Future of Final Cut Pro - Matthew O’Brien
Episode 212
Guest: Matthew O’Brien
Executive Producer: Chris Fenwick
Record Date: June 23, 2026
Meeting Matthew started as a recommendation from Dylan Bates.. “he’s a good guy, you should talk to him” but as I dug into Matthews work I got really intrigued but what exactly made him tick.
We’ll talk about Final Cut, but a whole lot more to.
What’s a Computer - • iPad Pro — What’s a computer — Apple
00:00 - Start
00:38 - Editing your own words is hard
01:41 - Podcast advice
02:42 - What makes this guy tick?
03:04 - Donation
04:55 - Matthew’s Background
10:53 - The cost of 80’s Tech
11:31 - What editors have you used?
16:29 - 10.1 Was when it got great
16:59 - Beat Detection
18:08 - Lets talk about 2026
18:39 - 2025 was way darker than 2026 is.
19:44 - The “empty time”
21:45 - Hollywood is [STILL] dead.
22:21 - Potential Excitement in 2026
22:44 - Was FCP going to end up like Aperture?
24:33 - You’ll Own Nothing
24:48 - Fenwick on Subscription
26:54 - Matthew - A whole new UI?
29:47 - What’s a Computer?
30:23 - fenwick uses AI??
32:13 - “operating software is the biggest barrier to enjoying Apple Products”
34:54 - The Three Most Important Features in FCP
36:36 - 3. FCP Browser
37:35 - 4. Timeline Index
38:48 - I love the Roles and lack of Clip Collisions
39:34 - Hung up on Clip Collections
40:27 - Command Option - Up Arrow
41:13 - The Grave Accent Key
41:54 - What did Randy intend?
42:44 - Randy Ubillos at the Final Cut Summit
43:07 - Randy Ubillos at the Final Cut Summit
47:01 - Matthew’s much more level headed view on Randy
48:51 - Love of old tech.
50:15 - Walking around in a memory
52:17 - Old Family Photos
53:58 - Let’s talk about Aperture
55:52 - Growing Creator Studio Subscriptions
57:49 - Photography Space is hard.
58:24 - Pleasantly Surprised by Photos on iOS
59:55 - Wrap up