How would you bring FCP into the 21st century?
 

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?

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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...

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.

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

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.

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.

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"

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).

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?

I like Final Cut Pro as it is. Rock solid program that never crashes on me.

Give it an update to 64-bit and update the UI (to match other Apple Pro apps) and voila... ready for the next decade.

Never change a winning team.

Id like to see the ability to drop in a dissolve and have it ripple back like was mentioned earlier but make it a preference. also it NEEDS a real BR authoring app. and the ability to handle AVCHD native without conversion. add those 2 things to FCP and BR support to DVDSP (never going to happen) and your done as far as im concerned.

Did Apple show anything at NAB? Where they present?

Apple hasn't been 'present' for a couple years now.

I already thought so.

Still... Media Composer 5, Adobe Creative Suite 5... I hoped Apple would just release a 64-bit Final Cut Studio update around NAB, like they did for Aperture and Logic already. Wishful thinking.

I agree with the Scratch Drive Locations: set them with the project and have them reset whenever the project is loaded. Errors in this area are the biggest time waster in the entire app!

Years ago I visited Cupertino and spoke to an FCP engineer (least he said he was one ... could have been an actor I suppose! ;-)) ) who agreed with this wholeheartedly... never happened though.

And of course real time editing of AVCHD without conversion ... in my environment the disk space savings would be awesome! Sure, Effects can render/convert their hearts out, but getting the basic cut done from the raw card data would be great.

There's a bunch of stuff that I'd like changed in the way FCP sends audio to SoundTrack Pro, but these two features would make me very happy!

Lee

I wanna add more:

I should be able to open something in the viewer, say, a clip, and choose any combination of a1, a2 , or video, and drag ONLY those to the timeline, instead of having to route things, or lock tracks to keep from taking both video and audio to the timeline if I don't want to.

I would also like to be able to pick, when copying and pasting in the timeline WHICH track I'm copying and pasting to, without using the weird auto select switches which I don't really understand anyway. Why can't I just click in an empty space on my destination track, paste, and have it show up there?

And if copying using alt/drag in the timeline does it always copy with the "ripple" command, where, to insert the new clip, it wants to push everything else down the timeline? Cause that's annoying. Means I can't use it most of the time unless I want to mess up everything I've done.

PS these are all things Vegas does already.

I may be echoing here, but background rendering and capturing are musts for me. 64-bit support (although I saw speed increases with FCP 7 and Snow Leopard) and make some of those old, tired bugs go away.

Also, if it weren't for Loader, bringing in music would still be a pain. Remember when FCP used to be able to take a song from a CD or jump drive, convert it to AIFF and put the file in a folder and drive of your choosing? I hated when they said use iTunes to convert and then drag the song over to FCP.

I'll think of some other stuff. Otherwise, I love FCP!

heath

The latest rumor:
AppleInsider | Apple scaling Final Cut Studio apps to fit prosumers

With a reply from Steve Jobs:
Twitpic - Share photos on Twitter

If Apple would only tell us what they were doing... all these rumors. I am considering switching to another NLE if this trend to continues, just because I believe that secrecy and professional software don't go well together. As a working professional who earns money with Apple's software, you want to know where a company is heading as it involves huge investments in hardware and software. Avid and Adobe do this very well, but Apple thinks they need their iSecrecy, which they use to hype consumer products, for their professional division as well.

I don't like this attitude at all.

I don't believe that Apple will abandon us (and doing what the above rumor states also means killing Motion, DVD Studio Pro, Soundtrack Pro and most importantly, Color, as prosumers don't need that). If you look at Aperture 3, you will see that it took some nice social features from iPhoto but remains a separate Pro app. I think the same will happen to Final Cut Studio (at least I hope).

I have always been a great Apple fan but Mr. Jobs and his company are annoying me lately with their secrecy, controlled leaks and attitudes towards customers. Come on Steve, I know you can do better than this.

Oh thank god!

heath

And some way to keep random video and audio clips in sync with each other regardless or rippling/inserting/whatever. (Think linking, but with no limit on the number of of video/audio clips that can be linked)

I'm working on an animated piece right, and I keep syncing my audio up, and then making a minor change somewhere, and then finding out later that some of my stuff is now off by a few frames. I can't just lock the tracks 'cause then I couldn't make those minor changes.

Josh,

Hit the "B" button twice to get a "double" razor blade. Now you can cut both the video and audio that aren't of the same origin.

Heath

I use the "super razor" all the time. . .but don't see how it keeps things from going out of sync?

Highlight both clips and use Ripple delete to keep in sync.

heath

Doesn't deleting using "delete" (as opposed to backspace) automatically ripple delete anyway?

My problem is sometimes I'll make a change in the middle of the timeline, and need 20 tracks of audio with countless clips to all move together.

Don't misunderstand, I know it's an error on my part when I'm tweaking, but it seems like it should be easier to keep everything locked together.

Yes it does (little delete key).

You have an interesting issue, that's for sure. I guess you may just have to use a bunch of different tools, like the Select All Tracks Forward or Backward tool.

