Final Cut Pro X

People - you can always buy PC with Weakdows which is cheaper than Mac, and problem resolved. No Final Cut Pro X or any Apple soft on Windows. You can easily sell your studio built on Mac and buy PC('s). I know it's stupid idea, but always some solution. Anyway FCP7 still works, yes? So where is the problem? You can wait until Apple will make something big (hope so) from FCPX and use FCP7 until that time. I noticed there is many many many filmmakers who still use FCP3. I don't think so, that Apple will forget about you guys - Pro Users.

I'm purchasing tomorrow FCPX with Motion. I will see how it works.

(please don't smash me for this post, haha)

Patrick Sheffield wrote:

First of all, some of the camera archives imported without problem, some did not - no indication as to why.

I tried to use the Sync Clip as the 4 cameras were operating at the same time, but it linked up correctly sometimes and other times not - same with the miked audio. Random as to whether it would sync up.

Curious Patrick. Were the import/sync issues consistant? In other words, Did those specific clips have the same problems if you tried more than once, or did different clips have issues? I ask because though I haven't had any issues, I've seen a bit of this from other people.

As to the speed, I find editing pretty quick on it in the rough cut stage. I guess the true test will be in the later stages when there are many more layers of video and audio. Lots to like, plenty to annoy for the weeks and months ahead. I was actually editing for a week on this thing before I realized that overwrite exists in FCP X, it's just hidden (D). I wish I had a paper manual though. I don't mind flipping pages when I'm learning new software. I didn't care about this online/barely searchable manual when it was attached to a program I didn't need a manual for (FCP 7), but I have a heck of a time finding anything useful in it.

By the way, I discovered a workaround for the problem Coocoo was having where he couldn't apply a transition to a connected clip and have that clip also contain a blend mode to composite with the clip below. Problem one is that you can't apply transitions to connected clips. This should be fixed as there are plenty of reasons for someone to do so including transitioning in and out of a composited clip. Problem two is that storylines themselves can't have blend modes. The solution is to use a compound clip instead of creating a storyline. Unlike storylines, compound clips can have blend modes. However, if you make a single clip into a compound clip and connect it to the main storyline, it acts like a regular connected clip and won't allow you to apply a transition.

The trick is to create a compound clip with gaps. Lay the clip you want to blend at the end of your storyline. Switch to the position tool (P) and move the clip so that you create a gap between your main storyline and your clip. Select the gap and OPT drag it to copy the gap to the other side of your clip. You should now have two gap clips bookending your blend clip. Select your blend clip and double click the transition of your choice to apply it to both ends. Switch back to the selection tool (A) and lasso your clip AND the gaps. Create a compound clip (OPT G) and connect to the clip you wish to composite to. Apply any blend mode you want.

Like I said, I don't understand why you can't just place transitions on a connected clip, but until that gets fixed, its nice to know that you can actually work around the problem.

Andy

Andy Mees wrote:

Not really Peter, well maybe, it depends on teh context. I'm not happy with thecurrent incarnation (it is what it is for now and theres bugger all I can do about it) but for the time being I'm happy enough to play with it and see where its strengths and weaknesses lie for my workflows... I have zero intention of trying to use it for any real work at the moment.

Yeah, I have a friend's wedding vid that's been hanging around for too long - might be the perfect outing for Mr X. Hang on - they need DVDs... oh well. Back to DVD SP... or I could go really Pro and pick an iDVD wedding theme...

I really want FCP X to work, it's just stupid at the moment.

I've got to be honest, not only do I prefer FCPX but I also like the iOS inspired Lion. And whether people like it or not, its the future. Get used to it.

Yes, that's the problem!

Andy Neil wrote:

Patrick Sheffield wrote:

First of all, some of the camera archives imported without problem, some did not - no indication as to why.

I tried to use the Sync Clip as the 4 cameras were operating at the same time, but it linked up correctly sometimes and other times not - same with the miked audio. Random as to whether it would sync up.

Curious Patrick. Were the import/sync issues consistant? In other words, Did those specific clips have the same problems if you tried more than once, or did different clips have issues? I ask because though I haven't had any issues, I've seen a bit of this from other people.

