Rick Wise
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COW Coin
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Ron, thanks for that FCP history. One wonders why the original version was named Key Grip. Amazing. All those fascinating details of the past still don’t explain the big why: why does FCP continue to grip the market so tightly when the Vegas alternative has so much to recommend? One reason, beyond marketing, I suspect, is momentum. By now FCP is so pervasive almost everywhere, it is the only system being taught at most film schools that spit out thousands of wanna-be editors every year. And once a professional edit house invests the money and time in a system, it is loathe to switch. (Many of the older ones carry both Avid and FCP. It’s really tough to find one using Vegas.)
As for FCP Express, yes, it, like Vegas Movie Studio, is a stripped down consumer version. Unlike Express, Movie Studio holds the newbie’s hand with many, many prompts, making solutions easy to figure out. Hit the “help” button on Express and you get almost nowhere of use.
Indeed, after learning full-up Vegas through much trial and error (and I am still learning years later) and then helping my neighbor with Movie Studio, I wish I had started with the consumer version first because learning and using it is so easy. In fact, I would highly recommend anyone new to Vegas to start with the 30-day free trial of Movie Studio Platinum and decide at the end of the month whether to continue with Studio and later upgrade to the full-up Vegas (at a reduced price) or make the big jump now.
One more difference between the two apps: you can download either full-up Vegas or Movie Studio for a 30-day free trial; you cannot download FCP Express nor FCP for a trial run. In fact, you can’t download them at all.
Rick Wise
director of photography
and custom lighting design
Oakland, CA
https://www.RickWiseDP.com
https://www.recessionvideo.net
https://www.linkedin.com/in/rwise
email: Rick@RickWiseDP.com -
Maybe a picture helps:
Rick Wise
director of photography
and custom lighting design
Oakland, CA
https://www.RickWiseDP.com
https://www.recessionvideo.net
https://www.linkedin.com/in/rwise
email: Rick@RickWiseDP.com -
I don’t care if it’s an Avid, FCP, Adobe, Sony, etc., I’ve yet to see a perfect tool or operating system. At the end of the day, it’s what can YOU do with it, that matters — not what someone else else can do or not do with it.
To that I say, Amen. Nevertheless, when one runs up against an app with such poor customer support on every level, it is worth noting. And my original point remains unanswered: how is it that such a difficult program beats Vegas in the market place? Costs much more. Much, much harder to master.
The differences between FCP and Vegas have been noted several times before in other threads. But the explanation for the commercial success of one in comparison to the other remains a mystery to me. I have to guess it’s all about clever marketing.
I am told by those who seem to be in a place to know (take this with many grains of salt) that Apple is seriously looking at spinning off FCP and the “Express” version. Compared to the gazillions Apple is making on their cell phones, ipods, laptops etc., FCP brings in chump change. Should that happen, one could hope that whoever takes it over will have a keener sense of customer support. Avid learned the hard way — they used to have terrible customer support. FCP’s inroads into their market taught them to pay attention to the pain they were causing.
Rick Wise
director of photography
and custom lighting design
Oakland, CA
https://www.RickWiseDP.com
https://www.recessionvideo.net
https://www.linkedin.com/in/rwise
email: Rick@RickWiseDP.com -
Todd, imagine you place one or two shiny boards on the ground, angled so they direct the sunlight toward the subject. Place a 1/2 grid in a 12 x 12 frame in the path of that light, angled so that it also bounces the sun toward the subject. Now the subject is receiving both sunlight bounced off the 1/2 grid cloth and also sunlight bounced off the shiny boards but diffused through the grid cloth. Too much light? Waste (twist off-tasrget) some of the shiny-board bounce until everything looks right.
Obviously you can also do this with all elements higher than on the ground.
Rick Wise
director of photography
and custom lighting design
Oakland, CA
https://www.RickWiseDP.com
https://www.recessionvideo.net
https://www.linkedin.com/in/rwise
email: Rick@RickWiseDP.com -
Mocking people is another matter altogether
Thanks, Ron. And I quite agree about mocking. It did seem to me that you yourself were mocking a bit, but perhaps I misread.
Rick Wise
director of photography
and custom lighting design
Oakland, CA
https://www.RickWiseDP.com
https://www.recessionvideo.net
https://www.linkedin.com/in/rwise
email: Rick@RickWiseDP.com -
My favorite all-around is 1/2 grid. Fairly soft. Can be used to bounce the sun. Can also be used to both bounce the sun and soften shiny boards shooting through from behind for a beefier fill or soft key. An LA grip showed me that simple trick years ago.
Rick Wise
director of photography
and custom lighting design
Oakland, CA
https://www.RickWiseDP.com
https://www.recessionvideo.net
https://www.linkedin.com/in/rwise
email: Rick@RickWiseDP.com -
Ron, you’re missing the point here. It’s not a Mac vs PC issue. In fact, I edit Vegas on a Mac, using Bootcamp. The point is the software: FCP vs Vegas. The first is very clutzy and difficult to use in comparison to the latter.
Rick Wise
director of photography
and custom lighting design
Oakland, CA
https://www.RickWiseDP.com
https://www.recessionvideo.net
https://www.linkedin.com/in/rwise
email: Rick@RickWiseDP.com -
Check with your post house. 4K is best but may be too much for the house to handle.
Rick Wise
director of photography
and custom lighting design
Oakland, CA
https://www.RickWiseDP.com
https://www.recessionvideo.net
https://www.linkedin.com/in/rwise
email: Rick@RickWiseDP.com -
Spot,
With HDV footage, such as from an EX 1, that is destined for eventual (1)standard 16:9 DVD distribution and (2) 16:9 web distribution via flash (On2), into which format would you initially render?
Rick Wise
director of photography
and custom lighting design
Oakland, CA
https://www.RickWiseDP.com
https://www.recessionvideo.net
https://www.linkedin.com/in/rwise
email: Rick@RickWiseDP.com -
1. Two lights or one? All depends on the look you want. Light and shape to please your eye and your clients’ eyes.
2. A “drop” (and a scumble drop)is a cloth (usually) sheet of any size that can be hung as background. Painters use them to protect the floors and furniture of houses they are painting. Painter drops are usually white, except that over time they take on the many color splashes of the various house paints used over them. A really well used painter’s drop can make an interesting scumble drop. You could find a local painter and offer to exchange one of his or her well-used drops for a fresh one. You want something big enough to drape in folds, say 12′ x 12′. Do not get plastic ones. Only cloth. (The plastic will not drape well and will have a very shiny, ugly surface.)
3. You scrim kinos either with grip scrims you hold in place with c-stands, or else with neutral density gels (ND3 = 1 stop, ND6 = 2 stops, etc.)
Rick Wise
director of photography
and custom lighting design
Oakland, CA
https://www.RickWiseDP.com
https://www.recessionvideo.net
https://www.linkedin.com/in/rwise
email: Rick@RickWiseDP.com