Bob Zelin is right…..The End Is Near!

[Craig Seeman]

Tangerine shot on iPhone 5S
https://nofilmschool.com/2015/07/tangerine-sundance-iphone-5s-sean-baker-radium-cheung-interview
IMDB tech specs
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3824458/technical?ref_=tt_dt_spec
Nominations and Awards
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3824458/awards?ref_=tt_awd

Of course there are limitation shooting on an iPhone but if a job can live within those limitations…
Keep in mind not everyone wants to live within those limitations.

[Mark Raudonis]

Bob Zelin is ALWAYS right!

[David Roth weiss]

The other day I was walking my dog, when I spotted an eight-year old child in his garage, doing a stand-up pitch to camera in front of a green screen. He setup the lights, the camera, the mic, and was doing the pitch as well, without any help. When I asked what he was pitching, he told me he was pitching his first completed feature film to potential distributors. Does this tell you anything about the state of our industry?

David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor/Colorist & Workflow Consultant
David Weiss Productions
Los Angeles

David is a Creative COW contributing editor and a forum host of the Apple Final Cut Pro forum.

[Craig Alan]

Just the same, there is more professional productions then ever before. In the old days, there was no easy way to learn production unless you had connections, anyone who knew how to do it and had access to the equipment could get gigs even if they didn’t have an artistic bone in their head and were rude besides. Most families owned a decent still camera. Being able to edit the stills easily has been around now for a while. Just the same, people make a living as photographers.

I’ve had any number of plumbers rip me off. Cause its not something I feel comfortable with and I need to trust them. Is that a good thing?

Bottom line, it’s the content that matters because pretty decent quality is much more accessible. However, I wonder if that kid’s video had usable audio. One man bands don’t usually fly too high and once you need a crew than the for free status of the non pros starts to fall apart as soon as you need to make a living at something. Good production is just too time consuming. If that Kid made a decent feature length movie that his peers are willing to pay for then good for him. If its for free then sooner or later when they are adults they’ll have to make a living and most likely will want to watch movies shot by pros.

I don’t think any one here lost a gig cause that kid shot it himself.

Mac Pro, macbook pro, Imacs (i7); Canon 5D Mark III/70D, Panasonic AG-HPX170/AG-HPX250P, Canon HV40, Sony Z7U/VX2000/PD170; FCP 6 certified; FCP X write professionally for a variety of media; teach video production in L.A.

[Andrew Kimery]

Meh.

A dozen other industries have already gone through this and working pros survived.

Sure, if someone sucks and relies on scarcity of gear to make a living they are boned but everyone else still has a fighting chance as long as they continue to pay attention to what’s going on around them. If an 8yr old or a computer program or a hamster on a wheel can put out a product that is comparable to yours, then, yes, it is probably time to do some self evaluation. 😉

[Craig Alan]

Exactly. People being educated on a consumer level is a good thing. People make a living as writers too. But most folk can write and with computers they are as good as the touch typists of old and spell check takes care of most of the misspellings.

Mac Pro, macbook pro, Imacs (i7); Canon 5D Mark III/70D, Panasonic AG-HPX170/AG-HPX250P, Canon HV40, Sony Z7U/VX2000/PD170; FCP 6 certified; FCP X write professionally for a variety of media; teach video production in L.A.

[Douglas K. dempsey]

Haha, reminds me of the old William Goldman story from “Adventures in the Screen Trade,” comparing the unlikelihood of anyone messing with the cinematographer … “Nobody knows optics, physics, lighting” to the all-too-familiar contributions to the screenplay … “EVERYBODY knows the alphabet!”

Doug D

[John Rofrano]

Almost anyone can use a word processor… but not many people can write a best selling novel!

Don’t get scared because almost anyone can own and operate a good quality camera and use an NLE… because they still need creativity and talent!

Apparently, most kids that own an iPhone don’t know that you’re supposed to hold it horizontally to shoot video!!! 😀 (I wouldn’t get too worried)

Seriously, I think what’s happening is awesome! When I was a young musician, many moons ago, I wish that I could afford a multi-track tape recorder to record my musical ideas. I use to use two cassette decks (one of which I had to borrow from a friend) and record from one to the other. The results after a few bounces had so much tape hiss and warble that it was almost unusable. My ability to create was limited by the primitive tools that I could afford. Today, that isn’t the case for young musicians or film makers. High quality tools are easily obtainable and that’s a good thing because then you are limited only by your creative talent… (but you still need talent!)

