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‘Winning’ NAB vs winning new users
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The thing is that this all-in-one approach historically hasn’t worked for anyone. Avid DS is the obvious comparison, but Smoke is also largely gone from what I can tell. BMD is moving at lightning speed when it comes to their development pace and that takes its toll internally. Ultimately the concern is that this will hurt the core part of the product – the Resolve color correction portion.
The concept of having a facility that only runs on Resolve and you have various specialists (editor, mixer, colorist, VFX designer) all working with the same core application is a pipe dream. I could be wrong and it might work, but I just don’t see that.
Blackmagic has done a great job of buying up companies that were on their last legs financially, stripping out the unnecessary stuff and reivigorating what’s left under the BMD banner. Some of it good. Some of it less so. Of course, right or wrong, these companies would likely be gone without BMD or someone else picking them up. But putting everything under a single umbrella is still a big gamble.
Oliver
Oliver Peters – oliverpeters.com
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[Oliver Peters] “But putting everything under a single umbrella is still a big gamble.”
I’ll jump in and disagree. The big difference between Avid DS, and Smoke with Resolve is price point. By seeding a very capable free version and charging $300 for the studio version, Resolve is a total no-brainer and will find it’s way into single person shops as well as the larger facilities by osmosis. The real question is, have they made a capable NLE, a capable color grader etc…and the answer with version 14 was, yes. Absolutely. Version 15 is, at least on paper, is exponentially even more so. T
he mistake being made here is to see it as appealing to separate groups of user skill sets. I personally don’t see it that way. I’m interested in it as an NLE WITH color grading, nodal compositing, and sound capabilities. As I wade deeper into the colour and nodal compositing pages, their capabilities merge into my own tool set and I’m delighted by the extra creative possibilities they bring. Yes, I’ll still take my Resolve project to a Resolve colorist but it will be to expand the color work that I’ve already laid down. Same with the sound mix.
Grant Petty’s interview on Redshark is very revealing of their philosophy. At one point he says “We believe the traditional NLE is dead.” As young people integrate the full Resolve toolset into their skills, I think he may prove to be right. At the very least, with version 15 they’re storming the gates of the traditional NLE, if not the entire realm(s) of post production.
David
https://AllinOneFilms.com -
It’s always important to bear in mind the USA centric nature of much of the debate in this forum (and Mac centric too). I’m not surprised that the market there is slower to move. Being an Aussie and knowing the people at Blackmagic, I think they are way ahead of the game here. Resolve is not aimed at the good enough. It’s surely priced there but that is not acknowledging the quality of the tools in 15.
It’s aimed at both the skilled single user who wants best tools when it comes to grade and finish and the facility that will be finishing the job if required. Interchange is hugely important here and getting rid of interchange headaches is not to be underestimated. The edit tools and previous RT performance might be holding back the NLE part from some users but more and more they will get that right and then the obviousness of having a single project file that can be opened by all the collaborators or directly shared in bigger facilities will make this a no brainer.
No one has commented on them adding both tabbed timelines and pancaking plus support for .srt files or Fusion comps for titling. In one move they have covered both Adobe and Apples newer features and added so much more.
I’m seeing encouraging signs with the Fairlight improvements and the new control hardware. Again this is not aiming at good enough. I know most of my editing friends are playing with it and some have abandoned CC and X already. Interestingly the 7 holdouts (and they are still significant in my area) are saying Resolve is the likely replacement and some have switched already. I even have long time Avid devotees who now have Resolve and are probably going to switch, depending on what the post houses want. I remember when post houses that were Avid only started to have to have an FCP room. Even post houses that don’t yet have Resolve will and gradually that may push Baselight rooms to Resolve just to be able to keep going with the grade work without exporting and translating. Blackmagic is probably more interesting in taking on Baselight and Pro Tools as that is where they will sell hardware. I suspect they aren’t interested in taking on FCPX editors who are now wedded to the way X works but CC & Avid are hot targets. Apple are likely to be the greater threat to X with their glacial pace of development.
