[Bill Davis]

[Joseph Owens] “TRaining? Why? No, seriously. Isn’t it supposed to be so transparent and seamlessly intuitive that you should simply be able to sit down and “just work”? Isn’t this inevitably leading to a whole new tier of elitist whining snobs?”

SO which is it, in your estimable opinion? Foolishly shallow? If so, then everyone who dismissed it in the first 48 hours would have been proved completely accurate. And this board wouldn’t have lasted a week.

Or is it more complex than meets the eye, and over the past few months, the complexity of it’s underlying concepts have caused there to be an ongoing discussion as a huge range of editors have worked hard to understand it’s complexities, have had to re-orient some thinking, learn what is useful and what is not and consistently re-evaluate it?

If that’s the fundamental truth, then rather than dying out, this board would have still been going strong six months later… oh wait….

“Before speaking out ask yourself whether your words are true, whether they are respectful and whether they are needed in our civil discussions.”-Justice O’Connor

[Bill Davis]

[Walter Soyka] “How about looking at the question of NLE platform attracting clients another way. Among discerning clients seeking post-production services (not full-service, end-to-end production), which ones of these statements would they like most to hear?
“We’ll be cutting your project on an Avid in our fully-equipped suite.”
“We’ll be cutting your project on FCP7 in our fully-equipped suite.”
“We’ll be cutting your project on FCPX in our fully-equipped suite.”
“

See you and raise you… (if you’ll allow a string bet)

The story…

Through a friend of a friend you secure an amazingly talented singer/songwriter to appear at your companies year end party.

Unfortunately we haven’t the budget to rent a wonderful piano that night, all that’s available is the cheap piano in the lounge.

So do you tell the entertainer the deal’s off? 10 out of 10 times the answer is no.

You know the talent isn’t in the tool, and you expect that while someone who’s good at what they do might have a “preference” for a particular tool – the tool and the talent are separate things.

So if thats true (and it largely is) then this concept starts out with little persuasive power. We’re arguing mis-perceptions, not something that truly sets the skills of pros and amateurs apart.

As long as the editor knows how to push the buttons, they can edit on anything. Just as a person who knows how to press the keys on a Steinway can also rock on a Casio.

The point is that clients who hire something like “general editing” based on tools rather than talent are all too often just playing games. People who really understand the truth know that unless there’s a specific capability that’s not present in a specific tool (which is the most solid argument against X at this point, IMO) – then the software you cut on is a, very, very minor piece of the puzzle. Yes, pros often use the finest tools. But not always. And nobody argues that ELTON JOHN with a lousy bar piano can’t entertain rings around you or me or anyone else we know sitting at a Steinway.

“What do you cut on?” is one of the classic trigger phrases that I’m dealing with a newbie and need to consider doubling my rate if I take a gig, because their brain isn’t on THEIR job – which is assessing the editor’s talent and capabilities – but rather than impressing themselves with their “insider” knowledge.

In truth, I can’t remember the last “serious” client who even knows what software I use. (But I can name a number of non-pros – including all my kids friends, half the still photogs I know, and even my dentist, who have an “opinion” on Avid, vs Adobe vs X!)

The above is not always true. And I freely admit that sometimes tools are an indicator of an artists abilities – but, IMO, that is neither universal, dependable, nor even a very smart standard in a world where yesterday’s expensive rare tool is regularly supplanted by tools that cost much less, but are every bit as professional – Final Cut Pro Legacy being a prime example, after all.

FWIW.

“Before speaking out ask yourself whether your words are true, whether they are respectful and whether they are needed in our civil discussions.”-Justice O’Connor

[Bill Davis]

[Walter Soyka] “I don’t mean to say one can’t use FCPX, or that it won’t ever get there, but really… would everyone using FCPX for “big budget gigs” today please raise their hands?
“

Does this presume that the number would be more or less than the number of hands that would have gone up for Legacy six months after IT was released? Or are we requiring the sibling to perform at the level of it’s decade older brother simply because they have the same last name?

: )

“Before speaking out ask yourself whether your words are true, whether they are respectful and whether they are needed in our civil discussions.”-Justice O’Connor

[Bill Davis]

Such impatience!

Apple is just barely starting to roll out their FCP-X initiatives.

Our local FCP Users group (which by the way has been in operation since 2001) just got an invite to meet at the local Apple Store next month, and the store will be adding X training (4 nights over a month of 2.5 hour free training sessions) starting Jan 4.

