OH . . . MY . . . GOD

we've just downloaded a test copy at the studio here . . . . speechless . . . completely speechless . . . this is IMOVIE all day long . . . whatever features have been thrown in it's not going to make up for in effect scrapping FCP - which is what they seem to have done, at first glance.

buying it through itunes was bad enough, but again not the point - FCP has been obliterated. i can only imagine this is a political move to widen the gap thats been closing up between Avid and everything else. i can't imagine one single serious, professional FCP editor opening this up and being pleased. calling this "FCP Express on steroids" is being far too generous. even 2001's imovie seems to have been far more intuitive than this IMO.

nothing will stop us from creating the best possible edit with whatever system i'm sure, but something has to be done. it's insane. it's less than bare bones. the layout, menus, construct of the entire thing is IMOVIE. they've basically chopped the arms and legs off FCP and thrown it's torso in the bin.

i really don't see how on earth this can be touted as a pro app. i was already booked in on an Avid training course, but again - hardly the point. does anyone know of an official press release from Adobe even explaining what on earth they've done and why?

i wonder how long versions 5-6-7(?) will be supported for before one is forced to 'upgrade' . . . alas after 11 years on FCP . . . i guess with iphones and ipods they have no fiscal need to care . . . well at a glance this is my first impression . . rant over

hasta-la-vista,
Bluey

bluey Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> i wonder how long versions 5-6-7(?) will be
> supported for before one is forced to 'upgrade' .

FCP 7 is EOL already. It will probably work with Lion but I'm not expecting it to work on 10.8.

My software:
Pro Maintenance Tools - Tools to keep Final Cut Studio, Final Cut Pro X, Avid Media Composer and Adobe Premiere Pro running smoothly and fix problems when they arise
Pro Media Tools - Edit QuickTime chapters and metadata, detect gamma shifts, edit markers, watch renders and more
More tools...

Well, pretty much the reaction across the board from editors that i've heard from. The thing that really shocks me is how many people are standing up for Apple like this is ok. "It's a Version 1.0." "It's a Foundation." blah blah blah.

It's 12 years of evolution turned into a prosumer app with little regard for professional workflows. So now we're all supposed to sit quietly like nice school children and wait for the Teacher to give us back the toys so we can play again.

I guess that's ok for some folks, but I really need a much more efficient workflow for our facility than 2 year old (3?) FCP 7. We start testing Premiere this weekend and hopefully Avid shortly thereafter and we'll make the move. Sad to see 11 years of progress and work thrown out the window, but as I tell everyone, when the tool doesn't work any longer for you, there are other options out there.

It's been fun!

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Biscardi Creative Media
biscardicreative.com

Yes Walter. Also testing Premiere in my workflow. Apple talked about "not disturbing the ecosystem" with this new version of FCP... well they did disturb it. The pros are gonna go bye-bye. I cannot use this in my workflow and there are over 10 seats at our 2 studios that are not going to either.

I would buy Avid and Adobe stock.

When life gives you dilemmas...make dilemmanade.

Enjoy Premiere, it's a great app, that is way underrated in the "pro" community. To smooth the transition you can set your keyboard to the default FCP shortcuts by going to


In Mac OS (Adobe Premiere Pro CS5), choose Edit > Keyboard Customization

From the Set menu in the Keyboard Customization dialog box, choose the set of keyboard shortcuts you want to use in Premiere Pro:

Are they going to change the name of this forum to LAPPUG?

Yep. How's that New Coke taste?

The final straw for me was finding out you can't assemble a palette of clips at the end of your timeline. It'll all "magnetically" snap into my sequence. This utterly destroys my whole way of working.

This whole thing is fascinating from a business perspective, like the New Coke launch. Rarely, if ever, has the market leader in a business completely U-turned their product.

However, reading the Walt Mossberg review from the Wall Street Journal, FCPX is a success. He admits to never editing anything before, but loving the program to edit his family videos. That's exactly the market Steve Jobs wants with this thing. I guess the question is, outside of rich New York Times columnists, will people really pony up $300 to better edit their soccer videos? Apple recently tried this move with Aperture, and a lot of people, including my wife's mom returned their copy and went back to iPhoto.

Though I won't be using FCPX, I will watch with interest how this crazy gamble pays off for Apple.

P.S. That's really the answer, though, isn't it? Apple's gambling nothing. If FCPX craters, who really cares, a few thousand grumpy editors? They're gambling with house money, so Let It Ride...

