“In 10 years of writing Times columns, I’ve never encountered anything quite like this,” David Pogue reports for The New York Times. “In Thursday’s paper, I reviewed Apple’s Final Cut Pro X, a professional video-editing program. It’s not an update of the existing Final Cut, which is by far the most popular such program; it’s completely new and radically redesigned. It looks different, its strengths are different — and after one day of using it, many professional video editors are running through the streets with pitchforks.”
“In this column, I’m going to address the concerns of professional video editors, one by one,” Pogue reports.
For example:
Complaint: You can’t freely organize your media files. “There is no way to customize the organization of the project media,” gripes one blogger.
Answer: You can customize the organization freely if you’re willing to understand the new keyword tagging system. Dragging a clip into a folder essentially applies a new keyword to it.
Complaint: You can’t specify import locations. “When you import video files, FCP X puts them all into your User-> Movies folder, like iMovie does. Ridiculous,” says one reader in an e-mail.
Answer: Again, not true. In the Import dialog box, there’s an option called “Copy files to Final Cut Events folder.” If you turn it off, Final Cut leaves the imported files where they are.
Many more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Ellis D.” for the heads up.]
Related articles:
With Final Cut Pro X debut, Apple discontinues Final Cut Express, Studio, and Server – June 22, 2011
Apple revolutionizes video editing with Final Cut Pro X – June 21, 2011
So hard to teach old dogs new tricks.
..and It’s not that they can’t learn, it’s that they don’t want to.
Old dogs are like that.
you know my mother? 😉
You know my mother? Which one u want to do, learn how to mouse to click to make a Skype video call, or pay 1400 USD a year to use your phone and cut that away from your food bill. Poor mom, she has lost 8kg and looks starved. Time to replace her old Nokia phone with iPhone and teach her to use the FaceTime. One my next vacation I have plenty of time to do that.
Actually these are legit concerns. I’m not sure if any of you geniuses understand what they are saying but you should realize that some folks on this site are adults. Probably shouldn’t speak that way about your mom either. I doubt any of you have ever used Final Cut Pro. Consider yourselves bitch slapped. By your mom! Dopes.
Beautiful!
Dog Day Afternoon
sure. when the trick is..be a cat!
…and a blouse wearin’ nancy-girl cat at that.
I have both versions of FCP. I understand that there are many holes in the X version (mainly in input/output), but a huge portion of the negative noise is because Apple changed the paradigm. The vast majority of editors can still everything the need and want, we have to learn a different process with new terms. Once you know how it works, it allows you to do more in less time. FCP X does a lot heavy organizational lifting. Apple is willing to take a hit to take editing to the next level. Consider this version 1 of FCPX, not the next version of FCP 7. I suspect that the few, but important, missing pieces that heavy duty studios need and rely on will be incorporated with updates. The main thing to remember is that an installation of FCP X does not render FCP 7 unavailable or useless. Continue using it while you explore X for more than a day.
I think Apple will return some of the missing functionality relatively quickly.
Check out this from a guy who has the inside scoop:
http://www.larryjordan.biz/app_bin/wordpress/archives/1505
It’s a good read.
Apple is basically breaking a system that is working very well for its customers. We’ve spent 10 years becoming masters at FCP, building our lives and careers around this knowledge. I have a video editing company based on FCP. It has grown incredibly well. Arbitrarily changing to a whole new paradigm is a big f— you to us from Apple. In my case I feel like Apple is taking food out of my children’s mouths. There’s no reason they couldn’t have rebuilt this to mirror FCP’s current functionality, and added options for new features. Pure laziness.
Or is the laziness on your part? Apple “moved your cheese,” now go find it.
Awesome. Video editing software compared with every other creative professional field, is a trashy assortment of shoddy incompatible garbage. It looks terrible, clumsy to organize, and works like crap. Its about times somebody drained the swamp. Of course who’se complaining… unionized editors who now are worried about learning a new system and terminology (ya know… to catch up with the rest of the world), and how this impacts the cushy hourly rates of sitting in cushy chairs. I think it’s time they get hip to the fact that ‘video editing software’ is meant to help you do the editing part. As opposed to having an impossibly silly and time consuming process that requires unionized editors.
If Apple doesn’t support their conventions and keep their legacy systems relevant, editors don’t keep their places as gate keepers of video assets.
Unionized?????? Dump your stupid boneheaded bias. The vast majority of ‘editors’ are independents struggling along and wouldn’t know a union if it stood up in their soup.
You should also realize that it is much harder to un-learn and re-learn than it is to learn in the first place. Though you probably had to go through that when you repeated Grade 3.
Oh of course we will have to. Just won’t be Apple’s cheese anymore.
