-
Is FCPX really worth it?
-
Permission to speak freely, sir?
I guess, I am one of those unicorn fan boy thingys that’s been mentioned. I’m comfortable with my perceived fanuality, and I give credit where credit is due. In my tiny corner of this existence, Apple deserves credit for what they have accomplished up until this point with Final Cut Studio.
There’s no question, the NAB 2011 release show was a total disaster. So what… Everybody makes mistakes, and luckily for everyone involved, the public has a short memory when and if they get what they want. Part of being a production professional/human being is rolling with the punches, and to know that perfection is a myth. Hence, gaffer tape.
Truthfully, it’s not ready to be worth much yet and who knows if and when it will be.
I guess I see more of a future here at the “FCPX Test Labs” then at an Adobe Rainn Wilson ADR presentation, or an Avid pump-up video that starts off with legal copy saying that the stuff I am about to watch might never happen. Or going full bore to Windows because the GPUs have 1200 processors instead of a lowly 500, or whatever that metric is.
Whatever. It’s all marketing, it needs to be done. Create the excitement.
The next FCPX release will tell us if it’s going to grow up or not. At that point, external monitoring will be “complete” which means that AV Foundation must be or will be in an acceptable state for something other than iOS to use it. Capture card companies will show us how they interact with the NLE, or not. This will give us a bit of insight as to just how far behind the curtain we are allowed to see. The new FCPXML will hopefully have what it needs to at least send more data than what’s available now.
In the mean time, there’s always the now instantaneously legendary “XML v5” to get my FCP Legacy projects to other platforms.
Deep down, I do appreciate what’s happening. I really do. I was getting really sick of sitting still, but there weren’t many companies that really seemed poised to make a move. More credit to Apple, they are the ONLY company that designs NLEs that could attempt even 1/16 of the shit they pulled and survive. I also know that software development is really hard. I am not a developer, but I have worked with some, and it is really hard, resources aside. The stakes keeping getting raised, people (us) expect simplicity of really confusing and complicated tasks, and if it doesn’t work quite right we get frustrated because they simply don’t have the capability to fix it. When the door handle breaks, we go get a screw driver, when XML doesn’t work, we lose money and confidence.
On the bright side, there’s things to be excited about. AV Foundation with Color Sync, Thunderbolt, XSan built in to Lion, SAN Support built in to FCPX which indicates some sort of real sharing environment and not a bolt on option, really fast/small/efficient/powerful computers, a whole hearted attempt at a modern organizational structure that acknowledges that video is now data, cryptic patterns, crystal balls and of course, unicorns. There’s also the fact that Apple has spoken and told us what is coming, when it’s coming, and then delivered on time in true “Broadcast News” fashion.
Good for us, but it’s up to them and some of us won’t know until it’s obvious. Right now, it’s not very obvious to me whether or not to stay or to go. That means I’ll wait for a while more. No matter what happens, when it does become obvious, I will have Apple to thank and it probably will have been worth it.
-
[Aindreas Gallagher] “if this was a discussion about such an unimaginable change to any other industry standard application outside of the apple shell, the conversation, I think, would be different and simpler.
“No question.
-
“businesses …..- at their best they exist to serve their ….. customers”
This is an early 20th century/early capitalism view. Businesses exist to serve their owners, shareholders, or other investors for their profit. What’s good for them is good for business. The customer is of minimal concern. Especially a small group of customers.
All the best,
Tom
Class on Demand DVDs “Complete Training for FCP7,” “Basic Training for FCS” and “Final Cut Express Made Easy”
Coming in 2011 “Complete Training for FCPX” from Class on Demand
“Final Cut Pro X for iMovie and Final Cut Express Users” from Focal Press -
[Tom Wolsky] “”businesses …..- at their best they exist to serve their ….. customers”
This is an early 20th century/early capitalism view. Businesses exist to serve their owners, shareholders, or other investors for their profit. What’s good for them is good for business. The customer is of minimal concern. Especially a small group of customers.”
Gosh, for the fist time in months I finally get to play the baby-faced, disagreeable, brat.
Tom, without customers a business is only a hobby.
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.
-
I don’t know if it’s worth all the drama, but my one reflection on this might answer that.
I have never been so thoroughly baffled by a product before (and I bought WME). Since NAB my expectations lowered, but I thought there would be no way in brimstone that I wouldn’t be going full steam in X at this point. From the amount of rendering I’ve done in the last few years, this couldn’t come soon enough. Especially when you get strong-armed into using FC7 on certain projects. I never imagined it would be this drastically unusable.
I would give it so much latitude if Color saw an upgrade and it kept the fundamentals we all took for granted in 7. From the glorious sequence matrix to it’s canvas.
