FCP-X angst: Mind-killer or motivator?

[Tim Wilson]

To go down the “motivator” road…

[Dustin Parsons] “I wish I had kept up with 3D modeling and animation…”

Which got hit harder, faster, and longer ago. You don’t even need to know about video formats, cameras, or media management to do that stuff. Here’s my QuickTime movie or TGA or TIFF sequence, rendered to my desktop. The end.

But you make an outstanding point that’s worth coming back to again and again: shooting and editing skills are not enough. There’s too much downward pressure on prices, especially on freelancers, and currently unemployed children don’t need as much money as you do. Diversifying skillsets is critical.

We regularly talk about this in the Business & Marketing forum, which you all should check out if you haven’t. The fact is that post is growing again, really fast, but maybe not in the ways that you expect.

One recent example, a job at FotoKem in the COW jobs forum now, looking for someone with DI experience AND who can help them whip “storage backup and recovery for a multi-OS, multi-terabyte, high-availability NAS/SAN/local storage and computer infrastructure” into shape.

That might sound so technical that it’s out of this business, but once you translate, it’s basically looking for somebody who knows their way around multi-platform shared storage. You’ve maybe been doing that for FREE already. Sharpen up and get paid for something an awful lot like what you’re already doing, while working for one of the world’s most respected houses, because you’ve built something valuable on top of your software skills.

Here’s another one I really like from the COW jobs forum, from Whiskey Tree: yeah, they want years of software experience or school experience, actually favoring work experience OVER school, but also:

 Minimum 3 years of studio or vendor VFX producing experience on major feature film projects
 Equivalent work experience or bachelor’s degree in film, communications, or similar discipline
 Sublime written and verbal communication skills
 Fluent grasp of mathematics and their application to managing projects and personnel
 Outstanding project management skills
 Solid and successful experience leading production teams
 Ability to maintain and encourage calm under pressure
 Thorough knowledge of VFX pipelines, techniques, and disciplines
 Robust experience in MS Office; particular familiarity with Excel

I know that major feature film experience doesn’t apply to all that many people, but look at the rest. To get a job like this, you need people skills, writing, math, using spreadsheets for time and project management, and being able to keep your sh^t together under fire. That’s true for a job like this in Tampa or Tonopah too. It’s exactly the stuff we say SHOULD make a difference when being considered for a job. Nothing from a box or an app is going to let a kid get ahead of you, even if they have a better education. They don’t have a prayer.

(Here’s the sad part to me: for I don’t know how many people – a million? more? – $299 is a step UP in price for the FCP they were ripping off. Being sold through the app store might do more than anything else to cull the FCP herd to people who are “serious” about this “business.” Ahem.)

Again, I’m not saying that any job I’ve mentioned here is for you. I’m making a broader point about skills. It’s good news that facilities (salaries! benefits!) are among the places doing the most hiring right now. It’s good news that no kid is qualified for the best jobs.

Which is why the key to one’s next step up the ladder is almost certainly not in software chops alone. Hopefully getting a software slap upside the head will inspire you to look in a more fruitful direction.

[Jamie Franklin]

[Bill Davis] ”
I’m just trying to see the forrest for the trees.”

No, you’re not. You might have a different approach to this release, and that’s fine, but again, the constant drone of “we’re all just scared because we just don’t get it” is really really really really tired.

Pissed, yes, but to try and once again to dismiss it as misdirected, and not understanding the revolution of the business is grossly off the mark, and serves only to try and toss red meat into the forums for arguments sake.

They were disingenuous on the presentation. Knew full well what it lacked while promoting it as an incomplete product, which it really wasn’t, and to expect larger updates to expressions of the editing process that doesn’t simply tailor to holiday videos reliant on 3rd party developers wasn’t what NAB was about.

People have every right to be “pissed” at this garbage and inadequate release, on almost every detail, the disregard to warn on the EOL, and to dismiss it as white noise and misdirected because you have a greater understanding of the truth is arrogant in the extreme…

[Craig Seeman]

That’s a failure in marketing, not a failure in code.
The marketing sold implied it was a “Pro” tool as delivered. The coders, on the other hand, know it’s just a work in progress.

You don’t have to differentiate between that but when I am as I evaluate FCPX.

[Greg Burke]

What they Did is mess up by calling it Final Cut Pro, and Killing all the other apps that people had mastered, im willing to bet if they just released it as iMovie 10.0 and told us they were discontinuing FCS altogether the reaction would have been much softer. But instead they Call it FCP so JOW Smith can feel special.

