Final Cut Pro in Ads – Everything Changed

[Chris Harlan]

Well, Darren. As I think about it in the light of reality, that makes a lot more sense. 16 billion songs is a heck of a lot of songs. You wouldn’t happen to know if those revenue figures are gross or net, would you?

And Craig, if it turns out they are gross, I guess you get to put my head on a pike for an afternoon. C’est la guerre.

[Tony West]

[John-Michael Seng-Wheeler] “I think you have that backwards. They chose the R8 and the racetrack setting cause it looks like a pro shoot. Just the thing to market this product to consumers: “Look! we’re editing a pro product with this, don’t you want to edit your movies with a pro product?” “

I don’t think so, if that is the case then use the R8 for Imovie ads also.

Imovie is for home movies so you show home movies as source.

A person that does not cut spots has no interest in watching someone cut a spot.
A person that does cut spots wants to see how this tool would be useful in cutting one.

As a pro I’m interested in pro features and workflow also.

Speaking of pro features, do you think “non pro” folks will know how to use these features from
X ?

They have no idea what anything below is and won’t ever use them.

No reason to add control like this for home movies. No reason at all.

One of the features I like with X is I can show clients who don’t know what they want yet different options in real time before I render anything.

“Here is how that will look. Like it? No? what about this? this? this? this?

I can do that in seconds. Saves me time. I like saving time.

[John-michael Seng-wheeler]

I never said that FCP didn’t have Pro features.

[tony west] “I don’t think so, if that is the case then use the R8 for Imovie ads also.”

huh? I think you’re totally missing my point. I’m not talking about the program at all really, I’m talking about the ad.

For example, not a single one of those audio tools from your screenshot was shown in the ad. Instead, when the VO said “professional audio tools” what do they show? One click hum removal. Useful? Yes. Does iMovie have it? No. Does it show to a pro like me that FCPX has pro audio tools? Not in the slightest. Your screen shot does a far better job.

I’m saying that ad is marketed at consumers more then pros, and the use of the R8 helps sell it as a step up from iMovie.

If they really wanted to make a commercial that was aimed at pros, there’d be interviews with editors, the people who actually shot that footage….. oh wait! That sounds just like the FCP7 video.

[Andrew Richards]

[Craig Seeman] “That’s not profitable. Apple is a hardware company. There would be no point to invest the R&D they have for that.”

Apple’s software business is dwarfed by its hardware business, but I doubt their software products are a cost center. They apparently do turn a profit after covering development and marketing costs.

Here is an interesting interactive graph charting Apple’s recent financial info. Note the “GM” category (gross margin contribution %) compared to Gross Margin (the total dollar figures). Software ranks rather low compared to the main hardware products, but beats the waning iPod in terms of gross margin. But it dominates in terms of gross margin contribution (though the numbers for the iPhone are staggering given the nature of the product). So software does very nicely for itself within Apple, but it is still dwarfed by the money the hardware brings in. Granted we don’t see a breakdown of software, so we are getting Lion lumped in with FCPX.

Best,
Andy

[Jeremy Garchow]

[John-Michael Seng-Wheeler] “If they really wanted to make a commercial that was aimed at pros, there’d be interviews with editors, the people who actually shot that footage….. oh wait! That sounds just like the FCP7 video.”

Let’s be honest with ourselves, here.

It’s just not there yet. That video is fcs3, fcp7, X is barely v1 and needs some maturity time. There’s no monitoring yet, what post house is going to say they edit/finish without a monitor and be taken seriously?

And with all the bad press what post house is even interested?

I’m not saying FCPX isn’t already useful, but the glossy marketing videos are a few versions off yet. It’s only been on the market for less than 6 months, I highly doubt a TV series is going to go full force in FCPX without some battle testing. I don’t edit a tv series, and I’m still testing the viability of using it in our little shop.

As I do like things in FCPX, it’s not ready for prime time series creation.

I have a hunch the next version might be a start, though.

[Tony West]

OK, I see where you are coming from. Points well taken.

It’s kind of a double edge sword though right?

If they focused more on the type of tools I posted I don’t think some folks would move up to it as fast.

I still think they will have interviews with editors when they put out their next round of ads.

That ad made me at least give it a look.

I’m glad I did.

[David Roth weiss]

[Jeremy Garchow] “And with all the bad press what post house is even interested?”

It’s not the bad press that keeps post houses disinterested Jeremy – it’s pure pragmatism that does that. Primary among all the good reasons to stay away is the inability to professionally monitor work on FCP X. Of course, the other little things that aren’t up to snuff yet also has something to do with

The issues are hardly the fault of the press. Sorry, but Apple bears complete responsibility.

David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor/Colorist
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los Angeles
https://www.drwfilms.com

Don’t miss my new Creative Cow Podcast: Bringing “The Whale” to the Big Screen:
https://library.creativecow.net/weiss_roth_david/Podcast-Series-2-MikeParfitandSuzanneChisholm/1

POST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY ™

Creative COW contributing editor and a forum host of the Business & Marketing and Apple Final Cut Pro forums.

[Craig Seeman]

We’ll (and Apple) will have to see how OutPost Digital fairs when they switch to FCPX after the next big release. Either the 50 seat post house will hit rocks or we’ll get some good info on post house viability.

[Jeremy Garchow]

[David Roth Weiss] “The issues are hardly the fault of the press. Sorry, but Apple bears complete responsibility.”

Absolutely. Should have written it as “bad press”, what I mean is editor backlash.

Basically, theres nothing to make a glossy user story marketing video about quite yet.

[Chris Harlan]

[Darren Durbin] “‘Head on a pike’ ? – I’ve spent most of the morning being corrected by my 6 year old for poor ‘sentence structure’ Everyone’s a critic.
“

My 6 year old is now a 13 year old. In her case, it has moved from correcting to the tragical acceptance–sigh–that dad will never “get it.”