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Meeting with Apple pro apps reps
At the University today we had a couple of apple pro apps reps come and talk to us for a good couple of hours. I wasn’t present for the whole meeting but a colleague was. When I step in to the meeting they had just finished doing a NAB style overview of FCPx motion and compressor. (Interesting enough they used the exact same footage and project used at the NAB meet. i found it humorous)
He then proceeds to do something apple never does. Tell us what they are planning on doing for the next update. GASP…. really…. no not really he just talk about the things apple has already told us they are working on. Again interestingly enough the reason he gave for apple actually talking about what they are working on was in major part to all of the outcry we editors have had and all of are complaining and moaning and so forth, So YEA for us that’s pretty cool.
While he didn’t go into detail on multicam what he did say was kind of cryptic for editors like us. Paraphrasing he said “Like FCPx we at apple think that we have come up with a new and better way to do multicam.” This scares me, these simple words more or less tells us that again they are wanting to fundamentally change another staple of a perfectly great working workflow. I might be reading the tea leaves to much here but it’s funny I got the same feeling in my stomach that I did at NAB. I hope I am wrong I hope that it is Amazing and better then we could hope for. After that brief discussion we talk about getting true broadcast monitoring. It was funny he was trying to tell us that really we don’t need true broadcast monitoring and really its only major use is for confidence when doing tape dubs. That they feel like a Second Apple cinema display was 90% perfect for color correction and other monitoring uses.
After this we started talking about our griefences with the app since we have been testing on campus since its release. We brought up a lot of what has been said here on this forum. And to them it seemed like this issues have never been brought up before. They kept saying things like really wow put that in the notes as a bug report or a feature request. On other issues they did know about they would comment on how third parties are working on this or you can get this simple 5 dollar app to do that for you. Then they would try and talk about how great the data basing is and how great the media asset management was.
Lastly he did say with all sincerity that they have heard the complaints that Apple is abandoning the pro market for iPods and iPods. But despite these criticisms they are committed to the pro market from the highest end to the small guy making a few bucks on the side. But this is a new product and it will take time to get there (time we at the university don’t have but that’s a different issue)
All in all not much was learned that I didn’t already know, they gave the same dog and pony show they gave in February to the select few, then again at NAB to the Pro editors, and NOW to us at a university.
But hey at least they came and did what they did I give them some brownie points for that.Mike Jeffs
Video Coordinator
BYU-Idaho -
11 Replies
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Mike, thanks for the report. I’m guessing those guys have a hard job right now. By any chance did you ask them about Mac Pros?
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Chis
I didn’t ask about Mac pros. sorry.
Mike Jeffs
Video Coordinator
BYU-Idaho -
” “Like FCPx we at apple think that we have come up with a new and better way to do multicam.” This scares me, these simple words more or less tells us that again they are wanting to fundamentally change another staple of a perfectly great working workflow.”
Mike, I was wondering what you thought about the synchronized clip feature in FCP X that syncs clips through sound waves.
This was one of the features that made me take a look a X in the first place. Very fast and easy.
Have you used it and what are your thoughts on it?
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[Mike Jeffs] “he just talk about the things apple has already told us they are working on.”
I guess you’d want more detail of course. It is interesting how they’l mention some things and not others. Roles for example was never mentioned. It may be that while they’ll mention obvious things that people have conceived of and asked for like multicam but they don’t want to talk about things that might not have context comparisons of things in existence.
[Mike Jeffs] ““Like FCPx we at apple think that we have come up with a new and better way to do multicam.” This scares me”
I understand the fear but I’m not sure what a better answer would be. “We’ve decided to do it the way we did it before but we’d have to scrap FCPX to do it.” To me, at least, it’s kind of inevitable it’s going to be different. We have no idea how it’s going to work or whether some of us won’t like it but I’m not sure they’d do that publicly in advance. One would hope it’s going through a reasonable beta so that it’s taking into account practical ease of use. We have no way of knowing nor would I expect Apple to reveal the details beyond what they have. What if they showed you the details and you hated it? Would that serve either their marking or you . . . outside of them saying, “OK, we’ll delay it and start that over again.”
