And another thing… Conspiracy theories

[Gary Huff]

[Fiona Fuchs] “Any ideas of how this FCP thing will end up?”

Apple is, so far, doing the right thing by it. It’s useful, especially for particular projects.

And you should have room in your brain for knowing how to use both FCPX and Premiere.

[Ronny Courtens]

[Fiona Fuchs] “I have heard weird things”

You always hear weird things on the internet. The most important thing is not to believe any of them ((-:

“so I’d like to make an informed decision”

Then take the time and try out the different options. That’s the only way of making a truly informed decision. If you are an experienced editor you can learn to work with any NLE in no time, they’re just tools after all. And after 35+ years in this business I have learned that it’s harder to replace a good editor than to replace an entire post production workflow.

“Any ideas of how this FCP thing will end up?”

If it continues to go in the direction it is going now: extremely well.

[Craig Seeman]

[Fiona Fuchs] “Did apple really just think total radicalization of their successful program was the way to go?”

For Apple, certainly.
I think they’ve been aiming for much tighter integration between Software, OS, Hardware. That’s probably something they couldn’t really do well built on the old code base.

The most radical part has been the UI and I suspect they had some long range forethought on that.

They’re in a position as a company where they could afford losing part of the market while they re develop.
Apple has the resources… and the time, to put it back in contention. There’s still a few more pieces of the puzzle they need to get into place and then some marketing effort.

Keep in mind for FCPX to be a “success” by Apple’s business model, it has to sell hardware. I think it will do that.

[Shane Ross]

Apple built FCX to fulfill the needs of the majority of it’s user base, instead of chasing the “Hollywood model” that is only 2% of it’s base. The new version is cheaper, it is tons faster in how it works, it does a lot of things smartly…and fulfills the needs of MANY people. It even outsold FCP 7 by nearly double.

Apple succeeded.

The issue is that in doing so, they alienated a bunch of us who use it for the “hollywood type” of productions, and we are a pretty vocal bunch. It was tough because Apple had really made in roads into hollywood, and then just shut it down. I was angry, for about a year.

But now, I am back to Avid, which is better, and does all that I need in the work that I do. Well, not all, there are other projects that it’s terrible for, and for that I have Adobe Premiere Pro.

No conspiracy….Apple was just listening to it’s larger base, and they are very VERY happy.

Shane
Little Frog Post
Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def

[Fiona Fuchs]

Yeah, our NLE’s were based on an ingest workflow and it’s not always super relevant these days – I totally get it. Don’t like the way they stopped all support though – dictators! 🙂

And I’m pretty sure all of these generations X’ers will make me redundant one day.

Thanks for your input.

[Fiona Fuchs]

Yeah – there’s room to learn more than one. But I want to be an expert in one too. Decisions decisions.

[Fiona Fuchs]

You are right, I never really thought about the hardware aspect.

[Marcus Moore]

We shouldn’t forget that this is the second time Apple has introduced a product that was mocked by the “Pros” at well below the going rate, only to infiltrate the market from the bottom up. They’re not starting from nearly as far down this time, but they are working to re-enter the market as Judas this time, instead of a nobody.

People move on, people forget. If things stayed static in our industry, no one wouldnt’t be using anything but AVID. It took FCP 5 years to make serious inroads in the industry. It took Premier 10. There are people on AVID now that swore they’d never go back. There are people who loved Adobe until they CC and now they don’t.

Things change.

X does certain thing VERY well- as long as that list improves, its base of users will continue to grow- in numbers and sectors of the business which is can serve.

[Fiona Fuchs]

Ha ha – Judas indeed.

[Bill Davis]

Fiona,

One thing to consider about X is that it does represent new thinking in many areas – and if you do take it on, i honestly think you will stretch yourself as an editor. It encourages an editor to spend time thinking about project preparation in some new ways. The integrated database and keywording can be literally transformative if you allow yourself to explore it and open up to its possibilities. If it fits your needs, X can be a virtual rocket in terms of project completion speed. Not always or for all project types – but for enough project types to make the productivity increase pretty stunning at times.

For example, I allowed three days for post for the client rough cut on the music video I just finished an hour ago. It actually took just six and a half hours to edit start to finish. That initial estimate was based on my 20 plus years as a working editor. No tthe best cutter in the biz, but not a noob, either. We shot two cameras and did 12 takes of mixed wides, mediums and CU to a standard lip sync track. What made it so insanely fast was being able to load up all 24 takes as proxys in the X angle editor and easily switch things in passes.

X has also cut huge time off my client reviews and deliveries since it exports directly to email and so many delivery services.

The quality is superb and the stuff like magnetism that ticked off so many editors as foreign in the beginning is now proving to be a major efficiency boost once you expect it, since you can assemble blocks that remain connected and move them as units at will.

X is excellent editing software. Period. Truly excellent. No, not for 100% of all possible edit styles or editors preferences. But as a tool for creating modern edited material from the most common file based sources – maximizing quality and giving an editor the most common tools you need to get things done fast and well, it’s very impressive.

You’ve just got to get up the learning curve – which is very real. Some editors find it a challenge to re-boot their brains and muscle memory. Others find it easy. But I know very few editors who actually learn it, then are sorry they did.

And that may be the key. Don’t talk to editors who don’t use the program in order to form your opinions. Seek out editors who DO use it regularly and ask them.

If it was crap, a solid chunk of the growing body of editors who’ve taken the time to truly learn it would say so.

But most experienced X editors are NOT saying that. At all.

For what it’s worth.

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