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So what is happening with NLE’s in your area
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I am an Atlanta freelancer that works at various post houses and design firms, as well as a good bit at home, and I’m going full-in with CC for now. I learned on AVID in 1997 and spent billions of hours at it. Then was forced into Final Cut v2, hating it for a few months and then growing to love it. In the last year, between my different clients and different types of jobs, I’ve spent lots of time at Symphony 6.x, Premiere Pro CS6, and FCP 7, and I can say that I absolutely prefer Premiere Pro (and that’s not even with CC’s improvements, which I can’t wait to have in my hands).
I will be cutting some television at a post facility coming up, and no doubt they will be on AVID, which, for that type of work, and with the support of a team of assistant editors, is perfectly fine for me. But attempting to do the high-end, effects-and-graphics-heavy corporate work that I do on the AVID would be an exercise in misery.
I’ve owned the Master Collection for years, and I always upgrade as soon as I can convince a few key clients to do it as well, so the commitments surrounding CC are no issue for me, and the more I use Premiere, the more little things I find that I love about it. There will always be things that I wish it did like FCP or AVID, and yes, AVID’s trim mode blows everything away, and has worked that way since before I started editing, but it’s nowhere near enough to push me in that direction. In general, the AVID feels 15 years behind in many aspects of its operation.
I have never, even for a second, sat in front of FCPX, but I’ve read a ton about it, and so far, no one’s comments have made me want to invest the time to learn it. It’s also difficult to trust Apple anymore. But who knows. I might take a look at it one day if everyone starts singing its praises.
Will Eccleston
Kinetiscape Films -
[Will Eccleston] ” It’s also difficult to trust Apple anymore. But who knows. I might take a look at it one day if everyone starts singing its praises.”
As someone who has been very, some might say excessively, critical of Apple since the X-bomb, I would have to say that while I felt that lack of trust in the past I think the evidence now clearly shows I was mistaken. With the release of the R2MacPro it’s fair to say that Apple has not abandoned the pro film/video market, although they have re-defined it for themselves. At this point if your comfortable with Apple’s new target audience, just below the highest end of the film/broadcast/CG niche, I would think they are as trust worthy as any company that’s not exclusively devoted to video editing and post.
Herb Sevush
Zebra Productions
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nothin’ attached to nothin’
“Deciding the spine is the process of editing” F. Bieberkopf -
Here in Dallas I’ve seen a lot of people either staying with 7. Some small production places have moved to Premiere, but not nearly as many as I’ve seen move to X. Our ABC affiliate recently moved to FCPX, as well as our “alternative” newspaper, The Dallas Observer. The local FCPUG is ~90% X, and I think a lot of that is due to exposure and education. A lot of producers and small shops heard X sucks two years ago, and nobody has told them how much it improved.
As far as MC goes, it’s always been here, but it’s mostly at our “Hollywood” facilities, i.e. ReelFX & Post Asylum.
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FCP X Certified Pro, Level Two
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[Herb Sevush] “[Will Eccleston] ” It’s also difficult to trust Apple anymore. But who knows. I might take a look at it one day if everyone starts singing its praises.”
As someone who has been very, some might say excessively, critical of Apple since the X-bomb, I would have to say that while I felt that lack of trust in the past I think the evidence now clearly shows I was mistaken. With the release of the R2MacPro it’s fair to say that Apple has not abandoned the pro film/video market, although they have re-defined it for themselves. At this point if your comfortable with Apple’s new target audience, just below the highest end of the film/broadcast/CG niche, I would think they are as trust worthy as any company that’s not exclusively devoted to video editing and post.
Herb Sevush
Zebra Productions”Kudos, Herb.
One hallmark of real professionalism is to look at an evolving stream of facts, and make new assessments based on those changes.
And that remains true even if you personally never find that X works for the kind of work you do – or the way you want to work.
But your post was thoughtful and considered, and I for one, appreciate your stating this so publicly.
Know someone who teaches video editing in elementary school, high school or college? Tell them to check out http://www.StartEditingNow.com – video editing curriculum complete with licensed practice content.
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While I can see where it seems they aren’t aimed at the highest level, I think they may actually be. The rate they’ve added back in high end features to FCPX, the changes in Logic X, and the design of the new Mac Pro all lead me to believe that Apple is serious about the top end professional, just not catering exclusively to them. I hope I’m right about this, but what if Logic X was the face of things to come in FCPX. All of the power of Logic 9 is there, but it’s so much cleaner and more efficient. Another thing that gives me hope is that The Foundry was featured at WWDC, and Apple seems to be working closely with the Resolve team as well. With so many people still using FCP7, the 10.1 update to FCPX could be the straw that breaks the camel’s back and gets people upgrading to X.
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FCP X Certified Pro, Level Two
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[Nicholas Zimmerman] “The rate they’ve added back in high end features to FCPX, the changes in Logic X, and the design of the new Mac Pro all lead me to believe that Apple is serious about the top end professional”
The lack of PCIe slots in the new MacPro puts a definite ceiling on it’s abilities VS anything else out there. There is a niche of post production people who need more than Thunderbolt can deliver.
