Us pro video guys (and gals) really need some love to be shown us from The Mothership in Cupertino. Premiere CS5 has been kicking all sorts of Final Cut touche since its’ realease almost a year ago, and the whole Final Cut Studio line is in need of some serious updating. Apple has been (rightfully so) paying more attention to its’ consumer cash cows, the iPad and the iPhone recently. Forgetting the cretors, the core of which still makes Apple Apple, would, in my opinion, be a serious mistake with long term effects. While Apple dropped the Computer part of its’ name and has becomes a devices company, I see OS X Lion with built in server, and the pro creative apps being an critically important aspect of what makes Apple able to bring devices like the iPad and iPhone to market and achieve such rapid, and rabid adoption.

PreNAB Editors’ Lounge 2011 Part 1 from Editors' Lounge on Vimeo.

With NAB kicking off soon, the Final Cut rumor mill has been in overdrive, and here’s a meetup that may give you a little more insight and raise your hopes for another industry shaking product from Cupertino. Go to the 3 minute mark for some Final Cut goodness.

TechCrunch claims to have heard that the next version of Final Cut Pro is due soon and it’s supposed to be a big one:
According our very own people familiar with the matter, a small group of video editors were on the Apple campus recently in order to preview the new version of video editing software, which is in the same space as Avid and Adobe Premier. Apparently Apple is still putting the finishing touches on “the biggest overhaul to Final Cut Pro since the original version was created over 10 years ago” and wanted pro user feedback. Emphasis on “pro.”

One of their sources described a complete redesign of the user interface as well as low level architectural changes. Overall the changes are described as “dramatic and ambitious”.

Final Cut Pro has fallen behind competitors since reported layoffs in 2007. Rumor is that Apple reorganized the team under the lead of Randy Ubillos, the developer behind the completely redesigned iMovie in 2008. In 2010, Steve Jobs responded to an email from a concerned Final Cut Pro user about the software’s future. Jobs promised that the “next release [of Final Cut Pro] will be awesome”.

Mark Raudonis, head of post production at Bunim/Murray Productions (from the video) uses some metaphors to describe Apple and the new Final Cut Pro.
What’s Wayne Gretsky got to do with Final Cut Pro? If anyone knows the great one. If people asked him what was the secret to his success, his answer was “Skate to where the puck will be”. And that really exemplifies Apple’s philosophy, their attitude, their approach to what Final Cut will be.

“I would say to you that there are few companies in the world that are as good at skating as [Apple is]. Your next question is probably… What the “puck”? Where is the puck headed? Again, I can’t speak specifically, but I think the rest of the time here will be very interesting. Filebased workflows, Thunderbolt, iPad, Competition, it’s a moving target. Adobe, Avid, Lightworks. There’s a lot of other stuff out there. And they are certainly not ignorant of what’s going on in the market at the moment.

I would also end with. Henry Ford “If I asked people what they wanted, they’d tell me they wanted a faster horse”. So, Apple is very good at going their own way and figuring out where things will be. They may not ask you what you want. They are going to tell you ‘we’re going to invent something different.’ And that’s kind of my take away from it. I was very impressed, it was awesome and look out, I believe they say it will be available in Spring 2011. So, that goes all the way up to June 20th. So, that’s what I know, that’s what I can say, and if there’s anyone from Apple out there, I hope you don’t sue me.”