Yesterday was a whirlwind day. Started off early at a breakfast meeting with the top level executives of Avid and ended with the always entertaining Supermeet. Ok, maybe this year’s Supermeet was a little more entertaining than most.
Let’s start with this morning. For the first time I can truly say that “Avid is listening.” I’ve seen the moniker on their site in the past and I kind of laughed. I mean this is Avid we’re talking about. The company that tells us how we can purchase their software and hardware and if we don’t like it we can go somewhere else.
Ok, maybe that’s how they used to do things, but it was clear from our meeting today, Avid is truly changing the way they do business. It seems to have taken a while for it to really sink in but there is a definite shift in the tone coming from the company. There is a real willingness now to open up the software to third party hardware as we have seen from last year’s Matrox reveal to this year’s AJA Io Express.
First off, it was impressive to me that not only was I meeting with their PR folks, but the CEO and many of the top management and marketing team. One on one for about 90 minutes and I was free to ask any question. Generally I’m used to having many layers of separation between me and the head of the company that makes my NLE. Of course being a Final Cut Pro guy with a bunch of AJA Kona cards, my primary interest is seeing Avid continue their migration to open up the software to even more hardware options not only from AJA and Matrox, but Blackmagic Design as well. Obviously Avid would not answer me directly on any of the hardware questions, but I get the sense that their migration towards openness will continue at some point in the future.
Then there was Apple and the SuperMeet presentation. As expected, the new Final Cut Pro appears to have been built on the foundation of iMovie. But there’s nothing wrong with that, the interface is actually very efficient. You will have to re-think your way of operating, but there’s nothing wrong with taking the iMovie base and building upon that.
What Apple actually chose to show was quite nice. Background rendering, Magnetic timeline with the audio always moving out of the way, and “open” timeline with no hard tracks that appear and disappear as needed, pitch corrected audio skimming, improved color correction, Audio fade controls much better, simple retiming in the timeline, color matching with single click and of course, no more transcoding / mixing and matching of formats in the timeline. These are all the super cool, wiz bang features that are the hallmark of any Apple marketing event.
The two highlights for me were Audition and the Magnetic audio. Audition allows us to essentially create a floating bin of multiple clips to insert into the timeline and with simple keystroke try out each shot in the timeline.
But Apple was presenting to 1500 video editors, many of whom look past the slick marketing demo and want to know about how it works under the hood and with all the rest of the pro apps that we all use every day. That’s probably why with each new item presented, about half of the room was very excited and the other half was quiet. The only uniform applause throughout the room seemed to be for the price, which garnered about half a standing ovation from the room. So now it’s just $299 for Final Cut Pro only and there was no mention of the rest of the suite period. I guess part of the marketing strategy is “well it’s so cheap now nobody can complain.”
The big question among the pro editors I spoke to after the presentation was what didn’t we see?
Multi format, multi frame rate, multi codec playback. We were told it’s now supported, but it was not shown, at least not that I could tell.
Tape Capture / Layback. Is this still supported internally to the application or has Apple taken the stand that they do not need to support a videotape workflow at all internally? Not only is tape still being shot by many production companies, there are millions of hours of videotape archive material that has to be ingested for projects, such as the feature documentaries we cut today.
In fact what about the capture cards / boxes from AJA, Blackmagic and Matrox? No mention of or appearance from them.
Filters. Do filters still work in the new FCP? As in our old filters that all of us already own and any potential new third party filters for the new FCP X? How will FCP interpolate and handle archive projects that include filters?
Titling. What does the new font tool look like? In the presentation a lower third was shown but it was never explained how it was created.
OMF / XML / EDL Export / Import. Can we still use XML to move projects to After Effects and other platforms as needed for finishing and other work? How easy is it to move the projects around?
Alpha channel / composting modes. How do these work in the new FCP? Some very nice looking effects were shown in the demo but were they created in FCP or elsewhere? Don’t know.
Large project management. How will FCP hold up under a large project such as the documentaries we currently cut. My feeling is that the new FCP is well suited for shorter projects but not long form, it seems like it would simply break if you threw a feature film or documentary at it. Can’t imagine scrolling through 200 hours of filmstrips to find my shots. With some of the organizational tools it might be manageable but hard to tell.
What we were presented definitely felt like a 1.0 release and Apple certainly set that bar throughout the event by comparing the launch of X to FCP 1.0. The original changed the face of NLE editing forever and they believe X will do the same thing. It certainly does with the interface and the price. Apple will absolutely build more market share for the product because at $299 every single hobbyist, school, and anyone who wants to edit video will purchase the product. That very well seems their goal with the price.
