alt - v // pastey onto-of-y thing

Yes! Press alt v instead of cmd v to paste a clip above the storyline instead of in it! Why didn't anyone tell me about that!

Overwriting Photoshop files automatically updates the file in the Storyline

So.....I'm using a photoshop file in my storyline.....It's actually a layered tiff, but who's counting?

I had to change something in photoshop and I saved over the old file. I was expecting to have to relink media and all that bullshit, but no. The image is automatically updated in the storyline.

That's not normal right? I know it should be normal. And now it is. But that never happened with FCP or AVID did it? I don't think it did. I can't remember, my brain is addled and confused by how awesome FCP is.

That deserves a fanfare. Right?

Some Nice and Free Color-Board Presets

Here are some lovely colour board presets courtesy of Oliver Peters. What a nice bloke.

Override Clip Connections!

One of the things that seems to confuse a lot of new users of FCPX is the connections between clips.
And to be honest they can be a bit fucking irritating sometimes. However, thanks to a comment on this blog by gyula hegedűs I have discovered that you can actually move clips about independantly of connections.

Simply hold down ` and you can move clips on the storyline without moving any connected clips. Genius. Thanks gyula hegedűs.

Quit with the jumpy-jumpy!

I have 850+ clips in an Event – you can read the story of collecting them here – and for the most part logging them and entering all the useful metadata bits has been straightforward. Even pleasant, at times.

However, some of the rushes were captured with dual-system audio, so I'm locating matching pairs of video and audio clips and asking FCPX to sync them together. It's doing its usual sterling job of that, nailing sync pretty much every time, but the new clip inherits none of the metadata from its parents. Which is mildly annoying.

More annoying is that as I tab through the new clip's fields the Event browser's focus has a habit of inexplicably changing and dumping me several hundred clips further down the list view. At random. Scratch that, it's not 'annoying', it's infuriating, and it happens every single time I tab out of the Scene field.

Gaah!

So, so, so glad I went the JuicedLink route and hence have sync audio for most of these clips. I can't imagine the horror of having to log everything twice with the Event list bouncing around like a crazy thing.

Yes, I've filed a bug report. Another one.

WTF does that pointer thing mean?

Use Proxy Media!

You know when FCPX seems sluggish and annoying? You know when you press space bar and it takes a couple of seconds to stop playing? Yeah? You need proxy media.

Go on, don't be shy, you know your computer can't handle Prores 422.

Don't be ashamed, just use proxy media. It'll make your system a lot more responsive and it takes up a hell of a lot less space.

Go on...make proxy media as you import....do it....and then check use proxy media in the playback tab of preferences....Go on...do it.

It's like doing an offline, but remember if at any time you want to switch back to editing with Prores or your original media just switch back in preference.
And when you export it'll still export as Prores because it'll use your original or optimised media anyway. We all win.

Thanks FCPX.

POSTSCRIPT: MAKE SURE YOU CHANGE YOUR PREFERENCES BACK TO SOURCE/OPTIMISED MEDIA BEFORE YOU EXPORT OTHERWISE FCPX WILL EXPORT FROM THE PROXY MEDIA AND IT WILL LOOK SHIT. FUCK YOU FCPX.

POST POSTSCRIPT: YOU ARE SUPPOSED TO BE ABLE TO CHOOSE SOURCE/OPTIMISED FROM A DROP DOWN MENU WHEN YOU EXPORT, BUT IT BASICALLY DOESN'T WORK.