Whatever happened to the shot selection tool...

[dan-o-matic]

So, in the post IBC training that I had last september, and in the .pdf document that was on the Apple website for the last 8 months or so, there was this thing called the shot selection tool... A mini timeline editor for directly editing with the proxies in the Final Cut Server window. I'm off course only running my test environment since today, so I might just be looking over it, but also if I quickly search the documentation, it mostly is absent. Has this one been shoved out?? It was the bottom up way to build sequences from the java tool, and later do the serious editing of them in FCP.

There is some sort of annotation tool, but that's for single stuff in one clip, it doesn't built timelines yet?

Am I just looking over it all the time, or did Apple leave it out of this version for some reason??

[fritz.]

Oh yeah, that was one of the niftier features I saw about FCServer! I hope it didn't get tossed out.

[MattG]

What shot selection tool?

[dan-o-matic]

The one that was in the version that I've been given training in for two days just after last IBC, the one that was mentioned in the 'Final Cut Server fact sheet' document that was pretty much the only piece of information available between NAB 07 and last week, of which I have taken the liberty to take a little screendump regarding the shot selection tool:




So, is it your book I'm expecting to get in any time soon from amazon??

[handygeek]

I'm glad you posted this. Some folks were starting to look at me sideways. I knew there was something like this. I saw it at NAB last year and I even got to try it out. It was really cool. I don't see it in the new literature. All I see there is the annotation features. That might work, though not nearly as elegantly. I would like to know what happens with the annotations once a Final Cut user imports the project. Do they show up on a timeline? Do they show up in the clip? If I could start a timeline, have someone annotate it, import it back in with the ins and outs, I could use the razor tool to cut it up and export the bits from that. That could work. Just don't know if that's how it actually does work. Can anyone post what happens with the annotations and how the Final Cut user can use them?

Edit - http://images.apple.com/finalcutserver/docs/20070415aFinal_Cut_Server_Fact_Sheet.pdf

[Ernesto Sanchez]

Annotations can be search via FCS. FCP does not see them, I believe.

Ernesto

[handygeek]

That is truly a shame. The shot selection feature would have been tons more useful. I wonder if Artbox users had (or have) it.

[dan-o-matic]

I've sort of had this confirmed someone from 'the inside' that the Shot Selection tool did not make it through to the Final version. It had something to do with the way that the Artbox generation software made fake markers to communicate with the inside of FCP. It worked for FCP but the other apps like DVD Studio Pro wouldn't work with them. I believe that's why the tool got dumped for now.

So I'm waiting for some 3rd party to make a Mac/Win/iPhone app for lightweight editing / shot selection / marking to fill in this gap.

[handygeek]

[djdan]

I've been told by my rep @ apple that once you do the 1.1 upgrade it is then available.

Can anyone confim that??

I've been looking all day and I can't find it...

[andiron]

Nope, it's not there.

Since shot selection would count as a feature, I would expect that (if it ever comes back) Apple would (a) make some noise about it and (b) it would not be part of a free upgrade

[djdan]

I spoke to them again and they did what they always do, stuck thier head in the sand....

We can only wait now I suppose...

[ogminlo]

artbox had the SST, and so did the demo version FCSvr at NAB2007. Somewhere along the line, Apple just dropped it. I was upset at first, but now I'm a little glad the producers won't have a way to play editor!