[Bill Davis]

Nope. I’m gone from Adobe now. I feel there’s more value in time spent with the much newer faster and cleaner code of Affinity Photo, Pixelmator and whatever new stuff follows them.

Heck, whole awesome programs are to be had for the cost of 4-5 months of rental – so it’s time to look forward, not back. I’ve already opened my top 200 raw images in them and started learning the new tools.

Creator of XinTwo – https://www.xintwo.com
The shortest path to FCP X mastery.

[Bill Davis]

Outstanding. Noted as a great new feature.

Creator of XinTwo – https://www.xintwo.com
The shortest path to FCP X mastery.

[Bill Davis]

[Oliver Peters] “Why? Couldn’t you simply have exported the adjusted images as TIFFs or JPEGs? You would still have the original, unaltered images in addition to the adjusted ones. What’s the issue?”

Oh I see.

The hundreds and hundreds of hours I spent in MY chair conceiving and executing changes to MY photos – searching and amending the metadata until I was satisfied. That metadata arrangement entered into and codified into MY personal work files through MY time in the chair in front of MY tools

Because of how they decided to run their business at the executive level – THEY get to gatekeep the ability to functional access and use my work forever more.

You may be fine with the idea that the price of using Adobe Products is agreeing to give up my rights to my creative efforts – but I pretty much don’t.

I suspect we will always see this differently.

Creator of XinTwo – https://www.xintwo.com
The shortest path to FCP X mastery.

[Bill Davis]

Never could attach a range to a clip – and call it up in a tenth of a second. Never could simply grab one clip on my primary move it to a new location and then instantly hit PLAY and expect a viewable result. I couldn’t automate 10 export mixes into a single launch Roles driven export. Couldn’t see an index of everything on my storyline and search and sort in it for clip type classes. Couldn’t batch select 100 titles because of that and shorten JUST them by 5 frames each – automatically. I could go on.

Feel free to describe some similar aspects of Premiere Pro or AVID that have driven similar Changes into those workflows and and that aren’t something that the prior versions of those apps could do at all.

I’m sure there has been innovation in those tools. So here’s their adherents chance to point out their cool new features!

Creator of XinTwo – https://www.xintwo.com
The shortest path to FCP X mastery.

[Bill Davis]

Walter,

I said “bunker mode” referring to how the businesses I have the most contact with are largely NOT in “expansion mode” – they at best are in “operational efficiency ” mode.

They are willing to spend a bit. But not for grand new initiatives.

This is very different than business climates I’ve experienced in the past where money was a LOT looser and more companies were after market share and expansion through robust investment.

Retail is flat. Business to business seems flat. Only a small number of industries are expanding and those that are are seem to be hiring one body and expecting them to do the work of six.

Bunker mode also refers to people in general staying behind their office walls and not scouting as much. Maybe that’s a natural result of the on-line shift, but industry related local social groups are all pretty fallow really. The local computer groups, the Chambers of Commerce, the artists, designers and writers don’t gather like they used to. We Cyber comnnect (as we are doing right here, right now) but that used to be in personmonthly in most larger cities – and it’s kinda dead now.

Oh well.

Creator of XinTwo – https://www.xintwo.com
The shortest path to FCP X mastery.

[Bill Davis]

[Walter Soyka] “re some agencies more open to innovation because they’re less averse to risk (the Bill hypothesis)?”

Just for the record NONE of my hypothicies regarding X Involve risk aversion – in myself or anyone else.

Its not about risk for me – it’s about my being happy.

Innovation is interesting.

For its many flaws and imperfections – X has attempted to let me do things I simply couldn’t do before I started using it. I enjoy that.

If you have found a bunch of innovation and delight in AVID or Premiere or Resolve – by all means go there.

I just haven’t. I keep asking other NLE drivers. “What excites you about this compared to where you were before” – and the typical response is crickets.”

If you are fine with what you use – be that.

But it seems like there isn’t a bunch of “fine” out there. There’s a boatload of snippy angst and anger.

Oh well.

Creator of XinTwo – https://www.xintwo.com
The shortest path to FCP X mastery.

[Bill Davis]

Just get what I’m representing here RIGHT, Shane.

Imagine that an imaginary software engineer has 100 hours of work to spend.

When I read those lists of “requests” what I saw looked to be people arguing for him or her to proceed about 80-20 weighed towards things that are already well understood because those functions are already present in software that editors are already aware of, just not in EVERY software implementation. So they are EXISTING but perceived as MISSING by a broad class of editors.

They don’t interest me and I know EXACTLY why. Because as an individual editor, my workflow needs very few of them to succeed.

You don’t think I get that, but I totally DO. It’s just not of ANY interest to me to advocate for what doesn’t interest me. No more than I’d expect you to be interested in, say, some one button “burn to thumb drive” capability that might make a wedding and event shooter DROOL. You are NOT that, so let THEM advocate for their needs, right?

I actually think I conceptually understand your 80/20 split pretty well. It has NOTHING to do with anyone thinking you are a DINOSAUR one little bit. So please stop with that crap. Every single thing on Olivers list is rational and completely useful for many editors and to think I don’t get that is insulting.

