making (slow) progress ...

.. well, except for actually, you know, producing any actual video!

today while the thunderstorms held sway outside, i downloaded and installed the fcpx trial from apple. i then started exploring my upload options and first tried youtube which is what i usually use. i submitted the out-of-the-camera pro-res-hq 222mb/s file thinking youtube would squeal in protest and crash, but it sucked it up without complaint, but the end result was disappointing even though for some reason it had increased the resolution from 1920x1080 to a few hundred pixels more than that.

next, i explored vimeo. i've had an account there for many years but evidently i haven't used it because there weren't any vids in my account. i signed up for their 'plus' plan to get 5gb/week.

then i had to read vimeo documentation for hours to figure out how to actually upload stuff to my account--no wonder i've never used it! youtube definitely is the winner if you're in favor of so-easy-it-doesn't-need-a-brain operation. and i'm partial to that mode of operation.

so i needed an extra step called 'compression' and although i wasn't unfamiliar with some of the tools since i used to rip dvd's so i could store and play them on my tivo, it was still a pain. first i tried streamclip because it was on their list and i had used it more, but they didn't have a page of recommended settings for it so i moved on to an old nemesis--handbrake.

godz how i've hated that program over the year!. it's been in beta for about 10-15 years and i've never been able to do a single thing with it. but at least vimeo had a page showing how to setup a preset for vimeo upload although i had to spend at least two hours tweaking their recommendations. i mean, crap, my 60s 1.88gb 222mb/s file shrunk down to 32mb and was total junk using their recommendations. i tested and tested and finally got a file that was 60s, 188mb, 24mb/s bitrate that looked pretty good and didn't take that long to process. i haven't tried uploading it yet because i don't want to dent my quota with just a test.

but the part that''s been biting me in the butt ever since i shot my first video clip is that i cannot for the life of me figure out how to edit the damm things. video clips, i mean. i have one app called borland turbo h.264 which came with a hardware turbo boost dongle and at least with it i can do the most basic operations which are to cut segments out of clips and to merge clips to produce a single file. that's as advanced as it gets, but in 99% of the cases, that's all i need.

resolve and fcpx didn't yield to two more hours of trying to do just these simple things. it's friggin' ridiculous---how could they even think of coding a video editing program where a beginner can't even cut a segment out of a clip or figure out how to merge two clips? software has become click and pray for many years as they've taken help files out and removed menu items so you can't just go through the menus anymore and select a function--you have to guess what to drag and drop and what to click and what the dammed icons mean.

despite all that, i feel i've made some progress towards actual shooting and when i decide on which editor i'm going to concentrate on i can buy some books and figure out how to merge two damm clips together. i hope. the books might not even start that basic for all i know. [g]

also, i think i've decided to forego cinema-dng (raw) until i learn more. as it stands now, it looks like you have to import them into resolve, then transcode, and export them. then you import them into fcpx. that's way too complicated right now (not even counting the compression step for upload to vimeo) and depending on how my 30-day trial of fcpx goes, i plan to pay for and use it. the reviews say that resolve is hard to learn and, as you can tell, i can't even deal with quicktime or imovie or premiere, so i'm sure i'd have no chance of figuring out resolve if the pros and semi-pros are bitching about it. [g]

/guy

i mean really. i built the very first pc from a kit and have worked in computers ever since, although i've only programmed on the side as part of my other computer tasks--the newspaper is still running some software i wrote 20 years ago for the circulation department. i could be a very successful hacker if i wished--mitnik got started in ham radio also.

so how someone can code a program so user-unfriendly that i can't use it is beyond me. i would hazard a reason, but i'd be called a racist again for pointing out everyone is outsourcing programming to the lowest bidder. thank god nasa didn't have that option before the moon launch or the bodies of our first astronauts would still be floating around up there.

at least apple has a plethora of resource materials for fcpx including 8 hours of beginner tutorials and an ibook, among other items. i've squirreled away these resources in a folder which i'll revisit before i try more editing and just frustrate myself further. i mean, apple understands total idiots--they didn't budge on the one-button mouse for decades!

/guy

btw, i've opened that 60s test clip in nearly everything and inspected it every which way and the metadata that took me a whole battery worth of time to painstakingly punch in on the bmpcc screen is nowhere to be found.

i just opened up fcpx for the first time and opened the pro res hq file which is right out of the camera and dammme if i can find any metadata. does it only show up in resolve? otherewise, what the use of doing it--i can't imagine going into that screen for every reel or scene change if i was working a professional production. i'd just write it on one of those clapboards and get it in the scene instead.

but what do i know? <rhetorical, natch ....> [g]

/guy

so what fresh hell is that? it's always something around the corner.

about a week ago i took a 60s test clip on the bmpcc in pro res hq format. i'm on a mac and when i double-click it, it's been opening in quicktime. but now i have final cut pro x and when i right click it, fcpx isn't even in the list of apps which can open it. when i go into /info/ and set fcpx to open it, when i double-click i get an error that it isn't an approved format or some **** like that.

wtf bloody hell is going on. doesn't the bmpcc produce native pro res hq files? is it not supposed to have a .mov extension on the sd card? did i miss a setting in the bmpcc? and isn't fcpx designed exactly for those files? how can there possibly by any sort of mismatch there? i did format my card hfs+ for easy use on my mac.

this is insane. it's one big reason i've resisted video for decades. nothing is easy--ever.

