I've Seen The New Version of Final Cut Pro…

Posted on February 23, 2011 by Larry

… and it’s a jaw-dropper.

Last week, Apple invited a few folks, including me, to a short meeting in Cupertino where they previewed the up-coming version of Final Cut Pro.

While I am under NDA and can’t talk about what I saw, I CAN tell you the meeting happened and that it showcased the new Final Cut Pro.

While the invited crowd was small, it was a Who’s Who of leaders in the post-production community. I felt like I was standing on the red carpet at an awards show, watching all the stars walk past.

There will be LOTS to talk about as this project gets closer. For now, I recommend you subscribe to my monthly Final Cut Studio newsletter – because I’ll share all the news that I’m allowed to share in there first.

Tell your friends … its gonna be a great year.

Larry

P.S. If you feel the urge to email me for more information, keep in mind that Apple’s lawyers are bigger than your lawyers. So, until Apple lifts the NDA, I’m telling you all I can … for now.

92 Responses to I've Seen The New Version of Final Cut Pro…

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Trai Guzie says:

February 25, 2011 at 6:02 pm

Larry,

I can’t wait. After seeing what CS5 can do with hardware acceleration, with you saying that it is “jaw dropping” says to me that it not only meets those speed enhancements, but exceeds them as well! I can’t wait to see your first webinar detailing the new FCP!
Bob says:

February 25, 2011 at 8:16 pm

Hi Larry,

We have to use Avid here and we seem to have an issue with exporting HD (reformated as SD) . Would the new FCP do this better?

Thanks!

B.
Gary Jordan says:

February 26, 2011 at 4:26 am

Having received the email from Apple about MacBook Pros; I am guessing that the new Thunderbolt two way, daisy chain-able connection will be a hardware talking point for FCP. I am sure that improving rate of data flow would increase the advantage of the upgraded software. Or am I just whistling in the dark before dawn?
Larry says:

February 26, 2011 at 11:34 am

Thunderbolt is very, VERY cool – and totally geared to the professional, high-end of the market.

That being said, it is essentially hardware, which means that all Mac applications will be able to take advantage of it. Think of it… saving Excel spreadsheets at 10Gbps! Wow.

Larry
Marcus R. Moore says:

February 26, 2011 at 12:01 pm

I think people are underestimating just how big Thunderbolt is. Up to now, Firewire 800 was still the best mid-range option. eSATA is a boost in performance, but you needed extra hardware and it was easy to still hit the data-rate ceiling running multiple HD streams. Thunderbolt is hardwired in, multi-purpose, and has LOADS of headroom on the data-rate side.

I wouldn’t be seriously considering upgrading my system this year if there wasn’t for Thunderbolt [and a new FCP].
John Richards says:

February 26, 2011 at 1:38 pm

Larry,

Thanks for the info on Final cut. I can’t wait to learn more and thanks to Apple for not giving up on a great product.

John
Lachlan says:

February 26, 2011 at 7:49 pm

Forget shoehorning Shake features into Motion – though sure it would be nice – but what about shoehorning Livetype features into Motion?!

It’s a drag when a discontinued product has more functionality for 2d Graphics than the program that took its place – I’m talking about the ability to apply effects and keyframe individual elements within groups – or apply multiple styles/effects to separate elements within one group of elements … Why is Motion so behind in this regard? Using Motion for 2d work is worse than using a jackhammer to crack open a nut …

Good to hear that a new FCS is on the way – my 5D workflow could use a lot of help currently.

Cheers.
kitty says:

February 26, 2011 at 9:02 pm

I’d be surprised if Apple didn’t take advantage of their lead on thunderbolt to do something more integrated with fcs. It is suddenly looking like being a pretty good year for apple pro’s again.
Russ says:

February 28, 2011 at 8:10 am

After the initial euphoria it is good to look outside of the “FC bubble”
Post production is fast turning in to an environment run by accountants.
So efficiency is the key to making money, and will the new FCS give us this? Creativity is one thing but we all need to make money.
The arguments rage for FCS vs. Adobe Premiere vs. AVID
No software package can be “all things to ALL users” BUT looking around saw AVID MC V.5.5 has a new feature (audio recognition) called ‘Phrase find”. So on a Sunday night after a weekend shoot you have several hundred clips to go through and AVID reckons you get an 80 to 90% hit rate on keywords. So who gets the job done faster? At this time I believe Apple and Final Cut Pro have a major “catch up” on their hands..Lets hope they have done a better job, than recent stuff like Aperture 3 which is really not all that good.
Mark McKee says:

February 28, 2011 at 4:36 pm

No one does a dog & pony show like Apple. You get so high, walking on air, you go home and anticipate. Then you get it, and it’s caveats, excuses, more money, more caveats, more money, more excuses, and it never seems to work in the real world, like it did in that rigged version that you saw in the demo. But you can’t argue that they know how to get you high. I keep falling for it myself after 25 years…