He just said he spent 10 years becoming a master of FCP. I don’t think that qualifies him as lazy, rather, just the opposite. I’ve done the same. Anyone who doesn’t know the ins and outs of FCP 7 can’t possibly understand what’s going on here. Apple removed extraordinarily basic features from a professional editing app, a fact that Avid, Adobe, etc., will now trumpet to the video editing masses. I was an extremely loyal Avid user, loved the interface, the power and the flexibility, but Apple just offered too much bang for the buck, so we were almost forced to switch to FCP. Now I’m looking very closely at the costs of switching back.
It’s very clear that Apple wants to do for video editing what they did for desktop publishing, something they couldn’t accomplish with iMovie. And you know what? That’s totally cool. It’s their software, hardware, etc.
As for Mr. Pogue, I certainly respect him a great deal, but anyone who reads his column expecting to find in depth analysis of an application that he doesn’t use on a day to day basis is kidding themselves.
best response I’ve read to this entire mess.
Here, here!!! Nice work, RDH.
I second the motion. As a professional editor there are many basic elements stripped from this new version. While they may add them back in the future, I’m surprised Apple didn’t anticipate this reaction. People have build their lives and businesses using this software. Some say you can keep using the old program, but eventually, that program will be phased out and you’ll get no support for it. Apple would do well to listen to what the complaints are and fix them immediately.
SO, how was it that Apple remotely deleted FCP 7 from all your workstations again? I missed that part.
They didn’t. But in a VERY short while it will cease to be functional for heavy lifting. When a new codec is released it may not be ported to FCP7. When that happens functionality will cease. Thus ending Apple’s bid for the hearts and minds of professionals everywhere. Forget about cracking corporate America if they can’t even keep the creatives in their back pockets.
… iMovie, remember a few years back when it was really powerful, if a bit difficult to use, and they re-wrote it from scratch? Lost a LOT of not-so-basic abilities in that switch! Got some of them back, but many are still gone. Good thing for me my needs – other than my need NOT to learn an entirely new program – were still being met.
FCPX is in no way a lazy product. If you love FCP7, continue to use it. But I can’t even put into words how much I LOVE editing with X. It’s so innovative, so fast, and keeps artist in the creative flow! (That render dialog in 7 really can kill the mood)
But maybe this is the difference: I’m a freelance editor, by no means professional. I’ve used FCP seriously for 5 years off and on, liked it above all others, but just accepted slow rendering, & poor organization as a part of the deal.
But anyone who says blanket negative statements about X is a dinosaur. I literally want to tear up at how happy I am to have FCPX. I liked my job before; love my job now.
I find that I resent mightily the torrent of abuse that is being pointed Apple’s way. I love FCPX, and am grateful that Apple took this new direction.
But on a positive note, all their yelling will no doubt yield a significantly better FCPX within six months.
If the Broadcast/Movie pros don’t find it useful, why not just move over to something else? If Apple is only going to put out only two video editing software applications, maybe it isn’t in their interest to offer the extremely high end stuff.
“I find that I resent mightily the torrent of abuse that is being pointed Apple’s way. I love FCPX, and am grateful that Apple took this new direction.
But on a positive note, all their yelling will no doubt yield a significantly better FCPX within six months.”
This is the right answer.
I don’t use FCP myself.. No need. But to me it sounds like they moved/renamed some stuff, removed some but combined it with other stuff. (read the article, looks like features people say are gone, are just hidden and when you uncheck an option it appears.)
The biggest complaint i hear that Apple did kind of screw up, is the import from FCP 7.
I agree with Hugh, give it a few months and people will have to find other reasons to complain about it.
I know someone that Did buy FCPX the other day and heard his tirade that very day… and this morning, he had changed his mind and now loves the new FCP (except the import mess)
Nope. The article was written by a CONSUMER reviewer. Yes some of the tools were moved. Most of the big, important ones just plain don’t exist.
Anyone who thinks that Mr. Pogue is capable of reviewing Pro software in this category, well…
And anyone who thinks it is a pro tool obviously is either not a pro or has very small and limited requirements for their tools. How’s that 4th grade soccer tournament video coming? I’m snide because you people attack the pros without having the slightest idea of our requirements. Get real. Slick does not always mean professional.
Stick to pimping iEverything, iConsumers.
Well said, Smoker.
Yeah, it was a major dick move by Apple to render all copies of FCP 7 unusable when they released FCP X.
Wait…
In all seriousness, I do feel sorry for you if your business relies on it. But it’s not like FCP 7 has suddenly stopped working, and it’s not like FCP X won’t be updated to remedy some of the issues people have.
