Re: New blog post from Philip Hodgetts. Worth the read.

[Jeremy Garchow] "Just to be clear. Again. This is not about shot selection or "knowing" the footage. This is about the computers making certain parts of your job easier/faster."

And that's the part I agree with.


[Jeremy Garchow] "Does it rally take that much time for a cursory organization? Yes, you have to watch the footage, and tag it, but if I know these 17 clips are "Interview 01" to get me started, what else do I need on day1?"

No, it doesn't take much time for cursory organization.

You don't get much value out of cursory organization, either.


[Walter Soyka] "The difference between searching FCPX and searching a good XLS log or DAM is minimal;"

[Jeremy Garchow] "I disagree. It's in fcpx, immediately accessible for edit, instead of sifting through another application only to send over part of what you want, not exactly what you want. Assts Managers are great, but for quick hit editorial, not really."

Fair, but again, I was trying to compare working with metadata across apps to not having metadata at all. Of course it's faster to not have to change contexts. I'm not arguing against that!

FCPX adding metadata is a big deal, and it's significant. I'm not trying to downplay that.

And what are we really talking about here? Aren't we talking about automating editorial to save time?

Whether it's a computer making a rule-based edit based on encoded metadata or a person making an intuitive edit based on their memory, or anything in between, the foundation is the same: what's in the footage? That's where metadata helps.

I'm saying that it takes time -- significant time -- to create valuable and meaningful metadata, which can then actually save time later when you're actually cutting. I'd consider both of these tasks to be part of editorial today. Do you disagree?


[Jeremy Garchow] "And what about metadata in production? Panasonic has a wifi camera that lets you log while shooting, basically giving a rudimentary preorganized shoot to editors. That cuts prep time down even more. The monkey work that the computer does is more time for me to address the real time duties. Like Herb said, you can't shoot and edit a film sketch in a day, but could you a tapeless sketch?"

My argument here against a technological solution to the time crunch is that it's not permanent. You won't get to keep the time you've saved. The production will take it back.

If enhanced metadata can cut a day of editorial off a week-long project, you don't get to keep that day to make your project better. As soon as you only need until Thursday to deliver what you used to deliver on Friday, Thursday becomes your new deadline.

I am really not arguing against metadata. It's a good thing. We need more of it, and we need more tools like FCPX that can use it.

I'm arguing that metadata is not a sustainable solution to the "not enough time" problem. I'm arguing that there is no technological solution to that problem, because (Soyka's Law) "expectations rise at the same rate as capabilities."

Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
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