How those numbers will translate into pro editors, television series, feature films, etc remains to be seen. Would have been nice to hear from Walter Murch or the Coen Brothers last night to get their thoughts on how X will improve their workflows on feature films. The reaction among the pro editors and others I chatted with after the show was tepid at best. I think an encounter by one of the folks was somewhat telling.
Editor: Nice presentation but what about those features that weren’t shown? What about capture cards, filters and how it might perform with bigger projects.
Other person: This Final Cut Pro isn’t designed for you.
Maybe that’s what Apple is banking on. So many new folks coming into the industry who don’t know about or need capture cards. That’s who the new Final Cut Pro X is designed for. Those who will never have to retrieve an archive tape, handle more than a few hours or material at a time or interface with other applications outside the Apple brand. So Apple will “win” the NLE battle simply by sheer numbers of installed users. As they pointed out in the presentation, based on installed user numbers alone, Avid and Adobe are “fighting” for second place.
It’s impossible to give a true assessment of how good / bad the new FCP X really is since this is the only time any of us will see it. Unlike those “fighting for second place” Apple is not on the show floor so we cannot ask any questions or test out the interface for ourselves. Only those very few select beta testers know for sure what is and is not included in the interface.
The potential is there for the application to be a reinvention of non linear editing. But a one hour presentation left me and many other pro editors scratching our heads with many more questions than answers. Apple went for the slick, we want to know the down and dirty. At least we can go out on the show floor today and talk to those “other two companies” who are fighting for second place and actually address workflow questions.
So what’s my verdict? Apple went “All In” on this one event and came out swinging with a patented, marketing presentation full of slick features. I think they hit a double. Nice hit, but not near enough power to bring it all the way home. The biggest beneficiaries of the one hour presentation will most likely turn out to be Avid and Adobe. Sure Apple will sell millions of copies of X, but those other two A’s my very well come out ahead.
Nicely summarized Walter. I found myself stimulated by the innovation and very unsettled by the unknown. So much so I left the meeting as the raffle commenced to go home and collect my thoughts.
Unfortunately there are to many unknowns to reach any conclusion. In some respects its seems there is no clear direction for the future.
Avid doesn’t support Kona 3 or exporting xml and has a very constrained GUI when compared to newer NLEs.
FCP seems “imovied” for the masses.And no details on those features that I value and need to professional execute my editorial work.
Strange as it may seem. Premiere Pro has all the things I look for (64 bit, all formats native and unsurpassed integration with After Effects). But it suffers from a tepid past perception from the industry and clients.
So I have resolved to relax and make no major decisions until I have all the info available. It just feels a little anticlimactic.
Very decent summary.
I’d only point out that watching Adobe since the re-write of Premiere has been very telling as to how complex NLE apps have become and how difficult it is to cover all the bases coming out of the starting gate.
I don’t believe like some that Apple has abandoned the pro market. But it will take more than a little time to get up to speed. The new features in this release, for the most part, have been available elsewhere for a year or more. So in terms of features Apple is playing more Catch Up than Leap Frog. But owning content creation for the internet is a different story and that would appear to be their aim with version 1.0 of Final Cut X.
Hey Walter,
I have been a big fan of your blog and your creative cow work. I am also excited for your new building. Congrats!
I found myself asking the same questions as you and many other editors.
I keep having to tell myself that this was a sneak peak rather than an official release. I have been trying to find any additional information on this topic and it’s all speculation right now.
I feel pretty good that FCPX will include past features such as OMF’s, EDL’s, XML’s, etc. When Apple prefaced their presentation with attention to broadcaster and film support, I knew that this feels like imovie pro, but I like to think of it at Final Cut meets iMovie.
I do feel like Apple is going to take away the log and capture and print to tape options since apple loves to kill old mediums. We have a DVCPRO HD deck and Beta SP deck that we don’t use as much, but none-the-less still need. I just ingested Varicam tapes yesterday.
I think Apple will do what they did with iMovie and leave FCP 7 for anyone needing the tape features. Nothing has really changed with capturing tape in the past couple of versions and maybe Apple is thinking the capture card makers (Matrox, AJA, Blackmagic) will better their software.