I wear many hats.
http://www.gregburkepost.com

[Kris Trexler]

I hear what you’re saying but I disagree, at least as it applies to me. I’m not a young guy anymore. To give you an example of how old I am, I edited a season of “All in the Family” in the 1970’s and edited music videos with Michael Jackson when he was at his peak in the 80’s. I’m still in demand and enjoying my career as an editor.

I once had concerns that younger editors would put an early end to my career. And a tool like FCX (not sure if I hate it or love it yet) can make it easier for newbies to get into editing. But I have no fear anymore. An old pro like me who can deliver network programs to very high standards, is reliable and delivers on schedule, is self-motivated to do work at levels that please himself while his employers benefit from his quality work has no reason to fear newcomers. Maintain high standards and you have nothing to fear either. Don’t drop the ball, don’t fall behind technology, have the attitude that there is no problem that can’t be solved and you will be in demand.

I intend to master FCX just so I can see what it’s about. Whether or not I ever use it professionally is another matter. Avid Media Composer is my tool of choice and will probably continue to be. But I embrace the new. “Get on the train or you will be left at the station.”

From an old pro to the rest of you … enjoy the ride and don’t be afraid of the new.

Kris

[Chris Jacek]

[Craig Seeman] “The marketing sold implied it was a “Pro” tool as delivered”

That’s not implied. If it’s in the software’s title, it is overt. Calling it “Pro” is purposely misleading and disingenuous. And it is unethical. Is that uncommon in the corporate world? No. At Apple, though, it was once unthinkable.

Professor, Producer, Editor
and former Apple Employee

[Craig Seeman]

[Chris Jacek] “Calling it “Pro” is purposely misleading and disingenuous.”

I do think it will be “Pro” eventually just as FCP 1 was “Pro” eventually. The problem is that it was believed to be “Pro” ready right out the door. The problem is that a mature FCS2009 was pulled from the market and we got a grossly immature FCPX. There was no transition. I suspect there was more to that than marketing. I can’t help but think there were licensing or contractual issues that were terminated/not resolved/expiring. Apple’s history is long transitions to new technologies. You can go all the way back to OS9 and the very immature (useless) OSX 10.0.

[Jamie Franklin]

[Craig Seeman] “That’s a failure in marketing, not a failure in code.”

Semantics. What you call a failure, there is enough evidence to persuade even the biggest Apple neophyte that it was a fabricated, or manipulated marketing scam.

It was promoted as a work in progress at NAB to alleviate concerns about what was missing, not what was to come after release and what was to come with Lion and what was to come from other vendors……Larry Jordan has said this numerous times. Those who followed NAB saw this, you saw it, you just redefine it. And again, it needs repeating, the glorious EOL many of us have spent thousands invested in without warning.

This is anger, not cowardice to the fantasy “revolution” completely repackaged in this thread to say the same dang thing we keep hearing from the “other side”….

[Jamie Franklin]

[Craig Seeman] “I can’t help but think there were licensing or contractual issues that were terminated/not resolved/expiring.”

All due respect, this is another repackaged excuse. It’s not gaining traction, although it’s the new talking point this week, for a reason. It doesn’t excuse the silence. At all…and the argument doesn’t stand on it’s own without confirmation and an explanation as to why this was not brought up earlier…

Licenses expire all the time, typically, those that depend on those licenses, get fair warning of their status…and if not, should be called for what it is. Negligence, if silently pulled off the shelves

[Kim Krause]

it’s all about change……when i first saw garage band on an ipad a while back i could hardly believe that it had the same functionality at 1/10 the cost of cubase and logic had running on an old mac some 8 or 9 years ago……a multi track recorder with a sound canvas and a sampler on a ipad for a few bucks! no way i thought…then i tried it….yup, technology had caught up with convenience. now i face the same dilemma as i ponder my future without color. of course i’ll have to switch to davinci like everyone else but i can’t shake the feeling that very soon we’re gonna be cutting and grading on ipads and wondering how we ever managed in the bad old days when we had to have a huge powerful workstation and a mouse and 3 monitors…come to think of it has anyone noticed how many news interviews are shot in HD on iphones now? just watch cnn when you see the shot of someone being interviewed by the media…..not too many camera men lugging around huge video cameras anymore!look around people…that funny feeling you have that someone or something is lurking around in the shadows or around the corner is called change and it will bite you in the ass if you aren’t ready!