Last month a group of over 100 people in TV and film production worldwide sent an open letter to Apple CEO Tim Cook about Final Cut Pro, the company’s professional video editing software. Now Apple has responded.
The letter asked Apple to “publicly stand by the use of Final Cut Pro – Apple’s video editing application for professionals – in TV and film industries worldwide.” It points out that it’s not a criticism of the Apple team developing and marketing Final Cut Pro.
From the open letter: This open letter is aimed at the executives who set the priorities of the Final Cut Pro development team and the Apple managers whose policies limit the public marketing of Final Cut Pro to a couple of website updates a year and some mentions in Apple keynotes about how much faster Apple hardware is getting.
The letter’s signatories aim was to encourage Apple to make a new commitment to the professional TV and filmmaking industry. They believe that would potentially benefit filmmakers the world over regardless of their personal NLE preferences.
And here is Apple’s response: 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:
° Launching new training products and Apple-authorized certifications for pro video starting this month with our partner Future Media Concepts;
° Establishing a panel of industry experts for regular consultations, starting this summer;
° 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.
