One year later…

[Craig Seeman]

Yes, there are still some things FCPX is not the most viable tool for. It really comes down to do what extent you can use it now and to what extent you can wait. The answer to that depends on the business model (including job types) of the facility.

I think some of those who like FCPX are bothered by the “all or nothing” attitude . . . that FCPX is not capable of any professional workflow. It certainly is capable for some workflows and that will expand as the feature set expands. Also amongst the features are the cost benefit especially relative to not yet implemented features.

[Craig Seeman]

I’m sure Apple will be quite happy if you’re running it all on an iMac. That’s actually their intent IMHO.
Actually this was a very good NAB for Apple with Smoke for Mac (running on iMac and MBP) and the buzz around Blackmagic Cinema Camera using Thunderbolt, HFS+ format, DaVinci, Ultrascope (the closest to a Steve Jobs “One More Thing” product post Jobs) and a little bit about a roadmap through Larry Jordan.

[Mark Raudonis]

[Craig Seeman] “It would be much easier to move from Apple (and some have done that) than to move from Avid if one is invested in their more expensive hardware.”

I don’t understand this comment. If, as everyone is saying, the Apple route is cheaper, then how/why would it be harder to move. You’re not making sense. An ISIS can support an FCP workflow quite easily. I’ve done it.

In a software only world, the hardware drops out of the equation. There will always be faster, better, cheaper drives. Did you walk the isles of NAB? You can’t go ten feet without someone pitching a cheaperNAS/SAN.

Mark

[Walter Soyka]

[Jeremy Garchow] “I mean no disrespect when I say this, but I can’t see this happening.”

No disrespect taken. I think there’s room for a ton of discussion, pro and con, and I’m sure that there’s no one correct answer. I hope to hear a lot of opinions on this topic.

If you stick with one NLE, you are exposed to all its weaknesses. If you use multiple NLEs, you minimize your exposure to any one NLE’s weaknesses, but assume much greater complexity. It’s a trade-off. It’s not the right call for everyone, but it may be the right call for some.

If I were a freelance creative editor that used to use FCP7 exclusively, you can bet I’d be learning MC, Pr and FCPX.

In your business, I suspect your infrastructure and project management — and their stability — is a competitive advantage. I’d guess that many of your projects are fundamentally similar, so you would be penalized for reinventing the wheel on every project.

In my business, we often have to fit into other people’s pipelines. The projects often have different requirements, so I’m forced to reinvent the wheel on each project to an extent.

[Jeremy Garchow] “The “buy them all and use them all” approach is unsustainable, not from a cost standpoint today, but from an management and data archive standpoint, and let’s not forget the sanity standpoint as it’s rather important.”

Data archive is already a disaster. You need to keep a copy of FCP7 around forever for all those .fcp projects, unless you had the foresight to start exporting XMLs of your projects back in 2004.

I’ve been shrieking like a banshee here about interchange for almost a year, and this is one reason interchange is so incredibly important.

It’s also the reason that primetime broadcast episodic TV requires those old dinosaur EDLs as a part of the deliverable. They don’t care what system you cut something on — they care if they can recreate your cut if they have to. It’s a degree of protection against an uncertain future.

[Jeremy Garchow] “Right now, there’s a lot of parity in the NLE world between hardware, keyboard shortcut modifiers, and interchange languages (thanks in part to XML, and Quicktime, yikes). What if those world diverge? What if Avid’s next move is to start over?”

DPs use different cameras all the time, exploiting their strengths and minimizing their weaknesses. Why should post be different?

If I have a heavy mograph piece in a custom resolution, I’d like to work on it in Pr/AE because anything else would be painful. If I had a mixed format documentary style project, maybe I’d prefer FCPX. If I’m finishing an existing project from FCP7, maybe some combo of FCP7/Resolve/Smoke is appropriate. If I’m doing a reality series, Avid offers a killer workflow from start to finish.

[Jeremy Garchow] “I still can’t find an answer if Smoke 2013 has interchange out beyond OMF. Does it?”

