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Allow me to introduce myself… and a bit of NLE history.
Hello Fellow FCP Enthusiasts,
I’ve been a member of The COW Community since 2005 but only recently filled in my profile and started getting active in these forums. Nice to meet you all.
By way of introduction, I’d like to share a document I co-authored in 1987 when I was a designer/producer/researcher at Lucasfilm Ltd. It is the functional spec for what would arguably become the world’s first database managed, object-oriented, non-linear editing system.
https://www.propaganda.com/xTV_Production_System.pdf
This document was a deliverable for our partner/client, Apple Computer, Inc. It was part of a research and production collaboration between Lucasfilm, Apple and our third partner, The National Geographic Society. The purpose of the collaboration was to design the future of digital media experience as well as the tools to create those experiences. We targeted education and built with the most cutting edge hardware technologies we could get our hands on at the time. We developed and grew this system over a roughly thee-year period and I used it to produce actual products that were sold nationally.
One of the project’s big insights was the realization that a physical world metaphor – for example, digitally modeling the physical characteristics of a Steenbeck, as George had done with EditDroid – was unnecessary. The document above is the first spec we produced and references a “digital light table”, but over the course of the project it evolved past this, becoming an object-oriented system complete with a bin-like workspace for collecting media objects and an open timeline for sequencing media events. While much functionality was specific to our unique authoring needs, at its core, we thought of the Econodroid (later renamed MPS – Multimedia Production System) as a general model for the digital representation of time-based media, as well as the tools needed to fluidly manipulate and structure this media into time-based experiences.
We got a lot of things right. Today, nearly 25 years later, many UI conventions we identified are taken for granted and still in use.
The shock of what Apple did the other week is finally starting to wear off. I’ve had some time to kick the tires on X and gather my thoughts which I’ll share in another post. But I wanted to start by giving you an idea of where I’m coming from. I hope you’ll find this stuff interesting and I look forward to further conversation.
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propaganda.com
publicmattersgroup.com
facebook.com/dlawrence
twitter.com/dhl -
21 Replies
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David,
Wow! The dawn of the NLE! Thanks for sharing.
You should send a copy here:
https://www.vtoldboys.com/editingmuseum/index.htmWe’ve come a long way since then.
Welcome to the cow.
Mark
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Welcome aboard David. Would love to hear your thoughts on FCPX.
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Very interesting document … and since you “were” there, I really would like to read about your thougts.
Welcome aboard !iMac 2.7 GHz Intel 4 Core i5
16 GB memoryMacBook Pro 17″
2.5 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
6GB 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAMOWC RAID 5 with 3TB
(2) External HD LaCieMac (400/800 FW and USB)with 500GB -(2) USB External HD Western Digital (in cases) with 750GB
OS X 10.6.5
Final Cut Studio “3” -
I’m very much looking forward to your post, especially in light of your prior work and Apple’s controversial new GUI metaphor, the trackless Magnetic Timeline.
Best,
Andy -
Thank you for sharing. I find this kind of historical info fascinating.
Wasn’t it around this time that Robert Abel was working on interactive laserdisk? I’m assuming they had their own tools for authoring?
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As Mr. Jobs might say: awesome!!!
It’s hard to believe you’ve have been right here among us, hearing out inner most thoughts about this thing you helped to birth twenty-five years ago.
As the others have said, hearing your thoughts on FCP X should be most enlightening for all to hear.
[David Lawrence] “We got a lot of things right. Today, nearly 25 years later, many UI conventions we identified are taken for granted and still in use.”
You clearly got a lot of things right, and many UI conventions you identified were certainly taken for granted… It’s the rest that many of us are concerned about, and it will be darned interesting to hear what you think.
David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor/Colorist
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los Angeles
https://www.drwfilms.comDon’t miss my new tutorial: Prepare for a seamless transition to FCP X and OS X Lion
https://library.creativecow.net/weiss_roth_david/FCP-10-MAC-Lion/1POST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY ™
Creative COW contributing editor and a forum host of the Business & Marketing and Apple Final Cut Pro forums.
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In the article the term “The Econodroid operator” is used. Sounds like exactly what Apple wants us to be….users who just use their software because they told us to. Um, droids.
Very funny and yet informative. Like YouTube.
Rich Rubasch
Tilt Media Inc.
Video Production, Post, Studio Sound Stage
Founder/President/Editor/Designer/Animator
https://www.tiltmedia.com -
Thanks for your interest everyone!
I’m working on a series of posts that will mostly focus on the meta — paradigm, metaphor, UI. That kind of stuff. Will try to get the first out soon. Stay tuned…
–David
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propaganda.com
publicmattersgroup.com
facebook.com/dlawrence
twitter.com/dhl -
[Scott Thomas] “Wasn’t it around this time that Robert Abel was working on interactive laserdisk? I’m assuming they had their own tools for authoring?”
Yes, as a matter of fact, Bob Abel and his team showed us a demo of Guernica at the ranch. It was a HyperCard-based interactive laserdisc. IIRC, the disc itself was created the old school way (linear tape and CMX) with HyperCard driving the interactivity. I remember it being a very cool project!
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propaganda.com
publicmattersgroup.com
facebook.com/dlawrence
twitter.com/dhl -
[David Lawrence] “Bob Abel and his team showed us a demo of Guernica at the ranch. It was a HyperCard-based interactive laserdisc. IIRC, the disc itself was created the old school way (linear tape and CMX) with HyperCard driving the interactivity. I remember it being a very cool project!”
Did that become E-Pix, or any part of the E-Pix laser disk editing system?
David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor/Colorist
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los Angeles
https://www.drwfilms.comDon’t miss my new tutorial: Prepare for a seamless transition to FCP X and OS X Lion
https://library.creativecow.net/weiss_roth_david/FCP-10-MAC-Lion/1POST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY ™
Creative COW contributing editor and a forum host of the Business & Marketing and Apple Final Cut Pro forums.
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