I received the following email today from someone who needs to remain anonymous. However, I trust them and their opinion and wanted to share their thoughts with you here as a way to continue our discussion.
While I don’t agree with all of this, it does spark an interesting chain of thought.
Larry
P.S. I did not write this, nor did I ask it to be written. I have obtained permission to share it with you.
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Apple says that FCP X is about the future of NLE. After thinking about it, I think they are right.
It’s not just about the GUI or features per se… but the fact that our culture is going mobile and our work along with it. A new generation is growing up and moving them from iMovie to FCPX will be easy. Also the new generation will invent their own workflows and their own content and their own way of doing things. Apple may have jumped the gun in a way that made it impossible for a percentage of the current editing community to go along, but those folks are not the future. Not in the same way a 16-year-old iMovie whiz is.
Look at the big picture. Sales of standard PCs have fallen while portable products have been flying off the shelves. This is no fad, it’s the future.
Watch as the system requirements for NLE on the Apple side look more and more lean. Apple owns both hardware and OS, my bet is that they will leverage that to guarantee they are ahead of the curve in performance requiring smaller and smaller hardware overhead. It’s in this way, as the new generation of editors comes up, FCP will take back it’s place as the de facto platform for any level of project. I’m absolutely convinced (as is Apple) that sooner than you think, a teenager today will be working on an episode of “Extreme _____ Makeover” using an iPad__ with lots of storage on board. I already saw someone using an iPad as a 2nd display for FCP X and how some functions were already touch screen enabled. Those pissed off edit suite owners may be pissed off at what Apple has done, but just wait till all those up-and-coming digital kids start to see those very expensive edit suites as dinosaur grave yards.
That’s where Apple is headed and a powerful, sleek FCP that uses iCloud technology along with all the other new technologies is where the future really is. Does anyone remember those $250,000 edit suites that got replaced by a $1,300.00 Final Cut Studio, back in the day? Well, Apple is doing it again with one major change, this time they are obsoleting themselves before someone else does.
It really is the future, or at least it’s headed in that direction.
109 Responses to The Future of Non-Linear Editing?
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Clayton says:
July 26, 2011 at 12:34 pm
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Leo Hans says:
July 26, 2011 at 12:56 pm
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Penelope says:
July 26, 2011 at 1:23 pm
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Jeyl says:
July 26, 2011 at 2:17 pm
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July 26, 2011 at 3:04 pm
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July 26, 2011 at 3:12 pm
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July 26, 2011 at 3:30 pm
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Floris says:
July 26, 2011 at 4:47 pm
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Clayton says:
July 26, 2011 at 4:48 pm
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Nivardo Cavalcante says:
July 26, 2011 at 5:09 pm
← Older Comments Newer Comments →The concept car idea is perfect and I think Apple will make FCPX fit for the road. I too hope sooner then later. The younger crowd will grow right along with where FCPX has the capacity to go.
Larry,
I agree with that mail.
People forget that Apple is talking about the future not necessarily in futuristic fantasy terms but in a sense of what’s coming in the near future.
Apple is probably the best doing that.
Today FCPX is not ready for the big show today, but for the rest of the editors already works (aside of some bugs). While they continue improving the software there already are a huge base of editors working on it and then reporting bugs and thoughts on the things Apple need to add in the near future.
I don’t know why people are not capable of looking into more than a week ahead, and that’s why then are so angry. They keep talking about not having OMF, EDL, etc. This things will be added.
Let’s see what comes with the future.
Good point, Markus. Your comments have eased my mind and actually gotten me excited at the prospect of the future. I’m now ready to take a spin into town to fill up the tank, so that I’m prepared when it’s time to hit the road for that nice, long roadtrip.
Thanks for sharing your clear thinking.
Thanks for sharing this with us Larry.
In regards to the message itself, well. I don’t agree with it. It’s just one person’s opinion.
– “Apple may have jumped the gun in a way that made it impossible for a percentage of the current editing community to go along, but those folks are not the future.”
Why? Why aren’t those folks the future? What makes them incapable of producing ground breaking material that teenagers can also produce? Have you ever taught a class in video? I have, and a lot of videos I saw looked like they were shot with the attention span of a cockroach. It’s mostly improv with little bits of quirky editing techniques thrown in because they thought it was “cool” looking. Of course, that’s my opinion on their work, but sometimes they can’t watch their own works with their other classmates because they soon realize that their cockroach videos really do show how little effort was put into the projects.
