Recently, I was challenged by Sam Woodhall to do the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge. I’ve always said that I wanted to make the “Citizen Kane” of something…
Charting a course to balanced cameras (with a DSC color chart)
August has been a very busy and exciting month for me. I’ve had the opportunity to cut numerous promos for Discovery Networks. Unfortunately, amid all the hubbub, I was unable to attend the latest FCP X Round Table. Taking their rightful places at the table were FCPWORKS‘ Noah Kadner, editors Mike Matzdorff and Chris Fenwick, as well as trainers Mark Spencer, Steve Martin, and Alex Lindsay.
Last month, Noah Kadner asked if I’d be interested in writing up a guest blog for their site. I was happy to oblige and wrote up the following article about color matching my GH2, GH3, and GH4. It quickly became apparent that I’d also need to include a video tutorial to support the article. And so I did just that!
The article can be found here:
Michael Garber on the GH4 and FCP X
The video is here:
I Needed an FCPX Editor Banner Picture!
As they say, ask and ye shall receive. This past weekend, I asked fellow FCPX editor Sam Woodhall if he would be interested in designing a new banner pic for my Facebook group. He responded immediately saying that he had “some ideas.”
Five minutes later, I received the above pic. After a healthy dose of laughter, I knew that this would be a great addition to the page. I love the hi-con FCPX clapboard. Great work, Sam!
In case you are unaware, the I Need an FCPX Editor group on Facebook is currently the only place (that I know of) where you can post and find jobs that are cutting on FCP X. There are two groups, actually. The second one is a Los Angeles edition. You’ll find no hyperbole here… just jobs.
Both groups are currently relatively small, but are growing steadily. If you are a producer or editor who uses FCPX, I highly recommend that you stop by to check it out! Both are closed groups, so please click “Join” and I’ll add you.
Protected: Selling
Final Cut Pro X 10.1.2 is out in the wild!
Very exciting morning here at ye olde Garbershoppe. Apple just released FCP X 10.1.2 to the wild. There are some great features in there. Check it out!
For an in-depth analysis, check out Philip Hodgetts’s blog:
http://www.philiphodgetts.com/2014/06/final-cut-pro-x-10-1-2/
One key feature which is going to really make working in groups with FCP X much easier is the ability to store Optimized, Proxy, and Rendered media outside of the Library.
I’ll update more on this as time permits… Busy day!
Last stop on my FCP X Road Tour tonight at LACPUG!
It’s been a great week of traveling up and down the California coast from L.A. to S.F. to Petaluma to Oakland and back to L.A. Last night, I taught a class on Prepping, Editing, and Delivering with FCP X at the Motion Picture Editors Guild. Everyone there was really interested in FCP X. The good news is that there was only one person who gave me a hard time… Eric, I’m talkin’ to you! 😉
And so, tonight rounds out my whirlwind week, thus ending my so-called “FCP X Road Tour.” I’ll be presenting Arctic Whiteness Final Cut Library Manager and Andreas Kiel’s X-Title Importer at the LACPUG. These are two great apps that do some amazing things which help increase your productivity when using FCP.
Final Cut Library Manager does pretty much what its name implies. It will manage the generated media (proxies and transcodes) that reside inside your libraries. Also it keeps track of the location for all your libraries across multiple drives.
X-Title Importer is one of the most intuitive third party tools for FCP X which allows you to add subtitles to timelines. I highly recommend it and I’m using it on a job right now.
What is also great about these apps is that the developers are very responsive. When I’ve had issues, they’ve all gotten in touch with me and in some cases worked out bugs within a very short amount of time. Definitely check these out.
Hope to see you at the LACPUG tonight!
