Why the urgency to jump to Avid/Adobe RIGHT NOW?

[John Davidson]

I’ve directed all our people to stop focusing on FCPX at all. Any broadcast program that can’t export OMF’s natively in the year 2012 deserves no attention from us. Since it’s missing so much, learning it in it’s current form may be counter productive as we might be learning processes that will change when the program gets updated. I’d hate to have to unlearn something, our time is more valuable than that.

I spoke with the director of production at one of the big three last week. Two years ago they switched to FCP7 in all their suites after having been Avid for over a dozen years. I asked him what the network was going to do with X being what is was (incompatible with broadcast workflows, in particular), and he looked at me and said “nothing”. Since we deliver FCP project files to them for spot finishing, we will do nothing as well.

If you think that means I’m not going to cheat on my beloved FCP7 with everything NLE wench in the broadcast tavern, think again.

John Davidson | President / Creative Director | Magic Feather Inc.

[Bill Davis]

Walter,

While I moan the fact that I was raised in an analog video world where there were objective standards from studio camera to broadcast signal built around real standards like SMPTE bars and Vectorscope targets – the sad reality is that at the “eyeball” end of the chain, there is such disarray in the present functioning screen world that I’m not sure that yesterday’s objective standards even apply.

Walk into your average sports bar.

If your experience is anything like mine lately – you’ll find a dozen various age and technology driven Plasma, LCD and even projector screens showing the same game – and they will display a range of color shadings that typically run from the woeful to the INSANE.

I’ve seen the same jersey show in three TOTALLY different colors on three adjacent screen all presumably fed by the same antenna or cable signal.

I appreciate fully why the original signal should have a particular standard digital RGB numerical value that describes what that jersey color should ideally be – but in practice we can have little faith that said color will be displayed with any accuracy whatsoever.

THAT is the central sadness of this new era. There is simply no end to end consistency built into color delivery system in today’s ad hoc distribution systems.

All we can do is keep trying to do our work well – but all the careful lighting, camera setting, and production values mean nothing if at the point of some DA, comb filter or software transcoding hash table strips out our careful work and displays a MESS to the public.

I was doing some fashion work in the studio and noticed that on two adjacent LCD “professional” LED monitors the clothing colors were displaying significantly differently. The client asked me which was right. I had to drag out an old tube monitor before I could answer that.

Wasn’t the brave new world of “digtial video” supposed to make this stuff better? Sheesh.

“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’Conner

[Chris Harlan]

Bingo!

[David Cherniack]

[Walter Soyka] “Chris, I’m following you into the woods again. Color management is a good thing, but it cannot replace traditional monitoring in all workflows (see my comments below).

But this is all off-topic. The question is, why is there a sense of urgency around the transition?”

Walter, just a note of appreciation for the well reasoned sanity you bring to this discussion.

And for those who like the woods so dearly a paraphrase of a verse of Mr. Frost’s comes to mind:

The woods are lovely, dark, and deep,
But I a date with the present to keep,
And miles to go before I weep.

David
AllinOneFilms.com

[William Ackerman]

I like what Mark Twain said on the subject of FCPX and Apple’s commitment to pro editors:

“Never allow someone to be your priority while allowing yourself to be their option.”

[Walter Soyka]

Bill, check out this recent post on the After Effects forum about someone trying to explain that they delivered interlaced video [link] to the station’s engineer. It will break your heart.

[Bill Davis] “Walk into your average sports bar. If your experience is anything like mine lately – you’ll find a dozen various age and technology driven Plasma, LCD and even projector screens showing the same game – and they will display a range of color shadings that typically run from the woeful to the INSANE.”

You know what’s even worse than a sports bar? A big box electronics store. All the TVs will be set to “Demo” mode, with the saturation and brightness cranked up so damn high that the sets should come with protective eyewear.

It’s not unlike overcompressed pop music on the radio. Who cares if it’s right as long as it’s loud?

[Bill Davis] “All we can do is keep trying to do our work well – but all the careful lighting, camera setting, and production values mean nothing if at the point of some DA, comb filter or software transcoding hash table strips out our careful work and displays a MESS to the public.”

Yes, we must continue trying to do our work well, but let’s take it a step further. We must reinforce to other professionals the importance of doing our work well — not only to preserve the value we as an industry have to offer, but also in order to preserve the good old-fashioned notion of pride of workmanship.

There are three ways to do something: wrong, good enough, and right. I believe that “good enough” usually isn’t, and I see the “good enough” bar being lowered every day. That’s why we should all aim for right.

I will go down with this ship if I must.

I get the sense that you will, too. Hopefully most of our comrades here will be willing to join us.

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

[Walter Soyka]

[David Cherniack] “Walter, just a note of appreciation for the well reasoned sanity you bring to this discussion.”

Thank you, David — it’s reassuring to hear that I haven’t lost my perspective in this discussion.

I’m trying to express what I think is a pretty balanced view. I sincerely believe that FCPX has some great ideas that we could all learn and benefit from. However, with all its puzzling professional limitations, it’s totally inappropriate for so many workflows, and I haven’t made up my mind yet on who the product is really targeted for.

I won’t fault anyone for saying “FCPX works for me” or “FCPX doesn’t work for me” — but I can’t understand blanket praise or condemnation. It deserves neither.

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]

You are of course correct.
My word emphasis practices are the entire reason my reasoning should be abjectly dismissed.
Congratulations on sussing out that my posts are the exclusive reason that everyone isn’t in lockstep with your view of FCP-X. .
NICE CATCH!
(Hey, at least I’m being consistent with those conditioned to see caps as always and exclusively as YELLING and unable to contextualize this practice as anything different…)
And yes, I was “yelling” FCP-X in the 3rd paragraph above!!!

Have a GREAT day!

“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’Conner

[Chris Harlan]

Aye, aye, Captain.

[James Mortner]

[Dennis Lisonbee] “only the best of the best can expect to earn a living”

I wish that were true, Dennis, I really do.