When Apple realised 10.1.2 that had more options on where to store media, it caught us all by surprise. This new update of FCLM to 2.50 now handles those changes to Final Cut Pro X.
Timothy Armes from Arctic Whiteness dropped us a line to say that he's just posted the 2.50 update to Final Cut Library Manager online.
"It's a been a gruelling 2 months - Apple completely knocked us off our feet with the new 10.1.2 option of storing external media outside of libraries. Although it seems like a small change to handle this, it actually entailed a monumental change to the structure of the our codebase."
With such a change in the way that FCPX stores external media, it is good to see Arctic Whiteness updating their app quickly to bring back functionality. We know many people who depend on Library Manager on a daily basis.
Timothy told us more about 2.50
"With Final Cut Library Manager 2.50 we set ourselves some difficult design challenges:
- We really wanted to maintain the simple and clear interface that that our users appreciate. We certainly didn’t want users who do not use external media to be bogged down with a more complicated interface.
- It was important that users could see which external media files were associated with each library.
- It was also important that users could see and clean external media files even when the associated library wasn’t visible. This would allow them to examine the space taken up on drives dedicated to generated media without having to include information from all the other disks attached to the system
- Since we were addressing the issue of external media we wanted to take into account one of the most popular requests – seeing how much space the external original files of a library were taking up. Version 2 would show the links to external files, but it didn’t allow you to see how big they were.
We believe that we’ve met all of our objectives. The main window now displays your libraries and any external media. When possible this media is now grouped with the libraries with which it’s associated so that you can see at a glance how your media files are distributed across the system for each library. Of course, you may prefer not to see all this information, so the new filter bar allows you to choose the media that you’d like to have displayed.
We’ve also included other user interface improvements such as an easy way to list the files used by a library or held inside a media folder."
Download version 2.50 from the Arctic Whiteness website. It is a free upgrade for existing customers and just over $10 for new ones.
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!