[Mike Jeffs] “It was funny he was trying to tell us that really we don’t need true broadcast monitoring and really its only major use is for confidence when doing tape dubs. That they feel like a Second Apple cinema display was 90% perfect for color correction and other monitoring uses. “
You might want to read Philip Hodgetts’ thoughts on this subject. It’s not that I think this replaces the need for external monitoring entirely but he provides important perspective on this an Apple’s use of Color Sync.
https://www.philiphodgetts.com/2011/09/fcp-x-color-management-secret/[Mike Jeffs] “We brought up a lot of what has been said here on this forum. And to them it seemed like this issues have never been brought up before.”
If we only knew what happens to our bug reports and feature requests that never get acknowledged. I really think a response back with “we’ve confirmed the issue” or “we can’t duplicate this can you send us . . .” would be a major step forward in customer relations. I know first hand the past that certain things would elicit a response. Back the FCP legacy days I reported a “fatal” bug which elicited a phone call from Apple followed by an NDA to test the fix. BTW I believe this still happens.
An odd thought pops into my head at the moment dealing with Apple communication. I can’t help but think it’s sort of like working with a high functioning autistic. It’s odd. You may not get eye contact. Their may be repetition. They are listening and they are communicating though even if they don’t look at you in the eye.
[Mike Jeffs] “But despite these criticisms they are committed to the pro market from the highest end to the small guy”
I think they are genuinely sincere about that although it may involve where they believe “pro” is heading and they may be aiming for a point (as the Gretzky expression goes) that’s not yet prevalent. They’ve hit the reset button and it’s going to take time to get there. There one of the very few (only?) companies that can do that precisely because their “risk” is spread out. Certainly Avid could never do this and I don’t think Adobe would either. That’s certainly doesn’t alleviate the real pain pros are feeling though but it may take a couple of years for that to mature and I think it’s not simply about FCPX either IMHO.
[Mike Jeffs] “But hey at least they came and did what they did I give them some brownie points for that.”
Kind of fits my aforementioned description about repetition. Repeating the same stuff to you directly represents communication for them.
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[Craig Seeman] “I guess you’d want more detail of course. It is interesting how they’l mention some things and not others”
He actually mentioned this. he was saying that they are working on things that they haven’t annouced that they will release with the update. he used roles as a example.
[Craig Seeman] “An odd thought pops into my head at the moment dealing with Apple communication. I can’t help but think it’s sort of like working with a high functioning autistic. It’s odd. You may not get eye contact. Their may be repetition. They are listening and they are communicating though even if they don’t look at you in the eye.”
I actually like this thought. having a Autistic nephew myself I can see this.
Mike Jeffs
Video Coordinator
BYU-Idaho -
[tony west] “Mike, I was wondering what you thought about the synchronized clip feature in FCP X that syncs clips through sound waves.
This was one of the features that made me take a look a X in the first place. Very fast and easy.
Have you used it and what are your thoughts on it?”
I personally haven’t but a colleauge of my has, extensivly. From what he tells me he has varying degrees of sucess. i think at this point he still prefers plural eyes. i could be wrong i’ll see if i can’t get him on here.
Mike Jeffs
Video Coordinator
BYU-Idaho -
The synchronized clip feature is a must for future editors, but like Mike said, I have used plural eyes and so I expected the same amount of accuracy from FCPX and did not get it. That was disappointing. I do think that a great multi cam editor needs to have both audio sink and color match.
I am hoping the color match technology continues to progress. When I color an image to match another one I have to find a very similar frame to apply the match because it matches all the color in the frame and not the pictures general color strategy. (you know what I mean if you have tried color match)
Luke Hale
Producer/Editor BYU-I and Department of Energy
opticalsmarts.com (Just for fun) -
What is going on with Mac Pros?
Luke Hale
Producer/Editor BYU-I and Department of Energy
opticalsmarts.com (Just for fun) -
There are rumors and much speculation that Mac Pros will be discontinued as the Apple freight train tosses away detritus to build up speed to better pierce the consumer heart.
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Thanks interesting info Luke, I will have to mess around with it a little more.
I tried to sync audio a couple of times as a test and it worked fine for me so I didn’t think much else about it.
I have not got a chance to work with the color match yet so I will try to do some test with that.
I hav not hear of this…
“I have used plural eyes”
How does it work? Does it sync based on sound waves also?
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