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After a year has perception of FCPX changed?
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Often large companies have their own edit suites and huge media management systems for everything from browsing old projects/files to reviving previous projects from backup tapes to re-edit or restore for use in other projects.
The freelancers working for them get to be outsourced because their final product can be integrated into the system. It can be changed by staffers at the last minute before air. And right now the ones I work with are trying to figure out what’s next. Generally MC or Premiere. Since most of these corporations (and the freelancers) were using Avid just 5-10 years ago, they don’t see it as a struggle to go back. They see Premiere as an unknown, and FCP X as a non-contender.
It may just be that a year from now, there may be no legit standard in Post for corporate. I suspect MC will hold onto film and tv for the most part. They’ll earn back many of the houses they lost in the last few years to FCP legacy, and Premiere might win over a few too. X will get in there with a few startup shows. My .02
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Bill, would you elaborate a bit on your comment below? In a (very) rare event, I have strapped myself down in front of FCPX tutorials (I do NOT do tutorials! lol) and have been learning X while trying as little as possible to “mold” it to my way thinking. I’ve found quite a few things that make me pause and go “hmm…. that’s neat…”, not the least of which are the metadata aspects.
What’s your workflow to support the concept below? Add metadata as you work, then when project is complete, offline the media, but keep the project files online to enable metadata searching? I can immediately think of one client where a “permanent metadata library” would be a heck of a thing, WAY better than just named clips & folders. Which then leads to the question; could metadata for clips be shared? (Simple as sharing an event with clip info?)
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.
“Constituo, ergo sum”
Bob Woodhead / Atlanta
CMX-Quantel-Avid-FCP-Premiere-3D-AFX-Crayola
“What a long strange trip it’s been….” -
Having read through the entire thread so far, I see a few themes touched on regarding individuals as well as established facilities.
I think there’s another area where Apple and FCPX will make headway. The startup facilities. Given the economy, I think we may see those will capital restraints looking at FCPX and Thunderbolt based Macs. Many of these people wont have the baggage of the FCP7 EOL. They won’t worry as much about towers compared to the flexibility Thunderbolt affords them. They’ll see a lower cost eco system with an end to end workflow even with the need to move to Resolve, ProTools or even Smoke.
It’s not that I believe every startup or even most will go this route. Many are being advised by the “sages.” A few though will see this as a way to start businesses with less overhead. Even this may take some time. Given the possible improvements by the end of this year and certainly through next, FCPX may gain ground in new businesses. As a few of these facilities survive with the tightest of belts in this economy, the success stories will spread. Maybe at that point some of the more established facilities may have to reconsider especially taking economic conditions into consideration.
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[Craig Seeman] “I think there’s another area where Apple and FCPX will make headway. The startup facilities.”
Is there such a thing?
[Craig Seeman] “Given the economy, I think we may see those will capital restraints looking at FCPX and Thunderbolt based Macs. Many of these people wont have the baggage of the FCP7 EOL. They won’t worry as much about towers compared to the flexibility Thunderbolt affords them. They’ll see a lower cost eco system with an end to end workflow even with the need to move to Resolve, ProTools or even Smoke.”
If by “facility” you mean “freelancer with overhead,” I think this makes a lot of sense.
If you mean facility in the traditional sense of the word, I don’t see it. We’re talking about cost differences for software licensing and hardware that can be recouped in the room in a couple hours. This is a rounding error in comparison to the costs of space and storage infrastructure, and can be financed over time anyway. With Creative Cloud at $50/user/mo, a facility can spend more on coffee for an editor than they will on his or her NLE itself!
These costs also pale in comparison to the big cost of any facility which cannot be so easily financed — labor.
Depending on workflow, FCPX editorial may provide benefits, or it may be a hindrance. If the labor market isn’t there, it severely restricts the talent pool. In either of these last two cases, building the facility around FCPX because it’s cheap is penny wise and pound foolish.
Even if the belts are as tight as you describe, the low cost is not an automatic advantage for FCPX. Since the facility will likely need Photoshop, Illustrator and After Effects, FCPX is actually a $299 extra expense. They already have Premiere Pro for free.
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] ”
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.”
While the costs have certainly come down incompatible hardware, software, codecs, etc., still keep it from being a ‘bring your own guitar’ free for all. Even small shops might have multiple seats or maybe just one seat and if you work w/them it’s bring your own rig but you still need to use the same software they do.Susan E. Morse (Woody Allen’s editor for many years) recently got brought on to edit Louis C.K.’s show. Susan is Avid and Louis is FCP. Susan will learn FCP because that’s easier than retooling the shows whole workflow for Avid.
