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Apple’s Color, my thoughts
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Walter,
I agree with your response. While Color does ‘democratize’ the Color Correction field what I believe it will do is lower the standards of picture/color quality. Sure there will always be high end clients who understand quality and are willing to pay for it, it’s those mid-range clients who will unknowingly accept lower quality. I’ve experienced executives and upper management-types who make the decisions based on money alone. Instead of accepting the cost of color correction/finishing they’ll just say ‘hey we have this software, lets just have an assistant editor learn how to use it.’ (I’ve heard almost that exact sentence…)
Now that they’ll have Color there’s no buffer to prevent this thinking.An analogy… 30 years ago in the jewelry industry you couldn’t find the quality of diamonds that are sold at most mall-type jewelry stores today. Mall stores came in and started selling diamonds that were previously considered only for industrial use. Since the average consumer didn’t know the difference, they thought they were getting the same thing but for a lower price. Now there are very few mid-range jewelry stores… just the very low quality mall stuff and the high end Tiffany’s of the world..
There are plenty of clients who may not know how good something can get and just ask for their projects to look their best. If every kid out of film school has these tools there will be a large number of clients who settle for what they think is a properly color corrected project, thinking they are getting the same thing for much less.
I am not a professional colorist but I’m very excited about learning Color (I was close to purchasing Final Touch when Apple purchased it) and I am excited about only paying for the FCP upgrade to get it.
Still, I feel I should have to earn the right to call myself a colorist and that includes knowledge, commitment and training that a lot of people are going to now assume costs just $1299.
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Forgot to mention, this was on a AVID Media Composer Adrenaline and the second project I did online.
https://kanalje.se – site in Swedish
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Having worked in the highest end (currently in a shop with discreet, davinci, and Avid DS working on feature films and commercials) as well as the middle ground (an Apple-centric, FCP offline/finishing house) not to mention the lower levels (low-budget student films and indies), I climbed this ladder thanks in large part to the desktop availability of those wonderful post tools.
However, I think that the apple-fying of the world has a definite negative side: Clients suddenly feel that because the tools are cheaper, the price HAS to be lower. As a result, the middle ground is slowly disappearing. Talent be damned…I’ve worked with the same people for years now, and despite the fact that 3 years ago we charged X amount, suddenly the clients want it at 2/3 the price since “Shake costs $500; we want a discount.” Never mind that the talent level has not changed, and neither has the work; they just want it cheaper because the tools (some of which we don’t even use) have gone down.
In the almost 5 years I’ve been doing this professionaly, I’ve seen the bar lowered significantly in terms of standards. Clients used to come to an online session ready for finishing; now that they can make changes to an edit or graphic from a laptop, they are less prepared. Most of the time, I have to re-do their EDLs and graphics for them to meet network standards. The knowledge of how the workflow is managed is forsaken because mistakes can be covered up with little fuss. Half the time, clients (including working editors and graphic designers) don’t know how to read a vectorscope or make a matte and fill. They can make pretty pictures, but the skilled workflow is almost non-existent.
Anyone who thinks that “talent” will continue to get paid the same amount is not paying attention to current post models. Half the people doing the work (most of which are doing it without proper training) don’t know the standards that have taken years of MY LIFE to learn. While it’s true that maybe colorists getting their own coffee is a good thing, what’s not a good thing is that people are taking shortcuts to the editors/colorists chair without putting in the time to learn the fundamentals. As a result, the quality of the product suffers, and clients become spoiled by “good enough” work.
my 2 cents…“Roto is not a skill, it’s a job.”
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[Tony Alznauer] “There are plenty of clients who may not know how good something can get and just ask for their projects to look their best. If every kid out of film school has these tools there will be a large number of clients who settle for what they think is a properly color corrected project, thinking they are getting the same thing for much less.”
Ding ding ding! Give that man a prize; you made my point in a much more concise way. I agree totally…
“Roto is not a skill, it’s a job.”
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“There are plenty of clients who may not know how good something can get and just ask for their projects to look their best. If every kid out of film school has these tools there will be a large number of clients who settle for what they think is a properly color corrected project, thinking they are getting the same thing for much less.”
why do want to work for some blind clients ? And if you do , what’s gonna change.
I know some people that earn a living with quarkX. yeah unbelievable, i knowRen
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Wow, get back from the NAB show and the thread has taken off, though I really expected y’all to respond to the Blog. I did meet someone today who spent $25,000 on Final Touch 2K last years so at least I’m not in that same boat.
Good difference of opinion in this thread. Thanks for all the replies.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
https://www.biscardicreative.com
HD Editorial & Animation for Food Network’s “Good Eats”
HD Editorial for “Assignment Earth”Read my blog! https://blogs.creativecow.net/WalterBiscardi
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[Tony Alznauer] “There are plenty of clients who may not know how good something can get and just ask for their projects to look their best. If every kid out of film school has these tools there will be a large number of clients who settle for what they think is a properly color corrected project, thinking they are getting the same thing for much less.”
But how is this any different than everything else that’s happened in the “digital revolution” that’s changed the publishing, still photography, video, music, and film worlds forever?
I seem to remember many FCP users basically telling Avid users who complained about the influx of “hacks” using FCP ruining the industry that one must “evolve or turn into a dinosaur” and that “if you are good you have nothing to worry about.”
I guess I find it kinda funny that some people who shifted to FCP because it offered hi-end features at a lo-end price are, now that they are more established, complaining about Apple offering products with hi-end features for lo-end prices.
-A
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Great thread, and I think we all speaketh the truth in various ways.
I have always believed this craft should and can be sold on talent not hardware and I still do, but at the end of the day, when you are running a business, there are times when a job is a job, and grand arguments of creativity vs hardware don’t cut it when the client is willing to go elsewhere for cheaper. Sometimes, and maybe more so in recent times, you got suck it in and get that job in the door.
This aint perfect I agree to that. But as always, we are always trying to grow, trying to offer more than the next guy, try to position ourselves to we can start billing more so on.
I supposes the point I’m trying to make is that the theory and the practise is often a little out of step. Particularly when you’ve had a slow month and you need to pay the rent.
So yes, I think the democratization of the industry is a good thing in the end, definitely.
But there are going to be bumps along the way, and at times, that guy in his bedroom with a FCS2 at hand is going to piss you off. -
Man you nailed it!
out of all the post this is the only one to the point.If you fear competition you are still an amateur at heart….
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“I guess I find it kinda funny that some people who shifted to FCP because it offered hi-end features at a lo-end price are, now that they are more established, complaining about Apple offering products with hi-end features for lo-end prices.
“I guess that abou sumes it all up. Very Ironic.
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