FCPX info from an insider

[Erik Lindahl]

– FCP X is NOT for Professionals
– No Log and Capture, No 3rdParty Plugins, codecs or Hardware today.
– No EDL or XML support -in or out at this time.

Wow… That some massive lack of pro features…

————————
Erik Lindahl
Freecloud Post Production Services
http://www.freecloud.se

[Tim Wilson]

Just to tantalize you all while we get it ready to post, here’s the intro to Gary’s article:

FCP X: READY OR NOT, IT’S HERE

I’ll be honest. When I first opened FCP X, my first title for this article was, “What the @#%, Ap-ple?!”

Let’s get the hard part out of the way first. FCP X is NOT an upgrade to Final Cut Pro 7. This is a whole new app, literally built from the ground up. Here’s one thing that this means: upgrades traditionally allow you to open previous projects. That is not allowed here, so let’s just call this a whole new app.

This release is not for the professional editor, not yet. Apple knows this – BOY, does Ap-ple know, and they understand that if they want to make this useful for pro editors they have a short window to deliver some of what’s missing.

The main issues for most pro editors now: no support for any tape based capture, no third-party hardware support, and no third-party codec support. That means that you cannot send or receive an EDL or XML file for online editing or finishing.

Apple has been very specific, that this is not the final state of FCP X. Features are ex-pected to be added quickly, via the App Store, with some of them waiting to show up natively in OS X Lion and with support for Thunderbolt.

Once we get past the knee-jerk reactions (like mine was), the fact is there’s a lot to like about FCP X right now. The GUI has naturally received the most attention so far, but I’d like to show you some of what’s going on underneath the hood.

Some of it has to do with 64-bit speed that you’re not going to believe, but I’m going to start with our old friend, FCP media management. Even more important, is the information about your media, called metadata. The changes that Apple has made will change the future of non-linear editing for film, video and digital cinema professionals, with power that high-end pros have only been dreaming of.

+++
Okay, let the questions begin!

🙂

Tim Wilson
Creative COW

[Andrew Karczewski]

[gary adcock] “FCP X is NOT for Professionals “

If anyone else said that i would think they were just an obsessive fanboy/fangirl of Adobe or Avid etc

However, I believe you, Gary. Can’t wait to read the three part article.

[Erik Lindahl]

I’ll reply my self here as the question I have is “how is Apple thinking regarding this?”. I mean.. do they want to scare off the current high-end pros using FCP? If they plan on supporting us they should give us a hint of what the future really will bring for FCPX.

I think the idéa of having editing / grading / sound-suiting as they have done it is the way to go for sure. But we can’t live with out video i/o and an app that can communicate with other post applications.

————————
Erik Lindahl
Freecloud Post Production Services
http://www.freecloud.se

[Erik Lindahl]

To add to this, it seems like Compressor 4 is somewhat a “bastard child” that lives on. It’s not been re-skinned with the factor of “X” so to speak. A bit odd I’d say but I guess they had to get these apps out of walls of Cupertino…

————————
Erik Lindahl
Freecloud Post Production Services
http://www.freecloud.se

[Stephen Bakopanos]

[Tim Wilson] “Apple has been very specific, that this is not the final state of FCP X. Features are ex-pected to be added quickly, via the App Store, with some of them waiting to show up natively in OS X Lion and with support for Thunderbolt. “

Apple can’t leave us in the dark about what they will and won’t bring to the table or else the bulk of pros will jump ship to Avid or Adobe. They HAVE to keep us informed. I’m not going to wait for an unknown period of time for an unknown set of features. That’s just madness.

[Gary Adcock]

[Andrew Karczewski] “If anyone else said that i would think they were just an obsessive fanboy/fangirl of Adobe or Avid “

Thanks man…

Apple is keenly aware that this is not professionally enabled, rest asured that this was such a huge undertaking with the upcoming changes in Lion ( QT gone- AV foundation in) that this was needed.

The Supporting product will be comming, I have just been told that Automatic Duck will have an XML tool soon for handling some of this data

gary adcock
Studio37

Post and Production Workflow Consultant
Production and Post Stereographer
Chicago, IL

https://blogs.creativecow.net/24640

[Gary Adcock]

https://automaticduck.com/products/pefcp/

gary adcock
Studio37

Post and Production Workflow Consultant
Production and Post Stereographer
Chicago, IL

https://blogs.creativecow.net/24640

[Keith Mahoney]

Here’s what I’m still confused on, can you separate the audio tracks so 1 & 2 are dialogue, 3 & 4 Narration, 5 & 6 Music and 7 & 8 Effects? If you can’t do this then what’s the point in exporting anyway, you’re going to be spending a lot of money and time re-organizing your tracks in Pro Tools, Soundtrack Pro or Logic. And how do you send someone a finished file, since there’s no output to tape, with separated audio tracks, such as 1 & 2 Full ST mix, 3 & 4 ST M & E, 5.1, etc..? This is what networks require, as well as film projects.

Have a Great Day,
Keith

[Erik Lindahl]

“Everything just changed in post” is sort of an ironic line Apple is using as this app will be a pain or impossible to actually use in a post workflow if all the limitations mentioned here are in the app.

Everything just changed yes – we can’t use the latest version of Final Cut Pro.. 😉

————————
Erik Lindahl
Freecloud Post Production Services
http://www.freecloud.se