I received the following email today from someone who needs to remain anonymous. However, I trust them and their opinion and wanted to share their thoughts with you here as a way to continue our discussion.
While I don’t agree with all of this, it does spark an interesting chain of thought.
Larry
P.S. I did not write this, nor did I ask it to be written. I have obtained permission to share it with you.
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Apple says that FCP X is about the future of NLE. After thinking about it, I think they are right.
It’s not just about the GUI or features per se… but the fact that our culture is going mobile and our work along with it. A new generation is growing up and moving them from iMovie to FCPX will be easy. Also the new generation will invent their own workflows and their own content and their own way of doing things. Apple may have jumped the gun in a way that made it impossible for a percentage of the current editing community to go along, but those folks are not the future. Not in the same way a 16-year-old iMovie whiz is.
Look at the big picture. Sales of standard PCs have fallen while portable products have been flying off the shelves. This is no fad, it’s the future.
Watch as the system requirements for NLE on the Apple side look more and more lean. Apple owns both hardware and OS, my bet is that they will leverage that to guarantee they are ahead of the curve in performance requiring smaller and smaller hardware overhead. It’s in this way, as the new generation of editors comes up, FCP will take back it’s place as the de facto platform for any level of project. I’m absolutely convinced (as is Apple) that sooner than you think, a teenager today will be working on an episode of “Extreme _____ Makeover” using an iPad__ with lots of storage on board. I already saw someone using an iPad as a 2nd display for FCP X and how some functions were already touch screen enabled. Those pissed off edit suite owners may be pissed off at what Apple has done, but just wait till all those up-and-coming digital kids start to see those very expensive edit suites as dinosaur grave yards.
That’s where Apple is headed and a powerful, sleek FCP that uses iCloud technology along with all the other new technologies is where the future really is. Does anyone remember those $250,000 edit suites that got replaced by a $1,300.00 Final Cut Studio, back in the day? Well, Apple is doing it again with one major change, this time they are obsoleting themselves before someone else does.
It really is the future, or at least it’s headed in that direction.
109 Responses to The Future of Non-Linear Editing?
← Older Comments Newer Comments →-
Nivardo Cavalcante says:
July 28, 2011 at 12:34 pm
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Leo Hans says:
July 28, 2011 at 2:55 pm
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Brad Davis says:
July 28, 2011 at 5:54 pm
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Larry says:
July 28, 2011 at 5:56 pm
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Don B says:
July 28, 2011 at 6:41 pm
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Evan Krueger says:
July 28, 2011 at 8:00 pm
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Clayton says:
July 28, 2011 at 8:53 pm
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Leo Hans says:
July 28, 2011 at 9:57 pm
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Don B says:
July 28, 2011 at 10:20 pm
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Larry says:
July 28, 2011 at 10:24 pm
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Leo Hans says:
July 28, 2011 at 10:43 pm
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Nivardo Cavalcante says:
July 28, 2011 at 10:47 pm
← Older Comments Newer Comments →Disclaimer from AVID Sneak Peek MC 6.0.
“Avid recognizes the investment that our customers have in our software and we believe in a collaborative approach to our strategy. The information in this video represents features that are important to our customers. Accordingly, they are part of our general strategy.”
Do not remember seeing something similar at NAB 2011 FCP X Sneak Peek.
Nivardo,
That’s marketing too.
Are you sure that before FCPX Avid was so committed to that?
Well…It’s been out a month now. All we’ve seen is the FAQ from Apple with no updates. I was hoping to see something as a show of good faith on Apple’s behalf but I guess I was expecting too much. Back to the salt mines with FCP7.
Brad:
As someone who used to develop software, 30 days is too short a time-frame for the work mentioned in Apple’s FAQ. 2-3 months is more realistic. Personally, I’m expecting to see updates start in August – but that’s a GUESS, not based on any commitments I’ve heard from Apple.
