[Winston A. cely]

I hate when I haven’t been following for a while, come back and there’s a million posts! How do I keep up!? LOL

Winston A. Cely
Editor/Owner | Della St. Media, LLC

17″ MacBook Pro | 2.3 GHz Intel Core i7
4 GB RAM | Final Cut Studio 3 | FCPX | Motion 5 | Compressor 4

“If you can talk brilliantly enough about a subject, you can create the consoling illusion it has been mastered.” – Stanley Kubrick

[Winston A. cely]

A true collaborative FCPX environment would be very welcomed for my high school class. I could see how awesome a learning experience it would be to have my students capture to a central location, edit their own project, and then edit someone else’s project seamlessly.

Winston A. Cely
Editor/Owner | Della St. Media, LLC

17″ MacBook Pro | 2.3 GHz Intel Core i7
4 GB RAM | Final Cut Studio 3 | FCPX | Motion 5 | Compressor 4

“If you can talk brilliantly enough about a subject, you can create the consoling illusion it has been mastered.” – Stanley Kubrick

[Winston A. cely]

I should have been more specific with the dying off part…. We have a long time before anything set in place now is replaced or in serious danger of being replaced at the level of business wide in Hollywood. I’ve yet to read anything that would suggest Avid is on its way out in that one narrow market, so I never suggest to my students to wait that out! You’re absolutely right. However, if history informs us of anything, it’s that older ways of doing things get replaced once enough money can be saved by making that change.

Of the students I teach, only about half have any serious interest in getting into Hollywood. Others are just interested in a class that looks fun, or want to get into TV journalism, or want to act as opposed to being involved in post. Those students who want to be in the business are inundated with independent filmmakers making a living doing what they love without being a “part of the system.” That’s fine for them, but for those others that do want to go to LA I point towards schools known for filmmaking where Avid and other software is taught. I try to always put their best interest ahead of my personal opinions. ????

Winston A. Cely
Editor/Owner | Della St. Media, LLC

17″ MacBook Pro | 2.3 GHz Intel Core i7
4 GB RAM | Final Cut Studio 3 | FCPX | Motion 5 | Compressor 4

“If you can talk brilliantly enough about a subject, you can create the consoling illusion it has been mastered.” – Stanley Kubrick

[Winston A. cely]

I enjoyed the video….

I moved from cutting infomercials to teaching digital filmmaking in high school to 10th, 11th, and 12th graders. It’s fantastic (most of the time) and we use FCPX. In fact, I’m getting ready to get my Apple Certified Instructor credentials next week (if I pass the test obviously) and we hope to become the first Apple testing center in SC, with the eventual aim to churn out certified FCPX editors. I can feel the eyes roll from some of you, but I think FCPX, or at least it’s style of editing is the future. It’s the most accessible and speaks to these rug rats (I still love ’em) graduating right now. And that’s one thing that I heard in the video is that it is such an easily accessible editing platform that there are so many kids that already use it or something similar.

Yeah, there is infrastructure already there in Hollywood, but those infrastructures will eventually become outdated. Whether by design, by inactivity, by natural extinction (best way to say people die?) or some combination thereof. Eventually, there will be a cost benefit to change to whatever the best option is in the future. I don’t know if that will actually be FCPX, but it’ll be something.

As for my students, I have far too much content to cover to constantly be teaching new software. FCPX is so easy for these students I can spend more time teaching them the important stuff, you know, like story telling or what happens when you hit that red button on the camera.

That being said, I ALWAYS emphasize that they must learn other applications, and most likely will learn other tools in college, tech school, or on their own, especially AVID if they want to break into Hollywood by conventional means.

Winston A. Cely
Editor/Owner | Della St. Media, LLC

17″ MacBook Pro | 2.3 GHz Intel Core i7
4 GB RAM | Final Cut Studio 3 | FCPX | Motion 5 | Compressor 4

“If you can talk brilliantly enough about a subject, you can create the consoling illusion it has been mastered.” – Stanley Kubrick

[Winston A. cely]

This following is a VERY specific way of using Events, but it works great in my class. (Sorry if something similar has been posted, but I didn’t read every single post).

