Well, the interwebs are all abuzz these last couple days about a horribly unthought out post on Apple Insider, claiming that Apple is dumbing down Final Cut Pro to appeal more to prosumers. I’m tired of talking about it, but I thought I’d lay out my thoughts and concerns quick before I move on. I will point out now that I am basing this all on my thoughts and opinions, some basic facts, and the state of today’s market. I have no inside information, and I do not claim to have any sort of secret knowledge like some of the other interweb asshats do.
OPINION: Apple is not turning FCP into iMovie, or vice versa.
THOUGHT: Apple is not ignoring the MacPro, Intel is not providing the necessary chips.
FACT: Apple makes a fair share of income on sales of MacPro towers and Final Cut Studio. And they spend almost nothing advertising them. That’s a good business to stay in.
OPINION: Apple is bringing a new interface to FCP, since they are probably rewriting it from the ground up to make it 64-bit. I hope they don’t make it feel too much like a toy. I already feel like Motion is a bit toyish.
THOUGHT: Apple should raise the price of Final Cut Studio to $2000, change the name, and fix some issues. They should give Final Cut Express the new face and features for the prosumer crowd, name it Final Cut Pro, and raise it’s price. The prosumers want everything to look like a toy, work without thinking, and limit their actual required brain power. I’ll bet the large percentage of them downloaded FCP illegally. I have a brain. I paid for the software. I will allow for handles while shooting, loading, and editing footage, instead of bitching on the forums “but iMovie doesn’t need handles!”
OPINION: If Apple does dumb down Final Cut Pro to work the way the idiots on the interwebs want it to, they will lose their professional user base, hence losing their free marketing to the prosumer crowd, hence delivering a death blow to FCP. I mean, why target your product to a user base that’s just going to steal it and run it on your cheaper computers anyway? Target it toward the professionals who buy the powerhouse machines to run it on, and use it on big name projects. This will keep the prosumers flocking toward your stores to buy more iMacs and MacBook Pros, and off to download an illegal copy of your software.
OPINION: Compared to AVID software, Final Cut Pro is already “Apple-ized” and intuitive. They don’t need to make it any easier to use. It’s powerful, and it’s intuitive. I don’t want an ‘auto-flow’ button to edit my material for me. I don’t want a Ken Burns effect built in. Leave it the way it is, fix the existing issues.
FACT: I have a new Mac Pro and Final Cut Studio 3. They do a fantastic job of meeting my post production needs. If I don’t like the new version of Final Cut Studio, I won’t buy it. It’s probably well over a year away anyway. I have plenty of time to decide what I’m going to migrate to if Apple really drops the ball on Final Cut Studio. But I don’t think they’re going to.
FACT: I will never buy a Windows computer to run an edit suite. I’ve tried it. Never again. I will always use something that runs on the Apple platform.
Anyway, I’m done worrying about it, talking about it.
Philip Hodgetts does a much better job of discussing this than me. He has a lot of great points, and has a lot more level head than me when talking about it.
[...] We enjoyed this post by ThrillCat Editorial which analyzes the “Final Cut Freakout” by dividing the debate into OPINIONS, FACTS [...]
“They don’t need to make it any easier to use. It’s powerful, and it’s intuitive”
Sorry I completely disagree. FCP and the rest of the Pro-Apps are in dire need of an overhaul and I don’t think I’m alone in thinking that.
I don’t want bells and whistles for the sake of it, I want simple, effective tools that make my job easier and make me work faster. That includes UI enhancements.
Can you not say that spotlight integration into the browser or timeline would be useful? They’ve had two versions to put it in and they haven’t.
What about quicklook in the browser? Smart bins? Why should I have to go to another app to do relatively simple text effects? Cocoa? 64-bit? A lot of what I ask for is simple stuff that is in the OS, these can’t be implented in a flagship apple product?
Not to mention that Color needs a complete overhaul of it’s UI, yes it can give incredible results but I shouldn’t have to fight with antiquated round-tripping and horrible file management to do it.
It is not a badge of honor to master these kinds of drawbacks, the kudos is in making a great edit that you can be proud of. FCP and Apple should be doing everything in their power to help us achieve that.
There’s a lot of work to do and I’m glad Apple have re-affirmed their commitment to the Pro-Apps, I like you will never move to a PC for editing, so I’m counting on them to do something more than just bug fixes, they should just be doing that anyway.
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Mykola Mozhenko, FCP TIPS. FCP TIPS said: New post: Final Cut Freakout http://www.thrillcateditorial.com/?p=231 [...]
As a long time editor who has used Avid DS and recently FCP, the only overhaul I feel FCP needs is a rewrite in 64 bits. This will streamline just about everything. I have put CS5 thru its paces, and while
its not my NLE of choice , it has speed and stability that leaves FCP in the dust at the moment. I use After Effects, Mocha,, Syntheyes and Optical Flares so using the Color interface is not an issue at all.
As a long time editor who has used Avid DS and recently FCP, the only overhaul I feel FCP needs is a rewrite in 64 bits. This will streamline just about everything. I have put CS5 thru its paces, and while
its not my NLE of choice , it has speed and stability that leaves FCP in the dust at the moment. I use After Effects, Mocha,, Syntheyes and Optical Flares so using the Color interface is not an issue at all.