FCP X Professional Opinions

[Charlie Austin]

[Victor Vazquez] “Does anyone use FCP X at work?”

yes. 🙂

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~”It is a poor craftsman who blames his tools.”~
~”The function you just attempted is not yet implemented”~

[Timothy Auld]

No. But given the present options I’m more than willing to consider it. If Apple gets it together to support workflows other than those they perceive as valid. I don’t think this is gonna happen but, who knows?

Tim

[Charlie Austin]

[TImothy Auld] “If Apple gets it together to support workflows other than those they perceive as valid. I don’t think this is gonna happen but, who knows?”

Just curious, what workflows do you believe Apple doesn’t find valid?

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~”It is a poor craftsman who blames his tools.”~
~”The function you just attempted is not yet implemented”~

[Timothy Auld]

Really Charlie? Look back a few years.

Tim

[Charlie Austin]

[TImothy Auld] “Really Charlie? Look back a few years.

Tim
“

I’m serious. 🙂 I assume you’re referring to the EOL of many of their “pro” products right? If so, I can see your point, I just happen to disagree that it means they don’t take the pro market seriously. I just think it means that they’re just gonna concentrate on “core” apps, incorporating as much of the functionality of EOL apps into them as possible, and let 3rd parties pick up any slack left behind.

I’m convinced they’re committed to FCP X, Logic, and Motion. Probably Compressor as well. For other stuff?

FC Server >> Cat DV etc
DVD Studio Pro >> Encore (or DVD Studio Pro… still works)
Color >> Resolve Etc
Shake >> Nuke etc.

On the hardware side? The new iMac runs circles around my Mac Pro, Our GFX guy is running AE and C4D with 3 monitors from a RMBP. He’s nuts, but that’s another story… 🙂 There’s a new Mac Pro coming out anyway.

Xserve/XRaid? There are a million server/raid vendors, why compete?

I don’t have any top secret knowledge, but I have spoken at length with folks involved with FCP X development and marketing at Apple and they’re taking it very seriously.

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~”It is a poor craftsman who blames his tools.”~
~”The function you just attempted is not yet implemented”~

[Don Scioli]

Though I purchased FCPX when it came out, I messed around with it for a while, then took a course when 10.05 was released and I haven;t even opened 7 in over a year.
I cut a feature length doc with it, using hours of raw footage, in such a quick turnaround using the awesome skimmer, that it took me less than a month to have a fine cut. 7 would have taken much longer, at least 2-3 months.

We’ve also done a bunch of commercials, marketing tapes, web videos and even some 2 hour long conference videos with multi cam. Allow me to say that multi cam on X is one of the man made wonders of the modern world. It’s quick, fun, intuitive and fast as hell. I don’t even know if 7 did multi cam, but X did it great…I watched one video on how to do multi cam and off to the races.

I’ve been involved in film/video since the days of the Moviola in film school and X is the best editing platform yet.

I have Avid 6, PP5.5 and 7 on my Mac Pro and haven’t even opened them in over a year.
And these were all paying gigs.

BTW, I have it right from the horses mouth that Apple is 100% behind FCPX and will continue to innovate it from here on.

[Shane Ross]

[Charlie Austin] “Just curious, what workflows do you believe Apple doesn’t find valid?”

Anything involving non-firewire tape sources. And there is PLENTY of productions that still use tape. Documentary production alone will still need to capture tape…mainly archival material. And due to the sheer amount of footage, offline/online workflow with tape. FCX doesn’t do that at all. Offline/online tapeless, sure. But to them, tape no longer exists.

Many TV networks still demand tape masters as deliverables. Some still require tape for shooting (but those are rare, and really in the dark ages).

But that’s the realm of those of us in the “high end, 2% market” that FCX doesn’t really care about anymore. We are too demanding and not profitable enough. An yes, there are “3rd party solutions” to this. As there always are when NLEs are made lacking basic, COMMON features needed to get work done.

Shared media/project workflows. I hear there is some workaround for this, but it isn’t solid. And Apple is mum about any future plans on this topic. Again, that’s in the realm of the high end 2%ers.

Those are the workflows I’m still dealing with. I have worked on completely tapeless shows, but still find myself dealing with other shows that shoot, or deliver, tape. It is a current need that FCX ignores. It looks only to THE FUTURE! That future might be farther off than they think.

Not saying that FCX is a perfectly good tool and an amazing option for many types of productions. You just asked which ones it doesn’t find valid. Well, the ones that I’m currently working on daily, and have been ever since FCP 7 was EOL’d, and will be for the forseeable future.

Shane
Little Frog Post
Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def

[Bill Davis]

Dammit Don, Be QUIET.

I’d prefer at least another year to strengthen my X skills before the wider world starts adopting it. That way I can continue to stretch X abilities out ahead of the general pack of editors.

So please, don’t say anything else nice anymore about X in public!

; )

Know someone who teaches video editing in elementary school, high school or college? Tell them to check out http://www.StartEditingNow.com – video editing curriculum complete with licensed practice content.

[Charlie Austin]

[Shane Ross]
“But that’s the realm of those of us in the “high end, 2% market” that FCX doesn’t really care about anymore. We are too demanding and not profitable enough. An yes, there are “3rd party solutions” to this. As there always are when NLEs are made lacking basic, COMMON features needed to get work done.

I hear ya. But I’ll also point out that those features are currently *not* common if they’re only needed by 2% of the market. 😉 I always found FCP 7’s Edit to tape function to be kind of fiddly anyway. I can’t imagine that using BM’s Media Express or something would be any more difficult, other than needing to export the cuts first.

[Shane Ross] Shared media/project workflows. I hear there is some workaround for this, but it isn’t solid. And Apple is mum about any future plans on this topic. Again, that’s in the realm of the high end 2%ers.

Using shared media, at least on NAS works just like FCP 7 or anything else. no workarounds at all. Media lives on the server for everyone to use, X references it. Project/Event sharing takes a couple steps more than it did in 7, but it’s easy. Not surprising that Apple is mum on exactly what they’re doing, but I know they’re doing something. Maybe it’ll be Cloud based. 😀

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~”It is a poor craftsman who blames his tools.”~
~”The function you just attempted is not yet implemented”~

[Don Scioli]

Bill -I was one of the most virulent critics of X when it came out, cursing it on a daily basis. But one they improved it and I took the time to learn it, it has really saved me time and effort. For a small production operation like I have, it meets every requirement I can think of. It took me much less time to become fluent on X than on 7, Avid, or PP.

Go for the gusto, baby, and dive in. You can charge the same yet work less time on projects with X, and the client will never know.