Here is another great article on the whole Final Cut Pro X fiasco. At his blog Richard Harrington responds on a point by point basis to Dave Pogue’s article on FCP X in the New York Times.
He really hits almost everything, so this article is a must read.
A good friend informed me that Randy Ubillios actually worked on the original final cut pro while at Macromedia when it was called Key Grip, and before it was sold to Apple. So the man should know better and should know what people want in professional editing software. It just has to mean that they have given up on the professional market and only want the consumer market, in which case they should have made the program iMovie Pro and just end of lifed Final Cut Pro and killed the name off, since this program has nothing to do with Final Cut Pro 7.
What I think happened with Final Cut Pro X, though this is of course only my opinion.
Randy Ubillos created early versions of Premiere, which worked, but was too low end to do anything powerful, and never became huge like AVID. He was brought on by Apple to change iMovie, and his version was seen as a huge step backwards and Apple had to back track and re-release the previous version that had more features. People who were new to editing liked the simplicity of the new iMovie, but previous users didn’t like it. Somehow that version of iMovie kept going and got more features, and Ubillos was given the task of updating final cut. I can only assume Steve Jobs liked what he did with iMovie, and got sold on his idea of making an iMovie Pro that would make it easier for everyone to edit.
The thing is, Ubillos is obviously not an editor, and didn’t consult with any professional editors in the production of Final Cut Pro X, which is really iMovie 10, made to be 64 bit, and have some new Pro features like 4K support (and yet no Native RED support?!?!?!?!?). Steve must have gotten sold on Ubillos’s ideas of how he could revolutionize editing and how they could make it ‘easy’ for anyone to edit amazing high end videos, but Ubillos has no idea what a professional editor needs, he really only knows how to make a program easy for the masses, with some high end features.
This product should have been iMovie Pro and been for the masses!
I think Ubillos convinced Steve, and they call it Final Cut Pro to cash in on the cache in the name that they had built up over the years, even editing features. Everyone has now heard of Final Cut Pro, and they would cash in on that name and make a program for the average Joe, who would now think since they could use this program that they could even edit features, of course this ignores the fact that the program is so constrictive that almost no professional editors will use it, and with this feature set, it will never be used on another feature, or TV show, but it will be used for web delivery, which seems to be all it is suited for.
If Apple really wanted to revolutionize editing they should have also consulted with a high end professional editor, Walter Murch comes to mind. He and his first assistant Editor Sean Cullen were really the first editors to start using Final Cut Pro to edit features. They know what professional editors need, and what Final Cut needed to move from Final Cut Pro 7 to a 64 Bit Final Cut Pro 8. Including how to make it have better multi-user abilities and what high end features would make their lives easier, and every professional editor’s lives easier.
Now they still would have needed a good engineer to figure out new features they could add, but those would need to be run by the big editor, like Murch, to see if it is wanted or needed.
And even better would be to get some big TV editors that use Final Cut and a few commercial editors, and concert and music video editors, and talk to them all about what they needed to make Final Cut Pro even better!
And I don’t buy their excuse that it was a 64 Bit re-write, so they had to start from scratch, because I don’t even believe they started from scratch. They obviously started from iMovie, because while it doesn’t open final cut pro projects, it opens iMovie projects! And Adobe had to completely rewrite their entire suite for use on Macintosh 64 bit as of CS5 (CS4 on Windows), and they managed to do it with almost all the features, and in fact add new features. Sure you would have to get updated plug ins to work with 64 bit, but that is a small price to pay for amazing performance gains!
Now maybe Ubillos really does believe that his way is so much better than what any other program edits, but honestly I have never met any 2 editors who edit the same way, and forcing them to do it one very limited way is not a way to create better editors, but to hamstring editors. We like to edit how we edit, and have the tools that can conform to our ways.
If there way is so easy and so great, why am a third of a way through the Ripple Training Videos and still clueless and how to get the program to do many things? It is not easier, it is just another way, that I don’t think makes for as tight an edit as easily. Honestly if you have a new way to edit, why not add it on, as an additional method, instead of replacing all other methods?
I really do think Apple was ready to sacrifice their professional market to have bigger sales with more people. We already know that they will kill huge and successful programs, they killed Shake after all, and it was literally the standard for compositing for high end features, and was what they used on the Lord of the Rings! They bought it, released 2 versions, one at a high price, one at a low price, and then killed it, stealing some tech for other programs (notable Q-Master for Compressor). Though it seems they must have either thought the professional community would just follow them, even with out all the features they needed, after all why else did they show this at the Final Cut Pro user group meeting in Vegas during NAB 2011. That was for Pros, and some one obviously though that this would work for Pros. Ubillos must think his ways are so much better than what editors are doing, that he could do what he wanted and people would just do it, but I think that their market share will drop significantly in the editing world as Pro Editors pass on FCP X, and the cache of the name Final Cut Pro loses it’s luster.