Heath

Shaun, of course none of this actually matters to anyone but us, but as a prior Vegas editor I just wanted to make sure people are clear when they hear "auto transition". The way Vegas works is that it doesn't add anything, no additional material before or after the in/out points are added or removed. Clip A and clip B sit next to each other as a cut and a cut only. Now, if you take clip B and slide it 30 frames to the left (over top of clip A) a 30 frame transition happens. The in/out points are the same in/out you set in Vegas's version of the Viewer. If you slide it another 30 frames to the left now you have a 60 frame dissolve. Move it 10, you get a 10 frame dissolve. A little window pops up showing you the number of frames and opacity handles appear making it obvious what's going on. It also requires a blatant action to this and there is zero danger of it happening by mistake.

It's more natural in many ways and it's only an option if you purposely overlap two clips. Two clips next to each other DO NOT auto cross dissolve. It really makes working with graphics and other CGI elements a snap.

Anyway, I'm 99.9% sure we won't see this feature, but I just wasn't sure if you used it before or maybe hearing "auto" freaked you out. If you have used it and still hate it, then I understand that too ;-)

Take Care,
Jeff

In Edius you can turn that feature on and off. 1. where it acts like FCP or Premiere does now and 2. where it automaticley ripples back 15 frames off each clip when you drop in a transistion. A HUGE time saver for me. I know we will never see that in FCP.

Please fix fcp
 

There are a lot of glitches that they need to fix that have been present forever.

1. When I am capturing HDV and click outside of the L&G window it will often make that window unable to be closed and I will have to force quit the entire program. That is LAME.

2. Whenever i do have to force quit FCP forgets my window layout and I have to go back in and change it which happens fairly often. PLEASE make FCP remember my default window layout.

3. And speaking of window layouts it really should be able to remember the windows exactly as I place them not moving them over several pixels in either direction or completely moving and resizing the "effects" window that I have set up.

4. PLEASE enable Background capturing. Seriously, I can't capture DV in the BG in 2010?

5. When I set an out point at the end of the clip. DO NOT MAKE THE ACTUAL OUT POINT ONE FRAME MORE. i always have to tell my editors to arrow down or up and then back arrow once to set the out point where they actually want it. That is stupid.

6. Apple Fixed the way that slow-mo is done and the keyframing is great oh yeah except for the fact that the interpolation quality is completely unusable. Why do I have to export clips to compressor and do pixel motion to get them to look right when FCP should have that be a simple checkbox that I will use EVERY TIME.

7. Most importantly for me. FCP started out first and with the most support with regards to RED footage. Now they are DEAD LAST among the major NLE's. WTF, that is a great way to lose a lot of loyal power users who are having to look elsewhere for what FCP promised to be the best at when the RED came out.

The single most important thing is to get rid of the 'Studio' and have one app that does it all.

I don't want to go round the houses with XML files that don't carry all the information from one app to another, I don't want to have to build properly aliased graphic elements with motion blur and decent scaling in Motion. I don't want to have to keep roundtripping back to Livetype to adjust my type. If I want a logo to gentle keyframe down in size and position, I have to do it in Motion, AE or use a third party plugin.

I've been using FCP as my primary source of income since v4, I make 500+ broadcast commercials a year.
I love FCP and I can live with all the workarounds. But please one app would save so much arsing about with livetype, motion, colo(u)r, and soundtrack project files, then having to keep everything archived and up to date.

One app please Apple !!

That would be super awesome, but if I know the way things generally work in the world, it won't happen. Certain pieces of software are really meant to do certain things, and there's no all-encompassing app.

Apple already took the first step with BluRay authoring in the FCP timeline. I do think that they are heading this direction. Not sure if it will happen with the next version, but I am sure that is where they are heading. It would be a huge timesaver and I don't see why it is possible. You just need a good way to navigate to the interface (Adobe's way to do this is pretty nice) so you your interface changes with the task you are performing. As they are all sharing codecs, I don't see why it would not be possible.

Autodesk Smoke and Quantel EQ are two that spring to mind. Yes I know they are expensive, but they are still sensible examples of what Apple could do with such a big customer base and the applications already in FCS.

I was a Quantel editor when things really changed - Editbox came along, it was 15 years ago and cost £350,000 but that was so much cheaper than a tape suite and had all of the functionality of Henry. Clients loved the flexibility and it was just a single front end. That's what I'm talking about.

Are you saying, though, that you would like to see ALL the features of compressor, DVD studio, Motion, soundtrack pro, and color integrated into one program?

Um, yes please. That's must be something you either don't want, or don't believe is possible?

I'll leave DVDSP out of the equation for the moment, it's a final stage application not really a creative tool. DVD's follow a very defined set of formatting rules and regulations, they are just a cute delivery method and all look the same.

Certainly all of the traditional editing elements should be in one app. Final Cut, Motion, Colour and STP.
Final Cut needs a proper overhaul to bring all the related apps into one interface.
The current xml workaround solution is totally daft.

Compressor is an engine which operates across all apps, so it should be both separate and linked.

There's no reason why it shouldn't work this way, they all use a timeline interface with very similar operational interfaces. The fact that Apple bought some of the Apps from third parties has meant they've just been a bit lazy and kept them separate. Perhaps it looks like better value for money.

Don't get me wrong, my setup has made me money, helped me to be flexible and cheap enough for a whole range of clients. I really love it. But it could be better, easier and higher quality.

Some things I could do in Editbox would be a nightmare in FCP, but Editbox was a terrible editor, for those that don't know it doesn't have an undo button! Made creativity quite tiresome when the client was paying £300 an hour.