Apple Showcases Final Cut Pro X Usage in Production of Hollywood Film 'Focus'

[Funkmasta]

Hi, I'm a freelance DP and Editor in Los Angeles. I use FCPX every chance I get (i.e. if I have a choice 100% of the time I'll use it), sometimes people want Avid or Premiere so I'll use them (its agonizing) but FCPX is way better for today's mixed media IMO and I love the timeline and editing/keywording workflow it uses.

The single only time I got in an argument against FCPX was this prick DP who basically attacked me when I told him what I'd be using (in front of the Producers etc, not a hot look). Low and behold this idiot shot Blackmagic Log and didn't bother to use an X-Rite board, terrible lighting (or no lighting), shaky establishing shots, just an insecure simple idiot whose parents bought him expensive cameras, you know the type. ANYWAY I saved the movie in post. Sync with PluralEyes, aced the edit in FCPX, color in Davinci (these two programs work GREAT together), shipped off a beautiful much appreciated metadata-full AAF to the sound guy through X2Pro, and now it's screening in a few weeks at Mann's Chinese Theater in Hollywood (the Producers are thrilled).

So y'all and this dude can kiss my ass, and all the complainers I hear I immediately think of that idiot DP, who's such a prick that he ****s everything up while throwing a tantrum like a small child at those who know how to fix it.

True, not everyone here uses it (or wants you to use it), but in my experience if they're strongly AGAINST it then you can bet there's a deeper issue at work.

Just IMO.

 

[MacOG728893]

I gave the new Final Cur Pro X an honest chance - over a couple of years. No matter what I did I just couldn't shake the feeling that it just ALL felt template based or something. Like I had to fit my projects into what the Final Cut Pro X wanted to do with them - instead of the software just doing what I wanted.

I finally tried Premiere Pro and honestly haven't looked back. Immediately it was the precision that I had been trying to force Final Cut Pro X to be for those few years. I don't have any intention of ever going back to Final Cut Pro X.

I'm also still one of the guys who just doesn't trust that Apple has a longevity to their pro apps. I was a hardcore Aperture user (even had a bunch of work featured about my specific use of Aperture) and Apple dumped it so I moved to Lr. I was a Final Cut user until Apple completely changed it so I moved to Premiere. This isn't a good track record for pro apps as far as my personal work is concerned.

I don't doubt that there are a ton of pros who can just adjust their work around what Apple is changing or abandoning - but I'm not one of them. I've GOT to be able to trust a longevity to things I'm investing that kind of time and money into.

When I first started editing, it was in Windows Movie Maker. I moved to Sony Vegas Studio after that. Finally, I made my way to Premiere. This was all on Windows.

As soon as I moved to a Mac, I kept what I was familiar with, Premiere. I dabbled with FCP X when it first came out, but could never understand the thought behind the editing process.

I continue to use PP CS6 and it suits my needs for what I do with it.

 

[Tom Sawyer]

Bofus??!?

 

[flat five]

start:

Unfortunately if your profession is not weddings and what not then FCP X is not professional tool.

end:

there is no reason to mention about single films if it's not winning an Oscar.

really? you don't see a reason?

if anything- even if it's just hype or whatever- it does sort of make your opening statement look like bs therefore all that follows looks like bs.

 

[rekhyt]

nobody uses FCP X professionally, with the exception of this movie and one tv show. zero commercial houses. period. professional commercial/film/tv video editor here, freelancing in LA for the past 14 years. avid was the reigning beast for years, and slowly FCP crept in. as an early adopter, but user of both, I applauded as they encroached a 50% market share in post facilities. it was easy to use, and made timeline editing a snap. it just couldn't ever keep up with avid for projects that you had to share across servers with multiple editors simultaneously thanks to the bin structure. but for everything short form (commercials mainly) it was the best of the best. then X came out. and we limped along with 7, waiting for the day apple would wise up and bring along a 64bit version. that day, we are coming to accept, is never coming. all post houses are starting to finally dump 7 thanks to the lack of support and inability to keep up with modern cameras. it is still used, but backslid dramatically. the 50-60% of fcp houses reverted back to avid, and maybe 15% still use 7, while 25% now use premiere. i hated premiere, but in the stark void FCP left behind and Avid can't touch thanks to it's limited editing abilities and archaic design and functionality, premiere has leaped and bounded with significant improvements version after version. i have cried myself to sleep many a night over the inevitable death of fcp 7 thanks to X and i can finally stop, because there is finally a new future ready version of final cut out, and it is premiere CC2014. i have never seen anyone professional use X and i never will. congratulations apple, on killing the product that made me and many like me switch to using apple computers in the first place. enjoy your prosumers, because no professional editor will ever use you again.

