We received an email from one of our editors last night. It’s not an uncommon question and I thought it might be worth sharing my response. That question was…
Just out of curiosity are there many people editing professionally with FCP X? Because I don’t really get it and I am wondering if I am doing something wrong (…by not learning it). Always keeping an open mind…
My answer is two fold: Yes there are editors working professionally with FCPX but in my opinion, not enough. We get more requests for FCP7 editors at this stage which is, I think (for the most part) crazy.
I see plenty of jobs come through the FCP Talent Registry (and non Talent Registry jobs for that matter) which would be far better suited to FCPX yet are still FCP7 based.
As an editor I am one of those who now cut with nothing but FCPX. Personally, I find it very difficult to edit in FCP7 or CS6 after becoming proficient in FCPX.
Here is the current situation as I see it from my fairly unique perspective as someone who hears from a lot of editors and a lot of employers on a daily basis:
- Most of the experienced editors I know are not yet proficient in FCPX (mostly due to resistance or lack of opportunity to use it professionally).
- Most of the less experienced editors have embraced FCPX, except some who seem to think rejecting it makes them seem more “professional”. To me at this point phrases such as “FCPX offends me as a professional editor” tells me I am probably not dealing with a professional editor.
- Employers are afraid of FCPX because of what they have heard about it from experienced editors who have not yet used it.
- When I demonstrate FCPX to employers (which I do from time to time) they will usually do a 180 degree about face from which they don’t look back. Of course then they ask me to find them a good FCPX editor…at which point the trouble is…Most of the most experienced editors are not yet proficient in FCPX. Which is frustrating.
Here’s the thing I want to get across: I believe there is a first-to-market advantage to be had at the moment for genuinely skilled and experienced editors who know FCPX like they knew FCP7.
As it stands those people are rare, but I am confident that the demand from the employer side is only going to grow, especially if FCPX 10.1 manages to impresse upon release.
I think the bulk of video editing work that will coming through us will be FCPX based within 2 years if not sooner, and I think (badly handled FCPX launch not withstanding) it deserves to be.
I have nothing against other editing systems, love what Adobe is doing and I think Avid is great for large traditional collaborative post environments.
But FCPX is IMHO following a remarkably similar trajectory to FCP before it, by which I mean it is beginning life as an underdog but prevailing due to the fact that it is a genuinely fantastic application. It’s a familiar story to anyone who grew up on legacy FCP.
We have already moved 80% of our work to FCPx and in the coming months that will shift to 100%. The biggest shift for us was moving to Thunderbolt based hardware for storage and monitoring which is better suited for working with FCPx. We also have our project management and data storage workflows sorted out, which is making the FCPx experience even better again.
That’s great to hear Alister. I feel there’s a certain inevitability to the wider embracing of FCPX. Sometimes I think what might be required is a sort of FCPX “coming out parade” or something for those of us who use FCPX like we used legacy FCP 😉 For what it’s worth my workflow is also 100% TB based. I run FCPX on a top of the line iMac and a Promise Pegasus RAID R6. Most of my work is 1080p. Couldn’t be happier with my workflow with the exception of archiving – I think we definitely need Media Management (with handles) in the next release.
FCP X is the software I use to cut my own projects. (Doing a one hour documentary on it right now) but sadly all my freelance work in Melbourne is all on FCP 7 or AVID. When I mention FCP X to anyone I hear the same comment over and over. “You’re the first person I’ve met who likes it” when what they really mean is: “You’re the first person I’ve met who’s tried it”.
Oh well. I went through the same thing when I switched our facility from AVID to FCP back in 2001.
Glad to hear you’re using it. My advocacy of it is stepping up. Today I cut a 90 second promo from 5D rushed in 35 minutes. That’s cut, graded, synced audio, mixed and exported to a preview clip for the client. It was a simple enough job, don’t get me wrong… but that would have been impossible pre-FCPX.