Get More RAM!

FCPX eats RAM, so get more.

I just upgraded my Mac Pro from 6GB to 10GB and there is a very noticeable difference to the way FCPX responds.

Yes, I know 10GB sounds ridiculous, but most people seem to recommend 8GB at least for FCPX.

Now go and buy some more RAM.

Getting Started with FCPX

So you've bought FCP.

Where the hell do you start?

APPLE WORKSHOPS
The best thing to do is get your ass down to an Apple store and do one of their introductory workshops. It lasts two hours, you'll get a great overview and you'll be able to ask questions. It's perfect, however I will say that the tutor at the workshop I attended had problems answering some questions about FCPX and also had no professional experience as an editor.

PROLABS
If you're near the Covent Garden Apple store you might want to take advantage of the ProLabs series. This is an 8 hour FCPX course and it's absolutely free. I've just booked myself on the next one, so I'll let you know what it's like.

If you're not near an Apple store, don't worry, there are plenty of great online tutorials:

LARRY JORDAN
Larry is probably the most knowledgeable of all the FCPX tutors I have watched. He knows everything and is very good at describing every minute detail of FCPX. I love Larry and you could do a lot worse than watch his tutorials if you want to get into FCPX. My only criticism is how long he takes to get to the point!

LYNDA
Comprehensive and well executed set of tutorials.

IZZY VIDEO
There's a pretty good set of free tutorials Izzy's website.

FCPX Free Trial

Apple are offering a free 30 day trial of FCPX. I don't think Apple have ever offered a trial of any their software before.

I'm guessing it's because many previous FCP users asked for their money back after paying 200 quid for something they didn't understand.

Whatever the reason, it's a great opportunity for people wanting to test the water.

The best thing to do with a trial like this is to use it to actually produce a finished project. Don't just download it and press a few buttons and do a few online tutorials. Actually shoot some footage and start using FCPX to make something. This will force you to solve problems and really get to grips with the software. We both know that the best way to learn is on the job, so do exactly that.

Sure, choose a simple project or one that doesn't matter if you balls it up, but treat it like a proper project and you'll gain a lot more from the 30 days of free FCPX use.

The Real Cost of FCPX

One of the great things about Final Cut Pro X is the price.

At 200 quid it's a quarter of the price of fCP7 or premiere and £2000 cheaper than the hilariously priced Avid Media Composer.

Unfortunately that 200 quid isn't the end of it.

Compressor - £35
Motion - £35

and

OpenCL compatible video card - £200

I have 2 machines I use for editing: A first gen Mac Pro [2007]. And the very cool, black, Intel Macbook [2008]. Why Apple never made a black anodised, Aluminium MacBook Pro I don't know.

These machines are pretty amazing and they both rock FCP7 real hard. Fuck ProRes, I was using the MacBook to edit H264 while on a tour bus on the Usher tour in 2011.

However, neither of them will run FCPX despite being very capable Intel Machines.

FCPX requires a video card that supports OpenCL. From what I can gather OpenCL allows the graphics card to be used for non graphics stuff.

There's a list of compatible video cards on the Apple website. I opted for the ATI Radeon 5770, which cost me £200 from ebay. This is a very good card that not only seemed to speed up my computer, but also made it quieter and cooler.

So that's £470 for FCPX.

Over twice the advertised price.

It doesn't stop there.

My MacPro has 6 gig of ram, which FCPX frequently gobbles up leaving me operating sluggishly if I am running any other programs.

More RAM - £200

So we're at £665, which is practically the price of FCP Studio. And I've still go to replace my laptop for £1500.

FCPX sounds cheap, but it's not.

Is it worth it? Yes.

Events and Projects

In FCP7 we had Projects and Sequences, which made sense.
In FCPX we have Events and Projects....which...doesn't make sense. No, I don't care what you say, it doesn't.

To make matters worse the equivalents are deliberately confusing:

Projects are now called Events
Sequences are now called Projects

It's a fucking stupid and pointless nomenclature change, but there you go. Get used to it. FCPX also creates separate events and projects folder on your hard drive, which I find immensely irritating and messy, but there you go, get used to it.

