Saigon Mini-Doc: 30/4 Park

I learned quite a bit while editing this short. For one thing, I encountered a lot of frustrating performance issues with Final Cut Pro X – sluggishness, beach balls and running out of memory – when rendering stuff as basic as subtitles, not to mention applying LUTs. After uploading the project to YouTube, I did some Googling and ended up over at Larry Jordan’s amazingly informative training library. If you follow these tips, you should experience fewer hangups and faster performance in Final Cut. The first thing you should be doing at least once a week is a safe reboot and rebuild permissions.

1. Restart your computer holding the SHIFT key down.
2. When the thermometer appears, let go of the Shift key.
3. When your system boots, go to Applications > Utilities > Disk Utility.
4. Open Disk Utility.
5. Select your boot disk.
6. Run Repair Permissions.
7. When done, restart your computer, holding no keys down.

If Final Cut isn’t as responsive as you think it should be, try this.

1. Go to the Finder.
2. Hold down on the Option key and click on the Go menu. The Library folder inside your Home Directory now shows up as a selection inside this menu.
3. Open to the Library > Preferences folder.
4. Trash com.apple.FinalCut.LSSharedFileList.plist
5. Trash com.apple.FinalCut.plist
6. Trash com.apple.FinalCut.UserDestinations.plist
7. Empty the Trash.
8. Restart Final Cut Pro X.

And remember to always quit FCP before doing this and to empty trash before re-opening Final Cut. For more information, visit Larry Jordan’s page here. Finally, I can easily recommend this free application from the Apps Store, a memory app that sits in the toolbar, whose greatest appeal for me is that when my RAM is used up, it allows me to clear the memory cache without having to quit and re-open FCPX.

Update (10.07.2014): With the release of FCPX 10.1.2, deleting preferences has been made much simpler. Just quit FCP and relaunch from the dock while pressing and holding the option and command keys. Thanks again to Larry Jordan!

A mini-documentary featuring interviews with some of the young people that gather at Saigon’s 30/4 Park in HCMC.

Camera: Lumix GH3
Settings: Natural, -4, -4, -3, -5
Lenses: Vario 12-35mm f/2.8, 35-100mm f/2.8, Tiffen ND Filters
Microphones: Rode VideoMic Pro, Rode Stereo VideoMic Pro, Blue Yeti USB microphone Graded with Osiris Jugo LUT in FCPX