[Rob Tinworth]

I had to resist the temptation to quit out of MC5 and cut this on FCP7! And I’ve no doubt X would have been faster still for this.

I think a lot of the strong feelings are down to Apple’s handling of the release, and the fact that clearly in its current incarnation (no video output) it doesn’t fit into a lot of workflows. A lot of us pushed FCP into corners of the post industry that were highly resistant, and it’s hard to feel like we haven’t been abandoned (I mean really? No video output?)

I’ve decided not to wait around hoping that Apple get it right with a next version, and to get on with learning the tools I’ll need moving into the next year or two.

But it’s great to hear a positive spin on FCP-X – I look forward to hearing how you get on with navigating bigger projects.

Rob Tinworth
http://www.1021.tv

[Rob Tinworth]

Same here – overnight conversion from Apple Fanboy. I worship at the Church of Steve no more. At my rantiest, I threw my hands into the air and said “That’s it! I’m buying a PC!” Then I calmed down and realised that was just the crazy talking.

I am very concerned about the direction it looks like Lion is going (I like things being unreasonably complicated), but I’m hoping they’ll update the macpros tomorrow and that can form the heart of a new edit setup.

So the question I’ve been wrestling with is: What is that setup going to be?

Going beyond the pros and cons and cons and cons of FCP-X, let’s just place me in the anti camp.

So, no on FCP-X. Let’s say no on Premiere (although I really need to take a closer look at that – I’ve only heard good things about it) because I’ve been forcing production companies and post houses to fit into my FCP7 workflow for years, and the idea of telling them they now all need to invest in Adobe doesn’t appeal.

Specifically, my next project is likely to be a collaboration that gets reversioned in Europe. They’ve wanted Avid files in the past, so let’s assume I fold, cut on Avid and hope I get better at it.

Does anyone have any suggestions for how I set that system up? How do I colour correct in this post-FCP-Color world? I used to drive everything through my BMD Multibridge, but now it looks like Avid will talk to AJA but not Blackmagic, and Resolve will talk to BM but not AJA. Do I need two systems? Do I rely on plug ins for CC? Do I step away from colour correction altogether and pass off my MC files to a Symphony?

I think the answer to all these questions is Don’t Do Anything. Wait and see what happens with MC6 and 64 bit. Wait and try Resolve lite. Wait and watch what happens with thunderbolt. Wait and hope new IO options spring up.

But in the meantime, I keep trying to picture my edit setup next year. I’d just be much happier if that picture were clearer.

Rob Tinworth
http://www.1021.tv

[Rob Tinworth]

I think it’s a valid point – I have spent zero time hands on with FCP-X.

I’ve spent the last two weeks reading reviews, checking the forums, and watching tutorials.

FCP7 works now, but there’s no question that it will not work on the hardware/OS of the future, and that the feature sets of the competing NLEs will only get better and better.

So no need to jump ship right now. But the ship is sinking, and it’s prudent to bagsie your spot in one of those lifeboats.

I made the decision to relearn Avid rather than FCP-X for a couple of reasons. The first is practical – in its current incarnation, its useless in a broadcast post workflow.

But the point of my original post is that I believe that FCP-X will never suit my needs. I’m not saying it’s a terrible piece of software – as you point out, I’ve not even tried it. My point is that the very mind set – one central project – one timeline – keywords – is not geared towards documentary work.

I would love to be wrong.

Rob Tinworth
http://www.1021.tv

[Rob Tinworth]

The media is LONG gone. That’s all colour correction voodoo.

And that was far from simple in MC5.

There’s no way to pull a secondary with their colour correction mode, so I had to nest the FCP-timeline-clip, dupe it, pull a chroma key, garbage mask that and then correct the layer below. Repeat for render bar, video clip and audio clips are you’ve got 6 video layers nested in each track, and four tracks at any given time. Copy and paste those presets to the rest of the time timeline? You have to do it filter by filter! It’s a mess.

It raises a bigger question which is when I ultimately make the switch, what’s the new colour correction workflow? Handing off to a Symphony editor is one option, but I’ve really enjoyed being able to colour correct my own work. Avid to Apple’s EOLed Color doesn’t seem to be an option without automatically ducking it.

So I’m going to download Resolve when they release the free lite version and see if that plays nice my system and with Avid.