Sorry, I forgot to answer this. I’ll go back and put it in the other thread. I don’t know what Smoke 2013 will do, because it’s still a work in progress, but Smoke on Mac 2011 exports EDL and OMF.

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

[Craig Seeman]

[Mark Raudonis] “An ISIS can support an FCP workflow quite easily. I’ve done it.”

But what happens if Avid themselves drop support?
Same goes for Unity.

How proprietary are the components? That’s my basic concern. Avid has a history of proprietary hooks. That’s no longer the case with their software but it’s been a long time since I had a look at Unity.

[Lance Bachelder]

Agree that would totally work but don’t forget the T-Tap from AJA – simple Thunderbolt to 10bit HDSDI/HDMI (yes both at same time) for $245! No cables, no power, great for on-set and client monitor set-up. This was one of the hottest items at NAB this year. https://www.aja.com/en/products/t-tap/#/overview

I figure since I use Photoshop almost daily, After effects and Illustrator often – I’m gonna have Premiere on my system and CS6 looks pretty good so that’s always an option. But the idea of using a different NLE for a particular job drives me crazy, don’t wanna do it. Don’t care if it’s Smoke, FCPX Premiere etc. but it would be nice to settle down with one NLE again… at least for a few NAB’s…

Lance Bachelder
Writer, Editor, Director
Irvine, California

[Mark Raudonis]

Craig,

I know you know better than that.

An ISIS is a big bit bucket. If Avid went away tomorrow, I’d still have a big bit bucket to play with.

There are plenty of parts available in the supply chain to keep me up and running until the next “new thing” comes along.

I’m NOT worried. Why are you trying so hard to spread FUD?

Mark

[Andrew Kimery]

I’d like to see Avid leverage their ‘big iron’ storage towards cloud computing. Their Edit Anything, Anywhere demo from a couple of years ago showed they were already thinking about cloud editing and I have to wonder if their iPad app is a test run for working out the kinks of a mobile editing GUI.

Of course the big issue with having an ISIS in the cloud is loading all the media. For larger installations, like Mark’s, the ISIS could be onsite (like it is now) but for smaller shops maybe they rent space in the cloud from Avid and upload everything using an upload accelerator. Avid would either need to make its own data centers for this or lease them from someone else.

Some have mentioned maybe Blackmagic would buy Avid, but I don’t see that as much of an improvement. If BM bought Avid would Avid then only work w/BM cards? Isn’t that basically the same path that many say is dooming Avid now? BM, like Avid, is at it’s heart a video hardware company at a time when the largest sectors of growth don’t necessarily require video I/O hardware.

-Andrew

2.9 GHz 8-core (4,1), FCP 7.0.3, 10.6.6
Blackmagic Multibridge Eclipse (7.9.5)

[John Christie]

Thanks for the follow up Mark.

Our shop of 16 edit suites will switch from FCP to Avid in the not to distant future. We work with a lot of freelancers who speak both FCP and Avid. None of them show an interest in learning X for long format editing.

Symphony for $999 gives us an amazing opportunity to upgrade all our suites.

We’ll keep our eyes on Premiere Pro as we continue to use Adobe CS for After Effects and Photoshop.

I had a grudge with Apple last year when all this started to unravel. But time heals all wounds and as Mark says – It’s not personal, It’s business

[Jason J rodriguez]

[Craig Seeman] “It would seem for you the issue is lack of roadmap.”

Pretty much every company we’ve ever dealt with was able to give us some semblance of a reliable roadmap. Apple is the exception to that rule.

[Craig Seeman] “Now they’re talking about MXF support.”

Yeah … I remember at NAB 2005 being in a private suite in the Las Vegas Hilton with some top Apple Pro Video brass pretty much begging for a roadmap on MXF support. At the time all we got were obfuscations about “following industry trends” and “Now you know we can’t tell you what Apple is planning in the future”. After seven years they’re finally getting around to implementing that feature.

At this point I think all Apple is worried about are iPads, and iPhones. As soon as it no longer makes economic sense to have OSX running on “real” computers in order to support iOS products, I’m willing to bet those products will get the boot too … either that, or iOS and OSX will become one-and-the-same.