How (not) to Edit Like a Pro?

Hi, hi.

Many years ago there was a spoof video for FCP7ish about how NOT to edit like a Pro!
The video demonstrated workflows from hell.
Basically if you could do anything wrong in FCP7ish it showed you how to do so.
I have no idea where this video, what it was called exactly or even if it is still online…
But I remember it was great.

A workflow from hell which I experienced in hell was for e.g.

Use iMovie to ingest clips.
Dragging them into a FCP7 Timeline.
“Edit” them directly in the timeline…
At some point things broke and I was called in to get my head around this and fix it!

I would like to make a satire video for FCPX and workflows which you should really be avoiding.

Off the top of my head:

Have your project and autosave on the same drive as your project.
Have everything on an internal drive any way external drives are expensive and clunky.
Take advantages of programs such as “Photos” to ingest as they are plug and play.
Generate proxies in an external program (maybe from your camera manufacturer) and use them to up Res later.
ALWAYS put EVERY THING in the same Library so it is easy to find stuff.
Forget “Smart Collections” and take control of your Browser with Folders.
Set up the Browser so it works best for your folder workflow a la FCP Classic/Premiere/AVID.
Use the list view, the pictogram view is too confusing.
Switch off skimming because it is distracting.
Do not use multiple In and Out points as you will be distracted.
Have one viewer for the Browser and Timeline, any thing else is overkill.
Set up a gap clip/slug in the Timeline and use it to make things less magnetic.
Connect clips to your gap clip and shunt them around.
Alternatively cripple the Magnetic Timeline by using the “other” selection tool.
Use the Expanded Trim Tool to eye ball your edits, click and edit.
Snap shots are silly. No one really understands how they work any way.
Audio is not such a big deal this is why it is visually integrated with video in the Timeline.
Always export previews in the best quality and send them per email to the client.
Files for the internet need however to be tiny so take a setting that makes them small.
Achieve your project on your internal drive along with your original project and back ups.

Maybe some one in here would also like to share some FCPX tips/workflows from hell? :whistle:

thanks in advance

Paul

put all material into timeline, start editing using the BLADE tool

stack 8 lanes of full-screen material over each other to perform multicam

compounds into compounds into compounds into .....

shift-z to see the whole timeline and start shifting edit-points by mouse (or: avoid any keyboard shortcuts in general)

scroll manually thru timeline in sreach of specific clip instead of using the Timelinex Index

rename clips in Finder for 'better' search in FCPX
(avoid tagging by all means in general)

manually convert all source material with Wondershare et al to 2mbps h.264 to save disk space

tbc .....

(funny idea, but impossible to be put in one clip, ... 12 episodes.... ) :woohoo:

hi Karsten


Yes the ignoring tagging and Meta Data in general is defiantly the way to go.

Take control of your clips and rename them in the finder.

Preferably import them and rename them after wards any way.

Demonstrate how reveal Clip in finder works from FCPX.

Copy and paste the renamed names from the finder into FCPX to have every thing match up.

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I had a student who said the following…

“I went to the file menu in FCPX and saw that there was only a short cut for New Event & Project. So I concluded that Libraries were not important and just made an Event. And just put my material in an Event”

Imagine never saving/creating a Library and having all your material in Events in unnamed Libraries.
Ditto Projects.

And then take your idea:

put all material into timeline, start editing using the BLADE tool

(I am kicking myself for not thinking of the Blade Tool Grrrr.)

The mind boggles.

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“Stack 8 lanes of full-screen material over each other to perform Multicam”

Might be for more advanced users

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Shift-z to see the whole timeline and start shifting edit-points by mouse (or: avoid any keyboard shortcuts in general)

Not a million miles away from my

Use the Expanded Trim Tool to eye ball your edits, click and edit.

I guess this is a whole section on “power” trimming techniques.

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"compounds into compounds into compounds into ....."

Use generously with Snapshots & Duplicated Projects :woohoo:

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Manually convert all source material with Wondershare et al to 2mbps h.264 to save disk space

Is obviously sheer genius.

It could have come straight from this guy here:

twitter.com/worsteditorever

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I will try to come up with some more ideas.
Probably more like the beginning of next week.

There is also kind of a serious aspect to this.
As I want to try and wake people up to mistakes they are making.
And then show them how to do things better. With real tutorials. :blink:

best

Paul

Always make edits while zoomed out as far as possible.

Some of these ideas are pretty funny. Others are things I actually do myself. I think just as long as the workflow works for you there's nothing wrong with it. For example I sometimes rename in the Finder before import and it works great for me. I've never gotten into the metadata side of FCPX and honestly I've watched tons of videos on it and for me I really see no advantages to it compared to my existing workflow. I'm betting that I probably edit as fast or faster than the majority of people who use FCPX so I feel my workflow is pretty good. Not advocating everyone else do as I do, though. Other things listed will definitely slow you down, like everything in one library, editing directly in the timeline. Those are good.

Hi Redifer

I agree there is definitely no absolute truth with respect to how to edit most efficiently.
And it is important to avoid taking a condescending approach!
It is very much horses for courses.

Here is another true story. You can not make this kind of stuff up.
Trainee editor was editing a clip about a night club.
He called me in and complained that the material was all dark and that he could not see a thing.
At the time the standard of the material that we were getting was awful so I was not surprised.
I was however surprised when I noticed that he had zoomed in, in his canvas.
He was looking at a portion of the picture.
Not the whole picture.
When he applied for the job he had claimed to be a FCP expert!

