“Or Not” was born of the FCP X Launch. So…

[Steve Connor]

Nothing controversial in there Bill 🙂 Good luck with the new venture!

[Oliver Peters]

Good luck. A very necessary learning tool. One minor quibble with the blog post, though. Prior to the launch and the Supermeet event, Apple hosted a private presentation of X to key industry pros mainly from Hollywood. They also seeded a beta version to a number of beta testers and/or influencers. These folks were all ‘sworn to secrecy’ or officially NDA’ed. Some did acknowledge that X would indeed be a lot different than FCP7. But yes, in public, no one had seen it.

– Oliver

Oliver Peters Post Production Services, LLC
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com

[Bill Davis]

Interesting, Oliver. I had heard nothing about any special preview. Then again, I wouldn’t have.
Since somebody under NDA could arguably be said to have been brought temporarily “inside Apple” via special access, I think the point stands. Still, fascinating to hear that happened. I had no clue. Thanks for posting the insight.

Creator of XinTwo – http://www.xintwo.com
The shortest path to FCP X mastery.

[Tim Wilson]

[Bill Davis] ” I had heard nothing about any special preview. Then again, I wouldn’t have. “

U ppl need to read the COW. This was widely discussed here.

It was also openly discussed at the Alpha Dogs pre-NAB presentation, moderated by Creative COW’s Debra Kaufman. The panel included Creative COW OG Mark Raudonis,who was of course discreet and professional within the scope of what he was allowed to say. He was the first person I heard (apart from The Great One himself) utter the phrase “skating to where the puck is going to be.”

All of this was not only posted here, but discussed at length, complete with video.

I know that other sites, including Facebook, have become de rigour for FCPX info. I read them too. But if you’re not watching the COW, you simply can’t possibly know enough about what truly matters.

This mattered.

So please spread the word, and shave multiple years off your learning curve LOL by staying tuned in to Creative COW.

Yr pal,
Timmy

typed on my phone. always a mistake, but when have I ever avoided those?

[Mark Raudonis]

Yes, I was there.

It was a small group of 100 “opinion leaders” at the Apple “town hall” auditorium in Cupertino. It was where Larry Jordan came up with the response, “jaw dropping”. Of course that can be interpreted two different ways!

As history has shown… it indeed has been “jaw dropping”. Whether that was good or bad is in the mind of the beholder. Fun times!

[Bret Williams]

I believe that was February, right? Seems to me from Feb to June that’s all we talked about. It was known that Larry and others had been to a special closed presentation on the next version of FCP.

[Andrew Kimery]

[Tim Wilson] “It was also openly discussed at the Alpha Dogs pre-NAB presentation,”

And here is the link to the videos on Vimeo if anyone wants to take that trip down memory lane (it’s the 2011 NAB Previews).

https://vimeo.com/channels/editorslounge/videos/page:4/sort:date/format:thumbnail

Bill,
In your blog I think you are conflating the product itself and the product launch.

[Bill Davis]

[Andrew Kimery] “Bill,
In your blog I think you are conflating the product itself and the product launch.”

No Andrew, I’m recounting my personal experience at the time.

Remember, that for many, many years at NAB, I was very closely associated Mike Horton and later Dan Berube’s Supermeets. To the point that every year, I was a significant, if minor, part of the team putting on the show. So I was front and center at the FCP X unveiling. In fact, I was the guy who “lowered the ropes” and let the crowd into the FCP X launch.

Some folks may well have been “in the know” in advance of the intro, but I definitely wasn’t one of them. (Not sure if I’d done more than simply kicked the tires here at the Cow at that point What I WAS was very active in the FCP Legacy community – to the point I was at the inaugural LAFCPUG meeting and knew all the early players – was a regular on the early days of 2-pop.com when the OTHER Larry Jordan was running it – and had been with FCP Legacy since it was announced at NAB in 1999.

The point being, I wasn’t without contacts in the FCP community.

And nobody I knew let word ONE drop about what Apple was doing.

So I’ll stand by what I wrote in my blog. In 2011 – in any rational review of the landscape, the “hair on fire” nature of the reaction simply COULD NOT have come from natural internet chatter. Again, nobody in the broad spectrum of global FCP editing – 2 million strong at that point – had a clue about what was coming. I honestly don’t think the exceptions noted here do other than “prove the rule.”

Which leaves only a couple of possibilities. Those that HAD been put under NDA were the source of the early “it’s crap” spin (which is awful to even consider) – OR, as I contend, it was opinions formed largely out of pure ignorance.

I will also say this. If there WERE a bunch of people who had a fair inside look and didn’t step up and push back against the ” it’s jus iMovie Pro) thing – shame on you. If someone as “outside” as ME could kinda see what Apple was actually doing – the fact that much more industry connected, experienced and smarter people then me missed the early potential is kinda MORE shocking.

Well, in fairness, there another possibility. Maybe Apple ONLY previewed it to classes of users it simply wan’t going to fit well. And if so I have only one thing to say to Apple in hindsight.

THANKS!

If more folks had publicly beat the drums FOR FCP X from the beginning, I probably wouldn’t have had the head start I did in gaining my expertise.. In many ways, what I’m doing now is a direct result of that. So I should thank each and every one here who railed against it for so long.

Opportunities sure do come wrapped n strange packages!

Creator of XinTwo – http://www.xintwo.com
The shortest path to FCP X mastery.

[Andrew Kimery]

[Bill Davis] “No Andrew, I’m recounting my personal experience at the time.”

Your personal experience of how people felt about X the product which is related to, but not the same thing as, the the launch of X the product. An example of what I mean is if Apple would have either not pulled FCP 7 from store shelves immediately or if they had given users a big heads up that FCP 7 would be pulled from store shelves in a few months then the launch of X would’ve gone smoother even though the product would’ve been exactly the same. Also things like providing the roadmap and the free trial at launch would’ve been beneficial as well.

[Bill Davis] ” in any rational review of the landscape, the “hair on fire” nature of the reaction simply COULD NOT have come from natural internet chatter.”

People, as a whole, aren’t rational, especially when you put them behind the relative anonymity/protection of the Interent. Even looking back at it now I’m not surprised that it went down the way it did given all the pieces that fell into place at the same time (some of which had been brewing for years like the lack of a solid update since 2007, or 2005 if you ask Tim).

[Bill Davis] “potential is kinda MORE shocking. “

Potential doesn’t pay the bills though. For example, when X launched I needed the ability to do things like round trip between my NLE and color grading and audio mixing programs, open already pre-existing FCP projects, capture from and layoff to tape, etc., I didn’t need to download X to know that the launch version didn’t meet my needs. There were features that X launched with like the key wording and auditions that I thought were very cool but some of the features that were missing at launch were show stopping omissions for me at the time so the cool features were a moot point. Many (most?) of the people I talked to felt the same way. My stance on X hasn’t changed since launch though, if I think it’ll meet my needs (which includes being used by facilities I work at/want to work at) I’ll start using it.

I think it goes without saying that if X launched with more features it would have been better received but Apple didn’t think waiting another year was wise and I agree with that. The timing of things had them in a pinch.

[Steve Connor]

[Bill Davis] “I will also say this. If there WERE a bunch of people who had a fair inside look and didn’t step up and push back against the ” it’s jus iMovie Pro) thing – shame on you. If someone as “outside” as ME could kinda see what Apple was actually doing – the fact that much more industry connected, experienced and smarter people then me missed the early potential is kinda MORE shocking. “

Type “IMovie Pro” into Google and you get to relive all those early reactions to it!

BTW I like the style of the Tutorials Bill