Anyway, I like the competition and like what I see. I can’t wait for an official release with details on other proapps. To be honest, if they killed motion, soundtrack pro, and dvd studio I wouldn’t mind. Adobe has them beat on the first two, and burning dvd’s with menu’s isn’t worth it anymore. I’m only curious on what is the destiny of color or final cut server.
We were thinking of switching to Avid, but I think our post house will benefit from the new final cut and the new workflow.
Great article!
-Jeff
I think what everyone has to remember is that this was a preview, not a product launch. They’re going to want to show off the new & shiny, not features that are already in use. Now, that’s not to say that all features of FCP7 will be included in FCP X, but let’s not jump to conclusions that because it wasn’t demoed, it’s not there. Really, we’ll just have to wait until June. It’s foolish to base platform migration or purchases strictly based on the Supermeet demo.
Phil Hawes made a very good observation at the Creative Cow that made a lot of sense to me…
“From what I read of the reports of the demo of the new Final Cut X, the new features demonstrated are targeted towards the amateur video maker with a camcorder or DSLR. Features like stabilization, rolling shutter correction, noise cancellation, and audio sync, all supposedly happening on import, are targeting users who have basic production equipment problems. These are all features to compensate for amateur errors. A lot of these tools are problematic and not what a professional is asking for.
Nor does the professional want a new “event list” , filmstrip viewers, a new iMovie like trim editor, or pop up color correction.
The only feature here that any professional would want is 64 bit and multi-threading and not so they could edit H.264 natively in an iMovie like environment or have a no transcoding workflow. A 64 bit multi-threaded Final Cut 7 would have satisfied most people and taken away a lot of headaches.
If the demo had been targeted towards professionals the following features may have been shown: better Media Management tools, improvement for filters (10 bit), a better Compressor interface, better integration with Color, and perhaps Motion working in 10 bit with more finesse.
It remains to be seen what the actual Final Cut X really is but as for now it is definitely not being marketed to the professional. Does Apple really have the audacity to believe that they can rewrite the history of video editing with a Final Cut GUI change? I think not. I just suspect that they are shifting their market.”
Phil
Walter, sorry to clog your blog, but Ronny Courtens posted some helpful info that I think professionals want to hear.
” Hi Steve,
I have been working on a major project during the past six months and I was not able to participate in any board anymore. From today you can count me in again.
As to your concern about FCP X:
You are correct that the new GUI may take some time to adapt to. But althhough It looks a bit like iMovie that’s where the comparison ends. While in iMovie you are stuck with the specific iMovie way of editing, in FCPX you can edit exactly the same way you as did in FCP7. You can just open clips in the viewer, place in and out points, use 3-point editing etc… And if you don’t wish to use the advaced timeline features your timeline will look much like any timeline in FCP, Avid or PPro.
But if you wish you can also use some handy extra features that were taken from iMovie (such as skimming in timeline and viewer) as well as lots of advanced features that are specific to this new app. These of course will take time to get used to, but many of them really seem worth while learning. The new application is still being beta tested and it remains to be seen what Apple will add or drop in the final version.
I don’t mind getting used to a new interface and new features IF this adds functionality and speed to my current workflow. When we switched from Avid to FCP it took some time to adapt to the different GUI, but editing was the same and the GUI was quickly forgotten. I still switch from FCP to Avid and PPro on rare occasions and frankly this does not bother me.
Best wishes
Ronny”
That sure alleviates some of my concerns.
But lasvideo I think Apple DOES have the audacity to think they can rewrite the history of video editing. They probably feel like they’ve successfully done this for other industries, so why not ours?
And what I’m wondering is if this could be the first dual-user NLE. Think about it. A lot of the pro functionality of FCP X is neatly hidden away from the user. If I’m a novice editor I won’t know to unlock the more powerful hidden features of the app and therefore won’t be as intimidated by it. This way Apple could kill FCP Express and hobbyist editors would have no apprehension about moving over to the pro version. It’s kind of like selling a bike with training wheels. You can remove them only if you know how to use a screwdriver.
If indeed it turns out that FCPX is more than suitable for professional editing then the most remarkable aspect of the preview today, and one that will reverberate with some impact is the price point. $299US as opposed to Premiere Pro CS5.5’s $899US is quite an advantage. The latest Adobe iteration of CS to CS5.5 sees them actually increase the upgrade path cost. So much for user loyalty! What Apple is ensuring is that the next generation of filmmakers will be using Macs. There is rumor that Canon are in talks with Apple regarding a collaborative project – and you don’t have to guess what that may entail. Imagine, Canon DSLR technology streamlined to suit Apple users. There is no doubt that video/film is the new way of communicating and by making it a no-brainer and still providing capacity for the pro’s looks like a sure fire winner.
