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FCP-X angst: Mind-killer or motivator?
Not to scare everyone….
But what if the real problem is that all you guys who are so upset at the FCP-X rev aren’t upset at the right thing? You’re pissed at APPLE and FCP-X – but what if that’s not the real problem, but merely a symptom of a larger truth? That ALL of our clients are coming to the realization that there’s little need to pay US to be gatekeepers to the specialized religion of editing for much longer.
What if our industry follows the course of, for example, piano playing? There are millions of people who functionally play pianos. And a very small, working cadre of people who play for money. A handfull of concert pros that the VERY top end – a few thousand working bandsmen toiling away in the larger live music industry – but largely toiling away in anonymous tedium – and everyone else does it ONLY for personal enjoyment?
Yeah, it’s scary. Like many of you, video editing is one of the central skills I’ve built my career on for the past 20 years.
But I’m starting to see pretty clearly that no matter WHAT software I pick today – it’s probably NOT going to make a big difference in my working life if the industry foundations continue to change so rapidly.
You may not like it. And I certainly don’t feel comfortable with it. But I think it’s pretty clear that this is what’s fundamentally happening here.
I remember the musicians squawking when synths replaced pianos, and as samplers and sequencers replaced the synths, and here we “video editors” are following the same curve.
The reality is – while editing SKILLS will always be in some modest demand – editing OPERATIONS are likely nearing the end of their useful life as a business model. (I know that sentence will raise a lot of IRE but I stand by it.)
Modern customers don’t want editing. They want someone who can communicate ideas in the form of a polished whole presentation. Know where I’m getting the majority of my work recently? Researchers. The corporate consultants who generate business DATA that becomes the message. I”m working WAY higher in the corporate chain then ever before, and I have to partner with new people who speak a new language and learn what drives THEM. They aren’t like the clients of my past – they’re about metrics and trends and percentiles and market-segments, not about ratings and CPM or even web-hits.
And that goes WAY beyond the edit stage. If your business model is waiting for clients to call for “an edit” good luck. Somewhere WAY upstream of that decision it’s likelier and likelier that someone will intercept the modern “virtual job ticket” and divert the whole project to a new entity that has a member who has “video production and editing” as just another skill set – like word processing or presentation design is considered today.
The new communications firm model is evolving. And it’s a messy process.
Just as there are no more “secretaries” who sit around waiting to type letters anymore since every employee is expected to be able to do their own email correspondence without a helper – and there’s so much dreadful PowerPoint out there – is that everyone is EXPECTED to do their own – skills or no skills.
THAT may be the new video production model. It SUCKS, but it’s also likely inevitable.
The slots we used to fill are disappearing. Time to find new slots – or cling to the idea that we are really so damn good that we can make a living playing concerts for our customers in a world where with a few mouse clicks they can listen to any piano player that’s ever lived.
It sucks to even write this – but honest self examination is the necessary pre-curser to change – and the change is coming fast these days. Like it or not.
FCP-X? Barely matters. Use it or don’t. The TOOL you own is not going to protect you if this change continues. ONLY what’s in your brain and how you THINK can protect you.
And allowing your mind-set to become stuck in “tool defense” or even “tool assessment mode” seems like the NERO approach to this business right now.
For what it’s worth.
“Before speaking out ask yourself whether your words are true, whether they are respectful and whether they are needed in our civil discussions.”-Justice O’Conner
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26 Replies
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Bill,
You’ve struck the nail directly on its head…
Forrest
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[Bill Davis] “But I’m starting to see pretty clearly that no matter WHAT software I pick today – it’s probably NOT going to make a big difference in my working life if the industry foundations continue to change so rapidly.”
This has actually been going on for some decades. It just accelerates over time. What will matter is that someone who does in house communications will also have an accessible, easy to learn, tool. People become multitaskers rather than specialists.
So it’s not what tool you pick but that someone else now has a tool to pick whereas they were previously reliant on a specialist.
One might say just as word processing might have been a specialized skill when most where still using computers, know everyone can word process although some are far more skilled at it than others. This also happened with Desktop Publishing. While there still are specialists, someone doing an in house newsletter or small business doing marketing, doesn’t have to hire a specialist.
