Re: macbook air and fcpx- the new portable edit suite

[David Lawrence] "Great post, Jeremy. I appreciate the thoughtful reply.

I think I finally understand why you and I have such a different POV on the value of tracks:"

Thank you David, for listening to my unpopular craziness.

[David Lawrence] "This is why I need tracks -- they are my scaffolding. I build on top of them and need them to be stable as I edit. Working on the trackless magnetic timeline (especially with audio) with everything rippling and moving up and down by itself whether I want it to or not, it feels like trying to build a house on quicksand!"

I totally understand all of this. I work mainly in dialogue based stories as well. Often times clients want to edit the dialogue so that the interviewee says what they want them to say, not what they said on tapeless. Forgive my less eloquent description as your description is much more poetic, but we constantly frankenstein clips together, add breath and pause where they aren't, basically, editing.

Let me ask you this. Do you think FCPX will ever get tracks? Do you think they will work with the trim tool? By adding tracks, don't you think we will lose some of the editing efficiency?

Also, do you think that this style of editing simply is impossible in FCPXs timeline? I'm just curious, I am not attacking (and I'm sorry I have to say that). I really want to try and understand why this can't be done in FCPX. Also, let's make the huge assumption that Roles to OMF created the tracks and order that you need in a DAW. Maybe a screen grab of a typical timeline if you can? Help me understand what I seem to be really missing.

[David Lawrence] "I round trip to STP to do any final tweaks, sweetening and mix. Everything is organized because I've been organizing track layout as I go. It's fast and efficient because I've already done most of the work in FCP. "

With FCPX's audio filters, do you think you will need STP anymore? Again, just an honest question.

[David Lawrence] "This at-a-glance feedback is a huge timesaver when sharing projects."

I hear that, loud and clear. We have three people that touch some aspect of almost every project in editorial over here, then we send it out to audio, so at most it's 5 people that could work on any given project. There is no question that Apple is asking a lot, as we all know. The timeline is a different language, and I think it might be more visual than what people give it credit for. In my earlier post about "up being down" and a scenario of being able to sort the timeline for one's specific needs, and of course the ability to sort back, I do think that some of the editing devices that people are really confused by (the primary/secondary storylines/clip connections/compound clips) are visual cues. Perhaps after more practice, that language will become more apparent. For instance, I just whipped this extremely simple example together. Can you not tell what's going on here? I even threw in an easter egg:



I would love to be able to color code Roles, then it would be even easier.

[David Lawrence] "I hope this gives you a better understanding of my skepticism and problems with the trackless, ripple-only timeline."

Absolutely. Although, I don't see the timeline as ripple only, so much as ripple default. The P key takes you out of ripple.

[David Lawrence] "That's the most frustrating thing about this whole debacle. All that power under the hood and no clear way for editors who work like me to take advantage of it. I hope Apple will address our needs in future updates but I'm not counting on it. Time will tell."

Yes. I do think that Apple is the only one that could have released a product in this way. There is virtually no other entity that has legacy interfaces would have taken this kind of risk. When viewing one of the web presentations that were flying around the internets after the release of X, there was an Avid exec who got up and said (and I'm paraphrasing) that they won't change the basics of their interface. Ever. I do not adhere to that style of thinking and saw it as a huge disappointment. Change hurts in the beginning. Pain is temporary.

Of course, the other side of that argument is that driving controls haven't changed much since the Model T.

Don't get me wrong. There needs to be some interface tweaks and definitely some more precision added to the interface as FCPX is far from perfect, but I see those as programming efficiencies that can and will, get fixed. One idea I think would help is some sort of layer target system. If I am adding an audio only clip to the example timeline above, I'd like to be able to select a clip in the timeline and by hitting a modifier + Q, that new clip would go above or below the selected clip in the timeline. Perhaps Shift Q is above, option Q is below, or something like that (up arrow-Q or down Arrow-q). That would prevent me from adding the clip and then dragging it to the order in the stack that I intend. Also, your suggestion of being able open compound clips in context of the main timeline is simply great. Basically, more control without tracks.

Again, thanks.

Jeremy