FCPX Apple on NAB or?

screendor wrote: Yep. Something is happening. Unfortunately, it's pretty pathetic—at least in terms of marketing/PR outreach to the pro community. I think that's our concern: the lame-o outreach is indicative of their lack of focus and effort in terms of developing the application. In a fast-moving competitive environment where Avid is the crumbling king, PPRO is the upstart on the rise and Apple is perceived to have bumbled the launch and shown little concern for the pro. (Not having a new tower doesn't help, right?)

OTOH, I still think X is quite good. Which is the ultimate goal.

well, they have done quite a lot in the last two years already. and i don´t think that their " marketing " is any indication to the development of the app. it has reasons in company philosophy, which i think should be different concerning pros.

i love editing with it now and i am sure there a lot of things to come.

( most important for me are fixes for small things like no blading in overlapping audio to create an attached audio or the lack of the ability to break apart multicam audio. )

and in the end it all comes down to this:

it is not the tools, it´s your storytelling skills that count.

knurrrrrrt wrote:

screendor wrote: ...
it is not the tools, it´s your storytelling skills that count.

But Apple sells tools. I can story tell just fine on Windows 7 and I spent 10 years using Avid and training people as well in a broadcast environment as well. Heck I knew a lot of story tellers who loved Discreet Edit*

Apple has to market. If a potential client asks me what I edit with and I say FCPX I don't need to hear them say "oh we're looking for an Avid or Premiere editor" even when it makes zero difference to their workflow.

Perception counts and it counts a lot in this business.

I know there are editors and facilities using FCPX that don't even want to talk about it publicly because they fear a backlash and that's bad PR for THEIR business. That's NOT a good place to be in.

I remember seeing a "public advocate" of FCPX at a trade show last year, he wasn't even talking about FCPX specifically at the forum but I heard him mention off hand that he was tired of being called a moron (because of his FCPX support). No lead editor or facility manager is going to open their work to that kind of persecution. It can and will factor into a facility manager's purchasing decisions.

We aren't simply technician nor even just story tellers. We're sales people and we don't want our potential customer driven away by a public negative perception of our tools.

Totally agree. Another major concern is finding freelance FCPX editors. If all the industry buzz is negative about FCPX—or is currently the case, all the industry buzz is about all the other NLEs BUT FCPX—that makes it harder for me to source good freelance editors to fill in when we get busy. Honestly, that's my number one concern. Finding freelancers who are willing to put in the time to master FCPX. And that is directly impacted by the industry perception. Which is influenced, to a greater or lesser extent, by the prowess of the marketing/PR teams of Apple and its competitors.

Supposedly FCPTalent has FCPX freelancers on their list.
www.fcptalent.com

But yes, people are being discouraged from learning FCPX when the see all the ridicule. Granted FCPX does actually seem to be selling well. In US App Store #2 Grossing (beyond the OS itself) and #12 top paid. But buying isn't using and if people feel they aren't going to get work if they develop skills, they'll focus on learning the other NLEs.

I see posts by young people on forums asking if they should learn FCPX and I see a lot of discouragement. "Well, if you want a job learn Avid and Premiere."

The whole thing spirals down over time unless and until Apple steps in and does a little image building.

mester wrote: Apple announced that they would...

No, some reporter on his own said Apple was doing a PR blitz. Apple never said anything themselves as such.

I know tons of FCP X editors who are season pros. There was FCP X compatibility with most every hardware/system/software product I saw at NAB. I found a ton of attendees at NAB who were using it and enjoyed talking with me about it.

I have two blog posts about FCP X and Adobe from the inside info I got first hand at NAB.

BenB wrote: I know tons of FCP X editors who are season pros. There was FCP X compatibility with most every hardware/system/software product I saw at NAB. I found a ton of attendees at NAB who were using it and enjoyed talking with me about it.

No doubt. But unfortunately, for every one who would speak highly of X, there are probably 9 others who would either laugh, mock or complain. Apple still faces an uphill PR battle, which is a shame.

Ben, Good blog post. I still think the missing link is "image building"

"• FCP X is being used by some major players, and by businesses in all categories, at all levels."

But other editors, facilities, educators need to know this. They don't seem to. The "In Action" area has far too few examples. In addition, professionals, especially ones making facility level purchasing decisions, need very direct and deep knowledge of the workflows being used by other facilities to feel secure in making their decisions.

Agree. Ben, your blog post makes me feel better about the path of FCPX. That said, I still think Apple is doing a bad job of communicating to their pro user base. They totally blew the launch and alienated/scared away many of their most ardent fans. Repairing the damage requires more than just creating a good product. It requires creating a great product—and working overtime reaching out to your core users. I guess it just seems like arrogance on Apple's part when they put out such a pathetic effort in communicating clearly with their users and potential customers.