So while those editors in the US are wondering how this is translating from NAB to real world, the rest of the world is getting ahead of the game with Blackmagic. And with the comfort of knowing Blackmagic is listening, committed to this market and getting so much better with each release, I can be confident that the winds of change will reach your conservative shores, probably sooner than you think. Blackmagic might be developing at high speed but they are playing a long game.
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While that may all be true, the editors with the skills to do all of the functions that are available in Resolve going forward – and do them well – are few and far between. The hardest part in this equation is to shift loyal ProTools users to Fairlight and loyal AE or Nuke users to Fusion.
And don’t kid yourself. If you start the mix or color and then take it to an outside specialist, the first thing they will do is remove all of the grades and mixes that you have done and start from scratch.
– Oliver
Oliver Peters – oliverpeters.com
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[Oliver Peters] “And don’t kid yourself. If you start the mix or color and then take it to an outside specialist, the first thing they will do is remove all of the grades and mixes that you have done and start from scratch.”
Oh I understand that well as that’s what I normally do, although I am more reluctant to blow away grades than audio work. But I am also talking about a new generation of editors that might be a bit better than us old Luddites. I am also talking about me starting remote grading by collaborating. For fast turnaround this pre fine cut grade work is a big time saver.
I have one job coming eventually that is being cut on Resolve and I will be taking over the grade from the DP who is also the editor. So he will cut and grade as he goes, then hand over to a fine cut editor and start collaboration with me on the grades. Also a fair bit of his audio work will carry through because he knows what he is doing and I will give him a track/ mix template to work with so a lot of work will carry through.
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[Oliver Peters] ” If you start the mix or color and then take it to an outside specialist, the first thing they will do is remove all of the grades and mixes that you have done and start from scratch.”
Color and sound mixing are two areas of post production that remain highly inefficient and both are in need of streamlining.
Most projects that I work on end up fully colored and sound mixed in the rough cut/fine cut stage because it seems that clients nowadays have a very hard time watching cuts that look off or sound incorrect. So even if the project has a budget to send the audio to a sound mixer and the color work to a colorist there’s a lot of wasted time both on the front end making it look and sound good but also the prep work to hand off to a sound mixer or colorist.
So I welcome the idea of keeping as much of the final mastering within the original edit program or at least to have a workflow where all of that front end work isn’t wasted time once a colorist or sound mixer gets onboard.
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I’ve been using Resolve for a couple of years for grading – mostly round-tripping from PP.
Editing still feels a little way off – needs a critical mass of competent editors using it, feeding back & being listened to to get it over the line I think.
Same goes for Fusion/VFX and Fairlight/Mixers. But the price point is very attractive to owner/operators and production companies.
And lots of the DS folk seem to be using it already.
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[Oliver Peters] “And don’t kid yourself. If you start the mix or color and then take it to an outside specialist, the first thing they will do is remove all of the grades and mixes that you have done and start from scratch.”
Hmmm there’s a presumption there that if it was turned into a wager I would happily take on. (However it wouldn’t be fair because I’m not only tolerably skillful with colour and sound, I’m also the producer of my films☺) But even assuming that the comment was not directed at me personally, but was a general reflection on the segmentation of the industry, I still think it misses the point that Resolve, because of its price point and incredibly deep tool set, is opening up areas of creativity to editors that have never existed before and there will be many, especially in a new generation, who will happily and skillfully put them to use.
David
https://AllinOneFilms.com -
[greg janza] “Most projects that I work on end up fully colored and sound mixed in the rough cut/fine cut stage because it seems that clients nowadays have a very hard time watching cuts that look off or sound incorrect.”
So VERY true!
\”Traditional NLEs have timelines. FCPX has storylines\” W.Soyka
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Definitely a generalized statement and not meant personally in any way, shape or form. But this toolset has and does exist elsewhere, though maybe not as deep in some areas.
Oliver
Oliver Peters – oliverpeters.com
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