But based on what you wrote here, you don’t understand MY 80/20 at all. First, you blew up and accused me of being 100/0 which is pissy. Again, please stop.

Here’s my reality.

That imaginary engineer up at the top of this? I want him or her to go 80/20 the OPPOSITE of how YOU want them to go 80/20. Innovate 80 and fix 20 for the people who want to come into my program of choice and try to re-make it in the image of THEIR preferences. Fix 80 then innovate 20 is NOT GOOD ENOUGH anymore IMO. We need MORE wild eyed advocates for innovate 80 and fix 20. It’s how the bar gets moved now. And THATS what I want.

I know I’ll never get that. Too much resistance to ANY change out there. But MAYBE by caterwauling about my 80 – the split has a better chance of inching toward 50/50. Which is the traditional standard of fair to all, right?

Right there, if you or Oliver or Simon or anyone else to wants an NLE company to balance old and new thinking – and AGREE a split is good – it’s VALID to argue for a different split.

And that’s what I’m doing. Representing a different but EQUALLY rational view here.

I’m not arguing that the 20 on EITHER side is invalid. But by reducing my writing to ALL about my 80 and pretending I have NO respect for the 20 – that’s what YOU are doing here. And I don’t appreciate it one bit.

It is perfectly correct to say I do NOT have at the TOP of my request list for FCPX to become SAFER and More comfortable for your class of editors. I perhaps even want it to maybe be MORE dangerous in the search of more speed and performance. It’s parents have proved that they can make it acceptably safe and then some. Now I prefer to wish it to stay true to its heritage of innovation.

That’s way more interesting to me,

If you don’t like that – so be it. There are plenty of safe choices around.

Block or ignore me if you choose.

But at least know why.

Creator of XinTwo – https://www.xintwo.com
The shortest path to FCP X mastery.

[Bill Davis]

Over and over I see these same types of lists.

95% are “I had this feature in something else – now please give it to me again, just inside X.”

It’s tiresome.

What makes X singularly good at things – in my opinion – is that it DIDN’T just port a metric ton of existing features already out in the marketplace into a new wrapper and add a couple of shiny new features on top.

That’s the way software has developed for years. Yes, I get that if something is TRULY broken – it needs to be repaired if it can be. And it’s ALWAYS nice to get little interface improvements that make the software more familiar and instantly convenient for any class of editors.

But,

I remain ever hopeful that like ALL the larger changes of the past few years – when X gets another significant upgrade – it’s focused at least somewhat on breaking NEW ground – rather than on what these lists commonly represent – which is backtracking to make suite class editors – who are justifiably conditioned to a particular type of workflow – feel more comfortable.

It’s ITERATE backwards (which is what the “suite” folk typically want) vs INNOVATE forward. And I’m pretty convinced that few people will EVER change software simply because it’s “iterated” a bit better either forward or backwards than something else. Iteration barely moves the needle. But INNOVATION can.

That is if ANYTHING can. I’m increasingly suspicious we may be stuck pretty much where we area until the global economy sorts itself out a bit more – and companies start spending money again without so much angst over every single dollar. We’ll see.

My 2 cents.

Creator of XinTwo – https://www.xintwo.com
The shortest path to FCP X mastery.

[Bill Davis]

This is a peripheral comment – not one about facilities since the ONLY guys I correspond with regularly are all in FCP X shops and therefore my empirical knowledge is totally skewed and therefore useless.

That said, one thing I DO see is another HUGE rise in what I’ll call a bunker mentality.

It really seems like people are trying NOT to stick their necks out AT ALL because global business seems HUGELY unsure of which way the winds will blow in the coming few years.

Part of that IMO is the result of recent elections where a “lets go back to when it was easier” mentality showed up lots of polling places worldwide.

The unease out there is palpable. It’s really hard to find organizations saying “lets put out a bunch of money for innovation right now.” They’re in bunker mode. Trying to make whatever they already have – do ALL the work they need to do.

It’s going to take BOLD new thinking – something that’s clearly and decisively a better play – to make people move off their current positions.

As a result – it wouldn’t surprise me to see the adoption ratios we have right now – reflected almost precisely for the coming few years. It’s going to take some larger disruption to move the needle in such a “small c” conservative environment.

And when the dams eventually break – the hardware, software, and even the “what IS an NLE anymore” thinking environment may be VERY different than what we see today. Only time will tell.

My 2 cents.

Creator of XinTwo – https://www.xintwo.com
The shortest path to FCP X mastery.

[Bill Davis]

I think Brets point is important here.

Video editing was for a LONG time a relatively rare skill confined almost exclusively to people who could gain access to expensive hardware and engineering support.

Now it’s just not.

It’s becoming the lingua franca of a new generation. My content feeds are now AWASH in video the same way my life became awash in audio during radio’s heyday, then awash with text when I initially got on-line decades ago – and could read things written anywhere on the planet instantly.

When the stream changes from rarified to ubiquitous – you have to change your thinking.
Especially when what’s changing is that the ability to send is gaining parity with the ability to receive.

These are NEW challenges. And I seriously DON’T think that responding to them with the same behaviors that worked BEFORE the change – is going to work very well in the long run.

My 2 cents.

Creator of XinTwo – https://www.xintwo.com
The shortest path to FCP X mastery.