I want X to succeed mainly because I like it and because we've invested lots of time and effort into putting into our shop. I don't want to have to switch to something else in two years because I can't find any X editors and my clients laugh when I tell them what we cut on. It's in everybody's interest that X becomes the platform of choice. That will take more effort from Apple than what is currently on display. Steve Jobs knew better than anyone that image counts in business. And whether it's deserved or not, the image of X in the pro marketplace ain't great.

cseeman wrote: Supposedly FCPTalent has FCPX freelancers on their list.
www.fcptalent.com

But yes, people are being discouraged from learning FCPX when the see all the ridicule. Granted FCPX does actually seem to be selling well. In US App Store #2 Grossing (beyond the OS itself) and #12 top paid. But buying isn't using and if people feel they aren't going to get work if they develop skills, they'll focus on learning the other NLEs.

I see posts by young people on forums asking if they should learn FCPX and I see a lot of discouragement. "Well, if you want a job learn Avid and Premiere."

The whole thing spirals down over time unless and until Apple steps in and does a little image building.

Sorry but the site is bit well very misleading, confusing and not user friendly! No saved account, no list of jobs or users, can't even manually enter the location.

I don't see many clients using this around the world. Maybe locally you have better chance over Facebook or Cracks list.

Ben nice Blog entry, supposedly this new Mac is coming this April.

But you might want defend your opinion at creative cow, no?
forums.creativecow.net/thread/335/51444#51444

FCPGuy wrote: Ben nice Blog entry, supposedly this new Mac is coming this April.

But you might want defend your opinion at creative cow, no?
forums.creativecow.net/thread/335/51444#51444

I would suggest not bothering with that last suggestion.

Here's my opinion. Apple does have a PR push coming up. Apple didn't have anything "new" ready for NAB, and they haven't done anything at NAB for a while anyway. The exception being the "pre-announcement" of broadcast monitoring and multi-cam, which they really had to do as those 2 missing features were a pretty big deal.

Apple doesn't like to talk about things they're doing that aren't finished. They don't want to say, "we've got feature x coming soon, but it's really gonna be better in 6 months!" They want to have it essentially done before they announce it. That's been pretty much the case with all the new features.

Apple also doesn't want to be a part of the "my NLE is better than yours!" game. Good. IMO, they're working on stuff, and we'll hear about it when it's done, since that's been the case so far. Every 3 or 4 months we get an update, which is pretty good I think.

One thing I do actually know is that they do listen to, and act on the info they get from the feedback form. I've gotten responses from them, as have many others. My guess is there will be some more PR stuff happening as well in the not too distant future.

But, hey, what do I know right? Adobe has created FCP 7.5 or 8, so if that's what some people want, go for it. Personally, I prefer the new hotness to a younger shinier version of the same old thing. YMMV

FCPGuy wrote: Apple doesn't like to talk about things they're doing that aren't finished. They don't want to say, "we've got feature x coming soon, but it's really gonna be better in 6 months!" They want to have it essentially done before they announce it. That's been pretty much the case with all the new features.

Yeah...except that was exactly what they did with FCP X. It was released in basically an unfinished state, with an after-the-fact admission that other core features would be coming down the road. And that (understandably) alienated a number of editors, whose profession depends on the ability to use many of those features.

So while X has certainly come a long way since 10.0.1, it will take much more than just an update every few months to win back the editors it scared off. Apple needs a new PR push and a strong emphasis on the software-hardware symbiosis that made FCP 7 - and OS X in general - so great.

"with an after-the-fact admission that other core features would be coming"

Actually it was a before the fact admission. They talked about it at NAB 2011 when they first showed the software before it was released. The talked about it to Larry Jordan and to Steve Martin when they previewed the app in Cupertino before that NAB.

Tom Wolsky wrote: "with an after-the-fact admission that other core features would be coming"

Actually it was a before the fact admission. They talked about it at NAB 2011 when they first showed the software before it was released. The talked about it to Larry Jordan and to Steve Martin when they previewed the app in Cupertino before that NAB.

So, in a way, even worse. And very, very unlike Apple. The software as it exists now, at 10.0.8, is arguably where it should have been 2 years ago at 10.0.1, at least feature-wise.

Seriously I would not recommend posting anything on creative cow. Certain people over there are really "political" and it's not funny

pollux wrote: Seriously I would not recommend posting anything on creative cow. Certain people over there are really "political" and it's not funny

The opinions and attitudes on Creative Cow are as hopelessly archaic and unintuitive as that godawful interface. Seriously, has no one thought to even try to update that site in the past decade?

True. No where near as tasty as our beloved FCP.CO.

That said, the Cow is very useful and enjoyable even for the constant debate about FCPX or Not. Plus it is useful to hear from non-Xers, haters, etc. And there are plenty indeed. Hence the last 20 posts on this site.

I wouldn't mind posting there, but I appear to have been banned.

Some of us like Roller Derby and Mud Wrestling. There's nothing like getting into a Cow patty fight. You gotta think fast.

I used to frequent the COW back in the day but it really so archaic and full of vitriol that a rarely go there now.

As to the new Mac Pro I think people often forget that Apple is really at the mercy of Intel.
Why come out with a new box when Intel's Xeon Chips don't even support Thunderbolt?

I have a suspicion they would just love to make the whole thing themselves and with what they've been learning about chip manufacturing it wouldn't surprise me to see something radical come out.

A render farm of iPads anyone? :woohoo: