1, You won't loose any editing capabilities or the ability to review things on FCPX while using proxies. In fact, professionals tend to prefer working with proxies or they transcode their footages into ProRes and work from them. If you use the FCPX's built in plug-ins for transitions and fusion stuff, 1.5Gb of VRAM should be ok. It's when you use paid plug-ins that need more VRAM is when you can decide if you need to upgrade your machine.
Hopefully, I can start diving into learning FCPX later this week or next.
How hard is it to use proxies and do everything you have described?
Since I have no prior experience doing video-editing, I have a lot that I need to learn (e.g. how does a time-line work). But I am hoping that I can learn enough in FCPX to put together simple videos in not too long of a time-frame.
Really I just need to learn to add cover slides and transition slides, edit my raw footage, maybe add some music, and possibly add some B-roll, although that is a topic that I need to learn more about so I can actually start shooting that.
2, I am happy that you are show casing those "invincible people" out there. When I used to work in nursing helping people in the DTES; there's a lot of neglect, abuse and exploitation especially on women and it seemed that society as a whole just turned a blind eye to them. I think when COVID is over, there will be more of these people, more of the poverty and despair and more people that need to tell their stories.
Thank you, that means A LOT to hear someone say that! 😊
My focus is not just the "disadvantaged", but mostly ordinary people struggling in the pandemic. But still, I want to provide stories that don't make the national - or even local - news...
3, Having a large SSD is the same concept as a scratch disk when using Photoshop. You would edit your footages on a fast SSD drive and then render your final cut onto a hard drive. Since 4K is like 4x the data of 1080p, you will see benefits using a fast solid state drive. Samsung T7 or T5 comes to mind. I use a Raid SSD array on my Mac Pro to do that and a fast SSD in my Asus. It's not an expensive outlay, but an essential one.
I'm a bit confused here...
Both of my rMBPs have internal SSDs. The problem is that my main rMBP is nearly maxed out with storage.
So, being almost out of $$$, I bought two Seagate 2TB hard-drives that are only 5400rpm. (It was the best deal I could afford.)
The plan is to store all of my video onto one of these drives, then use the second one as a backup.
And if I can also use those to free up maybe 100-200GB of space,
then the plan was to do all video editing in FCPX on my main rMBP.
What I want to clarify if this...
As long as I have decent available space on my rMBP, I assume that is enough to be able to edit video in FCPX on my rMPB, right?
In other words, the limitations of my rMBP's processor, and the limitations of my rMBP's graphics card won't change.
And while it is important to have enough internal storage so you don't get into RAM issues, I assume if you have enough internal storage available, then the need for an external SSD "scratch disk" is all but eliminated, correct?
The reason I chose those two Seagate drives was because I could get a 2TB for like $70, and a 2TB SSD would have likely cost me $300+, plus you have to double that cost for my backup drive. I just didn't have an extra $600+ right now.
So hopefully if I can get stuff off of my rMBP, then I can simply take advantage of my rMBP's internal SSD and use proxies to lessen the load on my laptop.
4, The newer 16" MBP would make a difference since it comes with an Apple T2 chip which is a hardware decoder/encoder for h.264 and HEVC and the Coffee Lake CPU supports Quicksync that can both decode and encode 4K compressed content. Basically it allows you to work on your footages on the fly without needing proxies. And the 5600M Pro mobile GPU on the 16" MBP has 8Gb of video ram which is perfect for buttery smooth 4K editing. You need at least 4Gb of VRAM to have smooth 4K time line editing. So with a 16" MBP, you don't need to work on proxies. You still need a SSD scratch disk. Is a desktop necessary? It really depends upon how serious you're getting into making the documentary series. The people I worked with in the past through a non-profit agency. These producers don't have a ton of money either and so, they usually work with what they could afford shooting with their iPhones and Androids. Nicer machine helps speed editing up, but is NOT a necessary component in making 4K movies. Give your MBP a try first, download FCPX and then find out where the bottle neck is. Make sure you have a very fast large scratch disk and work on proxies. It should be enough to get you started.
Since I am living on the road going from project to project, it isn't practical for me to get a desktop solution.
If I outgrow my current hardware, then if I could get by with a 16" MBP, that would make my life a lot easier.
But hopefully, what I have now is enough to get the end results that I need for the foreseeable future.
Yes, very informative responses!!