I am still shock and awed by what a bungle this was, and NAB, try as I might to erase it, still lingers as a complete con job.
I don’t think it’s because of Apple and it’s pedestal, although that is arguable, I think it’s more dramatic because of the legacy it ignored and left behind on so many levels it’s cosmic in it’s absurdity.
😀
-
[David Roth Weiss] “I’d suggest that the benefits might have been vastly superior if Apple had chosen an entirely different and less disruptive path.”
I guess my question would be, what should they have done? And would the reaction be all that different?
If you assume that Apple made the decision at some point to completely redesign FCP when they did the 64bit rewrite, and that those making the decisions fully believed that the paradigm shift was ultimately going to be a much better way to work, how then do you bring this program to market?
Many people have suggested that they shouldn’t have used the name Final Cut, and instead should have called it iMovie Pro. But really, would the backlash have been any different? After all, FCP users have waited 2 years for a major update to FCP. Would they not be up in arms to find that all this time, Apple was working on iMovie Pro instead of updating FCP?
What about if Apple hadn’t stopped selling FCS3 to coincide with the launch? Sure, some of the ire directed at FCPX might have been lessened in the short term, but anyone looking at the situation in a position to buy new NLE seats would have to be asking themselves if this didn’t just signify the end of FCS even if it was not announced as EOL. Would anyone actually think that FCS and FCPX would both continue to be updated?
Is there any circumstance where bringing this app to market doesn’t result in this very aptly named “civil war”? I have a hard time imagining any set of choices where this would have been a PR win.
Andy
https://www.timesavertutorials.com
-
[Andy Neil] “Is there any circumstance where bringing this app to market doesn’t result in this very aptly named “civil war”? I have a hard time imagining any set of choices where this would have been a PR win.”
I respectfully disagree with you on this Andy, and I assure you, no one at Apple is standing-up proudly at their Monday morning marketing conferences to take responsibility for the FCPX launch.
Timing is everything, and in PR that most certainly holds true. The entire NAB SuperMeet thing was an incredibly stupid blunder that put Apple in a hugely defensive position from day 1. Making a last-second grab at NAB with all the histrionics and drama they drummed-up for their vapid 45-minute sneak was completely unnecessary, likely ego driven, and very foolish. And then springing the EOL of FCS3 on everyone two months later without any warning was just the icing on the cake that made the whole mess unpalatable.
If Apple truly had a hard time imagining their set of choices, they could have and should have waited.
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.
-
Forgive me if I’m mis-reading you David, but are you saying that if Apple had not shown up at NAB, or EOL’d FCS3 at the product launch, it would have prevented or suppressed the backlash they’re currently getting?
BTW, I don’t disagree that the launch was a PR disaster for all the reasons you stated, but even without those mis-steps, you would still have a radically different piece of software, a closed system (initially) sprung on people with no warning.
Andy
https://www.timesavertutorials.com
-
In some ways we may be viewing the metrics entirely incorrectly. There seems to be pretty good anecdotal indication that the majority of the “2 million FC users” are actually FCE and not FCP/FCS owners/users. If that’s true then, in fact, FCP X is a very worthwhile replacement for FCE. So the reality may be that FCP is really dead without any replacement suitable for advanced workflows. From that frame of mind, the uproar Apple started is probably good PR to get the FCE base interested. The old adage of “just make sure you spell the name right.”
Killing a truly advanced-feature NLE is simply one more step in Apple’s extraction from the enterprise world.
Oliver
Oliver Peters Post Production Services, LLC
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com -
[Andy Neil] “Forgive me if I’m mis-reading you David, but are you saying that if Apple had not shown up at NAB, or EOL’d FCS3 at the product launch, it would have prevented or suppressed the backlash they’re currently getting?”
If I had all the answers I’d probably be working at Apple.
I don’t have them all and I’m not working at Apple, but I do know that drawing lots of attention to FCPX at the sneak was Apple’s primary mistake, that indeed setup the perfect conditions for what ultimately has become this “civil war.” Even worse, it was not done to show off Apple’s still-in-alpha software, rather it was simply a ploy to try one-up Avid, making it an absolutely unnecessary ego-driven error in judgement. Perhaps someday we’ll find out more about the process when somebody spills…
[Andy Neil] “even without those mis-steps, you would still have a radically different piece of software, a closed system (initially) sprung on people with no warning.”
Then why spring it without warning?
People can handle all kinds things in this world if they are properly prepped in advance and if the product shown holds great promise. The problem with X was improper audience prep, and a product that was being shown way too early in its life-cycle.
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.
Reply to this Discussion! Login or Sign Up