Pro video blog…Produced by Philip Johnston DoP/Editor

 

Good old Larry took the bull by the horns and told it as it was…in his opinion…but must have caused a giant wave of horror to flow through Apple headquarters as he announced that Final Cut Pro 10 was “not ready for professional use”.

Larry is the guru of Final Cut Pro 7 and is a great educator for everyone who wants to anything about FCP, he is simply one of the best.

Larry takes up the story…

“There are about 85 emails in my in-box this morning with links to a speech I gave at the April Final Cut Pro User Group about my reactions to Apple’s presentation of Final Cut at NAB.

While I stand by most of my remarks, there was one unfortunate moment where I said, with a special dramatic emphasis for the crowd, that Final Cut Pro X was not ready for professional use.

I believed that then. I don’t believe it now.

When I made that presentation to the LAFCPUG, it was the week after NAB; a week after Apple presented the new version of Final Cut to the world. When I watched that presentation, I was watching it through the prism of my experience with Final Cut Pro 7 and all I knew about the application was what Apple showed on stage in their demo.

How could anything that radically different equal what we already had in Final Cut Pro 7?

I knew this new version was far more than iMovie – but, at that time, I didn’t think it was Final Cut Pro, either.

Its no secret that Apple gave me rare access to the software by inviting me to a demo of an early build of the software in February this year. However, what is not known, is that they also gave me permission to contact their development team to discuss the new version.

After NAB, and after my presentation at that April LAFCPUG meeting, I finally had time to follow-up on Apple’s offer. And I did. A lot.

I peppered them with questions:

• Why did Apple decide to totally reinvent the interface?

• Why did Apple feel they couldn’t simply do an incremental improvement to what we already had?

• Why did they only talk about Final Cut Pro?

• Why did they add the features they did?

• Why did they not mention others?

• What did they view as the future of editing, and who did they see doing the work?

While I can’t tell you what Apple told me until after the NDA lifts with the release of the product, I can tell you that what I learned during those conversations has completely changed my opinion.

Because so many of us base our lives on this software – both creatively and financially – there is a lot of stress whenever a new version comes out. Especially a radically different new version.

I understand, I feel the same stress.

But I no longer feel, as I once thought, that this is a step backward. Based on what I learned during my conversations with Apple, I believe this release provides us with an opportunity for a large step forward.

Now, we just have to wait and see what Apple ships.

For many of us, this will be a giant leap into something truly exciting. There is a lot of news to share and I can’t wait to tell you more about it.

That day can’t come soon enough.”

Well done Larry for giving Apple a good kicking, I along with hundreds of Professional editors are getting fed up with Apples insistence on keeping all of us in the dark about FCP-10, we deserve better.

We still do not know the following…

Soundtrack Pro V10 ?

DVD Studio Pro V10 ?

Compressor V10?

Blu-ray support or even DVD support ?

We do know the following…

Final Cut Pro 10 available during June 2011

Motion 4 has been updated to V5

You can see Apples insistence on keeping us in the dark if Abobe had a new version of Premiere on the offering but 5.5 is just out so Apple are playing a stupid and dangerous cat and mouse game in my humble opinion.

Poor Steve Jobs is ill and my best wishes go out to him but his temporary departure does not mean the rest of Apple becomes sick also !

author

Having been working in the video business since 1988 I have amassed a great amount of knowledge of both the kit and production values over the last 30 years.

7 thoughts on “Larry with egg on his face

  1. Hello everybody. I have just joined the site but have been a keen watcher for over a year. I am a still photographer of 26 years and am extremely interested in entering video production. It seems to me that video is going through a sea change at present.
    I am an Apple user so the forthcoming version of Final Cut Pro is of special interest to me.
    Excuse me for saying so, but after reading Larry’s comments it seemed to me that he was being quite positive about the new release,rather than being derogatory.

  2. I totally agree with you. Apple’s policy of secrets is absurd on the professional market. Compagnies need to know how to invest and where they are going. Apple should communicate more if they don’t want to see bad rumors about their professionnal products.

  3. This is very encouraging news and makes the wait all the more intriguing. Let’s face it, our editing experience may be about to take a giant leap forwards – and if not – we’re no worse off!

  4. The point is that Larry told a large audience including Apple reps that their new FCP-10 was not fit for purpose, although he retracted that statement he still said it.
    Apple are annoying everyone who has used the programme for many years with this deliberate silence, in the past we would have been given a lot of preliminary info on their web site by now.
    Personally I think Apple are worried which is why they are keeping this under the hood till last minute.

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