Hmm.........???

You sure it's not 64 bit? Last time I checked it was.

 

[StoneJack]

I'm glad to see there is still some dedication to professional software. After the destruction of iWork and the discontinuation of Aperture I was losing hope.

I am a heavy user of iWork and have both the recent version and the previous version and having found almost no difference. What you mean by destruction of iWork, what exactly you miss from previous version?

 

[JuicyJones]

Apple please bring the 5k TB stand alone display. So I can use FCP and Photoshop with my MacPro.

At this time Thunderbolt/DisplayPort cannot support 5k in any capacity. As an internal display 5k is fine, as an external display, I believe DisplayPort 1.3 is required (although it maybe DisplayPort 1.2). Rumors say it will be featured inside of Thunderbolt 3 alongside Intel's Skylake processors, due at the end of this year.

Morale of the story, don't hold your breath for an external 5k. You'll likely have to move to an updated computer to get that support. There's a slew of nice 4k monitors on the market right now, go after one of those.

 

[D28Z98]

The single only time I got in an argument against FCPX was this prick DP

So y'all and this dude can kiss my ass, and all the complainers I hear I immediately think of that idiot DP, who's such a prick that he ****s everything up while throwing a tantrum like a small child at those who know how to fix it.

True, not everyone here uses it (or wants you to use it), but in my experience if they're strongly AGAINST it then you can bet there's a deeper issue at work.

Just IMO.

geez - you seem easy to work with

 

[fuchsdh]

Hmm.........???

You sure it's not 64 bit? Last time I checked it was.

I think he's talking about people who somehow thought there would be a Final Cut 8, because they didn't want to use Final Cut X.

For my part, I use Final Cut X in my profession, though the majority of our work is now done in the Creative Suite. I think from an objective standpoint that has less to do with "Apple made iMovie Pro!" (though as can be seen from this thread, that perspective has lived far beyond its shelf life) and more with the fact that the Adobe applications are more tightly integrated, especially in regards to AE comps and L3rds being editable in Premiere, et al.

 

[D28Z98]

I think he's talking about people who somehow thought there would be a Final Cut 8, because they didn't want to use Final Cut X.

For my part, I use Final Cut X in my profession, though the majority of our work is now done in the Creative Suite. I think from an objective standpoint that has less to do with "Apple made iMovie Pro!" (though as can be seen from this thread, that perspective has lived far beyond its shelf life) and more with the fact that the Adobe applications are more tightly integrated, especially in regards to AE comps and L3rds being editable in Premiere, et al.

I agree. But again one of my biggest reasons for switching over completely to CC from Final Cut Pro X and Aperture is that confidence in the longevity of the products. I don't trust Apple and their pro apps currently. they're known to kind of just pull the rug out from under you with Aperture (yeah we're just gonna stop making it) and Final Cut Pro X (we're going to completely change it - just make it work) - threads like these are proof that years later - people STILL have pretty strong opinions about it. I think it's mostly that the "old" Final Cut was meeting people's needs. We didn't need/want to start over with it. I felt like I had to specifically work pretty hard for Final Cut Pro X to meet my needs. I don't know - I just absolutely hated it. Adobe CC is where I live now, and I don't have to worry about it just completely disappearing like Apple's pro level apps have an obvious tendency to do.

 

[krazygoat]

Hmm, we use FCPX and we just won an Oscar if that counts as professionals using the product.

We used to use FCP7 and Avid (don't get me started how much I hate Avid). We tested Premiere but while it works great with local storage we found it flaked out way too much over network storage even when given 10GbE.

We now use FCPX and Lightworks. FCPX is by far the fastest editor around. All the stuff missing from the original release that pissed off pro editors is back. Everyone should check out Lightworks too. It is everything Avid wishes it was.

 

[StyxMaker]

that's an L-Cut

Thanks, I've always wondered.

 

[macjdfun]

Hmm, we use FCPX and we just won an Oscar if that counts as professionals using the product.

Nice humble brag.

 

[NY Guitarist]

Using Light Iron’s Live Play app, the production team could view same-day H.264 versions of the dailies on iPad from anywhere on set.

