With the release Tuesday of Final Cut Pro 10.0.1, Apple added the ability to import and export XML files. While not a direct benefit to FCP X editors, indirectly, this is huge. Let me explain why.
Video, and film, editing is accomplished using a wide variety of software tools. I like to think of editing as a wheel, where the editing software is at the hub and lots of different specialized tools orbit around it. From Photoshop, to ProTools or Soundtrack Pro, to After Effects or Motion, Compressor, DVD Studio Pro…. well, you get the idea — it takes a whole suite to raise a project.
This was one of the big problems with FCP X at release — it offered a walled garden. As long as what you needed was in the program, you were fine. But if you needed to share files to other applications, you had problems. Basically, you couldn’t.
One of the most glaring omissions was audio mixing — we couldn’t get our audio out of FCP X into Soundtrack Pro or ProTools for an audio mix. Wes Plate and the talented folks at Automatic Duck came to our rescue with Pro Export FCP 5.0, which exported FCP X projects for ProTools. — http://www.automaticduck.com/products/pefcp/ —
But that solved only a part of the problem; it got us to ProTools, but we were still essentially caught inside FCP X.
With the release of FCP X 10.0.1, Apple provided the ability to export and import XML. XML is the interchange language of applications. From XML we can derive EDLs, OMFs, AAFs, and all the other acronyms we need to move files from one place to another.
However, there’s still a problem – XML is like language, there are variations. Which means that before we, as editors, can take advantage of this, developers need to work with it first.
Let me explain by way of an analogy. Think of XML as a tab-delimited text file (it isn’t, really, this is an analogy…). However, that file is written in French, while other applications expect the file to be in English. So, a developer needs to convert this XML format from the version exported by FCP X, into the version needed by their application.
Wednesday night, Philip Hodgetts, CEO of Intelligent Assistance, demoed a beta program they are developing that illustrates what this new XML feature provides. Philip showed how an FCP X project can be exported as XML, converted, then imported into FCP 7. From FCP 7, it can be sent to Soundtrack Pro for mixing, or ProTools via OMF, or Color for color correction, or any of the other applications that link in with FCP 7.
The program is called: “Project X27” and should be released in the next couple of weeks. It is SO new, in fact, it doesn’t have a webpage yet – when it does, you’ll find it at this website: — www. intelligentassistance.com —
I think this signals the tip of the iceberg where, finally, FCP X editors can start to share elements of their programs with the rest of the world. This still requires developers to do their part to support this, but the new XML export in FCP X 10.0.1 is the essential first step.
As always, let me know what you think.
Larry
38 Responses to The Beginning of Something Exciting
← Older Comments Newer Comments →-
Edgar says:
September 23, 2011 at 6:33 pm
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Larry says:
September 23, 2011 at 6:46 pm
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Walter Biscardi says:
September 23, 2011 at 11:06 pm
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Larry says:
September 23, 2011 at 11:19 pm
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nickeditor says:
September 24, 2011 at 6:35 am
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Larry says:
September 24, 2011 at 9:46 am
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DRob says:
September 24, 2011 at 12:22 pm
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PF Bentley says:
September 24, 2011 at 11:27 pm
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Reinout says:
September 25, 2011 at 1:30 pm
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Dick Applebaum says:
September 25, 2011 at 6:51 pm
← Older Comments Newer Comments →To be honest, I took a chance and bought it. I played around a little using a simple project from FCP X. Everything seem to come over into AfterEffects. I was even able to Dynamic link into Premiere Pro and wow there it was.. right in the timeline. Maybe, when you get a chance you could do a more involved test.
Thanks for the feedback. Looking at this app is on my list.
Larry
I just don’t see the logic here.
Apple releases a “brand new paradigm” but now someone has figured a way to go back to the “old paradigm” so you can talk to other applications. SoundTrack Pro, Color and DVD Studio Pro are all EOL so they are dead apps. But now we’re to get excited that instead of working in one Non-Linear Editing system, we can start in one, then export everything and then use a second Non-Linear system so we can finish a project or send it off for finish?
So what this “exciting new development” does is require you need to keep running dual NLE’s. From a business standpoint, why do I want to do this? Ok Editor 1, you’re done with the edit, it looks good, now I want you to export everything so we can open it in FCP 7 and then we can prep it to go into Color and so on.
No offense to Philip but this is not anything for large Post houses and Broadcasters to get excited about. This just creates a small tunnel to go under the wall that Apple has created with FCP X. All of these “solutions” are convoluted workarounds brought on by the very design of the application. Philip’s solution requires you to use two NLEs to do the work of one, there’s just no way to call this efficient or professional. Apple is leaning on someone like Philip to solve a tremendous problem they brought on themselves by not listening to the beta testers when they still had time to change the application.
In my case, we’re now starting to edit projects in Adobe Premiere Pro. We’ve already delivered projects to CNN and PBS from PPro and it’s working quite well. It’s an efficient workflow because one primary NLE talks to everything else.
As for moving FCP 7 projects forward to FCP X, it’s obvious that Sequences should be able to move forward and I’m quite surprised no one has come out with that one yet. But as far as the entire Project Structure including Bins, Sequences, and all organization, that just doesn’t seem possible with new operation of FCP X. So if all you need is a Sequence or two from your old project, you’ll be fine, but if you want the entire organization, that really doesn’t seem like it’ll ever happen.
