[Sandeep Sajeev]

I wonder why my experience is so different? I have lag simply from switching to number mode on the keypad. It doesn’t feel snappy at all.

Thanks for explaining the Flashlight Calculator thing. I have a Calculator installed, but I quite like the look of the Apple one, so was a bit bummed.

[Sandeep Sajeev]

Somethings are very sluggish on my iPad 3. There’s still no Calculator or Flashlight app either on the Homescreen or in the Control Center. Podcasts and iBooks are still in their iOS 6 shells. Icon designs are wildly inconsistent in terms of aesthetics. Changing a Wallpaper grinds the machines to a halt. Lot’s of slight lag in lots of different places. Notifications are still pretty useless.

I’m surprised at the positive reviews. I don’t have an iPhone so am assuming that iOS 7 is a beast on them, because it seems very rough and well, homegrown on my iPad.

[Sandeep Sajeev]

You have to have a Compressor Preset defined which does this. You can’t select to De-Interlace in any of the other Destination Options, to the best of my knowledge anyway. I may be wrong about this, so don’t hold me to it.

But set up an Export Preset in Compressor, and add that using your Share Menu inside FCPX.

[Sandeep Sajeev]

If you’re going to Youtube/Vimeo then there are 2 ways you can approach this.

Option 1

– Finish up your edit. Export out a clean Digital Master, without any text or graphic overlays. You can choose to De-interlace on export.
– Bring this Master into your Event, create a new Project, set the Video Settings to Based on First Clip, and drag the Master into the Project.
– Then add your Graphics and Text.
– Once this is done, you can choose to Export out directly to Youtube/Vimeo from within FCPX if your client gives you access to their info, or you can send them any other format they request and they can upload it to their account(s)

Option 2

– Just take what you have now, and De-interlace on export. This will however degrade everything, so it’s something that I would personally avoid.

De-Interlacing on Import will take a long time, and it’s generally better to keep your camera originals the way they were shot.

So my suggestion would be Option 1, in addition to a clean master that is also not de-interlaced in case your client decides he/she wants a Broadcast version at some later date.

Does that help?

Best,
Sandeep.

[Sandeep Sajeev]

What is your delivery spec? If you’re going out to the web, then just deinterlacing your footage before adding in the text and the fades should be fine. But if you’re going out to tape or to a digital master that needs to be interlaced then you don’t want/need to do that.

Are you using a broadcast monitor to view your cut? Or are you viewing it on your computer screen?

[Sandeep Sajeev]

How does talking about their workflow harm Tsui Hark and his team? They talk about it on the In Action page. I’m not sure what you mean, unless you’re referring to something proprietary, that gives them some hidden earth shattering advantage. Given that Tsui has been making films for donkeys years, using everything from analog editors to Avids, and has always been willing to chat about anything, I’d say it was an opportunity missed.

Anyway, here’s something to think about as well: if you pick up the Criterion Collection DVD of Kieslowski’s Three Colours : Red, there is a segment which shows him sitting with his editor, the wonderful Jacques Witta, and actually editing the scene in the film where Irene Jacob’s character first meets the sick dog, that eventually leads to her meeting the judge. They run the footage through the Steenbeck, backwards and forwards, discussing where to make the actual cut, and the impact that choice would have on the sequence that will follow.

It was fascinating, two master filmmakers at work, talking about something they love.

Flash forward to today at IBC, at the Autodesk booth, 3 Post Production companies showed off their work on high end commercial spots through Autodesk Technical Specialists. They shared production footage, discussed the briefs, walked us through how they pulled off incredibly complex shots, even to the extent of showing and discussing Compositing setups – actual button pushing.

They aren’t afraid to share. Autodesk reaches out to them, and they come willingly to demo their work. In fact one guy who spoke today mentioned that on one of his recent jobs he used a technique he’d picked up by watching some one else’s demo on the Autodesk site. And these are companies like The Mill, Carbon VFX, Brand New School etc.

Now to respond to your comment about my level of input here on the Cow: I may not be as prolific as you, but I do help out when I can. For what it’s worth, X is not the only tool I use, I work in Smoke mainly, and a lot of my posting happens on the Autodesk forums (on their site). I also try and pop in to the Motion forum regularly. Having said that, I’m sorry if you feel my lower post count invalidates my opinion, it’s a pity but I guess it is what it is.