I teach basic video production for high school students, and we use the Library to specify the student, and the event to specify the video project we’re working on. So, they may have 10 to 20 projects (depending on school schedules) and the students don’t have to create a new Library every time they are assigned a project. Not to mention, as they progress through the program, they have the option of keeping the entire Library through out their 3 year progression (sophomore through senior), or just specific Events (assigned projects).

To be even more specific, it’s a great tool for students to be able to open one item and it display their development over a time period.

I enjoy having Events in this circumstance, but I’ve dealt first hand with instances in which each job should simply be a new Library and no need for individual Events.

Options are always nice, Apple!

Winston A. Cely
Editor/Owner | Della St. Media, LLC

17″ MacBook Pro | 2.3 GHz Intel Core i7
4 GB RAM | Final Cut Studio 3 | FCPX | Motion 5 | Compressor 4

“If you can talk brilliantly enough about a subject, you can create the consoling illusion it has been mastered.” – Stanley Kubrick

[Winston A. cely]

I never really pay attention to the ads. I just figure sites have to get their money somehow, and then I ignore the ads…

As for the Cow community in the FCPX threads, after the release of FCPX I noticed more and more comments and threads that focused almost exclusively on negatives. Gone were the days of speaking up about the good aspects of FCPX or hardware that Apple released. In it’s places seems to be this competition like atmosphere to be the first to post about some specific way the hardware or software is lacking in a feature or usability. Yes, this is a generality, not everyone here, moderators especially, act like this. However, I’ve noticed that more often than not, I’m visiting the Cow because I’m curious to see what new way the community has come up with denigrate a new product or update.

*This is speaking specifically about Apple and their software and products. I rarely if ever go to the other forums.

Winston A. Cely
Editor/Owner | Della St. Media, LLC

17″ MacBook Pro | 2.3 GHz Intel Core i7
4 GB RAM | Final Cut Studio 3 | FCPX | Motion 5 | Compressor 4

“If you can talk brilliantly enough about a subject, you can create the consoling illusion it has been mastered.” – Stanley Kubrick

[Winston A. cely]

I agree… It keeps it from becoming bloatware with a bunch of stuff I rarely, if ever need.

Winston A. Cely
Editor/Owner | Della St. Media, LLC

17″ MacBook Pro | 2.3 GHz Intel Core i7
4 GB RAM | Final Cut Studio 3 | FCPX | Motion 5 | Compressor 4

“If you can talk brilliantly enough about a subject, you can create the consoling illusion it has been mastered.” – Stanley Kubrick

[Winston A. cely]

I’ve used it nearly exclusively since it was first released. Granted, most of the work was very simple titling, but my use has expanded. I now teach a high school level class how to use Motion, and don’t even touch AE.

Winston A. Cely
Editor/Owner | Della St. Media, LLC

17″ MacBook Pro | 2.3 GHz Intel Core i7
4 GB RAM | Final Cut Studio 3 | FCPX | Motion 5 | Compressor 4

“If you can talk brilliantly enough about a subject, you can create the consoling illusion it has been mastered.” – Stanley Kubrick

[Winston A. cely]

Thank you so much James and everyone for your feedback!!! This will help a great deal in trying to set up an itinerary for our trip.

BTW, I didn’t mean to say we were only interested in FCPX, just that I’d like to start there and then hit any other place that would be worth while. I love FCPX and teach it for a number of reasons, but I always instruct my students that it’s not the tool that makes the edit, but the editor that makes the film. Any exposure to any product the students may come into contact with, even if only briefly, is a valuable experience in my book! 🙂

Winston A. Cely
Editor/Owner | Della St. Media, LLC

17″ MacBook Pro | 2.3 GHz Intel Core i7
4 GB RAM | Final Cut Studio 3 | FCPX | Motion 5 | Compressor 4

“If you can talk brilliantly enough about a subject, you can create the consoling illusion it has been mastered.” – Stanley Kubrick

[Winston A. cely]

Thanks!

Right now, we’ve been talking to Education First as a tour guide company and trip coordinator. I’d really like to take advantage of meeting some of the working professionals that support the Cow as well. 🙂

Winston A. Cely
Editor/Owner | Della St. Media, LLC

17″ MacBook Pro | 2.3 GHz Intel Core i7
4 GB RAM | Final Cut Studio 3 | FCPX | Motion 5 | Compressor 4

“If you can talk brilliantly enough about a subject, you can create the consoling illusion it has been mastered.” – Stanley Kubrick