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Steve Kanter: What FCPX CAN Do
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[Aindreas Gallagher] “on the camera analogy – it’s like asking canon to collapse their offerings into a single camera that can function as a mission critical professional dslr, while also being capable of being picked up and operated as an enhanced point and shoot for someone vaguely conversant with cameras. “
Actually I think most cameras can do that. Even the high end Canon DSLRs have fully automatic mode. That can be said for many mid level professional cameras as well whether it be Canon XF series or Sony XDCAM cameras. They all have fully automatic modes. I mean what “pro” would spend several thousands or tens of thousands on a camera and use Auto White Balance or Auto Focus? Yet those functions are there.
Throughout the industry, “consumer” features have been integrated into mid and high end gear.
Apple is trying to do this with FCPX and, in the long run, I think they’ll succeed.
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[Chris Jacek] “Could you imagine Microsoft pulling the same crap with MS-Word?”
Can you imagine what Windows XP users had to do to “upgrade” to Widows 7?
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David,
It’s not about your opinions. It’s about the relentless TONE that you and a few others here have adopted.
I understand that, since I found myself going in the same direction and had to elect to stop myself.
Honestly, go back and read your last 100 postings. Count the personal pronouns.
Much of what you and a core group of other professionals here on the negative side have written tends to be peppered with “I”s and “You’s” with the arguing very loaded towards personal attacks. (A good example being the post quoted herein.)In fairness, I found myself being drawn in the same direction, so I’ve tried to concentrate on work (And learning about how X actually works!) for the past few weeks and have taken a break from whatever I was contributing to any personal hostility here.
What’s really sad is to come back and see that nothing’s really changed.
The sound and fury is exactly where it was the DAY the program was released.
After this much time after release, it’s clearly little about the actual program anymore. Everyone’s had more than enough time to understand whether it works for them or not. I truly would have expected those who find it not matching their needs would have acted on that assessment and left FCP behind and turned their “mindshare” to whatever tool they feel preserves the “Pre-FCP X” approach to professional editing that they need or want.
But for many they’re continuing to congregate at the scene of what they obviously view as “the terrible accident” and gawk. And so I’m worried this will turn into the blog version of the Jerry Springer show – where the only rule is trashier the talk, the higher the ratings.
That’s just not my type of TV.
FCP X is Apple moving on – for better or worse.
We have to face the reality that none of us can make FCP-X into what WE want it to be. It’s Apple’s ballgame. All we can do is accept what it is and decide if that works for us.
To those who want to stay here and argue about the program – that might be useful, particularly if you can articulate why you like, or don’t like about how it works. That’s instructive. But to stay and hassle the PEOPLE who simply wish to learn more about it is, IMO, kinda lame.
And anyone who does so without being a current, actual USER of the software, has to be taken with a HUGE grain of salt. This is NOT a particularly intuitive piece of software to understand. I saw a long thread on another board today asking how to RELINK files, not understanding that the database restructuring makes the very CONCEPT of re-linking a bit obsolete. (in a “flat file” world, re-linking is trivial In the spider web of a relational database, it’s FAR from a trivial task!)
FCP-X is inarguably imperfect, but just as inarguably a new approach to how editing software works.
People want to learn about it. And dismissing ANYONE by turning the discussion to personal attacks – or engaging in any form of “i’m more “pro” than you are – silliness lowers the discourse, in my opinion.
I’m mindful that when I post here, I’m leaving a permanent record – and being dismissive of the PEOPLE who disagree with me might not be the best strategy in this endlessly indexed and searchable era.
For what it’s worth.
“Before speaking out ask yourself whether your words are true, whether they are respectful and whether they are needed in our civil discussions.”-Justice O’Conner
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[Steve Connor] “I believe this personal attack came first, he was replying to this post.”
This was not a personal attack Steve. I was seriously asking him about his qualifications for his inside knowledge of the “pros,” because it was patently obvious from the quotes around “pros,” just as I mentioned, that Geoff had no frame of reference for his statement.
If it’s the dog licking his weenie part that you saw as an attack, I will admit that might seem inflammatory at first blush. But, please notice, I very carefully phrased that part as a question, because I was really hoping it would illicit answers to my questions. Meanwhile, I can accept criticism and even offer apologies for that part if it’s the real hurtle here. But, I don’t really think it’s the issue.
David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor/Colorist
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los Angeles
https://www.drwfilms.comDon’t miss my new tutorial: Prepare for a seamless transition to FCP X and OS X Lion
https://library.creativecow.net/weiss_roth_david/FCP-10-MAC-Lion/1POST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY ™
Creative COW contributing editor and a forum host of the Business & Marketing and Apple Final Cut Pro forums.
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Criss,
You can’t open “legacy” projects in FCP-X because the underlying database structure is COMPLETELY different.
Constraining someone to using one finger is fine for a game like TAG – but when you decide to change the game to “cats cradle” a “one finger” constraint is INSANE. The simplicity of a flat-file query based program like FCP-legacy – bears little relationship to the spider web relational database structure of FCP-X.
