Oh my goodness, what a ruckus. Just when you though you knew the lay of the land and the direction working in media was headed we suddenly get involved in a four car accident in the middle of a busy intersection with thousands of bystanders gasping and running around in circles shouting that aliens have landed. Well it sort of seems that way.
What really happen was that Apple computer said some things about new software that most of us impressionable youths took to mean one thing and then the reality was something different. How different depends on what kind of work you do - broadcasting, web-based, feature films, art, student work. If you have clients you were mad. If you work for yourself it was odd and maybe you were mad. If you just play around it was great. Pick your favorite. Oh wait, I'm in all of them - drat.
So I've always said that we have no real loyalty to any software, we just like to use the best tools we can find. For quite a while that has been Final Cut Pro. When I said that people would smile and say, oh sure, you're always going to go with Apple no matter what they have, right.
Well, maybe not, but, sure I do, have always, liked Apple products and I would just expect that to continue, right, but the bottom line is I have to get work done for me and for a lot of film students in the easiest, safest, most reasonable way possible. Over time I've built up expectations, developed an approach, experienced successes and failures and come to think that the way we work is the norm and is a reasonable, thoughtful method. If a new software doesn't fit into that method I stop fast and say, whoa, what's that. That doesn't seem right. In fact that's wrong. Stop. Corporate rhetoric doesn't play a part in shaping what I think is an appropriate approach, just my personal experience. Hype quickly disappears with a few frustrations under your belt.
So what's the new reality? Well, I think we've all agreed the new software isn't Final Cut Pro, it's iMovie Pro, but wait, it's a really good replacement for the old iMovie (not that I ever liked iMovie, but I've gotten over that). For some people the new app is just what they need, a really powerful, sophisticated, more reasonable, more understandable iMovie replacement (upgrade).
For the Pro crowd, the business crowd, the people with clients standing behind them it's not enough. It may not even be usable. For me the worst part is the lack of accommodating multiple users. The application thinks you own the computer, all the footage on it is yours, and it would be a good thing to have access to that footage all the time. That's a problem, it's not what I want to have happen and I need control over that. I need to hide projects and footage from other users. I can live with almost everything else.
When the new fiscal year starts next week I'll buy a copy of Final Cut Pro X, throw in some clips and see if I can figure out a work around to hide projects and files I don't want seen. Either I can do that or I can't. After I find out I'll decide what's next. Luckily it's not the end of the world, it's just an inconvenience and has added more uncertainty to the media world that we really needed, but in a few months we'll all be working some how.
gunther (1)