FCPX has a very long way to go to match Avid in collaborative editing, many broadcasters still need tape delivery, and having to go thru FCP7 for OMF is a joke.
All of the high end features they added back were added back in the first year, I don’t see any great development pace over the past 12 months.
They might do this and they might do that, but apparently I don’t read the tea leaves the same way you do.
Herb Sevush
Zebra Productions
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nothin’ attached to nothin’
“Deciding the spine is the process of editing” F. Bieberkopf -
[Nicholas Zimmerman] “While I can see where it seems they aren’t aimed at the highest level, I think they may actually be. The rate they’ve added back in high end features to FCPX, the changes in Logic X, and the design of the new Mac Pro all lead me to believe that Apple is serious about the top end professional, just not catering exclusively to them.”
I guess one’s definition of “high-end” is very important.
Apple is pretty well absent in CG and compositing. The CPU performance gap is widening, and with next-generation single-CPU Mac Pro being half as fast for these apps versus dual-CPU PC workstations, I don’t see this changing.
You don’t need a supercomputer under your desk for editorial anymore, but there’s a lot more to what I’d consider high-end work than straight cuts and color correction.
I’m not saying you can’t do great work with FCPX or on Macs — of course you can — but look at feature sets for systems like Baselight, Flame, Mistika, or Pablo. FCPX has a long way to go before it reaches “the highest level.”
Support for 10-bit displays in the OS would be a good start. It’s 2013!
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 -
[Herb Sevush] “The lack of PCIe slots in the new MacPro puts a definite ceiling on it’s abilities VS anything else out there. There is a niche of post production people who need more than Thunderbolt can deliver.”
I’d be really surprised if Red didn’t bring out a thunderbolt RedRocket. Same goes for the vast majority of PCIe cards. PCIe hardware scopes, RAID cards, Fiber channel, etc. I don’t think you’re going to have to worry about throwing everything in a chasis, unless you already own it. The transition will take time, but I think CES and NAB will be chock full of Thunderbolt versions of what were once PCIe cards. Hopefully the manufacturers will actually make proper devices, and not just take their existing products and throw them in a chasis. I hope. As far as “what Thunderbolt can deliver” it’s bandwidth is plenty for pretty much everything but GPUs, and even then most GPUs don’t use their 16X pipes completely. Case in point, the kid that got Battlefield 3 running maxed out on a MacBook Air using Thunderbolt.
[Herb Sevush] “FCPX has a very long way to go to match Avid in collaborative editing, many broadcasters still need tape delivery, and having to go thru FCP7 for OMF is a joke.”
I recently had a chance to tour CBS’s west coast studio and check out their control room. The guys complained about how they were transitioning to file based for everything. Tape deliver is dieing very quickly, and if you need it just use your I/O card’s software. I’ve found Black Magics offering MUCH better than the wonky print/edit to tape in FCP7. OMF isn’t dieing, it’s good as dead. I regularly take my projects into Pro Tools using X2Pro, and my composer takes the same files into Logic for scoring (Logic X XML import hasn’t worked well yet).
[Herb Sevush] “All of the high end features they added back were added back in the first year, I don’t see any great development pace over the past 12 months.”
That is very true. It would make since for them to save it up and combine their marketing of the Mac Pro (the Xeons it uses come out early September), Logic X, and a major feature overhall for FCPX. I hope.
[Herb Sevush] “They might do this and they might do that, but apparently I don’t read the tea leaves the same way you do.”
Once again, I hope. R&D isn’t cheap, and they’ve delivered three very major (and probably expensive) professional projects in the last few years. I hope that this recent push for professionals is rooted deep within the company, and at the moment it seems to be. Look at OSX, it’s new features are very power user heavy, things like dual display improvements. That doesn’t benefit the average consumer, but is deeply beneficial to power users and professionals.
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FCP X Certified Pro, Level Two
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[Will Eccleston] “I have never, even for a second, sat in front of FCPX, but I’ve read a ton about it, and so far, no one’s comments have made me want to invest the time to learn it. It’s also difficult to trust Apple anymore. But who knows. I might take a look at it one day if everyone starts singing its praises.”
I’m with Herb here. I think that Apple is committed to editorial.
There are still things I dislike about FCPX, but it’s come a very long way since its launch. I think it’s worth learning.
I don’t think they care about building computers for users like me (focusing more on design/animation/compositing) anymore.
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 -
[Nicholas Zimmerman] “I’d be really surprised if Red didn’t bring out a thunderbolt RedRocket. Same goes for the vast majority of PCIe cards.”
Red Rocket X (the next iteration of the RedRocket) is x16, so Thunderbolt already doesn’t have enough bandwidth for it. I’m sure you can put it in a chassis and run it via Thunderbolt, but that’s like boxing with one hand tied behind your back. What’s the point?
Thunderbolt is great for some stuff, but it doesn’t replace PCIex16 slots. Not this iteration, at least. Maybe when (if) it goes optical.
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Michael Hancock
Editor
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