***Winners Announced***
The Autosave Vault in FCP 7 has saved our bacon many times, but what about wanting to go back to older versions of your edit in Final Cut Pro X? We have 2 copies of Pro Versioner from Digital Rebellion to give away that allow you to step back in time on any NLE.
Digital Rebellion has launched an upgrade to the former FCP Versioner, the $59 tool is now called Pro Versioner and is app-agnostic. This means that it will now work with·Final Cut Pro 6 and 7, Final Cut Pro X, Avid Media Composer and Adobe Premiere Pro - or indeed any host application.
There's a lot more to it than just an app that stores versions over time. Each version has a screen grab associated with the file so you can navigate back in time with a CoverFlow style GUI. Looking at the interface to see where you went wrong saves the many minutes you'd need in opening up successive versions. Especially handy with those large FCP7 projects that take a lot of time to open. You can also add annotations to each file, for example you might mark a project before importing a lot of new footage or when a section of the edit has been approved by the client.
In addition to backing up on a local drive, Pro Versioner can backup to the Cloud using a service such as Dropbox. This is a no-fuss way of making sure you have off-site backups and protects against hard drive failure, theft & fire.·
Competition closed. Congratulations to the winners:
@netinyahoo & @brentonhouse
Digital Rebellion has kindly given us two copies of Pro Versioner·each worth $59 to give away to FCP.co readers. To have a chance of winning a copy, all you have to do is Tweet the headline of the story. The easiest way to do this is by clicking the Tweet button on the top left of the article. Winners will be picked at random from the Tweets between now and Friday night, so get tweeting!
There is a Free Trial available from the Digital Rebellion website if you want to give Pro Versioner a try before you buy.
One added feature that we found in the Pro Versioner Manual was the ability to generate XML copies of Final Cut Pro 6 & 7 projects. This could lead to some clever workflow solutions by always having an updated XML file available online for third parties to download. Now if only we could convince Jon at Digital Rebellion to do the same with FCPX effects that we keep making in Motion!
What's new in this version (2.0)
- 64-bit compatibility
- Redesigned user interface Project support is now agnostic - backup Avid, Premiere, Final Cut Pro X and other project types
- Screenshots are captured and displayed in the UI
- Annotations
- Dropbox sync
- Growl notifications
- Significant performance and reliability improvements
- General bug fixes, tweaks and optimizations
I am the Editor-in-Chief of FCP.co and have run the website since its inception ten years ago.
I have also worked as a broadcast and corporate editor for over 30 years, starting on one inch tape, working through many formats, right up to today's NLEs.
Under the name Idustrial Revolution, I have written and sold plugins for Final Cut Pro for 13 years.
I was made a Freeman of Lichfield through The Worshipful Company of Smiths (established 1601). Though I haven't yet tried to herd a flock of sheep through the city centre!
Current Editing
2020 has been busy, the beginning of the year was finishing off a new property series (cut on FCP) for Channel 4 called The Great House Giveaway. I also designed and built the majority of the graphics as Motion templates. It has been a great success and the shows grabbed more viewers in the 4pm weekday slot than any previous strand. It has been recommissioned by C4 for 60 episodes, including prime-time versions and five themed programmes. The shows have also been nominated for a 2021 BAFTA.
Although both were postponed to later in the year, I worked again on ITV's coverage of the Tour de France and La Vuelta. 2020 was my 25th year of editing the TdF and my 20th year as lead editor. The Tour was the first broadcast show to adopt FCPX working for multiple editors on shared storage.
BBC's Snooker has played a big part in my life, I've been editing tournament coverage since 1997. I'm proud to be part of a very creative team that has pioneered many new ideas and workflows that are now industry standard in sports' production. This is currently an Adobe Premiere edit.
Covid cancelled some of the regular corporate events that I edit such as trade shows & events. I was lucky however to edit, from home, on projects for Amazon Kindle, Amazon Black Friday, Mastercard and very proud to have helped local charitable trust Kendall & Wall secure lottery funding.
As for software, my weapon of choice is Final Cut Pro and Motion, but I also have a good knowledge and broadcast credits with Adobe Premiere Pro, MOGRT design and Photoshop.
Plugin Design & Development
I'm the creative force behind Idustrial Revolution, one of the oldest Final Cut Pro plugin developers. It hosts a range of commercial and free plugins on the site. One free plugin was downloaded over a thousand times within 24 hours of release.
I also take on custom work, whether it is adapting an existing plugin for a special use or designing new plugins for clients from scratch. Having a good knowledge of editing allows me to build-in flexibility and more importantly, usability.
FCP.co
Now in its 10th year and 4th redesign, running FCP.co has given me knowledge on how to run a large CMS- you are currently reading my bio from the database! Although it sounds corny, I am pretty well up on social media trends & techniques, especially in the video sector. The recent Covid restrictions has enabled live FCP.co shows online. This involves managing a Zoom Webinar through Restream.io to YouTube and Facebook.
The Future
I'm always open to new ideas and opportunities, so please get in touch at editor (at) fcp.co. I've judged film competitions, presented workflow techniques to international audiences and come up with ideas for TV shows and software programs!
