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Oscar irony
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[David Lawrence] “Maybe it’s a niche but it’s a niche comprised of the best of the best in the industry. Oscars make for excellent ad copy last I checked. Guess Apple plans to make up for the loss of prestige users with volume.”
David,
The problem is that “prestige” is a funny thing. Hard to get, easy to lose.
I produced spots for a big local Cadillac dealer back 15 year ago – when those cars were pretty mediocre.
The brand that was once clearly the “leader” had become significantly less than stellar. They didn’t keep up with the technology, the times, or their customers wants and desires.
Apple, more than any other contemporary company seems to take the long view and are willing to create software for a new era they see coming – instead of just “tweaking” the approaches of the past.
If, in fact, the greatest need in editing is for “big shop collaborative work” or even if everyone in the smaller shops wants to pay more just to have the “prestige” of using what Angus Wall uses to edit Hollywood movies, then Apple’s betting wrong.
If the FCP-X engineering team has actually looked down the road and are correct that people want new tools for a new era of editing and content distribution – more web centric and less “movie screen” centric – then they will win.
I’ve made my bet on who’s correct in their view of where editing is generally heading.
Time will tell who’s got a better vision of the future.
“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’Connor
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[Walter Soyka] “On the other hand, some editors have a very good reason to stay with FCP7 for the time being — it does have some unique features and strengths, and it may help them provide value to clients and earn money better than anything else on the market.”
In addition, editors have to evaluate their change in platform based on what fits the bill today, not in several years from now. This doesn’t negate X as one of the tools to have, but as long as its reliability is questioned in addition to its maturity, its hard to make a good business case for it. Staying with FCP7 is increasingly not viable. For example, ProRes4444 is very unstable in it.
My point in the original post was that after many years of Apple actively courting a given market – and finally achieving a certain level of success in that goal – they appear to have completely walked away from it, based on the design of X. It’s as if the various “A” list film editors they solicited for input were completely ignored.
– Oliver
Oliver Peters Post Production Services, LLC
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com -
As someone who edits I have alway found this particular category amusing. I know that initially editors vote for editors. But how do you truly evaluate who did the best job without knowing what was there to work with in the first place? On the other hand if anyone can make a comprehensible sub three hour movie out of 443 hours on a schedule then I say bless them. Anyone want to figure out that shooting ratio? Anybody remember shooting ratios? I (apparently like many others) have not seen this movie. But now I will.
Tim
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[TImothy Auld] “I (apparently like many others) have not seen this movie. But now I will.”
Having seen it twice and the previous movies cut by the same editors (“Zodiak”, “Benjamin Button”, “The Social Network”), I will have to say Wall and Baxter did a masterful job. If you really want to study the cutting, watch it twice – once to enjoy and a second time to analyze. A lot of the work is pretty subtle, getting to the heart of pacing and building parallel story paths.
This is also an editorial team that has taken a great amount of control over the finishing in-house, building on a pipeline that includes collaborative workflows with FCP/Xsan and use of the various Adobe products for conforming (prep work prior to the final DI). Beyond just being talented editors, the entire post process is a very modern flow that any manufacturer would want to be part of (from a PR standpoint).
– Oliver
Oliver Peters Post Production Services, LLC
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com -
I have seen Zodiac, Button, and Social Network and I know these two guys (and the folks they work with) know how to edit. I just don’t know how you really evaluate editing for an award. Or Acting. Cinematography, yes. Art Direction, yes. Costumes, yes. Visual effects, yes. There are real standards by which you can judge. But Acting, Editing, or even writing. What are the objective criteria for judging those? I guess what is really comes down to in all categories is: Does it work?
Tim
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[Bill Davis] “There were 3 trucks… Now there’s a sports car.”
I doubt you intend to hold FCPX up as a vehicle built mainly for fun against Premiere Pro and Media Composer as vehicles built to get work done…
Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events -
[Bill Davis] “Premier has their switch discount in place again. Avid remains a safe and fully developed choice.
“Neither is as good as FCP7.
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[Bill Davis] “So that would indicate that it took at least 4 solid years of development IN APPLE (discounting the work done by the Macromedia team on KeyGrip before Ubillos and the team took it to Apple) before the software developed into something “Oscar level work worthy.””
Are we talking the features or the clout? ‘Cause regarding features FCP had the minimum required to cut a 35 mm project as soon as version 1.2.5 and was used to do it.
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[jon smitherton] “Funny, I think the irony is that the film has been edited before…and was perfectly fine.”
Me too. I have no idea why they made this movie again. Irritating.
Chris
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[Walter Soyka] “I half-agree with this. FCP7 is a dead platform with no future, and I think it’s foolish to build a business on a hopeless platform.
On the other hand, some editors have a very good reason to stay with FCP7 for the time being — it does have some unique features and strengths, and it may help them provide value to clients and earn money better than anything else on the market.”
For the record, I have an enterprise customer who needs to buy 30 new seats of FCP legacy right now. This station has sister stations all over who use FCP, and they have to do the same. It’s quite a serious situation for them.
As I’ve been trying to drum through Bill’s thick skull, many businesses have huge investments in infrastructure, workflow, and trained personnel. He just doesn’t get the seriousness of it, and he tries to casually dismiss it all with with the stroke of a pen (keyboard) or a humorous quip.
David Roth Weiss
ProMax Systems
Burbank
DRW@ProMax.com
http://www.ProMax.comDavid is a Creative COW contributing editor and a forum host of the Apple Final Cut Pro forum.
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