10.0.6 Who gives a shit?

The 10.0.6 update is here! Woohoo!

Oh please, so it's got a bit better, but who cares, get back to your editing you monkey!

Oh you want to know about the new features?

I'm sorry, but we just haven't got time. I'm busy preparing for the Soho Editors Avid Event.

What do you mean, you really need to know? Oh ok.

UNIFIED IMPORT WINDOW
Boring.

PICTURE TRANSFER PROTOCOL FOR DSLR CAMERAS
So you can see pictures that are on your DSLR when it is connected to your computer....ooooh, wow, amazing. Not.

SET DEFAULT TRANSITION
Errr.....good....thanks.

RED RAW IMPORT
About fucking time!
You'll need to download the R3D plugin here.
There's a quick tutorial on the Red.com if you need it:

RED Apple Workflow: Introducing the FCP X Plugin from RED Digital Cinema on Vimeo.

MODIFY THE RAW CAMERA DATA
What? Seriously, what?

XML 1.2
Yeah, yeah, whatever.

NEW SHARING INTERFACE
Who cares?
Actually, it is better. And you can now carry on editing while you export.
But they told us that the first time.
Yeah I know, but it actually works now. And you can even create multiple different version of the same film using Bundles. And you can assign metadata to the exports. Check the attributes section of the share window.
Oh, ok, that is good. I wonder if they are gradually phasing out compressor.

BLADING MULTIPLE CLIPS
SHIFT-COMMAND-B to cut through all clips at the playhead.
Yeah, fine, great, good, well done, about time.

COMPOUND CLIPS ARE ADDED TO THE EVENT BROWSER
Yeah, whatever. Although apparently if you use multiple copies of the same compound clip any changes you make to one affects all of them. I guess this might be useful. Perhaps if you make stings or something that are repeated throughout you film.

PERSISTANT SELECTION RANGE
I'm sorry, what? So the ranges I select don't disappear when I click on something else?
Shit, that is cool. And about fucking time too!
In fact you can even make selections in the import window, so you only import the stuff you need. And if that wasn't enough you can make multiple selections on the same clip using COMMAND-SHIFT-I and COMMAND-SHIFT-O. Nice

EVENT VIEWER
Sorry?
You know, a viewer window.
What?
Like in FCP7. Two windows for video.
Oh. Nice. But...
Don't say anything....just keep quiet or they might take it away again.
So are we just headed towards FCP7, but with a magnetic timeline and background rendering?
I said be quiet.

PASTE ATTRIBUTES
Piss off!
No seriously
Yes! Yes! YES!
At FUCKING last! [CMD SHIFT V]

CREATE FREEZE FRAME
Yes, well done. It's only taken 18 months to get the ability to make a freeze frame. Like I said. Well done.
For those of you not familiar with FCPX, previously you had to do this weird 'hold frame' thing. Anyway, now you can do a proper freeze frame.

EXPORTING RANGES
Now you're taking the piss,
No. At last. In, Out, export, I mean share. Good.

CHAPTER MARKERS
Press M and M again to give your chapter marker a name. There are 3 types of markers: Normal, to do and Chapter markers. Useful for DVD and BluRay obviously.

AUDIO COMPONENT EDITING
Audio editing was always a bit shit in FCPX. Finally you can expand multiple channels of audio without breaking the components apart. Right click then click Expand Audio Components to see all your audio channels. You can now skim, trim and adjust the volume of each channel independently. Word.

All in all there are some pretty fucking necessary updates there. So well done Apple, keep um coming.

If you want a sensible appraisal of the new features check out Ken Stone.

Sort Out Your Audio First!

This is a nice Larry Jordan piece about the precision editor.
The precision editor allows you to see edit points in detail including unused frames before and after your edit point.

However, the most interesting point he makes is an off-hand comment about adding black frames to help with the rhythm of the dialogue.

Larry adds a couple of black frames to create a short break between sentences. This helps hide the edit and make the dialogue flow more naturally.

Larry adds that he will cover over the black frames with B-Roll or cutaways later.

This is probably one of the most important pieces of edit advice you can give:

Sort out the audio first and make sure everything flows nicely. You can easily make the video look nice later.

Backgrounds and Generators

Gotta love Larry Jordan, especially when he starts chuckling to himself.

Here's a nice quick introduction to some of the many backgrounds and generators in FCPX. The important thing to remember here is that within each generator you have many, many more options available to you in the inspector.

Rendering is Fucking Wack!

I've been using FCP7 for the past couple of days.
I'm cutting a massive, hour long performance of Alan Moore. It's very long with loads of effects and all sorts of aspect ratios ranging from VHS in 4:3 to some anamorphic 2.35:1.
I started it in FCP7 and it's so complicated I haven't dared try and move it over to FCPX because I just know it'll create some kind of online nightmare. Anyway, even if I could migrate the project I am editing alongside 2 other editors who don't use FCPX so I'm stuck with it.
What's my point? I don't actually have one except to say that rendering is a bitch. I'd forgotten how much of my time I used to waste rendering. Thank fuck for FCPX.

Turn Off Background Render

Background rendering sounds great and works very well, but actually most of the time you don't need it.

The real time playback of un-rendered clips is handled so well that rendering everything all the time is just a waste of processing power and disk space - remember all render files are ProRes.

Turn it off: Final Cut Pro / Preferences / Playback

Then you can render everything by pressing SHIFT + CONTROL + R or selectively render by selecting clips and pressing CONTROL + R.

Am I just trying to make it more like FCP7? Er....maybe.

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.