Re: One year later... NOW: standardizing on one tool or using them all?

[Walter Soyka] "Well -- you will almost certainly be buying Premiere Pro,"

I've bought Premiere Pro since it came to the Mac CS Production Permium!!!

They have done a nice job with CS6, we will see if it fits the bill. ;)

[Walter Soyka] "What was it about FCP that encouraged you standardize on it in the first place?"

What encouraged me to even try it in the first place was when I was thinking about moving out on my own.

I was in school working at an edit house a couple of days a week. There were a couple of M100 SD stations that had After Effects as Media 100 didn't have great graphics/layering capabilities in the early days. I wanted a system that I could work on when ever I wanted, and not wait for extra time at the studio, and FCP3 was the one I could afford. After I graduated, that studio hired me full time and I edited in Media 100 for years.

At that time, everything was going DV. Beta was in decline. As much as people talk about budgets getting slashed and equipment getting cheaper, that was the beginning of it, we've seen it all before. Then there was HD. The "same" workflow that I had learned in FCP 3 was going to apply in 4.5 in HD (I remember FCP 4.5 being a huge update...and it was free. Blew my mind at the time). I had luckily hooked up with some Varicam gigs, and tried it all out. I quickly realized I was going to need more than my current gear set. After using FCP in real gigs coming from Media100 (which was all SD at the time, Media 100 HD was just being released, and it was an uncompressed monster. It had totally kick ass hardware, but it wasn't doing the Varicam VFR stuff that FCP was over firewire, and we would have had to really update our storage systems at that time).

I kept going on FCP after that, and then amicably left that place, and stuck with FCP. Then it was time for the G5, the Kona, the HD monitor, etc and so forth. Organically, it become the NLE of choice for the people that I worked with. The bigger houses that mostly standardized on Avid sadly went out of business. The world changed. The rest is history.

Since everywhere I was looking for work was using FCP, it made the decision easy. If Avid was kicking butt at that time, I'd be editing on Avid. Media 100 was bounced around to different sales partners and wasn't really "innovating". BorisFX finally caught up with them, but we were all in to FCP at that point. 720p VFR was what really kept me to FCP. That's kind of crazy now that I think about it that way.

[Walter Soyka] "What are the questions you need answers to about your other NLE options in order to make your decision going forward?"

I'm not sure if I have questions so much as I am waiting for someone to arrive at the same conclusions. I also know that building systems like these takes a ton of work (and time), so I need to be realistic on what I can expect from any particular company. I know what I want, and FCP7 ultimately isn't really what I want, but it got me started and it stuck for a good long run.

Now?

I am waiting it out as nothing has hit me over the head, Captain Obvious style. There's a lot of shiny, blinky toys to try out. I am excited to give them a look and I certainly can't make sight unseen decisions when it comes to an interface. We aren't in a huge hurry. Realistically and honestly, FCS3 will probably last us to the next NAB if we really need it to. Look at Red, they introduced the Red Epic package for FCS3, woot! The next NAB will have given developers real time to catch up and focus. That is the best part of this whole situation, it will force other developers to listen as there's a big wad of patient FCP refugees to potentially capture, at least that's how I see it.

Jeremy