...snip...

The AVCHD archives that would not import wouldn't import in FCP either. There was no visible difference in the file structure, so it would appear that FCX's AVCHD import is just as fragile as FCP's.

Because they would not import, that meant that I had to use ClipWrap to convert the .MTS files to .MOVs. Unfortunately, because the files break at 2GB intervals, I got a bunch of 10 (or so) minute clips of sessions that were an hour or more. I tried syncing up the audio (the individuals were mic'ed). When I essentially pre-synced the audio by selecting (within a few seconds), FCX could match up the audio. But what that meant was I was trying to do that for dozens of clips. Not only that, since the Sync output produces a compound clip and since you can't sync TO a compound clip, I couldn't sync the audio, then sync the clips with each other.

I tried simply selecting all the clips and asking FCX to sync them and I hoped I would get 4 layers (it was a 4 camera shoot) with the individual clips strung along one after the other, matched to the audio, but that didn't work.

Some times it would stack all the clips up that didn't match - they of course did not match the audio either, since I couldn't pre-sync.

It was basically an exercise in frustration.

Patrick Sheffield wrote:

I got a bunch of 10 (or so) minute clips of sessions that were an hour or more. I tried syncing up the audio (the individuals were mic'ed). When I essentially pre-synced the audio by selecting (within a few seconds), FCX could match up the audio. But what that meant was I was trying to do that for dozens of clips. Not only that, since the Sync output produces a compound clip and since you can't sync TO a compound clip, I couldn't sync the audio, then sync the clips with each other.

I guess I'm still a little confused about the workflow. How was the audio recorded? Did you have one long clip of audio and 10 video clips? If so, could you not just sync the long audio with the first clip and then just append the remainder of video clips and create one big compound clip? I know for a fact that you can create a compound clip from another compound clip. I don't understand the "couldn't sync the audio and then sync the clips with each other" line. I don't have any double system clips to play with so I can't reproduce what you're doing exactly. Maybe you'd have to sync the audio to the first clip and then open the compound clip in order to append the other video clips.

Andy

FWIW, Lynda.com just put up a series of tutorials on migrating from FCP7 to FCPX.

Like everything from Lynda.com, it seems quite good.

For those of us reluctant to purchase FCPX in its current, even at its low cost, it's a good look into what the program does.

I'm halfway through the tutorial, and my opinion - previously informed by all the reviews from pro editors - has not changed much.

On the one hand, FCPX has a beautiful interface and a lot of sleek looking features. The keywording - while not as groundbreaking to an editor who already knows how to organize clips - seems like it could be an asset.

On the other hand, I can safely say that FCPX was designed by people who don't edit video for people that don't edit video. All of the so called "revolutionary" things it can do are things any experienced video editor knew how to do before, and knew how to do faster.

So not only are these "revolutionary" things useless to a pro-editor, in some cases, they actually make our job harder, or slow us down. FCPX seems even more mouse-based than any preceding FCP, which is not a good thing.

And to me, the getting rid of the viewer/canvas windows and replacing it with one just shows how out of touch the engineers are with editors. I simply need to be able to see both the clip I am inserting and the sequence it is going into at the same time, side-by-side, as has always been the case in NLEs.

Still, in spite of this fact, I have some hope that FCPX could be turned into a pro tool. Some of the new features are nice - even if it is mostly style over substance. It's not too late for Apple to listen to some of this criticism and appease the pro editors. Recent history shows they might not care.

In the end, I just have a hard time envisioning how this program, in its current form, finds its way into our current workflow, with our current clients and our current type of projects. And in our own case, some of the real show-stoppers that have higher-end and broadcast houses ticked off don't even affect us given the type of work we do. Those groups will have an even harder time implementing FCPX.

It is so blatantly designed for prosumers, amateurs and for amateur-D-SLR shooters specifically.

There's nothing wrong with that, as I've said from the getgo, I just wish Apple gave everyone else a heads up.

