A Basic/Unorthodox FCP (R.I.P) Workflow

Waiting for the “Pro” in “X” means putting the “Final” in “…Cut Pro”.

 So, if you follow my friends like @JokeandBiagio on Twitter, you’ve figured out that we started out in Hollywood making docs and television shows - basically (and literally) in our apartments. 

We used Final Cut Pro and we used it like crazy. Had Final Cut Pro not existed I wouldn’t have been able to do so many things that I’ve gotten to do. I am grateful. 

Now over 10 years later… I’m basically back at it again… except this appears to be my last endeavor with Final Cut Pro now that Apple has abandoned the marketplace where my interests and work reside. 

My take on FCPX tweets like this…

#WTFCPX 

(thanks to @johnfoster for the .pdf printing and @NateCow for the image below. You can click the photo below to download the .pdf of the book)

Lately I’ve been revisiting Adobe Premiere and the new AVID Media Composer 6.  It’s basically become a test of what workflows in Final Cut Pro 7 can I simulate/duplicate in either of these programs with the least resistance…

And now… the latest (and last?) FCP project…

I got this opportunity to be PRODUCER AND EDITOR of this new show called PUNK PAYBACK which airs on Fuel TV. (Currently the number 1 show on the channel…BONKA!)

It basically began as sort of a guy in a room with a simple Final Cut Pro computer system doing whatever it takes to create a ten episode weekly series… just like we used to do it more or less.

Here’s the original unmixed show open I created which sums up the show…

[theme song by the band, fORMER thanks to Denny Smith]

(Now I’m going to pass over the interactions with the network for this entry and focus instead on the day before the show aired…)

On this first episode, there was footage with a phone number very visible in the back that needed to be removed. Great, ship it out to the graphics department. Done.

Except, there wasn’t one. The DP offered to roto the shots and he’d been working on them on and off for weeks. But on the day before air, several things had happened.  

1. The network wanted changes - yup, the day before air.

2. All rotos were almost finished but the shots’ ins and outs were now different. Ugh!

So, I quickly created a way to procedurally create a matte of Bas’s head inside Final Cut Pro and composite it - using the color of his skin!

Using the 3-way Color Corrector, I boosted Saturation and whites, blacks and mid tones.

Then a quick COLOR KEY filter (inverted) was added. Used the eyedropper to sample the flesh/orange color of the skin and a matte starts to appear.

Using more 3-way Color Correction - eliminate the color saturation make it High Contrast with the white and black levels.

Much like nodes, i had to go back and tweak little bits in the filter chain here and there but I had a quick usable matte that just needed rendering.

(ALPHA CHANNEL PHOTOSHOP COVERUP ELEMENT)

Now I could punch a clean Bas head element through the b/w matte composite over a Photoshoped version of the background graphic minus phone number.

A bit of color correction and composting in the final television element and it’s looked like this:

Was it perfect?

No.

Did it do its job?

Yup. 

The same trick can produce a sloppy/quick mask when a hand moves slightly in front of tv insert screen as well. 

BEFORE:

AFTER:

In smaller network television, it’s not always your best work, it’s what you can get done in THIS amount of time, with minimum resources and budget.

So, we all have to cheat… and Final Cut Pro helped a lot of us cheat for a long time.  

R.I.P.

“X” Terminator Day - International FCPX Refund Request

As you already know, on April 12th in Las Vegas during the NAB convention for Broadcast Professionals, Apple choose to demo FINAL CUT PRO 10 (X) at the LAFCPUG’s SUPERMEET to a crowd of broadcast professionals that use Final Cut Pro 7 (and previous versions) for actual broadcasting work - YET the software they were actually promoting ironically lacked the functionality used by that group in their broadcasting profession. (Functionality that WAS contained in previous versions of Final Cut Pro itself)

At this event Apple chose NOT to mention any of this at NAB SUPERMEET. Why?

Traditionally (and conditionally) Apple used this process to only show us what was added to each new version of Final Cut Pro avoiding the need to recap what we already knew to be there… because it’s an update. Final Cut Pro 4, Final Cut Pro 5, Final Cut Pro 6 and so on. 

So a couple of months later,  Final Cut Pro 10 (X) finally goes on sale through Apple’s brand new Mac App Store.   A store which has a policy of NO REFUNDS.

It’s no secret, we bought the living crap out of it.

I understand the numbers to be 2.5 million sales in the first 72 hours. Amazing!

