FCPX 10.0.8 PRE-RELEASE DISCUSSION

BenB wrote: But I'd hate to see the complex, higher end, customizing functions of Compressor go away.

Ironically I'd consider Compressor seriously lacking in higher end and customizing functions. There's virtually no control of the H.264 codec. If you have Matrox MAX installed, which is accessed through Compressor, there's a world of difference. The same could be said if you use Telestream Episode or Sorenson Squeeze. It's not even that I expect Compressor to be as deep as those, some very basic controls are completely absent. I can't imagine Apple dumbing it down any further. It already seems to be the most limited tool if its kind that I know of.

From the company that believes file delivery is the direction to go in, they have the least capable file delivery tool.

"much of what Motion has to offer can be re-imagined in FCPX without adding unnecessary complexity. Just last year there was the notion that bezier masking and object tracking were best left to VFX/Motion Graphics apps...yet now with Coremelt SliceX and Boris Continuum we can see how these can be added to FCPX with little impact to the apps overall usability."

That's my point though. Sure, something like core melt is great. Its targeted, does a task and does it well and it plays well in Final Cut Pro. But to start replicating some of the tasks that Motion does, means adding more and more little applications to Final Cut Pro many of which are likely to be unnecessary to a number of users. All of a sudden Final Cut Pro becomes Photoshop - bloated with a lot of "nice" but unnecessary features. Don't see Apple going that route with one of their flagship applications anytime soon.

How do you REALLY know when there's a big update coming?
I know people look at days between releases...
but the real clue is the days between MacBreak Studio episodes.

It they're more than 8 days apart it means a big update is coming.
Last episode was Feb 28 and it's about to be March 12.
Ripple Training must be working on revising their tutorials.

When 10.0.6 was released 10/23/12
Their last MBS before that was 10/10/12

Ok well it's that or it's back to reading tea leaves and my 8 ball.

Someone put that forth last fall, wasn't that debunked because they were just away on vacation?

• Edited to add that they've probably got a lot of prep for NAB.


I think the days between releases, plus our proximity to NAB is a nice alignment. Of course, no one who REALLY knows can say. But I think its a good guess.

Disproportionate Pictures wrote: Someone put that forth last fall, wasn't that debunked because they were just away on vacation?

Yes it's true that they were away on vacation as it was post Thanksgiving through Xmas.

I'm not quite sure if they're taking vacation just a few weeks away from NAB.
If it were Easter it would be a bit early for that as that's a week or so before NAB.

That's why I brought up the last stretch before a big release which was October.
In this case no major holiday in the early part of March.

That doesn't mean the release is any day but if you had tutorials to update and maybe you didn't want to work over Easter week to do them especially that's just before NAB as well, you may be doing them now. Then you'd probably get the sales hit during NAB when the buzz loud.

I think they'll definitely be something around NAB.

To do a big release just before NAB, or do a demo at NAB (either for press or the public) for later release, that's the question in my mind.

If they're ready with a release, what's nets the bigger buzz?

All I can hope for is the updates to continuously shut up the haters. Now that I've started working on a project using roles, I really don't have any workflow issues with the other parts of post production.

I love FCPX and it's only going to get better.

Some haters will hate just because it's different. They just pick on the magnetic trackless timeline. Some are very much stuck in that their "problem solving" is based on features that only have "cousins" in FCPX. Things like Audio Components are completely alien.

I do think some facilities will take a more practical view of things. Speed of workflow has a real dollar value. The size of the freelance pool will be a factor as well.

Haters will finally shut up when they start losing jobs to people experienced in FCPX.

There is another possibility.

FCPX is really so easy to use that it might be considered a threat.

Although an in depth look reveals a slew of tools and abilities under the hood. I think it is fairly easy for an inexperienced user to actually create something. Whether its good or not is another issue. And I'm always talking in comparison to programs like Premiere and Avid, where an amateur would be able to do a lot less...

FCPX learning curve is much faster for a newbie than other NLEs it would seem.

Most "experienced" editors don't want to invest the time to learn something new if they don't see an obvious immediate benefit. This is compounded by the radical frequent updates so they either never see the newly added "solutions" to their issues or otherwise feel they're in "constant learning mode."

