Bill Davis
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Interesting and informative. Thanks Tim.
I’ll just point out this…
Your words:
“(And of course not all those numbers were driven by FCP…but until 2011, FCP was by far our biggest source, and if you read my history of the COW’s first 15 years, you know that it was very much brought to life by the first wave of professional FCP broadcast editors.)In other words, THIS is what the broad spectrum of global editing looks like. Millions and millions of people. Right here in the COW. Not “out there.” HERE.”
And note two things. The first graph highlights “professional broadcast editors” and the second graph shifts to “the broad spectrum of global editing.” NOT, to my thinking the same thing at all. There were obviously NOT two million professional broadcast editors in 2011. Not even close. So the Legacy constituency was FAR broader than that. And I suspect the constituency that the Cow continues to be built upon is exactly the same. People are interested in what Broadcast Pros think, for sure. But just looking at YouTube alone, it’s obvious that there are orders of magnitude more folks who fit OUTSIDE that criteria than inside it.
The second point i’ll make is that you guys have done an AMAZING job of helping millions learn about this stuff. But I still contend that IF the default defensive position here is over-focused on the the preferences of those 100 folks who got the Apple sneak peak in 2011 (and their subsequently spreading so much IRE simply because it didn’t meet their needs at the time – that runs directly COUNTER to the core of the larger theme that even MORE helped build your wonderful continuing success.
Here’s my 2 cents.
Innovation is RARELY the problem. It’s to be celebrated and defended. Even when it fails or is imperfect.
Most of my disappointment in those early days was THAT was what I was reading and hearing right here. This thing sucks because it doesn’t work like I’ve been conditioned to work. I’ll always believe that perspective was short-sighted then, and it’s still short sighted today. Not in a global climate of rapid change and evolution.As you know better than most, you don’t build a global platform by catering the 100 influencers, or even 50,000 editing pros (if there are even that many “traditional facility editors” out there.) Ron and Katherine and you built this success by BROADENING the discussion beyond any single “elite” class of editor.
And I hope you continue to do that.
That’s all.
Again, personal thanks for being such a huge pillar in building this wonderful platform. I can’t imagine my personal business life without it. Without so many wonderful people in this virtual neighborhood to spar and share ideas with, I might have focused my inherent need to debate on my wife – and I doubt THAT would have turned out well.
Creator of XinTwo – http://www.xintwo.com
The shortest path to FCP X mastery. -
[Steve Connor] “BTW I like the style of the Tutorials Bill”
Thank you Steve.
I’m reminded of that Blaise Pascal paraphrase thing I used to have hanging over my desk every time I sit down to write a batch of XinTwos.
“I would have written you a shorter letter if I had more time.”
As everyone here knows, my default is typically never to use 50 words when 1000 will also do the job. So this has been interesting, for sure.
; )
Creator of XinTwo – http://www.xintwo.com
The shortest path to FCP X mastery. -
I actually think this “Executive Team compensation numbers are PEANUTS compared to the money that flows out of these organizations. These guys are really just well payed figureheads. I’d bet dollars to doughnuts that behind the curtains, hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars a month if not a week flow through dozens and dozens of these insurance systems.
And if we know anything, we know that whoever’s ACTUALLY in charge of that kind of cashflow has long since figured a million ways to divert, tributaries, streams, heck whole RIVERS of cash toward whoever they believe will help them keep the flood going. Rationally couldn’t happen ANY other way.
I’m old enough to remember a time when most of the largest buildings in any major American City had a huge brightly lit Insurance company logos on top. Those logos all came down in the 1970s and 80s. Always wondered why. Today, I think it’s because they didn’t want their customers knowing they owned so much of every downtown and certainly not easily able to find where their operations are based. You can find the payment acceptance buildings, of course. And some vanilla operations centers. But not much else anymore.
