What people are saying about FCPx
Thursday, June 23, 2011 at 10:11AMThe ball has been well and truly dropped….
Helmut Kobler sums up the macro-issue that many saw coming a mile away -
“If Apple’s Pro apps went away tomorrow, Apple would barely feel it on its bottom line or stock price. If Adobe’s Pro apps went away, so would Adobe. Pro apps is all Adobe thinks about, and after 4+ years of neglect at Apple’s hands, that kind of singular focus sounds pretty compelling.”
Phillip Johnston of HD Warrior -
“All we wanted was 64 bit and some new bells and whistles not this fanciful bloated version of iMovie…well I for one will be sticking with FCP-7 and my old friends that come with Studio 3 and I am now so glad that I bought Premiere Pro 5.5, I can see many of us migrating to Premiere Pro…at least Adobe know how to treat professional editors.”
A more sober and positive perspective from Phillip Hodgetts -
“There’s always a dilemma when developing software. At some point you have a product that’s suitable for a very large portion of your customers, and can deliver real, tangible benefits right now, but isn’t perhaps as fully featured as it could be. Should it be delayed or released? I believe Apple have made the right decision with Final Cut Pro X by releasing it to market. In my briefing, I was told by folks at Apple that the Mac App Store and new financial rules mean that they intend to add features frequently rather than waiting for major paid upgrades.”
Back to the vitriol with the always well informed Scott Simmons of PVC -
“I don’t buy that argument as Apple chose to market this as Final Cut Pro TEN and be it a new app or not that number comes after SEVEN so it’s not unreasonable to expect things that were in 7 should be in 10. Add to that the fact that Final Cut Pro 7 and Final Cut Studio 3 were removed from the Apple Store today so from this point on it’s FCPX or stay with FCP7 (unless of course you want to move to Avid or Adobe). To completely start from scratch and build a new, modern application is commendable but when it lacks many, many features that its predecessor had and you’re still calling it pro and a newer version then you can expect a lot of negative feedback from current users who rely on those features. FCPX currently sits at two and a half stars in the App Store.”
Level headed but firm from Michael Kammes -
“you start in FCP X eco-system and end in FCP X eco-system. This is not a professional workflow. I believe a professional workflow (let alone application) requires some flexibility to play with others. Professional post people need to work with other apps. Rarely, if ever, do any Professionals begin and end inside the same application. And I fault Apple for believing that a v1.0 product would be up to the task of being an all in one. Maybe someday. But not now.”
Matt Toder asserts this is ‘Why Final Cut Pro x is sending me back to Avid’ -
“FCPX shouldn’t be about helping people who don’t know what they’re doing, it should be about helping people who do know what they’re doing work better and faster and, most often, that means giving them the flexibility to work however they please, using the techniques they’ve developed over years of working in tough conditions.”
Walter Biscardi points to the real pain that is more about Apple than it is about FCP -
“The basic operation is identical. Apple just added a few new features and rolled in some color tools and sound tools. But who cares about the actual operation of the editing interface, give me a couple of days and I’ll by flying through the interface. That’s not the problem. The problem is the insular thinking that Apple seems to have taken with this application.”
He goes on to add more scathingly -
“I get the sense that Apple just didn’t want to take the time to re-write all of the features that made this a solid professional application and dominated the post production market. Why, I’m not sure, but we will be moving our shop away from FCPX over the next month or so. As I noted in a blog entry back in April, Apple really dropped the ball on this one. Living in their insular world in Cupertino they have come up with what they think a professional editor requires to get the job done. In my 20 year professional experience, they missed the mark by a wide margin.”
“All in all the worst product launch I’ve ever seen from Apple or pretty much any software manufacturer. Instead of a nice suite of applications that worked well together (FCP, Color, Motion, SoundTrack Pro, DVD Studio Pro) you now have one big app that really doesn’t do all that much well. It completely ignores the 11 years of existence by giving you zero options to open older projects.”
Ron Brinkmann is a former Shake developer and knows Apple from the inside. His comments confirm everything I’ve long suspected and predicted -
“if you’re really a professional you shouldn’t want to be reliant on software from a company like Apple. Because your heart will be broken. Because they’re not reliant on you. Use Apple’s tools to take you as far as they can – they’re an incredible bargain in terms of price-performance. But once you’re ready to move up to the next level, find yourself a software provider whose life-blood flows only as long as they keep their professional customers happy. It only makes sense.”
Neil Evely is justifiably disgruntled as Apple put his business at risk -
“Your decisions have an impact on the industry as a whole, you should know that by now, but it’s not always positive. By discontinuing Final Cut Server and no longer supporting FCP7, you have taken a workflow that you, Apple, were proud of and about to PR and ripped the heart out of it. What are the chances of you providing me with the code for the front/back end of FCS so I can develop it further as our business grows? What happens when I need a new codec supported for a tapeless camera, but you only provide it for FCPX? Why the hell did no one say ‘we aren’t releasing vsn 2.0 of FCS, in fact in 6 months, we’re killing it, be prepared… I’ve invested a lot of time and money and effort into my job, and I expect the same from the companies & suppliers that I rely on. Upgrade some software yes, adapt some hardware, of course, but don’t just pull the plug on it all.”
Adam Lisagor sees clearly the method behind the madness -
“I will speculate that Final Cut Pro has just ceased to be about the craft of editing because Apple has little interest in the craft of editing. I will argue that Apple has a giant interest in the craft of distributing, of publishing. This is where it aims to enable an entirely new market of content built on its new infrastructure.”
“Apple is dead set on killing the file system. And as passé as the file system is to modern, enlightened computer people, professional editing relies on manual file management because we must manage BIG files, we must trade them between many software packages, and we must transport them back and forth to many locations.”
Steve Miller provides arguably the most level-headed and yet damning indictments of FCPX -
“We spent 30-45 minutes attempting to create a bin and put selected clips into it. We never succeeded. If 6 of the most in-demand professional editors in the Bay Area can’t figure out something as simple as creating a folder, you really have to question the validity of the app you’ve created… If there was ever a sympathetic audience for a new Apple product, we were it. And yet, after several hours of frustration, we were all filled with a mix of anger, disappointment and resignation that it was once again time to learn a new edit system. And, it would NOT the Apple branded one.”
And lastly a collection of comments from Twitter and the Apple App Store Ratings:
“If I’m a third party hardware vendor, I’m pissed that Apple just flipped double birds to the entire pro sector.”
“Apple’s omission of so many critical pro features reeks of either a presumptuous tech agenda or total ignorance”
“Dear Final Cut Pro, I’m thinking about breaking up with you”
“Goodbye Final Cut “Pro”… Hello Final Cut!”
“Apple does NOT get to force my workflow choices, I choose what’s best for me!”
“Now I see why #FCPX only cost $300…. Because it’s only worth $300”
“ totally understand it’s a step backward in workflow efficiency, but Jesus. You’d think no one made movies before XML was invented”
“Sadly FCPX is hardly a pro software, with no muticlip editing, and no backwards compatibility with #FCP. Save ur money”
“Man… even the most frothy mouthed of the Apple-fantards are having a hell of a time being apologists for the shitkicking”
MAN, APPLE REALLY FUCKED THIS ONE UP….
Reader Comments (1)
I'm not happy about the missing features either, but I come to this blog to read about the story side of things (you know, the side that matters).
Thanks.