Larry Jordan provides some great tutorials on his youtube channel. They are often a little wordy and sometimes you do want to yell at him to 'get on with it', but stick with him. He knows what he's talking about.

In this video Larry explains the importance of Events and Projects.

FCP v1.0

With all the debate about FCPX I'm getting some very odd feelings of deja vu.

When Final Cut Pro first came out it was rubbish. It lacked features, crashed a lot and wasn't really usable until v2. The professional editing fraternity branded it as a joke and no one took it seriously.

But I loved it. I was a young aspiring film maker and I saw the critics as fuddy duddy old school editors refusing to embrace the future.

So when FCPX was released and I heard myself complaining about it's lack of features and instability I was shocked to realise that I had now become that fuddy duddy old school editor.

For those of you keen enough to want to relive the past there are some great articles from the FCPv1 era over at Urbanfox.tv. There are also some nice videos over at FCP.co with people talking about their love for FCP back in the early days.

One of the big names back then was Michael Wohl. He was one of the designers for FCPv1.0 and he was one of those people you just couldn't ignore at the time. Here is a great interview with him talking about the development of FCPv1.0 including some interesting information about it running on Windows!

Entretien avec Michael Wohl Part1 (VOSTF) from YAKYAKYAK.FR on Vimeo.

Entretien avec Michael Wohl Part2 (VOSTF) from YAKYAKYAK.FR on Vimeo.

Here are the system requirements for FCP1.0:

■ Power Macintosh G3 266 Mhz (300 Mhz required for DV)
■ Mac OS 8.5 or later
■ 128 MB of RAM ■ CD-ROM drive
■ 6.0 GB AV rated drive
■ Color display
■ ATI built-in video support on G3 models (required for DV)
■ QuickTime-compatible card for capturing video
■ FireWire or device control cable

Don't be afraid of change

Soon after the release of FCPX Evan Schechtman gave a talk at a Tekserve event in New York. The main thrust of his talk was simple: Do not fear change.

Evan gives a very passionate and direct speech about how the industry has changed over the past 10 years and how we, as professionals, have had to embrace new ideas and new ways of working. FCPX is just another one of these changes and it won't be the last.

It's a very convincing display of faith in FCPX. Watching this hour long video will certainly reassure you as well as give you all the skills you need to get up and running with FCPX.

If you've been using for FCP for a long time and you're a bit scared of FCPX then you should watch this video.

One of the things I really like about this lecture is the timeline of all the key moments in video edit history over the past ten years. I've recreated it here with a few of my own additions:

- 1998 -
Sony vx1000 [first prosumer camera with firewire].
G3 Powermac Desktop
Hard drive size - 37gig
Targa dv2000 rtx video card

- 1999 -
FCP v1.0 released [v1.2.5 allows 16.9]
G4 Powermac desktop
This was when I did my first editing [using premiere on a pc]

- 2000 -
Pinnicle cinewave card.
This is when I first used FCP v1.0 on a G4 desktop and fell in love.

- 2001 -
OSX
FCP v2
DVD Studio Pro
FCP v3 - Finally FCP works on OSX!

- 2003 -
DVCPro HD
HDV
Lumiere HD allows HDV editing in FCP
FCP v4 - 32 bit processing - xml interchange
Livetype, Soundtrack, Compressor
Extreme RT

- 2004 -
FCP HD - Native DVCPro HD editing
Broadcast quality HD export over firewire.
Motion

- 2005 -
Xsan
Hard Drive size - 120 gig
FCP5 - Native HDV. Multicam.
Final Cut Studio released

- 2006 -
Intel
Panasonic hvx 2000 solid state camera. p2

- 2007 -
Prores

- 2008 -
Canon 5D mk2
Red 4k

- 2009 -
FCP7

- 2010 -
Hard Drive size - 3 TB

- 2011 -
FCPX

Please do watch the video. It's very interesting and there are some great tutorials on the basics of how FCPX works.

At the end of Evan's speech he nonchalantly asks, 'does anyone feel any better about fcpx?'. There is a resounding and intensely heart-felt 'yes' from the crowd.