Will FCPX debacle hasten open-source editing proliferation?

[Brian Wells]

[Chris Jacek] “So I can spend 20 years building a career, and it’s my house from college that gives me cred on the Cow!”

Sorry, Chris, was the only way to verify in three words or less 🙂

As to how I am and where I’m at, we should take that offline unless you’re planning a jaunt to Hollywood for, say, a LAFCPUG meeting, but I can tell you that FCS 3 is a core part of my day job here in Anaheim ( sort of rhymes with “Frisbee”) and I’ve noodled around in Vegas Pro. Got an email? I couldn’t find one in your Cowfile.

Also, Luscious Johnny B can get hold of me on FB or by phone. Good to see you in the World, as it were.

[Dave Barnard]

The key point with Avid and the Mac was the introduction of the G3 machines which had half the number of PCI slots of the models they replaced.

Avid needed 4 3rd party cards plus their own compression board to run, unlike their biggest competitor Media 100 who designed their own I/O board.

Avid either needed to re-design their hardware or switch platforms – they chose the latter, leading to the rise of FCP as increasing computer power and DV cameras made dedicated hardware unnecessary.

FCP has been central to the rise of independent voices in cinema and television over the past few years, I can only hope that this is not lost.

Software that makes remote collaboration easier would be really useful for independents. Apple started going this way with iChat Theatre in FCP7, perhaps this is an opportunity for open source developers?

Dave Barnard
cinedigital
London UK

[Joel Ray]

That dovetails with what I heard years ago, thanks for clarifying. I guess people are more wedded to their hardware platform over software, and that would rule out lightworks as a viable replacement for many editors as I believe it is PC only.

[Dave Barnard]

Now Lightworks is Open Source it is free to run on any platform – all that is needed is a bit of programming 😉

Just had a look at the public beta site – it’s developed quite a bit since LW shark badges were de rigeur at IBC back in the 90’s

https://www.lightworksbeta.com/

They say a Linux and OS X version is planned for late 2011. Very interesting…

Thelma Schoonmaker and some other very established feature editors like have never stopped using it.

Develop links to CeltX and it would be way ahead for all kinds of collaborative drama work.

In light of the FCP X debacle, OSS is really the only way the editing community Won’t Get Fooled Again!
The new boss can never become the same as the old boss (as it were!)

Dave Barnard
https://cinedigital.co.uk
London, UK
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zydAs5bRW1U

[Joel Ray]

Hadn’t seen that Lightworks was being ported, things are going to get interesting.