Rendering. Fuck that.

Ejecting Hard Drives

Come on Final Cut X, don't fuck me about.
I want to eject a hard drive. Just eject the project and event as well if you have to.
Don't make me quit you....because I will. I fucking will you know.

Moving the CLIP CONNECTION points in FCPX

I keep wanting to call these anchor points, but that's something else.

To move a connection point hold down alt and command and click where you want the connection to be.

Very useful and not remotely obvious.

Free Vintage Photo / Instagram style filter for FCPX

I just found this lovely vintage photo filter effect for fcpx courtesy of Final Cut Pro Argentina.

Download it and stick it in Movies/Motion Templates/Effects.

Simple and free. Love it.

Easy Way to Solve Dropped Frames in FCPX

Just do the following:

....

...and you'll be fine.

Oh yeah, and.....don't warn me about this again.

Quick Screen Grab

Not a FCPX issue, but very useful all the same:

SHIFT CMD 4

This gives you a crosshair that allows you to select an area to take a screenshot.

Very useful.

Alexa vs Red

No! Shoot on the Mamiya Rz67.
It's the best camera around.
Better than 4K at 18 frames per second. And easier to edit.

Adding Music

Yeah, so it's really convenient being able to add music directly from iTunes.

Except it isn't is it? Because you can't scrub through the tracks. You have to listen from the beginning.

The point of editing is editing. I love the ability to use the middle of one track and the bridge of another and the end of another. I don't want to have to listen to the track all the way through.

And while we're at, fuck quick view. I really miss the ability to scrub through tracks in finder. Why get rid of that? I used to be able to scrub through a track and then leave it playing while I did something else.

What about using iTunes I hear you say. Fuck off. I don't want hundreds of tracks of shitty production music in my iTunes.

I want jungle in my iTunes.

Dza

Background Tasks Window is Gash

When you rack up a load of exports it would be really useful if the Background Tasks window showed you the file names instead of just 'Master File' wouldn't it?

Yes it would.

Relinking media is bullshit

In FCP 7 when you relinked media it offered a suggestion as to a file with the same name.

In FCPX it is completely up to you to find the correct file.

It does seem a little odd that FCPX does things shitter than FCP7.

FCPX? I heard it's shit.

As an editor you get asked what you cut on.

Walter Murch would say all edit software is the same: in, out, add to timeline. What he says is true and a skilled editor shouldn't be constrained to particular software. For years I turned down jobs that weren't on FCP and how foolish I feel now.

It was quite liberating when FCPX came out. For years people only cared about FCP and suddenly everyone realised that there were other options: Avid, Vegas, Premiere...

I swallowed my pride and I learnt Avid. But I still use FCPX at home, so when people ask me what I cut on I say, FCPX.

The resounding response is, 'Oh, I heard it's shit'.

Well, yeah, I heard that too. And to be honest, when it came out it was shit. But it isn't any more. It's actually rather good. And when I use Avid I really miss X. Although I miss FCP as well because Avid is fucking irritating, but that's another post.

The other thing people say is, 'it's just for students isn't it?'.

When I first heard that I found it quite interesting because that is what people were saying about FCP when it first came out.

Student editors are the editors of the future. So if they are using FCPX now, then it's a good bet we'll all be using it in the future. Apple make an analogy about aiming for where the puck is going, not where the puck is now. I'm with them. I use FCPX.

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.

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.

Larry Jordan on FCPX

Prior to the FCPX release, Larry Jordan gave a speech to the Los Angeles FCP Users Group.

If you don't know who Larry Jordan is then it's time you found out. Larry Jordan does fantastic FCP tutorials on his website. Although you have to purchase these tutorials there are plenty of excellent free tutorials on his youtube channel.

