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  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

Apple Releases Details. Will Smith's "Focus" movie FCPX edit Workflow

11 months of editing.
 
Cool,

That is pretty much the exact same workflow I used for a 2011/12 film. Except I used EPIC with proxies, the finish was Pablo from r3d and the sound was also X2Pro. Have used the same workflow for two films since.

Love seeing this.

I heard lots of snickering, but I am reading everything I confirmed pretty quickly after the initial release. :)

Fantastic news.

GO APPLE!

Battistella
 
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Good for the dev team for sticking it out - after the shockingly disappointing initial release, they have at least shown perseverance. It took a long time, and I remain dubious of Apple's commitment to the professional segment from an institutional level (they remain fundamentally a consumer products company), so I won't be relying on their products myself, but it's beneficial to have them in the space to keep the more widely used editing packages on their toes.
 
Tim Morten said:
Good for the dev team for sticking it out - after the shockingly disappointing initial release, they have at least shown perseverance. It took a long time, and I remain dubious of Apple's commitment to the professional segment from an institutional level (they remain fundamentally a consumer products company), so I won't be relying on their products myself, but it's beneficial to have them in the space to keep the more widely used editing packages on their toes.
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Not to pick a nit, Tim, but, based on the number of seats, I don't think there is a more "widely used" editing package than FCPX. Visibility around these parts is lagging behind Avid and Adobe, for sure.
 
Terry VerHaar said:
Not to pick a nit, Tim, but, based on the number of seats, I don't think there is a more "widely used" editing package than FCPX. Visibility around these parts is lagging behind Avid and Adobe, for sure.
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Yeah I definitely get the feeling that It's used by a strong but silent group who just can't be bothered to fight the naysayers.... Haters gonna hate; but I'll just shake it off, shake it off, and keep working.
 
FCPX is awesome. It does have a few little quirks or oddities that most real users of the app seem to agree on and I know Apple hears us on this. The real problem with FCPX, or reason for all the naysayers, is that Apple initially launched it before it was finished. More like half-baked. I even had Apple refund me the first time I purchased it. Hehe. There are some aspects to it that are a departure from what people came to expect from FCP7, Premiere, etc.. But these days, it seems to be my go-to editor for a lot of things. I'm pretty evenly split between FCPX and Premiere and FCPX is improving by leaps and bounds with each update.
 
I've never been able to break down and edit footage faster. That did it for me. Limitations, editing limitations were removed in FCPX, just so fast.

battistella
 
Yeah, I would prefer they handle the sound exporting a little better (it should be just as good as before), but in the meantime we have X2pro for that. Also, I did watch Cioni's recent "music in FCPX" video.... pretty awesome stuff.

I also wish they'd allow the user to select the exact playback resolution quality (1/2, 1/4, 1/8th) like everywhere else. I could make it by on "performance quality" (which I believe is 1/4... not sure about GPU debayering help either) with 4k on my Retina (HUZZAH!), but 5k and 6k is a no go. While proxy implementation is super easy, I dislike doubling up on my storage requirements and waiting for the transcoding. OH, and I also dislike that everything gets sent to "background rendering" as bigger timelines tend to get bogged down by constantly pausing/rendering. One last dislike; I hate how the project file balloons up with no culling of re-rendered footage... that's pretty haggard.

I'm venting a little because I'm secretly hoping someone from Apple is reading this and solves these in the next build... But, yeah, I'm gonna go read the article.
 
Thanks a lot for this post... AWSOME.. I was telling people for a while that FINAL CUT is gonna be IT!! This is #inspiration right here..
 
Its my editor of choice. Was one of the very upset users at the beginning who "switched" to Premiere, but now am more than happy with it. However, like Jeff said, it still has some annoying quirks. Specially when you happen to have a corrupted preview file or file. It refuses to export and you have no idea whats going on until you find out the file that is faulty. Often this file plays well too. As long as one "understands" whats going on, its a great editor. Love it.
 
I love talking about FCPX in REDUSER.

Less angts more thought ;)

I was at NAB 2011 and purchased at release.

Had no choice due too local college wanting me to move from legacy to new one.

They had no clue but I did it anyway.

I love learning under pressure and it was so worth it.

Now I teach both Premiere and FCPX in same college and working towards Avid soon.

Im a long time Avid user as well as the other two and it really does come down to preferences and availability.

Heck I started with media100 and if that was still intact Id be using it :)

Now about this movie....is it any good?

