FCPX The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

[Mike Garrick]

The elephant in the room with all NLEs is "stability" This where Avid & FCPx excel, the same cannot be said for Premier with large projects & yes I know Fincher's "Gone Girl" was cut on it.

The problem with FCPx is 3rd party plug ins and the need to get acceptable AAf/ OMFI's for integration into the gold audio standard "Protools". IMO to trust a 3rd party app for this process is fraught with danger ( imagined or otherwise) and just because an app. works on the current operating system doesn't mean it will work for the next.

 

[David Battistella]

I think it is sort of the opposite. With X2pro, as an example, they have been super responsive and actually I helped them solve some problems with extracting audio from R3ds in the early days of the software. MThey had a fix within a couple of days. The team is excellent and customer oriented.

What if I had to resolve those problems directly with apple?

While le it might seem like a chink in the armor, it's actually a great strength to have a whole team dedicated to that important task.

 

[Oliver Peters]

the same cannot be said for Premier with large projects & yes I know Fincher's "Gone Girl" was cut on it.
The problem with FCPx is 3rd party plug ins and the need to get acceptable AAf/ OMFI's for integration into the gold audio standard "Protools".

What's the basis for your concern with Premiere, more so that any other NLE? There are other major films being cut with PProCC right at this time and there's no indication that Premiere is causing any issues. Of course, FCP "classic" wasn't any less problematic with large projects and it seemed to fit the bill for many. If you spend any time on FCPX forums, you'll also hear plenty of horror stories. So all NLEs have their weak moments.

Regarding modules for exporting OMF/AAF, you have to understand that when those are built into an NLE, it often is just licensed third party software that's bolted in. That's one of the reasons that there's no EDL export from within FCPX. The code used in "classic" was licensed and Apple wasn't about to do that again for a decades-old list format.

- Oliver

 

[Mike Garrick]

Hi Oliver ....here's one of those concerns right here on this forum .


http://www.reduser.net/forum/showth...ere-Pro-CC-2015-Updated-Today-Source-Settings

 

[Mark Toia]

Now that's an idea.

I think BMD Resolve 13 is almost there, It just needs to be less GPU heavy as my laptop and tower seem to be permanently running hot, and fix up the same destructive AUDIO layers when moving clips around. Same goes for PP.

Resolve 13 will be a force sooner rather than later. I do like it a lot.

I wish FCPX and RESOLVE would have a baby.

 

[Oliver Peters]

Hi Oliver ....here's one of those concerns right here on this forum .

There's nothing in that thread that relates to issues of stability with long-form projects.

- Oliver

 

[Blair S. Paulsen]

With a more sophisticated version of XML, or a seamless round tripping feature; FCPX and Resolve could be act much like the "baby" Toia posits. Developers from both programs have claimed to be serious about offering an environment that makes things like re-frames/speed changes/reverses/etc persist into conform/finishing. Has anyone had good success with the latest updates to each working smoothly together...

Cheers - #19

 

[Hrvoje Simic]

Not necessarily. The thing with FCPX is that it relies on a different concept, such as Roles, metadata. The Storyline concept, and there's something called "auditions" is just a different way of organizing edits.

Yeah, good luck with that with projects like these.

 

[Bruce Allen]

Thoroughly enjoying this thread! Steve's notes are great. As usual.

There's nothing in that thread that relates to issues of stability with long-form projects.

- Oliver

Oliver, there are issues in Premiere (as in any other program, although Premiere is on the bad side of reliable). You'll find that the pros using it just email Adobe and get them to fix it, rather than making noise on a public forum. And Adobe works hard to keep them happy because... well, they don't want a well-known pro posting something negative on a big forum, do they?

I think it is sort of the opposite. With X2pro, as an example, they have been super responsive and actually I helped them solve some problems with extracting audio from R3ds in the early days of the software. MThey had a fix within a couple of days. The team is excellent and customer oriented.

What if I had to resolve those problems directly with apple?

While le it might seem like a chink in the armor, it's actually a great strength to have a whole team dedicated to that important task.

The fact that it's so hard to resolve these problems directly with Apple... is a problem.

Avid / Adobe / Blackmagic are smaller and hence more responsive.

I've gotten very quick responses from Avid and Blackmagic have even recompiled me new builds of Resolve in days to fix problems. Adobe not so much, but they are still more responsive than Great Big Apple.

Resolve 13 will be a force sooner rather than later. I do like it a lot.

Haha, yeah. Resolve 13 is so promising that it made me stop playing with Premiere and FCPX, actually. I've moved to Resolve to short stuff and finishing plus Avid for the heavy lifting. We'll see what happens in the future!

Bruce Allen
www.twitter.com/bruce_allen

 

[Mike Garrick]

Has anyone tried a similar timeline depth to Hrvoje's Avid screenshot with FCPx and done it successfully for longform ?

Be interested in users experiences.

 

[Scot Yount]

Yeah, good luck with that with projects like these.

This is just what I could find in ten seconds...I have seen other people's timelines far more complex than this....in FCPX.

 

[Hrvoje Simic]

Has anyone tried a similar timeline depth to Hrvoje's Avid screenshot with FCPx and done it successfully for longform ?

Be interested in users experiences.

That's a FCP7 screenshot.

