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AppleInsider says NEW FCP at next week’s NAB Supermeet.
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Bill,
“I totally understand your perspective. I will note however that the last time I faced this kind of technology rev – in the “what camera should I shoot on” quandry, I took a flyer and became an early adopter of the Canon 5dMkii. As a 3 decades experienced video guy, I understood the risks and the limitations.That was nearly two YEARS ago. The first year, I had the luxury of building expertise without the stress of it being my MUST USE tool. Then, suddenly, everywhere I looked people were demanding the camera that I had significant experience using. That fact alone allowed me to move into higher and higher end work – getting calls from larger ad agencies and bigger corporations rather than smaller clients.
It’s always a toss up as to when you adopt something new.
Bet wrong and you waste time learning something that will be obsolete or irrelevant all too soon.
But bet correctly, and when everyone starts demanding the new toys you already know how to incorporate what they do with your existing experience.”
Maybe it’s just me, but I think the difference here is your post platform rarely comes up as a topic of conversation with a client when they are looking to book. About the only time it seems relevant is if you’re applying for a job.
All they usually want to know is rate, amount of time it will take, and can you accept/deliver in ‘x’ format. Sometimes if there is a particular FX, or font they are interested in, they may ask about that.
Unlike a camera, I wouldn’t know why it would even make a difference what the post platform is since most NLE’s are essentially multi-format. Maybe if the project was logged, or started with someone else and they wanted to make sure that previous work was usable. Or they have something unusual (large frame sizes, etc) that they already know can’t be done in certain NLE’s. And those jobs are a bit more rare.
I have had people ask me what I use, but only as a topic of idle conversation.Scott Sheriff
Director
https://www.sstdigitalmedia.comI have a system, it has stuff in it, and stuff hooked to it. I have a camera, it can record stuff. I read the manuals, and know how to use this stuff and lots of other stuff too.
You should be suitably impressed… -
Mark,
I absolutely agree that the tools are secondary to the skill of the person using them – and I argue that here all the time.
However, one reality of the current technology trend is that, for the FIRST time in video production history, there are INEXPENSIVE tools that produce visual quality that rivals the output of the professional gear that has dominated the high end of the industry for decades. That’s a fundamental change. The fact that I don’t have to depreciate a $60,000 camera over every single job I take has changed a lot of my decision making when it comes to picking and choosing what I can and should shoot.
Similarly, an edit suite built around equipment costing thousands, rather than tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars changes all the economies of my overhead structure.
Instead of commercial space, I have a converted hay barn on my property – purpose built out for video production – reducing my overhead from a mortgage AND office space to a single payment that builds equity for my family over time.
In the aggregate, these are gigantic changes in the business fundamentals that govern professional work in the modern era.
It’s a world where these kind of fundamental changes are sweeping through the industry that the new FCP will make it’s way.
I hold to my contention that those who embrace change will have an easier time than those who keep holding onto the processes of the past – simply because they’re the current standard.
The new FCP will sink or swim on it’s own merits. Maybe this isn’t the time for a major change in the fundamental concepts of video (and general motion content) editing. But then again, maybe it is.
It’ll be interesting either way!
(And if you’re coming to NAB, come by and say hi at the SuperMeet. I’m usually pretty visible since I participated in the birth of the LAFCPUG 10 years ago, and often pitch in helping Mike Horton run the festivities.)
“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’Conner
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When to jump on the “new thing” isn’t up to me. I work for a government agency and things just don’t work that fast. That’s often frustrating, but, it does reduce appreciably the chances of investing too much in “the wrong thing”. Twice, we dodged the bullet on picking the wrong tape format for our infrastructure, for example, and were able to wait and see which standard developed, without betting the ranch and losing.
What my “day job” does for making tech choices can be different from what I do privately, of course. But my budget is really tight. As is typical, the cobblers children often run barefoot.
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Bill,
“Today’s editing interface is largely a digital implementation of the same editing workflow that was forced by the 3 deck A/B roll conventions of editing in the 1960s. Source deck? Rec deck? We all loved that as traditional editors, we could look on our screens and see little icons that represented the same boxes that we used when we were learning to edit.But it’s 50+ years LATER, for pete’s sake. i love traditions and proven workflows as much as the next guy. But honestly, if people as bright as the teams at Apple have actually done some thinking about what editing MIGHT be from a 2011 perspective – especially given the ASTONISHING developments in computers and general digital technology since the 60s – then I for one am willing to give an alternate vision (if, in fact we will actually see something like that at NAB) a chance.”
A better way to handle data in the background, I’m all for. Major changes to the UI like killing the viewer/canvas/timeline, I’m against.
The QWERTY KB, I think dates back to the 1870’s with the design having to work with manual key-lever typewriters. Starting with Teletype machines and progressing through keypunch machines, typewriters like the Selectric and on to electronic word processors and the PC revolution, the QWERTY layout has not really been needed. Proponents over the years used very similar arguments like, experts have done studies, have a more efficient design, QWERTY it’s unnecessary, it’s old, a new better alternative won’t be hard to learn, etc. And those arguments may be true.
But yet here we are well over a hundred years later still using the QWERTY KB, with the alternatives failing to gain any real traction.
No offense to the smart guys at Apple, but changes to the UI that would eliminate the Viewer/Canvas/Timeline would be met with the same resistance as alternative keyboards and “New Coke”.
If you’re an old school linear editor you have probably hand drawn a paper ‘timeline’ to visualize edit sequences before. I think we all did this long before NLE’s come along. I think the Viewer/Canvas/Timeline UI is probably one of the best ways to present the info and it seems to mimic how we visualize the information. There are other non-timeline UI’s out there, but they don’t seem well received.
More control over the FC UI would be great. The ability to alter BG color, make the UI font bigger would be two things on my list.Scott Sheriff
Director
https://www.sstdigitalmedia.comI have a system, it has stuff in it, and stuff hooked to it. I have a camera, it can record stuff. I read the manuals, and know how to use this stuff and lots of other stuff too.
You should be suitably impressed… -
At the risk of a little thread-jacking, I would characterize the typical editing interface of today as more of a hybrid of older, bin and moviola-based film editing, crossed with the preview/program interface of a live-switched video control room. And I kinda like it the way it is now, though it is thought-provoking to imagine further refinements and new paradigms.
Look, it’s too late to make wish lists for next Tuesday now in hopes they’ll add the features you wanted. Just have to try to stop squirming and wait it out and actually SEE what they’ve done.
Then the real fun of all the dirt-dishing, second-guessing, and I-told-you-so-ing can begin in earnest.:-)
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[Mark Suszko] “I work for a government agency and things just don’t work that fast. “
I hear ya. If FCS X Gold Edition came out tomorrow I still couldn’t get it until FY 2012/13. The 2011/12 budget is set and it’s slim. As it is I’m trying to be a good boy until 2012/13 so I can ask for the Holy Trinity: new iMac, new FCS and new camera. It’s going to be a long 12 months. -
“It’s going to be a long 12 months”
You guys must be speed freaks, going THAT fast.:-)
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A possible alternative to the Viewer could be a ‘quick view’ function straight in the Browser window. For example, you highlight a piece of media in the Browser, hit the space bar and it pops up and starts playing (much like the preview feature in OS X). The window could also contain the same types of buttons and info fields that the Viewer window currently has. I guess this would basically be a Viewer window that only appears when you actually need to use it.
I don’t know how many times I’ve tapped the space bar to try and view a clip in the Browser because I’m so used to previewing media in the OS that way.
-Andrew
3.2GHz 8-core, FCP 6.0.4, 10.5.5
Blackmagic Multibridge Eclipse (6.8.1)
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