Larry
I agree with much of what you way. However, mobile isn’t the future, it’s now. And it’s the *past* for most of the world outside the West. We all know that. The problem is that Apple “re-invented editing” for mobile without giving the people who bought into FCP any choice in the matter. They should have just sold the department to someone who’d continue developing it for *today’s* editors and created something entirely new for the market they envision. They basically just wiped out the efforts of an entire community of hard working people with one arrogant stroke. They’re not caring for these customers at all with this move and no “look to the future” can justify that.
To Mr. Cris Daniels;
I find some of your comments – primarily the one reposted here – to be deeply insulting.
“If teenagers somehow going to dictate the development direction of a product, I want nothing to do with it. You cant even get half of them to show up to work much less extract ANY meaningful wisdom from them.”
I feel as though generalizations such as the one here need to be made with a greater deal of care. As a teenager, I wholeheartedly disagree with your statement. I am do not consider myself to be lazy, as I am currently juggling 4 freelance video jobs, and I would like to think that I am not completely devoid of any and all semblance of wisdom. I would ask that in the future any and all who post here be more cognizant of the generalities and metaphors used. I am guilty of such mistakes myself (as Larry – who has moderated me – well knows). It would be equally wrong of me to refer to established industry professionals as “old farts” or [metaphorically] connect the current (and previous) editing paradigms and those who work with them to the stone age. While we are not completely anonymous here, we can all sometimes be guilty of forgetting that our comments reach a wide variety of people, some of whom might be at the proverbial butt of your joke or comment.
I respect the way in which this blog operates, and I hope in the future we can all endeavor to avoid such potentially insulting generalities, because I find it difficult, if not impossible, to extract anything meaningful from comments like those.
Evan, well said sir 🙂
@ Evan Krueger
I started editing TV shows. Now I work as a Freelance editor in TV advertising industry working for small, medium, and big production companies. It’s a very competitive industry and it’s not too open for new freelance editors.
Directors and creatives from the AD agencies tends to prefer to work with experienced editors because the editing times are usually tight and there are big budgets involved…
…But in spite of that, there are always new editors. I was one of them years ago, like every one. Nobody started being consolidated from day one.
I see all the time renown directors and creatives watching youtube videos while Im working. They get a lot of inspiration from there because Youtube have brilliant and well done videos lost into all of the crap.
Never let the barking dog scare you. Not everything that shine is gold. You know.
Not every one with twenty years of experience is creative, a good storyteller and a talented editor. There are genius, there are good ones and there are even bad ones. The las group, usually are good marketing themselves, just the opposite to very talented editors with bad luck getting into business.
I usually go to the website of the people at the forums to see their work, because there you can find that some my be old, but not necessarily good, creative and with good taste.
Apple could have made FCP great if they wanted to. They recently spent $2B on Nortel telecommunications patents. How much do you think they paid Randy U. to create FCP-ex? $1.39? Apple recently posted their latest financial reports. Record revenue and profits, 96% of which came from iphone/pads/pods, Macs and iTunes. 4% came from the category “other.” If that category includes receipts from iLife/Work, mobileMe, AppleCare and various accessories, then what fraction of that 4% do you think comes from FCP? If you answered, “not much,” you’re correct, which is why the product no longer exists. And if you think that Apple makes loads of money from related hardware sales, well, not only does that not matter to them, but Mac Pros could well be next item out the door. Don’t doubt it.
Don:
I don’t totally agree with your last comment. As this post from a former FCP engineer at Apple shows, Apple creates software to sell hardware.
http://sachin.posterous.com/why-apple-built-final-cut-pro-x
So, my suspicion is that FCP will be tuned to work really well on a MacPro, rather than abandon the line. Just my two-cents.
larry
Larry,
Don’t forget Apple TV.
Apple may be thinking that Apple TV and alikes are the future of TV, not cable, not Sky/Direct TV.
Larry,
In a way, I agree with Don
FCP have to and the result, will be the last Mac Pro hardware to be upgraded, we see it and a total Apple disinterested in this segment. And no doubt she thinks of ending.
Steve wants to close the door with ending with Apple Computer. Leaving your legacy Apple Inc.
Where’s Randy Ubillos? Placed on a leash by Jobs?