Any Final Cut Pro users here?

Rise from the grave old thread!

I'm an iMovie / Premiere user but been waiting for the new FCP.  Looks like it's going to be pretty badass!

http://techcrunch.com/2011/02/22/new-final-cut-pro-is-real-and-its-spectacular-and-its-expected-spring-2011/

Excitement building!

http://www.macrumors.com/2011/04/10/next-final-cut-pro-at-nab-next-week-due-spring-2011-some-more-hints/

Nothing yet today, the meetup starts at 4:30 vegas time today so keeping an eye on Twitter...

Sounds like announcements are GO for later tonight!

http://www.9to5mac.com/61109/nab-2011/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+9To5Mac-MacAllDay+%289+to+5+Mac+-+Apple+Intelligence%29

That was a false start but reports are it IS coming tonight

Final Cut Pro X is official, 64bit, and new from the ground up.

-developing-

Break it down for a vidiot like me: what's this mean? :)

Quote:

Originally Posted by DavidJ 

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sam Posten 


Apple stuck a dagger in the hearts of both Avid and Adobe Premiere right here. Cannot wait to play.

That's a little much Sam. As a matter of fact, there is a chance that this release might drive some pros to Avid. While I am excited to find out more about it, some of the similarities to iMovie give me pause. I hope that the concerns are unfounded and that it blows my mind.

So I guess there is no more FInal Cut Studio?

The price point is pretty incredible.  I guess they are going to be making it up in volume .  David.  I used Premiere a long time ago and Pinnacle more recently, so I'm not familiar with iMovie.  What issues do (or others) have with this release?
 

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sam Posten 

$299, ships in June, SOLD.

http://www.engadget.com/2011/04/12/apple-announces-final-cut-pro-x-rebuilt-from-ground-up-with-64/

Apple stuck a dagger in the hearts of both Avid and Adobe Premiere right here. Cannot wait to play.

I think Apple put a real kick into Premiere.   I think Premiere has been a mediocre product for some time, and this pretty well affirms Apple as supplanting it.

I don't think this does much to Avid.     I have several clients who use Avid and FCP to a great extent - one produces a nationally syndicated show, the other uses both for a more ... direct purpose (golf related). 

Anyway, I think this announcement was solid.   I think this last year has been a surprising year for Adobe, which had Premiere really "on the ropes" and managed to pick up some big production wins (ie, BBC, CATV, Showtime) which it had been lacking for some time.  Avid is still by far the industry standard.   FCP had been very "long in the tooth", with nearly a decade since it's last truly major update.

The way in which FCP changes are significant and should be embraced by almost every casual editor or midline editor.   I think there is going to be a real curve on the path for pro editors, who will look at major changes or elimination to Color and Motion with a more simplified setup as a "dumbing down" of the product.   For 90% of the consumers that is a non-issue.    For say, 10%, it is.  Just one of those things.   I think it's interesting that they talk about their render and timeline corrections in real time when that's a feature they had to have - it's one Avid has had for over 18 months now.  Even Adobe's Warp Stabilizer is a very effective product, though I believe Apple trumpcards that (which is why I said, I think Adobe feels most of the heat)

I don't think as it sits this "steals" much from Avid in the way of support or enlisted editors.   There are still too many workflow elements that for a major work are easier to do and develop in Avid, and Avid by design has a few elements you just can't get to from FCP.   

But I do think this puts a real hitch in the wagon for Premiere.   Like I said, Premiere had been a struggling product that spent the last year getting more design wins then it has seen in a while - a big part of that due to the age of FCP.   But a major update to FCP stops the forward momentum of that product for usage. 

I think it will be interesting :)  The one "feature" that is going to be boon or bane is the realtime transcoding.    I'm interested to start seeing spec output results.

They haven't exactly described what happens to the rest of the studio tools so it's too early to speculate on what this means for Motion and Color.  Will try to put up the thoughts I see from folks who were there (Nino Leitner and Philip Bloom etc).  Hopefully Apple posts the video today.

