a really good quote

[Julian Bowman]

“X is going to give you the editor something you never had in 7. That is the ability to dare:”

lmao.

Sorry, didn’t realise I couldn’t dare in FCP7… f*** Apple might sue me for misuse of their software.

And my real tuppence. I am a solo-show on the whole. I shoot what I edit. When I capture I bung my shots into folders I name and I know what is in there. I do enjoy scrubbing through my shots and discovering things I may have not considered using, which is what the original quote was about, but I would never tag my shots, because I know them (on the whole) and like putting them where I want to put them, in neat little folders in a vertical list.

So, X wins there then. Oh, wait, no, that entire argument is based upon me wasting ages tagging loads of clips that I couldn’t log and capture directly into X in the first place. Er, i’ll be half way through my edit by the time you’ve stopped playing with that tagging thing (and that’s on a 32bit app).

Personally I don’t care if some people like X, good for you. Buy it. Use it. But stop defending it as some revolutionary advance of editing. It’s a different way of editing which doesn’t make the previous way of editing arcane or redundant. And stop saying that in X years it will be ‘awesome’ because a) you don’t know that and b) at the moment it’s pretty shite by all accounts… and I waited two frigging years for this ‘awesome’ upgrade and I can’t even use it as a shite upgrade.

[Tracy Smith]

Here’s a quote from me, “Editing has nothing to do with your NLE!” How you tell your story is irrelevant to what tool you are using to put it together. I am totally disgusted at how Apple has gone about the implementation of FCPX. But could I use the program as is to tell a really good story? Yes. Could I use AVID, Premiere, Media 100 Imovie or windows movie maker? Yes. Could I open two windows of Quicktime 7 and manually do it. Yes. Could I go back to tape to tape and still do it? Yes. The issues at hand are how hard is it going to be to input material or output it? Can I color correct with total control? Can I mix audio? How easy is it to conform to final outputs? I tell my clients all the time “Go ahead name your screen!”
Apple and Final Cut are an emotional issue with me too. I helped lots of folks decide to use it. It’s not that they won’t get it right but when? And I am no longer waiting for them. We need to be able to work in the real world which means anything from Beta Tape to Blue Ray. From Flash to H.264 Quick Times. From WMV to AVI. From WAV, to AIFF to AAC. It is not up to Apple to decide how and what we produce to serve their interest. We did that. We bought their machines back when Gil totally fracced up Apple prior to Mr. Jobs return. We did our evangelical bit. We were the creatives Apple Computer built their business on. I will not as a business person count on Apple to serve me. They will not anymore. They are a consumer mobile tech company now. We are professional image makers and storytellers. Apple computers and software are simply tools. Nothing more. Apple is a company whose computers we may use. Whose mobile tech we may use. Whose software we may use. Whose distribution we may use. What Apple doesn’t get anymore is my over enthusiastic fan boy loyalty. And I promise no more loyalty to a brand out of this Producer. I am going to do my job. And for now I will use all the tools I can to make something happen so my client and my audience enjoy it.