I saw Michael Cioni demo Live Play at Red Studios in Hollywood a few years ago. Really great system.

 

[Traverse]

I am a heavy user of iWork and have both the recent version and the previous version and having found almost no difference. What you mean by destruction of iWork, what exactly you miss from previous version?

View my post here

 

[NY Guitarist]

We used to use FCP7 and Avid (don't get me started how much I hate Avid). We tested Premiere but while it works great with local storage we found it flaked out way too much over network storage even when given 10GbE.

Similar experience and sentiment.

FCPX is by far the fastest editor around. All the stuff missing from the original release that pissed off pro editors is back. Everyone should check out Lightworks too. It is everything Avid wishes it was.

I'll revisit FCPX. I see Lightworks in available for MacOSX now.

 

[fuchsdh]

I agree. But again one of my biggest reasons for switching over completely to CC from Final Cut Pro X and Aperture is that confidence in the longevity of the products. I don't trust Apple and their pro apps currently. they're known to kind of just pull the rug out from under you with Aperture (yeah we're just gonna stop making it) and Final Cut Pro X (we're going to completely change it - just make it work) - threads like these are proof that years later - people STILL have pretty strong opinions about it. I think it's mostly that the "old" Final Cut was meeting people's needs. We didn't need/want to start over with it. I felt like I had to specifically work pretty hard for Final Cut Pro X to meet my needs. I don't know - I just absolutely hated it. Adobe CC is where I live now, and I don't have to worry about it just completely disappearing like Apple's pro level apps have an obvious tendency to do.

Fair enough, but the consequence of playing it safe is software like Avid and Adobe After Effects, which cannot play a piece of standard-def footage in real time in 2015, and multithreaded rendering usually doesn't work at all. Sometimes you have to wipe the slate clean and rebuild an app from the ground up. I'm not concerned Adobe is going to discontinue After Effects—I am supremely concerned it's going to continue to be a bloated piece of poorly-working software.

I think Apple could have done a much better job of handling FCPX's launch—release it with a "beta" disclaimer first, perhaps, and release a 10.0 version that was more akin to the 10.0.2 and 10.0.3 versions that came out, as well as keeping Final Cut Studio around, for instance. But there's no doubt in my mind that FCPX was still the smartest path forward for the application itself.

 

[captain kaos]

Sorry, when these "kids" get into the real world they'll be asked if they can cut on a real platform, like Avid.

 

[ThisIsNotMe]

Hmm, we use FCPX and we just won an Oscar if that counts as professionals using the product.

But you aren't a 'professional'. /s

 

[TechGuy1212]

The featured page on Apple's website was an interesting read, but I am still surprised that FCPX had not been used until now for a Hollywood film.

 

[Tech198]

Good stuff..

 

[adamsounds]

This was the case in 10.0, but is no longer true. The current version of FCP X allows not only a separate Library for each job, but allows you to store your media external to the Library. You can store your media on a shared RAID and multiple editors can use small, no-media libraries to edit independently. You can pass edits around using transfer libraries or XML files. It's much better than it used to be for professional workflows.

You're totally right. The last time I looked at FCPX a year ago or so, it was not so flexible. I just spent the evening checking out the latest version, and indeed, you can pick different places for scratch disks for rendering, and it is more clear about the hierarchy of the system through which you work with clips.

I think the only things holding it back are now iMovie lingo and a lack of "folders" (in the traditional sense, anyway. I'm aware you end up making the same thing via tagging, but the lack of making folders/ flexibly arranging files in bins seems to really bother some of my coworkers).

Very interesting...

 

[Michaelgtrusa]

Great apps, you can't go wrong.

 

[adamsounds]

It sounds like you're trying to muck around inside the library package itself, but you don't have a very clear idea of how it works. If you know how to share sequences and cuts in FCP7, it works exactly the same way.

You're right. This is no longer the case. The last time I looked at FCPX a year ago, it WAS a big folder full of things. They've since made what is being stored where and why much more transparent. So yay!

 

[teslo]

Nice humble brag.

it's required when all the haters bray (and get upvoted endlessly) without any sources or facts aside from their own cynical ignorance. every complaint about [XYZ] software is usually countered within 10-20 minutes by someone who knows wtf they're talking about.

99% of the time it's the user that's the 'problem' or 'deficiency'.. not the tool