Simon Ubsdell
6
COW Coins
Forum Replies Created
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Great find! So prophetic. Close your eyes and he’s describing FCPX.
“Why are you obsoleting your own products?” What a quote!
Simon Ubsdell
Director/Editor/Writer
http://www.tokyo-uk.com -
[Chris Kenny] “I don’t agree with this at all. If I arrange shots A, B, and C, what’s important about shot C is that it comes after shot B, not that it starts 316 frames into the program, or whatever. Editing is almost entirely about relationships between shots.”
This sounds like a reductionist description of what editing is that misses some essentials.
Editing is as much about rhythm – a temporal account of the relationships between events – as it is about Shot C following shot B. Hence it does actually signify that shot C starts 316 frames in, in the sense of the meaning and impact of having shot C occur where it does rather than earlier or later. The flow of time is not accurately perceived by the viewer, it is true, because editing as we know can significantly compress or expand the perception of clock time, but the sense of narrative “chronology” (in the sense of when events are perceived to occur in relationship to each other as measured by time) is fundamental to what editing is about except at the most crude level.
It seems to me that what you are describing is “assembly” rather than “editing” – and it’s not being pretentious to suggest there a difference between those two things.
Simon Ubsdell
Director/Editor/Writer
http://www.tokyo-uk.com -
[Chris Kenny] “It could actually be fairly brilliant long-term if Apple sold the base package for $300 (or even less), and then users with more specialized high-end needs could add modules via in-app purchase.”
But my problem is I’m probably going to have to shell out for all those third party solutions in order to find out whether or not FCPX will actually work for me as a total solution – something it’s impossible for me to judge until I have used those third party add-ons – and by then I will be several hundred dollars out of pocket on what by anybody’s guess is at present a speculative investment. My best bet at this point is to wait for other guinea pigs to carry out that experiment for me … I don’t feel like extending my guinea pig status too much further at this point.
Simon Ubsdell
Director/Editor/Writer
http://www.tokyo-uk.com -
[Chris Kenny] ”
I think it’s more along the lines of the famous Alan Kay quote, “Simple things should be simple, complex things should be possible.” Traditional NLEs make you micromanage clips in the sequence even when you’re doing something simple. FCP X relieves you of a lot of this, but still lets you get in there and perform low-level operations if you need to.”I think I’d prefer complex things to be just as simple 😉
I do think that when it comes to detailed complex editing the new model means you have to work harder than before. Conversely, I’d absolutely agree that simple editing has suddenly become vastly simpler – and in a good way.
Simon Ubsdell
Director/Editor/Writer
http://www.tokyo-uk.com -
[Frank Doorhof] “I’m making all my second “layers” story lines and can add whatever I want to them ?”
I think your plan is a pretty good one for most editing purposes – the limitation of course is that you can’t composite with secondary storylines.
Simon Ubsdell
Director/Editor/Writer
http://www.tokyo-uk.com -
It will be interesting to see if the third party EDL and OMF/AAF exporters will be able accurately to read the contents of compound clips – a problem that made nests such a menace in FCP7.
Simon Ubsdell
Director/Editor/Writer
http://www.tokyo-uk.com -
[Timothy Payton] “FCP X combined with Motion 5 would be a fantastic platform.”
I think this is a really important point. If you’re not using Motion 5 you’re really only using half of the FCPX experience and I’m sure Apple mean it that way. Compositing in an NLE is never going to be as effective or fast or flexible as doing it in a dedicated app like Motion and the tightness of the integration, even as it currently exists (without being able to Send to Motion from FCPX) is a huge boost to productivity. The very fact that Apple have not only kept Motion but made it so much more central to the editing experience is a big indicator how they see compositing working in the new “paradigm” – at least it seems that way to me.
Simon Ubsdell
Director/Editor/Writer
http://www.tokyo-uk.com -
[Herb Sevush] “Thanks Simon. I think this has become the most interesting thread on the forum, so thank you David Lawrence.”
Thanks right back at you, Herb 😉 Agreed this is probably the most interesting thread so far – props to David L.
Simon Ubsdell
Director/Editor/Writer
http://www.tokyo-uk.com -
[Herb Sevush] “The first and hardest thing for me to teach a young editor is to unlearn the apparent connections that you think exist – this sync audio is NOT married to this image, the beginning of this shot does not have to go before the end of this shot – every element that you have is totally free from all connections except those you, the editor, impose on it.”
Great post, Herb. This seems to me to be absolutely right – the complex multi-faceted relationships of shots to one another and to all the separate audio components and a fluid and open approach to restructuring those relationships are fundamental to what editing is all about … as opposed to merely assembling shots back to back and slapping in the odd cutaway.
It does seem as though the FCPX editing model is predicated on an essentially simplistic view of the process.
Simon Ubsdell
Director/Editor/Writer
http://www.tokyo-uk.com -
[David Roth Weiss] “Selling beta software sight unseen for $300 isn’t really too cool either. Many all over have suggested X should have been a free trial version, and I’m thinking that would have been a wise choice.
Then, yesterday a report from London quoted Apple officials as saying that updates are coming, some of which would be free, with others at “a cost.” That probably won’t thrill too many once that news makes it around the world a few times.”
I couldn’t agree more – it really offends to have had to pay to beta test a rushed and shoddily put together release, but to hear that I’m going to have to pay unspecified extra amounts to Apple and third parties to get basic funtionality implemented is genuinely repugnant.
And I’m one of the few, very few, who actually kind of quite likes the product! Amazingly they’ve managed now to p*ss me off just as much as everyone who hates it.
Simon Ubsdell
Director/Editor/Writer
http://www.tokyo-uk.com