[Chris Kenny]

I doubt it.

People never seem to think about the extent to which our existing professional tools were shoehorned into an environment designed for the broader market. I mean, what’s the hot new thing in post these days? File-based workflow. Err… files? Stored in folders? And our edit decisions are stored in documents? These are metaphors that were created based on the dominant use case for early personal computers: working with office documents.

Just as clever developers found a way to build professional video editing tools in an environment designed for routine office work, they’ll find a way to build such tools in the emerging post-PC world. FCP X already points the way forward, in many respects. For instance, you can import footage directly from a camera, and manage both your footage library and your projects (even doing things like copying footage to other volumes), without ever using the Finder. The UI no longer really relies on windows, and takes significant steps that would make it feel more natural with touch interaction. The price is in line with the expectation of lower price points due to app store distribution efficiency, and the app is neatly self-contained as required for app store installations. Add some APIs for direct exchange of data with other apps (so the user doesn’t have to explicitly mess with XML files, etc.) and you’re basically there.

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[Chris Kenny]

[Christian Schumacher] “It is going to restraint the user by preventing those new customers
from the mess they make with their own computers.

Hiding the OS from its user is a long known goal for the bitten fruit,
as anyone can attest – and this FCPx looks like a tiny part of the plan.”

I agree with this. But this direction isn’t just the future of the Mac, it’s the future of personal computing in general. Look at Windows 8: it boots by default into a radical new UI, and apps for that new UI are written using significantly updated system technologies, and distributed only though Microsoft’s app store. The whole industry is following iOS, not just the Mac.

FCP X, looking at both its price and its user interface, looks very much like the first NLE designed to fit into the “post-PC” era. But while Apple is moving first (they understand this change better than anyone, because the iPad was its catalyst), competing NLEs will also have to make this transition eventually. This is simply a straightforward consequence of NLEs being applications that run on mass-market platforms. Five years from now, Windows and OS X will both have been “touch-first” for a while, many consumer users won’t have had occasion to interact with the file system for a couple of years, most third-party application revenue (with the possible exception of enterprise volume licensing) will come from selling apps through platform vendor app stores, and more than 50% of the personal computing market could be tablets. You think Avid Media Composer could survive in that market with its current UI? Or selling at its current price point? Hard core fans might keep using it in their operating systems’ legacy environments. But new editors wouldn’t go near it.

People switching to non-Apple products because of concerns over how radical Apple’s FCP and OS X decisions are becoming need to understand that this radical change is sweeping the entire industry. Apple is simply reacting before most people (including most of their competitors) have figured this out. But Adobe and Avid must also eventually adapt or die.

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[Chris Kenny]

[Jeff Folland] “You still have a marked subset of all your footage you are using as a palette. you still have freedom to place any clip anywhere. That is no different.”

This is my view as well. As far as I can see, the workflow presented in the original post is simply using an unoptimized general purpose tool for an organizational task that FCP X actually provides more optimized task-specific tools for. Scrubbing in filmstrip view in the browser view makes it much easier to move though large quantities of footage. Tagging and marking favorite regions of clips is far more powerful than simply dropping markers, and more streamlined and flexible than doing something like creating named subclips (which wasn’t part of this workflow, but is another common approach to pulling selects in FCP 7).

People keep accusing Apple of not understanding what editors do. I think the truth is more that Apple designed Final Cut Pro without regard for how current NLEs work. Instead, they went back and looked at what high-level tasks editors perform, and designed a new interface from the ground up specifically to facilitate that. Some critics have confused the mechanics of how these tasks are performed in current NLEs with the tasks themselves.

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[Chris Kenny]

[David Lawrence] “Imagine cutting dialogue or music on a timeline that’s in fixed ripple mode — the only way to hold time apart being with explicitly-placed spacer objects. Audio people would never accept this. I think it’s a deal-breaker for most advanced video people as well.”

But “fixed ripple mode” isn’t really an accurate description of how the Magnetic Timeline works. First, the rippling behavior differs for storyline clips and connected clips. Rippling only occurs within storylines, not not between ungrouped connected clips or between separate secondary storylines.

