Does anyone think FCPX is NOT a Professional NLE?

[Scott Witthaus]

[Aindreas Gallagher] “It’s la la land software. You’re all at the mad hatter’s party.”

Damn. I guess I need to give back that big fat check my client just cut for the gig I did all on FCPX. Darn.

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

[Phil Lowe]

Voice One: See – Final Cut Pro X is just too different for me to learn and use.
Voice Two: See – Every OTHER software also does everything that X can do!

Those aren’t mutually exclusive statements. Some NLEs – while every bit as capable as others – implement the features in their UIs in a far more user-friendly way.

FCPX went so far as to change the entire paradigm including industry-standard naming conventions. Apparently, FCPX seems to be aimed at getting iMovie users to upgrade rather than getting Avid or Adobe users to convert.

So while virtually every NLE can do the same things, Apple decided to make crossing over to FCPX more difficult for those already entrenched in a traditional editing paradigm.

IMHO, it was stupid and unnecessary.

That doesn’t make FCPX less “professional”, only that fewer pros already heavily vested in other software are as likely to abandon what they already know and use professionally.

[Mark Smith]

The lit of vocabiulary changes for X is pretty short if you want to think of it that way.
Also X upadted the now all but defunct film editing paradigm to the digital age, with a huge emphasis on leveraging organizational aspects of the editorial process.. There are significant advantages to using X the way its menant to be used.
You might want to start with CHarile Austin’s post about “Don’t fight the magnetic Timeline”. Charlie probably cuts a different way than you do but its worth a look.

[Phil Lowe]

Thanks. I actually hate the magnetic timeline, but then, I’m used to arranging the elements of my pieces at various places on the timeline and dragging and dropping them where I want them, not where some Apple engineer thinks they should go. It would at least be nice to have he option to turn it off. The magnetic timeline is something someone completely new to any kind of editing might find comforting. I find it very limiting and extremely frustrating.

[Craig Alan]

You do have the option.
Just use the position tool – clips will stick where you put em. The insert edit will put a clip where the playhead is.
Connect edit will put a clip where the playhead is connected/not on the primary timeline.

In no way do you not have command of where your edits should go.

And magnetic alignment is very ergonomic for a very high percentage of rough cut edits.

Tracklessness has its pros and cons and for me was the much greater learning curve.

Snapping was more or less a form of magnetism. When I’m doing a rough cut I pretty much want the timeline to be a unified sequence and magnetism makes it really easy to change the order of that sequence. If I want to leave a gap I just use the position tool.

I find any interface frustrating when I don’t know how to use it. Particularly if i already knew how to navigate using different software that had the same purpose. And the constant learning curve I think is becoming counterproductive.

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.