"Stay Tuned" on info on the rest of the suite (but it sounds like they ALL ship in June!):

http://www.macstories.net/news/new-final-cut-pro-x-screenshots-apple-says-stay-tuned-for-other-apps/

You may be right on my saying this isn't a deathknell for Avid yet.  But it does put a flag on the ground and re-establish that Apple has NO PLANs to squander their commitment to pro users, and they aren't afraid to compete on price at the same time.  Win the "pro-sumers" and independant film makers over and it's going to be harder and harder for Avid to show why they are worth a multiple order of magnitude price differential.

Best wrapups I've seen so far:

http://www.photographybay.com/2011/04/12/final-cut-pro-user-group-supermeet-liveblog/

http://provideocoalition.com/index.php/ssimmons/story/fcp_x_is_shown_to_the_world._flashy_things_are_seen_questions_are_asked/

http://www.tuaw.com/2011/04/12/final-cut-pro-announcement-at-nab-supermeet/

http://arcrental.wordpress.com/2011/04/12/apple-introduces-final-cut-x-at-nab-2011/

Shakey Cam:  http://www.photographybay.com/2011/04/13/final-cut-pro-x-annoncement-video/

I think a lot of them ask key questions about the plugin system and if it exists; again, also, while Avid has native BD-Stream output options for those in the commercial industry, FCPX doesn't.    So, that hurts a bit too.   The price is incredible; I see it's through the MacAppStore, so I'm wondering if there is a way to buy this without doing it online via download.   If you look back at FCP, the vast array of DVDs with content, so I know quite a few who will hope for a shipping version not a download.

While there is a natural assumption that it's FCP v Avid, that really isn't the case; there are lots of productions that use neither.   Some that use both.   There are some things about both that the other would be hard pressed to replicate.. and editors who are too used to one tool or another.   I think the plugin base will tell a lot of the story.    FCP had pretty much been a dominant force in the industry but the last 3 years have been poor for FCP.   FCP7 wasn't even in the same boat as Avid, as it's HD methods were .... not so hot.  And DVDStudio which was attached wasn't really a good tool.   Motion and Color were GREAT tools, and there were supports for FCP that kept it in the game.   The last year saw a real rise in Premiere, which I consider a stringer product in comparison to say, Avid.     But what's going to be interesting is how diverse of an ecosphere is possible with FCPX. 

The killer for FCPX is the price tag.   I've thought about that a lot.   We just did a client to do all their new avid stations.. at $1000 in software a piece.   $300 is a pretty attractive price point.   I imagine that is going to attract a lot of attention.  

But for all the talk of Pro-Sumer, Apple still doesn't quite get that the pressure is on mid-level developers to work up exportable BD (I come back to the wedding photographers, videographers, those who are professional photographers and event planners) who now have pressure on them to distribute BD content as a part of their services.   FCPX still, by all accounts, isn't sporting a BD output.   Really, at a $299 price tag, I will assume that a part of that is that they save some on the licensing of the export standard.     But for those markets, that was still a big, big feature that they needed that is absent.

I think this really does put a big slap on Adobe's Premiere, which had a real resurgence in the last year.    I'll have to see some comparisons of Apple's background Vs. Warp.   Should be interesting!

I remain hopeful that the reason the rest of the suite, especially DVDStudio, arent being talked about yet is because of Blu itself and that will get some love at WWDC.

Of course, I've been saying the same thing for 5 years so who knows.

But if the suite DOES come out in June with no Bluray support there is going to be a lot of prosumers and true pros alike with axes to grind for Apple on that alone.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sam Posten 

I remain hopeful that the reason the rest of the suite, especially DVDStudio, arent being talked about yet is because of Blu itself and that will get some love at WWDC.

 

Of course, I've been saying the same thing for 5 years so who knows.

 

But if the suite DOES come out in June with no Bluray support there is going to be a lot of prosumers and true pros alike with axes to grind for Apple on that alone.

