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My comments were going to be too long for the comment system so I decided to make a blog post in reply to Phil's post here:

The timeline does matter - to me and Apple!?

When Apple released iMovie '08 this year it caused one of the most vocal attacks that has ever happened in Apple history. Why? Well, Apple changed its interface so vastly it took people by surprise. It seems not many people like surprises. But is iMovie's lack of timeline really a problem and should Apple carried iMovie's interface to Final Cut Express if this is their new thinking?

The answer to both questions is no. iMovie '08's new interface is not that different to the previous versions of iMovie, it's simply more inline with what Apple has set iMovie to achieve which is quick and dirty video composition.

Secondly iMovie is not Final Cut Express Lite. iMovie has about as much to do with Final Cut (Express) as tomatoe sauce has to do with a rock. They're not mutually exclusive but they aren't doing the same job.

To highlight the first point about the differences of current and past iMovies I made a quick and dirty movie using iMovie '08, iShowU, and QuickTime Pro. As you watch the video look closely at how each achieves the same function. If you remove the interfaces you'll see they are approaching things very similarly although different enough to warrant an uproar apparently.

Resident Evil 4

What's interesting about iMovie is that while it's always had a timeline, it was never really used (except in the first couple of versions before they added scrubbing to the interface at which point the timeline became moot). Because of this Apple removed the timeline in '08 and relied heavily on scrubbing. All the cropping and deleting of clips is done before the video reaches what would have been the timeline. At this stage there is certainly no need for a timeline, even for the audio because this is all done using scrubbing. iMovie has finally reached where Apple wanted it to... a drag and drop video editor.

Now coming back to my second point. Because Apple had always intended iMovie to be a consumer app they realised that consumers have different needs to professionals. As such an interface needs to reflect this. This is why iMovie doesn't have a timeline. It's why everything is all drag and drop and relying heavily on scrubbing. It all has to do with "How do we get computer illiterate people making movies on their computers).

Final Cut on the other hand is different. It cannot move to the new analogy. You see it's not a matter of saying "iMovie isn't a pro app so it shouldn't have an interface of one" it's more about saying "iMovie isn't Final Cut Lite and so shouldn't share its interface". Final Cut is reliant on the timeline for these three reasons:

• Frame by frame editing
• Layers
• Effects

When you're working with frames you need a timeline to get the frames positioned as accurately as possible. No where is this any truer than when doing animation. 25 frames are needed just for one second so positioning is vital. It's the same with layers. Because you can layer effects on the video it means things like Star Wars are able to be achieved. Try doing that on iMovie, it's pretty much impossible.

But iMovie is in a rather unique place and this is why iMovie can't be viewed as Final Cut Lite. iMovie is a compliment to Final Cut and this is evident in the video Phil alluded to in his post:

Final Cut Express - Import iMovie '08 Projects

See how Apple approached the subject? They used iMovie for rough cuts (which it is so perfect for) then did the advanced editing once the movie was imported into Final Cut. And this is the key. Final Cut doesn't set out to replace iMovie, it's set out to pick up where iMovie leaves off.

iMovie is kind of like a delivery van. It does a similar job to Final Cut but it can't do what Final Cut does. Final Cut is like a transport plane, it can do a lot more than iMovie but at the same time it realises that iMovie is better suited to some tasks.

Let's look at what Apple did with their video tutorial. iMovie was used to create a rough cut. Final Cut can do this as well but it's not as easy as iMovie. It's like that big plane trying to drive down a motorway. It can do it but it's not as good as the delivery van. Then Apple exported from iMovie and imported it to Final Cut, think unloading from delivery van and loading into plane. Then they edited the video in Final Cut with effects and titles and so forth that iMovie can only dream about (think flying to a different country). But one thing they didn't mention was exporting from Final Cut into iMovie. You see iMovie has some distribution options that Final Cut doesn't. Want to share with the world using YouTube or .Mac? Can't do that in Final Cut so why not export the finished product back into iMovie and let that do the delivery?

And this brings me to the wrap up. iMovie and Final Cut have completely different interfaces because they are not approaching one task from two different ways but instead are approaching two different tasks in the way best suited to them. Think about the opening sentence on Apple's video:

[quote]iMovie '08 is the best way to organise and enjoy all of your videos[/quote] 

That is iMovie's role, to organise clips into a logical structure. Yes you can do basic audio, titles, and effects to round off your video to share with friends and family but it's not simply cut out to do what Final Cut Express does. It's never been Final Cut Express Lite but somehow it earned this reputation, maybe because the gap in pricing was so large that people thought there needed to be an interim solution and immediately lumped that onto iMovie. iMovie compliments Final Cut in much the same way a wife compliments her husband. They're two different apps seeking to achieve a goal together, but that's not to say the wife doesn't have her side projects either. iMovie being the wife works together with Final Cut using it's strengths to compliment Final Cut's power but can do it's own videos as well. Just like a woman is made different to a man, iMovie needs to be different to Final Cut so as to fit into the equation better. If iMovie was just Final Cut Express Lite then what reason would there ever be to use iMovie when you have Final Cut Express? That video tutorial would never really have existed in the way it does. It would have said something along the lines of:

[quote]If you're upgrading to Final Cut Express from iMovie then you can import your video this way...[/quote] 

It didn't, it mentioned using iMovie for creating rough cuts, i.e. it mentioned iMovie in a specific role in the Final Cut process. Organise video in iMovie how you want it to end up then export into Final Cut Express and tidy it up with the proper tools.

Two different roles, two different interfaces, one common goal. Both have an interface to suit their roles and as such Final Cut Express' interface cannot inherit iMovie's conversely iMovie should not inherit Final Cut's to make them more universal.