TV and film industry aren't happy about Final Cut Pro?

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My thoughts exactly - the crucial missing features are never listed and - of equal significance - what other fully-featured software are these individuals being 'forced' to use in place of Final Cut?

Was kinda strange reading a bunch of comments about Premiere and Resolve in the “professional” space and not one mention of Avid. Though I gave up after the first page…

The whole article is rather silly.

That was a poorly written open letter. The Hollywood whiners should be ashamed of putting their names on something that looks like it was written by a kid in middle school, and then sent to Apple without being proofread.

The appropriate people at Apple know perfectly well what features are missing. The purpose of the open letter is not to explain to DPReview members or MacRumors members (or anyone else irrelevant) what these missing features are, or convince them of their merits.

so, if apple knows exactly what the FCP is lacking, what's the point of the open letter?

the letter is doing a poor job at basic communication of whatever the issue is.

lcubed said:

so, if apple knows exactly what the FCP is lacking, what's the point of the open letter?

the letter is doing a poor job at basic communication of whatever the issue is.

The point of the open letter is to demonstrate that the professional tv and film industry as a whole considers FCP lacking, not just individuals in the industry. They hope that Apple may sit up and pay attention when the industry complains not just individuals complain; it carries more weight (maybe).
I think it is directed at Apple management, who do not need to know the details, but just need to make a business executive decision and tell their subordinates to "fix it."

I agree, the Apple decision makers are the target audience, not us, and certainly not fan club members who defend Apple no matter what. The letter is for the upper level managers in Apple’s development team. I’m sure by this time they have more than chewed on Apple executives ears for a long time, so Apple already knows what the complaints are about. I think the letter is more of a “we are running out of patience” letter than anything else. I have no clue what their complaints are or whether they are justified. Maybe FCP doesn’t adhere to, or support, some of their industry standards. Apple is certainly notorious for doing their own thing and ignoring industry standards and formats.

Adobe has cross platform software that works well together, which for teamwork is incredibly valuable. I'll concede Premiere sometimes has its quirks, which can be very frustrating.
Resolve is incredibly cheap, capable and cross platform.
Avid is used in 'pro' edit booths, it's the OG and cross platform.

What's FCP's edge? Being mac-only?

Did not come across as a well written letter.
About as well as the placement for this thread.

Surely as about FCP X then is is the Digital Video section as opposed to an area for ARM Silicon Macs.

Plus 100 editors on a worldwide basis seems small.

Regarding the point about Avid not being mentioned. Article here mentions used Avid Media Composer and why. Now I found that in less then 5 minutes.

Also the feature specifically mentioned Script Sync that editor for CODA heavily relies on.
Yet a quick search shows that this appears to be available to be done with FCP X environment for some time.

I am not a pro editor so cannot say how accurate or comparable is, so shows the danger in publishing for a wider audience without giving details.

Why would you pay for Final Cut Pro really when there are free alternatives that is just as good, if not better?

I thought about buying Final Cut Pro, but based on what I have been reading, I'm good with the software that I am currently using.

UBS28 said:

Why would you pay for Final Cut Pro really when there are free alternatives that is just as good, if not better?

I thought about buying Final Cut Pro, but based on what I have been reading, I'm good with the software that I am currently using.

I’m afraid you’re going to have to elaborate on what free software you’re using that beats out a $300 suite created by Apple. It’s one thing to say similar priced product A beats product B but you sound like you’re just making stuff up.

Sheepish-Lord said:

I’m afraid you’re going to have to elaborate on what free software you’re using that beats out a $300 suite created by Apple. It’s one thing to say similar priced product A beats product B but you sound like you’re just making stuff up.

Davinci Resolve is free and unbelievably powerful. Watch some recent benchmarks and it beats Final Cut at a majority of tasks.

Sheepish-Lord said:

I’m afraid you’re going to have to elaborate on what free software you’re using that beats out a $300 suite created by Apple. It’s one thing to say similar priced product A beats product B but you sound like you’re just making stuff up.

