Archive notice: This article was originally published on April 13, 2011. Links and embedded videos are preserved as part of the historical record.
The presentation was given by Peter Steinauer, an FCP developer. He reports that 64 bit will be used from now on, intended to make full use of Snow Leopard; how things will look under the next version of OSX was not mentioned.
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Now the individual innovations: the most frequently demonstrated feature was the magnetic timeline, which shrinks the timeline to one track and arranges all material without overlaps. The problem, however, and this was not answered during the presentation, is whether this feature can be switched off, since it changes the length of the timeline. FCP X is intended to operate entirely within consistent colour management throughout the workflow.
The playback system is resolution-independent and is said not to experience differences in working speed up to 4K. A “Content Auto Analysis” system is new. Editing can begin while files are still being loaded from the camera, and “Media Detection” is intended to handle image stabilisation and more during import. “People Detection”, “Shot Detection”, automatic and nondestructive colour-dynamics adjustment and automatic audio cleanup are intended to be applied to the material from the outset and semi-automatically.
The next major feature is “Range-based Keywording”, which allows keywords on clip fragments and is intended to help organisation. These keywords are managed in an Event Window, where terms can also be grouped into collections.
Timeline work has also been simplified with “Clip Connections”. Audio and video are firmly connected and synchronised, so the sound should not leave the clip. Audio FX and VFX can also be “welded” to the primary timeline. FCP enables this through a fixed link between video frames and audio points in time that remains in place throughout the editing process.
Under the name “Compound Clips”, FCP now also creates “Nesting Clips”, which the “Inline Precision Editor” opens as fragments in a second timeline, as is familiar in rudimentary form from iMovie. Also new is a “Timeline Index”, a kind of log for all operations on the timeline.
The “Color Matching” function, which transfers colour profiles or colour moods between two clips, is interesting, as is the “Color Board”, an optional colour toolset that can correct and adjust colour value, saturation, highlights/shadows/midtones and more. However, several questions were not answered in the presentation, including plugin support, multicams, whether the “Magnetic Timeline” can be switched off, how media management works, and further points.
Which functions will be included in the final version of Final Cut Pro remains to be seen. In any case, Final Cut Pro X is expected to appear in the Mac App Store in June. The price in the USA is expected to be 299 US dollars.
