Re: Final Cut Pro - why do they keep asking me!?

I really appreciate the input, everyone. It's helped and it makes much sense.

Agreed, that if one's budget permits, owning a FCP system would be good as well; having more tools available if needed.

Good to hear Premiere users standing strong too - "look at the reel" - absolutely. It's been fun to see the diehard Mac people pause and watch their gears turning when they find out "no macs were harmed during the production of this film."

Since mac Intel cpu rebirth it's made them all excited to know their babies are back in the game. And I've seen a sense of "if I use FCP I'm closer to the film industry in some way." But those of us already using Premiere have enjoyed either buying strong, affordable workstations or building their own systems, as well as the stability of XP for several years, as well as strong integration with After Effects, etc. Is this right? I'm seeing an admiration from some mac editors that I am proficient with AE. They humbly admit that Motion and LiveType is all they have. Maybe they don't know AE is available to them now?

RealTime solutions are another aspect that can warp the way people/clients perceive a platform/tool. I recall a local company investing much in a FCP rig - press release and everything. While visiting this smaller studio and sitting nearby during an edit session, the red-line of rendering was prevalent throughout the project. Maybe an inefficient editor perhaps. But they eventually had to tell the client that it would be another 20 minutes to output the project for viewing. Today, this studio has weeds growing through cracks in their parking lot, a big hole in their sign, and it's terribly quiet - they let their editor go and their system sits on their floor gathering dust. This was humbling - I do feel for them in some way.

Frank