I had a free passes but a nap got in the way :P
 
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David Battistella said:
I've never been able to break down and edit footage faster. That did it for me. Limitations, editing limitations were removed in FCPX, just so fast.

battistella
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David, I couldn't agree with you more. I started using this thing the day it came out. As it happens, editing between 3 and 8 or more news packages a day meant that despite the "pro" shortcomings, I could use it for what I was doing at the time. In a live truck on a laptop. My record for a 90 second piece is 7 minutes. That includes, ingest, writing, tracking and delivering. Jump out of the live truck and get in front of a camera for a live shot. The whole disbanding of "tracks" and the magnetic timeline did it for me. Film brought the idea of tracks to tape of course, but without tape, there is no reason to use them. They organize our thinking, but let's face it, the time line could be vertical, or 3D. There are lots of ways to organize what in the end, comes together as a linear product.
 
Eric Santiago said:
I love talking about FCPX in REDUSER.

Less angts more thought ;)

I was at NAB 2011 and purchased at release.

Had no choice due too local college wanting me to move from legacy to new one.

They had no clue but I did it anyway.

I love learning under pressure and it was so worth it.

Now I teach both Premiere and FCPX in same college and working towards Avid soon.

Im a long time Avid user as well as the other two and it really does come down to preferences and availability.

Heck I started with media100 and if that was still intact Id be using it :)

Now about this movie....is it any good?

I had a free passes but a nap got in the way :P
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Considering you teach both... Do you find students learn faster on one versus the other ? Which is preferred by the students ? Which NLE do you prefer personally ?
 
Kalechi Noel said:
Considering you teach both... Do you find students learn faster on one versus the other ? Which is preferred by the students ? Which NLE do you prefer personally ?
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I cant lie about this.

New students as in never touched an NLE let alone iMovie pick up FCPX quicker.

This is where Apple got it right.

With Adobe (I go back as far as v1.0 on an LC III pizza box) Premiere, you have to go through the settings menu first before they can continue.

Then you get stuck with explaining specifics like formats and codecs.

With Apple you can start learning the GUI before having to worry about the acquisition.

To be honest Im biased cause Ive been teaching FCP since v3.

So I kinda have that down to a science even when FCPX dropped.

Premiere disapeared for awhile on the Mac but I kept up since it was the software of choice for my DPS Perception PVR System (wow Im really dating myself here).

Sorry for rambling on but honestly the students at local college are all adults and all they really want to do is edit their personal projects.

I get a few local broadcast editors that need too learn new things and they are usually the ones that wont budge.

Its like hanging at CreativeCow :P

LOL!
 
Eric,

ill date myself. The first NLE I edited on was Editdroid.

Ill venture I guess that I have cut on more EOL NLEs that here are offerings today. :)

battistella
 
Eric Santiago said:
New students as in never touched an NLE let alone iMovie pick up FCPX quicker.
Click to expand...

I'll second this.

My daughter will be 12 at the end of next month... She's an FCPX pro and mostly self-taught. Premiere still confuses her. My 9 year old son is right on her heels and actually better with most other software. He knows the EPIC menu system inside and out better than I do. Having him around is better than Alexander's EPIC menu cheat sheets. ;)

FCPX is by far the more intuitive NLE, especially to those who are new to all this editing stuff. And I'm seeing the same results amongst other people I work, kids and adults alike.

This is where Apple got it right.
Click to expand...

This is what Apple does best -- usability.
 
On March 7th, I hosted an event with the filmmakers of "Focus" called, "Focus on Workflow." In it we went very in-depth with the process including the pre-production planning and recorded some great testimonials about how we pulled it off as a team.
For those of you that know me, you know I believe there is no perfect way to make any production…but there certainly are better ways than others. I call this notion the "Price Per Frame" and have presented this theory to a number of recent REDucation classes. But what I find most exciting about RED users is that working with native media, understanding log, and using alternative solutions is not only common, it's often preferred! Referencing Focus; the same workflow can be applied to RED projects using Final Cut Pro X and will absolutely improve creative control in and out of the cutting room. So I know that some of what is presented here may seem familiar to people on this user group. But understand that conservatism in a changing media ecosystem has many people becoming increasingly risk adverse. That's why it's the job of trail blazers like RED users to lead because you are willing to break through walls. I hope that some of the information here helps your own custom workflows and improves your own "price per frame."
Bravo to so many who are comfortable with being uncomfortable:-)
Michael

https://vimeo.com/122456369
 
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