How would you bring FCP into the 21st century?

[Michael Wisniewski]

If you were in charge, how would you bring Final Cut Pro into the 21st century? Would you continue updating the code or would you start from scratch. Would you try out some "revolutionary" approaches, or would you stay with the tried and true "best of class industry features". And how about the look & feel and workflow methods of the program, are there significantly better ideas out there or do you think it's better to stay true to the original design?

[Shaun Roemich]

People aren't going to like this but here goes:

Back to the drawing board. Keep the functionality that has existed since the earliest incarnations. Give us the option to set audio as Stereo or Dual Mono on ALL captures, including Capture Now of HDV material (WHY does it have to default to Stereo???)

FCP is TOO big. Start ripping all the bad code out. FCP1.0.2 was 1.6 MB or something.

Support CORE QuickTime Codecs and force trancoding to Intermediate Codecs like ProRes for crazy consumer formats. Include an Apple App to do so seamlessly, one that runs in the background.

I LOVE FCP but it's getting kludgy. Too many people who SHOULD be using Final Cut Express are using what in my mind should be positioned as a more broadcast oriented tool. Stability first. In that line of reasoning, get more experimental with FCE if you want. Allow it to read and play nice with every codec if you like but bring back my rock solid FCP that I don't cringe every time I do an incremental upgrade wondering if it will break more for me than it fixes.

Make Compressor more user friendly. What an AWFUL interface! Worse than Terran's Cleaner used to be and THAT is saying something...

Restore LiveType to the fold for easy, no fuss titling.

In FCP, make the Text tool usable.

Hmmm... that's my short list.

[Shaun Roemich]

Oh, and STOP CHANGING FUNCTIONALITY! An FCP editor familiar with 1.0.2 SHOULD be able to edit on the latest version (albeit without all the frills).

Same look and feel of windows and colour scheme. DON'T add a bunch of colour and distracting buttons and elements. Simple and elegant.

[Josh Bass]

Include some of the features I loved about Vegas like:

-drag corner of clip to create fade
-drag clips into each other for auto cross dissolve
-better real time FX preview (VEgas worked fine on my crappy computer in draft mode). . .FCP still chugs and stutters
-track level video and audio FX instead of having to next sequences to accomplish the same thing
-zoom timeline with mouse wheel
-Maybe I'm missing something, but step key frames should be an option


I think there're more Vegas features I loved but off the top of my head I can't remember them.

[Jonathan Palfrey]

Yes I agree with Josh. Every time I edit with FCP I wish it had those Vegas features. They are so handy! For example cross fades are so much faster to do, and real-time fx rendering also speeds things up a lot. I also love being able to use the scroll wheel to zoom in and out, every time I use a programme that doesnt use it, FCP or Photoshop, I find it very annoying.

[Shaun Roemich]

Originally Posted by Jonathan Palfrey

Yes I agree with Josh. Every time I edit with FCP I wish it had those Vegas features.

Interesting. The day FCP implements those changes, I'm gone as an upgrader. No questions asked. At least the fades. People keep asking for FCP to do cross fades WRONG and I won't stand for it. If you butt end two clips together and there isn't enough media before and after the in points to do exactly as I have asked, DON'T DO THE TRANSITION. In and Out points are sacrosanct - DON"T MESS WITH THEM. To do a 30 frame cross fade, you need 15 frames after the outpoint of the outgoing clip and 15 frames before the in point of the incoming clip.

[Rick L. Allen]

More than anything, the ability for FCP to automatically remember the drive where your media is stored without having to reassign drive storage every time you switch between projects. This one drives me nuts.

[Ivan George]

Add FCP to the new ipad! After all isn't this what Apple is all about now a days? Iphones, ipods, ipads, freaken drop your pro apps already! They're crippled to hell! Has anyone see what CS5 is all about? I've been a FCP user since 2002 but I'm afraid it's time to move on...

[Josh Bass]

I second the media drive thing. . .why it can't it be project specific?

As for the fades. . .it could work both ways. . .you could still do the old way but enable auto crossfades when you drag clips over each other.

I also like how Vegas has like 80 different crossfade patterns/curves to choose.

I'd also like the markers to be easier to select and work with in general.

[Simon Denny]

I remember when I moved to FCP that the cross fade was one thing I miss from Vegas but how many times in Vegas did I stuff up because I could slide two clips into each other.

Don't let FCP do this as this can ruin a very long edit because of the push into other clips.

Cheers

[Josh Bass]

Well, I DO have a direct line to the FCP programmers, so whatever I tell them goes, but for you? Okay. Done.


Yes, I do recall it being very easy to get stuff out of sync in Vegas.

Which reminds me, does FCP allow you to group any random assortment of audio video clips like Vegas does? That is, select them, and make them a "group", which keeps them locked together as you move them around? That's another thing I miss.

[Rick L. Allen]

Originally Posted by Shaun Roemich

People keep asking for FCP to do cross fades WRONG and I won't stand for it. If you butt end two clips together and there isn't enough media before and after the in points to do exactly as I have asked, DON'T DO THE TRANSITION. In and Out points are sacrosanct - DON"T MESS WITH THEM. To do a 30 frame cross fade, you need 15 frames after the outpoint of the outgoing clip and 15 frames before the in point of the incoming clip.

Totally agree with Shaun on this one! Creating transitions where no media exists looks and is amateurish and besides there's really only 2 transitions worth using - a cut and a dissolve. I guarantee you won't see James Cameron doing a page peel or a 3D box transition and he can afford it.

[Josh Bass]

It could be a thing you enable or disable. Also, it could warn you numerically (like when you're out of sync) if you don't have the media necessary for your desired length. AS for page peels, etc., that's great if you're making high end film, but FCP is used for all sorts of productions, including those that, yes, use page peels. Like in my upcoming fantasy feature film, "The Page Peels Of Gralgendok"

[Peter Moretti]

You have a $20K color grading suite built in to a $1K program. FCP is pretty awesome guys. Native Red, 4:4:4:4, etc.. Holy somkes (no pun intended).

[Arnie Schlissel]

Native handling of image sequences. At least for common formats like TIFF, Targa, PNG, JPEG, and pro formats like DPX and EXR.

Native handling of MXF wrapped media for any codec installed, ala Quicktime.

RT support for PJPEG and JPEG2000 encoded video. And if your drive array is fast enough, DPX and EXR, too.

Seamless support for mixed framerates/color spaces/codecs. Seamless support for log color space. In fact, my timeline should not be dependent on codec at all. I should specify a frame size, frame rate and output color space and be able to drop whatever I want into it.

Require a big, fat graphics board to support all of the above. If I try to install on my Mac Mini or Macbook, give me an error message telling me I'm SOL & need to invest in better hardware. FCE and iMovie can be for those folks.

And I'm sure that FCP is long overdue for a complete ground up rewrite. Shouldn't take more than a couple of weeks, right?