[Frameworks] query for those who teach filmmaking

[Adam Hyman]

One view: I work in the television industry.  I think if everyone is
starting fresh, you should teach them at least two editing systems, and Avid
should be one, if they are interested in working in the professional world.
Avid & Premiere, or Avid and at least one FCP version.

I think FCP X is fine for anyone who hasn¹t already become accustomed to
anything else, but most people who have already become proficient in FCP 7
resent the changes.  I actually haven¹t ever learned either.  (I really
should learn FCP7 because I have it and could then edit with it.)
I think it does affect whether you are doing separate onlines or not.  But
for students who might not know any system yet, they could just as well
learn FCP X and Avid.

I don¹t know any company that has gone to FCP X yet, but I don¹t know every
company.  And if they are just going to do their own films and are not
interested in Hollywood or professional gigs, and they are learning from
scratch, then it doesn¹t really matter.  Students will adapt to the flaws of
any particular system.

But professionally...My current company is on Avid; the last company I
worked at was on FCP 7 and converted to Avid while I was there.  Adobe going
to all online will make it prohibitively expensive to people just out of
school, more likely)  But students who are interested in working ³in the
industry² will find much more work available if they know After Effects and
Photoshop.  And if they are learning those, might as well learn Premiere.

So teach them Avid, Premiere, and FCP.  :-)


On 4/18/14 6:48 AM, "Jason Halprin" <jihalprin at yahoo.com> wrote:

> I think I'd like to second what Scot has said here: "it depends on what you're
> trying to teach."
> 
> Over the last three years, I've taught at three different schools and have
> instructed with FCP 7, FCPX, and Premiere. I've had good results using all
> three, and I've had unimaginative, lazy projects in all three.
> 
> With FCP X, I definitley had to design some assignment that demanded students
> explore the different interfaces, and specifically that they mix sound and
> tweak the presets on all of the effects. After doing this, however, I saw
> video newbies grow very quickly in terms of their comfort with the program,
> and they started thinking in terms of how to generate the images in their
> imagination, and not in terms of what the program was capable of doing. I
> don't mean to imply that this was universal amongst the students, but that
> creative, engaged students were able to gain a substantial mastery of the
> program in a short time.
> 
> That being said, the interface still seems like it perhaps has a limit in
> terms of a "pro" workflow - one in which separate programs and technicians are
> utilized for sound design and VFX. Sound controls are probably the most
> perplexing part of FCPX. Although you can utilize ALL of the plugins from
> Logic and access their interfaces from within FCPX, there is not a true mixing
> panel - meaning I can apply compression, EQ, reverb, etc, but I can't really
> do a final mix. And, to add insult to injury, without a 3rd party program, you
> can't bounce to ProTools (or even Logic) to accomplish this. However, there
> are some clunky workarounds such as utilizing the "roles" function.
> 
> OK, after that long explanation of some specifics, if I were rebooting the
> workflow of a program, and area specialization was part of department's
> pedagogy, I would choose Premiere. I don't think my Intro students have had
> substantial trouble learning it, it interfaces with other programs seamlessly,
> and most of the advantages of FCPX (real-time rendering, variety of plugins,
> ability to generate your own VFX) are there - or at least nearly there. FCPX
> is trying to be an almost All-In-One program, where you never have to utilize
> anything else in the creation of your video. Premiere is an editing program,
> with built in limitations designed for leaving higher level functions to other
> programs - much like FCP 7 was.
> 
-Jason Halprin
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