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The single FCPX viewer – it’s all down to Steve Jobs!
I’m half way through the Steve Jobs biography by Walter Isaacson and there is a really amusing anecdote about the development of iDVD where Mike Evangelist, a software designer, shows Steve Jobs an early development of the interface.
“ After looking at a bunch of screenshots, Jobs jumped up, grabbed a marker, and drew a simple rectangle on a whiteboard.”Here’s the new application” he said. It’s got one window. You drag your video into the window. Then you click the button that says ‘burn.’ That’s it. That’s what we are going to make” Evangelist was dumbfounded, but it led to the simplicity of what became iDVD. Jobs even helped design the “Burn”button icon.
Ok – it’s not the FCPX viewer- but it shows the some of the thinking that went into the software development.
Highly recommended read, a fascinating book that really helps explain why we are where we are at the moment.
And I didn’t know Steve was a fruitarian Acid Head in his youth.
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6 Replies
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I have no doubt that he may have had some influence into FCPX.
“Make it so that I can use it on my ipad” …
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I just started reading the book myself.
It would be interesting to know just how much Steve influenced the FCS team. Although, much of what I’ve read (outside the biography) seems to suggest that Steve knew the end was coming sooner than expected. Supposedly he focused in on the things he wanted to get done. iPhones, iPads. Now apparently iTV? (as in, not Apple TV)
I wouldn’t be surprised if he simply didn’t have time for the FCS team.
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FCP 10 has been in development for years and I’m sure Jobs put his finger prints on it as he did everything at Apple. Randy Ubillos was working on a companion app to FCP years ago (basically a capturing and logging App that could be useful for project organization and string-outs) and when Jobs saw it he basically said, that’s what I want iMovie to look like. Which then lead to the infamous iMovie 08 that was almost universally hated. Apple ended up giving away from downloads of iMovie 6 HD (the version prior to 08) for two years to help smooth ruffled feathers.
There is one story about Jobs calling a VP at Google on a Sunday to let him know that there is a problem w/the Google iPhone app but that a team at Apple will have in fixed w/in 24hrs. The problem? Jobs noticed that the yellow in the Google app’s icon was the wrong shade.
While no one is perfect, Steve Jobs is one of the rare exceptions where the head of the company have his fingers in everything is not a detriment.
-Andrew
3.2GHz 8-core, FCP 6.0.4, 10.5.5
Blackmagic Multibridge Eclipse (6.8.1) -
[Mark Dobson] ““ After looking at a bunch of screenshots, Jobs jumped up, grabbed a marker, and drew a simple rectangle on a whiteboard.”Here’s the new application” he said. It’s got one window. You drag your video into the window. “
And who puts TWO windows in an app to author DVDs?
What for?
That makes no sense.
DVDSTP is from before iDVD and never had to windows.
Job’s mythology start to grow.
rafael -
Given FCP X user interface is very similar to iMovie I am guessing it was conceived by the author of iMovie (Randy Ubillos) and brought to prominence by the great one.
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Ray -
I feel its great that apple had all these easy to use programs i was 17 I started on iMovie and iDVD, it was great then as I got more experienced I got into FCS, but now it seems they’ve gone backwards again back to iMovie again? I mean maybe this FCPX thing is the start And will get a Ultimate FCP?…only time will tell but it doesn’t look like it.
I wear many hats.
http://www.gregburkepost.com
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