Final Cut Pro X - The Reaction and The Future

More than likely over the past two weeks you've heard that Apple released an update to their professional video editing software, Final Cut Pro. I'm not just talking to you, Apple geeks or video enthusiasts. I'm talking to anyone in the general public. The release was covered by USA Today, CNN, and mocked on the Conan O' Brien Show. Why did the release of a professional video editing application get such widespread attention? Partly because this is Apple, and anything they do has no become noteworthy, for good or bad, but mostly because a very loud portion of Apple's Final Cut Pro 7 customer cried foul.

They claim that Apple has "turned their back on professional editors", "created iMovie Pro" "that's only good for high school students", and that "Apple has screwed their entire professional base." As in most cases, hyperbole is greatest at the launch of something new. And Final Cut Pro X (pronounced "ten" not "ex") is brand new. It is totally different not only from previous versions of Final Cut Pro, but any other video editing software (yes, including iMovie). I think that was the point though. Apple had a chance to re-imagine what video editing could be when they were forced to re-write the application from the ground up to take advantage of the new technologies that are built in to the modern OS X that wasn't there when Final Cut was first created, way back in the late 90's for Mac OS 9.

In fact, Final Cut Pro really hadn't changed that much since then. New features like multicam, ProRes, and integration with other apps were essentially bolted on. After so many features get bolted on to the core, they begin to weigh the entire app down and make it even harder to add new features, like 64bit, GPU acceleration, real time, no rendering of different codecs such as H.264, which Apple helped develop. The user interface had hardly changed at all and it showed. It looked old... even older than Avid. Final Cut Pro 1 was released just as the digital video revolution had begun in the late 90's - it was perfect timing. It coincided with FireWire and small video cameras that shot to tape that could be attached to the computer. Computer processors were leapfrogging in speeds every year. These advances meant that anyone could edit video with a less than $5000 camera, a Mac, and Final Cut Pro. It revolutionized the industry and destroyed long standing companies run by "professional video editors".

Before Final Cut X was released two weeks ago, the three main video editing applications (Final Cut Pro 7, Avid Media Composer, and Adobe Premiere Pro) pretty much worked the same. One would introduce a new feature, and the next release of the others would include their version of the same thing. It was a feature race that no one was going to win. It did benefit editors to a small degree, as the competition between the three A's drove feature development up and pricing down. When Final Cut Pro was first released it cost $999. At the time Avid was closer to $10,000, just to get started and required a hardware purchase from Avid as well.

So Apple took advantage of their inconvenient position and released a software application that is new and different. People that have invested a lot of time and money in the previous tools are scared of new and different. People who are scared can be very loud. Hence the outcry that has been heard across the internet that Apple has abandoned "professionals"1. It's true that Final Cut Pro X is missing key features for certain industries. Apple wasn't trying to please everyone, as that was going to be impossible anyway. They used the resources they had, thought long and hard (this rewrite has been 3 years in the making) about where the industry was headed and contemplated on how editors could be working better, faster, and smarter.

Final Cut Pro X is a great first step, remember it is really a version 1 software release, to helping video editors work for the next decade and beyond. Apple has already publicly stated that some of the key features missing would be addressed in future updates. The naysayers have claimed that it is time to move on from Apple and switch platforms. I suspect that many of them will. Those that stay with it though, and learn FCP X now, will be in great position though as Final Cut Pro X grows and pushes the envelope of media creation over the next few years. Just as the editors that are now throwing temper tantrums all over the web used early versions of Final Cut Pro to create markets and undercut the established houses that were using Avids (that had huge overhead costs and had so much invested in Avid systems and eventually couldn't afford to upgrade or replace them), today's and tomorrow's editors will have the same opportunity with Final Cut Pro X, if they take it.

There will always be large post houses with big overhead creating multi-million dollar commercials, at least as long as live TV thrives. I believe that as viewing of media and news increasingly happens on the internet and mobile devices, video production for these outlets will continue to grow but with fast turnarounds and smaller budgets (less than $10,000). The large post houses can't take these "small jobs" because it ties up their expensive infrastructure and workflow. They work in a certain way with a certain workflow, no matter what the job. This workflow eventually becomes outdated, either because of new codecs, new hardware, new software, or new delivery mediums, and then they become giant turtles that are stuck on their backs.

The future is 1, 2, 5 man shops that are flexible and dynamic, can shoot with anything and handle any media, but able to access past media quickly and easily to reuse shots from previous jobs for the same client, and publish it quickly to multiple places in multiple formats and resolutions. Editors have been handed motion graphics duties, DVD authoring duties, and titles and effects duties for quite a few years now that only specialists did previously. Editors must be able to wear all of these hats efficiently now. The new tools that Apple has created, Final Cut Pro X and Motion 5, I believe are a great foundation for this future. Here's to the next digital video revolution!

1 Everyone has a definition of what "professional" means. Most use it as tool for elitism, trying to belittle others while perching themselves on a pedestal that doesn't exist. For a great article on this read Philip Hodgetts blog post - What the heck is a "pro" anyway?