Post Production

Apple responds to the open letter to Tim Cook about Final Cut Pro

Apple responds to the open letter to Tim Cook about Final Cut Pro 3

And drops an updated to Final Cut Pro as well

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Scott Simmons
May 19, 2022
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A couple of weeks ago I was the first to publish An open letter to Tim Cook about Final Cut Pro, signed by editors and post-production pros around the world. This was a letter and petition put together by a group of passionate Final Cut Pro users in hopes that they might persuade the Apple executive decision makers to put a bit more marketing and development muscle behind Final Cut Pro.

In the month that the letter and petition has been live it’s gained some 500 signatures, over 200 likes and countless other thoughts and discussions. If nothing else, a letter like this is always a good way to generate discussion and I would not be shocked if it got a few of the FCP-phobic editors out there to give it a look.

I didn’t expect Apple to issue any kind of response but they have.

Apple Response to “Final Cut Pro in TV and Film” Open Letter

To the authors of the recent open letter regarding Final Cut Pro in the TV and film industry: the creative community has always been so important to us at Apple, and we’re grateful for your feedback.

There have been many compelling projects created to date with Final Cut Pro — from Hollywood movies and high-profile commercials, to major television shows and impressive work by the biggest names in online content creation.

While we believe we have plans in place to help address your important feature requests, we also recognize the need to build on those efforts and work alongside you to help support your film and TV projects and keep you posted on important updates. This includes taking the following steps:

  • Launching new training products and Apple-authorized certifications for pro video starting this month with our partner Future Media Concepts.
  • Establishing a panel of industry experts for regular consultations, starting this summer.
  • Expanding the content and frequency of Final Cut Pro workshops for major film and television productions.We would love to work with you to help support your film and TV projects, and we will continue to explore opportunities that allow us to better connect and foster important dialogue with our devoted community of users going forward.

I applaud Apple for this response as it’s normally not in the nature of Apple as a company to issue such statements and replies. It’s not unheard of but it’s not the norm. I’m surprised they issued the statement but I like what I see especially this bullet point:

  • Establishing a panel of industry experts for regular consultations, starting this summer.

First, that’s speaking about something happening in the future so there are future plans afoot. Second, it’s listening to what I hope are editors working in the trenches, day in and day out. Those hands in the dirt editors are often the group that tends to get ignored when working on future plans and updates. It’s these folks that hit the workflow pain-points most often. It’s these folks that know an NLE and how it behaves in real world situations even better than the engineers. In a world where NLE makers are often courting the YouTubers and the TikTokers of the world listening to those core customers is important.

And hot on the heels of Apple’s response to the open letter we also get a small Final Cut Pro update.

Apple responds to the open letter to Tim Cook about Final Cut Pro 4

This is a maintenance release that thankfully should fix a bug that caused issues when adding transitions by drag and drop.  Check your Mac App Store!

 

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Tim Buttner

Yeah, I’m going to stick with DaVinci Resolve as that has increasingly become the best NLE fulfilling numerous workflow needs. Many are leaving Adobe Premiere for it. And, it only is a matter of time before people move away from Avid as well. The greatest strength is the industry standard Color Grading tools as most major film and television shows are graded in Resolve. So editing inside the program becomes natural because that eliminates the need to roundtrip to another NLE. The new collaboration tools added to Resolve 18 will make this especially more powerful. And, Fusion is only a step away from industry standard Nuke. So having Fusion built-in is a great bonus. Plus Fairlight is fantastic for audio post, and is a breath away from industry standard Pro Tools. So, Apple messed up a decade ago and lost the market. They can’t regain it. Adobe took their spot, and now DaVinci is swooping in and taking the spot of Adobe. It’s a little too late for Apple.

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Stuart J.

