Thanks Steve for your kind words and thorough reply. Much appreciated.

I have some knowledge as my father spent 33 years of his life in film/video production. I can still remember his response when I picked out a little article from one of his trade magazines that convinced me a revolution was about to take place. Quicktime. He was old school. There’s was no way in hell that matchpack size ugly video image could ever replace the tools he had come to know. He apologized not to long after the rant I endured ha ha. I latched on to other technologies as they popped up, MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface). Another uprising. I jumped on some of the first hardware/software for the emerging digital audio revolution. Another uprising. Endless, mind numbing fights over standards everywhere. Can you say Sony beta vs. VHS?

Seeing that you edited on tape and made the transition to the software solutions, I’m quite sure you remember the sheer horror at the thought of what that little upgrade might do to your world. Final Cut one to Seven.. I’ll compare to Logic, which was another platform app before Apple. Still have the dongle here somewhere. HORROR! Then the opps and here’s the next quick upgrade to fix that little boo-boo. I don’t want to go into any dev wars here, but there’s no one that can say Adobe was a picture of perfection, nor any devs products. I personally look forward to a major upgrade to Logic, hair balls and all. There will be growing pains to be sure. Every computing platform goes through it as does it’s compatible (cough cough) software, and we will endure it and either grow with it or.. say goodnite Gracie.

There’s a lot of points in your write up/review of FCP-X I could point out as an “AH-HA” moment for me. One in particular nailed a belief I have. You made a comment about NLE’s becoming the next spreadsheet app or as common as such (I don’t recall the exact terms you used atm). Just look at what media content hosts/providers are doing. Cloud NLE’s are becoming a standard. I believe the next step for FCP-X is Apples cloud, you’ll have your own virtual copy waiting for you on Apples servers I suspect. Bring it on. Logic too please.

I understand the pressure on editors and producers when a shift like this happens. In the reel ..real world you have to flip the product out to the client fast. Having the tools you know by heart is your paycheck. I’m a Logic user in a Pro Tools world, I learned to adapt. But always discover new and/or different ways to use the tools for a given task at hand. Workflows come to mind.

You keep up the good work here and just give it out like you see it. I’ve been to a lot of sites
and forums researching this topic. I signed up here. Actions speak louder. Enjoying your other articles too!

Thanks!

Great comments Deborah and spot on! I think you hit it perfect. People dont like change and in this case especially, people dont like to learn new software.

@Chris, this uproar over FCPX is the EXACT same thing that happened when iMovie 6 was left behind for the “new” iMovie. The outrage in the community was just as vehement to the point that Apple also brought back iMovie 6 as a special download for awhile.

The criticism about the interface, timeline, paradigm shift, etc. were all the same as now. I never understood the problem, except that people don’t like change in general, because I thought it was an exciting and much more efficient, and easier to learn from scratch program. Also, like with FCP7 and FCPX, you could have both iMovie 6 and the new iMovie living and working happily together on your Mac. You didn’t HAVE to switch away from iMovie 6 and there are still a lot of folks out there using it to this day despite their outcry of Apple “abandoning” them.

Funny how history is repeating itself. The only real puzzler to me for the last 2 years has been how Apple didn’t learn from its iMovie PR/marketing mistake and proceeded to make almost all the same mistakes with FCPX’s introduction.

I am enjoying the heck out of FCPX and I’m clipping along faster than I ever did in FCP7 or any other editing app I’ve ever tried. I really do think that this “new paradigm” of how to think about editing will eventually be the norm. I’ve been too afraid to voice my opinions and thoughts on this issue anywhere so far, soooo…

Thanks, @Ron, for sticking your neck out on this one!
Deborah

What is especially ironic about negative posters is that they always remark about their extensive knowledge and experience, but I can’t imagine anyone getting anywhere with this kind of attitude. I would never speak to my clients, coworkers or peers this way and expect to have success.

Amen brother. 🙂

Funny thing is, a lot of those same king of guys said the same thing about the original FCP when IT came out. 🙂

Thanks so much for your kind words and support. It’s appreciated.

I think you make some fair comments about Apple. But isn’t that one of the things that has MADE them the most valuable company in the world today (worth more than Google and Microsoft combined!) They push the envelope and dare to start technological revolutions. They don’t always pan out (who remembers that robot-looking iMac with the swivel head). But, they’re record overall speaks for itself. We’ll just have to wait and see if they got it right with FCP.