The Fog Thickens

[Herb Sevush]

“After a hugely successful 18-month beta program, EditShare is pleased to announce the official release of Lightworks, the world-class NLE, on the 28th of May 2012.”

Back to the future.

https://news.creativecow.net/story/868546

Herb Sevush
Zebra Productions
—————————
nothin’ attached to nothin’
“Deciding the spine is the process of editing” F. Bieberkopf

[Craig Seeman]

We always hear about never basing your business on price because there’s always someone cheaper.
Never pay for another NLE again.

Someone will top that by paying us to use their NLE software . . . .”TIm, I’ve got an idea, buy a Mac and we’ll pay you $100 to use FCPX”

[Craig Seeman]

Press Release
“NAB renames itself National Association of Creative Enthusiasts”

[Robert Brown]

Nice well written post with a lot of good points. These are interesting times but it also seems like seeing a $3500 Smoke is the forbidden fruit or something. So tempting but to indulge is just the beginning of the end. I’m sort of amazed at my own reaction or lack of it. When Smoke for Mac came out I was like WOW! But it was too expensive and didn’t have batch.

Now miraculously it’s totally affordable with Batch more or less – which many speculated would never end up in Smoke for Mac – and I care less than when it was more expensive. Does dropping the price cheapen the whole thing? Was it the expense of video equipment in the past that made it exciting? I think to some degree yes.

But with $1000 Resolve, $3500 Smoke it’s like what’s next? A Rolls Royce for $75? Am I on to something or completely off? Are we watching the complete deflation of our industry?

Robert Brown
Editor/VFX/Colorist – FCP, Smoke, Quantel Pablo, After Effects, 3DS MAX, Premiere Pro

https://vimeo.com/user3987510/videos

[Andrew Kimery]

It seems like no niche is safe from having its ego deflated. I can only imagine how a colorist who climbed the ladder and ‘earned’ the right to fly a DaVinci must feel right now seeing it included as a freebie w/a $3k camera. Has to be a kick to the nuts on some level.

But that’s just the way it goes and it’s been going like that for a long time. At some point we’ll totally bottom out, people will say that no one will ever need an editor, colorist, VFX artist ever again and we’ll all wonder why we didn’t listen to our parents and become doctors or whatever.

And then something odd will happen.

People will go, “Holy crap. This editing/VFX/coloring thing is hard. You need like talent and knowledge and stuff. I didn’t realize it could be so complicated and time consuming. Screw doing it myself I’m just going to hire someone.” All will be right in the world again.

Pretty much anyone can get their hands on a soccer ball, guitar or pencil & paper but that doesn’t mean anyone can play in the Premiere League, become a successful musician, or pen a best selling novel.

-Andrew

2.9 GHz 8-core (4,1), FCP 7.0.3, 10.6.6
Blackmagic Multibridge Eclipse (7.9.5)

[Robert Brown]

Yeah I agree. And luckily there are still people out there willing to pay for the intangible. I’ve been saying for years that photography is a good model as it once was an exclusive field and now practically everyone has a camera in their cell phone, but those who can really create quality images can still make a great living. There was a period in the 80s and 90s where just knowing how to use video gear would get you a job but those days are mostly gone. The art of something still can’t be programmed into a computer – at least for now.

Robert Brown
Editor/VFX/Colorist – FCP, Smoke, Quantel Pablo, After Effects, 3DS MAX, Premiere Pro

https://vimeo.com/user3987510/videos

[Walter Soyka]

[Andrew Richards] “Terence Curren said he tried to line up someone, anyone, using Premiere Pro for film or TV work to come to this year’s pre-NAB Editor’s Lounge. But he said he couldn’t, even after calling Adobe. Was Team Coco unavailable?”

Maybe the folks from Monsters, Social Network, Hugo, Act of Valor and Girl with the Dragon Tattoo were all unavailable?

Premiere Pro appeared in various capacities in all these workflows. It is certainly making inroads.

[Andrew Richards] “What gives? If every film and TV pro is flocking back to Avid, why are they back in the red? Was everyone waiting for CS6 to hop to Premiere? Does Smoke 2013 change everything?”

Walking around the Adobe, Autodesk, and Avid booths here at NAB, I am hearing a lot of questions to the demo artists that start with “So I’m using Final Cut 7, and…”

I think a lot of people are still holding on to FCP7 and are just starting to evaluate their options now.

[Andrew Richards] “I feel like this NAB asks more questions than it answers for me. What about you?”

True — but it’s still pretty early for answers. Apple and Avid have already played their hands with major updates, FCPX and MC/Symphony 6, respectively. Adobe and Autodesk have now played theirs with their own major updates, CS6 and Smoke 2013 — neither of which are shipping yet.

Once all the cards are on the table later this year, the market can start picking winners and losers. We’ve still got months of fodder for discussion here, if not a few years. I’d be very surprised if the bulk of FCP7 refugees all chose the same new NLE.

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

[Daniel Frome]

It’s funny. The “flocking back to Avid” definitely seems to be happening, but they aren’t buying Avid’s money-maker systems (ISIS, etc), just the edit software.

They need to develop an ISIS that costs the same as one of the edit suites they are used to buying (7k ballpark) that allows people to buy their storage separately. Then it becomes an issue of “instead of an edit suite, we should this avid doohicky for the same price.”

[Richard Cardonna]

Their is always prozac

RC

[John Godwin]

Yeah, but then there’ll be another massive argument about whether the Prozac is actually “Pro”…

Best,
John