– “This is no fad, it’s the future.”
It’s also just an opinion. A well informed opinion, but something that I won’t conform to. There are still plenty of folks out there who would jump on a brand new, super expensive desktop machine setup over a portable device as their means of editing projects. It’s called “personal preference” and that is an important thing to have, even if the “kids” don’t think so.
– “Those pissed off edit suite owners may be pissed off at what Apple has done,”
If you want to come off as honest, try phrasing this sentence in a way like you were telling it to the owners of editing suites themselves. Just because they own editing suite don’t automatically qualify as pissed off people. Me? I’m not pissed off. I’m just disappointed. I know that eventually technology will find a way to out outdate my very expensive and top of the line machine with something more efficient. That’s life. It all depends on whether or not I choose to go with the current product. Most of the times I do go with a newer product because my first instinctive reaction will be “Can it do the things I used to do?” and the answer almost always comes out as a yes, with a little extra to keep me interested. With FCX, it doesn’t do the things that I use currently and it doesn’t even have that much extra features to peak my interest. It’s not attractive, it’s not what I’m looking for, and I don’t like that it’s intentionally leaving a lot of good folks out of the picture.
“but just wait till all those up-and-coming digital kids start to see those very expensive edit suites as dinosaur grave yards.”
Yeah. Those kids are going to make comments about our suites and call them dinosaurs…… Why should we care? You can have a bus full of teenagers rallying around my house going “You’re using FC6! You’re obsolete!” and I still won’t care. You think I’m going to run FCX on an iPad simply because the teenagers will be making fun of me if I don’t? When I work on movies, my mentality is NEVER about what teenagers think. It’s about what my team and I think. We don’t care what they think. If FCX would give us benefits, we’d be on it in a heart beat. But it doesn’t, so we’re not going to upgrade just because the future and teenagers say so.
– “Well, Apple is doing it again with one major change, this time they are obsoleting themselves before someone else does.”
Give it another few years and you will see those teenagers that called our work stations grave yards will soon find themselves in the same boat as us. Apple will make something new that doesn’t have the features that they use, and they’ll be as disappointed with the results as we were with FCX. And why? Because it’s the future! Not a future where some probably won’t like the results, but a future that deliberately makes it so you won’t like the results.
This fellow’s comments seem to ignore the art and craft of editing. Any kid with an iPad and the forthcoming FCX app for iPad will be able to hack together cheesy web videos and mediocre reality shows. Skim, drag, drop, hack, voila! Close enough is good enough.
But I’m old school. I take great pride in the artistry that editing can bring to the party with a disciplined master craftsman. I’m not saying I’m that guy, but there are many out there. Will they choose FCX as their tool? Certainly not in the current form. FCX is a beta mess with hints of promise. No Apple product in recent memory has been so poorly introduced. Apple will tell is if they’re REALLY serious about this product with future updates based on feedback from real editors. For now, we’ve got better ways to do our SERIOUS work.
Some thoughts.
1) Apple wants to kill DVD, videotape and TV? Why is the future? Then I must die now that my future is death?
2) For several years using multiple Avid edit suite and do not regret it. If I go to Avid I regret not using FCP X?
3) Everyone talks about the FCP X in the future. But our problem today is not one day become mature and have everything we want.
4)All that’s missing in FCP X are the functions for NLE. Are the same as FCP 7 had. Why then did FCP X? It would be more correct to have launched an FCP 8. No one asked to be changed now FCP 7.
What about the anonymous text it is unrealistic, all speak in the future.
Most of the individuals that are angry and criticizing Apple are probably the same people who embrace Avid or FCP in it’s infancy when the film industry was upset about the digital workflow. Now these same individuals are crying foul because their comfy way of editing is now changing. I’m sorry, but people like Graham White and Lou Borella who posted here sound like grumpy old men who cannot believe that there is a new crop of up and coming video professionals who will be doing things so much more efficiently and creatively than our current crop of pros. I learned on FCP 1. I built my business on FCP 4, 5, 6, and 7. I am now ready to look to the future and try my hand at FCPX and ready to pass the torch to the new generation of dreamers and creative individuals. We are not being forced to learn something new. We can still use FCP 7, and if you feel that Apple is not supporting you, then switch to Avid or Premiere. Technology is always changing and we may be seeing the start of a new way of editing. It will not surprise me if Avid or Adobe start to switch to a model of FCPX in the near future. Sometimes it’s okay to just sit back and watch the train go by, but sometimes if you really want to go somewhere you have to jump on the train.
