Assisting an Editor transfer from Final Cut Pro to

RobGG wrote on 11/23/2007, 7:14 PM
We are documentary filmmakers using Sony HVR-V1P Cameras and a Vegas Pro 8 editing suite. We have a current project to produce a 1-hour TV documentary from 40 hours of HDTV material and we need to engage a professional editor. In Melbourne, Australia, we have found that almost all the professional NLE editors approached are skilled in using Final Cut Pro, with a smaller group using Avid. Some have even suggested we transfer the project to a FCP platform as they consider Vegas a toy!

Does anyone know of a good document, and/or set of scripts, that enables a skilled (and willing) Final Cut Pro editor to make a transition to Vegas Pro 8? With a clear list of the “differences” and a list of the “mental adjustments” necessary, we hope we can encourage an FCP skilled editor to work on our project.

Comments

TheHappyFriar wrote on 11/23/2007, 9:37 PM
if they consider it a toy, doesn't matter what you do, they'll constantly whine & complain like a kid who had his wowwy-pop taken away (baby talk on purpose). :D

point them to this forum, tell them "S" cuts, "SPACE" play/stops ("ENTER" pauses, by default) & they're on their way.
deusx wrote on 11/23/2007, 10:04 PM
Just stick apple logo on the monitor and tell them that they are looking at the newest version of FCP. Then just listen to all the oohhhh, ahhhhhs, and endless praises.
ushere wrote on 11/23/2007, 11:28 PM
i hate to say it, but forget the idea... it'd be simpler learning vegas yourself (and probably much cheaper). hopefully you can find a pro vegas editor down in melbourne (serena?), there's a fair few in sydney (bob-farss) to mention just one. but trying to get an editor to change horse for one project is going to prove a nightmare - as pointed out above.

my experience is that it takes a LOT of energy and patience to teach an old dog new tricks...

leslie
blink3times wrote on 11/24/2007, 4:36 AM
"Some have even suggested we transfer the project to a FCP platform as they consider Vegas a toy!"
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Yes... and quite seriously it looks like a toy too!

But it isn't. I come from Avid and I am STILL everyday learning new things and being amazed by this program. And the speed at which I can get things done with this interface is at least twice that of Avid. In fact after months of not using Avid, I fired it up one day and tried to do a bit of edit work. It felt slow, old and awkward. I felt a slight wave of depression come over me as I stared into that drab grayish, green interface.... trying to be creative with your head hanging down past your shoulders takes EXTRA effort!

But what really amazes me are the leaps-and-bounds advancements that are being made with each new version. It's clear that the Madison Engineers are NOT sitting on their asses watching NYPD-blue re-runs all day. There is always some new and interesting stuff to learn.

My one complaint I think is (I work mostly with HD) that things do tend to bog down a little when you have more than 3 tracks running with some heavy effects going. But that I think will be taken care of with the soon-to-be-released Vegas 64 bit version.

As for making the switch.... I don't think there is any easy way to do that. If you are used to one NLE then any other will seem cumbersome to work with for a bit of time and you simply have to muscle and force your way through it until habit starts to take over. I had a heck of a time doing something as simple as making a cut in Vegas.... until I learned about the "S" key... So pay attention to the keyboard shortcuts. I don't know about FCP but in Avid the timeline was not much more than a picture of your work and your activities came from drop-down menus and such But in Vegas, a lot of your work and adjustments are actually carried out DIRECTLY ON the timeline... it's MUCH more than just a picture (this in my opinion is what makes Vegas so bloody efficient). So you'll probably notice an increase in dragging... right clicking... etc, directly on the timeline. I found that the timeline scaling ability to be wonderful to work with (Avid doesn't really have much of this). When I 'm working with one track, I can blow it up and magnify it to a huge extent while shrinking the others... this allow my focus to be on what exactly I am doing instead of having screen space taken up by other parts of the project that don't need my concentration on at the time.

I'm clearly a Vegas boy now... and all I have to say is..... Avid who?

BTW:
Mike Jones does a lot of work in both FCP and Vegas... you may find some helpful hints googling with his name... just a google example:

http://www.google.ca/search?q=mike+jones%2C+avid%2C+fcp%2C+vegas&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a
newhope wrote on 11/24/2007, 5:13 AM
Have you considered using an editor based in Sydney... uhhh and that would be me
Stephen Hope
New Hope Media
www.newhope.com.au

After all I deliver viewing copies of my edits to my clients in Melbourne online using flash and I'm also reasonably good with sound post production... just having won the Best Achievement in Sound for a Short Film (Death's Requiem which I mixed in 5.1 using Vegas) at the Australian Screen Sound Guild awards 2007.

I could even email the .veg files through so you can see the cut on your own system as long as we have dulpicate media and .veg files are usually less than 1Mb to email.

Give me a call if you are interested...by the way I can use FCP and ProTools as well if needed.

Regards
Stephen Hope
GlennChan wrote on 11/24/2007, 12:08 PM
Very useful for me... a list of Vegas shortcuts.
http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=20830

Also see my post (the last) in that thread.

http://mediasoftware.sonypictures.com/forums/ShowMessage.asp?MessageID=385252&Replies=12&Page=0