In business as in life, you must be willing to either evolve or die. It is as simple as that. What we have in FCP X is the foundation for a whole new way of doing things, a more efficient, powerful, and flexible way of doing things, and it will ultimately change the industry forever.
Of course, this is essentially a 1.0 release and as such there are a few missing things. Some of these were omissions which Apple themselves has stated are being added on in future upcoming updates, others are merely a matter of getting updated drivers / software from 3rd parties. I would expect the vast majority of those (3rd party) issues to be solved in the next few weeks.
What kills me about folks with your mindset is that you seem to have the notion that FCP 7 is somehow suddenly less capable than it was on Monday. This is nonsense. FCP 7 still works just as well as it did at the start of the week, and can and should be your primary editing rig while FCP X gets its sea legs. In the meantime, you have the opportunity to get savvy with the new paradigm and not get left behind when X is ready for the big show.
It is nowhere near as big a deal as you are making it out to be, and if your children’s moths are denied food, it will only be because daddy is unwilling or unable to learn. Sounds harsh, but it is true.
Sorry. But you don’t have a clue. Pros will simply move to something else. I will unless Apple fixes EVERY issue of importance within the next 6 months. They lied to us. We bet our livelihoods on their products and then took them away. We have to keep working to pay the bills. The industry will no longer look at Apple’s products as viable solutions. Not their software. Not their hardware. Way to go Apple.
If you feel that raw about it don’t upgrade.
Really? Upgrading a piece of software?
Because Apple changed a few things, you and your kids are going to be on the streets starving? Go into debtors prison and sell your children as slaves?
Drama Queen much?
“Apple is basically breaking a system that is working very well for its customers.”
How often during the past year or three have we heard moaning about Apple not publishing a roadmap on FCP’s future? Repeatedly. Again and again.
Look what you’ve got now: FCP/FCS still works. FCPX is the future, what you see today isn’t what it will be in two or six months or a year from now. It’s better than a roadmap: you can work with it, get used to it, evaluate it. All the while you can still be doing work with your familiar FCS environment.
You don’t have to make a decision now if you don’t want to.
And them as likes FCPX, and the future that it promises, they can get right into it now.
Dude, this is MDN. Forget facts or reasoning. No matter what; if it’s just slightly anti-Apple, you’ll get bashed by hundreds of “experts” on the matter – all telling you about how their award winning business is perfectly fine with everything Apple is doing. Let’s face it, everyone in the business knows this release should’ve been called iMovie Pro.
All so true!
It reminds me a bit of being “burned at the stake” on MDN for preferring matte screens.
I guess I should be commenting on pro-editing industry forums, and not here. Thanks for the reality check. Now, back to work on FCP7. 🙂
I own a pharmacy and have made 2 major changes in my software. First when we originally bought the store from a retiring owner. We spent many a night working several hours late and just trying to keep our heads above water. Finally, after 2 months most of the kinks were worked out. Things got better, I mastered the system (bugged the hell out of tech support because I like to know most of the intricacies of how to do things right), and after about 3 years was considered a “pro.”
Well, time moves on, things change and the software eventually came to the point where the developers could not update to the latest required specs demanded by government and insurance. We had to make another change. This time was more difficult as we were adding additional features and capacity (robotics, workflow systems, more work stations, etc.) and our volume had doubled. After 6 months of stress, we finally, again, got the kinks worked out and were running smoothly.
Now, 2 years later, we have again doubled our volume and have been able to have more time to personally deal with our patients. All this with the same personal and less headache and stress. We are faster, more accurate, and can better manage our business.
We certainly COULD NOT have done that without updating our systems. I know it was a pain, but now am really glad we did it. You have the luxury of using both if you have to until you become proficient with the new system. We did not have that capability. It was an overnight change. I wish you all well.
Have you been around long? Have you been watching Apple? Apple doesn’t look back, it looks forward. I’ts not a big FU, it’s “we will drag you into the future kicking and screaming if we have to”. If you want backward compatibility ad nauseum stick with Microsoft shit, that’s what they specialize in.
…is why not just keep using the previous version that allows you keep your existing workflows? It’s not like it is going to disappear. Also, how many pros actually rush out and switch their businesses to brand new software? I’d wait until it has been out for a while, matures a bit, and THEN consider switching. Even then, I wouldn’t switch wholesale knowing that the new versions is a complete rewrite and dramatically different.
Seems like a lot of bitching over nothing. If you need to use FCP to make your living, then keep using what was working for you the day before FCPX came out.
As Spark pointed out above, buying FCPX does not render your FCP useless. Try it out and continue using FCP. OR don’t buy it. Nobody’s forcing you to upgrade.
I wasn’t forced to buy.
All the buzz made it sound like it was the thing to do.
