Re: FCPX problem!!!

[Mark Morache] "Back to the idea of versioning by compounding the entire timeline... couldn't FCPX just give us a versioning option for our single project? Instead of duplicating our project, couldn't we hit a button to save a version, sort of like opening time machine. I'd much rather have one timeline with stored states, than several copies of the projects. When I share a project, it could automatically store that state as a version, then I could always go back and see what I sent out."

Mark,

It's easy to imagine that the FCP-X team probably *could* do what you suggest. But it's probably not as high a priority as you or I would like. And I think that's fair. We've both users who've spent a lot of time operating the software. Having mastered the basics, we're looking for the icing and for things that help OUR editing styles. Which is a desire I share with you wholeheartedly. But most editors who might potentially benefit from X haven't even tried it beyond the level of "experimentation." yet.

One Apple hallmark in software design is to try to achieve something that is as easy as possible to approach for a newbie, but then reveals complexity and control as you master the basics.

X is a better fit in that (in my opinion) for someone without editing experience than it is for the experienced editor. For us, we're constantly trying to fit the products features into our professional expectations. And while that's fair, it's not necessarily smart here in the early days of software development.

The one thing that NOBODY can argue with is that the X rebuild required so much new thinking and re-orientation - particularly compared to the way the 2 million plus Legacy users had been previously trained in expectation - that here we are six months later and users like you, me and many others who had many years of operating legacy and who have now had more than six months of using X still haven't fully established all of our own "best practices" for use of the new tool.

It's a VERY deep tool right now. And while I can see a lot of areas where it can become even deeper - and some form of range-export or range-versioning could well be really popular. I'm not sure I'd want Apple to add even more complexity to the already steep learning curve of X.

in the two previouos "bolt on" revision adding Roles then Multicam - Apple added many new workflows and options to explore.

I very much like the idea of what you're proposing, but I'm personally content to watch the development curve that Apple has mapped out since the software is currently still working well for me (with occasional hiccups) - and I'm still actively learning all it's underlying capabilities.

Heck, I've spent nearly the entire past month, working with backup and file management strategies trying to find the best ways to plan for old project storage, access, and revision - and on Friday I'm shooting a 9 to 15 DSLR and Go-Pro multi-cam concert project - and dealing with that part of X will probably take me a full month to figure out.

So while I'm certainly looking forward to new features as much as the next guy. I see them largely as future stops along the evolution path thats already chock full of interesting stuff to explore.

If FXP-X is truly Apples pro editing play for the next decade - we're stilll in the infancy. That's not an excuse for when things don't work as we need - just a way to understand that if we're going to eventually get a tool with as broad appeal in features, stability and relevance as Legacy had become, we're going to get it over time. Not sprung up magically - fully realized.

Again and again when I get confronted with something that frustrates me - I think back to FCP V1.

I know some don't give Apple ANY break expecting that as a pro company with deep pockets and lots of resources fielding less than "perfect" software is enough to damn them.

But I just don't see things that way. If AV Foundation, Core Video and Lion had had as long to mature as MacOS and Quicktime - I'd accept the argument more readily.

But the X team is largely working with brand new technologies on many, many fronts. So I'm giving them a pass on needing time to build out their rooms on the new foundation, particularly if those rooms weren't fully planned for from the get-go.

Fun to talk about, anyway.

"Before speaking out ask yourself whether your words are true, whether they are respectful and whether they are needed in our civil discussions."-Justice O'Connor