Apple’s new Final Cut Pro X is certainly testing the patience and loyalty of one small but extremely vocal group of fans: professional video editors, who are up in arms over this completely reimagined post-production application. But will other users also break out torches and pitchforks to storm One Infinite Loop?
Let’s get the bad news out of the way up front: if you currently use Final Cut Pro 7, older project files will not open in the newest Final Cut—and more perplexingly, iMovie projects have no such limitation. Apple claims there’s no way to import older projects without “changing or losing data,” although there’s evidence that XML import may eventually come.
Veteran users may see a strange new world at first, but there’s a great deal of power hidden within.
For now, post-production houses dependent on videotape beyond basic FireWire capture should steer clear of Final Cut Pro X, along with users who rely on OMF, XML, or EDL files. Also gone (for now) are third-party plug-ins, although FxFactory pushed out an update the same day Final Cut Pro X was released, compatible with its key transitions and filters. Apple promises “great” multicam editing with the next major update, while other features like tape-deck control will arrive via third-party solutions. So yes -- at first glance, this latest version is missing a lot.
But Final Cut Pro X is not an upgrade. It’s an entirely new application, and veteran users should approach it as such. Built from the ground up to take advantage of modern 64-bit processors, Apple had to toss out years of legacy 32-bit, Carbon-based code and start over. The end ultimately justifies the means because Final Cut Pro X is (mostly) a dream to use. Squarely focused on the creative experience at the expense of a technical one, this app overhauls sequence-based editing in the same way Apple steamrollered old-school A/B roll editing with the original version in 1999.
Thanks to powerful 64-bit processing, waiting for effects and filters to render is now a thing of the past.
While dissatisfied users are threatening to abandon Final Cut Pro altogether, we found that it takes all the grunt work out of the editing process. For example, you can apply even the most complex filter to a clip and play it back immediately while rendering churns away almost unnoticed in the background. After years of losing productivity waiting for “Writing video…” prompts to render, it’s hard to imagine ever going back again.
Complicated media management is also a thing of the past -- Final Cut Pro X borrows Events from iMovie, but adds Auto Content–Analysis tools (including Range-Based Keywords and Smart Collections), making bins and scratch disks look positively quaint by comparison. Render files are now saved alongside project files on any mounted volume, and media files can go to a different drive. Archiving projects is also a snap, finally putting the complexity of the old Media Manager out to pasture.
Video and Events can be viewed in the main window or moved full-screen to a second display.
We’re also giving a big thumbs-up to Final Cut Pro X’s much-hyped new features -- Magnetic Timeline, Clip Connections, Compound Clips, Inline Precision Editor, and Auditions—which we’re happy to report all work as magically as Steve Jobs himself might have envisioned. After years of cutting on Final Cut Pro, the new tools take some getting used to, but a few trips to the Help menu will have you up and running quickly.
In fact, Final Cut Pro X makes it easier than ever to get to your content, providing direct access to iPhoto, Aperture, and iTunes libraries. While DRM-protected audio files can’t be added to projects, any other MP3 or AAC can (the latter’s a first for Final Cut Pro). Speaking of audio, projects can be easily mastered in 5.1 with the Surround Panner using slick presets like Dialogue, Ambience, and Music to get you started. Finally, Final Cut Pro X plays nice with media from iOS devices, Flip cameras, and other tapeless sources, seamlessly mixing formats within the same project -- about as close to digital heaven as it gets.
But despite the name, Final Cut Pro X feels far from final. It bears the version 10.0 label, but it’s really a 1.0 release in many respects. The Inspector sometimes appears devoid of data after you select clips, particularly when editing text options for titles. Usually we could hide the Inspector and reopen it to get things working again, but there are clearly bugs still lurking in Apple’s code. We also had a number of crashes so hard the entire app went down, even on a mid-2010 2.93GHz Core i7 iMac with 16GB of RAM. Frankly, we expect more from Apple.
Powerful titling abilities are occasionally hampered by display bugs with the Inspector window.
Once you’re done editing, you’ll find all of the export -- or rather, “Share” -- options are aimed at tapeless files or social networking services like Facebook and YouTube. However, you can now burn a DVD or even a Blu-ray disc (apparently no longer a “bag of hurt”) straight from Final Cut Pro X, but it’s a one-trick pony limited to a single menu and piece of content. For more extensive options, Apple offers the $49.99 Compressor 4, and projects can be pushed there for further processing. Motion 5 is also available for the same low price, but other Final Cut Studio components like DVD Studio Pro and Soundtrack Pro have gone swimming with the fishes.
For now, Final Cut Pro X doesn’t replace Final Cut Pro 7, but rather coexists with it -- thankfully, Apple says Final Cut Pro 7 will run just fine under OS X Lion. That means veteran users can experiment with Final Cut Pro X for small projects, but still get deadline-intensive, paying work done with “old faithful” for now. Apple has discontinued Final Cut Studio, which means users will be forced into Final Cut Pro X (or a competing product) eventually. But you might as well embrace the new, rather than whining about how “X” stands for missing features and crushed dreams, especially when this is but a glimpse of what the future holds.