"The final straw for me was finding out you can't assemble a palette of clips at the end of your timeline"

i believe you can, but it's a new, specific edit command: "Append"

i don't have FCPX, just reporting what i've read.


nick

> The final straw for me was finding out you can't
> assemble a palette of clips at the end of your
> timeline. It'll all "magnetically" snap into my
> sequence. This utterly destroys my whole way of
> working.

There's something called "Position Mode", you use the Position Tool to work in it.

Makes the timeline behave "Coke Classic" style.

Are you sure? Because Philip Hodgetts who is THE FCPX guru, and the only one saying FCPX is great, tweeted that this way of working will not fly in FCPX. In his words... "that paradigm is gone".

[twitter.com]

This is a disaster.
Apple have launched a beta and we will pay for it. Actually I've decided not to. Esp with the anti Oz pricing discrimination.
Apple IS the new Microsoft.
Hey Nick have you bought that Avid yet? (Bill here)

If you use the position tool (p) you can move things around like before without the snapping. It turns off the magnetic timeline. Difference is it adds a slug (gap clip?) in the empty areas, just like Another Famous Editing System.

Everybody repeat after me: "Clients don't care what I edit on, as long as it looks great"...repeat as many times as necessary until you get your blood pressure to drop.

So what if clients don't care what we edit on, it doesn't mean we have to lap up whatever scraps Apple gives us.

Yep, the worst scenario came true. It's been seriously dumbed down to the level of prosumer users, focused mainly on the DSLR workflow. I did't need all the bells and whistles FCPX is offering. Performance, speed, 4K, DPX, metadata support together with thunderbolt on new MacPros would have been sufficient for my shop. That dream evaportated. So, going the same route. We're setting up a new facility here next month, and expanding to four seats. I don't have the time, patience or even trust in Apple anymore that they'll listen to all the complaints and upgrade FCPX to something useable anytime soon. We're leaning heavily towards CS5 as CS5 is similar to FCS in that it is a complete solution with extensive third party support. Putting that basis together with Mocha, DaVinci Resolve 8, Nuke and Maya we're back in good shape.

The FCPX deal-breakers:

No downwards compatibility with FCP7
Very limited Codec support
No Blackmagic products support
No xml functionality
Plugins issues
No external monitoring
No tape
No RED
No omf
Total silence re Color, DVD Studio Pro, or new MacPros

All of these are mission-critical for my business, so sadly, it's time to move on. We'll keep FCP7 on an older machine just to be able to deal with archived projects as long as possible. But after that, I think we're done with FCP. Never say never, but under the current information policy Apple is no longer my solutions provider of choice.

On an unrelated news: Avid sales go through the roof as the company prepares for a flood of new customers. "With Final Cut out of the picture as a professional editing platform, apple has created a monopoly for real editing systems by leaving only one professional software in the market, just like the old days" said Avid CEO at the press conference.

lol - I just hate having to train for a new software. At this point is inevitable. - Debating between Avid and Premier

For those mentioning Premiere. I just posted my first test today. Funnily enough, Adobe Premiere Pro can open a Final Cut Pro project. Something Final Cut Pro 10 cannot.





Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Biscardi Creative Media
biscardicreative.com

Started playing with Premiere - and using the Final Cut Pro 7 Keyboard layout - it's nearly like editing in FCP7 - but faster -- there are some commands that don't seem to working and have to figure out how to map those.
Also doesn't seem to be a way to use the pen tool to keyframe in the timeline but I'm sure if I read a bit - there is

Very sad to have invested the last decade becoming an FCP expert to know it's an end of life product that

1 - third parties will no longer have any incentive to improve or support
2 - will eventually not work in future system updates

- would love Final Cut X to have a classic mode so we could

control audio tracks
get in and out of program to export to others for finishing
had real time mixing ability
had connections to external controllers
etc.

But Apple's silence probably means more profitable days at Adobe and Avid

Started playing with Premiere CS5.5 last night as well. It's exactly what X should have been.

Don't have it in front of me, but there's a toggle on the left side of the track (I think) that turns on the little slider line things on the clips in the timeline so you can use the pen tool to keyframe opacity.

Sadly, another veteran FCP User jumps ship to Avid (how unusable does new software have to be to get this violent and business changing reaction?)

FCP Pioneer Marcus Solorio's moving to Avid