Larry's talk to the LA FCP User Group is a very interesting introduction to the world of FCPX and some of the fundamental changes to the way we'll need to edit. For me there were a couple of very important points to take home:

1. Apple's v1 releases are historically a bit rubbish, but they get better. So let's not panic or have unrealistic expectations on initial release.
2. You don't need to abandon FCP7 just because of FCPX.
3. This is a new paradigm and the hardest thing will be forgetting what we already know and relearning everything....but it looks like it will be worth it.
4. People without prior knowledge of FCP7 will probably find it easier getting to grips with FCPX
5. Apple is very good at reinventing stuff.
6. Don't worry.

So here's the full speech in 4 parts.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Everything Just Changed In Post

It was pretty mental when FCPX came out.

Considering it's just video editing software it's amazing the amount of anger that it generated. A lot of people were furious. Many editors, myself included, felt betrayed. I'd been using FCP since v1.0 and I'd invested my professional career in the software. If I wasn't going to be able to use the software I use to do my job, then what the fuck was I going to do?

Well, the answer was simple. Use something else.

In some respects is was a wake up call that should have come a long time ago. Like many editors I had become entrenched in my ways and assumed that FCP was the ONLY video editing software out there. I'd even started turning down jobs that used AVID because I didn't like using it. I'm an editor for gods sake. Who cares what the software is. At the end of the day all you need to know is IN, OUT and PUT IT IN THE TIMELINE. The rest of the skill is in your knowledge of story-telling and pacing.

Your legacy projects are fine because you can continue to use FCP, but from now on I would start all new projects using something else. FCPX, AVID, Premiere, whatever you want, but I'd start moving away from FCP as soon as you can because one day it really will be left behind and become completely obsolete.

So it's time to say goodbye to FCP. It's time to start using something else.

I'm going to start using FCPX because despite it's foibles the idea of not rendering and not saving sounds good to me. And I'm pretty sure all the missing functions will be added in later versions.

I do have faith in Apple. They are usually right.

The FCPX moniker is EVERYTHING JUST CHANGED IN POST. It has indeed, well, for FCP users anyway.

No Need to Save....Ever

Everything. Saved. All the time.

WTF?!

Surely you have to save stuff?

No it happens automatically, all the time.

What? Like autosave?

No, not really, this saves everything, all the time. You never need to press save and if you have a crash, you don't lose anything.

It's fucking awesome!

Final Cut Pro X: WTF?

Remember the FCPX preview?
Wasn't it just so exciting?

64BIT // MAGNETIC TIMELINE // NATIVE H264 // POWERFUL GRADING // AUTOMATIC CLIP ANALYSIS // KEYWORD ORGANISATION // COLOUR BALANCING // CLIP CONNECTIONS // AUDITION //AUDIO SYNCING // NO NEED TO USE COLOR - WHICH IS THE SHITTEST, MOST IRRITATING PIECE OF APPLE SOFTWARE EVER // IT'S CHEAP // IT LOOKS COOL // IT'S A NEW PARADIGM // COMPOUND CLIPS THAT ACTUALLY WORK // NO SILENT CHANNELS // AUTOMATIC AND CONTINUOUS SAVING // BACKGROUND RENDER AND EXPORT // YES // YES // YES! //
Oh yeah and NO RENDERING!

Fuck off!

No seriously, no more rendering. No more render wanders. No more excuses to smoke or make some tea. No more excuses to fondle the wife or play with the kids if you work from home. No more excuses to do anything other than editing. Fantastic!

It sounds fucking awesome doesn't it?

Which is why I bought it on 22nd June 2011. The day of release.

Boy was I excited. Today everything changes. Today this could be, the greatest day of our lives. Stay close to me.

There was only one problem. It was all bullshit.

It didn't work. Nothing worked. The magnetic timeline was irritating; the colour balancing didn't work; audio syncing didn't work; it crashed a lot; it was slow; no xml; no EDL; no OMF; no multiclip; no Red support; no backwards compatibility; you couldn't export in the background; you couldn't even run two displays.

It looked and felt like a fucking children's toy. In short, it was shit...

...wow. What the fuck just happened? Did the sky just fall?
I haven't felt like this since Episode 1:

I wonder what happens if I add all the effects to a single clip. Surely it'll need to render...

...no. No rendering.