Wednesday, July 6th, 2011
Final Cut Pro no more
by Warren
I’ve used Final Cut Pro for almost a decade. Last week, I stopped.
Like many people who make their living with Apple’s iconic video editing program, I was first shocked and then disappointed with Final Cut Pro X, Apple’s audacious move to bring more semi-prosumers into it’s fold.
Many pros complained about a number of problems with FCP X, not the least of which is the inability to import old Final Cut Pro 7 files into the new program. You also can’t spit out to tape very easily (not a big deal for me) or export to ProTools (ditto).
But even though a lot of high-end pro concerns don’t affect me, I’m with them on two other topics. The new, single-viewer interface owes a lot to iMovie, and to me that’s a non-starter. I could just be stuck in my ways, as I’ve edited both linear and non-linear video since the mid-90s, but I think the new interface is terrible. It does allow for a few things to get done faster, like putting together a-roll in an interview, but it feels imprecise and amateur.