Since its release almost three years ago, Apple's Final Cut Pro X has been heavily criticized by higher-end productions who might have previously worked on Final Cut 7, including people like Academy Award-winning editor Walter Murch. The newest version of FCP X is quite a bit more mature, and includes many of the missing features editors complained about initially. It also has improved project management, making it much easier to share projects among a group. Now we have word that the first major Hollywood film is editing on FCP X.
FCP.co originally had a post mentioning a figure about a $100 million dollar studio film editing on the software, and now a video from the Digital Cinema Society confirms that:
So what's the movie in question? Neil seems to be referring to the Warner Bros. film Focus, directed by Glenn Ficarra and John Requa, and starring Will Smith. Some research done in the forums on FCP.co backs this up, and facts mentioned in the video match those of the film, including the shooting locations, the multiple directors, and the project having just finished shooting when this video was made. I can't seem to find anywhere mentioning the budget of the film, so it's unclear if it is actually $100 million or not. Regardless, it is still a pretty significant Hollywood film.
Many of you I'm sure have already asked why this even matters -- use what you have and can afford as long as it gets the job done. Hollywood sets trends for certain things, but rightly or wrongly, they also legitimize all sorts of choices for equipment and software. For example, if you're an FCP X user right now, and a production tells you that you need to be using something else for no other reason than they heard it wasn't any good, a studio picture making use of it may change their minds.
Word of mouth is strong in the filmmaking community, so will this help FCP X's standing among Hollywood editors? Only time will tell, but if a major production like this proves the workflow for Final Cut X can be fast and efficient, it would be surprising if a studio pushed hard against a show wanting to use it.
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