Now I feel like I was hosed by spending $300 for something I won’t use… “iMovie Pro”.
We are Apple. You will knell down and obey. Dude, you don’t have to switch to FCPX just stick with what works for you.
Dude, if you don’t like it, don’t upgrade. WTF?
I am sure certain key features are not there yet, but get a grip of your self. If you have so much vested in your workflow, keep it until you can make the transition. The worst business in the world, is trying to please everyone. Apple usually has a game plan, you are only allowed to see the very tip of it at any given time. That is how Apple operates.
The “‘Professional'” part of this headline illustrates one of the things I dislike about MDN: The blind sycophantic allegiance to Apple. Final Cut Pro X may be a good, revolutionary product. However, to brand it “Pro” or as a successor to Final Cut Pro 7 (or lower) is clearly inaccurate. There are many features in FCP7 that a large number of video editors (whether you think of them {us} as professionals or not) rely on every day. Apple has chosen to remove those features from FCPX, which renders the program unusable for their (and my) purposes. I’m not fond of analogies, but it’s as if Apple took my tool chest and gave me a Leatherman instead. Cheaper? Yes. Elegant design? Yes. But can I properly build houses with it? No. I refuse to sacrifice my business, clients, and product quality at the alter of misguided Apple loyalty.
Matt,,,,, Just breath for a moment.
“Apple has chosen to remove those features from FCPX, which renders the program unusable for their (and my) purposes.” Fine, so just use the old program are you are exactly where you were.
“The blind sycophantic allegiance to Apple.” Er, you don’t read many articles here do you??? Blind???? I don’t think so. LOL Just LOL.
Apple may have just given you, not a better hammer, but a powered, multipurpose, high speed, special hammer that once you look at it carefully, you will wonder how you lived without it. ……. or not..
So just breath for now.
Just a thought,
en
Actually, I read practically every article here. What I’ve found is that everything that Apple makes or does is described as “revolutionary”. Many of Apple’s decisions and products are certainly worthy of that adjective…but FCPX isn’t one of them, at least not in the positive connotation of the word.
The list of features (or tools, as I call them) that have been omitted is long. For just one example; Multiclip editing is gone. That’s a feature in FCP7 that I use a lot. Well, it’s gone in FCPX and there’s not some “revolutionary” way to do it. Does that make me “unprofessional” or an “old dog that can’t learn new tricks”? Nope. Should I give up that part of my workflow just because Apple feels like not including that tool? Nope.
I’m calm (and breathing, but thanks for asking. 🙂 ) I’ll keep using FCP7 on the 7 machines I have licenses for. I’ll have to repartition the system volume to stay on 10.6.x so that it (and all of my current plug-ins, video decks, monitors and video cards) continue to work properly when 10.7 comes out (and probably renders FCP7 unusable, but I digress.) So yes, there is a temporary work-around. My main disappointment is in Apple for making me wait while they decided to bring FCPX to at least the standard set by FCP7, or perhaps they’ll give up on that, too. I can buy Premeire or (shudder the thought) Avid. (Wow, that hurt to say, er…write.)
At least we live in a world of options.
actually… I Just searched “MultiClip FCPX” and found the rants thats it’s gone like you said.
But also found the Comments about it wasn’t ready yet….
So it’s not “gone” it needed more time to bake with the new design.
http://www.philiphodgetts.com/2011/06/my-impressions-of-final-cut-pro-x/
So Calm down. Maybe apple should have waited a little longer to release it…
MDN Certainly loses credibility in my book for the sarcastic headline, but let’s be honest here:
FCP users were expecting an evolutionary update. Most of the reading I’ve done suggests that would have been just as hard as a major rewrite. Apple therefore chose to release a revolutionary product, one that is disruptive to the marketplace. Like the iPhone. Like aperture. Like osx. Like the iTunes store. Like the very first Mac.
But this isn’t useful to you today. It wasn’t what you were expecting. It may never have all of what you need.
But many reports suggest that it does have what 90% of it’s userbase needs, so apple released it so THEY can start using it now and YOU can start the long process of learning a new paradigm. Then, as the software is updated, you can reevaluate it’s usability.
Or not.
It’s not the paradigm that’s the problem knobshine. It’s the work flow disruption and lack of pro tools. End of story. Learning this program will not make my post production duties any easier. What needs to be done simply cannot be done with this program.
Your examples of iTunes, iPhone, etc. are laughable at best because they are CONSUMER PRODUCTS. Not pro products. Like most consumers you obviously have no idea what it takes in the way of tools, time, training and talent to put on a production. Jobs has you fooled into thinking that you are the next Spielburg because you use their programs. Good luck with that…
Apple did not give “us” or anyone for that matter “a powered, multipurpose, high speed, special hammer that once you look at it carefully, you will wonder how you lived without it”.
