I hate to sound more like an Apple fanboy than I already am, but they are killin it right now. Microsoft? Avid? possibly soon Adobe? these are the companies that are laughed at Apple ten years ago with the launch of FCP and now when someone tells me "well we use avid because it's the industry standard." What industry is it standard in? The fossil making industry? Why use an application that causes more problems and consumes more time when there is a less expensive application that can run on anything from the quickest desktop to the oldest laptop? Everyone and their mom edits video now a days so why wouldn't you choose the option that lets you edit most efficiently?
It's the same as we said 6 years ago when I was building my roots at alt.news, "Final Cut Pro is going to take over, anyone who does not except this will have a hard time finding an editing job in less than 10 years." When I walk into a post house and they tell me that they are an all Avid post house I ask myself; why?
Well this it the first time in my life that I have been forced to use Avid editing systems with no way out as it is a part of the corse I am enrolled in. During this time, my views and opinions of why I have always leaned more towards Final Cut Pro have only been reinforced. Easier, Faster, Better. In any industry it's about time and efficiency. When I was a young egger 18 year old editor, I loved to edit anything. I would edit 5 camera live music shoots in 1 sitting and my friend/mentor Otto would say: "good, now do it faster" and I would edit more stuff faster and better. Otto is still one of the best Final Cut Pro editors I know, but he taught me valuable lessons in being as efficient and solid of an editor as you possibly can be and that has now helped me more than ever as I am learning all I can about directing.
Check out this video with an interview with Walter Murch and F.F. Coppola: Crafting Tetro
Here is Otto's website.
(The guys at MagicHugs are a close second for fast FCP editing.)
