The New Final Cut Pro

Well, it is finally here:

http://provideocoalition.com/index.php/shullfish/story/are_you_ready_for_fcp_x/

And, as usual, I will hold off judgement on this until I actually see it on Tuesday.

But from the info that my sources are giving me, I would bet on the following:


1. Final Cut Pro 8 will be completely different:
Obvious, maybe... But the new version will be completely new from the ground up. It may be called FCP 8 or FCP X or whatever, but it will be a completely new piece of software written specifically for OS 10.7 (Lion) and will not work with older OS' or processors.


2. FCP 8 will be an "editing & finishing" product:
The current version and all the previous ones, were for editing only. That's why we now have Final Cut Studio, because you currently need an entire suite of applications to finish a program. But I believe the new FCP will be more like Smoke, or Avid DS -- You will be able to edit, color correct, composite, create titles and 3-D effects, AND audio post, then conform/output to DVD/web/iphone etc. ALL WITHOUT LEAVING FCP. That means no more round-tripping between applications (and all the headaches/bugs that brings.)
Imagine Premiere and After Effects and ProTools combined into one, and you will have an idea what I am talking about.


3. FCP 8 will be optimized for a single, computer monitor:
So many people run FCP on a laptop, or a single large (27" or above) lcd, that Apple will optimize FCP 8 to work well on 1 screen. Not to say that you won't be able to run multiple displays, but the "unibody" look will be prevalent.


4. Tape is Dead, Long Live Tape:
FCP 8 will only support out-putting to tape, not capturing. Don't get mad at me, I don't like it either, but I am hearing this from too many people to ignore it. In practice, this is not that big a problem, as MOST professional tape I/O inside FCP, is handled by 3rd party capture cards/devices anyway (AJA, Decklink, Motu) and all of them have separate batch capture utilities.
Also, most of the professional acquisition devices used today are not tape based (Film, Red, HDSLR's, SxS, P2.) In fact, video tape seems like a consumer video technology right now. (HDV anyone?) Not to mention the Tsunami has destroyed HDCAM SR tape for the near future at least.

http://www.televisionbroadcast.com/article/115606

This "crazy" move may turn out to be a prophetic one by apple.

But the Professional Editors won't like it, because it forces change, and Pros hate to change. If something works, and it is making you money, why take a risk on a new workflow/technology? This is the one feature that is prompting some people, who have seen the new version, to say that Apple is abandoning the Pro market. In fact, the reverse could be true - the pros could abandon FCP because it is too new. The newest versions of Avid and Premiere are evolutionary. The New FCP will be Revolutionary.


5. FCP 8 will be Real Time:
Everything will be realtime. Effects, compositing, color correction, audio effects, titles. The amount of realtime capability will, of course, depend on your system horsepower, but for most of us, rendering will only be done on output.


6. FCP 8 will be Format Agnostic:
You will select the canvas size before you start working, but all decisions about compression, frame-rate and color-depth will be output decisions, just like it is in After Effects, Motion, etc.
You will be able to mix all frame rates, frame sizes, compression ratios while editing. And everything will still be realtime.


7. FCP 8  will be iPad/iPhone integrated:
Not only will you be able to stream to the iOS devices, real-time, while editing (iChat Theater), but they will also act as input interfaces for FCP. Just like they can for PhotoShop:

http://www.macrumors.com/2011/04/11/adobe-introduce-photoshop-touch-sdk-and-3-ipad-apps-for-photoshop/


8. FCP 8 will be networked/distributed:
You will no longer need to buy Final Cut Server separately, because it will be included, or at least the functionality will be. Also, like compressor, FCP 8 will be able to distribute rendering for output among nodes on your network. This is supposed to work now, when sending to compressor from FCP, but it has big issues working in the real world. I also think that FCP 8 will have the ability to share Projects among multiple editors natively. Like having AVID's Unity/ISIS built in. I think this will be a feature of the Lion OS, used heavily in FCP 8. You won't need to purchase a separate copy of XSan to effectively share projects anymore.


In Summary:
Let's face it, the number of studios/tv stations who COULD use FCP to replace AVID is relatively small when compared with the number of people who dream of being the next Spielberg while posting their videos on YouTube. So from that point of view, it almost makes sense that Apple would risk pissing off the very high-end users (like me) by throwing out everything FCP has become in the last 12 years, and starting over.

But that's how you start a revolution.

Apple creates worlds, and the current digital, non-linear, pro video world was created by, and still runs on AVID, even though I wish otherwise. That's why I think that instead of continuing to compete with AVID, Apple will try to create a new paradigm for video creation, and hope enough users will adopt it.

If it works, Apple will once again own the marketplace like they did with the iPod, iPhone, iPad, etc. None of those devices were CREATED for the "Pro" market, but they all were adopted by them, and are now an essential parts of doing business in the creative world.

The same thing happened by accident when Canon created the HDSLR, and pros started using them for film making. They were not really a pro camcorders, but people made them pro, by using them to get paid.

Will this be the case for FCP 8?
Time will tell.

To Be Continued.>