Complexity

[Bill Davis]

Two observations.

First, the entire Chromebook thing is this generations version of the Poleroid camera or the ink-jet printer.

In NONE of these cases do the manufacturers care particularly about profits on the hardware. They are enabling devices kept as financially accessible as possible in order to achieve a very different objective.

The poleroid camera was a stalking horse for film pack sales.

The ink jet printer – one for its ink.

A Chromebook only gains power when it’s put in a classroom and drives “accounts” for all the kids using it. I suspect it will become the starter device not just for learning how to deal with the global data system, but also the gateway service for storing their communications history, their schoolwork, writings, test results, pictures, mail, etc, etc.

These things are flooding into kindergarten through 4th grade in US Schools. Have been for a few years now. And GOOGLE did that brilliantly under the banner of making hugely underpaid teachers lives easier. Sometimes, bypassing the administration totally by pitching so many perks to the teachers directly (think of the time you’ll save with on-line homework, grading anywhere, 24 hour contact with your students, apps and products JUST for teachers like you!!!) that putting 30 Chromebook into a class complete with locking storage stations with charging, wireless access etc simply became the tech path of least resistance.

Those kids account will migrate as the kid changes schools. And who stores and manages that data? Google. Who has your notes, files and photos? Google. The video you shot for that report? Again, Google. Where do you link your friends to watch your starter music video? Guess.

A final note.

I’ve started seriously assessing the quality and believability of web links I visit, not always by just the content itself – but by the nature of the ads linked to that content. If I see junk ads (You won’t believe what (famous cute actress of my youth) looks like today!) or ED drugs, I write off the whole thing, ESPECIALLY if it agrees with my prior opinions. It signals Click bait ahead. With this Chromebook story, I got ONE big ad, starring the Pawn Stars guys.

I don’t think I’m going to be trusting it much as a single source since it was served to me with that type of remora ad attached

My 2 cents.

Creator of XinTwo – https://www.xintwo.com
The shortest path to FCP X mastery.

[Oliver Peters]

I’m not really talking about the Chromebook specifically, but rather the concept of less complexity. Does that apply to Apple’s design goals for FCPX and if so, in what way? And, is it a good thing for the user?

– Oliver

Oliver Peters Post Production Services, LLC
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com

[Robin S. kurz]

[Oliver Peters] “And, is it a good thing for the user?”

Er… how exactly is less complexity NOT good for the user??

– RK

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Deutsch? Hier gibt es ein umfassendes FCP X Training für dich!

[Oliver Peters]

[Robin S. Kurz] “Er… how exactly is less complexity NOT good for the user??”

With less complexity there are often fewer features. That 80% thing.

– Oliver

Oliver Peters Post Production Services, LLC
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com

[Robin S. kurz]

[Oliver Peters] “With less complexity there are often fewer features. “

The key word here obviously being “often“. I’d say a stance of the 80’s and 90’s, yes.

Whereby, ironically, I think that ties directly into FCP X’s biggest “issues”.
The “Something so simple that pretty much anyone can grasp and use can’t possibly be any good!” issue.
The “The definition of ‘PRO‘ is expensive and complex!” issue.
The “If that wedding and YouTube dude are using it, too, it clearly has to suck!” issue.
The “Who is left to call ME, the master of all expensive and complex, if they’re using THAT!” issue.
The “Damn you, Apple!!” issue.

????

– RK

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Deutsch? Hier gibt es ein umfassendes FCP X Training für dich!

[Tony West]

Does it also apply to Pr’s philosophy since they just put out their canned titles?

Or SONY and PANASONIC with their full auto camera modes? Remember, anything Apple is doing, somebody else always did it first so it couldn’t be them.

As far as X goes, I’m cutting a multi-cam project right now in X. I didn’t miss jamming timecode in the field or syncing the shots up manually myself. Cutting MC in X is fast and easy but TC is still there if you want it.

Will some young person ask me in the future “What is jamming TC?” Maybe, but I don’t care.

His article compares a product that has a lot less than a more expensive product that can do more.

The problem with the comparison is, X doesn’t have a lot less than more expensive models it’s competing with.

There will always be people that want to do less work, and that will always open a market for people who will.

[Robin S. kurz]

[Tony West] “Remember, anything Apple is doing, somebody else always did it first so it couldn’t be them.”

????????????
And “they” of course did it much better as well. Of course. Apple hasn’t innovated anything.

[Tony West] “The problem with the comparison is, X doesn’t have a lot less than more expensive models it’s competing with.”

Bingo. Nothing less, if you ask me. Whether “out-of-the-box” or otherwise.

– RK

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Deutsch? Hier gibt es ein umfassendes FCP X Training für dich!

[Andy Patterson]

[Tony West] “Does it also apply to Pr’s philosophy since they just put out their canned titles?”

I believe the old titling system is still there if you want to create your own graphics although I think you can still create masks and mattes with the new Essential Graphics system. I imagine for some folks than canned effects of FCPX and Premiere Pro will work but I would rather just do it myself. Having said that FCPX is pretty complex as opposed to iMovie of Movie Maker. I like how they made the audio editing process for Premiere simpler for most productions but if you need to get more complex Premiere can still do it. That is not to say DR, FCPX and Avid do not have awesome features as well.

[Scott Witthaus]

Is it less complexity or simply “powerful elegance”?

Scott Witthaus
Owner, 1708 Inc./Editorial
Managing Partner, Low Country Creative LLC
Professor, VCU Brandcenter

[James Sullivan]

What I got wrong in that conclusion was the same mistake nearly everyone in technology makes: I assumed that, money being equal, having it all – or, more accurately, more than I needed – was inherently better than having less.

For me this is the takeaway from the article Oliver linked to. I always over engineer things where in reality I did not need to. Just because you have access to an Alchemist does not mean that running crappy Youtube Gopro footage through it is going to help kind of thing. Drop that clip into your timeline and double the size and call it a day. When FCP X came out though it was shown to a room full of complicated workflows that could not immediately jump on board. People got spooked and now we have a documentary about it.

I like that I can shoot stills on the device I have on me, (iPhone) and the quality will be good enough to hack out some graphics with. I like that the new Mac Pro laptop is freaking tiny and light weight, but if that were my only system it would be too clunky to work at for 12 hours straight without building it out with a monitor, full keyboard, tablet etc.

So to Olivers question, I think that Apple has done a great deal to simply things and has given more people access to being able to create stuff to the point that civilians don’t know how good they have it. (Remember DV!) I just hope they keep listening to us and keep some of the important complicated bits so that when you need to reach for that tool you can without bending over backwards. I still believe that as nice as Davinci Resolve has become it is still not an AVID DS or FLAME for that matter. Having separate applications that do what they do well lets the human pick and choose. It keeps things flexible and of course requires knowing more to be able to manage such a dance. As long as I can get out of Final Cut when I need to I will keep using it. Photoshop is overkill for cropping an image but you still need it for everything else kind of thing.

Another way of saying it would be keep Fusion out of Resolve, or After Effects out of Premiere. NLE’s need to be able to playback footage not be linking to a file that the second the NLE touches it, your system dies and instability keeps you from actually doing stuff.

Keep it simple, but I still want it all.