Perhaps someone might someday “parse” the new database and do a simple “import” of one field – like “clip content” into a single field like the viewer in X. But the idea that you can POUR a timeline’s worth of flat file decisions into an equivalent structure in a spiderweb – where everything MUST connect to everything else in order to properly function is imaginary thinking at best.
What do people think? Apple just decided to piss off people by not taking the time to “code” legacy support into the software? That’s INSANE. They knew perfectly well that it would have been a HUGELY positive feature. So the only intelligent rationale is that it was functionally IMPOSSIBLE to build what they wanted while simultaneously maintaining direct compatibility with the prior software architecture.
That people can’t understand something this simple, astonishes me.
And so please, everyone, stop harping on how terrible the lack of legacy support is.
YES. It’s a MAJOR bummer. And, from what I understand, it’s also an inescapably reality that must be faced if we want the potential new capabilities of what the developers hope FCP-X will become as it develops.
Time to move on.
“Before speaking out ask yourself whether your words are true, whether they are respectful and whether they are needed in our civil discussions.”-Justice O’Conner
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[Geoff Dills] “When we went from 3/4 inch tape to betacam no one cried, “How do I play my old tapes on this new machine?” because it would be stupid.”
I’m not sure the U-matic/Betacam format change is a good analog here for two reasons: Sony supported U-matic with parts, service, and sales for years after Betacam was introduced, and Sony cared about interchange and standards. A BVW-75 Betacam editor can actually control a BVU-800 U-matic editor via RS-422 with no additional hardware.
FCPX is an island. It doesn’t interchange. Because it can’t fit into your workflow, it must replace it entirely.
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 -
I started frequenting this forum when FCPX was released because hoped to learn. The main thing I’ve learned is that “Pro” appears to be defined as ” what I do and on up”, and that’s sad. The personal attacks are pretty unprofessional and surprising from the reputation of the Cow, and, yes, I’ve read the entire thread.
Best,
John -
I.. dunno craig – one bullet – two wildly divergent targets.
ten years of a user base. And they build this thing. I just can’t buy the rationale, or the motive.
in shoe drop, thought experiment terms: what happens when (hypothetical) they buy 3DSMAX, Softimage, the autodesk line of flame smoke etc?
What happens to those software entities then? How much can the craft actually stand apple’s presence?
what happens to critical professional software? What do they do to it?Apple’s godly perception of the market, what it means in their eyes, and what it means for the people pursuing that market as a livelihood is gone weird.
We are not, all of us, simply in a financial software skills petri dish of their making, to be mixed up in some future pot skills bunsen burner – there is some real stuff here.Apple are gone a bit weird and they will, it appears, do just about anything that comes into their heads. Anything. Industry, craft or livelihood bedamned.
sorry – I’m back to greatest hits rants, but really: how can you trust this company? they’re poking an entire craft with sticks to find fresh money.
http://www.ogallchoir.net
promo producer/editor.grading/motion graphics -
Wish I had a dollar for every time it happened to me.
I used to do roadshow seminars of video editing concepts for a national magazine, and there were a few times I went functionally BLANK when confronted with a simple question from the crowd.
Heck, one time in Pasadena early in my lecturing career, a lady in the crowd of about 300 raised her hand and asked me to explain the difference between encoding and transcoding. And I realized I had absolutely NO idea what to say to her. Yeah, I knew I KNEW the difference, I just couldn’t get my brain to a place where I could articulate it. Thankfully someone in the audience took pity on me and saved the day – but I still get cold sweats remembering the surge of panic.
That’s the presentation game. The moment you start to convince yourself you’re finally getting pretty good – something happens to take you down a few pegs.
It gets easier the more experience you accumulate – just like life.
“Before speaking out ask yourself whether your words are true, whether they are respectful and whether they are needed in our civil discussions.”-Justice O’Conner
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[Bill Davis] “You can’t open “legacy” projects in FCP-X because the underlying database structure is COMPLETELY different… Perhaps someone might someday “parse” the new database and do a simple “import” of one field – like “clip content” into a single field like the viewer in X. But the idea that you can POUR a timeline’s worth of flat file decisions into an equivalent structure in a spiderweb – where everything MUST connect to everything else in order to properly function is imaginary thinking at best.”
This was a design decision that Apple made, and we can learn something about Apple’s point of view from it.
They wanted to change the editorial paradigm, but they were willing to do so at the expense of supporting their existing professional customers’ infrastructure and legacy work.
I cannot think of a precedent for this in the world of professional software — and I think this goes a long way toward explaining the reaction to FCPX. No developer of professional solutions has ever shown this apparent disregard for their customers, their customers’ industry standards, and their customers’ ability to work.
In general, developers of niche, high-end professional tools keep an eye on the future and continually improve, refine, and evolve their products, but do so while providing continuity for their users.
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
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