 

Yep.   I think there are some great announcements here.   But I think we'll know really how well this fits when it releases.  It could vary anywhere from one of the ultimate editing suites that puts a real dagger in Adobe and a stab back at MC5, or it could be iMovie on super steroids.   We'll have to see :)
 

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sam Posten 

They haven't exactly described what happens to the rest of the studio tools so it's too early to speculate on what this means for Motion and Color.  Will try to put up the thoughts I see from folks who were there (Nino Leitner and Philip Bloom etc).  Hopefully Apple posts the video today.

 

"Stay Tuned" on info on the rest of the suite (but it sounds like they ALL ship in June!):

http://www.macstories.net/news/new-final-cut-pro-x-screenshots-apple-says-stay-tuned-for-other-apps/

 

You may be right on my saying this isn't a deathknell for Avid yet.  But it does put a flag on the ground and re-establish that Apple has NO PLANs to squander their commitment to pro users, and they aren't afraid to compete on price at the same time.  Win the "pro-sumers" and independant film makers over and it's going to be harder and harder for Avid to show why they are worth a multiple order of magnitude price differential.

 

 

 

 

 

Nothing about Apple's comments implies that other products are coming.  All they said was “today was just a sneak peak of Final Cut Pro, stay tuned."  I could be wrong, but I take it to mean that we will be finding out more about what has been changed in FCP and not other Studio products.  Yesterday's reveal raised a lot of questions and I imagine many of those will be answered in the coming weeks. 

It seemed to me that a lot of the focus on the demo yesterday was gee-whiz, flashy automatic features that may be great for casual users and some that claim the pro tag, but that most serious users are more interested in finding out how you turn off said feature.  It's like auto modes on cameras.  You either turn them off or many pro level cameras don't even have them.  I'm not saying I won't use them when I'm doing some casual editing, but their value in a professional workflow remains to be seen.

BTW, as a user of all three products over the years, I am not at all a fan of Avid.  I've always preferred FCP as it works more the way I expect it to (and I'm old enough to have edited traditionally too), but yesterday's announcement actually has me thinking that I'll have to spend more time and not less in Avid.  I also teach editing systems and I'm concerned about this change for my students and training them.

Quote:

Originally Posted by mattCR 

 

Yep.   I think there are some great announcements here.   But I think we'll know really how well this fits when it releases.  It could vary anywhere from one of the ultimate editing suites that puts a real dagger in Adobe and a stab back at MC5, or it could be iMovie on super steroids.   We'll have to see :)
 

 

Matt and Sam, I agree it is something that is we'll have to wait and see.  Obviously, I have some trepidation, but that means it will be really awesome when I'm blown away by FCP X and it goes on to dominate the world.   Also, I'm not dismissing the price point discussion.  It is huge.  But it also seems to be priced more as a consumer product (this is where my business marketing mind kicks in). 

Random thought that just occurred to me, Avid has traditionally dominated in the news markets, but some shops have embraced FCP and this price point and the speed, auto enhancements could make FCP much more enticing to news orgs.

Also, I read where it is called FCP "ten" and not "X', but that makes no sense to me as there haven't been nine releases prior to this.  Have y'all read anything about it?

Here is another good wrap up:

http://www.dv.com/article/104884

2 better videos posted here:

http://www.photographybay.com/2011/04/13/final-cut-pro-x-annoncement-video/

"Never see a render timeline again" is an interesting and inviting concept

Sage overview:

http://www.macworld.com/article/159202/2011/04/final_cut_pro_x_blog.html#lsrc=twt_macworld

Another overview:

http://www.hdwarrior.co.uk/2011/04/13/a-word-from-larry-jordan-on-fcp-10/

And another.

http://www.freshdv.com/2011/04/nab11-fcp-x-sneak-peak.html?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

Quote:

Originally Posted by DavidJ 

Also, I read where it is called FCP "ten" and not "X', but that makes no sense to me as there haven't been nine releases prior to this.

Computer programs have been skipping version numbers practically since the beginning. Over thirty years ago, dBASE II was the first database program for PCs. There was no version one -- story goes that the guy behind it thought it would sell better as "version two" because it implied it was more mature and stable.

More recently, Apple went from QuickTime 7 to QuickTime X; also "ten", just like OS X. Apple really likes X==ten -- Lion is the eighth ten.