NAB Show Wrap-Up

Editorsguild by Mitch Jacobson

Apple FCP X Announcement

The biggest buzz at NAB by far has been the anticipation of Apple’s sneak peek at Final Cut X. Nobody seemed to care about the missing Final Cut Pro 8 or 9 as they camped outside the Super Meet for hours trying to get their place in line or buying or selling tickets. It certainly seemed more and more like a Bruce Springsteen concert than a computer user group meeting, with scalpers trying to get $100 for the sold-out show.

Everyone cued up an hours before the doors opened and I couldn’t help giggling a little when the doors finally opened and people started to run into the venue to get the best seat. Apple took the stage and we held our breath––ready to cheer or boo with the upcoming announcement. As expected, we knew that there were a few things that Apple had to do to stay in the NLE game and they topped the announcement with their commitment to feature and indie film, as well as broadcast TV. The new FCP X has been completely rewritten with new 6-bit cocoa code. The new system is said to be blazing fast, depending on your RAM and graphics cards...things Adobe and Avid have had for at least a year.

The interface immediately reminded me of Premiere Pro or Color, with it’s sleek, black design and folder hierarchy window...some have even said it resembles an old Avid product called Liquid, but don’t be fooled by the similarities to the competitor’s product. There is no mistaking the look of iMovie and that should not be a shocker since the interface was designed by Randy Ubillos. Ubillos also created iMovie, as well as the first three versions of Adobe Premiere and KeyGrip, which became the original Final Cut Pro.

Apple focused on three main areas of new features: Image Quality, Content Auto-Analysis and the Editorial Engine. Beyond the new interface, it is Apple’s style to only show you what they want to show you––no questions asked. As an example, no pull-down menus were shown and there was no mention of pro applications from the rest of the suite. read more...