Hilarious! You really have to love when people are reduced to arguing with the usual and painfully meaningless “most major film and television shows” drivel as if that were relevant to anyone NOT in that minuscule SUB-ONE PERCENT segment of the market. The market that is notoriously BACKWARDS and archaic on every technical level (hence AVID!).
Too ignorant to know that using FCP does anything but exclude the use of (self-proclaiming) “industry standard Color Grading tools” such as Resolve. You know, that app that, unlike SCRATCH for example, doesn’t even support truly professional formats such as ProRes RAW! Never mind that any TRULY PROFESSIONAL production won’t be editing, grading, and mixing on any ONE machine let alone app! In which case moving from one to the next via the highly compatible and 100% lossless FCPXML format is not even worth mentioning. Whether I open a project or XML… nobody cares! when it’s the result that counts.
Oh yeah, and of course slip in whatever the latest feature list has to offer just to prove “superiority”. As if even so much as TEN PERCENT of the entire market are in need of collaboration features beyond what you can already EASILY get with FCP out of the box. And those that do… PostLab! So?
And sure… FUSION! LOL!! The app and workflow that every EDITOR drolls over, right?? Having to learn that mammoth of an app just for some pithy TITLES or simple graphics that an actual editor needs on a daily basis. Wow… brilliant! What a superior “industry-leading” workflow!! 😂😂 Who needs USABILITY when they can get convoluted, foreign, tedious workflows with a Mt. Everest level learning curve!
I’d bet the farm on the fact that Timmy here doesn’t even know the FIRST thing about 90+% of what DVR does. But reciting endless and utterly irrelevant feature lists make you SO PRO! Because… you know… “if I actually WANTED to and even KNEW HOW… I totally could! And you can’t!”

😂🤣

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Stuart J.

Oh, and BTW Timmy… 1992 called and it wants its internet page back!!
(beautiful example of the “advanced pro” of today 😂😂)

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eric P

ouch! but well said, I actually bursted into tears when I clicked on the site!

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Stuart J.

I went blind for about 30 mins.

And feel free to browse the content, too, to see someone who is truly an expert in both matters of “industry standard” color correction and motion graphics, so we really should listen to him!!

… 😂😂😂
Dammit… I knew I couldn’t write that with a straight face.

Yeah. Just another one of those “experts” who thinks just OWNING certain software and parroting random memes off the interwebs that fit his narrative is what makes you a true “PRO”. 🤦🏼‍♂️

Certainly an A+ for hubris and lack of any reality-based self-assessment! 👍🏼

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Scott Simmons

He may be parroting a lot of the same old same old about Resolve (some are right, some isn’t) but aren’t you doing the same by anonymously attacking him with FCP fanboy vitriol? That’s just as tired as that same old same old about how Resolve is going to take over all of post-production.

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Stuart J.

Seriously? 😂 It’s pretty much up to HIM whether he wants to go off on random, baseless, BS tangents that are so laughable that that’s the only possible form of recourse, don’t you think?

If ya can’t take the heat…

Linking to an equally laughable site that only painfully underlines the point is the epitome of overbearing hubris, too. But then anyone even half worth their salt wouldn’t have the need for such ludicrous posts, to begin with, so it all figures out perfectly in the end! 👍🏼

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Scott Simmons

Well, they’re not exactly baseless, a lot of it is an opinion as is the same in your reply. People do have pretty strong opinions about their tools so that is prime for debate for sure. It’s really your anonymous, somewhat bullying reply to him that I was pointing out.

If you’re going to reply in such a snide way then why do it anonymously? What is your website?

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Stuart J.

I’m sorry… WHA? “Opinion”?? 😂

Nonsense such as
“Many are leaving Adobe Premiere for it…”
Is just plain unsubstantiated drivel. It has nothing to do with “opinion”, but rather wishful thinking, period. Or am I overlooking a bunch of “I thinks…” or “I believes…”? Lemme check… yeah, no.

Unless of course, he or anyone can somehow substantiate that with facts? Of course not. Sorry, but “Because my two buddies switched, the whole industry is switching!!” is just shy of a solid scientific method.