The first batch of independent trainers is finalizing certification (I understand the certification test is pretty tough).

But I guess “support” is supposed to spring forth organically fully formed?

“Before speaking out ask yourself whether your words are true, whether they are respectful and whether they are needed in our civil discussions.”-Justice O’Connor

[Bill Davis]

Probably an infinite number since we all know that there isn’t a single Avid editor on the planet working on no/low budget projects like resume movies and “foot in the door” projects.

In fact registered ownership of the “proper” software alone is what causes clients to show up with big budget gigs.

Didn’t you know that?

(grin)

“Before speaking out ask yourself whether your words are true, whether they are respectful and whether they are needed in our civil discussions.”-Justice O’Connor

[Bill Davis]

[Mitch Ives] “[Ray Wang] “In iMovie you could mark part of the clip as rejected and there is a function to strip (“Move Rejected to Trash” if I remember correctly) the rejected contents to save disk space.

This could be part of the clip or the entire clip.

I was going mad trying to find that function in FCP X!”

Nice feature. We had that in an NLE called Incite back in 2000. That’s a feature people would be happy to say they got from iMovie…
“

Well, It’s a nice feature in an environment where one person works on one computer doing one project.

I don’t think I’d like it in a world where the sound guy could “RED X” something – and that would eliminate that clip from the libraries of everyone who might be interested in using that footage for something else. (I’m not saying this conforms to any future for FCP-X – cuz I haven’t a clue – but we’ve been led to believe that this foundational re-build is designed to allow future development of professional features – and building in a “kill this footage globally” command at the single user level might turn out to be something that they’d rather look at as something that has wider ramifications.)

It might be like the “Save As” compared to “Save a Version” discussion in another thread.

It annoys me that they changed it, but I’ve got to believe it was done for some reason other than that the design team just wanted to make everyone’s lives harder.

FWIW.

“Before speaking out ask yourself whether your words are true, whether they are respectful and whether they are needed in our civil discussions.”-Justice O’Connor

[Bill Davis]

[Marvin Holdman] “But Bill, Final Swing Pro X (FSPX) levels the playing field, fine tennis players opinions are irrelevant now. The game of tennis is changing and skills is no longer needed.”

Again, just for elemental clarification, I’m presuming that

A) you understand the difference between athletic prowess and software design
B) you understand the difference between a metaphor and misinterpretation (which obviously you don’t since you confuse the two quite regularly.)

and most critically,

C) the presumptive attachment of “skills is no longer needed” (ignoring the awful tense problem) – to me – when in fact I’ve never once knowingly argued anything even remotely like that (and, in fact disbelieve that assertion rigorously) – makes you look clever.

I think you believe you’re making points here.

But all I can impute to your argument in tennis terms, at least, is an over-abundance of love.

Rock on, dude.

“Before speaking out ask yourself whether your words are true, whether they are respectful and whether they are needed in our civil discussions.”-Justice O’Connor

[Bill Davis]

What’s actually more interesting to me is how much “saving” is undergoing fundamental changes in so many apps.

“versioning” seems to be replacing “save as” in quite a few apps.

I don’t fully understand the shift, but I wonder if it provides better capabilities in the rapidly evolving world of multiple “cloud based” documents that have to reflect to and from multiple mobile devices?

It’s frustrating to “save a version” in Word or Pages, and not understand precisely what one just did and where the result might live!

Applying that thinking to a complex web of asset links ala FCP-X and managing potential multiple versions of many linked files that you may want to access from different connected devices doesn’t seem trivial to me.

But I’m no expert.

I’m sure we’ll all adapt to the new process in time. But it’s definitely a bit of an annoyance right now, IMO

“Before speaking out ask yourself whether your words are true, whether they are respectful and whether they are needed in our civil discussions.”-Justice O’Connor

[Bill Davis]

I get it.
You think fine tennis players aren’t superior to the general population in identifying high level tennis play than the public at large.

😉

“Before speaking out ask yourself whether your words are true, whether they are respectful and whether they are needed in our civil discussions.”-Justice O’Connor

[Bill Davis]

Since I’m not an engineer I’m clearly just guessing.

(As I suppose we all are.)

So I’ll shut up and wait with everyone else to see what happens during development.

(It can’t be any worse that waiting for Legacy V3 to fix all the stuff (IIRC) that broke between 1 and 2!)

“Before speaking out ask yourself whether your words are true, whether they are respectful and whether they are needed in our civil discussions.”-Justice O’Connor