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An Interesting observation
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oh wait that’s right – so it goes – jobs tells him that that is to be for general editing – so he goes and makes the new imovie, then next goes for the full FCP overhaul.
quite right, quite right.
https://vimeo.com/user1590967/videos http://www.ogallchoir.net promo producer/editor.grading/motion graphics
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[Craig Seeman] “Over a decade ago I was tasked to train a group of producers who had virtually no editing experience, to become their own editors for network broadcast, on Avid.”
Your point is that you were training them to BECOME editors. Craig S’s situation is completely different and will more than likely be the rule rather than the exception in any multi-tasking based scenario – which is again, far more likely than an attrition based one. Managers know you cant turn a horse into a cow…(you can switch by predilection which animal is associated with which job 🙂
David
https://AllinOneFilms.com -
[David Cherniack] “Your point is that you were training them to BECOME editors.”
They remained Producers… who edited their own production. As time goes on more producers will be editors. This is especially so on lower budget projects This will be the norm in corporate video. I see it happening on some lower budget broadcast (non narrative) shows.
[David Cherniack] “Managers know you cant turn a horse into a cow…(you can switch by predilection which animal is associated with which job :)”
Again I’m talking about a Manager who made this decision in a network broadcast show (non narrative though). Over time evolution takes its corse and a beast with aspects of horse and cow may happen. A while back there was a post to an “evolutionary” analysis and I find that very appropriate to what I’ve seen.
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[Craig Seeman] “They remained Producers… who edited their own production. As time goes on more producers will be editors. This is especially so on lower budget projects This will be the norm in corporate video. I see it happening on some lower budget broadcast (non narrative) shows.”
One also has to think about how this is going to evolve over time. Today’s aspiring directors, who are taking advantage of dirt cheap digital workflows to go out and start shooting their own no-budget projects… odds are they’re editing their own stuff. Who else is going to do it?
Some of these folks will actually be working directors sooner or later, and although some of them will likely hire ‘real’ editors as soon as they’re working on projects that allow for that, others will likely decide that they just want to keep on doing it themselves.
We’ve seen this sort of transition before. Back in the long-ago pre-computer days, typing was largely a specialized skill. It was routine for pretty much anyone above an entry-level position to have a secretary, or at least access to a secretarial pool, to prepare typed documents. Often one wouldn’t even write longhand, but would simply dictate.
Computers changed all of this, by making typing both easier (you didn’t have to be nearly as accurate, because it was much easier to make corrections, for instance) and more widely useful. Now nearly every adult can type at least somewhat competently. And many people would find it quite frustrating to create any non-trivial document by dictating it — they prefer the more direct control provided by just working with the text in a modern word processor. This is particularly true for people who especially care about the details of what’s written — exact phrasing, etc.
What’s happening with video editing is largely analogous. It’s becoming both easier, as technical constraints that previously required complex workflows disappear and editing UI advances, and more widely useful, as both the plummeting cost of acquiring footage and new distribution channels (the web, etc.) have dramatically increased the amount of video content being produced. We should expect to see similar effects in the long run, with a smaller and smaller fraction of total editing performed by specialist editors, and some people who particularly care about the details of the finished product (i.e. directors) feeling more comfortable just stepping in and taking a hands-on approach.
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Digital Workflow/Colorist, Nice Dissolve.You should follow me on Twitter here. Or read our blog.
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[Chris Kenny] “One also has to think about how this is going to evolve over time. Today’s aspiring directors, who are taking advantage of dirt cheap digital workflows to go out and start shooting their own no-budget projects… odds are they’re editing their own stuff. Who else is going to do it?”
To take it a step further, in general video is becoming a form of common literacy all of its own. In the past just knowing how to shoot or edit and charging for your services was a viable business model but that’s not true any more than just knowing how to read and write lands you a job writing copy or authoring a book.
I think we’ll go through a wave of excitement as people go “Hey, I can finally do this myself. This is awesome!” and then a wave a realization that it’s hard work, they aren’t very good at it, and/or they don’t have the time nor desire to do everything themselves. It’s already common for editors to produce as well (I’ve done a lot of ‘predator’ work the past 7-8yrs) so I think it’s only natural that tech will get to a point where producers can edit too. Of course there will always be projects that need both producers and editors to wear separate hats as there is simply too much going on for one person to effectively do both jobs.
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I go back to producers and directors who used to have Steenbecks in their garages. So the process of democratising the first stage of edit seems to me to be predictably changing.
As younger film makers who are tech savy become the norm and the price of edit software continues to come down, this use that you see with X may be no more than price and access rather than something specifically about X being more producer friendly. Anecdotes and small samples may well be the precursor to a trend but I a not seeing it in my small sample group where X is not really making any inroads, but active pre edit shot pulling/ assemblies are already common with Legend.
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[Michael Gissing] “As younger film makers who are tech savy become the norm and the price of edit software continues to come down, this use that you see with X may be no more than price and access rather than something specifically about X being more producer friendly.”
Price and access are pretty much what won the last round on the NLE wars for Apple.
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Digital Workflow/Colorist, Nice Dissolve.You should follow me on Twitter here. Or read our blog.
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[Chris Kenny] “Price and access are pretty much what won the last round on the NLE wars for Apple.”
I attribute two other factors to FCP’s success: its relatively tactile UI, and its flexibility in workflow.
I can’t be the only one who remembers what a revelation it was to be able to grab your media with the mouse and push it pull it, on the timeline and in the canvas. On workflow, FCP Legend wasn’t there right away, but like FCPX, gained this ability over time — though it did face a lower hurdle since its timeline spoke the lingua franca of tracks and absolute time.
FCPX is not the only “price and access” option out there. I think Adobe’s Creative Cloud subscription option, giving users a much broader, arguably deeper toolset than Apple does with FCPX/M5/Compressor. Adobe’s Ps/Il/Pr/Au/Ae/Sg/AME offering also includes some must-have industry-standard applications, and it costs less than a lot of folks spend on coffee every month.
In fact, even if you prefer FCPX to Premiere, you may still find a lot of value in Creative Suite or Creative Cloud, again illustrating how this is not a zero-sum game.
Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events -
[Chris Kenny] “Price and access are pretty much what won the last round on the NLE wars for Apple.”
Price and access was a big part in FCP Legend getting in the door but back then the difference between it and Avid MC were 10’s of thousands of dollars and Avid-branded hardware. Today the difference is significantly less. Other NLE’s like Vegas, Premiere (pre-Pro) and those from Pinnacle were also as cheap if not cheaper than FCP so FCP’s attraction was more than just price.
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[Andrew Kimery] “Price and access was a big part in FCP Legend getting in the door but back then the difference between it and Avid MC were 10’s of thousands of dollars and Avid-branded hardware. Today the difference is significantly less. Other NLE’s like Vegas, Premiere (pre-Pro) and those from Pinnacle were also as cheap if not cheaper than FCP so FCP’s attraction was more than just price.
“Yes and yes.
Herb Sevush
Zebra Productions
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nothin’ attached to nothin’
“Deciding the spine is the process of editing” F. Bieberkopf
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