Sneak Peak at FCPX 10.7 via Richard Taylor

[Mads Nybo jørgensen]

Hey Ben,

Thank you for sharing.
Watched the video with interest.

It might just be me, but FCPX appears to focus more on iPad development (prosumer usage?), rather than on the Mac version.

One can see the attraction for Apple of launching a FCPX subscriber version, as opposed to a one-off-payment FCPX. One that might provide a much higher number of iPad sales, than what MacBook and Studio could ever dream of turning over.

What will be the next excuse for not developing the core FCPX product, a version for iPhone?

Adobe is no different with their development focus, which appears more interested in the lower end of the market. Making it near impossible for the Prosumer to share their project(s) with a professional editor. Who could help finish those edits in Premiere Pro, AE and/or Audition.

Maybe I am just a dinosaur that needs to get on with it. But if the high-end-user tool development is being mothballed in return for editing automation targeted at a low level user. Then the professionals might as well just seek their fun elsewhere…

Maybe the new owners of Avid will want to step up?
Or, as some regional Broadcasters in Europe are migrating to use Resolve as a tool for tight deadline editing, that might add some pressure?

I suspect that as long as there are a large group of users willing to pay $5 – $10/month, then we will not see investment in high-end tools except for “bread-crumbs” of innovation.
The only problem Apple, Adobe and others are going to have with that model, is that there are web-based companies, with deep pockets, coming to eat their lunch.

Just an opinion.

Atb
Mads

[Ben Balser]

Specify how you determine low end NLE from a professional NLE.

Feature films have been cut on every NLE, including FCPX Mac version. But the fact is the YouTube creator market is vastly larger than feature film or network television, and those folks are making tons of money and spending tons of money, and want tools that make their job easier. I want tools that make my job easier. Yes, FCPX development has slowed to a crawl. IMHO these updates are too little, 10 years too late. But man, that FCP Summit crowd, they’ll use any weird, twisted logic to justify Apple’s letting FCPX stagnate.

[Eric Santiago]

FCPX is my go-to now for sheer speed.

I still have to cut with Avid MC and Premiere (client-driven).

They all haven’t been updated to my liking but they all still work.

As long as we have options, I am fine.

[Mads Nybo jørgensen]

Hey Ben,

I hear you, and I hear you loudly.

And, yes I take my hat off to the YouTube creators too – but many of the high earners on that platform, have whole teams producing the videos. Many of which will be using “Professional tools”.

My comments about prosumer software is towards Adobe Express, Adobe Elements, Adobe Rush, and I suppose FCPX on an iPad (maybe resolve should be on the iPad list too?).

Unless Adobe has changed it, Adobe Rush project can not be transferred between accounts. As in I can import my own Adobe Rush project, but not one that a client has produced on their account. So there isn’t a natural way for me to help those who get stuck in their edit, except to move on to their tools and hardware.

There is an obvious lower cost point to some of these tools. That does not suggest that they are low-end hence why I used the term Prosumer. But in all fairness, would a professional (full-time) video editor cut a complex corporate video or broadcast program on Express, Elements, Rush, iMovie, or FCPX running on an iPad?

I would be surprised if some did do that – thinking back in my own history, I would do that.
Aside from frustrations with hardware and screen size, the first big hurdle would be delivery format and QC – no matter whether broadcast or steamed.

And there is nothing worse, like what FCPX has been and still are going through, if you can’t do simple editing commands that saves you a lot of time – it is not long ago that the FCPX team came up with cross-fades on audioclips. This some 20 years+ after other NLE’s had found a way of doing just that.

As you said:
Yes, FCPX development has slowed to a crawl. IMHO these updates are too
little, 10 years too late. But man, that FCP Summit crowd, they’ll use
any weird, twisted logic to justify Apple’s letting FCPX stagnate.

I totally agree, and wound’t mind seeing the Apple P&L sheet for FCPX, and the lack of development on the software – even if the temple of Apple are getting a small crowd to throw themselves on the altar of sacrifice. 😉
But then again, if one looks at Adobe and their relations with Premiere Pro development, they too seem to have slowed down dramatically, in comparison to the early days of Creative Cloud.

Keep watching that space, there might still be some surprises yet to come…

Atb
Mads

[Joe Redifer]

Looks like 10.7 could be a bit interesting. I didn’t watch much of the video in the first post because home boy just talks to his chat and the entire thing is an hour long, so I just read Apple’s article. I really do wish they’d retire the “machine learning” marketing buzzword and just call it AI. The machine doesn’t learn anything. If it did, my machine should be smarter than someone else’s machine because of all the things it has learned. But no. It’s such a misnomer and the bandwagoners LOVE it.

Some of the new features I swear we’ve had for a while. Different colored roles? How is this any different than before? Connected storylines? How is this different or better than making a compound clip? The info was scarce, but if it works the way I think it might, I suppose it could be better if I needed to extend the beginning of the connected storyline, which is a pain to do in a compound clip.

Still, I look forward to FCP 10.7… for Mac.

[Ben Balser]

ML and AI, though related, don’t really work exactly the same. But both are limited. They will each reach limits of learning (in today’s models). One theory holds they’ll eventually get worse because they start corrupting their own learning with redundant and garbage data eventually. But, it’s just a theory. I’ll stand very firmly by “too little too late” with Apple’s FCPX development. I’m using Resolve more and more, and really liking it.

And yes, they’re only giving us what others (and Apple had already done with legacy FCP) many years ago. I “think” the color thing may be that we can have clips take the color of the video roles, not just audio roles. I know Richard is ape-crazy over a scrolling timeline, but I’ve use a scrolling timeline in another NLE and didn’t like it. I had a harder time keeping visual track of my timeline elements. Timing precisely for compositing and effects I found to be more difficult. Hope it’s something we can turn off and on. Yes, Apple’s press release is super vague and makes me nervous. Why the need to be so vague?