Recently the Boston FCPUGs and the FCPUG Network changed the name of their organizations to better reflect the open nature of their support groups to Creative Pro User Group (CPUG), a relatively simple change to the acronym of FCPUG but a significant shift from the Final Cut Pro focus that these groups were originally based on. Though I do not have any personal knowledge of why these groups choose to change their names (and focus) at this time it seems fair to surmise that with the introduction of Final Cut Pro X, discontinuation of Final Cut Pro 7 and Final Cut Server, and the subsequent shift of professional editors to finding other, more "future-proof" solutions, they saw the writing on the wall and choose a more inclusive name. These groups are not just about Final Cut Pro, and with both AVID and Adobe being major sponsors, it was time to more fairly reflect the nature of the groups. What does that mean to the Calgary FCPUG?

Welcome to 2012, a New Year, and a great new year for the Calgary FCPUG and its members! This year the Calgary FCPUG welcomes a Platinum Sponsor, AJA Video Systems (click their banner above) who are providing hardware to test, funds for even more hardware, and some great door prizes. Additional sponsorship from Blackmagic Design (see their banner in the sidebar) includes even more door prizes and Artbeats continues their support for our group.

 

In the last article I wrote back in February I optimistically speculated on the future of Final Cut Pro. I argued that despite the dispair and fear of the future there was very good reason to be excited about what we now knew Apple must be working on. We learned that a select few professional editors had been called in to consult on the next version of Final Cut Pro. It was certain to be modern, slick, and amazing. Sure, there would be changes, but Apple already made the best editing software on the planet and they were certainly going to release something even better.

 

 

A mere month ago to predict the end of FCP might have been extremist, but the concern was understandable. FCPs main competitors, AVID and Adobe, had been making steady gains, and some significant leaps forward, while FCP seemed to be, well, wallowing. While AVID became more open (working with non-AVID codecs like ProRes), which seemed unimaginable for AVID, and Adobe made the leap to 64-bit, made Premiere more FCP-like, and actively (and successfully) wooed FCP editors into their fold, what was Apple up to? Well, Apple released a new iPhone, the iPad, talked about the iOS and killed the XServe and XServe RAID. As a member of this forum you would have read about how Apple had engineers hard at work and was product-testing a new version of FCP, but any reader could be forgiven for skepticism and despair.