I have come to rely on Final Cut pretty heavily in my business, so this scares me and excites me. The 64Bit and Multi-threading is very exciting, as is resolution Independence, but auto color correction, image stabilization and even the magnetic timeline kind of scare me really. Sounds like it will make a mess. I projects with so many graphics that I get up to 18-20 levels of video, with different types of things put specifically onto different levels for organization and this automatically making new tracks sounds like it will make a mess more than anything.
It is the details that I am not even hearing that scare me. I rely a lot on the viewer window, which seems to have changed completely. Can I still look at the waveform of a clip before i cut it in easily to get a clean cut as I edit?
Working on all the effects in the timeline might be nice, but is also weird to have it an always moving target, it was convenient to work on effects in the same place in the viewer, is that still possible?
Do the windows pull apart like they used to? I keep my bins on my second display, but it looks like the viewer and bin are combined, which doesn’t seem convenient for huge projects. I wouldn’t mind the combined bin, if I can have a separate viewer window as well.
How does FCP handle graphics? Hopefully better than the old version, but it was not mentioned.
If they lose editing to tape it loses a lot of it’s usefulness as I often still have to deliver digitbetas or even HDCAM.
Just went through the 64 bit thing on After Effects, going to be expensive to have to update all of my plug ins again! Wish they would get some specs out to developers so they can start updating.
I have a feeling Color is gone, much like Shake before it. They took some of the technology and then killed it. It sucks as I have really grown to like it and would love a massive update to make it even more powerful, but I don’t see it happening.
I am sure DVD studio is gone as well as Apple will never jump on the Blu-Ray band wagon even though I still often have to deliver discs.
I could give or take motion, as I mostly use AE, though I do like some of it’s particle effects. And it looks like the main thing I use it for, re-timing clips is now in FCP properly.
Most the soundtrack features I would rather have rolled into FCP anyway, and it sounds like they are in some form, and hopefully so is retiming with pitch shifting. And control over the hum removal would be nice.
The other essential App is a truly 64 Bit Compressor (not using QMASTER).
The one thing no one seems to mention about the app store is that like iTunes you can authorize the apps to be on 5 computers, and a 5 license FCP for $299 is pretty cheap.
David C. :
” Very decent summary.
I’d only point out that watching Adobe since the re-write of Premiere has been very telling as to how complex NLE apps have become and how difficult it is to cover all the bases coming out of the starting gate.
I don’t believe like some that Apple has abandoned the pro market. But it will take more than a little time to get up to speed. The new features in this release, for the most part, have been available elsewhere for a year or more. So in terms of features Apple is playing more Catch Up than Leap Frog. But owning content creation for the internet is a different story and that would appear to be their aim with version 1.0 of Final Cut X. ”
& lasvideo: “Premiere Pro has all the things I look for (64 bit, all formats native and unsurpassed integration with After Effects). But it suffers from a tepid past perception from the industry and clients.”
Yeah, gotta agree with these points big time. I wrote up (a little biased, admittedly, as a primarily PP & MC based editor) some points on specifics that are available in other programs already: http://me.lt/4xFhT , & additionally I’ve found background rendering appears to already be in a number of lower end video software.
So far, much like OS X itself, IMO FCPX is a mashup of reinvented features from other software (even sometimes Apple’s own software, reinvented as something new), with only one or two actual never-seen-before features.
Anyway, great article Walter! Fantastically put!
– WW
This may be the most irrelevant part, but I feel a strange connection. My heart sank a little when I heard that the application has been rewritten from the ground up. By any chance, have they kept the yak?
I’m hearing no more Bruce the wonder yak. Jobs hates eater eggs in apps.
Walter
You again have clarified much of what I was thinking while I attended the Supermeet. It was a tad bit embarrassing witnessing so many of the “kool aid” drinkers jumping up and down and acting as if, well something miraculous was appearing. It’s vapor ware as so many software and hardware items appear at NAB. I’m excited for X. I’m hopeful for the full suite of apps as before. I do agree that the A’s are going to benefit from this change in the process of editing on FCP. But if FCP doesn’t fulfill the role as a “kick ass” editing tool. There a several others to choose from. I did have to laugh as I heard several post production managers exclaim, “crap, now how much is this going to cost us in new training”…
Thanks for a clear headed observation. Now about that kool aid…