They probably still own the buildings. Probably multiple ones in eery city now. But they’ll never make it too obvious again. Mustn’t look TOO successful, when you spend all day running teams workers trained to look for reasons to deny claims.
Might piss too many people off. And NOTHING can ever be allowed to rock this particular boat.
Bitter? Sure. But from looking back on years of shoveling money at that industry, and the few times I’ve needed them – NOTHING but hassles. My preference now is single payer – AND auditing every one of the legacy companies. And if if they haven’t paid out at least 95% of their premiums in actual benefits to actual breathing customers,, I’d make the entire executive teams spend a year or two caring for the sick for every basis point above that they sucked out of the sick, hurt, or damaged humans they were supposed to support and protect.
But that’s just me.
Creator of XinTwo – http://www.xintwo.com
The shortest path to FCP X mastery. -
[Andrew Kimery] “Bill,
In your blog I think you are conflating the product itself and the product launch.”No Andrew, I’m recounting my personal experience at the time.
Remember, that for many, many years at NAB, I was very closely associated Mike Horton and later Dan Berube’s Supermeets. To the point that every year, I was a significant, if minor, part of the team putting on the show. So I was front and center at the FCP X unveiling. In fact, I was the guy who “lowered the ropes” and let the crowd into the FCP X launch.
Some folks may well have been “in the know” in advance of the intro, but I definitely wasn’t one of them. (Not sure if I’d done more than simply kicked the tires here at the Cow at that point What I WAS was very active in the FCP Legacy community – to the point I was at the inaugural LAFCPUG meeting and knew all the early players – was a regular on the early days of 2-pop.com when the OTHER Larry Jordan was running it – and had been with FCP Legacy since it was announced at NAB in 1999.
The point being, I wasn’t without contacts in the FCP community.
And nobody I knew let word ONE drop about what Apple was doing.
So I’ll stand by what I wrote in my blog. In 2011 – in any rational review of the landscape, the “hair on fire” nature of the reaction simply COULD NOT have come from natural internet chatter. Again, nobody in the broad spectrum of global FCP editing – 2 million strong at that point – had a clue about what was coming. I honestly don’t think the exceptions noted here do other than “prove the rule.”
Which leaves only a couple of possibilities. Those that HAD been put under NDA were the source of the early “it’s crap” spin (which is awful to even consider) – OR, as I contend, it was opinions formed largely out of pure ignorance.
I will also say this. If there WERE a bunch of people who had a fair inside look and didn’t step up and push back against the ” it’s jus iMovie Pro) thing – shame on you. If someone as “outside” as ME could kinda see what Apple was actually doing – the fact that much more industry connected, experienced and smarter people then me missed the early potential is kinda MORE shocking.
Well, in fairness, there another possibility. Maybe Apple ONLY previewed it to classes of users it simply wan’t going to fit well. And if so I have only one thing to say to Apple in hindsight.
THANKS!
If more folks had publicly beat the drums FOR FCP X from the beginning, I probably wouldn’t have had the head start I did in gaining my expertise.. In many ways, what I’m doing now is a direct result of that. So I should thank each and every one here who railed against it for so long.
Opportunities sure do come wrapped n strange packages!
Creator of XinTwo – http://www.xintwo.com
The shortest path to FCP X mastery. -
Interesting, Oliver. I had heard nothing about any special preview. Then again, I wouldn’t have.
Since somebody under NDA could arguably be said to have been brought temporarily “inside Apple” via special access, I think the point stands. Still, fascinating to hear that happened. I had no clue. Thanks for posting the insight.Creator of XinTwo – http://www.xintwo.com
The shortest path to FCP X mastery. -
Awesome!
Wes is awesome.
For those wanting an overview…
Creator of XinTwo – http://www.xintwo.com
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[Bob Cole] “There are some great things about the ACA, but the real issue is not “who pays,” but rather, “how much.””
AMEN.
