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A word from someone who’s been ‘there’..
I can’t honestly write what I’d like to here because there are so many people out there that I’ve never met and would misconstrue what I write, AND I’ve learnt so much from you all.
All I can say is this: take a deep breath. Smile (for gawd’s sake). Understand that “Change is constant” and it’s our collective brain power that will, in time, be able to take what a company has delivered and make sense of it.
Reading day in and day out about how appalling Product B is compared to it’s sibling, Product A is, sorry to say; pointless.
Apple, in this case, changed the landscape. It was a risk. In June this board was fair sizzling with the amount of entries, every hour. Now, like many tech newsgroups of this ilk, it’s just the usual suspects. I switched from FCP 7 to FCP X and I like it and it frustrates me. But I like to solve puzzles and I can see some rationale in some of the decisions that Apple has made.
A software company is going to force change upon us all. So don’t worry about it – seriously, don’t. Yes, they will take some of our feedback and roll that in. But the ‘Dev group must look over the horizon and consider ways and processes and ‘things’ and ‘stuff’ that you and I can’t contemplate……yet.
I read one editor’s review this evening: “…Editing is an art form. It’s about timing, emotion and the arc of the story. ” No mention of software there. None whatsoever. Software facilitates our profession; it’s not the one thing that defines it. But don’t think for one moment, that Apple is going to come on bended knee dressed in sackcloth and covered in ashes and say, “Guys, we’re sorry. We really did the pooch on that one.” Maybe Apple’s marketing department is slightly red faced at this moment but we were promised something that was AWESOME… exact quote and yes, it’s pretty darned good. But like a good wine or a beautiful woman – they get better with age.
I edit. I produce. I enjoy what I do. Only you can cure your particular NLE ailment. The stuff that you guys produce is mind-blowing, truly. I can’t approach that and never will be able to. I like sitting by my lake and dreaming up new ways to annihilate squirrels when I’m not editing. My client base will always be small, I know that. But your clients are engaging you for your BRAINS and not your mouse.
There are always options in life – I know as I have played host to one russian bullet and bits of everything else. You can either educate yourself or you can leave. I’d choose the former as I still need to pick your brains on a few techniques, please?
I’ve finished and now, well, you can choose to flame me, chide me, chastise me. Or, you can make a decision and set your course and stick with it.
Don’t stop the critique; make it positive critique and have some patience.
Lawrence
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3 Replies
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[Lawrence Eaton] “Editing is an art form. It’s about timing, emotion and the arc of the story. ” No mention of software there. None whatsoever. Software facilitates our profession; it’s not the one thing that defines it.”
You think having connected clips, a clumsy position tool, a cumbersome quasi multi-track (forget audio lol), annoying gaps, auto-mentally-unstable-needy-playhead, silly folder restrictions, no save as, no sequences, no custom formats – helps or hinders the “art form”…?
Do you think placing limitations and removing the flexibility of your canvas helps or hinders the “art form”…?
I’ve been editing the way I want now for the better part of 10 years allowing me to create on a pretty limitless canvas …now, all that is gone from Apple. Now I can’t even move my mouse over the timeline without this dysfunctional program doing something annoying…
No mention of software, but there are some fundamentals, principals, in the process of the art form now of editing. No company, after building on those fundamentals and principals for a decade should *force* the artist to concede those truths and tell them to move forward or whatever…
I’m fine with all the chrome and icky data management and gloss. I want my second viewer. I want my old *proven* multi-track timeline back because what we do we do in layers. We jumble, we snap, we unsnap, we slip and jiggy and create chaos to mine for diamonds in complete control…all that is gone with a timeline that’s trying too hard to be a smart-ass, and doesn’t impress
Keep the new stuff, just add back the old…
There was no reason to change that timeline (canvas)….at all.
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NIce post, yes Apple have gone in a different direction, some of us actually like it, although we’re obviously not the “artists” some others are.
Fortunately for them Adobe and Avid can offer great alternatives, Premiere Pro is basically FCP8 from an alternate universe anyway
“My Name is Steve and I’m an FCPX user”
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Oh, indeed. FCPX users will be artists, but just like anyone capable of it.
(sure that relates to the OP’s premises)But as time goes by they will be systematically tied to Apple’s Ecosystem.
(I mean more then they are now, mind you)So much for artistic freedom, eh?
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