Throwing “industry standard” around, as if by just saying it makes it true? Substantiation there? Zero. I know more SCRATCH colorists. So clearly *they’re* “industry standard! Yadda yadda yadda…

*Of course* bringing up “collaboration tools”, since that’s the newest entry in BMD’s “oooh, neato!” list. As if even so much as *FIVE PERCENT* of the market needed that level of collaboration. Oh wait… so I have to buy massive, *proprietary* SSD RAIDs for it to work as intended?? What a coinkidink! Who’s selling those again at which price point? Oh _riiiight_ …)

“Fusion is only a step away from industry standard Nuke”
*That* being the most hilarious and ludicrous drivel of all. 😂 Again… check out his page. Now you tell me if that’s someone that definitely knows what he’s talking about when it comes to NUKE relevant work… hm? Never mind actual EDITING or COLOR CORRECTION! 🤣

And then of course the standard, gratuitous
“Apple messed up a decade ago and lost the market. They can’t regain it.”
drivel to top it off. Oh right, clearly stated as *an opinion* ?

We’ll just ignore that FCP has MORE (was it 2 or 3x? 🤔) users than FC7 ever did. Oh yeah… they *really* messed that one up! How does that gel with the ‘everyone’s leaving for Premiere/Resolve’ part again?

So yeah… that’s not “bullying”, that’s calling a blathering ignoramous on his delusional BS conjured up to suit his preferred narrative.

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Scott Simmons

And could you please share your website? Thanks in advance for doing so.

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Stuart J.

Oh please. The ol’ “Show me your stuff!” strawman diversion because you have no other route to discredit or respond to what I wrote?? How is “my site” of ANY relevance whatsoever in the context of anything I wrote above? Which claims did I make that would need substantiating? How am *I* the one making claims that I need to legitimize by linking to some site?? What exactly would that change about what HE wrote? Just the usual subterfuge when someone runs out of relevant arguments.

But yeah, I’m embarrassed, too, that he actually makes all those ludicrous statements (NOT opinions!) and then links to his actual site to completely discredit and embarrass himself. That’ll tell you something about his own (amazingly skewed) level of self-assessment.

Let me guess. Because if my site is maybe even worse or not at least better, that would magically legitimize any and all of his drivel and prove me wrong, or how exactly does that work?

😂… oh brother.

Maybe follow my lead and stick with the actual content of what was written and not try cheap back doors as an escape from what’s actually relevant.

Last edited 2 years ago by Stuart J.
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Scott Simmons

It’s easy to criticize from behind the anonymity of a keyboard and the internet. Everything thing you’re saying about the topic might be entirely true but the way you are saying it in a very condescending and, quite frankly, bullying way to him reaks of an internet troll and nothing more. So if you’re going to criticize that harshly then to take you seriously as anything more than a troll I ask again, please show your own work and use your real name. You can deflect the request yourself again with your strawman diversion diversion but by hiding behind your fake name and iCloud private relay email address it’s really cowardice more than anything if you’re going to criticize another with such disdain.

So again, let’s see your website …

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Clayton Moore

NLE is pretty personal but there are features that have been requested for years that Apple has never delivered.

See this ?

https://larryjordan.com/articles/what-key-features-does-apple-final-cut-pro-still-need/

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Scott Simmons

Yea… but some of those are kinda silly considering the direction that Apple has gone with FCP. To spend any development time on anything DVD-related seems like a real waste IMHO. It’s still very capable of getting the job done just in a different way.

This has been a running list of FCPX feature requests for years!

https://fcpx.tv/top.html

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Carlos

This is as relevant now as it was 10 years ago. https://www.change.org/p/apple-please-save-final-cut-pro-7-and-enhance-it-fcp-x-will-not-work The apologists will continue to avoid the real issues with FCP X and will use it no matter how many times you tell them why other NLEs are better, but NOTHING will change until Apple admits that the single window iMovie UI was/is/will continue to be a mistake (a glaring one when it was first released, less so since Apple has gradually added features upgrades). Use the foundation of FCPx but retool the UI. Why won’t more pros/people use it? It’s the iMovie UI, stupid.

And yes, Resolve is generally better imo.

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