While stalled underground on a NYC subway several weeks ago, on my phone I started writing a post entitled "Final Cut Pro X is a Brilliant Rethink of the NLE, but I’m Switching to Adobe. Here’s Why." (It's not because Adobe is offering 50% off, though that helps). The train delay turned out to be of a briefer variety than expected, and so I never finished the post -- and since then hundreds of bloggers have talked ad nauseum about FCP X and I haven't felt a need to add another voice to the mix. However, this presentation by Evan Schechtman at NYC's Apple shop Tekserve is the best overview/history/contextualizing of the FCP X situation I've seen (and not just its past, but its future):
Sorry about the audio only coming from one speaker -- nothing I can do about that from here!
And yes -- I did use the word "brilliant" to describe FCP X. Brilliant, but obviously incomplete. Without going too much into it, I'll just say this: if I were a film student or someone just getting started, I'd definitely learn Apple's much-maligned new NLE. Perhaps not to the exclusion of everything else, but FCP X is a very efficient chop shop, and some of its new features -- auditions, for example, as demonstrated by Evan above -- make you a better editor. However, I'm a multihyphenate who already knows Premiere Pro, After Effects, Photoshop, and Audition (and it's worth noting again, since Adobe is keen on capitalizing on disenfranchised Final Cut Pro editors: all of these are available for 50% off as part of Production Premium). I'm locked-in, and for where I am in my multihyphenate career (meaning: I'm not a full-time editor), it doesn't make sense learn a new NLE. Maybe if that NLE started playing well with other programs like After Effects, I'd revisit that line of thinking, though...
[via 2-pop]
