ACE hates FCP

So the American Cinema Editors like Avid and hate Final Cut Pro, according to this article in Variety. For those not familiar with ACE, here’s the description from their website:

“ACE is an honorary society of motion picture editors founded in 1950. Film editors are voted into membership on the basis of their professional achievements, their dedication to the education of others and their commitment to the craft of editing.”

In other words, ACE is old school, and its membership works on high budget Studio productions. I’ve always thought of ACE as a classy organization, dedicated to education and the furtherance of film editing as an art form, which is why it surprises me to see ACE board members on the record in such a divisive way. The article in Variety starts as praise for Avid, but quickly devolves into a rant against Apple for failing to answer the concerns of professional editors. This appears to stem from the ACE 2008 Equipment Survey, part of which entailed ACE members detailing issues they would like to see addressed in Avid and Final Cut Pro. The issues where compiled into documents and sent to the respective companies. Avid replied within a couple of days. Apple never replied. That apparently prompted ACE to give Avid some kind of honorary award for technological merit while simultaneously launching an anti Apple campaign. The Variety article also mentions that Avid is an active sponsor of ACE events, which means that the ACE is schilling for Avid. If anyone cared about the plight of Cinema Editors and the technology that they used, this would be a scandal. Instead, its just embarrassing.

As I have stated before, Apple is a gadget company. They don’t care about post production, and they aren’t going to respond to the specific concerns of a few users, even if those users represent the cinema elite.

I’ve also written at length about the changing landscape of media production, and the dissolution of the editing middle class. Editing jobs will be more abundant, but the budgets will be smaller and most editors will use widely available prosumer equipment. Apple is positioning itself to support this market of editors, and I suspect that Final Cut Pro will eventually be given away for free with new Mac computers. Avid may be superior in many ways, but its not accessible. The genius of Apple is their ability to market the paradox of accessible software that is hardware dependant (and is therefore not really accessible, hence the paradox.) Once they get a grip on the prosumer market, Apple will be impossible to compete with.

There will always be a market for Studio tentpole entertainment, which is where the ACE membership already works. Considering the history and status of this organization, and the high ground they occupy in the industry, I’m not sure what they stand to gain by publicly railing against a gadget company.

If the ACE membership is in a panic about having to adapt to new workflows and learn new software, then their relevance is certainly on the wane. Post production doesn’t exist in a bubble, and editors are increasely subject to the economic realities associated with rapidly advancing computer technology and shifts in content delivery, all of which has nothing to do with the art of editing. Smart editors will always be ready to adapt their editorial skills to new technology and evolving workflows. Platform wars are for hacks.