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[Bill Davis] “But I’m starting to see pretty clearly that no matter WHAT software I pick today – it’s probably NOT going to make a big difference in my working life if the industry foundations continue to change so rapidly.”
This has actually been going on for some decades. It just accelerates over time. What will matter is that someone who does in house communications will also have an accessible, easy to learn, tool. People become multitaskers rather than specializts.
So it’s not what tool you pick but that someone else now has a tool to pick whereas they were previously reliant on a specializt.
One might say just as word processing might have been a specialized skill when most where still using computers, know everyone can word process although some are far more skilled at it than others. This also happened with Desktop Publishing. While there still are specializts, someone doing an in house newsletter or small business doing marketing, doesn’t have to hire a specializt.
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note to gatekeepers. I had to misspell a certain word because contained within it was the name of a commonly used “men’s pharmaceutical” -
Ya, I moved to new cheese called Premiere Pro.
NIADA
Technical Director -
That cheese video is so perfectly apt. Good one.
Noah
Unlock the secrets of 24p, HD and Final Cut Studio with Call Box Training. Featuring the Panasonic GH2 and GoPro HD Hero.
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Yeah, it’s definitely a fear of mine. I wish I had kept up with 3D modeling and animation…
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all interesting stuff – but borrowing the desktop publishing comparison below – its clear that the market for skilled print design, typography, layout, photography has exploded with the advent of desktop publishing which is, say, analogous to the democratisation of tools you’re describing in editing – again I’d argue that places where it really is on the ground is in broadcast journalism where in all Irish news operations about every journalist is self editing the basic three minute packages. Anything more complex, pro-editors are crafting it.
but going back to tool availability, I’m not sure pianos or quarkxpress are quite on the money, but even if so, people playing the piano can play it on elevators, in ad breaks, in website banners and on royalty free collections now – its very unlikely that some plebian horde of moron cutters shifting magnetic clips around is going to rise up and devour us – they are the pagemakers – thats all fine – if the pool gets immeasurably bigger as it did in desktop publishing, all to the wonderful good. Skill never goes out of style. Neither does the propensity to pay for it.
FCPX, however, is a still a horrible, gaudy dog’s breakfast as software.
http://www.ogallchoir.net
promo producer/editor.grading/motion graphics -
Andreas,
I would dismiss anyones opinion of the quality of, say, a movie’s editing, if that person knew nothing about the craft of editing. It’s easy to be a critic in a world where no standards for criticism are followed – a pretty fair description of the modern blogosphere, IMO.
So sorry, but I’m going to disregard your opinion of the “quality” of FCP-X “as software” since I doubt you (nor I) have the slightest clue about the code that underlies it. It could be a truly bad story – or it might be the dawn of a new way of looking at writing – only TIME will tell.
You can bark about features or implementation all you like (to extend you favorite canine theme) but unless you’re an assembly language or Objective C (or whatever FCP-X is written in) code crafter, neither you nor I have the slightest clue about whether the underlying “software architecture” is good, bad or indifferent.
I accept your loud and constant quarrel that software does not FUNCTION as you wish it would. Fine. If everyone thinks in a similar fashion to you – it will rapidly fail.
If, on the other hand, more people think differently than you do about this – it will do just fine – and you will have to either ignore that reality or adjust your thinking – just as I will in the areas where FCP-X doesn’t currently meet my needs.
I’m just trying to see the forrest for the trees.
The tourist and the hunter see the same forrest very differently. Your view – and my view – are both valid – right up to the point where they are not.
Such is life.
“Before speaking out ask yourself whether your words are true, whether they are respectful and whether they are needed in our civil discussions.”-Justice O’Conner
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well, you’re right there Bill – I’m fiercely concerned with how software *FUNCTIONS,* hey, you know, I’m using it – and I could not give two flying hoots how the code looks.
I like photoshop, I’m extremely proficient in photoshop and a bunch of other software. I don’t recall trawling through the C+ code of photoshop or whatever to gain insights into the efficacy of it as a design and photography tool. That idea is ridiculous.
In short your argument that I cannot criticise FCPX as an editing tool because I can’t “..have the slightest clue about the code that underlies it.. ” makes no sense at all.
And who’s the hunter woods thing? Too gnomic for me that one.
http://www.ogallchoir.net
promo producer/editor.grading/motion graphics
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