What they did was take away the tools that are necessary to get the job done. Multicam is one major tool that I cannot live without. EDL and OMF export are two others. For the home user this is not a problem. But how is a pro supposed to deliver files to the colorists and audio studios without these tools. There are NO work-arounds for these issues. And FCP7 was already past its’ prime. Now it’s dead. When a new codec or camera (just as an example) comes out it will not be supported. Now maybe you can understand the uproar by the pro community. Apple has been promising a REAL update to pros for over 2 years now. Not only didn’t they deliver but they cut our throats at the same time. So much for loyalty.
You can tell this was meant for Joe Sixpack simply by looking at the menu bar. There’s a button for submitting to CNN via iReportCNN or something like that.
Call it what you will, but I still don’t see any reason why one cannot continue to work in 7, while getting their chops up in X until such time as it is ready for prime time.
Final Cut Pro X is a professional application, it is just one that is in its infancy. Given 18-24 months, you may just be finding yourself eating those words. 😉
Oh, and just to qualify myself, I am a video editor and motion graphics artist by trade. I have used FCP since version 3, and when I look at X, all I see are boundless possibilities. The future, she is bright.
I feel it’s not a matter of “getting their chops up”, but rather who this product is made for. I’d be less concerned if Apple continued to offer FCP7 and FCP7 Server, but they killed both products with the release of FCPX. That, to me, says Apple believes this is a viable successor to FCP7, but it isn’t.
If I had seen FCPX 10 years ago, I would have peed my pants (yuck, sorry) with excitement. However, today is today and I’d really rather have 64-bit support, Grand Central support, and 10.7 support in FCP7 and continue keeping my clients happy. Maybe I’ll get everything I want in a year or two with a future rev of FCPX. Otherwise, it’s hello Premiere.
Exactly! You would have been happy with …..
But since apple HAD to convert it to a cocoa application to accomplish that, they saw an opportunity to re-define FCP. And along the way some features got postponed or dropped completely.
What really makes you and others mad is not that you are opposed to a new paradigm, but rather that you were strung along for two years with promises, only to find out your trust was misplaced. And no firm timeline has been announced on implementing the features you need.
Meanwhile, despite upgrades to your hardware, FCP7 can’t get any faster because of carbons limitations.
I may not be a pro, but I get it.
Or I think I do.
Any way, I hope apple cones through for you.
I know this reply is days late,however i’d like to offer you one suggestion, OK. Well here it is, Just replace FCP7 with system 9 and FCPX with OSX. Early versions of OSX were compared mercilessly to Mac System 9. Today no one would go back to that system, even if they liked it better, because of its limited underpinnings and performence. Now hopefully you will get it. FCPX is the future and very soon, 2-3 years tops you will be able to do things unimaginable in FCP7. Hope you can see that.
you have a post house with a dozen licenses?
you edit to tape for the networks?
you share projects with other editors?
you have projects coming online that require more edit stations, more licences?
FCP7 no longer available and FCPX not yet ready for broadcast. So tell me what do you do?
Post houses are seriously considering jumping ship to Adobe/Avid because of this.
Ah well, no matter, it’s been obvious for some time that Apple would rather the whole MacPro/Professional set just ‘went away’…….
And everyone bitched about the iPhone not having a keyboard/buttons. If you are a pro, you know how to adapt.
And of course you old dogs can keep using FCP 7 while the next gen of editors sharpen our new tools with FCP X.
…if fact you know what i would If I were an old editor that did not like the new FCP X…. I would just quit using it!
That’ll show Apple!
Buck up “Pro”!
That’s just silly. If that’s the case then the “next gen of editors” will never find work. They simply won’t be equipped to work on larger productions requiring teams of people that include colorists, FX creators, sound designers, etc. FCP X doesn’t allow it. And probably won’t in the future. It’s no longer a PRO app.
You know, if Apple would just come out and say, this is the beta version, buy now to try, you can experiment with it now and you will get the real version when we get it ready, that would go a long way to calming the Final Cut Customers.
I bought my first Mac, because I tried to edit on Adobe Premiere way back when and it was a horrible mess of sluggishness and relentless rebooting.. At the same time, I found out that Apple had just brought Final Cut Pro into the world. The good folks at Apple were also readying OSX. I was excited about that too. I remember getting Final Cut and being in love with how much you could do with it, also in love with how you could put so much content on the timeline and not have to reboot. It was a big deal.
