Does X mark the spot? It makes me, pause.

To FCX* or not to X.  That is the question.  I have been asked to sit on a (WIFV) Women and Film and Video Panel to discuss the implications of FCX* on the professional marketplace.  Let me give you a little background about me and RedEye and our chronicle with various Edit Controllers.

I have a history in the edit world for sure…15 years as a linear editor beginning off with the old RM440.  Ahh the days when pre-roll and frames mattered and a jump cut was accidental and scorned.  I went on from there to many of the other intricate CMX, and GVG controllers…people visited my edit suite and oohed and ahhed over the various array of gadgetry I sat in command of.

In 1999 I graduated to the Avid Media Composer and cursed its kindergarten simplification of the various tools I had had entire professional gear devoted to this one task.  I laughed at digitize process, the quality of so-called broadcast, and joined the crowd who wandered the halls during render time.  But after some organizational training with it I soon realized its potential and saw its future and was sold.  It only got better as time passed…

Then in 2004 Avid changed…no longer would they support the current product…keep it and stay stagnant or move to the new system – meaning a whole new purchase of computers, hardware, software, digitizing old projects into the new format.  To a business owner it gives you pause when you recently dropped $50-100K on the recent system that is now defunct but I still would have done it…if not for the pause and the ankle biter named Final Cut Pro…

FCP 2 was where I entered the Apple time line of Final Cut Pro (2002)…they caught my interest with articles like Hollywood movies being edited on this crazy system.  I played with it for about 2 years. I had interns who came in and declared it great, but then really couldn’t do much with it.  It almost disappeared in Avid’s shadow and Avid knew it…$100K for an Avid system compared to the FCP $1,000-1,500 and a computer.  Now, don’t misunderstand me.  I am an Apple junkie- never owned a PC in my life.  My Windows OS runs on a Mac Intel running parallels but….I was ready to dump FCP as an experiment and a gut feeling that perhaps Apple didn’t have their heart into developing Edit software for the professional.

Then came FCP Studio…with Motion, Live Type, DVD Studio 2, FCP 3, and compressor…I saw the demo and realized my gut was wrong they (Apple) are now swinging for the fence.  And Avid better watch out…I bought Studio for an SD suite and loved it so much the first HD suite we installed was FCP controlled.  When it finally came time to change out the Avid XL9000…I looked at only two options, FCP or Avid…

The Comparatives:  Reputations, Reliability, Upkeep and Maintenance, Cost, Ease of Use, Client needs.  Oh, and did I mention Cost?

Reputation:  That is easy both are great

Reliability: Again both are great

Upkeep and Maintenance:  Avid services all parts and pieces and solves problems start to finish with one service tech  – Apple would pass the buck easily and often to the third party software platforms and declare it their fault for the errors and issue (still to this day I get little satisfaction from my Apple FCP support that I pay for vs the free support I get from the third party vendors) it is important to be on your toes if you purchase the FCP system

Cost: Avid Still crazy expensive – 50K+ Apple’s FCP about 15-20K fully installed

Ease of Use: Most folks first starting off find FCP easier to use than Avid, however, having used both it was on equal footing with me.

Client Needs: I have some clients who insist on having access to Avid as they are using Avid and they want to be able to pass edl’s etc over to me…but in truth most client don’t care if you edit tape to tape as long as they are happy with the end result.  I was able to convert easily without any client problems.

Cost…Cost…Cost.

So as you can see it comes down to Cost vs Maintenance.  I made the call to both vendors and Avid being exclusive with their vendors had only one person who would service me…I had to call them 5 times to get a proposal.  Apple and FCP…well I could put it together myself from the Apple store…but the dealer I contacted called back immediately and had a bid in hand within days…

Did I mention price was an issue for a small business who is money conscience and a little peeved their last 50K investment was termed void within a matter of 2 years time…

Well I joined the full FCP bandwagon.  Now 3 HD suites all running FCP Suite 3 later, I am feeling a little like déjà vu all over again.

An old friend has abandoned me…

Time to learn, another system…

What am I going to do with my old files and projects?!?!?!?

Time to buy more gear and step onto another learning curve

As an editor…or story teller it drives me crazy to constantly be stopped in my tracks by the latest gear preventing me from telling a good story…

As a business owner it drives me crazy and makes me feel like a sucker when I invest my physical money and personal time on gear and software only to be told it’s all changing and is now moot.

So I come full circle, I have been asked to speak about the FCX* controversy and how FCX* will affect our company and what our humble plans are for RedEye’s future with FCP…

While I appreciate Apples comments about wanting to make things simpler and easier…rather than increasing the product complexity I am disappointed from the obvious slap in the face from all the money and time/ knowledge invested toward a perceived dead end.

I lived through many major product over-hauls with Avid, many of them even meaning old digitized material would not be usable on the new product.  But never did Avid prevent you from opening up an old file within the new system.  Never did their new products remove functionality that existed before. Never did they remove access from buying the old software/hardware.  Never did they take a professional product and decimate it so thoroughly as Apple did to old FCP.  Sorry Apple, my old friend, but you need to hear it.

 

And truth be told it’s all in the marketing.  Apple could have made this a success…if only they had announced its arrival with understanding it was changing and getting better and functionality was to return…if the ads read… “invest now and get this version for $299 plus the upgrade for free…then when the new latest version comes out you will be well versed and ready to transition with ease”  Or buy later and pay full-price and have a steeper learning curve…then they would have had millions of understanding editors out there learning the product giving positive and supportive feed-back rather then this mess that exists now.

If Apple had protected their base and set us up to support them rather then be angry with them it could have turned out differently.  Instead there are now Blogs and Panels, all over the country, talking about the future of FCP and videos made by respected editor teams mocking the product…Apple removing negative comments from their reviews of the product.  Who is it Apple thinks they are going to win over with the new price point…a whole new crew of Wedding Photographers?  Mom’s and Dad’s hoping to make the great family vacation video?  With the right marketing they could have gotten it all…

For us, we’re going to pause…and stop upgrading…cause who knows when our next system OS upgrade or QT upgrade will make our FCP7 version software obsolete.

And Apple…remember what happened the last time our company paused…we changed applications…

 

*Official name of the product is in-fact Final Cut Pro X, however, I can not in good conscious put it into the category of “Pro”