Just finishing a music video on it. Works nicely.

If I had to go through all of this in FCPX I'd chew my leg off in the process and afterwards start exhibiting signs of uncontrolled rage by yelling at random strangers in public transport.

 

[Mike Garrick]

Doh! .....LOL.

But still interested ...I'm not sure Scott's example answers the question.

 

[Scot Yount]

That's a FCP7 screenshot.

Just finishing a music video on it. Works nicely.

If I had to go through all of this in FCPX I'd chew my leg off in the process and afterwards start exhibiting signs of uncontrolled rage by yelling at random strangers in public transport.

Uh...no it isn't. You must have already chewed your leg off. That is an FCPX timeline...
What it shows is that people can do very complicated edits in FCPX using roles....

Here is the article it came from if you care to look into it....
http://www.fcp.co/final-cut-pro/art...o-x-in-enterprise-level-television-production

 

[Hrvoje Simic]

This is just what I could find in ten seconds...I have seen other people's timelines far more complex than this....in FCPX.

"Now let me check/compare/consider/move that shot in the fifth take of the third scene where the singer looked better while I'm perceiving tons of other factors on the same timeline utilizing the full benefit of visual navigation through photographic memory, muting/excluding/combining/assigning channels by priority, utilizing the full benefit and main purpose of non-linear principle of video editing, while director sits next to me figuring few other potential locations at different parts of the video, after third week of up and down with label, artist, director and FX/graphics post and four figure number of project related files, multiple versions, for a 4 minute video with 152 shots while the label is in harrasing mode pushing for broadcast ASAP ."

That's a long sentence.

Luckily I didn't attempt to expound the matter in multiple separated posts over few pages, and chose to pass meaning by presenting just abbreviations of keywords, arranged in one large yet half-unused plane with tidy and less visually intimidating content.

Uh...no it isn't. You must have already chewed your leg off. That is an FCPX timeline...
What it shows is that people can do very complicated edits in FCPX using roles....

Here is the article it came from if you care to look into it....
http://www.fcp.co/final-cut-pro/art...o-x-in-enterprise-level-television-production

Check the previous page, Scot.

 

[Scot Yount]

"Now let me check/compare/consider/move that shot in the fifth take of the third scene where the singer looked better while I'm perceiving tons of other factors on the same timeline, muting/excluding/combining/assigning channels by priority, while director sits next to me figuring few other potential locations at different parts of the video, after third week of up and down with label, artist, director and FX/graphics post and five figures of multiple versions of files for a 4 minute video with 152 shots." Check the previous page, Scot.

They are just tools. Whatever makes you happy is cool with me. However, telling people that what you do can't be done in another NLE is, well, probably wrong......But thats cool.

 

[Hrvoje Simic]

However, telling people that what you do can't be done in another NLE is, well, probably wrong......

Agreed. Good thing I didn't say that then.

 

[jacob.schwarz]

"Now let me check/compare/consider/move that shot in the fifth take of the third scene where the singer looked better while I'm perceiving tons of other factors on the same timeline, muting/excluding/combining/assigning channels by priority, while director sits next to me figuring few other potential locations at different parts of the video, after third week of up and down with label, artist, director and FX/graphics post and five figures of multiple versions of files for a 4 minute video with 152 shots."





Check the previous page, Scot.

I won't lie it been hard to move back to final cut x after losing FCP 7 but "Roles" feature in FCP X is really great for doing what you've just described and does a better job then i thing typical NLE. I'm slowing moving over back to FCP X because of all the hidden features that actually make me edit and work faster.

Again each there own, for me personally it about speed, and right now FCP is makes me faster.

Jacob


Thats my

 

[David Battistella]

Best move is for each person to stick with what they know. I made my living as a professional editor for many years. I never refused a job based on an NLE (back when not ever single person owned their own version). To make money back then I had to be nimble and willing to learn a new NLE (many small companies bought into Media 100 or Discreet or Premiere (I still have a bit of hate on for Premiere because of those early versions) AVID, AVID MCexpress (remember that fiasco), Video Toaster, Editroid, or whatever flavour of the month NLE that cost less than AVID that was coming out of silicon valley.

So, while I liked walking into an office and sitting in front of an AVID (90% of the time), I never turned down work based on the NLE (i couldn't afford to do that) so I learned all of them and produced broadcast network programs (when there were three networks) on all of them.

So, I don't get a hate on, I get a preference. Could I spend time shitting on how crappy most of the other were? Of course, but I found it wasn't a productive use of my energy or, more importantly I would be negating a chance to expand the flexibility of my mind and brain but getting into how each one had it's own philosophy. I turned it into a game. Guys were always pontificating about AVID when I was building an 10-bit uncompressed FCP room based on FCP 1.25 I think. I heard it all, "how do you cut on that shit" blah, freakin blah, blah.

Point is, I went on with my business and used what was I felt was best for me and ultimately, my clients. So by the time FCP X came around and I new FCP 7 was EOL, I had no issue learning a new thing, understanding the philosophy behind the software and getting with the NLE that Apple would be putting their efforts behind. The first year was a bit of pain, but I am cutting my fourth film on it now and I am not complaining.

But I understand peoples hatred of Apple and FCP X, its akin to a parental betrayal for some.

 

[Richard Luke]