On the fence.. wondering if X will be a headache or a blessing…

[Timothy Auld]

Sorry. Didn’t realize someone had already posted this. I’m just giving you a hard time because you live in Hawaii and I’m jealous.

Tim

[Craig Seeman]

[Jules bowman] “A big part of the debate here is they did it their way and actually expected the whole fraternity to go ‘ooog, super awesome’ but instead a fair chunk went WTF?”

I think there was more thought behind it than “their way.”
Apple studies the way people interact with things and develops GUI from that information. I don’t doubt they were looking at how people without prior experience . . . prior conceptions, worked.

Of course it would be likely that many of those who are attached to their prior experience would not acclimate. Apple is thinking long range. I think they study and observe “people” rather than “experienced editors.” In the long run they’ll gain foothold from people new to the profession. It’s an attrition strategy from one of the very few companies that can do that as a business model. It’s same reason why I’ve posted earlier that Apple’s biggest growth market with FCPX and professionals will be in new/startup facilities.

[Jules Bowman]

Sure, that’s a perspective. But what I don’t get with all this “FC10′ is great for those without NLE baggage’, is that learning the ‘old’ way wasn’t hard. It is logical. It makes sense in terms of creating a timeline. It makes sense visually. There may be a lot of buttons to figure out over time, but isn’t there with anything that is meant to be used to achieve decent creative output?

I truly don’t buy this ‘FC10 is best for people who don’t have pre-conditioning’. I started with Pinnacle Studio. I had no pre-conditioning. I figured it out in no time at all. It made perfect sense to me. I then ‘upgraded’ to FCS and guess what. I figured out where the extra buttons were and was still perfectly at ease with a really logical way of making a video.

To me this whole ‘FC10 is better for those with no baggage’ argument is just an attempt to intellectualise the fact Apple wanted to do it ‘their way’. Sorry. it’s what they do and that is what they did. They didn’t study people and discern the perfect model for the layman to edit. Please. That’s nonsense. It is a different way of doing things because that is what Apple wanted to do. Be different.

Sure, hiding stuff and defaulting to auto this and auto that is definitely going to help the inexperienced at the beginning, but in the long run if they really want to progress they will still need to un-auto stuff and learn. Start with FC10 or start with PP, you’re still ‘starting’, you are still going to have to learn.

And it still doesn’t detract from my previous point that the skills the OPs clients will learn through PP are more transferrable than those learnt through FC10… though I guess the trouble shooting skills refined whilst having to determine and execute a plethora of work-arounds is something that would aid them in many other things.

[Craig Seeman]

[Jules bowman] “learning the ‘old’ way wasn’t hard. It is logical.”

I’m not so sure about how hard it is/isn’t. Just a guess but I think the GUI change in iMovie might have been Apple’s response to how some people had problems. Of course those without problems did shout loudly. Either Apple wanted to lose their user base there or maybe they saw a bigger picture. In fact, one might find that after all the supposed upset with the change in GUI, that they’d avoid doing that again. Maybe Apple has no business sense or maybe they’re seeing something many of us aren’t.

I can’t say I know the backend decision making of course but do note that the FCP GUI change wasn’t without precedent. After doing it with iMovie and despite the apparent hue and cry, they did it again. Glutton for business punishment or maybe they felt that actual result bore out that they should do this again. I don’t pretend to know anything concretely beyond that Apple makes business decisions and, having done this before, thought there was long run value in doing it again. They saw something beyond the noise that we aren’t seeing.

Apple has certainly made their share of mistakes but one of their patterns of success is designing with an understanding towards human interface. When they do make a mistake such as the dumb hockey puck mouse, they don’t repeat it. In this case the GUI they made with iMovie was repeated even after seeing the visible reaction to it. I suspect they saw something else not obvious in the noise.

[Jules bowman] “To me this whole ‘FC10 is better for those with no baggage’ argument is just an attempt to intellectualise the fact Apple wanted to do it ‘their way’.”

I’d argue the opposite. The attempt to anthropomorphize a company’s business decision as “wanting it their way” is anti intellectual. They want to make money. That’s their motive. They have a business model with history that they work on implementing. It’s far more likely that they see more growth potential over time with the new GUI. Maybe if you consider that “their way” it would be more appropriate. “They” are a business and “their way” is to increase revenue and profits. They may or may not fail in any given action, but, like a good business, they re-evaluate. They made the GUI move with iMovie and, after evaluation, decided to do it again with FCP.