Don’t confuse Talent with Knowledge! I believe what Bob Zelin was referring to is that it takes a lot less knowledge to make good video these days. The cameras are easier to operate and less expensive and the software is a lot smarter so that YOU don’t have to be… but at the end of the day it’s all about holding the camera steady, getting good audio, and telling a compelling story and THAT still takes talent.

I believe a lot of editors are upset that some skills that took them a long time to acquire are no longer needed. Everything you learned about properly conforming footage isn’t needed when you can drop 60i HDV, 24p iPhone, and 60p GoPro footage on the same timeline without preparing them first. Or the hours that it took to create an animated lower third, is now a drag-n-drop Motion template. Or pulling a good chroma key doesn’t even require good lighting anymore because the software is so good that an 8 year old can pull a good key in his garage.

Perhaps it’s just time for the old dogs to learn some new tricks and stay ahead of the kiddies. 😉

As the bar to entry gets lower… we all need to step up our game to remain competitive… and that’s a good thing.

In a way, Bob is right. The end IS near. The end of what is acceptable for requiring a professional to do the work. Back in the day, management had secretaries to type their letters because managers didn’t know how to type. Today, everyone types their own emails. Are our emails as formal as those old letters use to be? Not by a long shot! Does anyone care? No, not at all! We may look back on these times as “back in the day when everyone needed a video editor to create their videos… now everyone creates their own videos”. Just like formal letters, what is acceptable video will change. But telling a great story with pictures, just like writing a great novel, will still require talent.

That’s called “progress”.

~jr

http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com

[Craig Alan]

It’s harder to get started in this field … professionally. There is more competition and you need to offer something beyond what your clients can do for themselves or get someone to do for free.
But it’s easier to get started in this field because the information is available on the internet and the equipment is reasonably affordable (though that’s relative – I know many talented artists that can’t afford to set up shop).
But clients come around. For example, every company out there wants an on-line presence. They usually turn in-house to find someone to do it for free, save whatever that person can talk them into buying in terms of gear. More times than not this fails. It is still not easy to produce a really good multi-media presentation that delivers the message. Never mind one that not only delivers the message but does so with creativity and stands out from the crowd.

It’s Gotta be the Shoes!

It’s also pretty hard to put together a team of people to shoot a movie without a budget. Free talent flakes.

But these are really exciting times. Distribution was always the ruling class’s ace in the hole.

Not no more.

You got talent … prove it.

Every writer in the era when every one knew the alphabet had to give away their ideas for free in order to get gigs down the road. This applies now for all artistic fields. That’s assuming Hollywood is your objective. But its wide open now and lots of ways to generate income in this field.

Mac Pro, macbook pro, Imacs (i7); Canon 5D Mark III/70D, Panasonic AG-HPX170/AG-HPX250P, Canon HV40, Sony Z7U/VX2000/PD170; FCP 6 certified; FCP X write professionally for a variety of media; teach video production in L.A.

[Rich Rubasch]

This is a craft industry with a huge factor of service thrown in.
You have to be talented, sure, but you also have to be responsive.

One thing the tools we have now provide (GPU processing, shoot and edit camera media without realtime capturing, advanced plugins for a myriad of effects) is a much faster pipeline in our workflows. So in skilled hands and a well thought out workflow (i.e. Bob Zelin) you can deliver great productions in less time. This takes into consideration that you are editing at the same speed, or in the case of Bill Davis, twice as fast as the rest of us. (couldn’t resist Bill…all in fun.)

The reason agencies work with us is that we put the entire production together and know where the challenges might be because of our experience. This means day of shoot everything has been thought out and we have contingencies in place. We have had 10 different soap dishes and 7 different trash cans because we weren’t sure exactly what the client might want. We know if two cameras are necessary (and how it will affect post schedules) and if one camera can work (again considering the post workflow). Audio and makeup are never overlooked.

Then we have our own creative minds to bring our own special something to a production that the client wasn’t expecting. Do they always work? Not always, but the fact that we thought of it and brought it to the production is usually recognized and applauded and might just be the thing that secures that next job.

I don’t view our jobs as projects with a budget and a timeline…they are each original creations with unique challenges that affect the many roles working on a production all the way thru post. Having that kind of experience with many different types of projects in the can allow us to estimate accurately, make money, and keep delivering on the promise of meeting the deadlines and expectations.

I promise you, an 8 year old cannot do all that.

Rich Rubasch
Tilt Media Inc.
Video Production, Post, Studio Sound Stage
Founder/President/Editor/Designer/Animator
https://www.tiltmedia.com