FCP X – MORE MUSINGS

Filmmaker by David Leitner

Since Aesop the fable has been told of the snake or scorpion whose life is being saved by a farmer, turtle, or frog, and who then turns around and inflicts a mortal bite or sting upon its benefactor, perforce sealing its own fate too. The point of the fable is not that snakes or scorpions are evil, but that we each possess an essential nature that drives our behavior, and that others ignore our essential nature at their peril.

Hold on to that thought. We’ll come back to it.

Since posting my initial notes on FCP X, FIRST MUSINGS, the tsunami of hand wringing and head scratching triggered by Apple’s June 21st debut of FCP X has intensified, even gaining cultural cachet. Absurdly enough, this tempest in a timeline was parodied in a sketch on Conan O’Brien’s new TBS chat show. (Is late night comedy that desperate?)

If, like me, you’ve been too preoccupied with shoots and deadlines and countless demands of real life, and have not found time to track every Internet forum exchange or jeremiad against Apple for having abandoned professional editing, you may have missed some of the more thoughtful commentaries that have surfaced in the month since FCP X superseded FCP 7.

Chief among them is Gary Adcock’s Creative Cow series. Part One of his FCP X review, MetaData and Media Management, explains that while the first release of FCP X may lack bells and whistles critical to pro FCP editors and today’s postproduction workflow, just give it some time. read more...