{"id":391,"date":"2013-08-14T19:48:19","date_gmt":"2013-08-14T19:48:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.garbershop.com\/?p=391"},"modified":"2013-08-19T22:04:25","modified_gmt":"2013-08-19T22:04:25","slug":"role-playing-just-aint-what-it-used-to-be","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.garbershop.com\/?p=391","title":{"rendered":"Role Playing Just Ain’t What It Used to Be"},"content":{"rendered":"

**Before reading this post, please note that there should be a fix coming out in a few days from Intelligent Assistance which will render most of these steps unnecessary. This is great news. I’m keeping this up in the event that you are in need of a fix for this issue today.<\/span><\/h2>\n

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In the last post, I mentioned some of the issues that I experienced using FCP X 10.0.8 and 10.0.9 on my most recent jobs. Here, I’ll\u00a0expand on those issues and I will show you how I would deal with them when starting a new project (until a sufficient update in the software is made).<\/h2>\n

The good:<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Using Roles in FCP X is an incredibly powerful way to tag different components of clips (audio or video, including separate channels) with a designation. Roles are the bridge between a trackless environment and a track(ful!) environment.<\/p>\n

Working with Roles allows you to keep your timeline simple, while providing you with powerful flexibility for outputting different kinds of masters.<\/p>\n

For example, if you want to export a Textless Master, then you simply need to tag those clips with the Titles Role. When you export a master file, you can choose which roles (video or audio) you wish to turn off (or leave on). In this paradigm, you no longer need multiple timelines for your Texted and Textless Masters. This is amazing!<\/p>\n

The same can be said for audio. You now have the power to export the best and most detailed AAFs of any NLE. And in doing so, the timeline never stops looking like the magnetic timeline. It’s all “under the hood.”<\/p>\n

As FCP X continues to develop, I hope that we’ll continue to see Roles (or something like them) become a more developed and integrated part of its workflow.<\/p>\n

The part that means “more work for you”:<\/strong><\/h3>\n

<\/strong>After this last job, I feel that it’s necessary that you add the proper role to every clip\u00a0upon import.\u00a0<\/strong>If you import a PSD file with text, make sure it has a “title” role. Another PSD file that doesn’t have text and could end up in the Texted Master could get a “Graphics” role. If you import SFX from the Finder, make sure it has an SFX role. If you import video with attached audio, make sure to designate whether the audio is NAT-SOT or Interview (Dialogue). If you get multi-channel audio, then I recommend each channel get its own Subrole.<\/p>\n

The possibilities are immense and this now also requires determining in advance how you wish to tackle your role-tagging strategy. This is much the same way as how you would establish your system for keywording clips before you start to edit.<\/p>\n

Here’s a good analogy to explain it. If keywords are to organized editing, then roles are to organized deliverables.<\/p>\n

It’s very important that this be worked out in advance of editing since role-tagging is a one-way street. Make the changes in the event browser and they will not show up in your project timeline. Make the changes in the timeline and they will not show up in the event browser. This is probably a good thing as you might have a clip that can be delivered in a multitude of ways in different timelines.<\/p>\n

The end-game here is that you put a little prep time in and then you won’t need to do as much work when exporting your project for delivery.<\/p>\n

This is part that makes “The Good” quite a bit more difficult to achieve and adds “way more work for you”:<\/strong><\/h3>\n

These are the bugs and lacking features that currently make working with subroles and multi-channel audio clips difficult.<\/p>\n

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  1. FCP X does not always properly express multi-channel audio as multi-mono channels. It assumes the files are interleaved stereo… even if you change it in the inspector to multi-mono.<\/em><\/strong><\/li>\n
  2. There is no way to tag subroles in the event browser, only in a project.<\/em><\/strong><\/li>\n
  3. Editing with lots of multi-channel clips in the timeline can cause\u00a0excruciating\u00a0slowdowns and stalls<\/em>.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    The ultimate goal…<\/strong><\/h3>\n

    <\/strong>Is to turn this disorganized AAF for your sound mixer: \"Unorganized<\/a> Into\u00a0this (the most awesome AAF ever)<\/strong>:<\/em>\"Organized<\/a>Unfortunately, you are going to need to edit FCPXML to do it.<\/strong><\/p>\n

    Preflight Checklist:<\/em><\/strong><\/h3>\n