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Art doesn’t pay
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To add, IMHO culinary is an art and I would die if all I ate was rice and boiled corn 🙁
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don’t worry Bill – I’m not offended. We all post aggressively on these forums. People are to politically correct these days “oh, you insult me if you don’t like Vegas or Hit Film” etc. – who cares – we are just talking.
I am not referring to your wife’s hard work and teaching foreign students. I am referring to things like “film school”
based on my experience of seeing kids whose parents spend more than most of us own equipment – and then the kid comes out and knows nothing. Doesn’t that make you angry ? In my engineering school (now called NYU Engineering) – I learned a bunch of theoretical math classes, and had some Fortran programming classes. All totally useless when I got into our industry in 1977, and all useless to this day. A complete waste of my parents money.In a recent article on Eddie Hamilton (editor of Mission Impossible) –
https://nofilmschool.com/2015/07/interview-eddie-hamilton-editor-mission-impossible-rogue-nation-part-one
He discusses his background, and his “lack of education” in our industry, but just his hard work and perseverance,
From that article –“I spent a couple of years in the wilderness, temping in banks and police stations, and then I thought, “I can’t do this, I have to try and get into the industry.” So I handed in my notice and gave myself a month to get myself a job as a runner, around 1994/95. I managed to get a job in a very small post-production facility and spent every evening and every weekend learning how to use every piece of kit in the facility, including the very early Avid Media Composers. I did a lot of on-line editing, off-line editing, some sports television, and when I felt I had really got a grasp of Avid, I put my feelers out in the low budget film industry to see if anyone needed editors because I really wanted to work in film.”
You work hard – you get what you want. You keep at it, and you learn everything (like like FCP X).
This may not apply to being an actor or a musician, but it seems like EVERYTHING else in life – you keep pushing, and you can become whatever you want to be. With that said – my wife knows an editor in LA, that got laid off. He decided he wanted to become an actor. Not a “movie star” but just be employed in acting. Within a year, he has minor parts on countless TV shows now (most non speaking parts, and extra work) – but he is supporting himself, and while it may not be glamorous, he’s an actor.Bob Zelin
Bob Zelin
Rescue 1, Inc.
bobzelin@icloud.com -
[greg janza] “In fairness to Bob, that Woody Allen joke is legendary and it’s hilarious.
“Also reused here in Richard Linklater movie School of Rock, a great film about “teaching”.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQskB2JJql4
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[Bob Zelin] “In a recent article on Eddie Hamilton (editor of Mission Impossible)”
Careful Bob. You’re going to trigger this crowd when they see the complex Avid UI on his screens. ☺
– Oliver
Oliver Peters – oliverpeters.com
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[greg janza] “Bill, if you’ve been in the video business for 30 years you should have a skin as thick as an alligator by now.”
About many, many things absolutely.
About disrespect to educators after the way the US has generally turned public teachers into third class citizens over the past three decades , not so much.
It’s particularly acute right now, considering the level of respect the folks she now works with in Bejing exhibit, compared to every US school system she has brushed up against.
If you have decent public schools where you live, support them and the people who work in them. Because the way things appear to be going right now, public education in the US is being quietly and systematically gutted.
I fear we will rue the day we let this happen.
Creator of XinTwo – https://www.xintwo.com
The shortest path to FCP X mastery. -
[Bob Zelin] “I am referring to things like “film school”
based on my experience of seeing kids whose parents spend more than most of us “Of course, how silly of me.
Think of how much better off the industry would have been if…
George Lucas,
Martin Scorsese,
Joss Whedon ,
Terrance Malick
David Lynch
Darren Aronofsky
Chen Kaige
Joel Cohn
Francis Ford Coppola
Tim Burton…and legions more had just decided to save all the wasted film school money THEY invested and just “figured it all out” all on their own like the really smart folks.
Heck, the dumbest one was probably crazy Ron Howard. Surely he could have totally just ABSORBED his skills growing up on set. Surely going to (shudder) Film School was likely an utter waste of time for him.
Creator of XinTwo – https://www.xintwo.com
The shortest path to FCP X mastery. -
[Oliver Peters] “You’re going to trigger this crowd when they see the complex Avid UI on his screens”
Funny you mention that, in a thread where “design” was mentioned. I (now) see the design of Premiere (and Avid I guess) UI as lacking good design. Maybe in the past but not now (for me). I have a Premiere job tomorrow that I am really not looking forward to because how it is laid out and how you work in it. Same rate, so that does not enter into the equation. I see FCPX as a simple elegant design that makes my work more pleasurable without sacrificing capabilities (and adding some). I feel I do better work on X. I felt the same way with DS, which was still a track-based NLE. Somehow to me, it was just better and I enjoyed working on it much more than MC. Now, this is just me and only my opinion, but how a user or customer sees design can definitely affect their decisions. It “feels” better to them. And obviously there are other people who see the design of X as simplistic and “unprofessional” (there’s that word again). It’s no wonder Design Thinking is such a hot topic these days.
Have at it, folks! 😉
Scott Witthaus
Visual Storyteller – FCPX, Premiere
https://vimeo.com/channels/1322525
Managing Partner, Low Country Creative LLC
Professor, VCU Brandcenter -
[Scott Witthaus] “I (now) see the design of Premiere (and Avid I guess) UI as lacking good design”
See, I would disagree. Premiere offers a very freeform, modular design. So good or bad layout is merely a matter of how you set it up for your own working style. FCPX UI is rather fixed in UI positioning and to my way of thinking, not the greatest layout from a standpoint of edit flow. But, of course, to each their own.
[Scott Witthaus] “Now, this is just me and only my opinion, but how a user or customer sees design can definitely affect their decisions. It “feels” better to them. “
I would agreed with that.
– Oliver
Oliver Peters – oliverpeters.com
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[Bill Davis] “…and legions more had just decided to save all the wasted film school money THEY invested and just “figured it all out” all on their own like the really smart folks. “
I think you’d have to ask them what they got out of the experience beyond networking with others, which is something that can happen while apprenticing in the business just as well. For myself, I have no preference between film school applicants and others when it comes to hiring – I find no correlation between college major and ability, although I do prefer some college as background, but a philosophy major is just fine if it’s the right person.
Herb Sevush
Zebra Productions
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nothin\’ attached to nothin\’
\”Deciding the spine is the process of editing\” F. Bieberkopf -
[Herb Sevush] “I think you’d have to ask them what they got out of the experience beyond networking with others, which is something that can happen while apprenticing in the business just as well.”
One of the biggest values of places like USC Film School is the alumni network out in the field after college. that’s true of many places – not just film/art schools.
– Oliver
Oliver Peters – oliverpeters.com
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