FCPX, First Week Review

While sitting in the train across a person doing the NYTimes crossword puzzle on their iPad, I think about the empire that Apple has built in the year 2000 since the introduction of the first iPod. It was a revolutionary device that was received with mixed reviews.

Here we are 10 years later and now Apple re-introduces Final Cut Pro, as you might now by now, this is a whole new program from the ground up–not an exaggeration.

Who am I? I’m a professional editor and I have been doing this for the past 11 years, what does that mean, Pro? It means, I’ve been making a living from editing exclusively and I have a good handle on this craft. I’ve edited from tape-to-tape, on Avid, Premiere, and Final Cut Pro. While I held out from switching between Avid to FCP, I eventually realized all the tools and potential that FCP provided, and I found myself editing a lot faster on this program.

Enter FCPX.

Now comes a new transition, from an established program to its successor. This time around, I’ve decided to keep an open mind and give FCPX a real chance, specially since I’ve made my business an all-digital shop from start to finish and this new software it’s all about going digital.

This week we had a chance to work on a project for a new client and we decided to cut it on FCPX, everything was shot on a Nikon D7000 and the audio was recorder to a Zoom H4n. Perfect opportunity to test editing H.264 file natively.

Through this review, I’ll walk you through my editing process and work-a-rounds that I found when I didn’t find the tools that were previously included the in the Previous version of FCP7.

Bye Bye, Apple S.

The very first thing you have to get used to as a Pro, is to forget about saving. Saving for us is like a trained reaction, after a couple of edits, your hand automatically goes through the motion. I found myself hearing the error sounds quite frequently.

While not having to worry about saving might seem like a good thing, it’s not! The very first day I lost two hours worth of work, all my organizing of the files and synching out the window when FCPX decided to crash.

Thankfully, I hadn’t started editing quite yet, but I can’t imagine having to tell a producer that two hours worth of editing–or the whole project– has been lost. Not Acceptable.

Work-a-round: none.

+1 FCP7

Audio synching, Merge Clips.

When it came down to merging my audio files with my video, I was at a loss; I couldn’t believe that the merge clips tool was nowhere to be found.

Then, I found the synchronize drop down option, and I was blown away. FCPX syncs everything automatically without having to use any in or out points, all my footage was synched within a matter or minutes.

To do this, you simply select the two files you want to sync, and voila! My only concern is what happens when the video file doesn’t have any audio, my guess is you’ll simply have to line up the clapper with the sound.

Work-a-round: Select 2 clips, right-click>synchronize clips.

+1 FCPX

Where is my Sequence? What is “Events”?

Another harsh reality to face, is the fact that your project is now called an event, and your sequences are now projects.

Under your Event–which is organized chronologically– you’ll find all of your imported footage, audio files, stills, etc. This is hard to get used to, and I don’t ever remember working based on dates, but the way I’m looking at it, it’s just a place where you can find all your media.

Smart folders and keywords are a great asset for the pros though, but then again, most pros like to be organized and this wasn’t a problem in the first place. Newcomers might get the most use out of this feature, but if you are not organized in the first place, nothing is going to change that.

In what used to be your timeline–now called storyline– you’ll find your sequences, now called projects. You do have the ability to create folders here, which comes in really handy when keeping all your projects organized, something you must do, since all your projects are displayed here, including projects from other clients.

Work-around: embrace keywords and smart folders.

+1 FCPX and +1 FCP7 (this wasn’t broken)

Storage, storage, storage.

The new way in which FCPX stores it’s files is very reminiscent of Avid, it simply creates a folder–in whatever drive is mounted–called “Final Cut Events” and places all of it’s media there. It defers from Avid in the fact that you can actually organize that media by event (or client in my case.)

FCPX also creates a folder for your projects here, which, if you know from the past is not a good idea to have the project file and media on the same drive, a no-no.

The fact that every event and project on the drive gets loaded is unfortunate, if you don’t want to worry about different clients seeing other projects you are working on, it’s best to keep them to separate drives.

Work-a-round: separate drives for separate clients, $$$.

+1 FCP7

Sweet Magnets, see ya slug.

Time to edit. This was cool and painful at the same time. I preferred to working with my folders in List view to avoid having to scroll up and down looking for clips; this also allowed me to be more precise when it came time to select the in and out points of the clips I wanted to insert into my storyline. The fact that the viewer is now gone, makes it more difficult to be precise when selecting your points, but it’s not as bad as it seems.

The feature that I really enjoyed was the magnetic timeline, I was able to move, and trim clips without a care in the word, everything else simply adjusted once it was in the storyline. This is the quintessential definition of offline editing, move things around however you please.

It’s not perfect however, I could not add dissolves to broll sequences, I had to make them “compound clips” and then go inside to add the dissolves, cumbersome, and not as accurate.

Speaking of dissolves, I’ve yet been able to figure out how to have them start or end on the edit.

Overall, the magnetic timeline has some great features, but it also has room for improvement.

Work-a-round: learn the new shortcuts, Q, W, E, and have fun.

+1 FCPX

Copy color correction and… wait what?

One of my biggest frustration came when it was time to do color correction, Apple boasted about a new feature that would allow you to match the color on any clip on your storyline, sounded great, except for the fact that it doesn’t apply to the color correction you just applied, it simply matches the color of the native file. I figured I could then just go into the effect and copy it to apply to other similar clips, nope! The only way to do this is to save it as a new preset and then select it from a drop down menu, but, when you have multiple corrections, in the same project, this doesn’t become practical.

Work-a-round: so far, color correct each clip, looking to see where Apple hid the option to copy the effect.

+1 FCP7 (output to color)

Final thoughts

Overall, I believe that Apple missed the mark a little bit, even though I think that FCPX is a good program, the lack of features that were previously available for us professionals on previous versions outweigh the innovations.

Final Cut Studio 3 is a great suite of tools for the Pros, tools that to this day I was still learning and using to a great degree. FCS3 is stable, powerful, and fully supported by several manufacturers, which is why it’s so mind boggling that Apple felt the need to re-write the program from the ground up, if it ain’t broken, don’t fix it.

If you are in the other hand, someone who can’t afford a full suite of tools, and you are looking for an all digital option, then Final Cut Pro X is great option for indie filmmakers everywhere looking to post cool videos to YouTube, Vimeo, and the rest of the web.

Sitting on the train, on my way back home, and looking at all the people around me with iPads and iPods in hand it makes me wonder if Apple is right on this one again, or is this the end of a program that was at the wrong place at the wrong time.

Here is the video we produced this week for Asp1re Magazine.