Please kill me now...

SCErwin wrote on 4/9/2004, 4:33 PM
My six week editing course (using FCP 4) has just finished week 4. The class itself has been great and I've learned a ton about the aesthetics and craft of cutting. I've also learned that I hate FCP. I've ALSO learned that FCP people drive me frickin' nuts. I'm sure they're sick of me as well, but my only basis of comparison is Vegas. It's all I've used, so when I ask questions I typically speak from a Vegas frame of reference. I am SOOO tired of their condescending attitude (thinly veiled) whenever it comes up. Sample conversation: ME - "This DV clip has some terrible humm/buzzing in the background. Is there an easy way to remove it in FCP?" THEM - "Sure, just co into the effects menu and use the EQ to cut off the frequency that is making the humm." I THINK TO MYSELF - "What a hugely ineffective and time consuming way to TRY and fix it. That's like doing surgery with a spoon. I could do this in 10 seconds with Vegas and my noise reduction 2 plugin (I have SF too, so I guess it isn't a totally fair comparison. But I can get all of those Sony products for less than FCP)... So I mention that I have a tool that will easily fix the problem, and that I'll take care of it over the weekend, only to get a lecture about how that sort of problem will typically get fixed by "the audio guys" when the editing is done...

To add insult to injury, one of the instructors continued working on the humm and said he wanted to show me a really AWESOME new feature in FCP 4.... He called the other folks around to see it (including the other, less experienced instructors). "You see, if you select an IN and OUT point in your sequence, then hit SHIFT + BACKSLASH, the area between your IN and OUT points will LOOP!!!!" he says.... The other instructor (who is a certified FCP 4 instructor - and I'm not exaggerating a BIT here...) says, "WOW! That's AWESOME!!!"

I about crapped my pants. That's their "awesome" new feature in FCP 4??? LOOPING?????????

Oh, lordy, lordy... Kill me now.... Take away the pain....

Thanks for letting me rant.

Comments

farss wrote on 4/9/2004, 4:51 PM
It would have been nice to have YOUR toolset with you on a laptop and then watch as they all crapped THEIR pants.
PeterWright wrote on 4/9/2004, 5:26 PM
Please feel free to rant any time -makes good reading!

I've also had problems dealing with Mac owners with their condescending smirks .... been asked when I'm going to make "the move" to Mac/FCP, and I enjoy asking "Why go backwards?".
RexA wrote on 4/9/2004, 5:35 PM
I enjoyed the message.

Are you the AntiZippy?
SCErwin wrote on 4/9/2004, 5:38 PM
Yes. In the future please refer to me as "YppiZ"....
BillyBoy wrote on 4/9/2004, 5:45 PM
Its a mindset Apple nuts have. They actually think Macs are real computers, not glorfied toys and all the Mac software is so 'advanced'. They're so cute, they come as cubes, in pink, purple, etc..

LOL!

Chienworks wrote on 4/9/2004, 6:21 PM
"they come as cubes, in pink, purple, etc.."

So does Jello™.
Jessariah67 wrote on 4/9/2004, 7:11 PM
Living in Ithaca - who's unofficial motto is "10 Square Miles Surrounded By Reality" - and having three colleges in the county, MACs are are a frequent sight on local campuses & in local coffee shops. In fact, we have a joke here that all MAC users are required to either work in Academia or be Mets fans...

The arrogance is definitely there with the MAC people (who are probalby responsible for academic software pricing, given that they pay 3 times the money for the same performance they could get out of a PC). I once ran into someone who was on a MAC-bvased Avid system, and they literally refered to it as "THE Avid." Like it was alive. I expected a red light to turn on at any time and start calling me "Dave" as The Blue Danube fired up on some hidden 8-track player...

JohnnyRoy wrote on 4/9/2004, 7:21 PM
I have just what you need. Perhaps you’ve seen it. It’s old but its still very funny and is probably worth watching again.

Editing is all Mac based.

~jr
jdas wrote on 4/9/2004, 7:53 PM
Hi Johnny,

Sorry, this is OT. When I click the link you posted , I get a gibberish screen on my netscape browser. I think it got to do with some settings on netscape. You know why ?
patreb wrote on 4/9/2004, 8:04 PM
Ok, ok, lets just not become Vegas snobs...

(from me, AVID convert)
Spot|DSE wrote on 4/9/2004, 8:22 PM
Funny your instructor would think that's "new" as FCP 3 had it too. FCP is all the Mac guys have to brag about. Keep in mind that their choices are exceptionally limited. It's either rave about what they've got or change platforms. Mac users think differently, act differently, and frankly, I think they're pretty damned important... Without them, we'd never know how great it is to have a good OS, great editing tools, and the ability to build our own systems. And I do have a couple Apple computers, including my G5.
vitalforce wrote on 4/9/2004, 8:49 PM
OK, I can't be quiet any more. I have a few bits of newbie still clinging to me. What does LOL stand for?
jetdv wrote on 4/9/2004, 8:55 PM
Laughing
Out
Loud
Cheno wrote on 4/9/2004, 9:40 PM
I've worked with a machead for the past 6 months now in a non-profit gig.. he actually talked me into getting a Powerbook laptop.. since I didn't think I'd need to edit on it.. I went for it. I truly have to say that its been a great little machine. No crashes or problems in the 4 months that I've had it. I love the look, weight and size. It runs graphic programs with no problem and ergonomically, it just feels right.

