Last month I attended the Avid Media Composer: Committed to the Professional event. Here Avid reiterated their commitment to editing pros.
At NAB 2011, in April, FCP wow'ed Apple fanboys with a sneak peek at FCP X during the FCPUG Network's Supermeet. On the surface, it appeared like there were some great improvements but there were a lot of questions left to be answered. Avid's response then was to have a fully manned booth ready to answer editor's questions and to offer a low, low crossgrade price.
Adobe also offered a low crossgrade price for their products.
In June, when FCP X was released, there were a lot more questions and disappointments. There was a lot of backlash from the professional community. There were some who liked it and saw it as the future. It definitely needs a lot of work to reach the expectations of more than a few professional editors.
I would add myself to the list of disappointed users. As I recently completed a class on Avid, I am interested in moving forward in that direction. I will still use FCP 6 and 7 and may start to learn X in the future but for now, I'm concentrating my efforts, editing wise, toward Avid and Adobe NLEs.
At the Avid event, I was interviewed by Debra Kaufman. The quote from me they wanted to use (given two different ways):
Avid's pick of a voice for student editors:
“I thought that FCP was taking over the market, but being involved with FCP for the last three years, I've noticed that Apple doesn't listen to editors and Avid does.” —Eric Harnden, Student Editor (from: http://apps.avid.com/Media-Composer-LA-Event/?intcmp=AV-HP-S2)
"I've always believed in Avid," said student editor Eric Harnden, who has been cutting indie films with Final Cut Pro. "I thought that FCP was taking over the market, but being involved with FCP for the last three years, I've noticed that Apple doesn't listen to editors and Avid does."
(from: http://library.creativecow.net/kaufman_debra/AVID-Event/1)
The Independent Filmmakers of the Inland Empire is an official Apple, Adobe, Avid and even Sony user group (among others). As a group, we don't take sides, we are "NLE-agnostic". There are users of each type of software in our group. Nonetheless, we love bargains!
So I wanted to let you know that Avid has extended their crossgrade special until Sept. 30, 2011:
http://www.avid.com/US/specialoffers/fcp-mc-promotion
