-
Henry Ford on FCP X
-
[Michael Gissing] “Aindreas, we are not the customers that matter”
you are having a laugh mate.
editing isn’t twittering.
It also isn’t a future tense. It’s chopping vast amounts of content. we pay the bills by editing, so do our employers.
It’s a pay the gas bill profession from start to finish.if apple cannot furnish an editing system that meets the market they are dead.
https://vimeo.com/user1590967/videos http://www.ogallchoir.net promo producer/editor.grading/motion graphics
-
[Aindreas]”if apple cannot furnish an editing system that meets the market they are dead.”
If you think they aren’t meeting their target market then I understand your ongoing frustration. The reason so many heated arguments happen around here stems from the fact that the old market of professional editors demanding a tool set are over. Apple are not an NLE company so they have no reason to listen to us.
Truth is they do seem to have hit a market, much bigger and long term more important (to them). I know that sounds like typical Bill speak, but prosumers are the market for Apple. Craig Seeman keeps reminding us of the sales figures. Apple are not dead and they are not listening to us as loudly as they once may have because every Tom, Dick & Harry wants to edit. We look around and see some pros loving the software but the penetration into our area is small as many have noted.
But X is not made for us and the sooner we realise and move on the better.
-
[Michael Gissing] ” the old market of professional editors demanding a tool set are over.”
you just said that.
I leave this open to anyone.
anyone at all – who wants to jump in on the provision of professional tools.
is editing a profession?
why are architects still looking for auto-cad?
why is photoshop complex?
how self denigrating and stupid is the first statement above?
https://vimeo.com/user1590967/videos http://www.ogallchoir.net promo producer/editor.grading/motion graphics
-
[Aindreas Gallagher] “I wonder at Apple’s pricing here, and whether the new 299 figure represents a realisation that they can take an amazon style approach to the market. In that they are engaged in market decimation through pricing, simply because they can. “
You’re absolutely correct, but this shouldn’t come as any surprise- Apple’s recent history is centered around commoditizing software as an incentive to push their hardware.
iTunes by sheer volume generates a decent income at this point, but through most of the ’00s it was referred to as a “break-even” business- at that point primarily as an inroad to sell iPods.
Final Cut was a fraction of the cost of most of it’s competitors when it launched, even if it’s feature set wasn’t comparable to the incumbents at the very start (that’s sounds familiar, doesn’t it?)
Apple’s bundling of quality iLife apps on Macs for no added cost was long seen as an advantage for the platform.
Recently, both the iOS and OSX appStores have generally lead to a push down on the pricing of software. Again, with the goal being to drive the purchase of iPhones, iPads, and Macs respectively.
FCPX only continues this trend.
It is really, truly, interesting that we have these companies with entirely different business models intersecting now. Both Amazon and Google are happy to sell their hardware at break even prices to drive the adoption of Amazon sales and Google search respectively. While Apple is on the other end, looking to make a profit on hardware while making small margins on content.
It remains to be seen which model can stand the test of time- though a look a quarterly results leads me to believe that Apple is certainly winning by sheer profits. Pure marketshare can only sustain you so long if you’re not making any money.
-
[Michael Gissing] “But X is not made for us and the sooner we realise and move on the better.
“I don’t necessarily disagree with this, but I also think it’s an intellectual trap.
If, in fact, Apple – largely due to their success and resulting access to actionable intellegence in critical areas like processor architecture, global marketing, computer science etc. etc. etc – has a view of the future of visual data processing that’s MORE likely to come to fruition than the visions of their competitors – then not tracking the value of their work will put EVERY editor at a disadvantage.
Now it may turn out that Adobe, and AVID and Sony all have shops currently capable of enough forward thinking by their designers and executives to compete extremely effectively in whatever the visual material manipulation market becomes over the next decade.
Or some or all of them will not.
( I selfishly hope they all do – because the more invention, the more it pushes every team to excel!)
But to take your eye of the team that is trying the boldest re-invention of your industry is INSANE in my estimation.
