FCP X Six Months Later – Blog Post

[Herb Sevush]

[Chris Harlan] “[Steve Connor] “Perhaps Apple might buy Avid, to recapture some of the “Pro” market :)”
Yeah, that would Shake things up.”

Actually, that would be my only fear, that Apple would buy Avid to kill it, like it has done with every other product it touches. Apple is like an animal in the wild, it kills any child that isn’t it’s own.

Herb Sevush
Zebra Productions
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nothin’ attached to nothin’
“Deciding the spine is the process of editing” F. Bieberkopf

[Steve Connor]

[Herb Sevush] “Actually, that would be my only fear, that Apple would buy Avid to kill it, like it has done with every other product it touches. Apple is like an animal in the wild, it kills any child that isn’t it’s own.
“

There would be a certain inevitability about that happening. I still think BMD would be the obvious choice though.

“My Name is Steve and I’m an FCPX user”

[Craig Seeman]

[Herb Sevush] “if Avid can’t fix their problems financially then someone else will pick it up.
“

I often wonder if Blackmagic might.

[Craig Seeman]

Avid’s situation is real. There’s not prognostication in that.
That they will have to change something is common business sense.
What they change is up for grabs and I’ve presented some of the possibilities.

Avid is not a software company who’s business model is dependent on MC.
Avid is a hardware company who’s business model is dependent on Unity and Isis for the most part.
That’s not prognostication.

[Craig Seeman]

[Steve Connor] “There would be a certain inevitability about that happening. I still think BMD would be the obvious choice though.”

I agree. BMD is a company that uses software to sell hardware. It’s hardware seems to go beyond the broadcast and film markets. ATEM is affordable. Resolve software starts at free and promotes upward movement to the paid version and the controllers, etc.

While they don’t have the exact same business models, Blackmagic and Avid are certainly a good contrast. MC might fit well in Blackmagic’s business plan if controlling the development of an NLE helps them move more hardware . . . and it might.

[David Lawrence]

[Craig Seeman] “BTW if you’ve seen the rumors about Gannett buying thousands of iPhones and iPads for journalists, might give you an indicator as to where some “Pro” markets are heading.””

[Chris Harlan] “Huh?”

Read this. Interesting if true.

https://www.appleinsider.com/articles/11/12/22/leak_shows_gannett_stockpiling_thousands_of_iphones_ipads_for_journalists.html

_______________________
David Lawrence
art~media~design~research
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[Craig Seeman]

From the Gannett blog (which watches Gannett specifically of course).
https://gannettblog.blogspot.com/2011/12/memo-gci-buys-thousands-of-iphones.html?

I’d not that Gannett has also been one of the investors in Livestream.com (formerly Mogulus). Livestream is the only widely used service I know have that allows one to cut between smartphones sources (which must be brought in through Qik).

If true, Gannett may be expanding live news coverage with iOS devices. One interesting response I read was showing how different this is than to CNN’s firing of editors to depend on iReporters. Gannett approach is to equip trained journalists with the technology rather than depend a large “amateur” pool.

If true, it does indicate where the use of this technology is going. That’s why “consumer” when describing iPhone and iPad doesn’t quite explain where the market is going. That iPhones and iPads are low cost commodities makes them potentially attractive to one portion of the “pro” market (if true).

One might wonder what they’ll be editing on when not streaming live. Will they be using iMovie for iPhone/iPad? Well they then be importing such edits into an NLE than can import from . . . well you see where I’m headed.

Obviously just rumor at this point but if you “forward think” where things may be headed.

[Stephen Sarsfield]

i wish apple would give those of us who have invested in their edit product over the years a token discount on X!

[Andrew Richards]

When did Apple abandon Xsan? They are giving it away in Lion.

Best,
Andy

[David Chai]

This is an amusing thread, I guess people are bored on Christmas day…

I think the reason AVID have a hard time being profitable is that the High End POST business is dying, Technicolor and Deluxe have merged their lab operations, Postworks merged with Technicolor in NY. That’s after a whole bunch of LA facilities were bought out by Indian post houses. There’s a plethora of old AVID systems out there from a decade ago, that are still in use. Why? Because it’s an offline system, and if that’s all you need, well, your needs were covered 10 years ago. Broadcasters are also slashing budgets, especially in news.

Any medium, high budget TV series or film is going to be finished on DS or Smoke, so there really is no need for finishing for the TV episodic and film markets. Paying for a software upgrade once in a while is also not going to give you much revenue. AVID unity was great when it first came out, but expensive, and now with tons of competition at much cheaper prices, that market must be really shrinking.

Apple have obviously decided to go for the 99% and not the 1% of high end users that need edgecode or audio Timecode reading from the audio track. FCP X is a bold new direction, probably about a year ahead of it’s time, as the death of tape was given a big helping hand with the Japan tsunami.

I wish (apart from the multicam and video out) there was a non-linked mode and a track mode. I think that 99% of the 1% would pretty much be satisfied with that for FCP X.

As much as I like AVID MC for it’s high end film features, it sucks for finishing. The effects stack is braindead compared to every other editor on the market. This is 2011, not 1998. Straight conforms, static titles and a bit of primary color correction are not good enough anymore. You need full color, secondaries, vignettes, you need full motion graphics and better quality transitions. Apple delivers that for $299. Plus it’s super easy for a new user to pick up and start editing, you don’t need a two week steep learning curve like you do for AVID.

I honestly believe that if apple had actually scaled up the workspace for Motion, they could have taken on photoshop, because the effects stack is so much better than photoshops stupid history, and duplicating layers to try out effects. It already had a much better paint tool than After Effects, despite it’s being on the market for over 15 years.

I find that I can cut on FCP X much faster than I could with FCP 7, but am also frustrated with some of the annoying things of a version one product, but It’ll get sorted out. They would lose too much reputation to kill the product off now.

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David Chai
Writer . Director
http://www.davidchai.com
dc@davidchai.com
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