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Just an observation
The scenario: I’m a FCP7 user, very happy with it and in no rush to learn something new. Apart from my commercial work, I do all the video production for my church but we’re looking to take that more “inhouse” with a keen volunteer. The volunteer has used macs but doesn’t own one, dabbles in photoshop and a has done a bit of audio editing. He has no video editing experience whatsoever.
FCPX looks like a good value purchase for the church – we’re not creating for broadcast (yet) and the packages are for projection or use on the website. Working on an older iMac, we seem like the user FCPX was aimed at.
So I get the complete set (FCPX, Motion and Compressor) and start playing around. My impressions are mixed, stuff to like and stuff to dislike and progress is slowed because a lot isn’t obvious when coming from FCP7. Yesterday however, we take the plunge and I get the volunteer to edit a package on it.
He’s watched me play for one day, and I’m present to guide but I try to leave him to it.
The result? With very little intervention he imports rushes, music and graphics, puts it together, adds titles and transitions, keyframes the audio and generally creates a very slick product. He also really enjoys himself….I was seriously impressed. It fascinates me that someone with no previous NLE baggage could navigate round the interface so well and get a good result so quickly. X won’t replace 7 in my business, but I am beginning to see its potential.
Nigel Beaumont
Mac Pro Quad 3.0Ghz 12GB FCS 3 OSX 10.6.7, Aja IO, some black cables&shiny firewire drives
“Ofcourse it’ll be finished in time for tx”
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20 Replies
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I’m noticing this as well. As FCX seems more conducive to bringing a wider base of potential users to the market, what does that mean for someone at a management level?
How much time is it worth investing for a complete novice? How beneficial can they be for some of the mundane chores? How would this transition to other systems for finishing? Correcting?
We are presently trying to determine how this product might be used to distribute mundane task/projects to a wider user base. Starting to see some potential, which gets us real specific on what feature sets will have to be available before it is a viable resource.
In the end, just how much usable work can we get from someone who might know nothing about editing?
Marvin Holdman
Production Manager
Tourist Network
8317 Front Beach Rd, Suite 23
Panama City Beach, Fl
phone 850-234-2773 ext. 128
cell 850-585-9667
skype username – vidmarv -
I am sure that if you sat them down with Premiere they could also edit something. The thing about FCPX is that it does a lot of stuff for you. Anyone that has spent anytime watching TV/Movies/Videos knows how to assemble clips in some logical order. That is the subtle education in visual communication that editing has taught everyone. He knows things without knowing how he knows them.
So I don’t find it surprising that a novice can assemble clips with music and some graphics. But just because you can play “3 Blind Mice” on the piano, doesn’t make you a musician. They is still a lot of art and science behind post production and it would be good for an editor to understand these things. Bit depth, color space, mattes.
Even in the days of Super 8mm, and home movies. People could still edit with little knowledge.
Brian Mulligan
Senior Editor – Autodesk Smoke
WTHR-TV Indianapolis,IN, USA
Twitter: @bkmeditor -
[Nigel Beaumont] ” was seriously impressed. It fascinates me that someone with no previous NLE baggage could navigate round the interface so well and get a good result so quickly.”
This is key. I said elsewhere that Apple likely looked at how people intuitively handle interfaces without preconceptions and that guided them in creating the GUI. That’s a long range intelligent design decision and, over time, people climbing the ladder will see this as an advantage.
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That, for good or ill, is exactly who the product seems to be designed for: Someone with no previous NLE (or editoriial) experience.
bigpine
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[TImothy Auld] “That, for good or ill, is exactly who the product seems to be designed for: Someone with no previous NLE (or editoriial) experience.”
And some portion of those will be the next generation professionals.
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Which is why I said “for good or ill.”
bigpine
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Craig, I did notice the point you made regarding the interface, but still I wonder what the ultimate benefit for the video industry will be from it. Just as Word gave widespread availability of word processors to the masses, and simplified templates eliminated many design and printing jobs, I think this MAY have the same effect. Still, iMovie has existed for how many years now? And while it certainly brought the availability of many of these “new” concepts to the masses, I seriously wonder if the “extra” features are going to create a massive stampede of users?
Conceptually, FCX and iMovie are pretty close as far as I can see. Sure, users like yourself, who have the background and time to sort through it will point out many fantastic advances, but… are they really enough to empower the masses to produce that much more content? I ask sincerely.
Perhaps FCX greatest advancement is the opportunity to scale it out? Not knowing enough about iMovie architecture, I would have to wonder why we haven’t seen a rush of 3rd party developers for “extra” features in that application. As they are both targeted to consumers (at the very LEAST the initial FCX release is), then what differences make FCX viable for an explosion of video from consumers, as opposed to say, iMovie?
Marvin Holdman
Production Manager
Tourist Network
8317 Front Beach Rd, Suite 23
Panama City Beach, Fl
phone 850-234-2773 ext. 128
cell 850-585-9667
skype username – vidmarv -
[Craig Seeman] “And some portion of those will be the next generation professionals.”
Somewhere between 1 and 10%, closer to 1 than 10, and by their own choice. The reason why is that it just doesn’t pay. Its just not worth putting in the effort anymore. Another forum that I belong to contained a comment that an A-Lister made at the FC rollout a couple of years ago with Apple claiming to have created 3Million new editors…. *No, his response was, There’s now about 2,990,000 hackers devaluing the sector for the rest of us.* [I’m just passing along the observation from somebody whose name rolls by in the credits fairly often, but not as often as it once did.]
With high-end post failing at a massive rate, the general trend that I observe close- and first-hand over the last 12 years or so is that post production in general has come to occupy a status-slot somewhere around cottage-industry sweatshop, and it is perceived to be for people who don’t have any real skills (sloughed-off to some random intern), not that any skill or special knowledge is apparently required, and frankly is sifting down to pariah-hood. Poor thing, can’t get a real job.
Try it… “I’m a video editor” at the next party, and the response will be… oh, my niece uses Final Cut at her agency, but she’s kind of sick of it because it takes a lot of time away from what she’s supposed to be doing. It will not be “oh, cool, what movies are you working on…?” oh, no… that hasn’t happened for years.
jPo
You mean “Old Ben”? Ben Kenobi?
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Gotta love that patronizing photo taken, what, 25 years after women had already dominated the cutting room.
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Once again – a tool – albeit a partially built tool – arrives in the market place, and it’s cheap enough that everyone thinks they can be an editor. As I’ve always said – it should say right on the box: “talent not included”.
The desktop publishing industry did the same crash and burn with the advent of the first Macs and 36 different typefaces. Now anyone in the office with a computer with MS Publish and fifteen minutes of spare time is the newsletter designer.
It seems, that Apple is quite successfully in the business of selling whatever sells, and has proven it in the market. Good product…bad product…is it selling? OK. At this point in time, they could put a lightup Apple logo on a turd and sell millions of them.
Joe Bourke
Owner/Creative Director
Bourke Media
http://www.bourkemedia.com
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