Using FCP X on a Feature - Good Idea?

Hi Everyone,

We have just finished shooting a feature on the Canon 5D Mk III.
It was a multi-cam project and now we have about 6 TB of footage.

The question I have for the forum is whether it would be a good idea
to edit this project on FCP X or stick with FCP 7?

The camera masters have all been converted to ProRes HQ and production
audio has been synced with the picture. There were 2 cams on most
shots and 3 cams on one scene. There will be only 1 editor on the project.

Total anticipated runtime will be about 2 hours.

We have several seats of FCP 7 and have been using it for years,
but we have no experience with FCP X and as of right now do not even
own a copy.

Would it be wise to take the plunge with this project?

Previous experience with long format projects in FCP 7 using ProRes have
not been so stellar. Is FCP X going to kill us or will we be ok?

Thanks for any advice you can give,

-bruce

Philip Hodgetts (maker of FCP7toX and other nifty utilities) is using FCPX on a major project. Solar Odyssey. [www.thesolarodyssey.com]
He writes about it periodically on his blog
[www.philiphodgetts.com]
He could probably talk a lot about media management and workflow.

Thank you Craig, we'll definitely look into things with Phil.

-bruce

bruce7 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> We have several seats of FCP 7 and have been using
> it for years,
> but we have no experience with FCP X and as of
> right now do not even
> own a copy.

I would not advise using an app you're not familiar with on a large project.

My software:
Pro Maintenance Tools - Tools to keep Final Cut Studio, Final Cut Pro X, Avid Media Composer and Adobe Premiere Pro running smoothly and fix problems when they arise
Pro Media Tools - Edit QuickTime chapters and metadata, detect gamma shifts, edit markers, watch renders and more
More tools...

Honestly?

There are a few things FCPX does well and its fast (with the right Mac) REALLY fast.

You can even edit whilst playing-back!

Tutorial Video: [library.creativecow.net]


Media management is a bit of a weird one to start with but nothing like as crazy as you might imagine.

One particular thing it does better than all the others (including Avid) is multi-cam

It literally kicks the arses of all the rest...

Tutorial Video:




...most of the issues for FCPX are because it doesn't fit into some peoples established workflows especially for TV and Film (the perforated kind) and a few things still missing from the toolset and workflow that made FCP7 so versatile.

But put it this way....

...If you really hate FCPX and want to go back to home waters - Philip and Greg also do Xto7 !

[assistedediting.intelligentassistance.com]

Personally I'd go for it - I recently used FCPX to cut the showreel of an actress friend of mine in 1 (albeit long) day with over 200 hours of her TV programmes and films to search and scrub through and compile into the first-best-guess edit so she could take it to Cannes.



For instant answers to more than one hundred common FCP questions, check out the LAFCPUG FAQ Wiki here : [www.lafcpug.org]

One of the "Tricky" parts about FCPX and long form is the lack of established and tested organizing workflows. This is where experimentation can come in.

I've heard some are using multiple Events for long form rather than putting everything into one event.

I recently saw Diana Weynand talk in NYC specifically about "creativity and workflows with FCPX" and she said she likes to name files and organize folders on the Desktop (Finder) first because FCPX will import Folders as keyword Collections. This way all her media comes in with an initial level of keywording.

At this point in FCPX there's a wealth of "what that button does" types of tutorials. I'd really like to see some things related to workflows since there's a lot of flexibility there.

What threw me a while back was the SAN implementation. My may workstation is still on 10.6.8 and I couldn't access anything on my network (not an actual SAN) whereas I could on FCP7. I discovered that my Lion systems had no problem accessing Events elsewhere on my network. While it's certainly not the most advanced workflow power some would want (sharing Events) but it does indicate the importance the OS has with FCPX and "built in XSAN." I wouldn't be surprised if Mountain Lion brings more improvements. Of course given how Events currently work, I can see the logic of using multiple Events for a long form project. Different editors could be focusing on specific Events. I heard from one person that they "discovered" how to search across Events (I haven't tried this) and, apparently, they thought that was not possible.

There's a lot of interesting potential in long form organizing in FCPX although it might mean some experimentation.

Thanks guys for all the input. I guess we'll go for it and see what happens!

-bruce

Keep us posted. Some of the FCPX "brain trust" here might be able to help if you run into some knotty challenges.