/guy

well ****! despite bmpcc producing native pro res files and despite fcpx being created to edit those files, it looks like i need a friggin' converter. that makes absolutely no f____king sense. none. apple may lose my $300 for fcpx if i have to edit the damm things in quicktime anyway. hell, i think even premiere doesn't give me any crap about opening them.

do you video guys just settle for this sort of abuse? or is it job security? [g]

/guy

There's a particular sequence you need to go through when setting up a new FCPX project. I get the feeling you haven't applied it otherwise you wouldn't have experienced the problems you have highlighted here......

........but I'm backing off because I don't want to get caught in the crossfire!

no, as you can see, i'm working through my frustrations by typing, which usually helps in the way having to explain a problem to someone else makes you see it differently.

so yes, i'm trying to put together what you guys call a 'workflow', but i'm very ocd when it comes to wasted actions, so of course i want it as streamlined and efficient as possible from the word 'go' when the sad fact is that it takes months and years to know enough to get it running that smoothly.

but it's a new day today and i can throw new energy at the issues. plus, i need more than just the one test video clip to work with.

/guy

Guy. Rescue yourself from the world of hurt you are in certainly as far as FCPX is concerned by buying Ripple Trainings video package of FCPX training. Its as painless a way to learn how to get started as any I have seen. By the way you can export directly to your Vimeo site from the FCPX timeline once you have set up a few permissions of course.
Good luck. Patrick.

thanks patrick. but don't you need compressor in order to export directly to vimeo? i know vimeo said you could upload without compression, but they sure didn't encourage it.

i think i have the handbrake program set right and i could install the cli version and then create a folder action or an automator or apple script to make it nearly a one-step process, although outside of any nle.

tks, /guy

Guy, sent you a PM on the Pocket Camera settings
Cheers

tks denny! got it. /guy

Hi Guy. You don't need Compressor to export directly to Vimeo. If you are on FCPX 10.3.1 the share icon is in the very top right corner of the interface which opens out with all the choices, one of which should be Vimeo. You can configure the settings in the window that opens when you choose the Vimeo button. In older versions I think the share button is on the far right half way down the interface. Sorry, I'm not in front of that version now. You can always choose share from File>Share and do it from that menu.
Good luck.

thanks patrick! yeah, i found it--along with youtube and facebook--after i posted that and those and all my exports seemed to work perfectly. i scratched my head after that because apple sells compressor as a $50 option, so i just concluded that they'd included it in my trial version of fcpx, but if you have it in the full version of fcpx and you didn't pay extra for it, then i guess i'm puzzled that they sell it separately if it's included.

/guy

got some rigging bits in today and decided to record that progress. i'm actually going two routes with this shape cage and a wooden camera cage. if not for the metabones foot and other accessories that wooden camera sells i probably have just gone with this one for everything. at least i got some good deals and found the wc half cage on ebay and the shape cage was less than half the normal price via adorama. maybe they're discontinuing it.

btw, the rods aren't what came with it--i got some carbon fiber ones which were shorter to make it easier to maneuver for now as i'm not near up to the point of hanging things off the rods.







/guy

You can do other things in Compressor that you cannot do via the share menu, not that i have much experience with Compressor.

ah! that would make sense then.

thanks! /guy

thanks patrick. but don't you need compressor in order to export directly to vimeo? i know vimeo said you could upload without compression, but they sure didn't encourage it.

Hi Guy, you'll find that FCPX has a lot of "Share" format options, all of which are user-modifiable, and you can also set up your own list of preferred options. Once a project has been edited and is ready to export (or "share") you can simply select your custom option and it will do the job as required.

Apple's companion application, Compressor, is closely linked to FCPX (and also Motion) but offers a more comprehensive control over compression processes and more critical options in the available settings. For instance, it offers you a real-time "before and after" split-screen preview of the transcoding job in real time, as well as options for batch conversion of files which can be left overnight, etc. Compressor was, until recently, a very expensive package and competed directly with Adobe Media Encoder but is now much cheaper and - in my opinion - easier to use. I think it offers very good value for money and is a must for anyone requiring transcoding of video (and audio) files on the MacOS platform.

One last point, when you have Compressor installed in addition to FCPX you'll find that the range of options available in FCPX is greater, especially when you drill down to the nitty-gritty of the settings. They do, after all, share the same processing engine.

Hope that helps!

Colin

thank you for that valuable information colin! for now i think i'm going to follow a two-pronged path to getting started. adobe premiere has in-built interactive tutorials which i'm finding invaluable time-savers. so i'll use premiere to learn the actual paradigm of video editing and for test projects. i'll also buy fcpx after the trial expires and try to transfer what i learn to it and eventually i hope to be able to use fcpx alone. for now it would take hours and hours of books and video-classes to get me far enough to allow me to take advantage of the power and options of fcpx. and indeed, i've already started doing this--reading and experimenting with fcpx and then going into premiere to try out a concept.

is there any way to zap the preferences and reset fcpx back to 'factory' settings? the inevitable result of experimentation without knowing what you're doing is to get something out of kilter and you don't know what it is.

tks agn, /guy