Feedback On Final Cut Pro X

[This article was first published in the July, 2011, issue of
Larry’s Final Cut Pro Newsletter. Click here to subscribe.]

Mark Whalen sent me his thoughts on Final Cut Pro X that I wanted to share with you. Mark writes:

You frequently ask for feedback during your webinars and training videos, so I thought I’d drop a line to give a somewhat positive view of FCP X.

I watched the message boards with great interest in the weeks leading up to the release of FCP X. There was a fair amount of discourse regarding hoped-for features and interface improvements — as well as a fair amount of FUD. Now with the release of the software, I’ve stopped viewing those boards due to very vocal cries of frustration and anger: it’s iMovie Pro; it’s not worthy of the FCP name; it’s nowhere near useful for post houses, etc. While these may be true from where each poster sits, I tend to think the new iteration of FCP X is pretty impressive.

I do legal videography, which means I shoot depositions, document inspections (and expert testing), do Day In the LIfe productions — as well as the occasional corporate training video. I’m not a cinematographer, a full-time editor, a colorist or a compressionist. I’m a one-man band who does a little of all those tasks for a niche market. It’s not glamourous by any means, but it pays the bills — and has for almost 18 years. In order to do it efficiently and effectively, I’ve employed technology that will not only let me do my job well, but at an acceptable cost/benefit level. In that vein, FCE filled my needs for many years, but it was beginning to show its age in terms of tapeless format support. CS5 and FCS3 seemed to be viable solutions, but each had steep learning curves and contain a number of features or software that I’d rarely use; iMovie ’11 is far too limiting. With the advent of FCP X and App Store purchasing (along with the assistance from your FCP X Training series), I can get only what my particular situation needs – and be up to speed in no time.

I’ve spent the better part of the past two days with FCP X and Compressor performing tasks I typically do from day to day with FCE, QT and iDVD. Despite the novel workflow, I’ve found increased speed in many of my editing tasks with the new software. Several steps have been alleviated from the workflow by staying within a single app., such as creating DVDs. What has me most impressed is the ability to ingest AVCHD files from my HMC150 without the need to transcode prior to editing – which is a huge timesaver. The only feature I truly miss at the moment is multiclip support: I hope that will be addressed in future updates.

Undoubtedly FCP X lacks the features used by many professionals, but from my little corner of the video world things seem pretty good at the moment.