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New Apple holiday commercials
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[Tony West] “I would just say Craig, it’s their job to find those people and there are plenty of them out there.
“Which why I’m a bit disappointed with Apple’s marketing.
Speaking of diversity that’s been an issue with Apple that they are beginning to deal with.
Yet not with their own products.
It’s not that they should exclude those using other tools on Macs, it’s that their own software is excluding.
They couldn’t/didn’t bother to find a single example. -
[greg janza] “Those six videos are showcasing the internal processing power of the mac to bring high end animations life. It’s not surprising at all that the software used by all six creators isn’t mac software. Programs like Cinema 4D, Maya, Nuke and After Effects are the industry standard for this type of work.”
I think another interesting point here is that most of these shops are using Arnold, a CPU bound, 3rd party renderer. I would imagine that a good chunk of these films had to be done partially on Windows or Linux. I saw a note on some of the videos “additional equipment used on final render for some sequences”, I took that to mean final render on a farm, and possibly look/shader development on non-Apple hardware. Thinking a bit more about it, this also means that these artists couldn’t take advantage of the much faster and small production friendly Redshift, as it only runs on NVIDIA based GPUs.
Shawn
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[Oliver Peters] “Hopefully, we are all friends here.
“Yes
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Yes!
The message is simple … Apple is all about creativity and Apple is a platform used by artists as a labor of LOVE. Still you would think that FCP X would get some exposure in these ads considering that Apple has supported it and has added more and more professional features. Granted slower than the evolution of iPhone’s updates.
But to their credit maybe they just made a BTS movie of a team of artists and let the artists do their thing with whatever tools they needed to use as long as the projects were done on a Mac. Another thought and this is kinda a reach — lots of tech companies copy Apple’s look and feel in their ads to promote their projects. So since it would not be hard to show another project being produced on other companies software and hardware, it would clearly be a copy since Apple didn’t exclude many of the major industry standard tools.
Apple keeps saying in their live events and TV promotions, “Our end users “love” our …
Tim Cook says that the iPhone is the “most loved” smartphone because it … Watch the live event and see how we’re helping teachers IGNITE the Creativity in EVERY student. Apple’s “Gather round” event at the Steve Jobs Theater at Apple Park … We LOVE that so many customers have the chance to experience our … etc. Its an image thing. Forget about the company being greedy, Apple does this so you will LOVE using their products. They are easy to use thus avoiding pain and they give you pleasure in their results. That’s the message. And does MAC play well with all the most regarded apps? YES it does. Do pros use the Macs or are they better on a PC? Up for grabs but we see them in the add using the MACs and they LOVE them.Imacs (i7), Canon C300, Canon 5D Mark IV, Panasonic ENG HPX250P, , FCP X, teach video production in L.A., Cool Light Productions, Producing series of multimedia Portraits of creative women in the production arts.
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[Tony West] “I would just say Craig, it’s their job to find those people and there are plenty of them out there.
“I would tend to disagree. I just dont think there are many A/V vendors out there using X. At least out on the coasts of the good ol US of A which is where most of the agencies are.
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I want to start by saying it’s a beautiful spot and I love it. Very touching and I don’t want to take away from all the hard work everyone put into it. It’s a great spot.
[Neil Goodman] ” I just dont think there are many A/V vendors out there using X. At least out on the coasts of the good ol US of A which is where most of the agencies are.”
I hear what you are saying Neil and that may very well be true, but I don’t believe there aren’t plenty of skilled people in LA that know how to use X even if it’s not what they use all the time. The program is not rocket science.
The narrative here is that they couldn’t have used X even if they wanted to because nobody out there uses it.
1. I’m pushing back on that assumption because I don’t believe it (I’ve listed examples on the thread why).
2. They helped reinforce that narrative by doing it the way they did it.
They shouldn’t be OK with that narrative and they should actively be working to change it. People with less power and money control their narratives all the time. Maybe work a little harder at it. That’s all I’m saying.
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[Tony West] “They shouldn’t be OK with that narrative and they should actively be working to change it. “
The narrative is Apple hardware was used to create some cool commercials and Apple is a hardware company first and foremost. They will happily sell you a Mac (which comes with Bootcamp) so you can run Windows on it and never touch MacOS. Sometimes Apple pushes a very product specific narrative (like an iPhone being used to shot a high-end commercial or FCPX being used to cut a big film) and sometimes they don’t.
Demanding that venders only use Apple solutions creates artificial barriers. Either people that don’t typically use X or Motion will get forced into using software they aren’t familiar with or you pass on people you’d like to work with since you are only looking for X users. Even job postings for post/production positions at Apple include knowing PPro and AE along with X (I don’t remember ever seeing ones asking for Motion knowledge).
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[Tony West] ”
I hear what you are saying Neil and that may very well be true, but I don’t believe there aren’t plenty of skilled people in LA that know how to use X even if it’s not what they use all the time. The program is not rocket science.The narrative here is that they couldn’t have used X even if they wanted to because nobody out there uses it.”
Wether there are plenty of skilled X editors here is irrelevant if the Agencies or places that are getting the Apple bids arent using it. I consider myself a skilled X editor, confident I could’ve cut that commercial in X or any other platform but at the end of the day that means nothing. Ive worked on many Trailers and promotional content for Apple adn Apple music and am familiar with the marketing and legal teams at each entity respectfully.
Non of which was cut on X, it was never part of the discussion even though i woulda been able to deliver with X, the agency I was working at at the time who had the apple bid was not using X>
So I think your projecting a little bit here because its not down to the editors in this case – its down to the employers.
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[Neil Goodman] “ve worked on many Trailers and promotional content for Apple and Apple music and am familiar with the marketing and legal teams at each entity respectfully.
None of which was cut on X, it was never part of the discussion even though i woulda been able to deliver with X, the agency I was working at at the time who had the apple bid was not using X> “
I have a similar experience to Neil’s. The software used to create agency pieces or pieces done for production companies is primarily determined by whatever systems are in place at those facilities.
This thread is revealing the larger post production ecosystem that directly affects what software and hardware gets used throughout the industry. And I too share a liking for FCPX but it’s myopic to think in terms of prioritizing it’s usage by creative teams at production companies.
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[Andrew Kimery] “Demanding that venders only use Apple solutions”
Demanding is the wrong word. I don’t usually see that. They ask and very politely. “Is there any way we can…………..or, “is it possible to ………..and people are tripping over themselves to say yes : ) I think sometimes if they came in and said ” Could you guys drop and give me 20? Half the room would hit the floor hahaha. Seriously though, the biggest part of that piece was the animation and the building of the set. They got out of the way there. The next biggest part was the creation of the music. The talent and amazing voice of Billie.
What do you think happened there?
Do you think they showed up and O’Connell just “happened” to use Logic and their hardware? That wasn’t discussed in anyway before?
And what about Billie? Did she just “happen” to use an iPhone to create her music?
After getting all those great elements, assembling them was the easiest part. You feel like if they would have asked for X the wheels could have fallen off.
I don’t think so. I think given that kind source material most could have brought it home.
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