So event was around an hour and a half, four cameras, audio recorded the entire time, on lav mikes. Cameras on and off throughout depending on operator - some stuff kept going for the entire time, some of it was on and off. Because some of the AVCHD didn't come in and I needed to resort to ClipWrap, all the longer stuff was broken up into 2GB sections, but from within FCX, it's hard to tell what is a 2GB break and what's the operator turning off to reposition.

Andy Neil wrote:

Patrick Sheffield wrote:

I got a bunch of 10 (or so) minute clips of sessions that were an hour or more. I tried syncing up the audio (the individuals were mic'ed). When I essentially pre-synced the audio by selecting (within a few seconds), FCX could match up the audio. But what that meant was I was trying to do that for dozens of clips. Not only that, since the Sync output produces a compound clip and since you can't sync TO a compound clip, I couldn't sync the audio, then sync the clips with each other.

I guess I'm still a little confused about the workflow. How was the audio recorded? Did you have one long clip of audio and 10 video clips? If so, could you not just sync the long audio with the first clip and then just append the remainder of video clips and create one big compound clip? I know for a fact that you can create a compound clip from another compound clip. I don't understand the "couldn't sync the audio and then sync the clips with each other" line. I don't have any double system clips to play with so I can't reproduce what you're doing exactly. Maybe you'd have to sync the audio to the first clip and then open the compound clip in order to append the other video clips.

Andy

So, yes, sometimes I could just sync the audio with the first clip, and then add more clips to the end, but not always. Also, I could only do that with one clip, but I wanted to sync all the material - visually and audio. So I could go from camera angle to camera angle (poor man's MultiClip).

And as I said - you can't sync compound clips with other clips (why?), and If I just selected everything, FCX produced a mess (clips stacked 5-6 layers high, that were not in sync, stuff that should have synced, just tacked on the end, etc...

I've been through the Lynda tutorial now...one thing that's still not clear to me...for those that have used FCPX:

Is there any way to Batch Export to Compressor as one used to be able to? The one sequence per project thing is really throwing me off.

For instance - we edit training programs with 30+ sequences per project. Is there any real way to achieve this in FCPX without wasting time? Or is FCPX just simply not a tool to be used for this kind of editing.

rw-media12 wrote:

I've been through the Lynda tutorial now...one thing that's still not clear to me...for those that have used FCPX:

Is there any way to Batch Export to Compressor as one used to be able to? The one sequence per project thing is really throwing me off.

For instance - we edit training programs with 30+ sequences per project. Is there any real way to achieve this in FCPX without wasting time? Or is FCPX just simply not a tool to be used for this kind of editing.

I suppose you should think of "Projects" in FCX as sequences. You can have many "projects" using the media from one "Event". Why change the terminology? Because they wanted to?

I have not found a way to batch export from FCX yet...

The easiest way; share all what you have as qt movie. Than all to compressor in batch. Whatever you do inside fcpx takes forever.

rw-media12 wrote:

...For instance - we edit training programs with 30+ sequences per project. Is there any real way to achieve this in FCPX without wasting time? Or is FCPX just simply not a tool to be used for this kind of editing.

I can relate, we do industrial engineering equipment training video that for one machine can come out to 16-40 hours of cut footage with 30+ sequences including sequences that are dedicated to voiceover instructional narration. From what I understand X just won't work that way.

REGARDING LION: Here is a very relevant, unanswered post: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3134652?start=15&tstart=0

Does anybody here know if FCS3 will INSTALL on a Lion upgraded mac? Clarify... Apple has said that FCS3 will run on a Lion upgraded system that already had FCS3 installed under SNL. The question here is if you want to do a clean install of the OS and you install Lion, can you then install FCS3?

Hmm, thanks for the info...No batch export...that's what I was afraid of...

It's a shame given how well FCP 7 worked for us doing that kind of work. It seems FCPX really is for one-offs.

It was a very deliberate decision on Apple's part to make FCPX geared more towards a one track project - and it really shows you who this product is geared towards.

Out of curiosity, given it seems we are in the same boat, are you looking into alternatives (Premiere, Avid) or going to continue to cut on FCP7 for at least the foreseeable future? As of now, we're basically doing both....while secretly hoping Apple is listening to the criticism.