Does anyone know if Resolve will let you monitor through the AJA IO Express?

Rob Tinworth
http://www.1021.tv

[Rob Tinworth]

Yeah, I think what really smarts is less Apple’s move – that’s sound financial sense – so much as being strung along with their smoke and mirrors BS. Particularly their taking over the NAB supermeet and the implications that went with that – “We’re not abandoning you guys”.

I’m not an NLE snob – I was when I first starting cutting on Avid and regarded everything else as unworthy. Now, I’m all for making software simpler/more accessible. I just don’t understand why they couldn’t design FCP-X with a dual interface. Similar to how DVDSP was set up – do you want the window layout to simple and constrained, or complicated and powerful?

I was astonished to see how little Avid has changed in 10 years. I think that’s both a strength and a weakness. But I like the way they’ve implemented the smart tool – “Here’s this way of working that everyone else seems to like, but we’re not going to force you to use it, you can switch it off and edit the same way you always have”. The smart tool is a great idea, but I don’t think they’ve quite nailed it. FCP takes the whole logic of a computer interface and applies it to the timeline. You want to copy and paste that clip? Option-Drag. You don’t even need to read the manual – it’s the same as how you work at the finder level. There are so many times I’ve been working in FCP when I’ve thought things like “If I’d designed this, I’d make it so I could just drag that photo from the finder straight into the timeline” and lo and behold that’s how it already works!

I’ve started rambling – 2 weeks resisting the temptation to post FCP-X bitterness.

My central point is that I believe they could have made the FCP-X interface and media management attractive to all users at all levels. What’s upsetting is not so much that they didn’t do that, as that they didn’t give us any warning.

Rob Tinworth
http://www.1021.tv

[Rob Tinworth]

I know exactly what you mean.

I’m brushing up my Avid skills after 8 years away, and I’m finding it really frustrating. A big part of this is me needing to get back up to speed. But I think a part of it is endemic to way Avid thinks. Point in case – you can only remap keyboard functions to the shift key. Straight up, I’ve gone from being able to map 11 functions to a key to being able to map 2.

I’ve no doubt that once I get my head back into the Avid space, I’ll get faster, but I’m not sure I’ll ever lose this feeling that I’m editing with one hand tied behind my back.

Bottom line: Steve, FCP7 was already “awesome”.

Rob Tinworth
http://www.1021.tv

[Rob Tinworth]

In the audio mixer, on the far right you can set a master out volume for your whole sequence. I would raise this higher to match your raw footage while you’re editing.

Then, when you’re done and ready to layback to tape – sorry that’s so pre-FCPX – when you’re ready to share your video on YouTube – you can just drop the master volume back down to 0 and you’re back to where you are now, with the levels as you like them.

You just need to remember to set the master volume back down before your export/layback – it’s easy to forget to do this! Also note that each sequence has it’s own master volume – this is not an FCP universal out setting. So if you have multiple sequences you’d need to raise (and then lower) each sequence separately.

(and sorry for the FCPX dig, I realise there’s a whole forum for these)

Rob Tinworth
http://www.1021.tv

[Rob Tinworth]

It’s hard to make any suggestions without knowing the offline + colour correction configs, but the issue you’re seeing may have something to do with how your NLE or colour corrector is interpreting the RED RAW settings.

As mentioned above, unless your DP underexposed (which it doesn’t sound like he has), that information is there in the blacks. It may be that your colour corrector is bringing in the RED material at a different ISO than your NLE, or your transcode to ProRes.

Color has a RED tab where you can change the ISO (among other things). Take a test clip into Color and try changing the ISO to see if you can find the detail in the blacks.

Although it seems likely that given you saw detail in the blacks in your offline, and you can’t retreive that info in the colour correction, there is a problem somewhere in your workflow.

Rob Tinworth
http://www.1021.tv

[Rob Tinworth]

Nope. You can use the geometry room to temporarily crop to the white area and use the scopes to balance it to white.

Rob Tinworth
http://www.1021.tv

[Rob Tinworth]

If you drag a text clip from your timeline into a new bin, it creates a new clip that you can rename. I’d have a bin with the three text clips in it, and drag and drop them into my timeline as needed.

Not as good as what you’re after, but perhaps easier than cutting and pasting.

Rob Tinworth
http://www.1021.tv