While improvements were made, Final Cut Express was missing many of the codecs like Pro Res that made for easier editing. In fact, the only decent codec it uses is the Apple Animation Codec which is what many of us were using back in the 4x3 DV days. Many of the pro tools in Express were also lacking like the 3 way color corrector. I have the latest version of iMovie and have always had it but never used it. Two weeks ago, shortly after NAB, I decided to open it up and play with it a bit. Hated every second of it. Adobe gave me their latest CS5.5 collection which I downloaded and installed yesterday. Opened up Premier Pro and played around in that for the first time. Still don't know it but it seemed fairly intuitive and if the new FCX does not meet professional level expectations and is missing many of the important features we have finally gained over the years, you can expect editors to either stay with FC7 or switch NLEs entirely. From speaking with various pros in the field who produce commercials, industrial and theatrical films, and speaking for myself as well, if FCX is missing the Boris Vector based text generator, missing the vectorscope and waveform monitor, missing multi cam editing, 3 way color correction, time remapping, frame by frame keyframing and other features that folk have grown accustomed and dependent upon, than it will be abandoned. As 'press' I have spoken to most of the heads of the major 3rd party software companies and none of them are under NDAs which means that they can't even begin to recalibrate their FX plug ins until Apple releases X. The heads of several hardware companies like Matrox, NVIDIA and AJA, however, are under NDA which is a good thing as it means that they are already working on compatibility issues.
I have always been a Mac guy but, and unfortunately, there is a huge difference between the way Adobe and Apple treat their 'influencers and press'. Adobe bends over backward to help get us the NFRs of new products, calls us on the phone and flies us to various trainings and such. For the most part, they are a pleasure to deal with. Apple, however, though we still get NFRs, treats us like we had leprosy or something. It is nigh impossible to get a returned phone call or email. Rather than create an anxious enthusiasm for X's release, they have only succeeded in pissing people off and creating a panic among users. I should have received the NFR for it as soon as it was in Beta so that, as writers, we could ht the ground running, but we will have to wait just like everyone else. A shame. However, my bet is that Steve Martin of Ripple Training will have tutorial discs ready to go almost immediately and, at least, I know his training DVDs are of the highest quality.
We really have to wait and see. I also wonder what the instructors in Film schools are going to do. Students will want to be trained on the latest and greatest but the instructors themselves will be novices on an entirely new application and GUI. Will they stick with 7 or try to wallow through X?
Apple has greatly succeeded in creating mass speculation which is really all it is up till now.
Steve
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