Apple definitely should’ve been more open about Final Cut Pro X’s limitations prior to release, but we’ve quickly fallen in love with it; it took us less than a week to get up to speed after years of working professionally in prior versions. If you do any video editing—for money or just for fun -- our advice is to ignore the naysayers and try Final Cut Pro X for yourself. You’ll find creative impulses far less hampered by technology than ever before, and ultimately that’s what it’s all about.
The bottom line. You’ll need plenty of patience to navigate this strange new world, but we’re confident Apple will squash existing bugs and bring back missing features as quickly as possible, allowing users to fall in love with the application all over again.
Intel Core 2 Duo processor or better, Mac OS 10.6.7 or later, Intel HD Graphics 3000 or later
More affordable. Feature set is a huge improvement over previous versions, despite missing features used by a few. Fast and furious editing that takes full advantage of modern Macs.
Can’t open older Final Cut Pro 7 projects. Lingering bugs and crashes yet to be squashed. Missing pro features, primarily for older tape-based workflows. Can’t set timecode start for projects. 5.1 surround-sound audio gets downmixed to stereo for Apple TV exports, requiring workarounds. Requires time investment from busy professionals to relearn the app.
StoneCRM114
July 15, 2011 at 9:43am
I'm a relative "noob" to professional broadcast editing; only five years in primarily DRTV editing. I agree that overall FCPX is not ready for primetime work, but I still don't understand why people are jumping ship so early.
As has been stated here and elsewhere, there are features coming, but we don't know what and when they are, and in the mean time FCP7 works and will continue to work in the future (at least through OSX Lion). All these people so eager to call foul so early on is precisely why the "old farts" idea exists. I'm still using FCP7 myself on 16 spots that I'm working on now, and won't use FCPX for professional work until separate audio tracks and OMF support is added. But to not even give Apple a chance to add the features we need, and see where the software is in a year or two is a little silly.
The release of FCPX didn't suddenly make everything we know outdated, so to say it's the death nell of professional editing with Apple products is silly, as well.
Frankly, I think a lot of this griping is coming from people who want to be able to say "I told you so," if FCPX really does flunk out in the years to come.
Theo
July 15, 2011 at 7:12am
I'm curious, how do you think the FCPX problem can be fixed? I'm a editor (and writer/director, perks of being a film major grad), and I've been following this fiasco pretty closely. Do you think Apple will adjust their product to us editors, or push to their own future of editing, which is OMF, EDL, XML, etc. free? (I know they said some of the features are coming, it's just for an example)
Maxmax
July 14, 2011 at 3:38pm
Your use of the terms "legacy" and "veteran" editors indicates your - and many others - total misunderstanding of what it actually takes to make a feature movie and a failure to comprehend the implications of the severe lack features in FCPX. This attempt to view the 'Hollywood' workflow as "for old farts who won't move with the times" is simply lazy journalism in the extreme.
All of us who are professional filmmakers acknowledge that features like OMF, EDL, XML etc may come in time - sure, there will be improvements, and we have no need to jump into version 1.0 of anything - in fact, you'll find most pro houses tend to work one rev behind what works for consumers in OS and app revisions, as it's safer that way - better the devil you know, etc. What has caused all the fuss is instead the fact that FCPX completely dispenses with industry paradigms that have evolved over 90 years for a reason - concepts like multiple, individually addressable audio tracks, for just one.
It's been the most common fault of all reviews of FCPX that there is an attempt to dismiss the often wickedly complex workflows that have been established in professional filmmaking. Yet these are there for a reason, much as professional skyscraper architecture needs more than the plans, a hammer and a saw that you need to build your tree house. That professional movies look, feel, and sound far, far 'bigger' than home movies is because perhaps hundreds of people work on the post-production of such things, across perhaps twenty or thirty software applications and hardware platforms. Interchangeability of workflows across multiple vendors is utterly essential and is what makes this system work so well. Apple reinventing the wheel is not going to make any of these tasks change, because their evolved complexity is exactly what is required for the tasks at hand. You think ProTools is going to stop using multiple audio tracks simply because Apple has decided you don't need them?
The simple truth is that in one fell swoop, Apple has taken an app that is currently being used to make Hollywood blockbusters, killed it, and released in its place an app that absolutely cannot do the same task. The end result is very predictable - people are walking away in droves from FCP and will continue to do so until FCPX is simply left with those from the iMovie user base who thought they might do better with an app with 'Pro' in the name. Apple is no longer in the filmmaking business. And that's a very sad day for many.
jrbookwalter
July 14, 2011 at 4:33pm
Had you bothered to research my credentials or even Google my name, you'd find out that I have quite an extensive IMDb resumé as a filmmaker (producer/director/editor/et al) whose work has been sold internationally on both home video and television. It ain't Academy Award winning stuff, but it's an extensive body of professional work just the same. (I only started sharpening my "lazy journalism" skills in the last few years, thankyouverymuch.)
I've used Final Cut Pro for years (and a combination of Media 100, Avid, Premiere and plenty of linear editing prior to that)... and I stand by my opinion that FCPX will be the future. I'm currently in the midst of cutting a feature with FCP7 as part of my own freelance work -- because I ultimately have to deliver M&E tracks and tape masters, FCPX is not a viable option for this work right now. But someday, it will be, and I'll be more than happy to leave the past behind.
But thanks for sharing, just the same...
JRB
