Final Cut Pro X 10.3 is a major update to popular Apple NLE embraced by many professional editors. There is now a new interface, colour coded roles, new Wide Gamut options plus Viewer Range Check and a ton of other new features that will surely enhance your workflow. Upon initial release back in 2011, Final Cut Pro X polarised the post-production industry to such a degree with its radical new design and mostly its limited pro features, that we saw a mass exodus of editors migrating to either Avid or Adobe Premiere Pro. However, since then, the little NLE that could has improved greatly, with Apple now releasing the 10.3 update, which adds plenty of new features that can streamline and enhance any professional workflow. fcp-x-10-3 What are the Major New Features in FCP X 10.3? 
  • New, more streamlined User Interface
  • Re-designed magnetic strip timeline
  • Colour Coded Roles
  • Users can Re-Order Roles in the Timeline Index by moving them up or down
  • You can now Add Roles on import manually or using iXML in the Inspector, or even Timeline Index.
  • Batch Assign Roles in the Inspector
  • Support for REC.2020 Wide Colour and HDR
  • New MXF and DPP Metadata Views
  • Remove all Effects or Remove Attributes.
  • Customizable Workspaces
  • One Click to add Audio-Only Fades (set this in Editing Preferences under Audio)
  • Optional Full Height Inspector
  • Deep Search
  • Users can also now Copy/Paste Timecode
  • Add Effects to master Roles in a Compound Clip (Role based mixing.)
  • New Audio/Music Browser with Waveform Preview
  • Optional Continuous Play in the Browser (set this in the View Menu Browser options)
  • Consolidate custom Motion Templates in a Library (set this in Library Inspector or right click a Library in the Browser)
  • Open Libraries from an SMB NAS
  • Built in Flow (morph) Transition
  • Source Timecode Generator and Effect
To help you better visualise the amazing new features added in Final Cut Pro X 10.3, London-based commercials and music videos editor Thomas Grove Carter has cut an impressive short video about it all. Ripple Training have also prepared a few videos going over the new changes in FCP X 10.3. Apart from the more intuitive interface, on which each button is easier to identify and the placement just makes sense, and the new changes to the Timeline, if I could chose one new feature that can potentially sway me back to using FCP X is the new New Wide Gamut Rec.2020 Support and Viewer Range Check.  The ability to be able monitor a Rec.2020 project on an external monitor and of course still being able to deliver a Rec.709 deliverable is a huge deal for broadcast work. The majority of broadcast content out there in 2016 is still delivered in the archaic and quite limited Rec.709 colour space, however in the coming years (or months) more and more HDR and 4K content will start making its way through the wire. Netflix and Amazon Studios may have the upper hand when it comes down to streaming 4K content, but I think the real switch to 4K and adoption of Rec.2020 wide colour space will happen once major broadcasters start delivering major content mastered for HDR and 4K in Rec.2020/BT.2020. So, if you are an editor working with FCP X, you are in a good place and ready for the future. For more details on working with HDR and Wide Colour in FCP X, check out this White Paper that Apple has just released here. To learn more about FCP X 10.3 head over to Apple.