I have maybe met a total of 3 professionals in my life that know both and prefer FCP. Three is actually just an estimate. It may even be fewer. And when I say know, I mean know well enough to work on it in a professional capacity. Like I'm gonna need to see your resume before you start dissing Avid.
Avid certainly has its issues but compared to FCP, it's like a dream machine. I saw this cartoon the other day where it was these elderly people and they were all like, "Off to use to Avid!" and I absolutely wanted to kick shins. I am willing to bet whoever drew that had never actually used it for anything professional. I don't know why it gets me so mad, but the whole 'only old timers use Avid and the hip, new, fresh, young thing to do is FCP' is so ridiculous. You don't wanna learn Avid, fine. Don't. You can make your living on FCP stuff. But don't go around spouting FCP is "taking over" the industry unless you actually, oh I don't know, work in the industry? Your indie movies in Virginia Beach don't count.
I know FCP. Have worked on it professionally. It's not a bad system for a single editor setup. It's not. But even just throwing one assistant into the mix and, if you've worked on Avid, then be prepared to be annoyed constantly. The other day I was exporting something from FCP and the resulting QT had the music starting over at every cut. W-T-F.
So no, Avid selling off one fringe portion of it's company that is for the CONSUMER marketplace, does not mean it is slowly being run over by its FCP competitors and will be obsolete in two years. And anyone who tells you differently is fooling themselves and you.
I definitely understand how technology works. How in the free market people will come up with programs that make things cheaper and easier and it keeps it competitive. I think FCP has done a great job forcing Avid to fix some of its problems and I believe more Avid problems will be fixed in the future thanks to FCP. But FCP "taking over" Hollywood? Not just yet. Maybe, MAYBE in 10 or 20 years that could that change, (the same way Avid took over and the Moviola and Steinbeck went to the storage houses) but they are no where close right now.
I won't even discuss FCPX.
