It took a very simple demo to remind me of what I’ve been missing for years. Efficiency.
You all know I’ve been a staunch Final Cut Pro user going on 10 years now. I originally bought the app because quite honestly it was cheap and it was more efficient than the Media 100 system I had been using. Then as Apple kept adding features and applications to what turned into the Final Cut Studio suite, we were able to become more productive and expand our company because, well the software was / is still cheap.
But I guess I never thought about how inefficient our workflow was until I listened in on about 5 minutes of one of the Avid artists giving a demo today. No, not in the main theater with the huge screens and big sound system. Just an editor off to the side with a small crowd around him. Someone had asked a question about mixed frame rates and the editor proceeded to create a timeline:
1080i / 59.94.
Into that timeline he placed:
1080i / 59.94
720p / 50
720p / 60
1080p / 23.96
and a few others.
The codecs were
DVCPro HD
HDV
XDCAM
And he hit play. No transcoding, no conversions, no anything, just hit play and go. And not just hit play, but multi track playback of multiple codecs, frame rates, frame sizes just having at it, all playing out through the AJA Io Express in full quality resolution. For even more realtime playback, he dropped the output to Draft quality which still looked outstanding on the external monitors. And he also had multiple options on how the footage would be interpolated in the timeline allowing him to smooth out the look of the 720/50 material for example.
In other words, just cut the story, forget about creating a workflow to match your system. Give me the footage, I don’t care what it is, and let’s get to work. The system will play it so I don’t have to think about it.
With Final Cut Pro we have to carefully consider our workflow, generally convert all footage to ProRes, convert it all to the same frame rate / frame size and then start to edit. That could be a matter of minutes or days depending on what we’re doing. I preach on the Creative Cow forums all the time about how you can’t mix and match codecs / frame rates efficiently in Final Cut Pro, you need to convert first.
Is Avid perfect? Probably not, but then which NLE is truly perfect? None. Because what’s perfect is the subjective choice of the end user. The perfect NLE would most likely be something with features drawn from Premiere, Avid, Final Cut Pro and Quantel. So it’s a trade off and quite honestly, price has always won out for me. I accepted Final Cut Pro’s lower cost as the trade off between efficiency and getting the work done for our client. Of course now with Avid’s $995 trade in offer, price isn’t so much of a factor. Well, ok, yes it is because I would have to replace 7 seats of Final Cut Pro and that’s significantly more than the standard $299 FCP upgrades.
Those 5 minutes today definitely gave me a new perspective from which I will look at the “new and improved” Final Cut Pro tomorrow night. Is Apple giving us a much more efficient tool or did they just pile on a bunch of new features and completely change the interface because that’s what they think we want to see? As I said in my original “All In” blog, at the end of the day we need an efficient tool that lets us tell the story. Thanks Avid for reminding me of that.
As a long-time avid editor I can say the Media Composer really changed. It was a ‘Diva’ some time ago – everything has to be configured around the editing application. But it changed. It’s incredible powerful.
The effect editing is so easy, clear and fast. Yes, you can put the FX at every clip – or just at the video track above to affect everything below. Timewarp: interframe interpolation. The spectra matte key is great, as well as the bundled BCC FX. Audio TCs. AAF/OMF Export and Import.Stereo Audio Tracks. And… what I first didn’t believe. The new phrase find plugin works amazingly. Searching the footage, if someone said somewhere anything. + Sorenson Squeeze out of the box. You should really take a deeper look.
As I did with Final Cut. And now I really enjoy to use the bundled Software of the FC-Studio.
Apple definitely changed the game – and avid understood. Let’s see what Final Cut X really offers. In June.