I think FCPX will take a significant portion of the market through attrition. I think Apple's biggest concern should be getting into schools. Many feel FCPX doesn't prepare them for current jobs in the market. Apple might point out that FCPX facilitates starting up your own business though. The post house freelance world is only a portion of the job market.

As an Apple cert'd trainer who's done a lot of FCP X classes and seminars, both Apple Authorized and customized, for AATCs, universities, production facilities of all sizes, videographers, etc, FCP X is WAY easier to teach, students pick it up WAY faster, and every seasoned pro who's taken one of my classes has never looked back.

It can be learned much more quickly and easily than anything else, and with a faster, easier workflow, well, it reminds me of when Color was added for free to Final Cut Studio.

A small handful of professional, and so called professional colorists got all upset and raised hell online. They claimed we'd see color grading jobs get sloppy, prices for that type of work plummet, and they would lose work.

None of that happened. The folks who couldn't afford them simply learned to do it themselves, and most did really nice work. They're all still in business, they all still make a living. But that small minority still think that you can only do real color grading after decades of experience. Yeah, right...

The color in FCPX is quite amazing, I just sent a feature doc out for a color correction on Davinci, didn't look any better than what I had done in FCP X once I compared shot for shot.

It certainly looks like 10.0.8 or perhaps a 10.1.0 is eminent.

Ben I'm inclined to agree with you but the opposition to FCPX is much stronger than it was to Color. It's bordering on irrational unless one takes the time to understand the opposition.

I think most "experienced" editors don't want to bother with any training. They can move between 7, PPro, MC and without seeing a single tutorial, get a good part of the basic functions... because they all follow certain similar design and function tenets. A newbie or an open minded person doesn't fall into that trapped thinking.

Most editors don't want to take the time to learn because they can't fathom an immediate ROI. Anyone who has grasped FCPX sees how it's clearly faster. Anyone who hasn't may actually perceive it as slower and more awkward. They don't see a reason to invest the time to learn.

My own guess as "young guns" start to open their own small shops they will compete successfully because they'll be getting work done faster. They will also be the ones hiring the FCPX freelancers.

Anecdotally the way I hear it getting into established shops is when an experienced and trusted editor gets up to speed on their own and they tell management they can work more efficiently in FCPX for a specific job. Even then the rest of the facility may be resistant, looking at the one editor as an "oddball mutant" or, at best, "the left hander in a right hander's world."

It's going to be very very hard to break through that resistance. This is exacerbated by editors who stubbornly dabble without training and pronounce FCPX an abysmal failure as a "Pro App" and they have the scars to "prove it."

Seanus, you're an optimist.

cseeman wrote: This is exacerbated by editors who stubbornly dabble without training and pronounce FCPX an abysmal failure as a "Pro App" and they have the scars to "prove it."

It does make me laugh when people who haven't cut a single job on FCPX declare that they understand it.

Suits me fine. The longer those "professionals" don't adopt FCPX, the longer I can keep charging my same rate while working in 1/4 the time and not be underbid.

Looks like going after that pro market is really working out well for AVID. Just sayin.

...looks like I hit a nerve....

I dont think it takes a neuro-surgeon to understand that FCPX is more efficient than the other NLEs. However, the bottom line is that "its the fool behind the tool".

It is the result that counts! Whatever anyone uses to complete their creation in a, relatively speaking, satisfactory result is what is good for them. You can't tell Picasso which paint brush to use. Specifically, for Picasso I dont think it would matter which paint brush you gave him. Although he definitely developed his own workflow for his own result regardless of what was popular.

Use whatever tools are good for you, to give you your desired result.

But only in this milieu can you use a tool for broadcast and paying work and still be told it's unprofessional. They do hate my paintbrush.

Yeah the paint brush issue is weird.

I remember applying for a Job not so long ago. Classic days.

The Edit Suite was set up to edit on either Avid or FCP with one of those Edit Share, shared storage solutions.

I said great I will take FCP thank you very much and 300€ a day will do very nicely.

The reply was only our Avid editors get that.

FCP editors get 250€ a day.

To which I replied why?

They obviously had no answer and gracefully paid me 300€ a day to edit on FCP!?!

I am not sure to this day if it was stupidity or a calculated attempt cut costs!!!

Unfortunately I am inclined to think that the latter was the case.