....enough ranting...someone had to tilt the scales... When this guy wanted me to look at FCP and kept saying that I'd be converted after a short while I thought I'd at least try it and see what the fuss was about. This is a 1.25Ghz machine. Fastest laptop available for Mac, when I went to title some video to test it out.. I had to render the titles.. no drop frame playback.. nothing... For cutting film, it's a great program when you have to do nothing but do straight cuts only.. I like the film tools. Wish Vegas would tell you when an audio / video event is ungrouped and out of sync by so many frames....

However I'm back shopping for a PC laptop to edit on. Personally I've cursed and sworn more at my PC but hey.. I know that Vegas won't let me down.

mike
Jessariah67 wrote on 4/9/2004, 9:59 PM
James,

The "gibberish" you're getting in Netscape is due to the host server of the media file not giving Netscape the correct info (that it's a media file and not a web page). You need to be in IE to get it. The only other fix is for the the host to tweak a few settings, but clicking it in IE is an easier course...

That video was very funny, BTW.
bakerbud9 wrote on 4/9/2004, 10:08 PM
that's an apt analogy, especially given YippZ's original post.... it seems FCP spends most of its time saying "i'm sorry, dave, i can't do that."
-nate
riredale wrote on 4/9/2004, 10:37 PM
I worked for Apple during the early glorious Mac days. We all had the religion; it was an amazing time in my life. Something about the fact that you're about to be crushed by the enemy (in this case, it was IBM and their PC and that damn Charlie Chaplin character) that really binds people together in an us-versus-them mentality.

I've been PC-centric since 1995 or so, but I do greatly admire their wonderful sense of physical design, from the iPod to the laptops and the G5. And, let's face it, at the moment, Apple's "DVD Studio Pro 2" is an amazing authoring tool, very much like Maestro (which Steve Jobs bought and then took off the market).
VegasVidKid wrote on 4/9/2004, 11:21 PM
I'm also annoyed with the arrogance and smugness of the Mac religious zealots. But until Windows 95 rolled around, they had the superior user interface and owned the niche for graphics and multimedia. However, now that even Adobe has stopped making new Mac versions of Premiere (because Apple is competing against them with FCP), they are really painting themselves into an even smaller corner. I think Steve Jobs is much more interested in Pixar than Apple these days. On the other hand, Mr. Gates has kept his nose to the grindstone playing Monopoly for the past 20 or so years. The software vendors are more interested in that 96% of the computer market.
decrink wrote on 4/9/2004, 11:29 PM
I went to my brother's house to edit video on his FCP Mac. He put an effect on some clip. I asked if we could see it. It came back with a message like: "No, you have to RENDER this clip before you can SEE it.

Hmmm...I figured everyone could see an effect in real time like in Vegas.

It went downhill from there.
farss wrote on 4/10/2004, 12:39 AM
I'll admit Apple make some nice looking boxes but I was taught the mantra of good industrial design was "form follows function". Somehow they seem to have consistently got that the way around.
Hunter wrote on 4/10/2004, 12:58 AM
HA AHA HA HAA AAHHA ....
My inner child is now hiding in the closet.
GlennChan wrote on 4/10/2004, 2:35 AM
>>> I'll admit Apple make some nice looking boxes but I was taught the mantra of good industrial design was "form follows function". Somehow they seem to have consistently got that the way around. <<<
Well I have to say I've divided between Mac (great advertising, overpriced performance-wise) and PC, but I think Apple's boxes have some nifty design features.

Installing parts inside a tower computer is pretty easy, and the G5 case is sweet. The G5 is very quiet and from what I hear it takes about 30 seconds for an average user to install a hard drive.

And Mac useability has been great. You also see the same features popping up in the next version of Windows. The graphic user interface, mouse navigation... the Mac platform has contributed a lot in functionality.

But then again, Apple gives you a pretty but not very functional 1-button mouse with the G5. And the monitor button glows when idle, which is annoying. They're not exceptionally good or bad, but I don't think you can slam em for consistently getting form over function.
farss wrote on 4/10/2004, 3:22 AM
Without trying to start something and having never got that close to a G5 here's what I can see:
1) Not enough firewire ports, my rig has 3
2) Not enough USB ports, my rig has 6
3) Cannot add more optical drives inside box, my rig has 2
4) Limited ability to add HDs, my rig has 6

None of these are add ons, just what came with the mobo / case.

For something targeted at video editing it's inital capabilities / expandability seems incredibly limited. I could also add it seems to use a custom power supply. And oh yes, the 'feet' at the bottom of the thing, carefully designed to make it easier to knock over, along with all those external boxes balanced on the top that you need to get it to do anything in the real world.

Now the annoying thing is it didn't have to be so, all it would have taken was a slightly bigger box and a little bit more real estate on the mobo. They could have built the mobo to ATX form factor and if you didn't like the pretty box you could roll your own, for the life of me I couldn't see any downside to that.
And if you're woried about noise, well they'll shortly be a PC case available that uses heatpipes and the case as the heatsink, meaning NO fans at all.
The G5 could have been a killer machine, why did Apple clobber it?
Chienworks wrote on 4/10/2004, 5:37 AM
Another way to open that WMV link without the gibberish is to manually open it in Media Player. Right-mouse-button click on the link, choose "copy link location". Now launch Media Player, press Ctrl-U (open URL) and Ctrl-V (paste), Enter. Very slightly round-about, but it works. Of course, you can always "save link target" to your hard drive and play it from there if you prefer.