When Apple announced a 30$ beta version of OSX, I jumped right on that. It was their future. It was my future, because of Final Cut. I got it and played with it. Booted it up a few times, but lost interest interest because I couldn’t really work in it. My apps wouldn’t really run, or wouldn’t run with full functionality, but it was cool, because I knew what the 30 dollars was buying me: I wasn’t pissed about it.
I know a lot of work went into FCPX. Most of that work probably into re imagining the editing process. But, Apple, you can’t say here comes the next version of Final Cut. Not when it is missing tools that we need, tools that your re imagining didn’t or hasn’t compensated for. It’s revolutionary and then it just isn’t yet. Because it isn’t fully functional yet. Maybe it will be, in the way OSX was. And maybe it will take till version X.2 as it did with OSX 10.2 before things were really snappy. But throw us a bone here, Apple. Tell us that you don’t want this to be iMovie Pro. Tell us, Apple, that we will one day be able to see and work with Photoshop layers or that we can re arrange our windows or that we can copy/paste more in the way of attributes than just effects, and that people will still feel confident enough in the product to edit feature length movies on it. Tell us that you are implementing a deep powerful vision for this product that the industry will clamor to latch onto. Please, put in writing so everyone will STFU.
“You know, if Apple would just come out and say, this is the beta version, buy now to try, you can experiment with it now and you will get the real version when we get it ready, that would go a long way to calming the Final Cut Customers.”
Does Apple really need to SAY that? It would seem that the older “pros” would be more level headed about this.
I get that this is a “different” beast but then why would they be discontinuing FCP Studio along with the other FCP products (as I have read)? If it’s supposed to be another tool then why get rid of the one we use and love now? I’m all for new things and will probably buy it to run along my current FCP setup. Glad we can run them both. Just my 5 cents (adjusted for inflation)
I heard the same complaints when Apple dropped the floppy disc drive, among several other technologies they have abandoned over the years. The complainers are those that don’t handle change well. That’s very obvious when the complainer doesn’t have to adopt FCP X at all. FCP 7 continues to work as before. Where’s the problem, other than wanting to lear a new system?
The complainers will have to use something different eventually as Final Cut 7 becomes outdated and cant support new and emerging formats or codecs etc. Unless Apple fills in some blanks. XML has to be there or at least a replacement. People use this. Even Apple’s own Logic Software requires this in order to be able to roundtrip sound for editing. And the floppy argument doesn’t work. Apple stopped including the floppy because they already included better options on their computer or better options were obvious or on their way. These were options we knew about. Flash drives, CD-Rs, Zip discs at the time. Apple hasn’t brought to light anything that will replace some of the missing pieces. We can’t say, oh, so that’s how they will do it. It’s not “different” that worries us. It’s nonexistence mixed with a huge bag of uncertainty.
Well said. There are some juicy bits and solid underpinnings to FCPX, but if you are an editor that relies on some of the missing pieces, it’s a real pisser. I understand the grief. What the users have to understand is, in technology you sometimes have to dump legacy to enable something truly improved with legs to grow. I think, however, that Apple has to do something to both provide some legacy support while providing more road map then they have for continued revs coming to X. The panic is palpable, like a man overboard flailing for a life preserver. On many discussion boards I am seeing people discovering that some of the missing pieces are not truly gone, just implemented differently. I would hope that true professionals would give X more than 24 hours of contemplation before allowing panic to set in. Their world has not ended, and it may actually be the dawning of a beautiful day.
As a professional editor since the seventies, I can attest to the fact that editors bitch about software and change more than anyone. Happened to CMX, Grass Valley and you should have seen to rufus when Avid added timeline (red/yellow arrow) based-editing.
Having used FCPX a few days, it will work perfectly for a large number of people and will need a half year for the rest of workflows to be supported. In other word, they released at the right time.
If your FCP7 workflow is good stay with it. If you’re willing to consider a future where you submit your file to a digital service agency rather than spend $$ to rent a HDCAM SR only to be used 4 hours a week, think how much money you’ll save.
MDN, while mocking the FCP users with this headline, you’ve left key answers out of your summary. From the article:
Complaint: There’s no multicamera editing.
Answer: Apple intends to restore this feature in an update
Complaint: No Reconnect command when media is offline
Answer: True.
Complaint: You can’t assign audio tracks.
Answer: For now, you can use a utility called Automatic Duck Pro Export 5.0 ($200 to upgrade) ** $495 to purchase
Complaint: No support for RED digital cameras
Answer: you can set your RED camera to shoot and capture video in the QuickTime format… (** RED files have color latitude that QTimes don’t — crucial for pro work **)
Complaint: Can’t export EDL files.
Answer: No solution in sight
Complaint: Can’t import old FCP files.
