or as you may have guessed, Final Cut Pro X.
Yes, i'm going to add to the already healthy amount of complaints about Final Cut Pro X, but possibly from a more humanistic standpoint than others. In short, the idea and workflow of Final Cut Pro X is centered around a single user creating content as a self-titled professional. It is geared for someone who doesn't mind picking up filmmaking as a "new user" and does not have professional training in how media is sorted, logged, captured, edited, reviewed and delivered.
(Conan O'Brien's team has this to say in "support" of the program. )
This is evident in such features as:
"Sharing" instead of saving
"importing" and "exporting" with a nearly optionless workflow
requiring the purchase of third-party add ons to add functionality for features Apple deems unfit for the core program.
creating in a "storyline" instead of working in a timeline
Never having to "save" and having no backups to speak of in progressive editing
eliminating the indispensable "Bin" form of file-sorting for iMovie's "Events" and "Projects" system
The filmmaking industry has several practices that allow for a TEAM of people to work together to accomplish blockbuster hits that we know and love in additon to well trained individuals to accomplish respectable work on their own smaller projects. Yes, it is possible to create a low-budget film with an impressive story. No, not all films should strive for this. (ie: Apple's $300 price-point compared to AVID and Premiere Pro.)
In short, you get what you pay for.
If you are a one man band, or a poor collaborator, Final Cut Pro X is the right tool for you. You can instantly "share" your works straight to Youtube, Facebook and Vimeo or to your own apple devices (the major default options the program gives you to work with right off the bat.) Can't really get more self centered than that. I'm pretty sure if Instagram did video, it would be up there too. The layout essentially screams "look at me, look at me" like some attention starved prepubescent teenage blogger.
Also, finding your files is a nice walk in the park, good luck finding old proofs of videos you've edited with a client.
If you actually ask for a clients feedback and collaborate over multiple edits of lets say, a sizzle reel, DO NOT USE THIS PROGRAM PERIOD. It uses constant state saving and eliminates the "tedious" need for saving your files.
Yes, losing tons of work due to a system crash is/was annoying
NO, do not constantly overwrite my work while i'm working, that's worse.
If you deliver content to clients on a regular basis, good luck keeping your editing window clean. You have to fool Final Cut with extra folders so that it doesn't see your previous work if you want to keep your navigator from clogging with the unseemly organized folders that also lack a bin.
"Events" are now carried forward from iMovie, and "Projects" are as well. The automatic "mac handles all the messy file-sorting" for you has carried forward as well. Geared for a user looking for a point and click solution, mixed with a dash of "work with this and feel like a pro" are the two main ingredients in the making of this program.
Also, another fun bug, even if you do duplicate a project, and had previously exported a version of that project for a client, the export is DELETED as soon as you render out a new project. It seems almost too stupefying to be the case, but I actually had to go to vimeo and download a low-quality export that had been saved there for review in order to get a 5 minute sizzle reel that I had edited down to a 2 minute reel just so that I could recut my master in order to make the changes I needed.
The sheer fact that Apple is using a marketing campaign to shift support in their favor, instead of a software re-release, is proof enough that they're heading down all the wrong channels.
Their solution? Numerous updates and patches that fix the complaints of the community of people using their software based on said complaints. Oh wait... that's called a beta. In Apple's case, a public, pay to participate beta.
But we've seen this before...
Not too long ago, gaming giant Square-Enix release a disturbingly awful (but good-looking,) installment to it's popular Final Fantasy series of games entitled "Final Fantasy XIV." Sound familiar? You know what Square-Enix did when the public responded to the poor design, high processor demand and unfinished quality of the game as a whole? Fired a shit to of people, got a new director and made the game free for over a year while they worked on a new version that beat the pants off the original. In addition to this, they created an event with a scheduled "in-game demolition" via a worldwide "cataclysm" (complete with a stunningly produced video,) that also became canon with the overall narrative and placed the servers on standby for the new overhaul, while launching a developer's and director's blog, updating consumers on the steps being taken to redesign the game from the ground up, and doing all this based directly on fan forums and surveys.
Now THAT's how to work with a "storyline" Apple.
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