But quickly we realized, we weren’t getting Final Cut Pro 7 plus this new stuff. We weren’t really getting Final Cut Pro at all. We got new program that borrowed most everything from Imovie with the Final Cut Pro name slapped on the virtual box. 

Um, WTF*CkP!?

Now we kind of have this little FCPX toy to play around with and future cast it’s possible potential but we can’t actually use for anything serious until some missing features are added (Not to mention all the gripes regarding the interface and changes to the paradigm of editing itself)

Damn, we shoulda’ downloaded the demo first to discover what was missing before we bought it for $299.00.

But, there was NO DEMO offered.

How come? Angry Birds is .99 cents and it has a demo.

FCPX buyers had only their previous years worth of allegiance to the FCP program as the confidence basis for their $299.00 purchasing decision.  How’d that go?

Again, the quote I’ve heard is 2.5 million downloads of FCPX in 72 hours. 

If Apple had announced those “missing features” during NAB SUPERMEET, what affect do you suppose that would have on that sales outcome?

How many sales do you think there would be if Apple more appropriately called this new software Imovie Pro?

I was a guest on That Post Show podcast the other night with Larry Jordan and I used the word “malicious” regarding the release of Final Cut Pro X. Larry was quick to disagree due to a personal conversation he’d had with an Apple Rep. Regardless, I still feel that Apple left out important details in the marketing of FCPX which would have had a dramatic affect on its sales on opening day. 

Maybe it was innocent on their part. Maybe they didn’t “think this way” and I saying “malicious” on my part was incorrect. 

Nonetheless, what do WE do about it?

                                           The People VS Final Cut Pro X

I suggest this. You’ve bought FCP X and played around with it for month. There’s no demo so what choice did you have.  Don’t like it? Want to tell Apple you don’t like it? Want a VIEWER window put back in?

What can YOU do? Seriously, they’re huge, what can YOU do?

I propose “X” Terminator Day - International Final Cut Pro X Refund Request.

One day for all the FCPX purchasers to ask for a refund on their FCPX purchase. Like a quickstarter program, let’s have a have a goal.

How about 1000 refunds on “X” Terminator Day - International Final Cut Pro X Refund Request. 

I am a veteran Final Cut Pro user/supporter.  The last working version of the software for guys like me has been removed from sale. Removed!  Replaced! Killed off!

You don’t like Final Cut Pro X? You want the original suite back on sale? You want to hear from Apple about FCPX’s future?

Let’s simply all ask for a refund… on the exact same day.

I declare AUGUST 29th 2011 as “X” TERMINATOR DAY - INTERNATIONAL FINAL CUT PRO X REFUND REQUEST (and it’s also the original Judgement Day from the Terminator series)

How can you apply for a refund?

Well you have to ask for it on a case by case basis it seems. 

To apply for your refund simply open the MAC APP STORE on your computer and CLICK on SUPPORT

CLICK on ACCOUNT and BILLING

FILL IN the request information and reason for REFUND 

If you feel Apple messed this up. Let your voice be heard. Make a statement.  (Hell, you can just repurchase the program at a later date if they get the features you want back into it) 

August 29th 2011 is “X” TERMINATOR DAY- International Final Cut Pro X Refund Requet !

Pass it on!!!!!  #XTerminatorDay    #iWantARefund

Larry Holden 1961-2011

It was 10 years ago that I met Larry Holden…

When I moved to California in 2000, I didn’t know very many people. I worked on a lot of projects for free. Uneventful pilots, so called television shows, and a few really poorly done films. Whatever. Everybody at the time was saying they were a “producer” on their way up and I was too new and broke to realize they were just giving that job title out at the airport. 

Then some mutual friends wanted me to help Larry edit his first feature film, “My Father’s House”.  I was mostly fed up at this point. I said, is it good? They said he had Cameron Diaz and Josh Charles in it. I’m sure I rolled my eyes. Right… but is it good?

They eventually convinced me the project was worthy and the filmmaker was a good honest guy. I agreed to meet him. 

The next day, in walked Larry Holden. He seemed so spent at that point. He had poured his heart into his movie and everyone seemed to just be taking advantage of him because he didn’t know a lot about the mechanics or necessary evils of finishing movies. 

As I write this having known Larry for years, I can’t honestly believe that he let me watch his film in a rough version at this point. He never let anyone see anything unfinished. Ever! - But on this day, at this time, he gave me a take home VHS cassette to watch. 

I spent 2 hours early the next morning watching it. 6 minutes into it, I’ll admit, it was a challenge. I said, what are you doing here? Are you going to take me somewhere? Do you know what you’re doing?

