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oh good god, people. *DON’T PANIC*
I see all this as the normal Apple SOP; introduce a new product and evolve it over time.
Remember when people complained that the iPod didn’t have this or that when it came out; same with the iPhone, iPad and even OSX?? Within in a year or so, the complaints faded away as Apple did their updates. So, I don’t think there is any need to panic.
Of course as a professional, you *never, never, EVER* jump on a 1.0 product for mission critical work. You wait for at least few dot releases or for 2.0 when all of the kinks are worked out. We all know that Apple is exceptional at listening to their customers, so let them know your concerns and they will likely do the updates.
In the meantime, FCP7 will do *fine* for the next year or so, while Apple matures FCPX and we get used to using the new product. All this talk about jumping ship because a 1.0 product has things missing, is just plain silly. Make me think they’ve never seen a 1.0 release before … smh
Again, I say, no need to *panic* people.
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35 Replies
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1. I see flawed organizational problems in FCPX that are not compatible with post production facilities needs.
2. I don’t know if I trust apple to fix these fundamentally flawed designs.
Russ
Russell Lasson
Colorist/Digital Cinema Specialist
Color Mill
Salt Lake City, UT
http://www.colormill.net -
[John A. Calhoun] “I see all this as the normal Apple SOP; introduce a new product and evolve it over time.”
I think that this is part of the problem — Apple seems to be treating FCPX as a new product release, but customers expect it to be an upgrade.
This disconnect in expectations is very jarring.
Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events -
Yeah, I’m with the Russell.
“Trust us, it’s going to be great” is getting a little old. We heard that in April, and if Apple wants the pro side of the business, they need A) pro features, or, if they can’t provide the new features at this time, we need a roadmap and need to know what to expect and when.
These are not impulse purchases like shiny new phones – market those with all the secrecy you want. It’s a cool toy, after all… But even those guys get developer previews of new iOSes.
We’re running a pro facility here in a multi-user environment, and I don’t see anything in the new architecture to make me think this new version is going to work for us – and it goes much deeper than simply XML support.
Apple seems to be banking on the iMac/YouTube user, and maybe they’ll be able to make much better looking videos much easier, but this is not a tool for professionals who COLLABORATE.
It is not an offline editor, and it’s not a professional online tool, either – it’s an awesome tool for the video jack of all trades that shoots digitally, edits & finishes for the web – all on one machine. Great for them!
Maybe someday the proverbial “kid in the basement” will replace the collaborative (and expensive) professional workflow, but Apple has their head in the iClouds if they think this X tool will be used on Oscar nominated movies or broadcast TV.
David Jahns
Joint Editorial
Portland, OR -
I agree with Russ: you are talking about fix flaws of a other than that working system. But FCP X is not a professional NLE. It’s a prosumer product, a iMovie on steroids. If u look at the price, it’s meants to be bought by the mass, not just by professionals. FCP x is a decision of valuaing quantity over quality.
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You guys this negative in your personal lives? I sure hope not. Especially with Apples track record. I can go back 3 months and show you thread after thread of people complaining about FCP7. People will complain thats a 100 percent certainty.
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Are YOU this complacent and passive in YOUR personal life. Sorry, but if you want to get personal the door swings both ways. Im a firm believer in communication and truth. These folks are communicated honestly their experience of this software.
Tom Daigon
Avid DS / FCP / After Effects Editor
http://www.hdshotsandcuts.com -
The problem is that Apple created Imovie Pro but deceitfully called it Final Cut Pro X. You can tell that it’s an Imovie upgrade because like all upgrades it accepts earlier versions of Imovie files, just as you can tell it’s not an upgrade of FCP because it can’t accept earlier FCP files.
All the apologists keep insisting it’s a 1.0 release, but why should we treat it that way when Apple calls it version 10. If Apple had been remotely honest and said, here’s the future of digital editing, it’s called Imovie Pro Ver. 1 and it will soon supplant FCP as the editing tool of the future there wouldn’t be all this commotion.
But of course they wouldn’t have sold so many versions on opening day, and what’s a little fraud compared to the bottom line.
Herb Sevush
Zebra Productions -
[Buddy Couch] “You guys this negative in your personal lives? I sure hope not. Especially with Apples track record.”
That track record includes killing Shake, Xserve, Color, and Final Cut Pro server (and now FCP7) with no warning and no new options for customers who built workflows around these products.
That said, I am not trying to be negative. On the contrary, I think that FCPX is an amazing foundation for future development.
I’m only trying to point out that absent any communication from Apple about their plans for the future of FCPX, the concern that so many posters here are expressing (veiled in anger, frustration, fear, and/or hysteria) is totally reasonable.
There are a lot of emotions on display here. There’s also a vast disconnect between the posters here who are excited about FCPX’s future potential and the posters here who are terrified of FCPX’s current feature set.
It seems very clear to me that both positions have an element of truth.
Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events -
[Walter Soyka] ”
I think that this is part of the problem — Apple seems to be treating FCPX as a new product release, but customers expect it to be an upgrade.”As I see it apple made 2 major mistakes
1) keeping the product under the FCP umbrella as version X (10.0)
2) Pulling FCS 3 off the website/shelves.If it had a different name people wouldn’t be complaining about how it’s different. And if they hadn’t pulled FCS 3 it wouldn’t look like they don’t care about “pro users”. Not having FCS 3 available anymore while FCPX isn’t capable (yet) of workflows that certain people need leaves a serious gap in the customer base for quite some time.
-mattyc
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I agree with Russell. The fears that Apple would leave the high-end post-production pros in the lurch were well-founded.
The user interface, the price, the default settings all point to Apple’s commitment to making movie software “for the people.” This is clearly an app to replace iMovie and Final Cut Express. iMovie was too limited, Final Cut Express was too complicated and yet missing key features, and Final Cut Pro 7 is too complex for all but the pro user or heavy-duty hobbyist. I know because I teach film/video at a private high school, where the kids hate iMovie because it won’t do anything, but they are frustrated by the complex feature-set of FCP, of which they only use about 10 percent. FCPX will clearly hit the sweet spot for my classes. So it will become the consumer’s “serious video app.”
I think Apple will be happy to sell FCPX to every one of their customers, rather than selling FCP7 to a limited group of pros. So FCPX just doesn’t look to me like an app waiting to be expanded back toward the feature density of FCP7. I find it hard to believe they will “pump it up” to that level. If the do, then they will need another “lite” product because the Pro product will again become too complex, expensive, etc.
And no matter what, a usable version of FCPX ain’t happening for a year or two. Who can wait that long? With FCP7 no longer for sale, support will disappear soon enough. How can the message from Apple be any more clear? “Forget the pro apps, we are not in that specialty business anymore.”
We are facing the possibility that cheap “high-end pro” editing is finished, and we will return to a more expensive, specialized workflow for high-end work — like the post-houses of the ’80s, or effects houses for feature films — with ALL other work (news, reality TV, documentaries, weddings, corporate, rock videos etc) being done cheaply and quickly and with ingenuity on the consumer apps.
As it stands, Avid…which used to be an $80,000-100,000 turnkey investment, is now a workable pro tool for network TV editors at a modest price. When Apple looks at that landscape, they must think “Why even bother competing with a specialty company like Avid? We are the biggest tech company in the world because we SELL to the ENTIRE world, not just a handful of TV and a few movie editors.”
For everyone who remains hopeful, here is your ticking clock: Will FCPX expand and acquire pro features, BEFORE FCP7 stops functioning on whatever OS or iOS follows Lion?
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