Final Cut Pro X: Reaction Around the Web

The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly
The Digital Rebellion has assembled a good collection of hits and misses in Final Cut Pro X, including:

• FCPX is FAST. I tried to break it with lots of stacked clips and effects but it played them all seamlessly.
• It took a long time for multiple marker colors to be added to Final Cut Pro. Now we're back to one marker color again. There are no chapter markers either.
• Compressor 4 is still 32-bit and doesn't look like it's received an overhaul, meaning that the problems many of us have suffered are likely to continue. I have already had several issues with Qmaster.

While you're there, check out their Most Frequently Asked Questions too.
DigitalRebellion: Final Cut Pro X - The Good, The Bad and The Ugly
DigitalRebellion: Final Cut Pro X Frequently Asked Questions



Why We Can't Use Final Cut Pro X
Walter Biscardi and Richard Harrington explain why they won't be able to use Final Cut Pro X in their production facilities in this audio podcast. Notable issues:

• No physical media, have to have App Store internet connection
• How does volume licensing work? "It does not appear to me Apple has thought out how people will use this in post-production facilities."
• Old projects don't come in, and can't have previous version open at the same time

CreativeCOW: Why We Can't Use Final Cut Pro X at Our Companies



iMovie Plus
Paul Antico at Need Creative does a first pass look at Final Cut Pro X, noting it's iMovie-ness and:

Most troubling for someone like me, who tends to export for web/intranets and Blu-Ray (that is, while I am to have footage good enough to show on a 50 foot screen I rarely show on something above, say, the 103" of my home theater) - in other words an independent filmmaker who makes things for people, corporate, web and so forth is that FCPx cannot send out your audio into another program from inside it. To me that's kind of insane.

NeedCreative: IMovie Prosumer Plus = Final Cut Pro X. For Now



Video First Looks
FilmmakerIQ has assembled together a good collection of YouTube first looks at Final Cut Pro X: 10 First Looks At: Final Cut Pro X



Wait, and Wait Some More
Ron Dawson comments about Final Cut Pro X, and not about the tool itself, but about the reaction of creatives to new things, and "our poor impulse control."

I actually read on a Facebook group thread where a very experienced wedding filmmaker was considering “throwing caution to the wind’ (his term) and using FCPX on a same day edit this weekend. (A same day edit is where you shoot and edit a wedding the same day and show a short highlights clip at the reception. It’s an amazing experience, but has more than enough built-in problems you don’t need to add to it by editing with a 1.0 version of an editing program that is missing a lot of key features).

He counsels waiting, and he's probably right, no matter how good or bad the tool is.

Bladeronner: FCPX and the Problem with Creatives



Changing Shortcuts
Chris Fenwick at One On One complains about changing shortcuts:

And PLEASE don’t say… “we’ll you know you can always go in and change them in the Keyboard Shortcut Editor. Do you have any idea how many machines I work on in a day, I don’t want to install custom shortcuts every time I sit at a new machine.  Why not just leave the shortcuts well enough alone?

ChrisFenwick: FCPX - "I'm going back to bartending"



MacBreak Weekly
Leo Laporte, Alex Lindsay, Andy Ihnatko and Jason Snell, Editr-in-Chief at Macworld discuss the release of Final Cut Pro X in the first thirty minutes of the 6/21 episode. It's more of an overview rather than a detailed discussion.

The general opinion is that it'll do well and be popular, but Apple is jettisoning the high-end. "Apple is a 90/90 company. What do 90% of the people need 90% of the time?"

They say that even though Apple doesn't want to say it, it really is iMovie on steroids. Lots of discussion of basic changes and features. There's some discussion of the licensing, and an interesting note that Motion can be used to create plug-ins for effects in Final Cut Pro X.

"Everybody should play with Motion."

There's an interesting side note about how Apple is able to essentially change directions almost 180 degrees, where as other companies couldn't afford to make such a massive change.
iTunes: MacBreak Weekly



Even More Reactions

• Daniel Freytag: UPDATED: FCPX – Apple changed everything, or not?
• Philip Bloom: Final Cut X is out, as is new version of Motion
• HD Warrior: FCPX-”Everything just changed in post” but NOT for the better !
• Clear Head Media: FCP X // Initial Thoughts
• Ars Technica: 64-bit Final Cut Pro X now in Mac App Store, reaction is mixed
• MacRumors: Early Final Cut Pro X Response Mixed, Updates Coming