My FCP X road show continues… Motion Picture Editors Guild on 6/24 & LACPUG on 6/25
RSVP FOR THE EDITORS GUILD EVENT HERE
Next week, I will be rounding out my “FCP X Road Show.” On Tuesday, June 24th at 7:30 PM I’ll be teaching a class on Prepping, Editing and Delivering with FCP X at the Motion Picture Editors Guild in Hollywood. Topics to be covered are:
- Broadcast commercial prep and delivery inside of FCP X and with the use of 3rd party apps
- Advanced logging methods to make FCP X work for you
- Editing & color correction tips and tricks
- Deliver your sound mixer the most detailed AAF of any NLE
RSVP FOR THE EDITORS GUILD EVENT HERE
Then, on Wednesday, June 25th, I’ll be presenting a demonstration of Arctic Whiteness Final Cut Library Manager at the LACPUG. I might even try to squeak in another product I’m working with right now if time permits. Info and directions can be found here: http://www.lafcpug.org/user_schedule.html
And last, thanks so much to everyone for watching the FCP X virtual user group round table last week. I’d like to give a huge thanks to Alex Lindsay, Steve Martin, and Mark Spencer for having me on the first one of these live user groups. If you missed it, you can watch the replay of it here:
http://hazu.herokuapp.com/
Alex Lindsay and his team have created a really cool app that logs the questions that people ask. You can quickly select that question that you want to watch and go right to it. What a great idea.
Catch me on the MacBreak FCP X Virtual User Group Roundtable this Thursday, 6/19 @ 6PM PST
The other day, I mentioned that I was going to be on an FCP X road tour (of sorts) for the next couple weeks. Well, that tour begins this coming Thursday! I’ll be in beautiful Petaluma, CA on the Final Cut Pro X Virtual User Group Roundtable. Alex Lindsay, Steve Martin, Sam Mestman, Mark Spencer, and I will be taking questions from users about FCP X. You can check out the Youtube live stream through the link below:
http://hazu.herokuapp.com/
On Tuesday, June 24th, I’ll be teaching a class on Prepping, Logging, and Finishing in FCP X at the Editor’s Guild in Los Angeles. The night after that, I’ll be presenting a demonstration of Final Cut Library Manager at the LACPUG.
I think I need to change my title from editor to professional demo artist… well, for this month at least ;-). I’ll provide more info on these events later in the week.
The Constantly Evolving List of FCP X Tips & Tutorials
There are a ton of great tip videos, tutorials and blog posts for FCP X out there. It’s a pretty exciting time for sharing all of the great time-savers and tricks we’ve learned over the past few years. We have Creative Cow, FCP.co, MacBreak Studio, the multitude of Facebook FCP X groups, #FCPX on Twitter, Youtube, Vimeo, and, of course, all those editor blogs (including yours truly). To put it plainly, FCP X videos and articles are everywhere and I don’t see this trend slowing down any time soon.
In the interest of culling together an updated list of the best resources, I’m posting some of my favorites. I’ll update this list whenever something pops up that catches my eye.
Check back regularly to this post for updates.
- FCP.co is the first site I visit in the morning. They post some of the best detailed workflows for high-end work.
- Sam Mestman got the ball rolling with FCP X. He made a bunch of great tutorial videos in 2013 which showed us that FCP could exist in the professional space. FCP has had a few updates since he posted these videos, but they are still relevant and continue to be a great resource.
- Chris Fenwick is always fun to listen to. In addition to his podcast, FCPX Grill, his tip vids are chock-full of great information.
- Chris shows us how to do a “real time edit.” Just watch and you’ll see what I mean.
- Using Compound Clips to replace an unlicensed music track. This is a workaround for relinking.
- Richard Taylor’s FCPX.tv is a great place to find tips and tricks.
- A full list of Richard’s Tips
- Richard also keeps an updated list of articles and tutorials on his main page. Be sure to check that out.
- I wouldn’t be a good self-promoter if I didn’t add some of my own videos to the list. Here are two recent tutorials that I’m proud of:
Apologies if I forgot anyone. Like I said, this is an evolving list. Please let me know if there are any not-to-be missed posts out there.