Back to FCPX From PP (Rant)

[Mitch Ives]

[Lillian Young] “Every non-editor I meet uses FCPX. I’ve defended FCPX and use it for quick, private projects. But it’s iMovie + Motion, basically. “

So, 20+ years as an editor and I’m now a non-editor? If you say so…

Mitch Ives
Insight Productions Corp.

“Criticism may not be agreeable, but it is necessary. It fulfills the same function as pain in the human body. It calls attention to an unhealthy state of things.” – Winston Churchill

[Craig Alan]

[Eric Santiago] “Sure the one bug that I hate from FCPX is the “all of a sudden projects slow down”.
That goes away after awhile.
“

try command-9 to see what background tasks are processing. Apple let’s you work while stuff is happening in the b.g. BUT there is no magic to it. It’s still doing more than one thing and will slow down.

Mac Pro, macbook pro, Imacs (i7); Canon 5D Mark III/70D, Panasonic AG-HPX170/AG-HPX250P, Canon HV40, Sony Z7U/VX2000/PD170; FCP 6 certified; FCP X write professionally for a variety of media; teach video production in L.A.

[Bob Woodhead]

Always impressed, Kevin, good to see you here on the Dark Side again. 😉

I think my computer screen would crack if we saw an Apple rep on the forum. Yet here you are, not even staying on your side of the pasture. Well done!

[Bret Williams]

I was more surprised by the “it goes away after a while.” Huh? No it doesn’t. The longer X runs the more sluggish it gets. Just have to reboot the app every few hours. It sucks up all the available memory. It’s not usually an issue until you start using templates, compounds or anything else to push the app a little.

[Andy Field]

If there are hundreds of thousands of people trying to get adobe products for free how bad can they be to send people running to FCP X?

Andy Field
FieldVision Productions
N. Bethesda, Maryland 20852

[Scott Witthaus]

[Lillian Young] “Every non-editor I meet uses FCPX. “

Really? This is one of the silliest statements I have seen on this forum, and believe me there have been some silly statements (some by me!) here.

I guess I am a non-editor too. 35 years in the business and now I find out. Guess I have to return all that revenue that FCPX made for me. And then lower my rates. Darn.

[Lillian Young] “I’m paying $50/month for Premiere when I could be pirating it instead like many do”

Wow.

Scott Witthaus
Senior Editor/Post Production Supervisor
1708 Inc./Editorial
Professor, VCU Brandcenter

[David Mathis]

Kevin,

Thank you for posting, glad to hear from you again. I will admit I kind of did some of those things that we should not do unless we like inviting Murphy to dinner. He is very likely to attend and muck things up rather quickly.

I also learned quickly you should clone your hard drive before updating to a new version of OS X otherwise Murphy shows up, not pretty. Thankfully, in my situation, I had a bootable external drive with Yosemite on it.

Amazing the number of problems that can be avoided if we just take a little extra time and do some rather painless, though time consuming, steps. Granted, even a clean install from the ground up can cause issues as well though less likely.

Backup, clone, clean install, don’t update anything in the middle project unless you really, I mean really enjoy crossing your fingers and knocking on wood. Been there, done that, not making that mistake again.

My two cents, not worth anything in the modern day economy.

P.S. Even though I mildly dislike rental only, I am enjoying my Photoshop subscription so far. Still hoping for a buyout option.

[Andrew Kimery]

[Scott Witthaus] “Really? This is one of the silliest statements I have seen on this forum, and believe me there have been some silly statements (some by me!) here.

I guess I am a non-editor too. 35 years in the business and now I find out. Guess I have to return all that revenue that FCPX made for me. And then lower my rates. Darn.”

I think this is one of those ‘all dogs are mammals but not mammals are dogs’ situations. Lillian didn’t say all editors that use X are ‘non-editors’ she said ‘all the non-editors she knows use X’. Along this same line of thought, prior to X coming out I’d say that nearly all (if not all) of the non-editors I knew (directors, shooters, producers, writers, etc.,) used FCP Legend. Of course, many of the editors I knew use FCP Legend too. Relatively few people that didn’t edit as part of their day job knew Avid because the learning curve was much higher than FCP Legends.

These days I run into a lot of directors, shooters, producers, writers, etc., that have to edit every now and then for various reasons and I’d say X is the most common NLE they use (PPro would probably be #2). Why? For similar reasons they were using FCP Legend in 2010. Is it indicative of the ‘ceiling’ that X can edit at? Of course not, but it seems like a forgone conclusion that Apple had the ‘fat middle’ of the market in mind when making X (as opposed to the market segment that edits day in and day out) and the fat middle has a lot of people that do many things including some editing when the need arises.

[David Mathis]

Now if I could only afford that control panel and turn my den into something that looks like the bridge on the Starship Enterprise, life would be great.

[Walter Soyka]

[Lillian Young] “Every non-editor I meet uses FCPX.”

All squares are rectangles….

[Mitch Ives] “So, 20+ years as an editor and I’m now a non-editor? If you say so…”

[Scott Witthaus] “I guess I am a non-editor too. 35 years in the business and now I find out. “

… but not all rectangles are squares.

As one of the squarest of squares myself, I feel the need to clarify the logic pedantically. These responses don’t follow the original reasoning. Lillian did not say that everyone using FCPX is a non-editor. She did suggest that people who edit video but who are not editors by profession (non-editors, right?) prefer FCPX.

Interestingly, this aligns with one of Bill’s frequent points here that FCPX has a broader user base than any traditional NLE could or does, that FCPX doesn’t have to be a specialist’s tool: a point I think both of you would agree with?

Walter Soyka
Designer & Mad Scientist at Keen Live [link]
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
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