Everywhere you turn online, all you see and hear is the iPhone. Video displays it best because you see the revolutionary user interface at work. Apple has been on patenting spree the last couple of years, mostly having to do with the iPhone user-interface. Will they use this with other applications? What about Final Cut Studio?Imagine having a touchscreen monitor that let you work with your hands in Final Cut Studio. Pinch to zoom in (or zoom out), flick to scroll, type in timecode adjustments, change keyframes. The list goes on. Why should it be used just in iPhone? Why do I have to go back and forth between the mouse and keypad when I can do it all on the screen?
For screenwriting, I will always prefer the keyboard. But for the stuff that happens 70 percent of the time in Final Cut, touchscreen and the new iPhone UI would be sensational. Now mind you, it would need a lot of tweaking. The JKL (rewind, stop, play) buttons, for example, would be missed instantly. But in Motion and Soundtrack, the move would be fantastic.
It is not just about the touchscreen because we have tools already in the market that work with FCS. But the new Apple UI is a huge leap. This transition will surely happen sometime in the future, the question remains when? Final Cut Pro 6 seems out of the question but maybe 7.
1. I sure hope so. I've dreamed of a workspace which is essentially a large touchscreen monitor with multichorded input. Think of the editing scene in "Minority Report" where he's scrubbing footage... but on a screen, and sans the funky glove.
Multichorded is the key. Look up that MIT demo - someday all interfaces will work that way.
Posted at 4:15PM on Jan 11th 2007 by Allan White