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Why FCPX?
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[Oliver Peters] “So I’m not sure anyone is any safer.”
But they objectively ARE safer.
The modern cost and accessibility of MAKING changes has shifted remarkably.
Switching an installed production system for a group of editors used to take millions of dollars in capital investment.
You needed on-staff engineers. Integrators. And a host of technical folks to accompany the multi-thousand dollar components in the racks that enabled you to “edit.”
Now that array of technology has been “Swiss cheesed” out of recognizable shape.
Whole swaths of tasks – graphics – color – sound – traffic – have been replaced by easily accessible – off the shelf solutions as or more capable compared to the bespoke tools of the past – just look at in-house collaborative communications systems that were needed in the TV station era. Wire machines, fax machines, police scanners, elaborate PBX style phone systems – all totally replaceable now by running those same functions on the same computer you edit on. Your standard editorial computers – running Slack, Frame.io or Google Docs or just EMAIL, blows up whole slices of needed infrastructure.
The landscape is HUGELY different. Yet, many editors and facilities are struggling mightily with coming to terms with these changes.
They have an “approved” mindset based (in too many cases IMO), on infrastructure that they hold onto-because thats’ what they invested in long ago and it’s really easy just to keep thinking in those established workflow terms.
Some are changing. A few months ago I was in a local NetWork TV station shop and sat behind the folks working on a nationally syndicated show – and all the work was happening on “off-the-shelf” iMacs running X. Not a badge from Grass Valley, For-A, Quantel, Sony, Otari or really ANY of the common NAB “pro class” names of my youth to be seen in the suite.
It’s likely exactly the same in the Premiere shops too.
The point is, when the bill for switching EVERYTHING isn’t something like 2.6 million for a serious multi-editor shop – but maybe $100K – that changes everything.
Risk is dramatically lowered. And that’s the definition of “safer.”
My 2 cents.
Creator of XinTwo – https://www.xintwo.com
The shortest path to FCP X mastery. -
[Bill Davis] “The modern cost and accessibility of MAKING changes has shifted remarkably. Switching an installed production system for a group of editors used to take millions of dollars in capital investment. You needed on-staff engineers. Integrators. And a host of technical folks to accompany the multi-thousand dollar components in the racks that enabled you to “edit.” … Whole swaths of tasks – graphics – color – sound – traffic – have been replaced by easily accessible – off the shelf solutions as or more capable compared to the bespoke tools of the past … The landscape is HUGELY different. Yet, many editors and facilities are struggling mightily with coming to terms with these changes.”
The cost hasn’t changed. It’s shifted.
You’re right that systems are getting cheaper. But expectations are constantly rising, budgets are constantly falling, and schedules are constantly constricting. The risk isn’t money. It’s time. How do you invest the time to figure out a whole new system when you have clients making demands right now? How do you move a whole shop or production onto a new workflow — without skipping a beat?
Walter Soyka
Designer & Mad Scientist at Keen Live [link]
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
@keenlive | RenderBreak [blog] | Profile [LinkedIn] -
[Herb Sevush] “Apparently the fault was Steve Jobs, at least according to Randy U.”
According to my family tradition – we kinda give a pass to issues “fault” when they are attached to people who were actively dying during the circumstances being discussed.
Just sayin’
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Creator of XinTwo – https://www.xintwo.com
The shortest path to FCP X mastery. -
Charlie, obviously I’m way behind the technological times.
Any editing app made for an iphone is created by a team of sadists.
I Hate Television. I Hate It As Much As Peanuts. But I Can’t Stop Eating Peanuts.
– Orson Welles -
[Bill Davis] “According to my family tradition – we kinda give a pass to issues “fault” when they are attached to people who were actively dying during the circumstances being discussed.”
Oh give me a break, what was he, your uncle or something? And, for the record, it was Randy’s observation, not mine, so go lay your guilt trip on him.
Oh the hollowed dead … let’s just say you would have been laughed out of my family’s dining room with that one. How’s that for tradition.
