“I don’t want to read your dumb bio… where are the tutorials?” (Look over there on the left!)
First a bit of my history.
1986 - Started in broadcast television doing live shows from the local PBS affiliate. In PBS you definitely learn about “broadcast standards”. Spent most of my time in a control room behind a large format switcher.
Early 90’s I dabbled in switching live sports but I sucked at it cuz I hate sports.
Mid 90’s started my business of creating corporate communications slides that met broadcast standards for satellite transmission.
Late 90’s started editing full time.
Video Toaster Flyer (don’t laugh it made money).
Avid (HATED IT)
Media 100 (a trusty Mac-based friend)
2000 - jumped into Final Cut Pro.
So, I think I have a bit of history under my belt and have been thru a few techtonic style shifts in the industry to have formed a bit of opinion and also to be in the place where I can really say, “been there, done that”. Like the late 80’s when everyone dragged their feet and didn’t want to give up their tube video cameras because CCD’s looked flat… or, “I don’t get these computers, whats wrong with editing on tape, you don’t have to digitize!!” or “DV, I don’t DOO DV, I’m a broadcaster…” (uh, OK) or, “My clients aren’t asking for HD” (yea, cuz your clients are MY clients now).
You can drag your feet in your comfort zone or you can be looking for the next log in the river to jump onto. If you don’t move forward, your ‘log’ may drift out of the pack and then you’re left standing there with no where to go.
Philip Hodgetts said on twitter, “Are you going to switch on a RUMOUR?” to which I answer, “no, not entirely” but the writing is on the wall, at least, in the near term. Who knows where Apple will be in 5 years or 10 years and as much as I want to say, “What ever tool works” I also want to look to the future and say, what tool will be there for me!.
You CAN stay behind and figure “everything will work its self out” or you can be proactive and get ahead.
Do I think Premiere Pro is perfect? No I don’t but was FCP perfect in 2000? NOPE. Premiere has some usability issues to address but having seen how much they have done in the past year I can tell you that Premiere Pro has had more improvements in the past year than FCP has had in several. (Although those colored Markers are indeed pretty bad ass).
I will also say this. I DO know people in “The Loop” (notice that was capitalized for a reason) and I have worked side by side with some of them over the years. Some of the ones that i DID work with are now pimping iPhones to corporate america where as, they USE to be marketing FCP to ME. What does that say about the focus of the company?
I said that FCP 7 was my bell weather. If it let me down I was seriously gonna think about changing… It let me down in a MAJOR way and i stuck around for another year. But now, after spending a few weeks with Premiere Pro CS5… (don’t leave that part off.. CS5) I got to tell you, I think this thing has legs and if I get a chance to run some ideas up a few flagpoles and have a bit of a say… that would be wonderful.
So, you guys do what you want. I’m sure there will be versions of FCP coming out for a while… (I would bet I could predict the next release within a 45 day window but I won’t tell you as to not incriminate anyone.) But I’m thinking about MORE than today, I’m also thinking about tomorrow.
JFK… the past is prolog.
Let’s look back on this post in a year and see how far off base I was.
My guess is that FCP 8 is gonna suck ass, like FCP 7. I’d like to be wrong but I’m affraid I won’t be.
If you’d like to follow along on the journey… join me.
UPDATE: on February 28, 2012 I added an FCPX tag because this is part of the “FCPX Story” even though it predates the release.