It’s to simply say to yourself “the way I’ve always done these things is the ONLY way that will ever matter.”
And history has generally proved that that kind of thinking generally leads to the folks operating slide rules trying to compete with the folks using calculators.
No – I’m NOT comparing those tools to ANY NLEs. Honestly.
I’m making a general point that Apple saw REAL global industrial changes coming that caused them to look for a different kind of flagship editing approach to meet new conditions and needs in the real-world market.
Any one of us might currently be shielded from those needs by our niche or personality. But that doesn’t mean those changes aren’t happening.
Nor that they won’t effect ALL of us in the end.
FWIW.
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.
-
[Aindreas Gallagher] “is editing a profession?
why are architects still looking for auto-cad?
why is photoshop complex?”Isn’t it a little ironic that the features and interfaces of FCP 7, Premiere Pro and Media Composer are viewed by many here as antiquated? Yet, in the same breath Autodesk Smoke is praised, even though it’s essentially the same thing. In fact, if you factor in nodal compositing in 3D space, it’s the poster child for complex tools.
I agree that it’s good that Apple has offered a choice. But it’s not the ONLY nor BEST choice for the future. Sometimes complexity and the need to put in effort to LEARN your tools is a good thing. I’m sure most of the Nuke compositors are chomping at the bit to chuck it and use Motion instead.
– Oliver
Oliver Peters Post Production Services, LLC
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com -
[Bill Davis] “I’m making a general point that Apple saw REAL global industrial changes coming that caused them to look for a different kind of flagship editing approach to meet new conditions and needs in the real-world market.”
No offense, but I think you are giving them way too much credit. I doubt this much thought was put into it at all. It’s more likely that Jobs hated the direction the FCP 8 development was going, canned the team and said, “Randy, do something different. I love what you did with iMovie.”
– Oliver
Oliver Peters Post Production Services, LLC
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com -
[Andrew Kimery] “Even in 2012 if I need to plow a field and have the choice between a horse and a car I think the horse will win.”
Yeah, but if you have the choice between the horse and a tractor – you lose – and if you try to compete with the guy with a tractor with a horse, you’re likely to lose everything.
So the question relative to this debate is simple.
Is the software being discussed (FCP-X) fundamentally suitable for the task it’s generally being asked to accomplish.
Not “more perfect” or “less perfect” than it’s competitors – but functionally suitable.
FCP-X is an extremely competent general purpose video editing program.
This fact is now indisputable.
We’re all arguing around the margins of that fact asking is it the best choice for (Insert KIND of editing here) – but not whether it’s a stable effective editing program.
Everyone here understands that it might not be the BEST one for a particular editor who has particular needs. But the weight of evidence is overwhelming. And irrefutable.
It cuts video and audio and assembles the same into finished projects really, really well.
Period.
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.
-
[Oliver Peters] “No offense, but I think you are giving them way too much credit. “
As evidence I offer the provable fact that half a dozen years ago they spent something like $300 Million plus pre-paying for FUTURE orders for NAND memory.
Essentially advance locking in the parts that would go into their iPods of the era so that they could be first to market with THEIR devices and essentially control the future of that slice of the industry.
Time and again, Apple releases stuff that we didn’t know about in advance, but that, once revealed, proves they have been quietly working on a reasonably long-tail production pipeline well in advance of the market.
I think that shows pretty clearly that somebody in Cupertino is being paid to look farther downstream than many other companies.
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.
-
[Oliver Peters] “Isn’t it a little ironic that the features and interfaces of FCP 7, Premiere Pro and Media Composer are viewed by many here as antiquated? Yet, in the same breath Autodesk Smoke is praised, even though it’s essentially the same thing. In fact, if you factor in nodal compositing in 3D space, it’s the poster child for complex tools.”
In fairness, though, the overlap between the folks excited about FCPX and the folks excited about Smoke is pretty small.
The best lesson of FCP7: there’s no one perfect NLE.
Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events
Reply to this Discussion! Login or Sign Up