“Zoom into your canvas to get closer to your material”

In my experience I make pretty much every mistake in the book at least once.
Call me naive if you will but I think it is possible to learn from other peoples mistakes :lol:

best

Paul

LOL! You should take it a step further. Instead of zooming in with the controls on the Viewer , zoom in with the Mac OS. So it would be "Zoom in with Control + your mouse scroll wheel to get a more detailed look at your video and make fine adjustments. This also works for the Timeline."

Redifer wrote: LOL! You should take it a step further. Instead of zooming in with the controls on the Viewer , zoom in with the Mac OS. So it would be "Zoom in with Control + your mouse scroll wheel to get a more detailed look at your video and make fine adjustments. This also works for the Timeline."

That is a great idea.
I might have to put it in the advanced section though. :dry:

Here are a couple more:

No need to constantly search pesky menus.
All you need to do is remember the Command you are trying to execute.
Go to the help menu and enter e.g. Set Range Start/Set Range End.
And press enter.

Always always have snapping on.
Even when doing tricky trims.
(In conjunction with zoom out)

Always have all applications arranged on your screen so that you can see them all.
If only a tiny little bit of the edge of each application.
Switch applications by clicking them.
Take this to the next level by moving the selected application ever so slightly to double check it is active. :evil:

ok, someone now needs to make an instructional video with these notes

I'd for sure make one if I had time and a large audience who would enjoy it. I did a few of these types of videos about Projection Booth training (for movie theaters) a long time ago and they were really fun. Lots of great bad info with hilarious results.

I guess a video like this would need to be Screenflow-style with a narrator instead of shot with a camera.

Hi hi

For any one who is interested here is part 01 of How NOT to edit like a Pro



Any thoughts feed back welcome.

More to follow...

best

Paul

I love the Sloths website.
The trouble is that without a comedy soundtrack, some people might actually take this seriously.
The tone of your voice is really reassuring.

You should consider making relaxation tapes for editors still using FCP7, to listen to while they are waiting for renders to finish.

Hi Duncan

Yes I thought about Music.
I guess it is kind of a personal preference but music on even the best tutorials drives me mad.
I will however keep my ears open for something suitable. :woohoo:

In the mean time here is part 2.



I believe that it is pretty scary.

best

Paul

This 2nd video just demonstrates what I have been trying to say for a long time, Apple is not listening to all users, only a select few, and the few are wrong!!

The automatic smart collection is a great idea, why for the love of beer is it not a check-able item in preferences???? Grrrh

The lack of 2 up trim when using the keyboard, again, are the selected few making the decision what is best for me??? grrrh!!!

A pro is someone that uses a tool in a way a newbie would not, for example, a newbie might prefer fully automatic settings, where a professional would prefer deep control over the software, I wonder just how much FCPX would be improved by a 2 stage preference, you see it in almost all apps, a check box for "advanced features".

As an example, open VLC, in preferences, there is a "show all" option, and boy the number of extra options is staggering...

I actually believe that pretty much any one be they Pro or Amateur can get some kind of result out of FCPX pretty much every time. I believe that, that is a good thing. I taught for example a Tango Dancer how to edit Tango videos in FCPX and he did things in the program that would make any “Pro” want to throw up. But fact is that he got great results. There are also many, many, many “Pros” who make really boring stuff if only because that is what the market demands!

A new very real problem that I encountered recently was teaching “Digital Natives.” These are kids who grew up with a “smart phone” in their hands and never saved any thing in their lives. Every thing they have ever done is some where in a thing called “The Cloud.”

They have a huge problem at the very latest when they realise that their hard drive is suddenly full! After all when they bought the computer they even paid the couple of extra euros for the bigger drive.

Some how they were the inspiration for these videos.

Digital Native!!! I am so an analogue native, it is not funny, I find it sad that kids today will never have to think in a way I had to, using tape, having to remember and think about the currency of shots, in a way the hover-chairs in Wall-e is what FCPX is to editors today..

Yes very creative, but at what cost, and and what have we lost with the finite costly storage we now need? Back in the day, you could buy 50 mini-dv tapes and shoot for hours, knowing that tape will only ever be used twice, once to shoot, once to ingest, and you had the freedom to go into any decent computer store, wallymart and buy more, most places in the world had them...

Digital has in a way weakened the creative I feel.

In case any one is interested Part 3 is now finished with an article also in the works...

I'm dying at these! 'Save everything on your internal' *i noticed you only had like 700MB's available on your internal hard drive too!

Also didn't know you could drive things from iMovie right into FCPX. hilarious because that should NEVER be a thing ANYONE does EVER!

will there be a part 4 soon? Also, this concept needs to be carried over to everything. basic computer work, not just NLE pro software

Funny fun thread but it's a shame we don't have a thread help and share like a pro.
We share technical info but the actual art of editing is missing here.

Why not a thread for that. For example I would like to know how someone would edit a making of project or a sport reel.

Also didn't know you could drive things from iMovie right into FCPX. hilarious because that should NEVER be a thing ANYONE does EVER!

If I am not mistaken you could do this in Legacy FCP as well.
I believe that it illustrates a point and that is FCPX is pretty easy to use.
But that in a way can be it´s greatest weakness!!!

I guess we all do this to some extent or another. Myself included.

There are currently a total of 9 of these planned with 3 sections each.
I am currently putting the final touches to some crippling the Magnetic Timeline Tutorials.

And after that I want to move onto some deleting gaps.
This is all an experiment but I am going to see if I can recreate some thing like this in FCPX with some Blading Clips thrown in for good measure:




The video is up a couple of days and has 500 plus hits like how insane is that!!!
As clever and all as the Workflow is.
It does not really flow...