Answer: As I noted in my column, this is true; your old projects are stranded forever in the older FCP program.
FCP X is definitely NOT a viable professional product in its current form. Are there new features? Yes. But so many key features have been dropped as to make it a chore for any pro editor to use.
Will it be improved in the future? Maybe.. probably. There’s also a good chance it either won’t sell well and will be killed as a failing product, OR it will sell to the home market and features will be dictated by that customer base. In either case, edit houses who are setting up shop or expanding today, tomorrow, this year can’t purchase FCP 7 anymore, so will have to turn to a competitor, like Avid.
That last paragraph is 100% true.
Absolutely, spot-on accurate! Thanks PC Apologist for the outstanding post.
Hello, Premiere!
As far as I can tell FCPX has no SAN support. That makes the entire program utterly pointless for my users with their 100TB SAN. So, in my book it isn’t “Pro”.
We’ll simply wait and see what happens in a year or so. If it’s not fixed we’ll have to start thinking about moving on.
Plain & simple, for those of us who work in a multi-user environment FCPX is useless. We often need to restore FCP 6 & 7 projects for revisions; there is no way to do it in FCPX.
We do not work alone; we collaborate. We revise projects begun by others.
It doesn’t matter if I can’t put files where I specifically want to or I can’t arrange the audio tracks where I want to. Change is not the issue; I can learn new keystrokes and new workflows but Apple has removed functionality from FCP. Until it’s restored we’re looking at other options.
FCP7 works fine now and we’ll continue to use it for the time being. But Premier is looking better with each release.
I’m certainly not the first person to make this observation (because my friend Mike made it yesterday), but Adobe should make Premiere Pro $299.00 for a limited time. I mean, no one calls me “unprofessional” for using Photoshop. Show me an Apple program that does what Photoshop does and I’ll buy it. Otherwise, I dare someone to say, “You don’t get it if you’re using Photoshop” or “I guess you’re a dinosaur if you’re still using Photoshop instead of an Apple program.”
it’s been several years since Microsoft switched their flagship product MS Office from the popular and mostly useful interface to that now bastardized POS version that is mainly icon based gibberish. The new Office front end is horrible, difficult to understand and downright frustrating. It boggles the mind trying to figure out what the hell they were thinking. It’s been several years as I’ve said, and it still sucks!
While I do feel your pain (as a non FCP user), I’m pretty confident that Apple will make it right (not like the dancing monkey co. product) Apple is not known for shooting themselves in the foot ( during the last decade).
So a bunch of people that wanted a new version of FCP but didn’t want anything to change are complaining.
Just use the old version and shut up. Actually, use Adobe Premier on OS9 and STFU.
Apple should have just changed the version number and left the software alone. We’d probably be reading a bunch of “amazing reviews” by the same douche bags complaining now.
Does no one remember the hew and cry from editors who had to learn FC 1?
Oh my god… “It doesn’t do this like Avid or that like Avid” ad-nauseum. Then people learned and became far more efficient. It wasn’t until Walter Murch cut “Cold Mountain” that the bitching stopped.
It kills me to read things like “I cant open my old project in it” or worse “I can’t switch mid-project to the new software”… who the hell does that with half a brain?
Use FCP7 while learning the new software, Apple will continue to update and add features at THE REQUEST OF THE EDITING COMMUNITY, just like they have done in the past. Man, I am embarrassed for my film and fx editing community. I didn’t think we were that stodgy!
Allow me to repost from the end of an earlier thread something which few probably got to see.
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Here’s an analogy to help non-editors understand what has happened.
Let’s say the new iPhone 5 comes out with perfect call clarity, never drops a call, will work at twice the distance from a cell tower than any other phone… and has a couple new snazzy apps.
However, over half of your favorite apps will no longer work on iPhone 5. Your contact list cannot be imported. When you do manually re-enter contacts, you can’t put in as much information. They’ve eliminated the camera, GPS, and several other features. For some reason, it won’t even call all the area codes. It does seem to cost less, but needed stuff you’ve gotten used to is either gone… seemingly forever… or works totally different.
Apple says this will be eventually worked out… but, you can no longer buy any earlier iPhones that have the capabilities you need.
But hey… it’s now easier for more people to use, it costs less, and your calls sound better.
How many iPhone users/buyers might be upset with that?
Here’s a response to a poorly consided analogy for non-editors.
When you first started learning final cut, if you came from a different app did you stop using that old app?
Did you just delete all your old Avid or Media 100 or Premiere apps and jump in feet first? Was it a perfect experience as you made the transition?
FCPX will evolve, features missing today will be added quickly with, more than likely little to no charge. Young editors coming up will also probably eat your lunch.
Yes!
