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Is FCPX really worth it?
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[Jeremy Garchow] “I am playing devil’s advocate (go figure).”
Of course… But this is probably one of those times when the devil for whom you’re advocating is fighting a silly uphill battle. Even the most successful indies on Youtube aspire to make movies, and when Hollywood calls and asks them to “take a meeting,” the vast majority will be on the next plane to the coast.
David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor/Colorist
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los Angeles
https://www.drwfilms.comDon’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/1POST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY ™
Creative COW contributing editor and a forum host of the Business & Marketing and Apple Final Cut Pro forums.
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[David Roth Weiss] “Even the most successful indies on Youtube aspire to make movies, and when Hollywood calls and asks them to “take a meeting,” the vast majority will be on the next plane to the coast.”
And it started with a DSLR (or whatever) a laptop and a $299 editing program that had a “Send to YouTube” button. So here we are back at perception! Maybe it’s Inception.
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I switched to Avid MC 5.5 right as the news came out about FCPX and now I slap myself in the head why I didn’t switch earlier. It’s an amazing piece of software, precise, well thought out and just a joy to work with. And I am saying this as a long time FCP fanatic that vehemently defended apples software against AVID and premiere.
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[Chris Harlan] “I think this discrepancy of experience is probably explained by the simple fact that dismay and “that sinking feeling in the pit of your stomach” have no loud verbal analogs. As you are asking yourself “WTF?,” you are pretty much speechless. You are in no way ready to commit to a boo, so at the time, you are pretty silent on the matter.”
It’s impossible to judge people’s reactions to group events like this. People, by their nature, get caught up in the energy of the presentation and atmosphere and, as you say Chris, aren’t likely to reflect their concern or confusion by countering with boos. A good example is political conventions (which is kind of how this was handled). Everyone on the floor is screaming and waving whatever gets said on stage but the analysts and pundits watching in the studios focus on the content of the speech after the fact.
That’s what happened here. Once the balloons dropped and all the excitement abated, the serious political questions started getting asked and concerns got raised and discussed. It wouldn’t have taken a stroke of genius to have an Apple counterpart to Dennis R from Adobe sign on to the Cow and answer the questions and calm the fears of the professional community. From here it would have spread throughout the community – really simple way to back channel your info…if you’ve got the inclination.
That’s what I meant by managing change as opposed to just creating it. They acted as if those concerns weren’t valid or weren’t important to them for far too long.
That was the essence of David’s question – was it worth the mess it’s created for so many people?
Clearly they could have and should have done much better with this release whether you like the program or not. -
[Bill Davis] “It’s gonna take a few years, but I’m still betting that big and monolithic is going to eventually fall to smaller and more agile.
Happened with music playback, telephones, and computers – and it’s GOING to happen with video production at all but the highest end. It’s inevitable.”
While this may be true to a certain extent, the “small and agile” then transforms into the “big and monolithic.”
In all these transformative movements, the window for the little guy to make real money is brief and it is large corporate entities that really benefit.
A prime example would be Jeremy’s list of top youtube earners. Not one of them makes a fraction of what Leonardo DiCaprio gets for a movie appearance or Hugh Laurie gets for a season of House or Lady Gaga gets in her record contract.
Whatever the outcome of FCPX, I think history has proven that the “big and monolithic” reap the windfall. The little guy may be able to cut himself a very small piece of the pie (or transform himself into one of the big and monolithic if his timing is right) and maybe FCPX can aid that process. But to think that is going to change because of any innovations is a tad starry-eyed IMHO.
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The difference here is that DSLRs, despite the many shortcomings, have some strengths that are so irresistible that there ends up being a net-gain to using them.
FCPX, however, does not have this irresistible “gotta have it” item. I think that’s what they were hoping the magnetic timeline to be.
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Why so black & white Bill? I admire your enthusiasm for what FCPX may become, but we are currently debating where Apple has left many of us and how to move past a poor strategic release and a company attitude that doesn’t deserve to be rewarded.
When an innovative company stuffs up, no reason not to call it. If, when and how they fix the mess then many of us might support this app. In your comparison to DSLRs and Zoom recorders however you maybe are not taking into account that DSLRs and small digital audio recorders came into a market place with very little comparative products based on quality versus price versus features. DSLRs are short on features that need third party help but price versus quality is the appeal. I see nothing in FCPX that has two out of three going for it compared to rivals. Price seems the main advantage which is not relevant to working professionals, when all editing software is relatively cheap.
FCPX landed at a time when Apple needed to catch up to two strong offerings from traditional rivals. In that market, dropping in an unfinished paradigm shift was a mistake.
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[Michael Gissing] ” however you maybe are not taking into account that DSLRs and small digital audio recorders came into a market place with very little comparative products based on quality versus price versus features”
A big difference, too, is that Zoom, Canon and Nikon never promoted these as professional video products for film and TV. Canon specifically developed the 5D video features in reponse to requests by the AP and other photojournalists to have one camera that could do both stills and video for the web. Inventive folks like Vincent Laforet, Philip Bloom, Stu Maschqitz and others took the concept much further.
The key ingredient is that Canon was RESPONDING to customers’ feature requests. This the single most glaring missing ingredient in Apple’s approach.
Oliver
Oliver Peters Post Production Services, LLC
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com -
[Bill Davis] “Were you even at the Supermeet? You couldn’t have been – unless you had some kind of terrible cold that made you functionally blind and deaf.
I was one of the guys helping Michael Horton and Dan Berube run the SuperMeet and your description is so disconnected from reality as to be LAUGHABLE.
“you know bill, I remember you writing a reaaaally long whining post there a while back about people being mean and calling people names, calling you names even, complaining to Cow management came up, all this kind of stuff, you made a real stink as I recall, and then I read that stuff up above and remember that you are generally a hair away from blowhard condescending and contemptuous of your fellow forum members.
“Before speaking out ask yourself whether your words are true, whether they are respectful and whether they are needed in our civil discussions. Unless your first name is Bill, in which case go half caps and just hose on people with really long condescending overblown posts whenever you feel like it”-Justice O’Connor
http://www.ogallchoir.net
promo producer/editor.grading/motion graphics -
I’m glad apple let out a “Download 30day trial” of FCPX, it convinced me that FCPX is not that good.
I’m switching platforms later, but will stay with FCP7 for as long as the apple OS allows me, No doubt apple will work on that issue.Cheers
Tom.olinevideo.com.au
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