-
State of the NLE panel
-
☺
Welcome back – or what this just a drive-by post?
– Oliver
Oliver Peters – oliverpeters.com
-
[Aindreas Gallagher] “Bill has walked into that valley. Bill is playing that piano.”
Why do I get the impression that this line is from an Infocom text adventure game I haven’t played yet.
-
I enjoyed the video….
I moved from cutting infomercials to teaching digital filmmaking in high school to 10th, 11th, and 12th graders. It’s fantastic (most of the time) and we use FCPX. In fact, I’m getting ready to get my Apple Certified Instructor credentials next week (if I pass the test obviously) and we hope to become the first Apple testing center in SC, with the eventual aim to churn out certified FCPX editors. I can feel the eyes roll from some of you, but I think FCPX, or at least it’s style of editing is the future. It’s the most accessible and speaks to these rug rats (I still love ’em) graduating right now. And that’s one thing that I heard in the video is that it is such an easily accessible editing platform that there are so many kids that already use it or something similar.
Yeah, there is infrastructure already there in Hollywood, but those infrastructures will eventually become outdated. Whether by design, by inactivity, by natural extinction (best way to say people die?) or some combination thereof. Eventually, there will be a cost benefit to change to whatever the best option is in the future. I don’t know if that will actually be FCPX, but it’ll be something.
As for my students, I have far too much content to cover to constantly be teaching new software. FCPX is so easy for these students I can spend more time teaching them the important stuff, you know, like story telling or what happens when you hit that red button on the camera.
That being said, I ALWAYS emphasize that they must learn other applications, and most likely will learn other tools in college, tech school, or on their own, especially AVID if they want to break into Hollywood by conventional means.
Winston A. Cely
Editor/Owner | Della St. Media, LLC17″ MacBook Pro | 2.3 GHz Intel Core i7
4 GB RAM | Final Cut Studio 3 | FCPX | Motion 5 | Compressor 4“If you can talk brilliantly enough about a subject, you can create the consoling illusion it has been mastered.” – Stanley Kubrick
-
[Winston A. Cely] “I can feel the eyes roll from some of you, but I think FCPX, or at least it’s style of editing is the future.”
[Winston A. Cely] “That being said, I ALWAYS emphasize that they must learn other applications, and most likely will learn other tools in college, tech school, or on their own, especially AVID if they want to break into Hollywood by conventional means.
I think it’s great you’re telling them about other avenues other than what you’re teaching them.
If a student wants to get into features and high end tuff in major markets it would be a disservice to them if they didn’t know how to use Avid. FCPX may or may not be the future of editorial but in the present it is most certainly not for the majority of people. I think it’s worth learning for sure at this point but around these parts it’s making close to zero inroads.
I didn’t know ONE student when I went to film school that DIDNT want to work in features. It was a different time than today, even TV was largely looked down upon but I still can’t picture kids in school who want to work in Editing doing all this training because it’s their dream to do travelogue videos or snapchat stories for an up and coming tech firm. (not insinuating thats all X is capable of, just thats the type of work I see openings for here in LA)
-
[Winston A. Cely] “FCPX is so easy for these students I can spend more time teaching them the important stuff, you know, like story telling or what happens when you hit that red button on the camera.
“Bingo! Give this man a prize. My thoughts exactly. I used to teach FCP Legacy and I can just tell you from real world observation that folks new to editing pick up FCPX faster than anything. These are 24 year old grad students. I let them know there are other apps out there for cutting, but it’s up to them to pick them up. I teach storytelling.
On the other end of that spectrum, I was hired by an older ad agency “legend” this past week to come up to the Philadelphia area and teach him how to do basic cutting. He is putting together a series of short bio-docs on advertising icons and wants to be able to cut together the interviews, simply as a story, not the finished cut (He has post houses in NYC and LA to do that for him. In the past he was doing paper edits.). Within a few hours he was cutting away, doing basic stuff and having a f**king blast. Now, I also made him buy Ripple Core Training to learn more, but there is something Apple did in the design of FCPX that makes it easy for new folks to do this stuff. And really, why shouldn’t be easy?
Scott Witthaus
Owner, 1708 Inc./Editorial
Managing Partner, Low Country Creative LLC
Professor, VCU Brandcenter -
[Scott Witthaus] “On the other end of that spectrum, I was hired by an older ad agency “legend” this past week to come up to the Philadelphia area and teach him how to do basic cutting.”
I was able to do basic editing in FCPX right form the start. The same could be said of Avid, Edius, Liquid and Premiere. It is odd that someone would need help using FCPX.
[Scott Witthaus] “Within a few hours he was cutting away, doing basic stuff and having a f**king blast. Now, I also made him buy Ripple Core Training to learn more, but there is something Apple did in the design of FCPX that makes it easy for new folks to do this stuff.”
Didn’t you have to teach him. Can’t anyone teach someone how to use Avid or Premiere Pro?
[Scott Witthaus] “there is something Apple did in the design of FCPX that makes it easy for new folks to do this stuff. And really, why shouldn’t be easy?”
Are you saying DR and Premiere Pro are hard to use? Can I ask what other programs you have purchased for personal use with your own money?
-
[Neil Goodman] “If a student wants to get into features and high end tuff in major markets it would be a disservice to them if they didn’t know how to use Avid.”
I would also offer, that by the time these students are in a position to decide on NLEs, FCPX will have run its course and may well be gone or replaced by FCPse (“something else”).
Also, the idea that you can just wait for the current “old guard” to die off and studios will move away from Avid is also a misconception. There are plenty of up-and-comers and assistants in the 25-50 age group that are firmly entrenched in the Avid world. It may well change to something else, but not because current top-of-their-game film editors are retiring.
– Oliver
Oliver Peters – oliverpeters.com
-
[Oliver Peters] “Also, the idea that you can just wait for the current “old guard” to die off and studios will move away from Avid is also a misconception. There are plenty of up-and-comers and assistants in the 25-50 age group that are firmly entrenched in the Avid world.”
Keep in mind some people actually like editing on an Avid MC. Also Avid MC, Adobe Premiere Pro, DR and all the other NLE will get better.
-
I should have been more specific with the dying off part…. We have a long time before anything set in place now is replaced or in serious danger of being replaced at the level of business wide in Hollywood. I’ve yet to read anything that would suggest Avid is on its way out in that one narrow market, so I never suggest to my students to wait that out! You’re absolutely right. However, if history informs us of anything, it’s that older ways of doing things get replaced once enough money can be saved by making that change.
Of the students I teach, only about half have any serious interest in getting into Hollywood. Others are just interested in a class that looks fun, or want to get into TV journalism, or want to act as opposed to being involved in post. Those students who want to be in the business are inundated with independent filmmakers making a living doing what they love without being a “part of the system.” That’s fine for them, but for those others that do want to go to LA I point towards schools known for filmmaking where Avid and other software is taught. I try to always put their best interest ahead of my personal opinions. ????
Winston A. Cely
Editor/Owner | Della St. Media, LLC17″ MacBook Pro | 2.3 GHz Intel Core i7
4 GB RAM | Final Cut Studio 3 | FCPX | Motion 5 | Compressor 4“If you can talk brilliantly enough about a subject, you can create the consoling illusion it has been mastered.” – Stanley Kubrick
-
[Neil Goodman] ” I still can’t picture kids in school who want to work in Editing doing all this training because it’s their dream to do travelogue videos or snapchat stories”
I don’t either. What I hear them say, is they want to make their OWN independent films.
Reply to this Discussion! Login or Sign Up