FX Factory Plugin Nattress Levels & Curves crashing Mavericks

Question

Recently, I've reluctantly purchased FX Factory plugins - mainly because there's no other way to get Ripple Callouts and Tools (which I find really useful). I say reluctantly, because I learned a long time ago that plugins are one of the main causes of crashes in both old and new versions of FCP.
Over the past couple of days, I've been plagued with crashes and by a process of elimination, narrowed it down to the Levels and Curves plugin from FX Factory.
Those unfamiliar with plugins might think this is easily remedied by simply disabling the plugin. Not quite so. Disabling the plugin causes the clip to go "offline" - so every single clip has to have the plugin disabled or removed and of course, Levels and Curves being a colour correction plugin, the clip must be colour corrected again.
Unfortunately, I have hundreds of clips on which I've used the Levels and Curves plugin. This is a serious setback for my project. From now on, I will use the FCP X color board where possible. I say this with reservations though, because keyframing colour correction is essential in my work.
The clips are long and shot outdoors in the UK, where there's seldom a day which doesn't have huge variations in light levels.
I've found to my cost that if I use fixed exposure, the sun will come out, or clouds come over - and if I use auto-exposure, as soon as any sky appears in the shot, the footage gets adversely affected. Such are the joys of outdoor film and video production!
One of the most urgent modifications needed in FCP X is keyframing of colour correction. I realise there are workarounds, but they are messy.
I contacted FX Factory about the Levels and Curves plugin and the reply stated thus:
The authors of Levels and Curves (CC'd on this email) are working hard to identify this issue, which has appeared with OS X Mavericks. Hopefully there will be an update soon to solve the problem.
Andy

Answer 1

Thanks Ben.
BenB wrote:
1- Never update/upgrade mid-project.
2- Always verify all of your plugins and third party soft/hardware is compatible before any update/upgrade.
I agree in a perfect world, we'd all do this.
3- Always use an ND filter when shooting outdoors in the sun during mid-day.
How will an ND Filter prevent the light level plummeting when the sun suddenly goes behind a cloud (using manual exposure) or when the camera zooms out and the appearance of sky makes the auto-exposure darken the image?
4- Always shoot early morning and late evening when the sun is not as harsh.
Again, in a perfect world. Sometimes we don't have any choice.
Andy