

I was getting pretty cheesed with the number of people seemingly jumping on the “I hate X, give me my refund” bandwagon. Why not wait a day for the bloggers and professional reviewers to clear up some of the uncertainty instead of affirming Apple in releasing broken/incomplete products by helping to send FCPX to #1 in the App Store, even if you get your money back?

Sorry I took my frustration out on you.

[Mike Molenda]

Why did you make a $299 investment without doing your homework first? Even if the software was $99, that would warrant at least reading a couple of reviews on the web before handing over your credit card.

I’m a little confused by the people jumping on the refund bandwagon. Buyer beware! Quite frankly, it’s kind of cool (and surprising) that Apple is refunding the purchase price in full. Especially considering you get to keep the merchandise. I would have expected them to issue you an apology and a $50 App Store credit or something.

Making early adopters pay for buggy software (and the eventual updates that fix it) sucks, but it’s becoming standard operating procedure for a lot of developers. And the only real way to avoid wasting money on it is to exercise patience and diligence with your purchases.

[Mike Molenda]

[Walter Soyka] “Become platform agnostic, and bounce back and forth among FCP7, FCPX, Adobe, and Avid, depending on the needs of a particular project.
“

Spoken like a DP. Is it better to shoot film? Red MX? XDCAM? DVCPro? DSLR? That all depends on what you’re shooting. And a good DP would in theory be able to handle all of them.

It certainly isn’t unreasonable to drop the $300-400 on new as-is FCX software for short “quickie” projects (what I’ve seen makes me expect FCPX will be a wondrous time saver for these sorts of things) and rely on CS5 or old installs of FCP7 for the meatier stuff.

The workflows that make handling projects up to and including 4K in FCP7 are still there. Adobe’s subscription pricing lends itself perfectly to being a “when I need it” production suite. Because for bigger projects you’re factoring your equipment needs into your pricing anyway, right?

So all hope is not lost (if it ever was to begin with)!

[Mike Molenda]

Likewise, FCP7 has everything I need NOW. With the bonus feature of getting to keep the 400 bones in my wallet. Or $1500 if I decided to make the jump to CS5.

My first reaction was that I would not be or would not have been able to finish any of my current or many of my past projects with the same finesse or speed with FCX in its current state. I’d define that as a downgrade.

So, I’m not jumping ship on Final Cut just yet. 7 does everything I need and will continue to at least into the immediately foreseeable future. But I’m not giving Apple my money until FCX at least does enough of the basic things I’ve always relied on Final Cut to do. (Or until my curiosity gets the better of me…)

[Mike Molenda]

Effects > Video Filters > Time > Strobe

This filter should do what you’re looking for, the footage plays back at regular speed, but skips a specified number of frames. I’m playing around with the settings on 24fps footage, and a Strobe Rate setting of 4 skips about 15 frames, while a setting of 5 skips half a second (12 frames at 24P). One of those settings should do the trick for you. If not, play around with the sliders until you get what you want.

If you’re looking to do a slow-mo stop motion effect, right click the clip, select Change Speed…, and set it to 6.67% (6.67% of 30 fps = about 2 fps). Be sure to uncheck Frame Blending to get that jumpy look you’re going for.