Best,
Sandeep.

[Sandeep Sajeev]

They’re not just good tutorials Simon, they’re terrific – and they do deserve to be seen by more than just Nick, your cat, Mark and I 🙂

But as I mentioned above, they need to be more accessible – not in terms of content, but in terms of where they’re announced. For instance I have Marks stuff on my iTunes podcast list so I get to see his material whenever he releases it. I see Andy’s and Stephen’s and Kevin’s videos as well because the Cow Tutorials thing is also on my iTunes list.

I totally missed yours because I wasn’t on the forums for a week! And the Cow, god bless her is hardly the most organized place on the internet…

[Simon Ubsdell] “I can start to see why Apple have only pushed development so far and no further – they’re probably never going to attract any users from among the vast group who’d rather be using the industry-standard Ae because of the cachet that using it brings. You can do so much of the same stuff in Motion but at that level it’s just not cool to be seen to be using it.”

They’ve completely ballsed up their marketing for Motion. It’s non existent, they made a sort of brief push when it first came out and then just gave up. I just posted on the FCPX forum that they need to show us why we should care about X, and they need to do that x10 for Motion.

But as long as they don’t discontinue it, those of us in the know can get things done quicker and do less work for the same invoice amount as the guy sitting on AE.

[Simon Ubsdell] “so maybe I should just get my coat :(“

What’s the hurry ? Stay a while 🙂

[Sandeep Sajeev]

[Bill Davis] “Apple’s systemic corporate obsession with keeping their development efforts under tight wraps has yielded almost unimaginable value to the company’s marketing efforts.”

Yes, we’re seeing this unimaginable value play out exactly as planned with the perception around FCPX. You’re right, their strategy is working, what they need are more Bill Davis’s willing to fight the good fight on their behalf.

I get that you love the software. I do too. It’s an Apple product, why not show it some marketing love? How much does it cost to have a presence at some Industry events? It’s a drop in the ocean – even in their shrinking proverbial pool of cash. Why don’t you fly out users who are passionate about the software to demo their workflows and in doing so debunk some of the myths that still remain? What are you afraid off? Why are you not bothered?

Instead of giving us 2 pages of Tsui Hark’s thoughts, why don’t you arrange a sit down with him and his editor and have them actually talk about the benefits of using X on their monster feature film. How cool would it be to show the naysayers who moan about not being able to use it to cut whatever it is they’re cutting, how Asian cinemas’s biggest Action filmmaker is using it to cut his film. We’d get to see the interface loaded up with footage from the film, see the timelines, the keywords, the way they interact with their assists and vfx, and how metadata stays ‘pure’ through an actual feature pipeline.

That sort of thing would be way more effective than a little blurb on the MacPro page saying a New Version is coming. We know it is, show us why we should care.

[Sandeep Sajeev]

Who is still calling it iMovie Pro? No one credible is.

I’ve been using it for quick turnaround stuff without any issues. There is still resistance to X, but Apple can do more than just occasionally throw out an addition to their In Action page. Look at how Autodesk has marketed and supported Smoke in the last year. Lot’s of evangelism, high quality free production based training, active forums etc. They’re out there showing off the software with high end demos at every event, just tune in to IBC to see the kind of spots that are getting broken down.

Apple’s we’re too cool to communicate with the plebs strategy is complete BS.

[Sandeep Sajeev]

Vimeo Pro is great. The player is fully customisable and you can even choose to not have your videos show up on the Vimeo site if you don’t want to – just have the videos show up in your site with your branding.

One thing that’s great about FCPX’s integration with Vimeo is that the files show up quicker on Vimeo (I don’t know why this is, but I checked this with about 5 videos and the exports from inside X always came out quicker).

The downside to this is that you can’t replace videos from inside X. If you want to keep your stats etc and just upload a newer version, you can choose Replace from the Vimeo site, but that option isn’t in X.

I think it’s about 80 bucks a year for a Pro account. Well worth it IMO. It’s great for client previews as they can view their films on their phones, tablets etc and you don’t have to do anything special for that to happen.

Sandeep.