final cut pro is a tool to solve problems - not iMovie problems - problems with complex solutions

apple is like saying - we dont think these problems need solving in this way - so we are removing them - it shows complete failure to understand what people need

when we have all spent 15 years dealing with really complex things

like taking logic and saying "well you know garage band is fine"

like taking in design and saying well you know pages is fine

every single piece of functionality in software - solves some really difficult problem that often crops up

Final cut pro can no longer solve many of the problems that catalyst users need to-

Apple will lose the professional video industry with this

David, with all due respect - how are you qualified to "address the concerns of professional editors"? FCP X is probably fantastic for cutting an eighth grader's class project, but please take a breath and try to understand why the professional editorial community is totally freaking out about this. The changes, omissions, and "new direction" of Final Cut X are truly devastating to any editor who uses the software in a rigorous and/or professional post-production context. Going down your list, it's abundantly clear that you just don't understand. You're answering concerns "one by one" with a lack of experience, knowledge and understanding- and it's really frustrating because your article is just going to reinforce the totally false idea that editors are over-reacting to this release with nerdy hissy fits.

I cut feature films. I have been using FCP for over a decade, and even with all its quirks and eccentricities it has worked like a charm. I can tell you without any doubt or question that FCPX is absolutely not equip to handle the type of work that I do, and it hurts me to say it- but based on what I see, I can't imagine it ever will be. The financial implications of this are significant. I am going to need to re-train on new software (Avid or Premiere), buy some amazingly expensive new hardware, and re-position myself professionally- no longer can I tout my 10 years of cutting with this software as a marketable skill set. I want you to take a split second, right now, and think about my situation. No vacation this summer. Serious economic stress. Immense frustration.

Angus Wall (editor of The Social Network) has blurbed the new FCP, which is a total mystery. Call him up. Ask him if he plans to use FCPX on his next project. Call Walter Murch. Ask him. Call the Coens. Ask them. Please, call them. Feature films will not be edited on Final Cut anymore. It's cooked.
Welcome to the New Coke digital fiasco.

You have commeted on the wrong game. This is about professional tools not beefing up pretty toys.

While a valiant effort and I know your heart is in the right place, and I admire technical neatness like the next guy, but with a heavy heart, I go to bed on day 3 thinking this is the end of Final Cut as professional tool.

The demise started with Quicktime X last year ( toy) and it ends today with another X.

I have been in software design for maybe 15 years and a professional user of Final Cut for maybe 5 and i have never seen a new product day as dark as this. ( OK maybe New Coke or whatever it was called).

Contrary to what many so passionately state, Apple does not deserve a break claiming this is V1 of a product.

They had 10 years to learn how to do this right. They DO deserve a break similar from when we went from OS 9 to Mac OS X - that was big, stuff broke, it was hard, but we could see it was worth it. We could do some things with it on day one. Open a WORD doc written in OS 9, play a movie made in OS 9, run an old DVD etc., etc., It was more than Macdraw and MacPlay.

This is different - whats there works pretty well, even lovely sometimes.

What is fundamentally NOT there is likely the basis of the firestorm across all the boards, blogs, tweets, etc.,. the pro industry is scared because this is it. And Its not enough to make a living on.

Respectfully you do 1 million Final Cut users a disservice defending this on purely 'growing pains' grounds. Collectively we are little more than a rant to Apple, but you owe it to this community to re-educate Apple on the difference between tools and toys.
I don't need it all to work, but this is an unprecedented storm of discontent. It really might be that pulling up 5 million iMovie users is far more lucrative ( in the short term at least) then improving the workflow and life of of hundreds of thousands of professional film, TV, music video and theatrical trailer editors.
Quote Originally Posted by ryanww View Post
This is an interesting article on this too..

I don’t buy any of this. You guys still think you are dealing with a company run by Steve Jobs. We are NOT.

Snow Leopard was a downgrade.
Quicktime X was a downgrade.
Final Cut “Pro” X is a massive downgrade.
Lion???? i shudder to think…

Let’s start here. How about a “File – Open” menu choice?? This software was clearly designed by the geniuses that GREYED OUT the entire interface in iTunes. If i made an App that didn’t have File – New, File – Open, and File – Save… i’m pretty sure Apple would throw it back in my face. But if you are an Apple employee decades old rules that make it possible to understand and use all software are out the window. Why? File – Open is a rule that all are supposed to use for the benefit of all…. it’s a RULE. Just like greyed out is a rule. Just like backwards compatible USED to be a rule at Apple.

I’m a Mac lifer since ’87, and at this point i have ZERO faith in any part of Apple anymore. Every version of FCP could open legacy documents, if Apple hasn’t figured out how to do that most basic function, then DON’T RELEASE the software. 2001 Apple would have waited. 2005 Apple would have waited.

This is JUST like Quicktime X. Rolled out to much fanfare, completely unusable garbage. Apple’s response… “Oh if you need to pro features you are supposed to use the “old” Quicktime 7 Pro”. Sound Familiar?

Or the iPad folks that took 12 months to make WiFi models keep accurate time (TIME for God’s sake!!). Or the high level execs that are going to provide NO DISKS with Lion (you know, because hard drives NEVER fail or need to be replaced with larger ones) This is the logic of all the ex Microsoft employees that run Apple now. And this rant is aimed at the Apple brain-trust more than the rank and file coders who make FCP.

That logic overflows into decision like… you can’t arrange your workspace the way you wish (the absolute opposite of Apple friendly). You can’t have more than two monitors (since when???). You can’t view on an external device for those oh so unimportant CLIENTS. I want to Save or Save As my document AS I SEE FIT. For Apple to be wholesale removing this stuff is an OUTRAGE. It’s ANTI-APPLE (or at least, what Apple was under Jobs)

This IS an absolute train wreck of Vista proportions. Apple didn’t even officially acknowledge that FCP-X was a coming product. The software is RELEASED on the same day it is announced with the name “Pro”, AND they pull FCPS3… and WE are the ones who have done something wrong?!?! I think NOT!

So to those of you that think we are chicken little… i disagree. At Apple, the sky IS actually falling. Apple has proven again that the ONLY thing they care about is iPads and iPhones. Any my iPhone would be great… if it worked as a PHONE ( that’s Apple reverso logic at work again… the iPhone does everything, except reliably connect phone calls )

How am i supposed to believe that the morons that dropped this bomb on us are smart enough to fix it? That is why we are screaming bloody murder. If heads don’t roll in high places, this actually WILL be the end of Final Cut Pro.

We are not screaming just be jerks. I care about FCP and i’m upset about what they have done to a once proud franchise. And i don’t believe any of this would have happened if Jobs were truly still in charge. This is less about FCPX and more about what Apple has devolved into.
http://pogue.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/...ce=twitterfeed