In fact it may be too late for Final Cut Pro now completely. This release has so damaged their name that basically I the program might be done, as professional editors jump ship, either back to AVID or over to Premiere Pro, which will let them continue to use their AJA or Black Magic cards. And while FCP X will continue on, and may even do OK, it will never be as big as they want, as it is too expensive for the casual editor (and honestly more expensive than the Final Cut Pro Suite Upgrade would have been for most of us, as you basically have to have Motion and Compressor to have full Functionality with Final Cut Pro X and that puts it at $399 and the upgrade price was $299).
If they don’t do something soon, professional editors will leave in droves, and the sales after this version will not be what they wanted, so to make it worth developing, they will have to drop iMovie, and make this iMovie, free on every new computer and part of iLife so it will continue on, and probably get more powerful, but professional editors will have moved on.
Larry Jordan has written a scathing article about the new Final Cut Pro X, and it really echoes what I feel about the program.
In FCP X, Apple got some things amazingly right. But they also got key features amazingly wrong. And if they don’t change course, this software, which has significant potential, is going to spin further and further out of control. At which point, its feature set is irrelevant, its reputation will be set. We’ll be looking at another Mac Cube.
And what they need to do immediately
1. Immediately return Final Cut Studio (3) to the market. If it is not compatible with Lion (and I don’t know whether it is or not) label it so. But put it back on store shelves so consumers have the ability to work with the existing version until FCP X is ready for prime time.2. Fund the development of a conversion utility – either at Apple or thru a 3rd-party – and announce the development with a tentative release date.3. Publicly announce a road-map for FCP X that just covers the next 3-4 months. Apple needs to be in damage control mode and the best way to defuse the situation is to communicate. Answering the question: “What features will Apple add to FCP X, and when?” will go a long way to calming people down.
And his conclusion:
This launch has been compared to Coca-Cola launching New Coke – resulting in a humiliating loss of market share.With Final Cut Pro X, however, the situation is worse — with New Coke, only our ability to sip soda was affected. With Final Cut Pro X, we are talking losing livelihoods.
Thanks for getting this out there Larry, I really appreciate you saying what needs to be said.
Wow, I am still trying to wrap my head around the fact that Apple has basically killed Final Cut Pro, my favorite editing program and the program that I make my living off of.
For years we have been waiting for a true 64 bit version of the program, but instead they kill the old suite including Color and Soundtrack, and released what is basically iMovie Pro.
Final Cut Pro X can’t open old Final Cut Pro sequences, only iMovie sequences.
It’s magnetic timeline doesn’t allow for any track organization. It doesn’t import or export XML so you can’t finish in anything else. The viewer window is gone, and has not been well replaced. It is not designed for dual monitors. The organization is awful. You basically have to do titles in Motion now, and it doesn’t even have a build int drop shadow!
You can do text in templates created in Motion, but have to go to Motion to do anything like you could previously.
It has no XML import and output, so you can’t leave the program to color correct, or finish in another program. In fact to get the Audio out, you have to buy a $500 Automatic Duck plug in, and you have no control over where all the clips go.
It also is not made for versioning, as it autosaves, and basically has one sequence per project, or event as they are now called, so you will have lots of Events.
The lack of Multi-Clip is insane, and sure it can sync audio to one track, but won’t work with multiple tracks.
The loss of a dedicated viewer monitor makes less room for organization, and means you see the audio waveform much smaller than you used to. Also if you want to move your Events to a second monitor, your scrubbing of the clips moves to, so it is very far away from what you are seeing in the one Viewer. This was not thought out well at all. And it really seems setup for a single monitor, sure you can move one segment to another monitor, but not how you want.
For organization, it is all geared toward keywording, which is great, but you lost so much of the old organization that you could do with tabs.
The new in Timeline Trim feature feels like old Premiere 4.2.1 where you had to A B roll clips, and is a huge step backwards.
The fact that you can’t make chapter markers for Quicktime movies and DVD’s is a huge step backwards!
The auto color matching works terribly, the clips come out looking pretty awful!
I tried it with Canon 60D raw H264 and it was as sluggish as can be, as though it can play it back it is basically a ProRES only app. Going back to AVID which converts everything, now you must convert to ProRES to get the real speed out of the program.
No drivers for AJA or Black Magic video cards!
The forced organization is not made for multiple drives.
There is no way to share projects without copying everything.
Even the Title safe is messed up, there is no centercut markers on it, and I often have to do an HD edit for 4:3 SD delivery!
Sure it is 64 bit and has some cool new features, but this program is a slap in the face.
Still, being able to scrub over effects and see them on your clip is very cool. I like the new customization, where you can set keys for even every menu control. Background rendering is cool, but the fact that while it is happening you can’t organize your project is not.
Time to move to AVID or the other 64 bit program Premiere Pro, which will work with Black Magic and AJA cards.
I don’t know what Apple was thinking, but they have completely alienated a user base they spent 10 years cultivating, and made a program that no professional editor can ever use!
So far my favorite article on this is the one by Richard Harrington which I have linked to. It really goes into much of the frustrations I feel, though not about the damn magnetic timeline.