Why everyone is so painfully wrong about FCPX

[Brad Webb]

Damn Jeff, you just killed it. I had some hope left until I read that. The release of FCPX is almost like what movie studios do when they know they have turd movie on their hands. They put zero into advertising it, save for a newspaper ad and posters. Then they just release it and move on. Basically they just dump a dead body in a river and drive off.

This is what Apple did. Without warning FCPX is dumped in the app store, with some low rent pictures, feature write ups and video. Then Apple just walks away, totally ignoring everything.

[Terry VerHaar]

Jeff - I don't know you but, you sound angry. Sorry you don't like it.

EDIT: Like I said, I am not a developer but logic would tell me that three way coordination isn't all that easy. Lion team, FCP-X team and third party developers; all with deadlines, communications issues and a web of NDAs. Maybe I am wrong. We all are sometimes, aren't we

[Shane Kelly]

The question that no one is asking is "what's the future of pro-res.". Although maybe arri is asking themselves that question.

[Jeff Kilgroe]

No, not angry. Confused, yes. If I didn't like Apple so much, I would be laughing about how pathetically idiotic this all is. It all kinda makes me sad. :(

the worst part of it all is Apple's lack of communication and total blunder of PR on this. When you release a new product that is instantly lambasted by your loyal user community, THE LAST THING you want to do is go silent. You don't start censoring user reviews and locking off public commentary. You don't give your users the silent-treatment and let "independent" bloggers do the talking for you.

[Tom Lowe]

Can this software handle R3D Epic files natively?

[Kevin Wild]

Not yet, Tom.

Jeff-I think you nailed it. I'm also such a fan of Apple that I expect genius at nearly every turn. Considering I've been waiting about 3 years for a real update to FCP, I have tried my hardest to be patient and positive about this V1 of FCP X. But the more I look at it, use and try to give them the benefit of the doubt, the more I agree with you that this is one of their biggest blunders in memory. It's really pretty bad.

[Bruce Allen]

Can this software handle R3D Epic files natively?

Guess, Tom, just guess :P

HINT: if it did, would these threads be so long and venom-filled?

Bruce Allen
www.boacinema.com

[Paul Nordin]

And not just for the users. Imagine being a 3rd Party Vendor, like say, Filmlight who just poured a huge amount of energy and resources into building a Baeslight plugin for FCP. Before they could even get any traction, its entire future is suspect.

[Tom Lowe]

Guess, Tom, just guess :P

HINT: if it did, would these threads be so long and venom-filled?

Bruce Allen
www.boacinema.com

Hehe. I was just being a smartass :)

[Erik Franzén]

To give an analogy: the FCP-X release is the equivalent to rolling out iPhone 5 with all storm and thunder... only to discover that it can only make calls to other iPhone 5 devices. I assure you, a lot of "WTF?" would be going on then too. It's so painfully obvious too how easily they could've avoided, y'know, total unmitigated disaster by just communicating that this was a first version - things are coming, updates, WHATEVER. They've told us squat, no high-level communication is rolling out and the best we've got is some blogger telling us all to calm down... yeah right.

This baffles me. How could no-one have seen this coming? What monkey is running the show over there? Has communication broken down COMPLETELY? I mean, it's one thing to have some rough spots here and there but this was not finished by a mile - and the marketing played it up to be "awesome" and "think different". Oh yeah. Re-arrange our entire post-flow to suit some bizarre beast of a creation that we've'nt even got confirmation will eventually work for professionals and is even meant to be used in that way whatsoever!

No FCP 7 being sold. FCS 3 going out of support and being EOL'd. Lots of hype and PR boasting about how badass this thing will be. Complete blackout after release. Reviews going offline and then coming back - and then going away again. No way to buy it except through appstore and no freaking way to buy volume licensing. What the hell kind of message do they think they're sending? To me it either means that they no longer care for their professional line up and just want us to go away or alternatively they have the horrid management and the internal communication between marketing and the dev team broke down completely.

Either way, doesn't matter. Damage control better step in fast if they don't want this to become a complete DOA.

You know it's bad when it is being the target for hitler memes and comedy shows along with CNN...