(full on rant ensues)
The ACA got my family back in the system after 10 years of my wife being totally un-insureable because a decade ago, she was mis-diagnosed with Lupus. After Obamacare made pre-existing denial unlawful, she got into the Mayo Clinic for a checkup test which indicated she’d never even had LUPUS to begin with! It was stress from caring for her Mother during a long slide into Alzheimers kicking my wife immune system. Never “Lupus”
Thanks a lot medical industry knee jerk actuaries at the time.. She’s SICK with something we don’t really understand from one soon to retire doctor – that we suspect we can’t “fix” cheaply – so get her OUT of our insurance system and make sure she NEVER gets back in.
On my side, I’d had my Blue Cross ExecuCare policy for 20 years without a single claim, and saw nothing but constantly increasing premiums. Regular as clockwork.
So after the ACA we switched over. We’re ALL INSURED again! The whole family! We’re paying in and able to access care. It was WONDERFUL. So I went to get the mild tinnitus that had been bothering me checked out. Oops, Cat Scan says Acoustic Neuroma (benign tumor on the acoustic nerve) not threatening but possible annoying if it keeps growing. Good news, they can zap it with outpatient Cyberknife nuclear medicine. Sounds, AWESOME. fine. Did it. Dealing with insurance was the usual nightmare of nine foot bills, scary numbers six months later during some additional insurance back and forth that I actually SAW, and WAY too many hours of the phone getting things pre-cleared, cleared, and post cleared so they would pay. But 6-8 months later all the bills were covered. Felt bad I’d showed up in a new system and had a significant claim, but figured my loyalty over the coming years would generate premiums to offset much of it. Plus, it FELT GREAT to have my loved ones INSURED again at terms I could meet without starving.
Anyway the real kicker is that here in Arizona, we’d signed up with a brand new CO-OP built directly in response to ObamaCare. I like co-cps in general because they don’t typically have $$$$$ executives and rich owners sucking profits out of the system, right? Lets try it. Worked PERFECTLY for me. So imagine my surprise when our enlightened state legislature GUTTED the co-op and pushed everyone back into traditional Insurance Policies last year. It was WORKING – I was PROOF! The co-op had recently announced they could meet the claims AND still make a profit. What they couldn’t do was meet the arbitrary RESERVES the legislature mandated.. So suddenly we’re on notice the Exchange is DEAD – and we now need to buy on the regular insurance market. OK, did our due diligence went BACK into the ACA system and low and behold, one of the BIG insurance companies is suddenly there with decent plans. OK, lets try that. Last year we had increasing incomes so could stand that my costs would TRIPPLE over-night as our CoOp Policies lapsed at the end of the year but it was better coverage, so oh well. I chalked the increase up to the state killing the Co-Op.
Now we learn that THAT huge insurance company (the monster who’s name rhymes with True-Ninted) is pulling out of the state suddenly and I’m suddenly remembering the local news coverage about all the money they spent back during the Obamacare debates to scare seniors with stories about SOCIALIZED MEDICINE – Seriously, I read they even payed for BUSSES to transport those same riled up Sun City Seniors into town hall meetings where they yelled parroted all that crap about the DEATH PANELS. Remember that?
So who knows what will happen next year.
But suddenly, I see wall to wall ads on TV every night for Candidate John McCain about how “Obamacare has FAILED Arizonans.” Well, yes, it did, BECAUSE the Insurance company toadies at the legislature EXECUTED it. Then screwed it into the ground. I’m not paranoid usually, but I’ve honestly started wondering if the whole exercise in AZ was a long con creating talking points for the coming election. Honestly.
