Grinner vs. Avid

[Ted Levy]

Cathy, everything you said is really true. And more and more often on my projects, I’m having to deal with fixing bad editing, mediocre sound mixing and poor color correcting done by other people who’ve learned some software but don’t have the necessary creative background, talent and skills to make something of quality.

I’ve been reading a book of interviews with independent film directors. They all have literary and artistic, not technical, backgrounds. Do you know that Neil Jordan started out as a famous novelist and short story writer in Ireland? He only decided to direct films when some TV scripts and a feature script he had written were directed in a really disappointing way. His first film, Angel, features Stephen Rea, whom Jordan had seen performing on the stage. It was really well-received, and the rest is hisory.

[Ted Levy]

“It’s simply an Avid giving up thing.”

Sounds more like it’s a “you giving up on Avid thing.” As I’ve said, I love their software and innovations and intend to keep using their products.

I was at NBC in Los Angeles yesterday. They have two post-production buildings filled with dozens of Avid rooms, editing shows like Grey’s Anatomy (which is shot 100 yards away, right there on the lot), and network promos. There’s not a single Final Cut Pro in sight. I spoke to the head of post, and his commitment to Avid is strong and deep. He’s very technically savvy and quite familiar with Final Cut Pro, and has no interest in migrating to it. That’s the reality on a professional level.

[Ted Levy]

Sorry, I meant to say ABC.

[Grinner Hester]

[Ted Levy] “Sounds more like it’s a “you giving up on Avid thing.””

well dont fault a brother for that, man. Shoot, what version is Adrenaline up to? I don’t give up easy but thats more than enough chances. Upgrades in the Avid world use to be just that… new bells n whistles. Like, you know, a freakin upgrade. Now they are bug fixes, often adding other bugs. We pay to beta test these bugs for em and thats straight up bogus. I’m glad your diggin’ the product you purchased. You have no cause to gripe then. I do though. The product I purchased still isn’t ready for a version one release. It’s a downgrade from the old Symphony I had before. It’s basicly Xpress Pro with animatte and a cheezy tracker. This is not bashing. I’m just tellin’ it like it is, dude.
If you have any technical questons, I’ll be happy to take a stab at em. Outside of that, you are simply pot-stirring with this thread… the very thing you seem to be trying to stop.

[Grinner Hester]

for the record, I specialize in story-telling. Longform is my bag but I do need to produce finished shows, not just an offline for sombody else to finish on a better box. I online as I go and I do need to composite, animate and design sound in each piece I create. I also, as Bob mentioned, have to create DVDs and provide web content. I’m literally a one man band. I have no tech support to call on, no authoring dude to lay stuff on and no graphics department to lean on. My clents were familiar and comfortable with Avid’s interface and all of this played a role, along with price, in my decision to go with AdrnalineHD. It boasted it’s HDV nativenss. Perfect for me as I shoot with an FX1. It bragged about it’s 10 bitness and many assumed that would fix the aliased DVE. It came bundled with Avid DVD and many of us thought we could just export a quicktime reference and bust out some DVDs.
Now, I won’t get into the superbins that are’nt that super, the in to out renders that dont render or even the massive increase in overall crashes coming from the meridien line. I can say that I am highly displeased with the fact that its not HDV native, still has the same aliased DVD it came out with in ’95 and can’t handle a simple export of a QT reference without a phat mixdown of my 90 minute project. I don’t like being lied to and Avid’s advertising of Adrenaline (not HD) has done nothing but that since they bastardized the Media Composer with it.
Now, I understand your point on how you’d rather I just answer a question and leave out the comma with a tidbit of personality or opinion but please understand that I owe over 20k on a box thats worth half that while my competitors paid 10k for a box worth twice that. My bad? hell yeah, man and it surely wont happen again but for you to hop on here with 70 posts and start yelling remove the angry hippie, dude thats pretty lame.

[Jon Zanone]

[grinner] “remove the angry hippie”

Dude, that’s the most excellent visual ever.

Rock on, Grinner. You are, as Charlie would say, ‘da man’.

Jon

“The Almighty tells me He can get me out of this mess. But He’s pretty sure you’re F%$#*D!”

[Terence Curren]

If you folks think Grinner is bad, you should be happy I’m not here. :-0

Terence Curren
http://www.alphadogs.tv

[Ron Lindeboom]

Man, I *love* Grinner and from the folks I know at Avid, I think they do too.

I spent the better part of a day at the AVID displays, meetings, etc., and even spent time with Avid’s Michael Phillips and many others. While I was quite positive about some aspects of Avid, I was quite negative about others. They didn’t think I was attacking them and I wasn’t.

I don’t believe Grinner is doing any worse than any other user who has as many years behind an Avid as he has. Grinner is no newbie and he has worked on shows as noted as the Super Bowl, etc.

He has earned his stripes and his right to his opinion.

If you want gushingly passionate religion as part of your NLE, I might suggest one not far from here…

:o)

Best regards,

Ron Lindeboom

[Ron Lindeboom]

Lastly, I learned WAY MORE from my teachers who challenged me and my way of thinking than I ever did from the ones who told me how smart I was and reiterated what I already knew. Those who prod and examine and even bitch and moan about the way things are, often (not always) have the most valid points — not to mention, the most that you can learn and benefit from.

I have heard people over the years say that here at the COW, they have learned about issues before they even ran into them.

Consider Grinner your scout…

Best always,

Ron Lindeboom

[Cathy G’nator]

Grinner, you really are a Renaissance man of the Edit Suite! I don’t know any other editors who do it all in the long form business. I certainly appreciate your technical savvy and don’t think your critiques are out of place in this forum (or anywhere else for that matter). I just wanted to jump in on a thread that seemed to be getting pretty acrimonious, which seems kind of unnecessary. As everyone keeps saying–we all have the right to our opinions–even those of us for whom the AVID is doing the job!

Peace. 🙂

Cathy
(A not so angry hippie)