What Matters Most?

Vans Syndicate x Luke Meier from WHAT MATTERS MOST on Vimeo.

What if all Skate Videos looked this good? Maybe Skateboarding wouldn’t be illegal in so many places.

Fun timelapse and tiltshift piece

As Cities Grow from All Cut Up Films on Vimeo.

FCP X - My thoughts.

Here’s what I think… so far.

Final Cut Pro is many things to many people. For the past decade many of my friends have been using FCP as the center hub of our post production workflow. We cut in it, and then we go to outside apps, as needed, to finesse bits and bobs. We may use ProTools for audio, we may use Soundtrack Pro. We may use After Effects for animation, we may use Motion, we my also go outside to one of the REALLY smart 3D animator types out there, if need be. 

Initially FCP works as an editorial application where trimming and cutting and slipping and sliding is very important. In the PURE editorial world the most important thing to me is how well and HOW FAST it allows you to make tiny tiny changes to get your flow down.

Then in the finishing stage as you export bits for additional processing and have to bring those bits back FCP becomes more of a clip player… you may have a bunch of AE composites that you need to play back in order… and at that point FCP is your tool for that. 

Both jobs important, both unique. 

In order to pull this off you have to have many ways to export or “Send” to outside apps and also be able to bring them in.

Very few jobs are completed without some help from outside apps.

So far, we don’t know how FCPX is gonna work with other apps. Does it care? Is a file a file?  We don’t know. As an editorial machine. we don’t know. I will tell you this. Much of what I saw tonight looked a lot like iMovie and I am NOT an iMovie fan at all.

The metadata that was discussed was interesting. Most of us don’t put metadata in our clips cuz, well, its hard. If they make it easier to embed metadata, and maybe even give my producer a way to log at home… that would be cool.

Clearly, its too early to say too much about FCPX. All we know for sure, is how to spell it.

Did TUAW Read my "Review"?

I just read the TUAW article outlining what they would like to see in the New Final Cut.  it was good, but I sure felt like they had read my “review” first… Not that I mind… I don’t care. Ultimately I just want good edit tools.

But some of the requests were fairly unique to my Review. For example the comments about being able to use color “without moving between apps” basically is the same thing as my request for “an easier to use filter metaphor instead of the old XML timeline metaphor”. Basically, my question is… why do I need to leave the app via XML to do my color correction. (Yea, I’m old, I still say Color Correction NOT “Color Grading” and my PINKY touches my tea cup too!!)

There comments about Soundtrack Pro seemed much the same as mine too. They said, “having its features integrated within Final Cut Pro would save us a lot of time” and in my faux review I stated that “all [the audio features have] been put into a new Audio Tab inside FCP”. Basically the same request as above, why do I need a whole app?

We both requested more motion controls inside the app as well… but that just makes sense… why DOES everything need to be an app?

The real similarity though was the request for Keynote functionality. They said, “It would be fantastic to see the engine from Keynote implemented for titling in Final Cut Pro. I said, “Keynote has some crazy cool features and animation presets built in like “Magic Move” and even Steve Jobs style Refections.  All of the great features of Keynote are now in Final Cut Pro 8 and make it a very powerful tool for us Corporate Video makers.” 

I SERIOUSLY would like to see this!

Overall… we ALL want some serious improvements to our old, (and I do mean old) FCP. I guess tomorrow it happens huh? It’ll be fun to see what the boys from “The Loop” bring us. 

Go Doug!!!

Crazy Wave