Final Cut Pro X: The Beginning of the End.

We've all come to expect new and amazing technology from Apple over the years, what with the revolutionary Mac OS X and game-changing iTunes, iPhone and of course the iPad.

But what myself and other pro-film/video industry professionals have noticed in the past 4 years - really ever since NAB '07, is that Apple has very distinctly been putting all their resources into the consumer world and nearly ignoring the professional.  Yet in spite of that general consumer-first direction Apple continued to produce and support some of the industry's best applications for pro-video and film, The Final Cut Pro suite.  Now that Final Cut Pro "X" has been released Apple's support for full-time professionals has clearly ended.

If you watched the Keynote address about the announcement and feature overview of FCP X on the web you'd think that all the glorious praise and applause was because Apple had finally produced an professional editing app that was a "hit out of the park" and this new iteration of Final Cut would be better than sliced bread.

However my take on that preview of FCP X was distinctly different, as what I saw was something that looked suspiciously like an iMovie interface and lo-and behold, a very iMovie-like approach to features and workflow.

Most disturbing was the "let the application attempt to fix everything on import" mantra, where FCP X will auto white-balance, auto de-shake, auto categorize... auto this, auto that... basically screw up all your "I shot it that way!" footage.

As any creative pro knows, you don't want the camera or your software packages making decisions *for you*, you want full control over the entire process from the first time you press the start-stop button to the final output.  That's not the methodology behind FCP X, Apple thinks professionals are stupid and can't figure out what they really need, so they're going to let FCP X make these all-important decisions for you. How nice.  But that's not the worst of it.

FCP X doesn't like professional editors, not one bit.  That's why you CAN'T import any project built in any other version of FCP.  That's right, that big project you finished for your client that you want to re-make again?  You'll have to keep it in FCP 7 forever.  Period.  End of story.  Oh but it get's worse.

FCP X hates pros so much, that it won't talk to professional audio formats at all; no OMF, AAF or XML.  Not unless you want to spend another $500 from Automatic Duck to fix that issue.

FCP X also has absolutely no method for working with EDL's at all.  None.  Again, if you're a professional editor FCP X hates you.  Passionately.

How many other ways does FCP X hate professional editors?  Let's see:

• No tape-based workflows
• No separation of render files from original assets
• No third-party effects plug-in support (the thousands of dollars you spent on your effects library, throw it all away)
• No RED support!  Huh?  A brand-new editor that can't talk to RED out of the box? Are you kidding me??!!!  New versions of editing software always ADD support for more cameras/formats - this one is taking them away!!  C'mon, Apple.
• No support for the current infrastructure of external video cards.  Yep, you'll need new versions of those my friends.

And the list goes on....

Look, if you're a guy with a video camera and like shooting home movies but have outgrown iMovie or Window Movie Maker then FCP X is your ticket to more creativity.

But if you're a full-time professional who MAKES THEIR LIVING from being an editor then stay away from FCP X and stick with FCP 7 for the foreseeable future.  At least until you can figure out a strategy to switch to another editing platform, say Premiere Pro or Avid.

Conclusion: FAIL - Miserably.

Again I say: C'mon Apple... WTF you idiots!!

 Furnace Core filter set - The Foundry

For as long as there have been film and video editors there has also been the need to have a robust and usable toolkit of filters and effects to add spice, fill and even correction to motion picture visuals.  And with the advent of cost-effective desktop editing solutions such as Avid, Premiere Pro and Final Cut Pro so too have come a handful of developers that offer a suite of effects to add to the toolkit.

One of the those cost-effective and usable options is the set of effects offered up in Furnace Core from "The Foundry" in the UK.  Like most other filter set offerings there is a small batch of highly effective and fast-to-process of effects that can be considered staples in any editors bag of tricks, however the one that I was most interested in and has possibly the greatest implementation across the various genres of motion picture work thus making it one of the most utilized and important effect is that of re-timing, appropriately named by The Foundry as "Kronos".

FCP has it's own built-in retiming tool which got a slight tweak in version 7 however it still suffers from the same two issues: The end result isn't as good looking as it could be, as proven by other re-timing plugins and, it's very slow to do it's analysis and work.

Prior to testing Kronos the best re-timing tool I've ever used was Twixtor by ReVisionFX.  The use of and output from Twixtor is absolutely gorgeous, the problem with Twixtor?  The cost, at $900 for the full "pro" version it costs more than the entire FC suite!  That's hardly cost effective by today's standards and I can't think of any FCP-based editor who could justify such a premium for a single effect no matter how gorgeous.

While the user interface and implementation in the FCP timeline is different than Twixtor, Kronos brings all the gorgeous end-result beauty without the high price-tag and, since it's part of a set of filters in the Furnace Core set it's a bargain at $500.

Why is re-timing such an important tool?  One only needs to look at almost any national ad campaign on broadcast TV especially during prime-time; you'd be hard-pressed to find one that didn't use some form of re-timing whether it's a ramp up or down.

Ramping or, re-timing as it's more commonly known, has as much an immediate and global effect on the feel and immediacy of any clip just as controlling depth-of-field does during production; the end result is nothing short of stunningly dramatic - when done properly.  Thus retiming can be used for literally any kind of production, whether it's uncle Joe's wedding day or that national ad-spot.

But a filter is only as useful as the editor deems it and much of that usefulness comes in the form of responsiveness and ease of use; Kronos has both in spades as it's much faster at doing it's job than the built-in speed tool in FCP and it's interface is just as intuitive as any other plug-in based effect.  And as mentioned earlier the end-result output is far and away superior to FCP's weak and almost useless implementation of a speed tool.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED


Kronos is a very well implemented effect with high-quality results that are commercial-grade.  Adding the list of other effects, DeFlicker, DeNoise, ReGrain, DirtRemoval, MatchGrade and MotionBlur adds up to a hugely useful and creative toolset for any FCP editor.