Final Cut Pro X Chief Architect: We're Still Proud Of FCP X

Tweet

This past week, the new Final Cut Pro X came out, and many video editing professionals are upset that the new professional-grade video editing suite is actually, not so professional-grade. Sure, it’s got 64-bit support but the new simplified timeline, lack of multicam support, difficulty in sharing projects and inability to open projects from previous versions of Final Cut Pro (among other things) have got the professional crowd steaming over Final Cut Pro X. Now, we find out that maybe it was supposed to be something different.

According to reports on the web, iMovie ’08 was originally supposed to be a standalone app called “First Cut”. Apple’s Chief Architect of Video Applications Randy Ubillos returned from vacation and discovered that Final Cut Pro wasn’t good at organizing his raw video files, so he and his team started developing “First Cut”. Later, that product was turned into iMovie ’08. You may remember Steve Jobs shared this story when he unveiled iMovie ’08, and you may also remember that some iMovie users didn’t like the jump from iMovie 6 to iMovie ’08.

Ubillos, who worked on Adobe Premiere before jumping ship to Apple to work on their video products, has been answering emails from angry fans. According to MacRumors, he’s told their readers that he’s “extremely proud of Final Cut Pro X, it’s a huge step forward in digital storytelling. Final Cut Pro X 1.0 is the beginning of a road, not the end.”

Time remains to see what will happen to Final Cut Pro and the market share it has in the professional video editing business. Apple has promised a number of updates to Final Cut Pro X to improve some missing functions, but do you think the professional editors will ever take it up again? Or will they jump to Avid? Can Adobe Premiere and Sony Vegas gain marketshare with this unpopular first version of Final Cut Pro?