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Informal NLE poll
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[Tony West] “To me it just seems impossible to ignore where the trend is going in our biz, and it’s to one person productions.
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I know with NETFlix and others there is more high quality production than ever, but none of those shows are being shot in my town.”I think that’s the crux of the topic in that ‘industry trends’ depend a lot on geographical local and which segment of the industry is being discussed. Not much scripted film/TV in St. Louis, but there has been a growing amount of it in Atlanta and New Orleans thanks to tax incentives. Studios are even building sound stages in Atlanta (I don’t think it’s stable over the long term because of the aforementioned tax incentives, but that’s another discussion…).
There are solo practitioners on YouTube that kill it with a webcam and a white wall, but there are also enough that want to go bigger that YouTube built it’s own production studios in nine major cities across the globe. The YouTube Space in LA was so booked up late last year that when I worked on a show produced by YouTube itself we couldn’t even use their facilities. They had to rent an off-campus office space and broadcast studio for us to work out of.
I agree that there are probably more one person productions happening now than ever before, but I think the industry is, as a whole, is expanding so it’s not a zero sum situation. It’s also cheaper now than ever before to run a multi-person production company or in-house video team so a new unit starting up won’t be saddled by the same overhead (film scanners, tape decks, tape stock, video-specific routers, cabling, broadcast monitors, etc.,) that a older production company might have had.
Sure, Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, etc., are the big name streaming contenders battling it out with more established cable and broadcast entities for legitimacy at the top, but down market from that we have companies like Yahoo, YouTube, Verizon, WWE, UFC, Vox, Viceland, DirecTV, Ski Channel, Riot Games (League of Legends), Rockstar Games (GTA series), Mattel (toys), Fabletics (clothing), PopSugar, Blizzard (WarCraft), Maker Studios, Ars Technica, The Verge, etc., all producing more and more video content in house. And at least in LA and NYC there seem to be a lot of new boutique facilities popping up headed by 30-somethings that create media content targeted at teens and 20-somethings. That reminds me, a few years ago I worked on a pretty cool web series and out of maybe a dozen post and production crew members (including producers) I think I was the only crew member over thirty.
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[Andrew Kimery] ” but down market from that we have companies like Yahoo, YouTube, Verizon, WWE, UFC, Vox, Viceland, DirecTV, Ski Channel, Riot Games (League of Legends), Rockstar Games (GTA series), Mattel (toys), Fabletics (clothing), PopSugar, Blizzard (WarCraft), Maker Studios, Ars Technica, The Verge, etc., all producing more and more video content in house.”
Not to mention all the distribution channels on cable and OTT systems with tons of DIY and reality shows. This is content being produced by lots of small to medium sized shops. Not one-man bands. And that’s growing.
Part of the key to that growth is the ease with which you can now dress out additional edit suites and set up a core shared storage facility. Getting back to the heart of that question, which NLE makes it easiest to set up companies like that, which can ramp up quickly when needed?
Just like large facilities, compatibility and industry standards are important. That’s one reason Avid has actually seen growth. It’s also why the subscription model is picking up steam.
– Oliver
Oliver Peters Post Production Services, LLC
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com -
[Walter Soyka] “re some agencies more open to innovation because they’re less averse to risk (the Bill hypothesis)?”
Just for the record NONE of my hypothicies regarding X Involve risk aversion – in myself or anyone else.
Its not about risk for me – it’s about my being happy.
Innovation is interesting.
For its many flaws and imperfections – X has attempted to let me do things I simply couldn’t do before I started using it. I enjoy that.
If you have found a bunch of innovation and delight in AVID or Premiere or Resolve – by all means go there.
I just haven’t. I keep asking other NLE drivers. “What excites you about this compared to where you were before” – and the typical response is crickets.”
If you are fine with what you use – be that.
But it seems like there isn’t a bunch of “fine” out there. There’s a boatload of snippy angst and anger.
Oh well.
Creator of XinTwo – https://www.xintwo.com
The shortest path to FCP X mastery. -
[Bill Davis] “X has attempted to let me do things I simply couldn’t do before I started using it.”
Care to go into more depth? I’m just curious, because X has let me do things in a different way, but not really anything I couldn’t do before or with another tool.
– Oliver
Oliver Peters Post Production Services, LLC
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com -
[Bill Davis] “Just for the record NONE of my hypothicies regarding X Involve risk aversion – in myself or anyone else.”
My apologies for putting words into your mouth!
For me, risk goes hand in hand with innovation, so now I’m curious to understand your position better. I have to confess, I don’t understand this post as well as I thought before:
https://forums.creativecow.net/thread/335/96524#96583How should I read “bunker mentality” and “trying not to stick their necks out” if not risk aversion?
