Re: Real World FCP-X.
 

About VARs.
It was likely Apple, not the VARs that setup this meeting. Given that FCPX is designed to sell hardware, I think Apple is interested in keeping VARs in that loop. I personally believe you're going to see some new directions as part of FCPX. I think a MacPro redesign with hooks into a server based solution. FCPX metadata seems pointed toward some very sophisticated control, not included in FCPX.

I don't think Apple is intentionally ceding ground to Adobe. It's just a byproduct of Apple's rebirthing of FCPX in a new strategy. It will be very easy for those moving to Premiere to go back to FCPX if/when the time comes. Only Premiere left Mac, not Photoshop or After Effects so there was no "doom" involved. When Premiere left, it had undergone a major rewrite and FCP1 left little room for Adobe to get a foothold in the Mac NLE market.

FCPX has a couple feature implementation issues that go far beyond broadcast/feature markets. Multicam, which Apple has already said it will add and, handling of Dual Mono. It handles the latter poorly. Even Expand Audio/Video doesn't show two audio tracks. You have to Detach Audio in order to have control of both tracks in the timeline. This also means Dual Mono isn't handled in the Precision Editor. There are workarounds but they're all awkward.

Apple also needs to make a better case for Connected Clips and Secondary Storylines over Tracks.

BTW amongst the rumors is that SoundTrack Pro, or equivalent, may resurface soon. It may simply be Logic Pro X in the App Store.

Apple needs to get the APIs out to plugin developers as well.

I suspect the next couple of updates will bring on FCPX like gangbusters. The first one coming in the next couple of weeks will be telling. I suspect by November it'll be much clearer where Apple is headed.

This isn't iMovie Pro by a long shot. A more elegant GUI doesn't diminish what's going on under the hood.

Re: Real World FCP-X.
 

Connected clips and secondary story lines were beyond me at first but once I figured it out (connected clips at least) they are very, very useful especially when working with splitting audio tracks into dual mono tracks. It's not the ideal way to work with those audio issues but it works.

This is why I wonder if Apple ever had a working videographer in the development loop. Anyone who shoots interviews solo will have at some point recorded two different mikes on the stereo tracks and needed independent control during the edit. I just filmed and edited a multi cam interview with a seasoned news pro (he's on every night on a cable network and has a booming voice) and a interviewee who could barely talk due to an illness. That was easy to adjust in 7, in X besides the lack of multi cam I'm not so sure how happy I would have been.

Re: Real World FCP-X.
 

I'm finding not being able to have multiple tracks is a bit... limiting, if not annoying. If I correct some footage and I want other clips to have the same brightness, contrast, color-correction, or whatever, I'd just drop clips on a track I set up with those settings. Now I have to copy the first clip's attributes, then drop those on each and every subsequent clip I want to match. That seems like the hard way to do it, and it increases the likelihood I'll miss one.

Re: Real World FCP-X.
 

You can save your own presets in the color board.

Re: Real World FCP-X.
 

Yes, I understand that. But I would still have to apply those presets to each individual clip, rather than having them applied automatically if I had the presets on a track.

It's not impossible to work around. It's just not as well thought out as some of FCPX's other features.

Re: Real World FCP-X.
 

I seem to remember that I was able to apply a copied preset to a selection of clips but as my edit station is not in front of me I can't verify that until later. I am starting a new 30 sec. HD commercial project today on X that has to be delivered for weekend broadcast tomorrow, wish me luck.

Re: Real World FCP-X.
 

The commercial is edited and running as we speak. I didn't get a chance to try to paste a color correction across a series of clips but I did try to copy an adjusted audio filter to two audio files and couldn't do it. The audio filter really helped the voice over so I typed in the adjustment values but I would have preferred to copy and paste ala FCP7.

