You might have noticed that back in June the article posting on FCP.co slowed right down to a stop. It had been slowing down for a few months, but Ronny’s article about the Watchtower of China has been topping the page for a fair few months. So what happened?
As you probably know from seeing my image under articles, I’ve been in charge of the site from the day it started back when we were all running FCP7 and FCPX hadn’t even been previewed at NAB! That’s a long time to keep a website active.
Keeping a news site going takes a huge amount of time and money. The latter we had as we still get great support from long-term advertisers, the former was the problem.
It had come to the point where my family were the losers, they didn’t see much of me when I was out editing and then the spare time I did have was taken up keeping FCP.co going. It is a virtual Tamagotchi, requiring constant attention to keep it alive. BTW I’ve only just found out that Tamagotchi means ‘Egg Watch’ in Japanese!
So, I took the decision over the Summer to spend time with my wife and children and not stare at a screen during the holidays or into the small hours. It has really helped and put a lot of things back into perspective, including FCP.co.
It isn’t going to die like a neglected egg watch, hopefully the reverse, but this time on a slightly different footing and that’s why I’m asking for help.
I want the site to be much more community focused; have more articles from more sources; more info; more interactivity; well, more of everything really!
That’s why I’m getting help running the site. Iain Anderson has already stepped up and you will see more from him on a regular basis, there are others we are talking to as well. You will start to see new articles being posted as the site slowly ramps back up to speed between now and Christmas.
During the last design overhaul, we implemented a feature that allows users to load a story from the front page. Please get in touch if you would like to submit a story this way.
One of the things that has convinced me to revitalise the site are the amazing Google stats from when the site was inactive. As of today we have just under 50,000 unique users visiting the site per month, that’s quite a big audience and shows the demand is there. And of course, the Forum just seems to have a life of its own and grows every day.
However, I’m looking at the long-term sustainability of the site, so if you would like to help out, please let me know. Drop me an email: editor (@) fcp.co.
We are obviously very keen to hear from advertisers who would like to reach our audience and we are also looking to start up a Patreon page to help as well.
I am the Editor-in-Chief of FCP.co and have run the website since its inception ten years ago.
I have also worked as a broadcast and corporate editor for over 30 years, starting on one inch tape, working through many formats, right up to today's NLEs.
Under the name Idustrial Revolution, I have written and sold plugins for Final Cut Pro for 13 years.
I was made a Freeman of Lichfield through The Worshipful Company of Smiths (established 1601). Though I haven't yet tried to herd a flock of sheep through the city centre!
Current Editing
2020 has been busy, the beginning of the year was finishing off a new property series (cut on FCP) for Channel 4 called The Great House Giveaway. I also designed and built the majority of the graphics as Motion templates. It has been a great success and the shows grabbed more viewers in the 4pm weekday slot than any previous strand. It has been recommissioned by C4 for 60 episodes, including prime-time versions and five themed programmes. The shows have also been nominated for a 2021 BAFTA.
Although both were postponed to later in the year, I worked again on ITV's coverage of the Tour de France and La Vuelta. 2020 was my 25th year of editing the TdF and my 20th year as lead editor. The Tour was the first broadcast show to adopt FCPX working for multiple editors on shared storage.
BBC's Snooker has played a big part in my life, I've been editing tournament coverage since 1997. I'm proud to be part of a very creative team that has pioneered many new ideas and workflows that are now industry standard in sports' production. This is currently an Adobe Premiere edit.
Covid cancelled some of the regular corporate events that I edit such as trade shows & events. I was lucky however to edit, from home, on projects for Amazon Kindle, Amazon Black Friday, Mastercard and very proud to have helped local charitable trust Kendall & Wall secure lottery funding.
As for software, my weapon of choice is Final Cut Pro and Motion, but I also have a good knowledge and broadcast credits with Adobe Premiere Pro, MOGRT design and Photoshop.
Plugin Design & Development
I'm the creative force behind Idustrial Revolution, one of the oldest Final Cut Pro plugin developers. It hosts a range of commercial and free plugins on the site. One free plugin was downloaded over a thousand times within 24 hours of release.
I also take on custom work, whether it is adapting an existing plugin for a special use or designing new plugins for clients from scratch. Having a good knowledge of editing allows me to build-in flexibility and more importantly, usability.
FCP.co
Now in its 10th year and 4th redesign, running FCP.co has given me knowledge on how to run a large CMS- you are currently reading my bio from the database! Although it sounds corny, I am pretty well up on social media trends & techniques, especially in the video sector. The recent Covid restrictions has enabled live FCP.co shows online. This involves managing a Zoom Webinar through Restream.io to YouTube and Facebook.
The Future
I'm always open to new ideas and opportunities, so please get in touch at editor (at) fcp.co. I've judged film competitions, presented workflow techniques to international audiences and come up with ideas for TV shows and software programs!
