FCP minus the X

[Shane Ross]

I’ll be calling it FCX for the rest of my days…

🙂

Shane
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[Michael Gissing]

Language is best when it doesn’t cloud meaning. When someone says FCP it automatically requires clarification between two very distinct software packages.

To what purpose does it advance communication to require such constant clarification when both version of software already have similar but unique identifiers?

[Noah Kadner]

Yeah when someone I don’t know says they work in “Final Cut Pro” I generally assume they are referring to 7 and earlier. It’s amazing how many folks still don’t seem to know or perhaps want to forget “Final Cut Pro 10” exists now 6 years into its life and running. But here we are.

Noah

FCPWORKS – FCPX Workflow
FCP Exchange – FCPX Workshops
XinTwo – FCPX Training

[Craig Seeman]

Yet many call Adobe Premiere Pro “Premiere” despite there being a previous and entirely different iteration by that name. Perhaps it’s not as significant since the previous iteration was never the professional tool that FCP legacy came to be.

[Andrew Kimery]

[Craig Seeman] “Yet many call Adobe Premiere Pro “Premiere” despite there being a previous and entirely different iteration by that name. Perhaps it’s not as significant since the previous iteration was never the professional tool that FCP legacy came to be.”

I think it’s multiple things. “Final Cut Pro X” is the official name of the app where as the previous iteration was Final Cut Pro with a version number after it. Maybe I’m just a stickler, but I always (almost always) refer to Premiere Pro as PPro or Premiere Pro. I also had an old version of Premiere back in the day so maybe way back in my head Premiere still means that app I used in 1999 and Premiere Pro is what we have today.

Sure we are six years out, but for many of those years Final Cut Pro Legend was still in heavy use so the distinction was required. Maybe Premiere and Premiere Pro had the same thing happen in its user base it back in the day. I wasn’t a part of that group so I don’t know. It was also 14yrs ago so I’m sure that many (most?) people using Premiere Pro today don’t even realize there used to be a Premiere-not-Pro version. I’m sure we’ll eventually hit the same thing with Final Cut Pro where anything pre-X is ancient history.

[Patrick Donegan]

And then with Premiere Pro the next question is “CC” or “legacy”?

FCP X 10.2.3 – user since FCP 1.25
iMac mid 2011, MBA mid 2012
iPhone 4
HVX-200, Shure wireless mic
Miller Solo tripod
Advanta-Jib

[Andrew Kimery]

[Patrick Donegan] “And then with Premiere Pro the next question is “CC” or “legacy”?”

The program hasn’t changed though, just the payment method. Most people though identify the older versions of PPro by the CS number (ex. PPro CS6) while using the release year when talking about the CC versions (ex. PPro 2017).

[James Culbertson]

[Michael Gissing] “Language is best when it doesn’t cloud meaning. When someone says FCP it automatically requires clarification between two very distinct software packages.”

To provide more context… I’m getting more requests from producers and other potential clients to use the newer FCP and they just ask if I know FCP, or “the Final Cut” as one example.

Also, for younger generations, particularly teens and 20-somethings, who have never used FCP Legacy, and seem to prefer FCPx more than many in my generation, they often just call it FCP, or even more they shorten it to “Final Cut.”

After posting this, I realized I always called FCP legacy by tacking on its current version number: FCP7 for example. So, perhaps the best balance is to call the new FCP: FCP10

[James Culbertson]

[Shane Ross] “I’ll be calling it FCX for the rest of my days…”

Not a few AVID editors I interacted with back in the early 2000s said the same of the original FCP. One editor friend called it FCT (Final Cut Toy) for many years.

Same as it ever was…

[Michael Gissing]

[James Culbertson] “So, perhaps the best balance is to call the new FCP: FCP10”

Or FCPX which is what Apple calls it. I ask editors what they are cutting on before they hand over to me in post. When they tell me they are cutting on Final Cut, I ask 7 or X. Surprising to many may be that I still get more FCP7 edits to post than X so in my experience, six years on I find most editors mean 7 or legend when they say FCP.

Sure with younger editors it may mean X but I have to constantly ask, hence why I see zero advantage in trimming the identifier off the name.