At this point it goes without saying that the new Final Cut Pro X has nothing to do with the previous versions, except for the name. There are many things that have been changed, especially in terms of its handling: the concept of a Timeline with different tracks has disappeared, the magnetic Timeline continually dislodges us, the Viewer and sequences disappear, things are in different places, etc.
In short, a Final Cut Pro simplified to the maximum, with a radical change of direction and philosophy with respect to what we knew up to now to edit video, both in the home and in the professional sphere, which is causing monumental criticism and a stir especially to the latter, just at the time when Final Cut Pro was in the Top 1 of everything, in the forefront of most production companies and large companies. Apart from this, just out of curiosity if one is interested in knowing histories.
What we may not have asked ourselves yet is why; why such a radical change in its philosophy and why the removal of so many functions and tools. The pretext that they have reprogrammed it from scratch for 64 bits and in Cocoa is not enough reason to want to change the habits of so many users who have used this or other non-linear editing applications for years.
The reason had to be another: to attract new users, future editors who have not even heard of celluloid, clapperboards, tapes, tracks, and much less moviolas; And, by the way, they don’t need to. Different types of users are emerging who demand editing tools designed for them: for example, self-taught people, enthusiasts with creative concerns who want to do everything as soon as possible.
They are present in all areas, surely equipped with an inexpensive but high-performance camera and whose maximum objective does not go beyond placing your piece on Vimeo, YouTube or Facebook. That user is one of Apple’s priorities, aware that there is a whole army that gives that profile. For them, the new Final Cut Pro X gives them everything they need. The best alternative to Final cut pro is Logic Pro X. This is also a apple software and here are the steps if you want to download logic pro x for pc.
Professionals? Maybe not today, but without a doubt future aspirants to be so by mere natural selection, while online content and media are becoming more and more professional. Where will the professional be? Where are the media going? Those of us who do television, cinema or advertising, do we attribute the term “professional” just to ourselves? Industries change, professions change, entertainment changes (you can read the history of cable TV here if you would like to learn more about this particular thing).
The audiovisual industry, like so many, is changing in favor of the online model, and not only changing, but growing. More videos are made for Vimeo or YouTube in one day than movies are made in an entire year. Another user in need of modern and easy tools to edit video is the digital journalist. Today it is familiar and common to us that the websites of any online press store videos in the form of reports, specials, news, opinions, etc.
The publishers do not hire producers or freelancers to make these pieces, but train their editors or journalists so that they are the ones who produce them. Final Cut Pro X will make it very easy for them too. Someone in journalism school should be installing rows of iMacs with Final Cut Pro X.
There are already many schools that use digital boards and classes are given with the support of video projections that help in teaching because it is a language that children digest much better than any reading or talk. Another place for Final Cut Pro X, and another place for more “professionals.”
During almost 10 years teaching Final Cut Pro courses, I have seen how the students of all these profiles have increased a lot, who get dizzy simply by opening the preferences, when talking about progressive, interlaced, anamorphic, codecs, magnets, cards, timecode , etc.
They just want to mount a video, nothing more. Until recently I excused myself that Final Cut Pro is called “pro” for something, and that they had to be prepared. I think that from now on I will have to change the discourse and be the one to prepare. About us, the “current professionals”, gentlemen of television, cinema and advertising (I exclude social reports and others, which today already end up on DVD or Blu-ray), for five years practically only cameras that store the images on discs or cards.
Little by little television networks are digitizing or storing their archives on hard drives, what is the point of continuing to think about tapes, space to store them, magnets, cables, tortuous configurations, etc. Okay, today is what we have, but we all know that it is a matter of time, even more so with the definitive implementation of DTT, that the channels request a QuickTime file or similar file as a broadcast master instead of a tape, as it already happens. in various chains. In cinema, “three quarters of the same”, the percentage of theaters that project digitally grows exponentially as the months go by, more and more films are shot in digital and are finished in digital. Yes, in these two industries there are well differentiated professionals and professions (editing, effects, color grading, sound, etc.), hence the need to establish workflows that facilitate the exchange of projects between some systems and others, such as EDLs, XMLs, OMFs, etc, and the majority of anger is coming here, more than logical. It is not conceivable how it is possible that all those things have been taken from us, things that we already had, not to mention the multi-camera. Angry, no doubt, but Apple has shown that their priority was elsewhere, where the big sales are or will be, and says they will incorporate some of those things little by little.
Final Cut Pro X is made for professionals, yes, but the pros are coming. Those of us who are now in the pro market have to swallow, ember, prepare and conform to what they themselves have told us: there will be many updates in the coming times, so it is a good time to demand everything we need from them and remind them that we exist.
I remind you that six months ago we were shaking a lot because we thought that Apple had forgotten about Final Cut Pro focusing on selling music, iPhones and iPads. At least I am reassured that this continues, we have the possibility of having FCP 7 and FCP X installed simultaneously, so we will be prepared before any Avid or Premiere user for what is coming.
