Final Cut Pro X is really awesome! No really, I mean it.
Derek Sajbel
Film & Video Editor - Award Winning Media Maker - Post Production Generalist
It's true, when FCP X first released, it was not ready for prime time. Apple failed all over the place, canceling support for the widely used FCP 7 while FCP X was still missing essential features that the pro community couldn't do without. Most editors took one look at FCP X in 2011 and decided to never touch the software again. In fact I've even seen articles online from this year referencing 2011's bad reviews as a reason to not use it. But as someone who has been using NLEs since the 90s, I waited and started using FCP X from 10.0.8 in early 2013, I've been super impressed and it's now my NLE of choice. Not only can I work more efficiently, creatively and faster than Premiere or Avid, I also enjoy it much more. Many of the features that may seem to be missing at first glance are there in a different and sometimes better format than FCP 7. The keyword system, expanded metadata tools, skimmer, magnetic timeline and timeline index are great time-saving tools that are either not found or more advanced and efficient versions of what one would find in AVID or Premiere. I love it so much that I even teach it now. Don't be afraid to learn it, it only takes around eight hours to learn most every function in my class, maybe four to six or so if you are already an experienced editor. Collaboration with other software support is getting better and better as time goes on as well thanks to new features and third party solutions. Most of the editors I've talked to just haven't given FCP X a chance and know nothing of the 14 improvement releases it's had since it's failed 10.0 release in 2011.
For a good rundown of why you should reconsider FCP X check out this review of FCP X 10.1 as well as this article about the new paradigm of object oriented timeline versus the old linear track timeline. If you prefer to edit with tracks, there's a method for tracks in FCP X described in detail here. Apple has even done some awesome case studies on professional studios using FCP X. Even the BBC news division has recently added it to their tool set. Here's a great workflow breakdown of how FCP X was used for this interactive Honda commercial as well as a smart list of the features FCP X should add or that can be found in third party apps. And a new workflow breakdown about how the hollywood feature film Focus was cut on FCP X as well as being used in enterprise-level television production.
Independent Motion Pictures and Film Professional
9 年I agree with you Derek, the new version of FCP 10 is a solid editing system with lots of great features. I've edited on Avid and FCP 7 for years. FPC 10's built in color correction is very similar to resolve and works great.. That alone with everything shot is Slog these days, makes it worth the investment
Inventor, Entrepreneur and Cloud & Connectivity Technology Consultant
10 年Yo Derek! Would love to sesh with ya sometime-perhaps on the decks, and or in FCP...I'm still running FCS 2, but let me know if you're up for a bit of collab'n one day soon! ;)
Editor / Finishing Editor available for work
10 年I agree that the keyword tagging is a huge advance and I'm glad to see Premiere CC is adopting it. However, I felt that the trimming was substandard, especially when it comes to dialogue editing and narrative which bendiys greatly from Real-Time dynamic trimming found in Avid and Premiere. Have you found a way to actually play andnake trims as opposed to dragging or nudging edit points and reviewing them after the edit? If so I'd be greatly interested to know.
CMS Implementation Manager - I build out websites
10 年Myself, I learned to edit on FCP X, so to me it seems perfectly natural and logical. I think the interface is much easier to use than others I've worked with because I can see everything I need and don’t have to waste real estate with a redundant source monitor. I use Premiere Pro for simple sausage-making on my PC, but to perform more advanced edits, especially if I need to composite or color correct, I wouldn’t dream of using anything else. It’s so much faster. Now that they have rethought their file management schema, I must say that my only complaint is that FCP X is extremely limited in what it is able to ingest and export. It’s a colossal drag on my time to have to convert media so FCP will recognize it, or to need to use a third-party program to export video that can be seen in the majority of browsers out there.
Software Engineer - Optimization ????????
10 年I tried FCPX when it came out and my main issue was using it with AE. How's that like these days?