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Independent FCP Classic development?
Call me crazy, but I still like FCP “Classic”, last seen as version 7.0.3. Now that it’s on the extinction list (some would argue that it already is extinct) I’ve been working in Premiere Pro and FCPX, but at the end of my long days neither one is as satisfying to work in as FCP7. It suits the way I work, and its logic still makes the most sense to me as an editor and story teller.
Today I woke up with a kinda wacky idea and wanted to see if anybody has explored it. What I’m talking about is organizing either a crowd funding campaign or subscription service to pay an independent group of engineers to rewrite FCP’s code and bring it into the present. A 64 bit architecture that draws from the best ideas and capabilities of other editors and assimilates them wiithin the framework of FCP Classic. Something that keeps up with and makes the most of each update to hardware and the OS.
What’s most attractive to me about this is the idea of community involvement. Whereas Apple had a features request page (that many would say was largely ignored) and an opaque relationship to its end users, I would envision this as a cooperative, open, and more democratic arrangement, where features would be explored and by group experience and feedback, rejected or perfected.
I have no idea if such a thing would be legal (would Apple be afraid of competition from its own software it has replaced?) or even technically possible (I’m not a code guy), but the idea of it is exciting to me, and could extend the capabilities of a proven platform that many thousands of people around the world are loathe to give up.
I’d happily pay $300 per year to continue development of this fine piece of software I’ve built my career on and keep it current on my machine.
Can it be done? Should it be done?
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8 Replies
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Sounds like a wonderful dream, but I don’t think Apple would give up any of its software patents for such a project.
Bars & Tone
SALUTE! -
Ask the Lightworks fans how it’s working out.
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Boris bought Media 100. One can always dream.
Although I highly doubt Apple will sell the code to Legacy.
Shane
Little Frog Post
Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def -
Apple did offer Shake source code to anybody for 50 grands. Of course Shake was just a huge collection of scripts and FCP is a different story. It has hooks to QuickTime and some licensed code. Looks like the chances are zero.
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FCP is based on Quicktime. And Apple appears to be moving away…abandoning Quicktime…in favor of AV Foundation. So why some company or organization would shell out money for something based on tech that won’t be continued…would be silly.
Shane
Little Frog Post
Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def -
Well, alternative history genre is often silly. FCP value is not in its tech. It is in the interface that makes sense. Unfortunately an interface that makes sense never was a serious requirement for software.
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All valid points, gentlemen, thank you. I know it’s probably a pipe dream, but I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t be alone in supporting this idea with my enthusiasm and my wallet. The main hassle that I could see would be a legal one, and nobody in their right mind would do battle with Apple over this if Apple didn’t want to let it go. There’s just something heroic to me about rescuing this fine piece of software that so many of us have used with satisfaction, still runs like a top, and has so many advantages (or so it seems to me) over others. The interface was truly something marvelous. It says something to me that so many are still using it after years of it not being updated. But hey, I can respect evolution, as long as it gives us something better than we had before. Avid, Premiere and FCPX all do that in some ways, but the overall experience of working in those programs doesn’t satisfy me like my old standby does.
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Where were you when I needed you to save Edit*6?
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