FCPX is not great when it comes to building a project to an audio file as I had to leave a gap clip over the audio track for the entire edit or the edit would collapse in weird ways when it was removed. Layered video tracks don't take transitions unlike layer tracks in FCP7 unless you turn them into compound clips.
This could be solved by having a choice of replacing gaps only where you drop the clip even if that means there's still gap fillers on either side of the clip. This would keep the project the same length. Some of the included blur transitions worked great so I was happy to have them available and I used a couple of filters to give some very flat graphics a breath of life.

Edit rating FCPX versus FCP 7: 60/40
Plus: built in audio and image filters, built in transitions, clip scrubbing and favorite marking.
Minus: track layering needlessly hobbled

Re: Real World FCP-X.
 

William,

When you say you used a "gap clip over the audio track for the entire edit" do you mean that you put the gap & video clips on the main storyline with the audio as a connected clip?

Just trying to understand, I feel like I'm doing the exact same thing but completely different, by putting the audio on the main storyline as the base of the edit and then using a secondary storyline to place the video.

Re: Real World FCP-X.
 

There's keyboard commands to apply color correction from previous, two edit prior, three edits prior. You can also Copy and Paste Effects although that copies everything if you have other effects. Also have you tried creating a Compound Clip of all the targeted clips and then pasting the Color Correction? Also creating a Secondary Storyline, selecting the Storyline "bar" above the clips and pasting the Color Correction? The latter allows you to paste to the entire "track."

Re: Real World FCP-X.
 

Let me say that I am a horrible instruction reader but perhaps that's from giving up after years of trying to deduce equipment from poorly translated instructions or reading software instructions written by engineers (good programmers don't always make good writers), so I don't try until I hit a blockage.

Unlike 7, you can not just build an audio track and then introduce the video later. X wants something in the main track at all times if there is audio. As I had a VO track that was in two pieces to accommodate a sound byte from a video clip and a 15sec music loop that needed work, I set a gap to the time of the commercial and went from there. This forced all the video clips to be overlays as using the replace function on the gap clip (which I found so useful on another job) caused the magnetic timeline to wreck the audio edit I did already. Finally I made the selected video clips into a compound clip where I could apply transitions. If there is a better way to do this, I'm all ears. This was a rush job and I was editing to the VO.

Re: Real World FCP-X.
 

Something that might help with the keyboard shortcuts:
Final Cut Pro X Keyboard Cover for Apple Ultra-Thin Keyboard

Re: Real World FCP-X.
 

It was interesting to hear about the workflow you came up with because we had the exact same problem and solved it differently. And I wanted to try your workflow next time just to see what happens. Part of the slow process of learning to "think" in FCP X.

Re: Real World FCP-X.
 

And Logickeyboard should be out with their's in a couple of weeks too.

The problem is that they keyboard shortcuts for copying the color corrections are not assigned. You have to know they exist and then go in to the Customize Commands and create the keyboard shortcut. In addition there's no buttons for it as there was in FCP7 nor is there a way to add buttons in FCPX.

It takes a lot of exploration of the Customize Commands to find out there's a lot of keyboard shortcuts that aren't assigned. One I just created is to nudge the color board pucks up, down, left right. They're hard to do detailed control with the mouse and no slider/small increment area. I assign the nudge as follows Shift 4 left, Shift 6 right, Shift 8 up, Shift 2 down. There's also a shortcut to go from puck to puck which can be useful if you have two pucks on top of each other as selecting with the mouse is difficult in that situation.

Re: Real World FCP-X.
 

Thank you for that info. The color board adjustments were really annoying me with the lack of single increments.

Re: Real World FCP-X.
 

Have not read all the posts here, I am an Premier Pro 5.5 user.

I have been reading on the photography forums how easy this new software is to use, so sounds like Apple made it easy for people to switch, and if they have never used a video editing program, it seems to be quite simple.

Many claim they are making decent movies after a couple hours of playing and watching how to videos.

Probably not what the video community wants to hear, but just like photoshop, software making things easier is not always welcomed by everyone.

Also a 30 day trial will get many people to try it, (like me)