"Not only will Assistant Editor make great first cuts, but the discipline that it enforces can actually make you a better editor and storyteller. One of the most unique editing tools to have come along in years, Assistant Editor First Cuts earns our highest praise for its combination of power and simplicity. It should be part of the toolkit of any long-form documentary editor -- or anyone else who deals with large amounts of unscripted footage
and just needs a very helpful -- and tireless -- assistant."
Ned Soltz, DV Magazine - Sept 2008
The announcement of First Cuts for FCP also caused some controversy:
"The Assistant Editor is a tool to help you to get the best out of your material. It will do your editing for you but it will only do some of it. You still need all the skills of editor and need to be the judge of the best way to cut the material for maximum effect. I suspect if one uses The Assistant Editor it could save great deal of time in the first initial stages of the editing process when you want to work out the best forward. For $295 this is not a lot to pay."
Rick Young, MacVideo
"It really seemed like Auto Pilot for Doc Editors, but just as a pilot continues to maintain control of an airliner with the assistance of Auto Pilot technology, the Editor is still in charge with this new software. As Philip is quick to point out, his program is only a tool for Editors to help them generate a fast first edit, and certainly not a replacement for the Editor, or even an Assistant. It simply allows them to explore the material they have at hand in various combinations based on the log notes made in Final Cut Pro. The Assistant Editor™ builds stories based on the story keywords entered while logging. These keywords can be combined and rearranged to produce different versions of the story as an interactive tool with Final Cut Pro.
Philip also points out that being able to produce first cuts so quickly provides an experienced Editor a starting point to improve upon, and can provide lots of inspiration for the story, while requiring no more logging than would be done for a traditional documentary edit."
James Mathers, Digital Cinema Society Newsletter - June 14, 2008