If you are a one-seat shop that’s just responsible for delivering the final product to the client
Honestly, as the gear gets cheaper and cheaper and editing becomes more easily done remotely then collaboration will be on the rise, not the decline, IMO. I’ve edited a number of projects where the project & assets were shuttled around on portable HDDs so even though we all working remotely the collaboration need to be the same as if we were all working under one roof.
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[Bill Davis] “That X is constructed on a metadata scaffolding is just a reflection that all of communications is increasingly built on that same reality.”
I agree that metadata is worth its weight in gold, but I don’t find myself as enamored w/FCPX’s metadata abilities. Maybe part of it is because I’ve worked as a vault librarian and an AE so for years my whole world was tagging, sorting, organizing, cross-referencing, tracking and protecting assets from less meticulous users. A few years ago I would’ve gone gaga over FCPX’s metadata but then I saw things like FC Server and CatDV I was like “This. Is. Awesome.”
I want more than FCPX can provide which is why I’m looking at standalone DAM (Digital Asset Management) software. I also worry about putting all my meta-eggs in the FCPX basket and then not being able to get them out again. For software like CatDV it’s in their best interests to use open standards and make CatDV as compatible w/as many NLEs as possible so that makes me more comfortable when I think about the process of building an asset library that will live and grow with me for years, and hopefully decades, into the future.
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Walter not all facilities are scores of seats.
Yes I think there will be small facilities in which a small number of people who may have a prior history of collaboration putting together a few seats. It can be someones putting together a few iMacs in a small office with a SAN who have a few corporate clients to hold them together while the seek to expand their business. There are many small business that startup and expand. It’s often these lower capital startups that compete with some of the older more established facilities (or maybe the latter simply don’t find it worth competing for that end of the business).It can also be the corporate entity itself that wants to put together a small workgroup for in house work. It may even be the small in house work group “let go” and decide to replicate that on their own.
There’s a huge amount of range from small to large and given the increase in demand for video and the decline in budgets, there will be those who find they can put together something professional for a very low cost of entry.
Having spent a good portion of my life editing in those types of facilities and seeing new ones spring up, this will be a growth point for FCPX.
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[Craig Seeman] “Yes I think there will be small facilities in which a small number of people who may have a prior history of collaboration putting together a few seats… It can also be the corporate entity itself that wants to put together a small workgroup for in house work. It may even be the small in house work group “let go” and decide to replicate that on their own.”
But in all these cases, if access to capital or startup cost is the determining factor as you outlined in your previous post, Creative Cloud wins, not FCPX.
Even with perpetual licensing, if you need PS, AI, and AE, you get Pr for free and FCPX would be an additional cost.
[Craig Seeman] “Having spent a good portion of my life editing in those types of facilities and seeing new ones spring up, this will be a growth point for FCPX.”
I do agree with that. FCPX can and will win where it offers the best workflow. It’s a good choice for many.
When the price is this low, and the hardware is common across all the major apps, I just don’t see how sticker price of the NLE software will be the primary concern for a serious facility of any type or size.
If it were all about price, everyone would use be using Lightworks, right?
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 -
[Walter Soyka] “If it were all about price, everyone would use be using Lightworks, right?”
Some might be predicting that. Seriously though I can see some small not for profits using Lightworks for in house work because of dollar value.
[Walter Soyka] “Creative Cloud wins, not FCPX.
Even with perpetual licensing, if you need PS, AI, and AE, you get Pr for free and FCPX would be an additional cost.”
It’s why many feel Creative Cloud is a brilliant business strategy. I certainly see that.
Of course one might argue FCPX is a variant of that given that there’s no upgrade pricing in the App Store. $300 for life and on a few of your systems as well. Of course we don’t know how this will really play out (that’s typical of Apple). It’s certainly possible that the $299 and $50 each for Compressor and Motion (and Apple may have some other things coming) may be for life or at least some years with lots of feature upgrades along the way.
If those in this fictional startup are already using FCPX, they may simply authorize their machines at no cost at all. Of course this might open a can of worms depending on the circumstances. It’s not that FCPX will own this market exclusively, it’s that it may be one of its stronger areas of growth. Certainly FCPX would be a contender in this market whereas it may not even be approachable in the “established” facilities.
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[Jim Giberti] “I third it.”
Yep.
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David Lawrence
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