With all the hoopla about Final Cut Pro X, I thought it would be a good idea to try out it with an actual project. FCPX may be missing features from the last version but you still can cut a professional video. I have been doing these real estate videos for some time. All before using Final Cut Pro 7. This is the first video that I did only with Final Cut Pro X. It was shot, edited and uploaded in one day, last Saturday. The editing went fairly quickly. Most things were faster. There are some good new tools in FCPX.
The video was shot with a Canon 60D and Sennheiser G2 wireless recorded in camera for on camera the talent. I then imported the raw video from the SD card into a folder where I keep all the other raw video from doing these real estate videos. I opened FCPX and imported the Canon's native h264 QuickTime’s footage into a new event. I did no conversion on .m4a voice over audio as well. In FCP7 I would render both the video and the audio to ProRes LT and .aiff. I brought in .png, .jpeg and Photoshop .psd's for graphics into the Event Library. Some have complained that .psd’s don’t come in as layers in a sequence. I have never liked that. I would always convert .psd’s as .png’s so they would be one layer. If you wanted to turn off a layer it could be done in Photoshop. I do like having multi-layer .psd’s in Motion.
After creating a new project, I laid in the first shot and added a fade in by doing a dissolve from black on the video. I like to emphasize the audio so I added Voice Enhance in the Inspector panel and turn off one of the audio channels of the two that the camera shoots.
Also I went to the Open in a Timeline command and added AU Peak Limiter from the Effects panel for the voice. A lot of the same keyboard short cuts still work like Command + to zoom the Project Timeline. (S now turns on and off the Skimming)
The next thing I did was that I went to Crop button in the Viewer and added the Ken Burns Effect to do a slow zoom on the shot.
Next I laid in the next shot and added a bunch of stills to the timeline. I put a transparent graphic over the stills and stretched it to fit. The “magic timeline” where it adjusts worked very well. I add more stills and video. When I put in the music for the video, I liked that I could add a fade in or fade out by pulling a little diamond near the edge if the clip. When I was editing in the “magic timeline” the music stayed in place as long as I was not at the beginning of it. Nice Touch.
The rest of the narration was added next. I voice enhanced the audio. Then I had to adjust the stills to fit the narration. There are rubber bands for the audio in the Timeline view. I had to learn how to use the new Titler. It behaves quite a bit differently that FCP7. There are many more options for titles.
Once I added the video tag on the end I was ready for making a movie. I selected Export Movie under the Share menu. The video rendered to ProRes in 18 seconds. That was very impressive because any rendering is done as I edit. I then converted the video to h264 for YouTube in QuickTime Player like I do on a regular basis. That was at it's usual pokey self. Then to YouTube.
Not wishing to cause too much offence mate, but you could have cut that on iMovie. In fact I could have cut that on Pinnacle 8 which I first learnt to cut on a decade ago.
If it works for you, great, love FCPX, but it is still an awful Pro App and to be honest, is targeted more at users like yourself.
I add this because you posted in another forum stating ‘overall, pretty good’. Hmmm, it isn’t. It’s shit.
Not all software is for everybody. There are other options. I said in my post that this version does not have all the a professional editor needs. I beg to differ on the aspect that “It’s S*%t”. This is much more powerful than iMovie. You don’t what kind of user I am so I don’t know how you would come up to that conclusion. My work encompasses a variety of clients from Fortune 500’s to small shops. I have been cutting since the early ’70s on film thru video tape to non-linear. I have cut on many different editing systems. I did what I needed it to do. I can say most of my work is now on the web. But then I don’t own a TV any more either.
People are dismissing FCPX because it is not like the rest of the editors out there. Some things it does better. Others things, the jury is out. Will it it be my main editor in the future, right now I don’t think so, but through the updates Apple may surprise us.