[Nathan Adam]

Full assessment: FCPX ruined my June 2011. I still edit a weekly TV show in FCP 7 (XDCam, have a great system down, and wouldn’t do it in X if they made me). Really digging PP CS6 for future, especially long form, custom, and DSLR based projects.

But for this type of project, mixing lots of moving stills, need for good, clean, but not too original titles, a ton of different video formats and lots of retiming, music, basic audio cleanup, <30 minutes long and a need for Fast exports, X, even for my first real project on it, was by far faster. My only retraining was a quick Lynda.com crash course (to relearn the silly new X terminology and remap my shortcuts).

Also, we won the National competitions out of 600 teams with this presentation, so I guess the video looked good enough, too. Definitely will be the fastest solution for these types of projects.

[Jules Bowman]

But apple are run by people. Apple are known for producing a closed Eco system to increase profits. That is doing it their way.

As for the rest, you are right, it is a perspective on the whole thing and you don’t know whether the iMovie change was a good or bad thing in terms of a % of people who use it. Neither do apple. You can guess. So can apple. But their doing it again doesn’t prove it was the right thing to do the first time.

[Craig Seeman]

[Jules bowman] “But apple are run by people. Apple are known for producing a closed Eco system to increase profits. That is doing it their way.”

Which would mean the choices with FCPX will be profitable ones in their estimation.

[Jules bowman] “you don’t know whether the iMovie change was a good or bad thing in terms of a % of people who use it. Neither do apple. You can guess. So can apple. But their doing it again doesn’t prove it was the right thing to do the first time.”

I strongly disagree. I think Apple knows. I’m sure they have plenty of metrics we aren’t aware of. Both those metrics from iMovie and the study of human computer interaction lead them to change the GUI in FCP as they did with iMovie.

[Jules Bowman]

How do apple know if people prefer the changed GUI for iMovie? Did they ask everyone? Unlikely. So they guessed. Use of iMovie doesn’t mean the new version is preferred. How do they know it was successful for FC10 and more importantly the editing approach was better because it went down a different route? Did they ask everyone? Do they have a crystal ball so they can see how sales went if they had re written FCP8? Unlikely, so they have guessed.

Strongly disagree all you ant Craig, but you, and apple, are guessing. And telling me apple are a rich company who makes lots of money doesn’t make them correct on this fact. Telling me they have metrics we may not know about (again, even that statement to know isn’t fact thus your wording) doesn’t mean they know it was a success. Sales don’t equate to FC10 being a better option. I mean I bought it and am part of those sales stats.

So, well, the we have it. You opinion, as ever, is valid because it is your opinion but you, and apple, are still guessing.

[Alban Egger]

Matt,
for regular people FCPX will IMO be easier to learn with a short introduction than any other NLE.

The import process is similar and wether you use bins or keywords won´t matter. When you tick the “COPY to EVENT” on import you also create an automatic backup of your original clips.

Editing: the magnetic timeline and trackless workflow is so much better for people who just want to create a “simple timeline” of their images.

I have already two clients who installed FCPX in their offices for their in-house stuff. They are absolute layman in terms of editing and they couldn´t be happier. A tool like FCP7 or CS6 would definitely overwhelm them. It is not rocket-science, but they need more knowledge to do basic stuff than FCPX, while FCPX needs some knowledge if you want to go deeper.

BTW they didn´t call it iMovie Pro , because it isn´t. It has one big feature from iMovie: skimming…other than that they are totally different. I cannot make anything in iMovie. I hate it. But in FCPX I ffel home 😀

[Craig Seeman]

[Jules bowman] “but you, and apple, are guessing”

I seriously doubt Apple is guessing. There’s a lot of analytics out there. Sales is only a part of it. Every Mac owner gets iMovie free. There’s those who buy new copies and then buy following new copies for example. I’m sure they have plenty of other analytics. To assume Apple doesn’t do research and analysis would be naive in my opinion. They chose to move forward with a GUI and I doubt it was a whim or assumption without some foundation that convinced them it was a good choice.