It’s going to be a few years it seems until Apple unravels the mess of a position they put themselves in. I really don’t see the release of something that moves a project backwards into an old app as the “tip of the iceberg” for moving forward. For me it shows that Apple really has no idea of how to fix the complete mess that the trackless editing paradigm has brought to their application being accepted by the Post Production community. I fear we’re going to end up with dozens of applications and plug-ins that will need to be installed on every system just to ensure the system can sort of kind of talk to the other tools we use every day for projects.
Walter:
All good comments. My use of the “Beginning of Something Exciting” was not, specifically, related to moving FCP X to FCP 7. Rather, it was to try to explain the significance of why XML import/export is so important. XML is how FCP 7 talks to other apps in the Suite, it’s also how Premiere Pro talks to all the different apps in Production Premium. Without XML, no significant communication is possible. With XML, and the support of third-party developers, FCP X can finally communicate with the rest of the world.
Larry
Will we have to depend on third parties?
It’s like buying a “house” and move to find it with no doors and no windows and we have to find someone to put them. If we have a problem with a door or a window, what happens if who put it is no more? Would you go to claim the architect?
We also find that the price of the “house” is not real, is the price of the “house” plus the cost of the doors, plus the cost of the windows and cross your fingers in cause you do not miss something else.
That is the “house” that Apple sells when Apple sells Final Cut X: without doors and without windows.
Well…. I understand what you are saying, but I don’t agree with it. The reason FCP 7 is so valuable is the vast array of third-party plugins that work with it. This doesn’t mean FCP 7 isn’t valuable in itself, but what makes it so exciting is everything that connects to it. I would MUCH prefer a vibrant community of developers creating new filters, effects, plugins, hardware on a constant basis, than having to wait for Apple to create everything.
To expect one developer – say Apple – to create everything for the application, would make for a very dull application. Imagine what FCP 7 would be like with no plug-ins?
Larry
I agree with the “Beginning of Something Exciting” statement especially when it comes to third party developers and competition. Look at the plugin market for FCPX already. It seems as though Crumple Pop releases a new product every week or so. They’ve stated that they are 100% in when it comes to FCPX, which is very obvious. Red Giant have stated that they are in too and GenArt’s excellent Sapphire Edge plugins are already in beta. And there are others that are making quality plugins with very attractive pricing. This doesn’t even touch on how much more superior it is to actually use plugins/effects in FCPX compared to FCP 7.
I just did a VERY simple test with FoolCut AE and it works! More competition benefits the end user. It’s going to be very interesting to see Automatic Duck’s solution and especially their pricing. Speaking of, what would FCP 7 be for many users if it wasn’t for Pro Import AE? Remember, Apple only provided the infrastructure and Automatic Duck provided the solution. And that’s what Apple just did with the new XML in FCPX. It will be very telling to see how many third party solutions are available related to the XML import and export in the coming months.
As Dave said – time to move on.
Why should I be jumping through hoops to do an edit? FCP X is a failure for professionals. I switched to CS5.5 in June and look forward to CS 6 next year. There’s some little annoying stuff with CS 5.5 that FCP 7 does easier and quicker, but Adobe plans to address those issues in that CS6 upgrade.
Apple makes great products which I use everyday. Love the company, but they made a decision and statement with FCP X. They might say they care about professional editors, but their actions have proved differently.
People are trying to put lipstick on a pig and make FCP X work somehow….it’s still a pig and nothing can change that until you replace it with a swan. In my case that swan was CS5.5. I’ve been an Apple user since 1985. Love ya, Apple – Love ya, Steve – but I gotta edit and make a living now. I promise to check out FCP 11 when it comes out.
(Memo to Apple – all we wanted was FCP 8 with all the great features of CS5.5 and maybe some cool new stuff – would that of been so hard?)
As I continue to keep reading comments like the one from PF Bentley, I’m more and more becoming feeling like FCPX really ignited a hard-lined response from so many people. And by hard-lined I mean that it’s no longer a case of,
‘Well, I prefer product X, so I’m not too keen on product Y, but good luck to ya if you work with product Y”, but instead it’s become:
“I really, really hate product Y, and I do not believe people can work with it. So I push for product X and sort of indirectly ridicule anyone who believes product Y is a serious tool. It’s not. It’s a dead dog, a pig with lipstick, etc. etc.”
Only now, after more than three months am I really starting to become offended as I slowly begin speaking out over the internet against this hard-lined response where I as a very, very happy user of FCPX (who is making a living out of cutting stuff on FCPX and doing so for a lot of satisfied customers) am feeling like I have to defend myself, or feel ashamed of admitting to actually liking this product.
Funny how, in a way, FCPX really brings apple full circle back to the eighties, where you’re again a sort of underdog/foreigner/stranger just by using FCPX.
anyway, I hope the hard-lined responses will die down over time, and critics and fans can once again sort of live together like we seemed to do before June 2011…you know, with like, respect and stuff.
@Reinout
Very well said!
I am a prosumer, doing videos for friends and family. I have used FCP 7 for about 4 years (FCE before that) and every version of iMovie. Depending on the requirement, iMovie can be a better solution than FCP — like getting a grandkids soccer highlight up on the web within an hour after the game.
A creative friend (singer, songwriter, composer, pianist) does a lot of her own editing (originally GarageBand, now Logic; and iMovie) for music videos — so she understands and appreciates what is involved. Most of the video/audio is professionally shot. She has outgrown iMovie and wants something with more capability.
She knows I have FCPX, FCP 7, FCE, iMovie(s) — and asked me: In one sentence, what is the advantage of FCPX.
The [almost] immediate answer: “FCPX makes it fun to be powerful”.