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NLE Setup for a School
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It’s interesting to see Adobe doing just what Apple was doing in the old days (80s and 90s), giving hardware to local libraries and educational facilities, and providing training courses to get the kiddies used to the Mac platform, so that they would grow up to be buyers of the platform. It worked for a long time, and if Apple had seen fit to roll in some serious business applications to their creative one, we might see a world in which the Mac has 90 percent of the market, and the PC 10 percent. I’m platform agnostic, by the way…it’s a tool to me, and currently the PC side has more of a cost/performance advantage for me.
Your views may vary…contents may settle during shipping.
Joe Bourke
Owner/Creative Director
Bourke Media
http://www.bourkemedia.com -
I don’t mind having the choice; I can deal with the widely-varying experience level of my students. One kid came in bragging about how good he is with Vegas on his home computer. So I showed him a few things in FCP7 (it could have just as easily been Premiere Pro). He quickly adopted, and was pleased to “master” another app. Sometimes you need to throw those challenges at the “know it all” kids to keep them engaged. In his case it worked, he did a great documentary on dance, applied a number of effects, and made a multi-track mix using keyframes and the Audio Tool in FCP7. He was happy.
Other kids are incredibly insecure about the technology of filmmaking; one kid told me his family thinks of him as the one who always “breaks the camera.” I handed him an old Canon GL1 and told him he would being doing the department a favor if it broke, and just concentrate on the compositions. We put him right into FCPX and the interface seemed simple enough that he “got it.” And he liked the shiny, colorful look. It is less drab and utilitarian-looking than FCP7.
Others have made endless iMovies and are either a)happy to use FCPX because it looks familiar, or b) want to try out more “serious” software.
I don’t preach that FCPX is the app of the future; I don’t lament that FCP7 is out of date and discontinued. I do tell them that they are likely to run into Premiere as a very popular cross-platform, “bundled” app (i.e. part of Creative Suite), so it might be more professionally useful. Mostly though, I allow them to reach their own conclusions.
So far, I must say that it seems to be more about the way different people work and think. If I had to generalize, the more meticulous types, who require more control, want to use FCP7 and PPro look because they feel more in control. That may simply be because I don’t know as many tricks in FCPX yet!
I predict, though, that when the more advanced students start to mess with effects, and see how effects and motion work in FCPX, they may leave FCP7 behind for that reason alone.
I may have to convince the department to buy me Phil Hodgett’s “7toX!”
Doug D
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Sounds like a great approach!
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The question was raised, what about collaboration? I always encourage the kids to collaborate, pointing out that most of filmmaking in the real world works that way. And it allows you to concentrate on your own perceived strengths and joys. Often one kid will want to “act” and/or direct. Another wants to shoot and/or edit. So it works itself out; the techies get to pick the editing app, or if no preferences, I make the call based on my gut. Still, like a science lab, EVERYBODY must complete an ingest, organization, edit in timeline and output exercise. Just so they know the concepts.
Doug D
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Doug, these are very helpful thoughts. I’m sure the kids really enjoy learning under you. I like your philosophy, and I think I’m headed in that direction of multiple platforms as hopefully I can increase the budget to have all the software we’d like.
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Paul, FYI regarding budgets: for years we used FCP 6 (educational) exclusively, along with the free OSX-included iMovie if so desired, on only a half-dozen machines.
But a parent/donor came up with the Digital Arts Studio iMacs, desks and chairs, glassed-in separate room, and the software. The idea being to continue the small video classes, but make the gear available to the entire student population.
So this is an anomaly, to have all these riches. The argument for our school, and perhaps any school is, “let’s fund-raise for the digital arts, because we NEED it for our kids to stay competitive with the rest of the world.”
Having said that, the site license deals on 20+ seats, from both Apple and Adobe, are pretty good.
Doug D
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