Secondly, even within a storyline the Position tool creates gaps without the user explicitly placing spacers, and while I guess you could say “Replace with gap” is placing a spacer ‘explicitly’, this is only because it’s name has been changed to indicate this; in terms of behavior it’s just a non-ripped delete, which I don’t think most people would describe as ‘explicitly’ placing a spacer in FCP 7.

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[Chris Kenny]

[Walter Soyka] “This strategy has served Apple very well in the consumer space and with brand new products — but FCPX feels different.

They are trying to drag an entire industry along with them toward their vision of the future, with little regard for their customers, whom they have now trapped in between two less-than-ideal offerings.”

Err… how is this different from usual? The OS X and Intel transitions could be described in precisely the same way, and the evolving relationship between iOS and OS X will probably yield similar accusations.

As far as I can see, FCP X is a classic Apple move. If it “feels different” to some people its because of their own relationship to the FCP franchise, not because of a significant difference in Apple’s approach.

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[Chris Kenny]

[Greg Burke] “Couldn’t Agree more…After Lions release its CLEAR where Apple is heading, NO more Desktops, Imacs or laptops, Just, iTV, ipad,iPhone, and iFridge…..”

This rhetoric is exaggerated but not entirely off-base. However, it ignores the larger context. The entire industry is moving away from traditional desktop environments. They won’t disappear overnight, but the direction is clear. Look at what Microsoft is doing with Windows 8 — it boots by default into a radically simplified “touch-first” interface, that only runs app store apps, with the traditional desktop relegated to legacy status. Consider that tablets could easily be over 30% of PC units within two years. Personal computing is changing, fast, in a way it hasn’t in 20 years. Everyone is going to have to respond, including NLE vendors. Apple is simply moving first; they understand this shift better than anyone because one of their own products, the iPad, was the catalyst.

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[Chris Kenny]

The UI would require some retooling, but iPad editing could probably be made to work pretty well. Use the iPad in portrait mode, with the event browser on the top half and the timeline on the bottom. Sit on your living room couch with the thing, and have the viewer displayed on the HDTV in front of you via AirPlay.

The future is going to be interesting.

Has it occurred to anyone that the magnetic timeline’s ripple-by-default behavior is going to feel about a zillion times more natural than potential alternatives with a touch interface? By causing clips to bump each other out of the way if they try to occupy the same space, Apple has made clips behave more like physical objects, an approach that makes much more sense with direct manipulation. On an iPad version of FCP X, you’ll simply be able to grab clips and sling them around, without worrying about opening gaps or overwriting anything. Want to swap the positions of two clips? Just grab them both at once and drag.

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[Chris Kenny]

[Richard Johnson] “Thanks for the response Marvin. I didn’t necessarily mean that protools would adopt FCPXML but simply give it support. I’m not exactly sure how these things work and why Apple didn’t simply release an XML that was already a standard and compatible with other software. Really though, I don’t know much at all about XML protocols so it may not have been an option. “

There isn’t really some vendor-neutral industry standard XML format for moving video/audio sequences around. Earlier versions of FCP used their own format as well, for which third-party tools had to initially add support. FCP X’s radically different timeline structure would have made that earlier XML format extremely awkward for the new app, so Apple created a new one. Third parties seem to be lining up fairly quickly to support it. (Blackmagic, for instance, seems to be planning to support it in Resolve 8.1, which is due before the end of the month.)

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[Chris Kenny]

[Chris Jacek] “Unfortunately, your responses that are thoughtful and substantive are marginalized by some of your other responses. If you are going to argue against every single negative word, even if it means resorting to illogical positions like “Apple wouldn’t call it pro if it wasn’t”, you are going to diminish your credibility.”

That’s a hilarious misrepresentation of my position. I pointed out that Apple was calling it a pro app and had introduced it at an event for pros as a single point in a long, substantive post, and made a specific argument for why Apple probably isn’t lying about this.

You are now attempting to use this single point, out of context, to justify not responding to any of my augments.

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[Chris Kenny]

[Chris Jacek] “Yes, that’s EXACTLY what I’m saying. You are so brilliant than you thoroughly knock down EVERY argument that EVERY person makes, no matter how much logic or evidence is behind those arguments. And you do it with SUCH class Chris. I’m in awe.”

I’ve advanced a substantive argument in this thread, in response to your direct request, and you’ve chosen to ignore my points and respond by attacking me personally. I can’t quite figure out how you think this benefits your case.

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