There are about 85 emails in my in-box this morning with links to a speech I gave at the April Final Cut Pro User Group about my reactions to Apple’s presentation of Final Cut at NAB.
While I stand by most of my remarks, there was one unfortunate moment where I said, with a special dramatic emphasis for the crowd, that Final Cut Pro X was not ready for professional use.
I believed that then. I don’t believe it now.
When I made that presentation to the LAFCPUG, it was the week after NAB; a week after Apple presented the new version of Final Cut to the world. When I watched that presentation, I was watching it through the prism of my experience with Final Cut Pro 7 and all I knew about the application was what Apple showed on stage in their demo.
How could anything that radically different equal what we already had in Final Cut Pro 7?
I knew this new version was far more than iMovie – but, at that time, I didn’t think it was Final Cut Pro, either.
Its no secret that Apple gave me rare access to the software by inviting me to a demo of an early build of the software in February this year. However, what is not known, is that they also gave me permission to contact their development team to discuss the new version.
After NAB, and after my presentation at that April LAFCPUG meeting, I finally had time to follow-up on Apple’s offer. And I did. A lot.
I peppered them with questions:
• Why did Apple decide to totally reinvent the interface?
• Why did Apple feel they couldn’t simply do an incremental improvement to what we already had?
• Why did they only talk about Final Cut Pro?
• Why did they add the features they did?
• Why did they not mention others?
• What did they view as the future of editing, and who did they see doing the work?
While I can’t tell you what Apple told me until after the NDA lifts with the release of the product, I can tell you that what I learned during those conversations has completely changed my opinion.
Because so many of us base our lives on this software – both creatively and financially – there is a lot of stress whenever a new version comes out. Especially a radically different new version.
I understand, I feel the same stress.
But I no longer feel, as I once thought, that this is a step backward. Based on what I learned during my conversations with Apple, I believe this release provides us with an opportunity for a large step forward.
Now, we just have to wait and see what Apple ships.
For many of us, this will be a giant leap into something truly exciting. There is a lot of news to share and I can’t wait to tell you more about it.
That day can’t come soon enough.
Larry
36 Responses to Wiping Egg Off My Face
Newer Comments →-
Marcus R. Moore says:
June 16, 2011 at 4:43 pm
-
George Loch says:
June 16, 2011 at 5:27 pm
-
Larry says:
June 16, 2011 at 6:19 pm
-
nickeditor says:
June 16, 2011 at 6:04 pm
-
Michael Krupnick says:
June 16, 2011 at 6:04 pm
-
Larry says:
June 16, 2011 at 6:20 pm
-
Chris says:
June 16, 2011 at 6:21 pm
-
Steve Hullfish says:
June 16, 2011 at 6:46 pm
-
Larry says:
June 16, 2011 at 7:26 pm
-
Michael Krupnick says:
June 16, 2011 at 7:10 pm
-
nickeditor says:
June 16, 2011 at 7:18 pm
-
nickeditor says:
June 16, 2011 at 7:38 pm
-
Connor Crosby says:
June 16, 2011 at 7:48 pm
Newer Comments →Thanks for the clarification, Larry. It’s unfortunate to see people crib one “sensational” line, removing the context in which it was said, and when you said it.
But the online dialog that was fueled by your original comment have so much fire, they would be burning hot until the final release of the software had you not revised your position. Let us have some fun first 🙂
-gl
Yeah, it is more fun – but less accurate – to argue about extreme positions than to find the more accurate, but less feisty, position in the middle.
Larry
Perhaps some of those 85 cards are from Apple :p
Can Apple wait a week with those rumors or show us something really good about FC X?
I think there are more pessimistic than optimistic 🙁
I am one of those that are waiting Mac OS X 10.6.8 to resolve the problems caused by 10.6.7
From FCP-L:
It was hard to hear the audience’s questions very well, and Larry didn’t repeat them all, alas. There was, I’m guessing, one asking (very muffled) if FCPX would invalidate v6 & v7 installations within the same sys disc partition. Larry was very mysterioso about that one, saying that was one thing Apple did tell him, but taking his NDA “5th” and saying nothing about it. Even Mike was a tad startled by that one. Then recently Creative Cow bannered a tutorial on how to get ready for the new upgrades, namely FCPX and Lion. In that, they advised cloning Snow Leopard to a separate bootable drive (partitioned for later Lion installation) and installing FCPX there, not alongside older versions on the factory sys drive. Spooky. I know we’ve speculated about this here before, and basically concluded that Apple probably wouldn’t do that and hasn’t before. But if we’ve learned anything lately, it’s that we don’t know what Apple won’t tell us. Anybody got any hard info (no more rumors, thank-you) on this?
Michael, anyone with “hard info” can’t answer that question – and everyone else is just guessing.
Larry
An extremely rational, well thought-out and well-articulated piece. Thank you for writing it.
The “sensational” line was certainly a surprise for many of us (probably nowhere near as much as it was for the Apple employees working hard on the product though!), and I am very glad to hear that your view has changed.
Thank you for contributing substantively to the ecosystem.
Larry –
You aren’t the only one with these doubts, however. I’d love to know what kind of conversations went on with Apple to get you to flop on your pronouncement. The first comment said that it was taken out of context. I would disagree with that. There are a lot of questions to be answered about professional applications of FCP X. We’ll see soon enough whether your LAFCPUG comment was right or wrong and whether your switch was somewhat coerced. At the very least, ANY 1.0 software is sketchy at best for professional application, no matter who releases it. Heck, look at Avid MC 1.0 from 1988 and as much as it was used for professional editing back then, it was “not ready for prime time.”
Steve:
The change in opinion was not coerced – though, of course, every software developer wants everyone to love their products. It was, as I wrote, due to learning a lot more about it.
I agree, also, that time will tell.
Larry
Scary question to defer, though, for the user. Hard to buy into if it’s a destructive load. That’s like a step and half away from malware….
Michael, install first FCX and first Lion to work is like shooting in your foot. The smart thing is to make a partition to keep trying and wait for updates to correct bugs. The engineers of post-production companies will have many hours of work and operators of Final Cut hours of re-learning and some cold sweat in front of clients in the room.
And importantly thing that it seems that nobody is in question, will be Final Cut Server updated? How FCX will be integrated in the current Final Cut Server?
The first week will be crazy about iMovie users complaining about “this does not work”;)
I would say to Apple “be careful, many people are with his credit card in his hand waiting to buy FCX or not, and S3D (stereoscopy) may be a factor that influence in their decision”
Larry, I don’t think that what you said was extremist. When I heard your words I understood theese as a reasonable advice: If you work with Final Cut do not update to work with FCX yet (I think using a program and work with it are two different things).
There are many freelancers who behave like iMovie users who want the latest without considering the problems they may have.
Hi Larry, I recently watched the video of you at the LAFCPUG and I must admit I was afraid with what you said. But, after reading this, you’ve helped calm me down a bit.
Some of the things people are scared about don’t really matter to me. I am just a teenager who uses Final Cut for personal, school, and rare client work. The things I am worried about are: what will the pricing be for the other apps? Will I still be able to keep and use FCP7, and what the learning curb is.
Thank you for posting this, it’s very much appreciated! Oh, by the way, do you know when FCPX will come out? I know you can’t say the date, but just yes or no, do you? Thanks!