Will FCPX Be worth getting?

[AcesHigh87]

Okay, so obviously we don't have a lot of info on FCPX as of yet and I understand that but I'm looking for opinions here.

I'm a media student studying film and have a weekly show I put up on youtube twice weekly. I've been editing it on iMovie '11 thus far but am running into a lot of things I'd like to do and can't because of obvious restrictions within iMovie.

We'll be releasing season 3 around the time FCPX should be coming out though so I'm considering switching to it. I've tried Final Cut Pro before though and found that it's layout annoyed me, it' constant need to render annoyed me and it's tools were not very user-friendly.

I don't have a very strong computer, an old macbook white, but it can run the adobe suite alright so I don't think processing power will be an overly large problem.

I guess to get back to the point do you think that FCPX would be a good investment for me or not? I do plan to do this for a living so will need to learn more advanced programs I just want to know if people think FCPX will even be great off launch or if it will need a lot of extra stuff thrown in before it becomes worth buying.

Thanks for the opinions and I hope the above isn't too scatterbrained to understand.

 

[MazinSmileyFace]

Okay, so obviously we don't have a lot of info on FCPX as of yet and I understand that but I'm looking for opinions here.

I'm a media student studying film and have a weekly show I put up on youtube twice weekly. I've been editing it on iMovie '11 thus far but am running into a lot of things I'd like to do and can't because of obvious restrictions within iMovie.

We'll be releasing season 3 around the time FCPX should be coming out though so I'm considering switching to it. I've tried Final Cut Pro before though and found that it's layout annoyed me, it' constant need to render annoyed me and it's tools were not very user-friendly.

I don't have a very strong computer, an old macbook white, but it can run the adobe suite alright so I don't think processing power will be an overly large problem.

I guess to get back to the point do you think that FCPX would be a good investment for me or not? I do plan to do this for a living so will need to learn more advanced programs I just want to know if people think FCPX will even be great off launch or if it will need a lot of extra stuff thrown in before it becomes worth buying.

Thanks for the opinions and I hope the above isn't too scatterbrained to understand.

I'd just wait and see. I am definitely getting it, even if it's windows movie maker ported to the mac (just kidding), just because of the background rendering and 64 bit

 

[LethalWolfe]

I guess to get back to the point do you think that FCPX would be a good investment for me or not? I do plan to do this for a living so will need to learn more advanced programs I just want to know if people think FCPX will even be great off launch or if it will need a lot of extra stuff thrown in before it becomes worth buying.

No one knows.

If you keep needing to render in FCP and you can't figure out how to use the tools read the manual and find help guides online. It sounds like you haven't taken the time to figure out the basics.


Lethal

 

[AcesHigh87]

No one knows.

If you keep needing to render in FCP and you can't figure out how to use the tools read the manual and find help guides online. It sounds like you haven't taken the time to figure out the basics.


Lethal

It is a very high possibility and I did figure out the basic tools but, admittedly, never bothered to look through everything involved with it.

The rendering was probably more of my computer than anything else. I just found that if I edited anything on a clip I then needed to render it out in order to finalize the changes which got really time consuming on only 2GB or RAM and a 2.4GHz processor. With background rendering and 64bit I wouldn't expect this to be a problem though.

 

[LethalWolfe]

I just found that if I edited anything on a clip I then needed to render it out in order to finalize the changes which got really time consuming on only 2GB or RAM and a 2.4GHz processor. With background rendering and 64bit I wouldn't expect this to be a problem though.

If you have to do that you don't have your project setup properly. Most likely your timeline settings don't match your footage settings and, I'm gonna go out on a limb here, you were using an improper codec.


Lethal

 

[AcesHigh87]

If you have to do that you don't have your project setup properly. Most likely your timeline settings don't match your footage settings and, I'm gonna go out on a limb here, you were using an improper codec.


Lethal

Again, very possible. It's been awhile since I tried it since I got a copy of Premiere from a buddy (don't like it but it works for my more advanced stuff) and I found it ran better. Might need to look into Final Cut again if I can figure out what I was doing wrong though. When I first had it I didn't bother to look into that kind of information enough so it very well could have been wrong.

 

[smokescreen76]

One of the great things about FCP X is it's ability to harness all your computer's resources.

However you don't have a very powerful computer so there's not much to harness. You probably need to look into upgrading your hardware.

 

[mBox]

Again, very possible. It's been awhile since I tried it since I got a copy of Premiere from a buddy (don't like it but it works for my more advanced stuff) and I found it ran better...

curious to know what "advance stuff" in Premiere that works for you? I use both and if I feel like bashing my head against a wall during "advance editing" Id open PPro CS5
I know that Adobe claims CS5.5 will do better for R3D (what I consider advance) but thats moot cause Im not about to get wrangled in that upgrade mess

 

[AcesHigh87]

curious to know what "advance stuff" in Premiere that works for you? I use both and if I feel like bashing my head against a wall during "advance editing" Id open PPro CS5
I know that Adobe claims CS5.5 will do better for R3D (what I consider advance) but thats moot cause Im not about to get wrangled in that upgrade mess

Oh I most certainly don't mean anything nearly that advanced, wish I did but I don't lol. I more just meant the stuff that I want to have look better than iMovie can manage.

 

[mBox]

Oh I most certainly don't mean anything nearly that advanced, wish I did but I don't lol. I more just meant the stuff that I want to have look better than iMovie can manage.

Everyones advice here is bang on with what I deal with when I teach at local college (nights). I drive it in the students heads to watch your sequence settings. Since I supply the students with the footage I have complete control. The school is mostly iMacs (2008) so they handle SD footage well. I dont dare go into HD with those specs

 

[zblaxberg]

No one knows enough information about the Final Cut X yet and Apple hasn't said what will become of the "studio" and rest of the programs that are usually bundled with Final Cut so I'd recommend waiting and asking this question when more information or the program itself has been released.

However if you do want to do this for a living, you probably want to start learning a program that's industry standard.

 

[handsome pete]

However if you do want to do this for a living, you probably want to start learning a program that's industry standard.

I think the term "industry standard" is a bit overused these days because quite frankly there really isn't one. Sure, in the smaller markets/shops you'll likely encounter FCP, but Avid still rules a lot of the bigger houses and Adobe's footprint continues to get larger. And if you're a freelancer working independently, it's really just a matter of personal preference.

Someone looking to get into this industry should really focus on the technique and art of editing. The basic structure of any NLE is similar so there is no reason to think someone versed on one platform couldn't adapt to another in a short amount of time. We're running all FCP machines, but just last year we hired a Premiere editor because we felt she was the best at the job.

And who's to say what this transition to FCPX will be like? FCP7 will likely be around for quite some time as most shops will be hesitant to adopt FCPX early on.

The OP has Premiere at his disposal, so I would recommend learning editing with that for now.