Great comments.
I agree with the car analogy. Apple released a concept car and everyone in the industry is watching. Avid and Adobe are profiting from this now but they have to come with an answer. I bet that 20% of the new features of Final Cut Pro X will end up in Premiere Pro CS6. Hints: openCL, better metadata, auditions, connected clips, timeline index
Some thoughts:
– Final Cut X will take 90% of the total market
– Young people will love it
– The product will grow the next 1-2 years
– Many third parties will offer great plug-ins
– Plug-in market will boom because of high market share
– Avid can’t compete… the reason people stick with Avid is because of the workflow and because they are ‘used’ to it. If they change that… people get angry. So change is going to be very slow at Avid. Look at the Sneak peak footage… how many times did they carefully mention that they won’t change the workflow, won’t kill features, etcetera). So if Final Cut Pro X succeeds and the workflows get fixed in the near future (multicam, XML, plug-in availability) where does that leave Avid? I find the Avid interface horrible and I’am a very competent computer user. I just don’t speak the language of that application and don’t want to speak it.
– I think Adobe is in a better position… but they seem to try very hard to lure FCP editors and if they listen to their feedback (make PPro more like Final Cut Pro) they also have a problem: because by changing directions if Final Cut Pro X succeeds.. they upset all those new customers. I am also surprised that Premiere Pro was not a good tool for many FCP editors for a long time (and I know many of them did try out CS5 but still preferred FCP), but now it suddenly is a good tool for them? Hard to believe!
Apple has a vision. And they are quite good in seeing the future. iPhone/iPad/iPod/iTunes… all homeruns.
They killed the floppy drive. Does anyone miss it?
They are killing optical drives. Who cares?
(thus they don’t support BluRay… they want to get rid of optical media)
If you look at that Steve Jobs iMovie ’08 movie from his keynote… you can see that he loves this new editing paradigm. Apple won’t change.
So… ultimately the question is: does Apple get it right yes/no? If yes… the other companies have a problem. If no, they keep the 10% of professional users while Apple still has the iMovie upsell.
If you are a true professional, you can work with multiple systems so learn the tools and pick the ones that suit you best. You can also wait another month or six to see Apple’s update schedule and use FCP7 in the meantime.
The complaint I hear most often is that Apple should’ve waited 6 – 12 months to make the application better. I don’t agree. Software is complicated, so it is good that it is out there. FCP 7 still works so you are not forced to anything right now. Also, if X was like 7… you are a fool to update to a .0 release if your workflow and business depends on it. Now the software is out (and many people are switching, which I think Apple did not anticipate, hence the new videos on their website to counterattack Avid/Adobe) Apple is forces to work very hard on updates as people are very nervous and once they jump ship, they don’t easily come back. I also think X hit a nerve and Mr. Jobs is not very happy with the publicity, and did not anticipate that people would get THIS angry. Apple is all about brand image so I am sure they’re very eager to fix their mistake. Not by talking, not by excuses, but through a good product.
For now, I still have faith in Apple. Just be patient and wait for the first batch of updates. If they are listening, which I think they are, there will be a lot of progress this year. They already mentioned XML (the Apple version of it) support this summer and a larger update in a few months. I also believe that they DID read the feedback that Larry, Michael Wohl and Philip Hodgetts gave them and that they will DO something with it. Just not in the .0. That’s just how Apple works. Look at Lion… many of the bugs and complaints were already voiced after the first Developer Preview but Apple didn’t change much… those changes and fixes come with .1, .2, .3 etc.
What a wonderful time we live in!
Teenagers grow up into professionals. But they will have their own way of doing things and like new music, some of us old timers won’t get it. Before you know it, they will be old enough to hold the purse strings. Oh well, thats just the way of the world. Change is hard.
AVID e ADOBE, Are wrong? If they are why so many are switching to them? Your NLE is past? Dinosaurs? Hmmm … I think not.