There’s been an interesting development since my last post, well, interesting to me anyway. I wrote last time about the ability of editors to be flexible and work on multiple platforms, and how I’ve attempted to approach Final Cut Pro X in this way. Since then I’ve been asked by a friend/client if we could transition a project we’ve started in FCP 7 into Adobe Premiere. So it looks like that in the very near future I’ll be experimenting with that platform as well. We’ll see how that goes.
For now, we’ll stick to Apple. What is this gross offense that has been perpetrated that has the editing community buzzing? Not only has Apple not been keeping up to date with industry trends- no major upgrades for a couple of years-which is an eternity in the ever changing video business-but when they finally DID release an ‘upgrade,’ it left us in the dark, out to dry, under the bus, etc. While I can’t speak with 100-percent authority, I don’t believe that Avid (or even Premiere) have ever turned their backs on their user base like Apple has done with Final Cut Pro (please correct me if I’m wrong).
So what do I mean when I say Apple has forsaken its user base? The short answer is that they didn’t ‘upgrade’ at all. They just made a completely different product, and slapped the same name on it. They made a product that has zero compatibility with any of its previous versions. This means that all of us Final Cut Pro editors couldn’t simply upgrade to the new version, learn the exciting new aspects, and implement it into our existing workflow. Even though it’s never a good idea to upgrade your software while in the middle of a project, up until this release you were at least able to do so when needed. You’d just open an old project, save a copy with the new software version, proceed as usual with all the cool new perks of the upgrade, and viola! Not possible with Final Cut Pro X. You might as well try to open an old Final Cut project within Adobe Premiere (oh wait I forgot, even Adobe Premiere lets you open up old FCP projects)! Even more insulting to the professional user is that while we are unable to open up our legacy FCP projects, it DOES allow the opening of iMovie projects! It has been no secret that Apple has been aggressively expanding their consumer product line while keeping the pro market on the back burner, but this move to make the new PRO line of software compatible with the CONSUMER level of software and incompatible with the last pro version seems to be just another sign that Apple doesn’t have any interest in their pro users. And who’s to blame them really? You can’t blame a company for pursuing the road to higher profit. But to abandon the product that has become one of the major industry standards? That just hurts.
Just to play devil’s advocate, let’s pretend that it’s just another platform that we have to learn from the ground up. If you approach it that way, which has been challenging for me, there are some pretty cool things about it. Here’s what I do like.
Their new ‘magnetic timeline’ is actually pretty cool if you have the patience to learn it. I hated it at first, but it is pretty slick. Not sure if I prefer it over a traditional timeline, but it’s still pretty neat. The new audio waveforms are really gorgeous, and audio scrubbing is way more precise than in FCP 7. It’s also pretty cool that you don’t have to go through the process of importing every single little thing into your project, since you’ve got a dedicated little browser built into the interface. There’s also no need to convert many of the new video and audio codecs into something else in order to work with them (although I should note that even though Apple makes this claim, they still recommend converting to a Final Cut Pro-friendly codec for ‘optimal performance’). Regardless, it is a time saver.
But some of the other features that FCP boasts about don’t really work for me. Firstly, as I’ve said before, the lack of support for legacy FCP projects is downright silly. Then there is the emphasis on fancy bells and whistles that don’t really work. For example, the auto-analysis feature that can be applied when importing footage has yet to impress me. FCP X is supposed to be able to auto-color balance your footage based on daylight/interior white balance mishaps. But so far I have yet to take their suggestions. I’ve found that it overcompensates, and therefore I have to redo it anyway. What good is this feature if it doesn’t actually work that well? I don’t believe they are doing any favors to editor’s skill levels by attempting to remove the need for knowledge of a properly balanced shot. The audio analysis is the same way. A practical application of their hum removal for instance, often results in tinny distorted vocals. Again, why market this feature when it doesn’t really work for real-world applications. Then there is almost the complete lack of audio mixing support. One of the best features of the FCP X predecessors was the extraordinary audio mixing tool. Mixing your project’s soundtrack with the former’s multi-track audio mixing tool was a perfectly suitable alternative to mixing with a professional audio utility such as Pro Tools (I know audio editors will disagree, but it at least allowed us video editors to do our best). Well, that tool is completely absent in this version, and the method for audio mixing is cumbersome and severely limiting. Then there are the more logistical items such as project management, playback control, and final output settings. Like imovie and iphoto, Final Cut Pro X is now an ‘Event’ based platform where all events are visible all the time for each particular drive. This may be fine when you only have a project or two going at a time, but I don’t know a single editor who wants their workspace cluttered up with every single project they’ve ever worked on when all but one are irrelevant. In fact, file management in general is a nightmare. The software tries to be too smart, and accept too much responsibility by not allowing you to manually reconnect media should it become offline. Then there is the inability to monitor your project with an external video monitor. I’m sorry, but why would a pro application not allow you to monitor your project for broadcast with an external source. That’s kind of a big deal.
I could go on, but I think I’ve made my point about Apple’s slap in the face with FCP X. I’ll put it this way, I honestly think that if this product didn’t have the ‘Final Cut Pro’ name attached to it, people wouldn’t have been so upset. It would have just been another attempt at a professional editing application that would have been swallowed in the sea. But here’s the thing. I don’t hate it. I don’t! I won’t implement it into my workflow unless a project comes my way that has been started with it, but I’m also not going to ignore it. A good editor is a well-informed editor, and to ignore this product altogether would put me at a disadvantage. I’ll still study it, and I’ll still hope for it’s development, but Final Cut Pro X is most certainly not the Final Cut Pro I know and love, and it is most certainly not ready for prime time.