Yeah, sure. Davinci Resolve is terrible and only stuff made Apple is good.

Drop the Apple koolaid, seriously.

I am not saying Davinci Resolve beats Final Cut Pro, but so far I don’t feel the need to spend $300 on Final Cut Pro.

Will never happen.

Apple's priority is to ensure that 'content creators' (aka rich YouTubers who purposefully dress like they shop at yard sales) find FCP easy enough to use on their $8-15k Macs.

Apple doesn't help itself - they literally market this thing with projects featuring the compulsory group of young people out in the woods biking/hiking, with corny title overlays and snazzy music. Yes folks, this is about as 'pro' as you're gonna get. Forget some real case studies and examples of movies actually being made. Cool young people, woods.

And don't forget, peoples gotta edit that 8K B-roll tracking shots of some hardware, which inevitably has no bearing on how you actually use a product.

UBS28 said:

Why would you pay for Final Cut Pro really when there are free alternatives that is just as good, if not better?

I thought about buying Final Cut Pro, but based on what I have been reading, I'm good with the software that I am currently using.

If so-called content creator YouTubers were being honest, the majority could easily get away with using iMovie. But will they? Of course not. Using FCP on high-end hardware is as much a lifestyle and image choice than one of need.

It would be a different story if Apple actually loaned this hardware and software to larger studios and said "Hey, here's our new product - what do you think?". Instead, they loan them to rich kids who live in a social media bubble.

we use da vinci resolve and quicktime for editing our code tutorial on youtube. Why not imovie or final cut pro ? Hmm the layout seem odd.

There is some future we see da vinci resolve free cannot do , a monitor video at left or right (full view) and beside is editing layout(trimming,cut son on..)

As noob , we think good enough as our purpose.

Apple Knowledge Navigator said:

Forget some real case studies and examples of movies actually being made. Cool young people, woods.

Haha, this reminds of when I was an ASE (Apple Solutions Expert) in the early 2000’s. Apple gave us all the FCP assets/media from an actual 30 minute ESPN show (can’t remember which one). This allowed us to demo assembling an actual aired TV show to clients. We sold a lot of FCP/TiBook bundles because of that.

AlumaMac said:

Haha, this reminds of when I was an ASE (Apple Solutions Expert) in the early 2000’s. Apple gave us all the FCP assets/media from an actual 30 minute ESPN show (can’t remember which one). This allowed us to demo assembling an actual aired TV show to clients. We sold a lot of FCP/TiBook bundles because of that.

Great story. Maybe it's rose glasses, but I just feel Apple was making more of an effort to market and connect with professionals years ago. The hardware now is fantastic obviously and they've made great strides, it's just the software and the unwillingness to invest in competing.

Apple Knowledge Navigator said:

Great story. Maybe it's rose glasses, but I just feel Apple was making more of an effort to market and connect with professionals years ago. The hardware now is fantastic obviously and they've made great strides, it's just the software and the unwillingness to invest in competing.

Agreed. Honestly I’m surprised they even bother with FCP anymore.

lcubed said:

so, if apple knows exactly what the FCP is lacking, what's the point of the open letter?

the letter is doing a poor job at basic communication of whatever the issue is.

I guess it’s supposed to show that people know too what is missing and they want to show Apple they know that and that they don’t appreciate it.

Wasn’t there a rumor that Apple would at some point offer paid updates for Final Cut again? Maybe they are preparing for that. At least usually when it seems Apple has abandoned something they either are or they’re preparing something for it. And you better believe Apple isn’t giving up Final Cut.

When Apple dropped the price of FCP and friends it spelled the end of it competing with full production software. It’s fine for what it is.

FCP is great at the moment, it does everything I need and more, but I'm not a Hollywood editor. But iMovie certainly is not enough unless you are doing very basic edits.