Apple has just responded to the “Final Cut Pro in TV and Film” open letter, that criticizes Apple’s NLE flagship (FCP) for not being a ‘professional’ enough to pro editors in the industry. Apple disappoints by declaring dull and superficial plans for it. Read the response below.

Professional editors’ request from Apple

On Tuesday 19th April 2022, a group of over 100 people in TV and film production worldwide sent an open letter to Tim Cook of Apple about Final Cut Pro. They used the letter to ask Apple to publicly stand by the use of Final Cut Pro – Apple’s video editing application for professionals – in TV and film industries worldwide. As stated: “We are professionals working in Hollywood and other high-profile movie and TV markets all over the world. We are excited by Final Cut Pro. We think that it is the biggest leap forward in editing technology since the move to digital. We think it’s incredible. We also think it’s incredible that some of us still can’t choose it to do our work. Work that could easily include productions for your very own Apple TV+ service. Final Cut Pro is a wonderful application used by many YouTubers, education, and small business content creators worldwide. We know why it is successful. It is liberating, efficient, and fun to work with. But, unfortunately in professional film and TV, editors who use Final Cut Pro are a tiny minority. We ask Apple to promote Final Cut Pro publicly and add the few remaining features that our industry has consistently stated are needed. We’d love to see Apple publicly support and certify the suppliers of the third-party products and services we use to integrate Final Cut Pro into industry-standard workflows. We welcome your forthcoming brand-new FCP Certification exams. We need more experienced film and TV production crew members who also know how to use Final Cut Pro. We also hope to see Apple ensuring that improved Pro Apps support is widely available and that Final Cut Pro can also be bought through current industry suppliers. This is essential for big productions to accept Final Cut Pro as legitimate. If Apple renewed its public commitment to the professional filmmaking industry and its visionary product, we believe an increasing number of editors would discover the joys of using Final Cut Pro. We hope you will start showing that Apple aims to make Final Cut Pro the best application for editing TV and movies. We believe that this could lead to a Pro Apps renaissance as pioneering as your amazing M1 Max MacBook Pros and the M1 Ultra Mac Studio. It’s wonderful that Apple TV+ has become the first streaming platform to have a Best Picture Oscar winner with CODA, but it’s disappointing to know that Final Cut Pro is so unlikely to have been a possible choice as the film’s editing app. We hope you will encourage our industry to see Final Cut Pro as a professional choice for editors of future award-winning TV shows and movies, and for millions more editors all over the world. This is the link to the petition.

Apple’s response

This is Apple’s response to the letter (published yesterday and spotted by fcp.co): “To the authors of the recent open letter regarding Final Cut Pro in the TV and film industry: the creative community has always been so important to us at Apple, and we’re grateful for your feedback. There have been many compelling projects created to date with Final Cut Pro — from Hollywood movies and high-profile commercials to major television shows and impressive work by the biggest names in online content creation. While we believe we have plans in place to help address your important feature requests, we also recognize the need to build on those efforts and work alongside you to help support your film and TV projects and keep you posted on important updates. This includes taking the following steps:

1. Launching new training products and Apple-authorized certifications for pro video starting this month with our partner Future Media Concepts.
2. Establishing a panel of industry experts for regular consultations, starting this summer
3. Expanding the content and frequency of Final Cut Pro workshops for major film and television productions.

We would love to work with you to help support your film and TV projects, and we will continue to explore opportunities that allow us to better connect and foster important dialogue with our devoted community of users going forward”.

While we believe we have plans in place to help address your important feature requests, we also recognize the need to build on those efforts and work alongside you to help support your film and TV projects and keep you posted on important updates.

Apple

Initial thoughts

Legitimization of FCP as a professional NLE is the main goal here. Indeed, FPC is ultra-robust and very capable editing software that has a huge potential not just for indie professionals but for high-end projects as well. Nevertheless, there’s no doubt FCP was left behind in terms of improvements and progression of development. Curial features that are dedicated to the pro-ecosystem are not being implemented constantly. For instance, look at the NLEs like Resolve and Premiere which are getting improved and adapted on a monthly basis! Hence, Apple’s response is not more than a politically correct response. This response is dull and superficial. Come on Apple, you can do more than that – and you have Blackmagic and Adobe as references. Rebuild your FCP’s R&D team to start investing in your great NLE. Make it more adapted to professional environments and legitimate it as the ultimate NLE for professionals. It’s definitely doable — Just push harder on the gas.