Post Production

I Needed an FCPX Editor Banner Picture!

Posted by Michael

I Need an FCP X Editor!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.

 

Final Cut Pro X 10.1.2 is out in the wild!

Posted by Michael

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!

Screen Shot 2014-06-27 at 10.52.17 AM

 

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!

Posted by Michael

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

Posted by Michael

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/pixelcorps/fcvug-1

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

Posted by Michael

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/pixelcorps/fcvug-1

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

Posted by Michael

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.

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.

An EXPLOSIVE, once in a lifetime Final Cut Pro X tutorial!

Posted by Michael

*Special thanks to FCP.co for posting the tutorial on their site!

This tutorial marks the beginning of kind of a crazy, exciting, and fun month for me. I’ll be on a bit of a homespun FCP X roadshow. I promise to make announcements as they occur.

In this video, you’ll learn about some of my logging techniques that I’ve employed on commercials and corporate documentaries. From building radio cuts to making sure scenes and takes are properly logged for an edit session, much of what you’ll see can also be applied to other types of projects. My hope is that you’ll learn a few tips and tricks and integrate these methods into your own work.

I look forward to the next few weeks and letting you all know what’s going on here at the hallowed halls of Garbershop. In the meantime, sit back, relax, and enjoy the FCP X tutorial goodness.

I Need an FCPX Editor!

Posted by Michael

I Need An FCPX Editor

Full disclosure: *I* actually don’t need an FCPX Editor. But my hope and guess is that there are lots of people out there who need a talented editor who knows FCP X but don’t really know where to look. So, I created two groups on Facebook: “I Need an FCPX Editor” and “I Need an FCPX Editor (Los Angeles)“.

Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve been privy to some very negative reactions to my mentioning that I use FCP X. These conversations were not heated and I just casually mentioned that I was working in X. Each conversation ended on the same abrupt note: the other person chose not to use X and their feelings were resolute. These conversations fueled my desire to create a place where people can post real work for editors.

My hope is that these two groups will begin to attract talent on both sides of the edit desk – producers, directors, coordinators, supervisors, editors, etc…  But, this only works if you are someone who is offering legitimate work and if you are a legitimate editor with real chops. I don’t want this to turn into a Craigslist jobs post site.

For now, the pages are set to private. That means anyone can join via request. Once the member list gets large enough, I’ll most likely change it to a secret group. But first, the group needs members. If you are a looking for an editor or are a skilled and talented editor using FCP X with broadcast, film, or corporate experience, please head over to FB and join the groups. We need your support!

The difference between frustration and creativity.

Posted by Michael

It’s been a busy month and I’m happy to be working on a couple of projects, one corporate and one in news. On the news front, I’m now doing something that I think all editors should take the time to do: have a pre-pro conversation with the D.P. / cameraperson.

I’ve shied way from doing this for any of the news stories I edit since there was always a division between the shooters in the field and post. Also, in the days of tape, there were rarely any questions to ask as everything was shot on digibeta.

As you all know by now, I’m an advocate for merging the two worlds that are production and post-production. I finally put my money where my mouth is.

No matter how much I think I know about cameras and post, I’m always reminded that there are so many codecs, cameras, drives and connectors out there. The pipeline can be a pretty complicated system. What you don’t know is the thing that will add a roadblock to getting your work done.

The best thing that came out of the conversation was realizing that my edit system was not the only important step in the data chain. We also need to consider the system that the producer uses. Knowing that means that they will not shoot at 1080 instead of 4K since the producer’s computer won’t support it. This is just another reminder that we editors need to get outside our suites every once in awhile and talk to the folks in the field.

Considering and determining your workflow before you hit record is the difference between frustration and creativity. I’m now looking forward to the upcoming edit with confidence in what the crew will deliver.