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The Mother of All NLE Demos
Greetings All,
It’s Throwback Thursday and I have a special treat.
A few years ago in my introductory post, I shared a link to the functional spec I co-authored with colleagues at Lucasfilm in 1987. This document specified the functionality and interface paradigms for a computer-based editing system that would become the model for modern NLEs.
The project began in 1986 as part of a multimedia research and production collaboration between Lucasfilm Ltd., Apple Computer, and The National Geographic Society.
Between 1987 and 1988, Lucasfilm assembled a small team of engineers to refine our spec and build a working system in partnership with Apple.
By 1989, I was using this system daily to produce a commercial educational product for The National Geographic Society called GTV.
At the time, Apple produced a series of in-house video reports on its various multimedia research efforts. One of those reports was on our editing system, which we called MPS.
What you’re about to see has never before been shown publicly. You are the first (outside the 1989 stakeholders) to ever see this video.
Although MPS was never made into a commercial editing product, the influence and impact of its interface paradigm was revolutionary. As you’ll see, many of its ideas about how we interact with time-based media are still with us today; and 26 later, the tools we hoped would one day bring a new media literacy to everyone, are free with every Mac.
Enjoy!
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MPS Video Report from David Lawrence on Vimeo.
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David Lawrence
art~media~design~research
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152 Replies
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David – You’re the Man! Or Mother, to be precise.
Doug D
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This is amazing to see, David. Thank you so much for sharing.
Any chance Apple cut this video on MPS?
Walter Soyka
Designer & Mad Scientist at Keen Live [link]
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
@keenlive | RenderBreak [blog] | Profile [LinkedIn] -
Cool David, and thanks for sharing. I particularly liked the part about audio tracks… It’s too bad Apple forgot to include that “easy to use” feature in its current feature set. 🙂
David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor/Colorist
David Weiss ProductionsDavid is a Creative COW contributing editor and a forum host of the Apple Final Cut Pro forum.
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Is that a type-o on David’s title? LucaFilm? 😉
Very cool. Thanks for sharing!
Scott Witthaus
Senior Editor/Post Production Supervisor
1708 Inc./Editorial
Professor, VCU Brandcenter -
Thanks for posting this! I still have a Laserdisc player.
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David,
Thanks for sharing! It’s great to see such a historical “snapshot” of NLE development.
Couple of observations: TRACKS! You had tracks! Thereby proving a track based system is how God meant an NLE to be!
I laughed at the concerted effort to try to explain how different this “MPS” was from traditional editing systems. We really have come a long, long way.
This video belongs in the NLE museum of history … right up there with the Wright bros first airplane.
Mark
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But wait! Where’s the 3D Text?
– Oliver
Oliver Peters Post Production Services, LLC
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com -
[Mark Raudonis] “Couple of observations: TRACKS! You had tracks! Thereby proving a track based system is how God meant an NLE to be!
“As with offerings to Odin – the more you repeat the chants – the stronger your suppression of the scary thunder should become…
Tracks were clearly the terminus of the collective NLE imagination … twenty seven years ago.
; )
Still, very cool work, David. And outstanding that it can see the light of day.
Know someone who teaches video editing in elementary school, high school or college? Tell them to check out http://www.StartEditingNow.com – video editing curriculum complete with licensed practice content.
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Oliver, with that forward thinking, maybe you could just hold the mouse to your lips and whisper: “extrude”?
Know someone who teaches video editing in elementary school, high school or college? Tell them to check out http://www.StartEditingNow.com – video editing curriculum complete with licensed practice content.
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[David Lawrence] “a link to the functional spec I co-authored with colleagues at Lucasfilm in 1987. This document specified the functionality and interface paradigms for a computer-based editing system that would become the model for modern NLEs.”
Now I know why you’re so adamant about tracks… you invented them! lol Very cool David.
Seems like Avid totally ripped you guys off, MC even kinda looks the same today. 😉————————————————————-
~ My FCPX Babbling blog ~
~”It is a poor craftsman who blames his tools.”~
~”The function you just attempted is not yet implemented”~
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