Final Cut always promises us TV & filmmakers the World and delivers us… Kansas. This time they’ve delivered us the Wichita landfill.
Apparently you cannot open Final Cut Pro 7 projects you may have created for broadcast television, but you can open old iMovie projects. Apparently you have a magnetic timeline which is nifty. But no multicam function. Apparently you can’t do real time audio markers. Or assign audio tracks. Or export OMF files. Or show video on an interlaced client monitor. Apparently the word “Pro” in the program’s title is a lie. As Luke Burbank would say, FCP X gets a big “not awesome”.
To tell you the truth, since I have a small preference for Avid, Final Cut’s latest “revolution” in editing makes me feel secure in that the competition between the two programs is far from having a clear winner—which guarantees future innovation.
So to all the hysterical fans who were having Apple-flavored editor-gasms at the keynote address in April, I guess it’s time for you to sober up and pour back the Kool Aid.