I did stop using Avid immediatly. Final Cut Pro 1 used industry conventions, and was a painless and enjoyable transition.
And I fully expect (and encourage) young editors to eat my lunch, as I did to my predecessors. It’s the way of things. However, they aren’t going to do it with the present version of “iMovie Pro”.
I’m a luddite who still uses the easy iMovie HD in preference to the newer one.
I tried FCE but never really took to it, so maybe FCPX is the way forward, particularly at the must-have price point.
I’ve scanned the comments here and everyone who isn’t a professional editor might want to read the comments for David Pogue’s original article at the Times. There are a lot of pros chiming in giving a more complete insight into how FCPX (as it stands) will affect their business. There’s also a respectful and sober discussion going on over there, so I recommend it for anyone who really wants to understand the concern. It’s about livelihood, not interface changes. (I’ll tell you this: I’m a pro, so I can learn the new interface about about a solid day. I’ve dabbled the past couple days and I’m almost there. That isn’t even close to the problem.)
You can not spin this into a good release. FCPX falls quite short for PROS it was intended for!
Some of the shortcomings of FCPX is immediately recognized as soon as you launch it the first time, like No import of FCP7 projects (but you can import iMovie project, this may tell you something). A few other missing features take a few more minutes like no viewer window, no custom layouts, no external monitoring (pros need to see video on an actual TV/monitor), no multi-cam (pros use more than ONE camera), little support for tape (pros STILL use tape), little in advanced Blu-ray support (pros STILL NEED to deliver in HD on an optical disc), lack of XML workflow, lack of OMF export (pros need the ability to work in other applications like Pro Tools), no EDL export (may sound old fashioned but some pros STILL need this) and no multiple tracks in timeline.
http://www.reelsmart.com/2011/06/24/conan-makes-fun-of-final-cut-pro-x/
In addition to the iMovie import, another amateurish feature is the “CNN iReport” selection.
Who is going to use that?
If you already work in news, you’re going to send video directly to your own station/network.
If you are a freelance reporter, you will want more than one client… especially the more watched (better paying) networks. MSNBC has about 30% more viewers, and FNC has around 300% more viewers than CNN.*
*Cable News Rating for 6/21/11
No matter how many years film editors have spent learning to use Final Cut Pro, it is simply not realistic to expect Apple to keep the program working in exactly the same way forever. Everything changes eventually. Professional editors who take the time to learn how to use FinalCut Pro X and then don’t like it may have valid criticisms. But right now, everybody’s just whining because the new version is different. But guess what? Shit happens! Learn to use the new version and then tell us what you think.
I would have to guess that most pros are ready to learn the new, better, different. I know I am. The problem comes when the supposedly new/better is hobbled.
It’s kind of like the Air Force waiting on an updated jet fighter… and then getting a new, state-of-the-art, machine gun equipped, business jet instead. It’s a great plane, but there’s no place to attach the missiles.
If Apple had just added 64 bit memory access, background rendering, and maybe a couple more little nice things to FCP7… they could have sold boatloads of FCP8, even at $1000 a pop.
That’s fine that Apple wants to change the video editing world but don’t string pros along who make their living with your software while you’re dong it. This really comes down to crappy communication from Apple and handling expectations.
Let’s rewind back to FCP 6, about 4 years ago. That was really the last major revision of FCP. 2 years ago, FCP 7 comes out , essentially unchanged from the previous version and the word on the street is “OK that’s cool… Apple must be really hard at work refining FCP and giving it the treatment it deserves—with all the new tech in the latest version of OS X, like grand central, open cl, etc All the rumors certainly pointed that way. After all it’s no small feat to convert all that legacy code. What pros got instead was a souped up iMovie.
Premiere has been 64-bit over over a year now and does essentially everything the old FCP does but does it much faster. Why would pros waste more time, waiting for Apple (and waiting for the render bar in the old FCP) when there’s great solutions that do everything they need now?
So when people say FCP 7 still works whie they wait is true, the question is a) when will it stop working and b) how much longer do pros have to wait for a version that fills in some of the slack? The point is, pros are sick of waiting on Apple. You can’t even buy FCP anymore and since you can even open old FCP projects in it, it’s like the past 11 years haven’t even existed. AT least with on Mac OS X, Apple give you Classic.
A good portion of my business is going into old projects, making some changes, and reoutputting. I am constantly going back to old projects from 5-6-7 years ago and editing them. Apple is telling me that this huge part of my business they don’t care about. Photoshop can open PSD files from 1988, what the hell is Apple thinking cutting off everything I’ve done in FCP since 2000? Looks like choosing FCP over Avid back in the day was a big mistake. First time I’ve ever felt this way about Apple, ever.