Like so many others I deeply panned the release of Final Cut Pro X for various and solid reasons, many of which Apple finally admitted to having "goofed" without actually saying it outright.
However they just recently released a free trial and so I thought I'd attempt a second look at FCP X, dig deeper, spend more time getting my head around the interface to see if my opinions had changed at all.
And not surprisingly my opinions haven't changed one bit: It's still is iMovie on steroids.
There are things that "X" does better than FCP 7, such as being able to immediately and effortlessly scrub, organize and preview effects on clips, but overall the interface, workflow and handling of assets is so completely removed from traditional methods that it *forces* the editor to work in this new environment, rather than giving him the *option* as to whether or not to fully adopt it.
An easier analogy would be to say this: Imagine you're working in FCP 7 and all of a sudden your interface becomes iMovie... and you'll start to understand the frustration levels you'd endure if that actually happened.
As I expected prior to the release and most certainly now that I've given FCP X a second-chance overview, I'm thoroughly convinced that it's target market is the iMovie editor who wants FCP capabilities but wants the overly simplistic "do it for me" interface of iMovie.
Maybe someday somebody wil figure out how to incorporate all the cool and fast interface tricks FCP X is capable of but put it into a traditional - and more logical - NLE package. Then we'd really have a game-changing editor.
But, that's exactly what the entire community *expected* FCP X was going to be. Sadly, it's just not and most likely never will be.
Reviews for Professional Editors, Producers, Camera Operators and anyone involved in the commercial filmmaking community. Often you'll find some stuff not related to filmmaking... but fun anyway.
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