Herb Sevush
Zebra Productions
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nothin\’ attached to nothin\’
\”Deciding the spine is the process of editing\” F. Bieberkopf -
[greg janza]
“Can I trust Apple to actually have my back? Hell no. The original FCP7 to FCPX transition debacle shows that.
Is there a compelling reason to stay with their architecture? no.
Are they developing computers that are superior or faster? no.
Are they worth the added cost? no.
Apple didn’t hurt my feelings. Instead, their actions were the catalyst for thinking in terms of “why remain an Apple customer?””
So I guess you somehow believe that Adobe or AVID or anyone else will “have your back” going forward? Good luck with that. My advice is that if you want “vendor dependability” make sure you don’t forget to pay your monthly tribute in a timely fashion.
And what if I don’t care about “architecture” beyond the performance it provides – and I’m delighted with my level of performance as it stands? Why do I care about YOUR need to keep seeing for “superior or faster” when my relatively unexpensive stock system is already executing my editing decisions as fast as I can think? That seems really nuts.
With Apple, $3,000 for a box and $399 for tools get me everything I need. Add a couple grand for “niceties” like removable storage, peripherals and licensed content as needed -and I can step off an airplane with NOTHING and be editing beautifully on the planet in a few hours.
May not have value to you. But it’s astonishing to realize that’s where I am in my career now.
Simply astonishing.
Why remain an Apple customer? That’s the core.
Now add the investments they are clearly making in seminal technologies like the 3d depth mapping on their phones – their particular integration of the compression stuff like h-265 that are laser focused on the future – and all the research driven efficiency tools that permeate FCP X (which I mention here over and over again – and heck YES. IT”S WORTH IT.
I consider my workflow today 100 times superior to the workflow I paid tens of thousands of dollars more to achieve decades ago.
The value make me GRIN to think of it.
And sorry, but wasting even an HOUR “bespoking” a system to properly run the old code of the NLEs of my youth doesn’t interest me one bit.
Not when off the shelf with APPLE is CRUSHING it for me.
(Hey, notice that Google dropped the headphone jack from it’s phones? Looking forward to a few months of hair pulling and screaming from all of you who excoriated APPLE about that stuff. Post away!)
Creator of XinTwo – https://www.xintwo.com
The shortest path to FCP X mastery. -
[greg janza] “Charlie, obviously I’m way behind the technological times.
Any editing app made for an iphone is created by a team of sadists.
“lol… well, technically it’s for the iPad, but I put it on my phone just to see if it worked. It did, and really well. but yes, it was a gigantic PITA. I don’t care what anyone says, doing “real” editing with a touch based UI is awful.
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~ My FCPX Babbling blog ~
~\”It is a poor craftsman who blames his tools.\”~
~I still need to play Track Tetris sometimes. An old game that you can never win~
~\”The function you just attempted is not yet implemented\”~ -
[Walter Soyka] “How do you move a whole shop or production onto a new workflow — without skipping a beat?”
and perhaps more importantly since our industry relies heavily on a freelance pool, if you switch will you have a large enough group of talented editors to hire for projects?
Any facility would be foolish not to take that into consideration.
I Hate Television. I Hate It As Much As Peanuts. But I Can’t Stop Eating Peanuts.
– Orson Welles -
[Bill Davis] “Oops – clearly you’re correct. Of course EVERYONE “got” X out of the gate. How silly of me to think otherwise.”
Bill, forgive me if this has already been brought up in the conversation but I think there’s a huge upside to having many professionals laugh and make fun of FCPX when it was first released. Naturally those folks probably didn’t even try it out. I know I’m one of those people. I heard about all of the painful misery that early adopters encountered due to lack of features. If I had tried it out then I might have been scared away permanently.
However, I didn’t touch it until 2015 and I’m glad I waited because by then it was ready for prime time. And now I’m relatively neutral on the product. It’s not my NLE of choice but I can appreciate it’s merits.
I Hate Television. I Hate It As Much As Peanuts. But I Can’t Stop Eating Peanuts.
– Orson Welles -
[greg janza] “Any editing app made for an iphone is created by a team of sadists.”
Forget iPhone. Think iPad Pro. Quite viable there.
– Oliver
Oliver Peters – oliverpeters.com
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