Re: After a year has perception of FCPX changed?

[Craig Seeman] "I think there's another area where Apple and FCPX will make headway. The startup facilities."

Is there such a thing?


[Craig Seeman] "Given the economy, I think we may see those will capital restraints looking at FCPX and Thunderbolt based Macs. Many of these people wont have the baggage of the FCP7 EOL. They won't worry as much about towers compared to the flexibility Thunderbolt affords them. They'll see a lower cost eco system with an end to end workflow even with the need to move to Resolve, ProTools or even Smoke."

If by "facility" you mean "freelancer with overhead," I think this makes a lot of sense.

If you mean facility in the traditional sense of the word, I don't see it. We're talking about cost differences for software licensing and hardware that can be recouped in the room in a couple hours. This is a rounding error in comparison to the costs of space and storage infrastructure, and can be financed over time anyway. With Creative Cloud at $50/user/mo, a facility can spend more on coffee for an editor than they will on his or her NLE itself!

These costs also pale in comparison to the big cost of any facility which cannot be so easily financed -- labor.

Depending on workflow, FCPX editorial may provide benefits, or it may be a hindrance. If the labor market isn't there, it severely restricts the talent pool. In either of these last two cases, building the facility around FCPX because it's cheap is penny wise and pound foolish.

Even if the belts are as tight as you describe, the low cost is not an automatic advantage for FCPX. Since the facility will likely need Photoshop, Illustrator and After Effects, FCPX is actually a $299 extra expense. They already have Premiere Pro for free.

Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
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