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After a year has perception of FCPX changed?
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[Shane Ross] “I gave it a spin for a week, so I did more than kick tires. “
In FCPX world using it for a week is actually just kicking the tyres
Steve Connor
“Sometimes it’s fun to poke an angry bear with a stickl”
Adrenalin Television -
I agree with much of what you say there, Bill, though I’m not quite as confident that Apple will carry through. I don’t necessarily believe that they won’t, but I’d certainly like to see a little more reassurance that they will. My gut tells me that it just doesn’t matter to them that much anymore, but I’d happily be wrong.
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[Steve Connor] “[Shane Ross] “I gave it a spin for a week, so I did more than kick tires. ”
In FCPX world using it for a week is actually just kicking the tyres”
I disagree, Steve. Using it for a week is taking it for a test drive, reading all the brochures, reading the reviews from consumer reports to Motor Trends. In short, it gives you plenty of time to figure out the things you may or may not like. You just shouldn’t have to master something to decide if you like it or not.
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I came to FCP for price and stayed with it partially because I liked its versatility and partially because it eventually overtook my client base. There was a time I couldn’t pay people to use Avid and many times I would’ve chosen Avid over FCP for stability and media management reasons. That most often proved not to be possible. If Apple really does commit to FCP X then I suspect I may be faced with a similar dilemma in the not to distant future. The bottom line is I wear the clothes the sponsor pays me to wear and I work with whatever hammer the client chooses.
Tim
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I always had the outlook that if FCPX gets ‘good enough’ for what I need then I’ll take another look at it (my first look being when it launched). Unfortunately one of my needs is that the program be adopted by companies doing projects (TV shows, documentaries, etc.,) that I want to work on. I’m sure someone will say that learning FCPX now will make me more ready when that day comes, but I wasn’t in on v1 of Avid, AE, PS, FCP, FinalTouch/Color, etc., and that hasn’t hindered my ability to get paid to work w/the those tools.
The way I’m looking at things now is any time I could spend tinkering w/FCPX is time I’m not spending getting my Avid chops back, digging deeper into AE or getting comfortable with Resolve. All of which will help me land my next gig where as knowing FCPX will not. I’ve actually seen a number of LA-centric job ads saying ‘looking for FCP editor (not X)’.
Another need, which is probably more subjective, is that FCPX significantly improves my editing workflow and efficiency. I know the learning curve will be higher than picking up PPro, for example, but if it provides me w/a much better way of doing what I need to do then I’m down. I’m not interested in just doing things differently, but I am interested in doing things better.
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Every bit of that week was a struggle. I just wasn’t making headway. Just like when I tried out using a Wacom tablet. Tried it for three weeks. Just couldn’t get used to it. Not nearly as precise as using a mouse. When it came to editing. I use it for photoshop. That’s different.
FCX just doesn’t work the way my brain does. Years of conditioning maybe. But I just didn’t get it, and wasn’t making any headway towards getting it. And I didn’t need too. Avid works the way I do. FCP still does. CS 6 is getting there.
One thing FCX has against it is that it can’t build on the success of FCP. It can’t just take over where FCP legacy left off. It has to start all over again. If it fulfills a need, it might do well. If not, it won’t. CS 6 is fulfilling a need. A tool to do what a lot of editors were used to doing in FCP Legacy. And the ability to work natively, without transcoding. That’s why it seems to be getting a good foothold.
But with Leverage using FCX, we’ll see what FCX has in store
Shane
Little Frog Post
Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def -
[Andrew Kimery] ” I know the learning curve will be higher than picking up PPro, for example, but if it provides me w/a much better way of doing what I need to do then I’m down. I’m not interested in just doing things differently, but I am interested in doing things better.”
Yup. That’s where my head is at.
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[Chris Harlan] “I agree with much of what you say there, Bill, though I’m not quite as confident that Apple will carry through. I don’t necessarily believe that they won’t, but I’d certainly like to see a little more reassurance that they will. My gut tells me that it just doesn’t matter to them that much anymore, but I’d happily be wrong.”
Fair enough.
The thing I’m starting to see is that FCP-X is no longer exclusively a video editing play for Apple.
That X is constructed on a metadata scaffolding is just a reflection that all of communications is increasingly built on that same reality.
I was reading a customer relationship marketing journal last night and the entire issue was focused on about trends in corporate use of social media – and at the core of all that? Data mining, and customer analytics.
It continues the “metadatafication” of the entire planet. If you can’t find, manipulate and deploy your communications into a world where people can use them via search and metadata access, you increasingly are stuck “outsourcing” the most vital part of all your communications to others.
Heck, I took the family up to Sedona last weekend, and on the way, stopped to take a few photos of the Gladiator Fire in the distance. When I got back, I sent them to the local TV station. Before I did that, I had to take the time to tag my photos with my copyright details and contact info.
I doubt it will result in anything since they weren’t all that much WOW photos, but the important thing is how my *thinking* has changed relative to all my digital data creations now. And that’s because of what I’ve learned about metadata strategies using FCP-X.
It’s encouraged me to think about my videos as just another form of digital data stream – and how self-discipline in using tags and metadata is likely to make the work I do today – even more valuable in the future – if I can just discipline myself to index and archive it properly.
It’s something that has changed my entire thinking about how my work fits into the larger digital world.
Maybe everybody else here has done exactly the same inside their AVID or Premier workflows. But I never thought this way about FCP-Legacy. When I was using that tool, =an “edit” was a thing I did – then stuck on a shelf.
In X, I see my edits a little bit more as mini-programs in a connected library. And so the metadata is the core to searching, sorting and re-purposing it after the fact.
X really has changed my foundational thinking about how video fits into my working life.
Not sure anyone else will see it this way – but it’s my new working reality.
And I still find it exciting.
FWIW.
“Before speaking out ask yourself whether your words are true, whether they are respectful and whether they are needed in our civil discussions.”-Justice O’Connor
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“I’m not interested in just doing things differently, but I am interested in doing things better.”
Exactly. I see FCX does things differently. But I don’t see them as better. In fact, a lot are big steps backwards. Dismissing tape (again, non-FireWire based) at this time is wrong. Trackless timelines make no sense and are just messy to me. Unorganized. Label it all you want (Roles), it’s still a big mess.
Shane
Little Frog Post
Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def -
Well, my perception has definitely changed. I liked it at first and used it for months. A couple weeks ago I finally moved everything out of it.
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