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After a year has perception of FCPX changed?
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[TImothy Auld] “The bottom line is I wear the clothes the sponsor pays me to wear and I work with whatever hammer the client chooses.”
I respect this orientation at one level. But I’m uncomfortable with it at another.
Likely because I’ve seen clients gleefully pick hammers based on “industry standards” that are hopelessly wrong for the task at hand.
I’m content to be the person to pick my own tool. If I can master it, I expect the only barrier to be whether the work I output meets the quality standards and communications needs of my clients.
To let them force me to use tools I feel don’t fit me properly is a road to frustration on both sides.
Back when “big iron” costs made it impossible for the person at the controls to own the system, forcing workers to use a factory owners expensive machinery made sense.
But those days are nearly gone.
I just can’t see the downside of allowing an artist skilled at a particular type of work who wants to use Smoke, AVID, X or whatever – based on their familiarity with the tools and their individual working style – to not only make the call, but arrive at the place where the work gets done with their toolset in hand.
Once upon a time, a video editing system was a threshing machine – expensive and affordable only to whoever owned the farm.
Today it’s becoming more and more like a guitar. The player brings the ax they prefer – and jack into the shop band to play their part.
My 2 cents anyway.
“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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Stop it, you’re making me weep. FCP was flawed but great.
COME BACK!!!!!!!
It’s kind of insane what has happened.
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[Andy Neil] “be a quality high-end NLE at the end of year 2, but the stigma will last longer than that.
“I have to disagree with the end of this.
The “stigma” will last precisely until somebody does something different enough and cool enough with it and that supplants the old meme.
This is the modern era.
Short attention span theater land.
Things are cool until they aren’t. And what wasn’t can become cool again in a few days.
Ultimately, what becomes cools are things that satisfy people.
If X on a MacBook Pro satisfies an editor who wants to cut their extreme skiing GoPro clips from fireside at the chalet – and comes to understand that with proper planning, they can turn out a killer promo video for their boss and upload it to the web between drinks – then game over.
None of what any of us says will really matter if the tool solves real problems for real users. Even if those problems aren’t the same ones you and I have.
“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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From a finishing facility point of view, my attitude has changed in one respect. I now tell editors that there is a workflow out of FCPX for broadcast work and I no longer caution against them using it, provided they also purchase software to get AAF or OMF out.
But the feedback I get from a lot of editors mirrors Shane’s. They just don’t think the methodology is an improvement and the learning curve is off putting. Most importantly there is more affordable choice than ever for an alternative NLE so let this weird offshoot cater to the prosumer. This seems to be at the heart of many complaints. ‘X is not designed for working broadcast editors’. This is a common perception from editors. (Don’t shoot the messenger.)
Without a doubt though the thing that has not changed and in many cases seems worse is the trust issue. Another universal comment is that Apple cannot be trusted and there is a resentment at the ‘my way or the highway’ approach. The perception is that Apple have been reluctant to change their vision of what editors need and that the heavy lifting of getting features back has been from keen third parties.
Personally I think many issues have been addressed but in a way that still makes people reluctant to put trust in Apple for editing software and hardware.
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Certainly that has been my perception based on the limited number of people I normally interact with. Whether or not that perception holds remains to be seen. Younger folk than me drive trends. If a new generation of filmmakers latches on to FCP X then it could be here to stay. For good or ill.
Tim
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[Bill Davis] “Today it’s becoming more and more like a guitar. The player brings the ax they prefer – and jack into the shop band to play their part.”
This is true to the extent that all guitars use the same plug.
It depends what your deliverable is. If you’re delivering a final product, it doesn’t matter what NLE you use. If you are expectd to work in a team, then the workflow matters as much (or more) than the final product.
Interchange and collaborative workflows are improving, but they are still not strengths for FCPX. This is a direct result of Apple choosing such a different design for their NLE.
Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events -
[Bill Davis]”This is the modern era.
Short attention span theater land.
Things are cool until they aren’t. And what wasn’t can become cool again in a few days.”For an editor working in isolation this may be true. For editors who are part of larger post workflows that require planning and collaborations over longer periods, real money can be wasted by short attention span planning around cool products.
I know you love the freedom to roam and edit paradigm Bill but for many this is still a question of how to get the feisty colt into the barn and harnessed to a team.
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[Bill Davis] “The “stigma” will last precisely until somebody does something different enough and cool enough with it and that supplants the old meme.”
[Bill Davis] “If X on a MacBook Pro satisfies an editor who wants to cut their extreme skiing GoPro clips from fireside at the chalet – and comes to understand that with proper planning, they can turn out a killer promo video for their boss and upload it to the web between drinks – then game over.”
I think you’re overstating it a bit. My stigma comment wasn’t tied to whether or not an individual finds it useful for their work. I was speaking specifically for post facilities who buy hundreds of seats and do the bulk of TV and film editing. FCP7 has a pretty significant presence in post here in LA. Shops like Bunim-Murray have already moved away from it and in all the other FCP shops that I’ve been to and talked with, they have been vacillating on where they might go, but most aren’t even considering FCPX as a possibility. Even if they don’t plan on upgrading for a year or so. And why is that? The most common answer I get is that they don’t know where FCPX is headed (fair enough), but there is also a distrust of Apple. No facility’s manager wants to commit to FCPX only to have Apple pull the rug out from under them again.
Now these opinions are not my own. I’m a pretty big supporter of the current FCPX, and I’m confident that it’s updates are heading in the right direction. But I also don’t have a hundred seats to consider. Nor do I have post shop owners who hold the purse strings asking me to justify why their company should continue with Apple after they just EOL’d their entire facility. This is the stigma to which I’m referring. This will take more time than a year to blow over.
As Shane mentioned, FCPX (despite the name) cannot build upon the reputation of FCP7. No one who is in the position of purchasing equipment and software for an entire building is thinking of X as an upgrade from 7. That’s just the way it is.
I like X. I think it’s great and I have more fun editing on it than on Avid, or FCP7 or Premiere. In another year, it’s going to be solid. In 2 more, I suspect it’ll be one of the best out there. But it’ll take at least that long to get post houses who’ve listened to all the criticism to even consider it. Aside from the outliers of course who are working closely with Apple right now.
It’s too bad. The show I’m working on right now could really benefit from it.
Andy
https://www.timesavertutorials.com
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[Michael Gissing] “For an editor working in isolation this may be true. For editors who are part of larger post workflows that require planning and collaborations over longer periods, real money can be wasted by short attention span planning around cool products.
I know you love the freedom to roam and edit paradigm Bill but for many this is still a question of how to get the feisty colt into the barn and harnessed to a team.”
And, I’v been roaming with FCS for the last five years. I’ve taken my work on all manner of vacation, and on afternoon getaways. Its not like X is somehow mobile and other NLEs are not. That’a a fallacy.
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[Michael Gissing] “Personally I think many issues have been addressed but in a way that still makes people reluctant to put trust in Apple for editing software and hardware.”
The absolute silence about workstations doesn’t help X out either.
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