[Frameworks] FInal Cut Pro X

[D Dawson]

Hi Fred,

The movie equivalent to TIFF files are Quicktime files, and  yes, those can
be read on any variety of machines with Qtime installed.

What you can't transfer over to other systems is the working project file.

For example if you work in Photoshop, another program may not be able to
open your PSD document with all of your "work" inside of it, but it will
still open the TIFF you exported... The final "mixed down" version.

Same with an AVID edit project, or I imagine Premiere.  You can't open a
Premiere timeline in FCP -- without exporting the material a certain way and
importing it into FCP a certain way.

Basically as of seven days after the release you can't open your old
projects, but in say 30 days (or whenever the update comes) you will be able
to open up your project.

Companies rely on early adopters to help steer their revisions, this FCP X
is no exception.

Yes, digital files have a much shorter life expectancy.  The only way to
keep digital files around is to constantly "migrate" them to new discs/hard
drives/web etc...

Archives are dealing with this issue daily, and the only answer is spending
the resources on migrating the material to keep it current.   The best
answer is yes to laser scan everything back to film and store it under
proper conditions (again expensive).

Just like digital photos, really the best way to store them is to print them
onto archival paper and store a photo of it.

So back to your first question.   You can keep the 35mm copy of your digital
film, or a paper copy of your photo, but no, it isn't possible to store the
"work" from the sequence in any form for long term reference.

In most cases, editors/filmmakers don't need their cutting sequence years
after the final project has been completed anyway.






On 6/28/11 10:35 AM, "Fred Camper" <f at fredcamper.com> wrote:

> Even though I haven't worked with video, I'm trying to understand this
> because it has huge implications.
> 
> If I understand it right, FCP uses a proprietary file format that
> other programs, such as Premiere, cannot open? And FCP X won't be able
> to open those files either? And FCP will not be installable on newer
> Macs? Does this mean that he original files of FCP projects will
> become unreadable, and that any way of saving them, such as DVD, will
> involve big losses?
> 
> This is a general worry about digital files, that newer platforms will
> not be able to read them at all. Do digital files thus have a much
> shorter expected lifetime than celluloid, even given vinegar syndrome?
> 
> For still digital images (which I do work with), there are  tif files,
> which almost any image editing program can open, and which are
> lossless. Are there equivalent video files? avi? Should there be an
> attempt to establish an open source, lossless-as-possible video file
> format if there is not one now?
> 
> Is the lesson here to never, ever use software that saves in file
> formats that are under the control of one corporation?
> 
> Fred Camper
> Chicago
> 
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