(And for what it’s worth, I’d say the biggest risk of all is not taking any risks.)
Walter Soyka
Designer & Mad Scientist at Keen Live [link]
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
@keenlive | RenderBreak [blog] | Profile [LinkedIn] -
Doing primarily medium to high-end TVC’s, the odd music- or corporate video the main systems for editing would be Premiere Pro and AVID. Every so often we get FCPX edits but if I’d have to guess I’d say something like….
70% – Premiere Pro
20% – AVID
10% – FCPXThere is however in general a shocking poor technical understanding through out the industry. But I beilive Premiere Pro has taken over what FCP7 once was.
Internally we use primarily Premiere Pro / After Effects for editing and online-work with Resolve for color grading. We also have a Smoke / Nuke setup but that’s for more pure VFX-work, given a lot is done in PP / AE / Resolve.
That said Premiere Pro has it’s fair of issues. It’s video engine compared to FCPX and Resolve feels aintient in some regards, amazing in others.
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[Andrew Kimery] “Not much scripted film/TV in St. Louis,”
Or in most states in our country.
[Andrew Kimery] “Studios are even building sound stages in Atlanta”
Those are likely the same jobs that would have been in LA or NY. They are not just looking for tax incentives down there but also that healthy anti union lower wage workforce. A trend that’s not new. It’s the south.
Here is an article by a person that has done a great deal more research into the topic than I have but our conclusions are pretty much the same.
Creative Industry Production Trends 2017
https://www.movidiam.com/blog/630/creative-industry-production-trends-2017“BRANDS: Large brands such as Unilever, Starbucks and BMW have already set up in-house production capabilities”
****”bypassing both the agencies and production companies by going direct to freelancers.”****
“PRODUCTION COMPANIES: 2016 was a tough year for most production companies. With agencies moving production to an in-house model and many freelance producers now more than capable of building their own teams and offering similar services”
‘A lot of production companies, especially in TV, have dramatically reduced their operational overheads and staff. A core team of producers are now hiring freelancers on a project-by-project basis.”
“FREELANCERS: Freelancers were the big winners in 2016.”
*** “Freelance workforce: We’ll all soon be freelance” ***
I didn’t really need to read this guy’s article to know this. It’s been what I have seen for a while now. I have friends that left StL to move to New Orleans for work so I know about that personally. I don’t just work in St. Louis, I’m a freelancer and I travel all over the country (not the world like this guy) working and speaking with friends in different markets.
My brother works in LA.Not saying that we won’t be working, I’m not getting less work, it’s just changing in the way work is handed out.
It’s an interesting article.
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[Bill Davis] “If you have found a bunch of innovation and delight in AVID or Premiere or Resolve – by all means go there.
I just haven’t.”
When have you tried out Premiere or Resolve? And if you haven’t then how would you know how much innovation or delight is to be found there?
Herb Sevush
Zebra Productions
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nothin\’ attached to nothin\’
\”Deciding the spine is the process of editing\” F. Bieberkopf -
The company I mainly work with, in Boston, committed to Ppro about 3 years ago. It had one series that was cut on FCPX but that experiment has ended for the sake of conformity and easy access to freelance editors. Most of the cable network shows I know about in NYC are still cut with Avid with no sign of change at all.
Herb Sevush
Zebra Productions
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nothin\’ attached to nothin\’
\”Deciding the spine is the process of editing\” F. Bieberkopf -
[Tony West] “Those are likely the same jobs that would have been in LA or NY. “
I don’t think that’s completely true. I lived through the whole “Hollywood East” era in Florida. Other than above-the-line folks and key actors, the bulk of the production and post crew was local. But yes, folks do move around and as a result, many of those Florida folks moved up to Atlanta to follow the growth there.
However, look at the various companies creating content for HGTV, DIY, etc. These are a healthy mix of LA and non-LA companies. So show production is happening all over and not just NYC or LA.
[Tony West] “Here is an article by a person that has done a great deal more research into the topic than I have but our conclusions are pretty much the same.
Creative Industry Production Trends 2017”A good article, however, not unbiased. He owns the service designed to place freelancers.
A key takeaway for me is that large organizations are hiring freelancers – not freelancers generating their own unique product. This would tend to reinforce a certain commonality of tools. If I’m XYZ agency bringing in 10 different editors to work in house at my shop, I’ll want all of their project files to be compatible, so when the inevitable revisions are done by a different freelancer, there are no project translation issues.
– Oliver
Oliver Peters Post Production Services, LLC
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com
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