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macbook air and fcpx- the new portable edit suite
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[David Lawrence] “Remember, Apple doesn’t always hit home runs (Ping, MobileMe, hockey-puck shaped mouse, etc.)”
And, they tend to stick with them. How long did it take Apple to concede that there might actually be a use for a second button on a mouse?
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“You don’t see any use for a role based vertically sortable timeline? Meaning for any given primary storyline clips and everything connected to it, if you want your audio to always stack as dialogue, then effects, then music? I can think of some really practical reasons, especially when there’s no tracks.”
Or you could just actually have tracks, which would negate the need for any of this. It’s the perfect FCPX concept -let’s create an editing system so so screwed up that only we have the metadata to fix. Once again FCPX can show it’s brilliance by fixing a problem that no one else has.
Herb Sevush
Zebra Productions -
[Gary Huff] “I think those who are touting iPad video editing would probably end up doing it a handful of times for the novelty of it, then never touch it again.”
Oh, I agree. After a year and a half with an iPad, my thinking on them is that they are useful, but do not in any way represent the end of keyboard computers. After the gee-wiz factor wore off, I realized fairly quickly that mice, tablets and track pads are often far more useful to me than direct screen touch. In fact, one of the best used for the iPad is as a smart, visually enabled trackpad for other devices. I use it as a controller all the time.
Of course, what do we mean by editing? While I was Google-exploring whether or not FCP X could work on a MacBook Air, I came across a bit of video that somebody claimed to have edited with X/Air. In fact, they head-lined that fact on their blog. It was family footage with four or five cuts that went on for three or four minutes. So, I’m guessing iPad/X will be just fine for him.
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[Walter Soyka] “is FCPX sacrificing ease of use for ease of learning?”
Maybe for now, perhaps. They are asking a lot of FCPX users that have edited another way in the past. Releasing the flood gates of a totally new language on Day 1 would have been even more distressing then releasing X.0.0 in the state it was in.
[Walter Soyka] “You’ve outlined some very cool ideas that could be possible with FCPX, but are they really likely?”
I have no idea what Apple is thinking. The only evidence I have is what is available in the application. Roles is just the beginning, in my opinion.
I guess I tend to look at things with a tad more optimism than some, a boy can dream can’t he? Apple engineers seem to be pretty smart people. The way I look at it, there has to be really good reason for doing what they are trying to do in changing the way we think about editing, and I don’t think it’s to simply dumb down the interface, or make more money from the consumer sphere. These are design choices they are making for fit in to the “ecosystem” that Craig mentioned, we just don’t have the whole picture. I think they are trying to do what they do best and build a complex system that is quite powerful and might be easy to use for most people, but when getting to more advanced feature will take a bit more thought. I am super curious to see what’s going to come out of the camera SDK.
[Walter Soyka] “Aperture has added features, but the core function and interface of the application is largely unchanged since its initial release. Same with Motion, Pages, Numbers, and Keynote. “
I do not think the core interface of FCPX will change a ton, but adding the Roles feature changed the timeline interface quite a bit. It starts to show the power of the database. No one who could speak about it publicly saw Roles coming, so what else is coming that we can’t see? More features like Roles brings more power to the application. i do think, just by looking at the structure of how everything is organized on the Finder level, at some point true and dedicated sharing is going to be a big component of FCPX. Perhaps that’s not really easy to see right now.
[Walter Soyka] “I think Apple already has a very good idea of what they want FCPX to be, and if history is any guide, the feel and structure of the app is already pretty much in place.”
I would agree with that, I am sure Apple has a plan. They have also changed a few things from the user feedback in the first dot release so all of the complaints are not falling on deaf ears. If people are waiting around for tracks to come back, I don’t think that’s going to happen. I do think at some point, no one will miss them as the trackless system will be more complex, more powerful, and maybe easier to use. Time will tell.
Jeremy
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[Chris Harlan] “[David Lawrence] “Remember, Apple doesn’t always hit home runs (Ping, MobileMe, hockey-puck shaped mouse, etc.)”
And, they tend to stick with them. How long did it take Apple to concede that there might actually be a use for a second button on a mouse?”
David-
You are right, Apple doesn’t always hit home runs. Humans actually work there who make mistakes. I think MobileMe is great although it stuttered at first. I do not use Ping, but I think iTunes will survive without it. The computers that were attached to those hockey-pucks brought Apple back from the brink.
Chris-
The control key solved that. And to be fair, their latest “two button” mouse still only has one “button”.
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Jeremy, I always enjoy discussing this with you. I know that we are looking at the same data and reaching different conclusions, but you always make well-reasoned and insightful points. Thank you for the debate!
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 -
[Jeremy Garchow]The control key solved that. And to be fair, their latest “two button” mouse still only has one “button”.
The control key was a completely asinine solution to an incredibly simple “problem.”
And no matter how you slice it, Magic Mouse does have two buttons because I use that all the time. Throw all the semantics out you want.
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[Walter Soyka] “Thank you for the debate!”
Thank you, Walter. I like talking these things out, especially when we can really talk about what might be going on based on evidence. There isn’t a ton of evidence right now, but there’s definitely enough to keep the case from going cold, at least for my editing future. 🙂
Jeremy
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I’d just add that I think Apple has things in mind that Tracks would be a hinderance to. For me it’s spreadsheet vs relational database analogy. The building out of the database and it’s organization and use in the interface is in early stages. I think Roles are just the very earliest indication of where they may be heading… which we can only guess at.
When we read about “debates” over storing in and out points, which upsets some, we don’t know the context, nor would Apple reveal that at this point. We don’t know the long term database or function implications or how that might monkey wrench some feature or implementation down the road… that they already have in mind.
While I or anyone else, not privy to their discussions, can only speculate where Apple is headed, I’m surprised at how many “creatives” here can’t imagine that they have something powerful that at least they (Apple) has in mind.
I personally think one thing is very clear. FCPX is just one part of a developing ecosystem by Apple in post production and distribution of content. To think anything else is shortsighted in my opinion. We can’t know whether they will succeed but there is serious, “professional” intent.
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[Gary Huff] “And no matter how you slice it, Magic Mouse does have two buttons”
No, no it doesn’t. The mouse is a button. It has multiple areas of function, just like the trackpad has one button, but it has multiple functions.
As far as the control-key argument, we can stop right? That was years ago and hasn’t been a problem for the same number of years. OSX has a right click and has for a very long time.
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