But…

 …I still kept on watching all the way through the credits to the very last one - which was like a well placed period at the end of a poetic sentence. From beginning to end he was working off a solid, complete thought. 

And since it wasn’t even finished yet, it was interesting that Larry had included an entire credit sequence on the rough cut of a film.  They unfortunately hadn’t mastered a rolling credit technique yet so each credit was a single name static card sequence that ran for a total of 17 minutes.  Today we graze through film credits basically ignoring them. I remember sitting in our local small town theater watching Empire Strikes Back and me and my friends would watch all the credits as they rolled by as almost a salute to all the filmmakers.  As I watched Larry’s credits, I again sat through, reading each and every one… down to the the very last, most special final card. Larry told me later he almost wanted to remove that card and I begged of him not to. 

Although I never made or expected a nickel from that movie, Larry did his best to pay it back. He got me into meetings. He took me to all the festivals the film got into. He was also my friend. Perhaps the only one I would truly call a friend that I had met in this brand new place.  Although our interests and tastes were at times vastly different we met up in our talks about being human and creating art. 

And it wasn’t just me. Larry was important to many people. That guy could make people think. He’d walk into a room and no one would ever forget his name. He was someone people admired and could look up to - and someone who would politely argue with you for thinking that way. 

Much like John Cassevettes, Larry chose to work as actor as a means to make his own films/art… which is something I need to learn about editing. One’s outlet for artistic expression shouldn’t be your actual paying job…  

In life, Larry has been a friend and a brother for 10 years.

On February 13^th, my friend and a friend to many suddenly passed away from cancer.  

This Sunday…May 15th 2011 would have been Larry’s birthday.

Yesterday, I pulled a book out that Larry had given me the week we met. He had written a message to me inside and at that time I’d never seen that done before then. 

Everyday there are little heroes that change peoples lives and in the grand scheme of things, they are unknown. I and many others had Larry in our lives through an oddity of circumstances and I’m sure he’ll never completely leave. Fragments and fingerprints of him will filter down through us for years to come.  

                                                 You are missed, Larry… 

If you’re interested knowing more about Larry… he would probably say… watch my films…

Larry Holden’s films are available from his website at http://www.holdenautomotive.com

http://www.holdenautomotive.com/store.html

http://www.holdenautomotive.com/review_mfh.html

Here are some Larry interviews from the internet.

http://www.batman-on-film.com/interview_larryholden.html

http://www.christophernolan.net/interviews_holden.php

http://www.roguecinema.com/article-788—0-0.html

A review of his first film, My Father’s House:

“What a gift! What a joy! Just when the cinematic landscape feels like a vast, boring desert of sameness, along comes a triumph of low budget brilliance like Larry Holden’s My Father’s House — a beautiful, delicate study of men’s lives and relationships. The film was so good I could hardly believe it. I held my breath as I watched it, waiting for a false note, a weak line delivery, or a sentimental moment. But there was none. Holden probes his central characters’ emotions without a single misstep. Watch carefully because this film is as subtle as our most interesting interactions in life. Holden understands that with men in particular, everything or almost everything emotional is hidden under the surface, between the lines, in the depths — and the miracle (and this film is miraculous) is that he finds a way to take us down there into the emotional depths of his characters’ lives to help us to see what is going on inside them. The succession of scenes may at first seem random or haphazard, but shot by shot Holden wonderfully weaves the strands together to tell the story of a life. One of the truest, subtlest, best films I’ve seen in years.”

— Ray Carney
Author of Cassavetes on Cassavetes
Quoted from a review published at www.cassavetes.com

Here is a scene of Larry in a movie called DOWNTIME by Rob Tiffin.  He’s so interesting in this scene…

A SCENE FROM DOWNTIME from rob tiffin on Vimeo.

What is Best Editing?

 Best Editing*

What does that mean exactly? 

Best costumes? Sure. Best Visual Effects. Right, got it. Heck, there can even be a BEST COSTUMES or BEST VISUAL EFFECTS winner for a film that hasn’t even a chance at a BEST PICTURE award. (Alice in Wonderland or Independence Day for example)

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120hz Television “Smoothing” MUST DIE!!!!

For almost 20 years, filmmakers have been trying to make electronic image recording (non- film) actually LOOK like film. Sure, there were ways to add grain or splotchy imperfections or gamma shifts to create a so so aesthetic of what was film-ish… but it was the motion or frame rate of video capturing that killed the actual “look”…

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