The war on Final Cut Pro!

[David Roth weiss]

Joel,

Forget about all the technical stuff. All of the NLEs are great nowadays, because the computers are so powerful. But that’s not what this business really about. It’s a game of numbers — how many clients can you get, keep, service, and collect from over the next twenty or thirty years. And, if using FCP helps you to achieve better numbers because more clients want and expect it, you’d best get on the stick ASAP, learn it pronto, and get over all the sentimentality that keeps you using Vegas.

As a test, just go onto any job listing site in your town or anywhere else, and see how many ads you can find seeking editors with Vegas to cut projects. Now go and count how many ads you find requesting FCP. Enough said?

Good luck, hopefully we’ll see you on the bright side…

David

David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los Angeles

POST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY ™

A forum host of Creative COW’s Apple Final Cut Pro, Business & Marketing, and Indie Film & Documentary forums.

[Jason Porthouse]

use both. Seriously!!

You have Vegas? You like? Keep it, for the amount you’ll get for it it’s worth saving.

Run FCP alongside it. That way, you learn both, you broaden your saleability for the client and everyone’s happy. Use the best tool for the job. Some things you’ll love in FCP, some you’ll hate. Don’t see it as the enemy, just another tool in your arsenal.

HTH

Jason

_________________________________

Before you criticise a man, walk a mile in his shoes.
Then when you do criticise him, you’ll be a mile away. And have his shoes.

*the artist formally known as Jaymags*

[Devin Crane]

Here’s a question I’ve always wondered, why doesn’t Sony take Vegas seriously? You can’t find it anywhere on their broadcast site where you would think they would try and market it to Professionals in the business. Instead it’s on their consumer site, I don’t know maybe it’s bad marketing. I’ve heard good things about it, mainly from audio guys who are having to cut video.

[Mark Suszko]

SONY is a company at war with itself: a two-headed monster of content creation and content presentation. Every time the engineering side comes up with cool new tech, the entertainment/marketing side gets spooked it will cut into their profits.

Vegas is not even a SONY product; it was an already-mature product SONY bought from another company and developed further, much like Apple bought Key Grip from Macromedia. Both companies use these NLE platforms as a wedge into the pro market to generate marketing buzz. Buzz that is actually aimed at their exponentially larger consumer markets, at buying hardware.

I really don’t believe Apple OR SONY give a hoot about our tiny market, compared to the VAST market of consumer products they sell. Same with Autodesk, who sells literally millions of copies of AUTOCAD, and is barely aware of the Discreet division it bought up, mostly just to keep it out of the hands of competitors.

Notice how AVID is missing from this conversation? Because AVID really just sells editing, not gaming, not home productivity apps, not music playing, etc. And while that may be noble in one way, AVID has been contracting and shrinking all along, specifically IMO because is is not under the wing of a much larger consumer company like Apple or SONY.

That’s my impression, anyway. We, our industry and user base, are ants, scuttling under the feet of giants, enjoying their shade one moment, believeing we are in agreemment that they should provide that free shade… and crushed underfoot the next, as they walk on towards their own goals, the whole time, unaware and uncaring.

As to a technical answer to your question, AFAIK, an intel-based modern mac can run Vegas and Final cut in one and the same machine. So why not run both, or either, as needed?

[Chris Borjis]

Mark nailed it right on!

[David Roth weiss]

[Chris Borjis] “Mark nailed it right on! “

Gee, just pass me right over. Thanks a lot. You know, I have feelings too.

David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los Angeles

POST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY ™

A forum host of Creative COW’s Apple Final Cut Pro, Business & Marketing, Indie Film & Documentary, and Film History & Appreciations forums.

[Forrest Burger]

FWIW, up until about 5-6 years ago I edited on with windows based software. I had to tell people it was similar to FCP or Avid.

Since switching to FCP my business has improved dramatically. So, there you have it…

Forrest

[Chris Borjis]

sorry, David you nailed it too!

I was referring to Sony though.

One reason I can think of that they didn’t promote vegas as much was that they
were pimping the now defunct XPRI system.

[Bob Zelin]

Joel’s original post is very “innocent”. But I have the answer. I was the original AVID guy back in the stone age, so I was well rooted into AVID. But FCP came along. If I wanted to continue to MAKE MONEY, I had to learn FCP. End of story. Who cares which is better.

I was in the linear editing business before AVID started. Everyone thought that AVID was a joke – “professionals use linear equipment, AVID is junk”. Well, we see what happened to those professionals. By the way, I thought that AVID was junk too, but I wanted to MAKE A LIVING, so I learned AVID. And now FCP. And when the next big thing happens (that obsoletes FCP, and Vegas, and Premier), I will learn that. There will always be the next big thing, and if you want to MAKE A LIVING, you will have to learn it.

bob Zelin

[David Roth weiss]

[Bob Zelin] “FCP came along. If I wanted to continue to MAKE MONEY, I had to learn FCP. End of story. Who cares which is better. “

Is there an echo in here???

David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los Angeles

POST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY ™

A forum host of Creative COW’s Apple Final Cut Pro, Business & Marketing, Indie Film & Documentary, and Film History & Appreciations forums.