Final Cut Pro X Workflow Round Up

If you’re working with FCPX in any serious way then you’ll soon what to rummage through these articles to see how editors around the world are learning to overcome some of FCPX’s shortcomings, and turn others into real strengths.

FCPX & R3D Feature Film Workflow

Sam Mestman from We Make Movies share’s his RED and Final Cut Pro X workflow for finishing feature films in less time and with less effort…

How fast is this workflow? Well, what used to take an assistant and me, working around the clock in shifts during the full shoot and probably an extra week or two using Final Cut 7, can now be done by just one person in FCPX, in less time. On the most recent film I worked on using this workflow, I was able to get an assembly edit of the entire film done within two days of the film wrapping, and I didn’t even have to drive myself crazy doing it. How? Simple: The metadata-based project prep in FCP X and R3D proxy workflow.

In the first part of a 3 part weekly series (I’ll update this post later with the other 2 parts) Sam walks step by step through how to prepare your footage and project for his ‘battle-tested’ workflow using FCPX and RED camera proxy files and R3D files.

What FCP X allows you to do is transcode your RED, SCARLET, and EPIC footage down to a half size Pro Res proxy, and with a click of a button, your clips will automatically switch back to their original R3D state. The best part is, all scaling, color, and effects you make to your proxy renders will automatically be reapplied “automagically” to your R3D’s when you switch back. No messing with sequence settings, codecs, or any of that. You’re either offline in Pro Res proxy, or you’re working with your original R3D footage.

Sam has also posted a whole host of great FCPX tutorials on his blog, including a 40 minute two part Red & FCPX video, which I’ve previously posted about here.

UPDATE: Here is a link to Part 2 which features a tonne of great FCPX editing tips and tricks as well as loads of links to other useful FCPX editing how to’s.

UPDATE: Here is the link to Part 3 which is all about how to finish your film and grade your original RED RAW files, in a variety of different ways. If you need to deliver 4K this is a valuable read.

UPDATE: Sam presented his workflow at LACPUG which will give you a 25 minute tour of how you can use FCPX and Resolve to finish a 4K feature. If you’re more of a visual learner you can buy Sam’s 1hr 20 min webinar on this topic from Moviola. A steal at $9.99

FCPX Collaborative Workflow

If you’re looking to develop a workflow that will let you edit in FCPX and share your project among multiple editors then Jordan Smith’s post on FCP.co should give you some good pointers.

Essentially Jordan’s workflow revolves around sharing projects in a similar way to the way you might have done with FCP7, and explores how to solve some of the things that might trip FCPX up along the way. It’s not a perfect system though (compound clips don’t seem to copy across for example) so it is worth checking out the comments section too as the article raised some interesting debate!

A Radical FCPX Workflow

Ron Dawson over on Dare Dreamer Magazine has posted a really interesting article on doing away with FCPX projects all together and moving to a world of compound clips.

Working with comps as version iterations is pretty much identical to the versioning system in legacy FCP versions (and other similar NLEs). This is one aspect I think the old version of FCP does better than FCPX. Using this method you use less hard drive space, have less clutter, and get faster load times.

Ron’s article is a really intriguing read so do check it out. He’s updated the post to include this short tutorial from Richard Taylor that walks you through the basics of how to use this kind of FCPX workflow.

More FCPX Tips

Both of the last two workflow articles reference this great tutorial from the Ripple Training boys on sharing FCPX projects so its certainly worth watching too.