The entire US insurance industry, is, IMO, a massive scam. Don’t get me wrong, within it are plenty of decent people siting at reception desks, working as nurses and therapists and even insurance company agents. They are largely doing their best to try to help people and do their jobs, but ALL their efforts are bought and paid for by huge forces sitting on top of the system who’s central purpose is to suck the maximum return out of every premium dollar and pay out as little as possible, however that’s legally possible – and if that’s enough, they have legions of lawyers and tame legislators to change the rules. And the folks at the top could ABSOLUTELY care less if that results in pain, bankruptcy or suicide on the human care end of things. They’ve hit the JACKPOT. Fear of medical cost bankruptcy and fear of real honest to god PAIN drives customers into their system on the sales side – and their proven to cavalierly DENY that relief from any or all their customers of that sits on the customer facing side. Profit trumps compassion virtually every time. And when it doesn’t – you can bet the PR machine goes into high gear about how the photogenic kid was SAVED by some transplant. The counterbalance to consumer abuse in healthcare used to be Government – with state “insurance boards” providing consumer protections. HA! Check who’s sitting on YOURS. Likely some industry lobbyist IF you even have ANY advocacy at all. Those “SMALL GOVERNMENT” fanatics? Guess who they cut out of the system first thing? It’s disgusting.
IN US medicine today Nobody actually knows what anything costs. Nobody know whats fair or stupid. Nobody explains a policy term or regulation unless it’s in the process of denying a claim. And nobody in the industry cares as long as the premiums keep rollin in and the profit lines on the reports keep going up. The bill you get after medical services is idiot fan fiction at best and systematic way to bring back individual financial indentured servitude for anyone with the temerity to get ILL! without an industry approved insurance card.
Connecting the suppression of pain and human heath into a system of PROFIT is about as stupid as the human race has ever gotten. And the many, MANY countries that have decoupled those things should be cheered. This is one of the very, very few things that makes me ashamed to be an American.
Can you tell that the past 30 years of my experiences with the insurance and healthcare industries as a self employed small business guy has nearly always involved a MASSIVE hassle? It’s the stupidest run business system in America unless it’s judged on a SINGLE metric. Extracting money from the many to give to the industries ownership class. And there it is stunningly WORLD CLASS.
It’s an EVIL system, IMO supporting, I’ve come to believe, astonishingly EVIL sociopaths at the top who will stop at nothing to kill any regulation that will make things a tiny bit better for the humans they are supposed to serve – at least if that means they lose one one-thousandth of a hundredth of a point off their profits.
Pisses me off.
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Anna, it’s also possible that all your frames are simply not calculated yet.
Do this test. Park on a frame.
How does the quality look there?
If that image is to your tastes, it’s actually quite likely that will be what you get when your export is fully rendered and exported.
There are exceptions – but quite often, what X shows you in order to let you work quickly and fluidly, is not the same as the resolution and quality you’ll get when everything is said and done.
I always recommend that if you’re worried, don’t accept the interface presentation at face value. Do a test. Take a sample range and export it and perhaps even post it to the service you’re eventually going to target. Trust THAT.
Good luck.
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Then according to the Transitive Property of Internet Discussions – Randy Ubillos created Sony Vegas!
Did not know that…
; )
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It’s just all migrated towards Apps.
You can find a dozen prompting Apps.
Buy a cheap iPad or use your iPhone. I’m sure there’s options for Android as well.
It does everything laptop based tele prompting software used to do, but it’s generally under $20 instead of a couple hundred bucks like back in the day.
Plenty of people make beam-splitter units that accommodate tablets as well.
The industry has changed. For the better.
Totally.
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Just saw Ned’s comment and I have to very respectfully still disagree. An iPad Pro hung under one of the new lightweight rod-based beamsplitter rigs looks ever bit as “pro” as a traditional teleprompter and heck, it’s just securely paired bluetooth – so there’s no reason you can’t drive it from your laptop when you need full keyboard control.
I’ve prompted recently where I used the laptop for an exec sit-down for an hour – then when we needed to roll the camera rig to a new interior location, I switched to driving the script via my iPad mini, then as we moved outside for the next field shot I was able to run the same lightweight camera prompting rig from my iPhone.
I spent decades on bigger studio and field rigs – and I still say good riddance to them all.
Just me. YMMV.