CONVERGENCE future is now: wipe moving objects with FCPX plug-in

It's 20 years since I oversaw my 1st student coursework assignment, having created some ... interesting productions myself with fellow PGCE (teaching degree) students with a big old VHS camera and an agonisingly slow post-production digitisation process.

As much as I've been teaching on the concept of convergence for a lot of that time, I'm truly astonished at what popped up on my Google news feed this morning. This is an incredible example of where we're at with convergence, which is not just the barriers between industries crumbling but equally the gap between professional and consumer/prosumer technology radically narrowing.

For $30 (on offer from $50) you can do in Final Cut what very recently would have required a highly-paid team of VFX specialists working for days to do ... You can remove moving objects from a scene!!!

I haven't tried it out yet - to test for example if it works with wobbly camera shots or short takes (logically it needs the background it will use to be visible for at least 1 frame) - but definitely intend to buy it.

I'm not easily impressed but this is a genuine jaw-dropping moment. A decade ago my classes were just transitioning from iMovie to Final Cut Express 4 before we finally got the budget to move to Final Cut Pro X. Those licenses are still in place back in my previous school in England - I make no apology for highlighting that a purchase of Final Cut is a one-off lifetime payment, with two big updates/upgrades every year (in contrast to the Adobe Premiere subscription model). I've fought for and gotten Final Cut/Macs installed in several schools now, and would do so again if I started afresh somewhere else.

The power the student of 2020 and beyond has in their hands is absolutely incredible - I hope to see many more fantastic uses of it!!

https://youtu.be/vWqe3iePbzM

The website link is in the video description

FCPX Sharing full Library using Compressor

Thus technique definitely isn't for all! It's quite complex (though the video is a very clear step by step) AND requires the additional programme Compressor to work.

Ideally you can build and share a main Library first, then share additional clips as they come in, keeping file names and tags identical so that project files (the tiny XML files) can be shared via email. But this is an alternative if there's going to be gap in meeting up. The idea is to radically reduce (to 20%) the file size of the source video clips for easy online sharing. Once complete, a shared project file can be re-linked to the original full size media.

https://youtu.be/iyos9dP4eL0