Tekserve NYC July 14- Evan Schechtman of OutPost Digital and Radical Media on FCPX – Summary

[Keith Koby]

It was a terrific event. Evan was well spoken, knowledgable and entertaining. He gave a great historical perspective of _new_ apple product launches and “old” product deaths. He showed a history of additions to FCP and offered some perspective on why X is the way it is at 10.0.

He made no silly defense of how the product was launched. He was, in fact, very frank and very fair.

I brought 11 editors from my facility with me to see the event. When we went in, there were probably 3 or 4 in the more negative camp and about 6 neutrals and 1 more positive. After they saw the event, I would say that I saw 7 or 8 positives on the product, 1 neutral and 2 negatives – but maybe still a little more comfortable or at least more educated on the product. So some were encouraged and some were made a little less nervous.

If I can sum up the negative feelings of my employees/colleagues, they revolve around changing the workflow and interface. Some are rightfully upset about having to change their methods. But, part of the preso was about precisely that. Some things change for the better and some for the worse. Some things look better at the start than they are and others catch on. We as users, don’t always see all of the reasons that companies dump product lines or change their products. (And certainly the reasons being imagined in the blogosphere are seldom accurate.)

Keith Koby
Sr. Director Post-Production Engineering
iNDEMAND NETWORKS
Howard TV!/Movies On Demand/iNDEMAND Pay-Per-View/iNDEMAND 3D

[Craig Seeman]

I think seeing someone who is both an experienced editor and successful facility manager have a practical look at both FCPX and the history behind it, was important for many. That a place known as a VAR hosting an event for an NLE they can’t even sell directly, adds to the credibility. One might almost say this was a mini “supermeet” done right. It was an analysis and program demo rather than a marketing event.

Regarding the changes ranging from “engine” to GUI I think there’s a lot behind that, that Apple can’t explain in any great detail that’s going to make sense to many editors or businesses.

What should be clear, as exemplified last night, is that FCPX holds promised. Some readily apparent and much that will be “wait and see.” Even at one’s most cautious approach, there’s no urgency to jump ship. There’s no reason at all to believe Apple isn’t going to move this forward as quickly as possible and we’ll get a clearer picture where they’re taking the feature set.

One thin Evan seemed clear about is that FCPX is targeted to “pros” as he repeated these are not features “the skateboarders” will use.

[Michael Largé]

I was also at the Tekserve event, but I left early.

[Craig Seeman]

After the free beer I assume?

[Keith Koby]

Free beer tastes good.

Keith Koby
Sr. Director Post-Production Engineering
iNDEMAND NETWORKS
Howard TV!/Movies On Demand/iNDEMAND Pay-Per-View/iNDEMAND 3D

[Jeremy Garchow]

Thanks for this post, Craig.

[Michael Largé]

[Craig Seeman] “After the free beer I assume?”

LOL. No, I didn’t touch the free beer/cookie/pastries they offered. The speaker – Evan – was engaging, but after the “History of FCP”, the rest of the presentation felt like he was attempting to calm down hysterical editors. Since I’m already a fan of FCPX (despite it’s curent shortcomings), I don’t need convincing of it merits. Ironically, he would’ve been more suited to talking to some of the negative members of the Cow, specifically, the ones in this forum.