Are Schools that Don’t Support FCP X Part of the Problem?

[Brett Sherman]

I think a lot depends on the nature of the school and the students. If it’s a “film school” then it makes a lot of sense to teach Avid. If all the students see themselves as future editors in Hollywood then it also makes sense to teach Avid or Premiere.

However, if the students are largely not in the professional video tracks and want to gain knowledge and practice with video editing as part of a broader communication education, then FCP X makes a lot of sense. I’m not sure about the value of teaching Avid to students who see themselves working in social media in the future. Premiere, maybe. But for these students FCP X would likely be the most valuable.

[Tangier Clarke]

These are all excellent points and giving me some food for thought. I started out on AVID in school and in the professional space, then went to FCP Legacy for most of my career. The majority of my professional post-production experience has been on FCP Legacy and FCP X; using Premiere Pro from time to time which wasn’t that far from FCP 7.

I haven’t worked for big Hollywood studios, but have worked for small production companies for all of these now 17 years. Admittedly I don’t want to go back to a track-based NLE. I enjoy DaVinci when it’s working well. I suppose I am fortunate to have made a good living professionally and independently using mostly FCP (all versions). Perhaps things would/could be better if I sought work that required other tools, but I haven’t really had to do that, but it’s still good to keep my practice up on the other NLEs and stay up to date with their changes.

FCP X is an interesting tool and they all have their weaknesses. There’s value in all of the NLEs and their respective strengths, but FCP X certainly doesn’t make me want to use the other NLEs as much. I am sure others feel different. Of course there are features from each NLE I wouldn’t mind Apple “borrowing” or rethinking.

The statement above about the schools being market-centric regarding how they implement NLEs makes a lot of sense; especially for those markets that aren’t LA, Houston, New York, and Atlanta.

Thanks for the discussion folks. It’s giving me a lot to chew on.

[Chriss Williams]

Our program- a NJ State University- sends many students to work at broadcast networks in NYC (ABC, Fox, MSNBC, SYN, YES, et.) and several of our Film grads have gone to top Film Schools (USC, Chapman, Emerson). Years ago we faculty decided that exposure to both NLE’s was important since employers in our market use one or the other. Most students HATE Avid, and end up using Premiere exclusively. But they do know how to use it. Some students may get an Intro to FCPX in an Advanced class- depending on who’s teaching it.

I teach them all (along with After Effects, Photoshop, Motion, and Resolve) in a few Advanced classes. So some leave with a full knowledge of most professional media making tools.

Many student do, however, use FCPX on their laptops for personal projects (“It’s so much easier than the others” students have told me).

But the biggest reason most schools don’t teach FCPX is because in order to teach it, you need Faculty who know it. And, sadly, too many faculty are unwilling to learn anything new. For them, the switch from Legacy FCP to Premiere was, and will be, the last change they care to make.

Of course, this is Professor/Instructor specific, but it is my experience from teaching college for 20 years and speaking to faculty at Conferences that faculty adoption of FCPX is the biggest hurdle.

[Douglas K. dempsey]

IMO yes. I taught high school video class at a private school in CT for several years, and the school happily licensed multiple copies FCPX, kids took to it instantly as you would imagine.

But then headmaster heard from a parent “in the biz” that the pros use Premiere or Avid … and understandably, since they already had Creative Suite licenses on a bunch of Art Department and Library iMacs, decided I should offer PPro as well. I did that for awhile, then they decided one Fall they didn’t like their relationship with Apple Edu, and decided to “go professional” and teach Premiere only. This was right around time I was going to leave, and so when interviewing my replacement, they made that the requirement: must know Premiere Pro. And it’s been that way ever since.

Mind you, Art Department teachers don’t think that way. They pitch their classes for “enlightened amateurs,” not “professional artists prep” … and use old cameras, junky tech etc to teach “expression using the tools at hand.” It is only admin type folks who fall for the “pro” argument … which of course ends up weeding out kids who are not as software fluent. So they end up perpetuating a clumsy out-of-date interface IMO, but here we are.

Doug D

[Bernard Newnham]

The uni I was working for till last year has huge classrooms with hundreds of PCs. The network has a jukebox system so that different groups can load appropriate software – surveying, pharmacy, CAD, graphics, newspaper systems, etc etc. In the media area they’ve licensed all of Adobe – they hadn’t when I left tried Resolve. The system allows for maximum flexibility with their resources, and of course most software runs on PCs, which they buy bought from various manufacturers. There were a few Macs in the library. Don’t know why.

It’s all about money.

Bernie

[John Christie]

I teach editing and post-production at Capilano University in Vancouver. We focus entirely on Avid as it’s the one being used mostly by the film and TV business here in Vancouver. We do have Premiere Pro and DaVinci Resolve on some of the systems available to 3rd and 4th year students.

We tell our students that Avid is the hardest to learn, but once you’ve gotten comfortable with it, learning any other track-based system is easy.

The similarities between Avid, Resolve and Premiere make it easy for students to switch between them. But FCPX doesn’t really look or feel like any other NLE, except iMovie.

Before my time, Capilano U used to teach FCP7, when Apple EOL’d FCP 7, the university switched to Avid.

[Winston A. cely]

I teach a high school filmmaking class (sophomores through seniors). I choose to teach FCPX because I am comfortable with X having made the transition from 7 to X at the beginning and because I knew all the local universities were already teaching PPro (and/or Avid). I appreciate the idea of students having a larger area of expertise when it comes to software and didn’t want them to have to sit through the same “learn the software” class twice. Also, most of my students are going to be self-employed, small ecosystem at the start anyway, which allows them to use the software they want to use.

And speaking of ecosystems, many of the students who actually want to go on in this career started in Apple’s ecosystem of iPhone, iMovie and now FCPX. It all makes sense and gives them everything they need without thinking about it. Many of them have come back to me after graduating saying how much they hate having to use PPro for their school work and end up using X for their personal stuff. These guys are the future of independent filmmaking and regardless of their opinions of software are getting exposure to at least two pieces of software that allow them to tell the stories they want to tell.

Having said this, I tell everyone one of my students, MOST especially the students who do want to go to Hollywood (which is a tiny number here in South Carolina) that if they want to cut “professional Hollywood” films right now, they MUST learn Avid. But I also tell them that Hollywood is a super tiny section of the post-production market. It’s small and hugely competitive. My student’s bread and butter work will more likely come from PPro work that’s not Hollywood, which is great that have the universities teach Adobe’s software to match this dynamic.

Frankly, I love the idea of diversity in software at all levels. Give high schools the easy software with X, so students can concentrate on learning how to tell a good, solid story, and let the colleges and universities teach the more complicated software and workflows associated with PPro and Avid so they can be more hirable to current companies.

Eventually, it will matter much less. When the students I have now are in charge in 20 or so years, they’ll wonder why these older, more archaic methodologies, applications, and workflows are still used, employing more people than are needed, and costing more money in the long run than they need to. They’ll demand workflows that we haven’t imagined yet, but are influenced by the memory of how easy it was to make their first YouTube video with their iPhone.

Winston A. Cely
ACTC Media Broadcasting Video Instructor
Apple Certified Editor FCPX 3

\”If you can talk brilliantly enough about a subject, you can create the consoling illusion it has been mastered.\” – Stanley Kubrick