Bill Davis
Forum Replies Created
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After decades in this business, I WISH there was a single rule that covered all this stuff – but it’s just not that simple.
There are overlapping laws and rights involved. Privacy rights, Intellectual Property (IP) rights Tangible Property rights (I created this thing and you have no right to show it in your video with my permission), Design rights (that unreleased outfit is MY fashion work – you can’t use it to promote your photography without my permission), Performance rights (You want to make money with a 1 man show of my poetry?), Music rights of various types including composition, performance and synchronization variations.
This stuff is argued over in courts all the time. Does a regular person attending a public event have a “reasonable expectation of privacy?” What if they’re a celebrity? What if they’re a minor?
It gets sticky.Generally, as Mark notes, if you’re at an “open to the public” event, on public property, and aren’t overly focused on a single individual too much – the overall industry general pracice is that you’re fine. The copyright to any creative work (the photo or video) is yours as the original creator. But, if there’s obvious background music playing, art of architecture that’s identifiable as someone elses IP, or if you follow a single person doing a unique performance around – then things get a LOT stickier.
The reason pros get releases whenever we can is that that release becomes an AFFIRMATIVE DEFENSE should the party decide later to try to allege that their contribution to your IP work rises to the level of contributor including rights to profit from the work.
The law doesn’t particularly like ambiguity. I shot you, but you signed my release, so I now unambiguously have the rights to use your image in my creative work – THAT is legally clear.
Hope that helps.
Creator of XinTwo – https://www.xintwo.com
The shortest path to FCP X mastery. -
Great solution, Todd.
I got dumb lucky years ago and picked up a bunch of RAM accessories from a shop that was discontinuing the line. Bought their stock for pennies on the dollar. The ball mounts are awesome, particularly for securely affixing umbrellas to cameras and such here in the Southwest when the sun is such an issue. Was surprised to be cruising the internet one day, and discovered RAM sells a fishing rod holder as well for between $15-20 bucks. That blowout RAM stuff has long been of my favorite solutions for multiple problems!
Creator of XinTwo – https://www.xintwo.com
The shortest path to FCP X mastery. -
[David Mathis] “Say now trillion has 12 zeros not 9. ????”
Whoops. Unfamiliar numeric territory for a lot of folks, me quite obviously included!
Creator of XinTwo – https://www.xintwo.com
The shortest path to FCP X mastery. -
[Shane Ross] “iphones and iPods and iPads saved them.”
Sure, but that frames it almost like those are external things, while they decidedly are not. They’re expressions of the same basic idea. Deeply understanding what evolving technology is able do for people – then building products that best leverage that understanding.
If you don’t have hardware and software engineers that can conceive something like the iPod – then you can’t similarly conceive something like the MacBook Pro.
There’s a continuum there that’s operating where human interface engineering meets materials engineering which meets software engineering and more…
and apparently THAT is how a company gets to a 9 figure market cap.
Creator of XinTwo – https://www.xintwo.com
The shortest path to FCP X mastery. -
[Oliver Peters] “While I would generally agree, I’m not sure how much of an edge case it really is. Otherwise, why would Apple be offering this deal?”
To allow all the Millenium DXL and Weapon owners a safe space in which to keep arguing that Apple gear isn’t for “serious pro” users?
(I won’t tell Cioni if you don’t!)????
Creator of XinTwo – https://www.xintwo.com
The shortest path to FCP X mastery. -
[Andy Field] “Bill, that’s pretty funny”
Thanks.
We surely need as many smiles and laughs as we can find in life.Creator of XinTwo – https://www.xintwo.com
The shortest path to FCP X mastery. -
[Andrew Kimery] “Couple that with the fact that Apple values low weight and low noise more than performance”
I’d just change that to “most Apple customers value low weight and low noise..”
And
[Andrew Kimery] “The original reviewer that started this whole thing was transcoding a five and half minute long 5K Scarlet-W clip into 4K H.264 in his home (which presumable is air conditioned). Not exactly an edge case. ;)”
Again, I’d argue that anyone working with 5K Scarlet-W clips is the very definition of an edge case. This is again the view that professional video editors are the CORE of MacBook Pro consumers.
You and I and others here at the upper end of the pro video market might WISH that (like their 3D rendering, MMPORPG and VR brethren) users who have a legit need for the fastest machines possible, could drive the entire product lines designs – but it’s something I doubt very much will ever happen.
IF constant GruntCrunch type of work is your goal – any laptop, really makes little sense.
It will always be a “when I can’t get to my serious rig” solution. That user will surely have a big desktop alternative available.I think this whole idea simply comes up because not everyone can afford to support dual systems – and these laptops – by still being “pretty darn good” at things we really should be letting desktop systems do – let LOTS more people participate in the creative content creation space.
That’s a great thing in and of itself. Not something to bash them for when theres a reasonable compromise necessary to seek BOTH performance and portability in the same unit.
Basically, if there was a MUCH better solution that could crank through more work faster and fit in a briefcase and didn’t look too ugly – a lot of folks would logically simply buy that and be done with it.
But I don’t hear much about people flocking away from MacBook Pros to laptops from PC manufacturers for purely performance reasons. That IS sometimes talked about when discussing price alone. But not so much performance alone, IME.
But I could be wrong. Like most editors, I tend to be stuck in my suite – and get out less than I’d sometimes like.
My 2 cents.
Creator of XinTwo – https://www.xintwo.com
The shortest path to FCP X mastery. -
Whenever I read about this type of “collaborative” approach, it brings to mind the literary hoax of the late 60s where a group of famous journalists decided to do a “collaborative work” to create a steamy potboiler (almost pornagrahpic) novel.
“Naked Came the Stranger by Penelope Ashe” – was the result. (Wikipedia will know more.)
IIRC, each participant would write ONE chapter with the presumption that at the end of things, they’d have a nice novel to sell.
Needless to say, the result was widely regarded as a total mess.
Creativity by committee is a kinda difficult bar to clear, IMO.
Sure ASSEMBLY by committee is easy as pie. So if that’s the goal – there should be clear sailing ahead. But that kinda pushes editors into a roles as assembly line players, more than as discrete storytellers.
Which might or might not where a particular editor wants to go.
Interesting discussion, anyway.
Creator of XinTwo – https://www.xintwo.com
The shortest path to FCP X mastery. -
And just to add a note to what Todd says…
Remember, you don’t always need to light the entire greenscreen for EVERY use instance.
If you have a spokesperson sitting at a desk, for example – you can just light an area around the subject and just crop the shot before you use it.
Lighting an entire large green screen area is most appropriate when there is more movement including people entering and exiting the scene – then a full frame keyable field is smart.
Just something to consider.
Creator of XinTwo – https://www.xintwo.com
The shortest path to FCP X mastery. -
[Oliver Peters] “Those users need more power than a laptop can ever reasonably provide—especially one with a commitment to portability.”
“This makes sense.
Also, not just portability, but sensible thermal management.
“Need SERIOUS power? Consider the Grointanner 6000 – the 6 internal GPU laptop for editors who have absolutely no desire for future children…”
????
Creator of XinTwo – https://www.xintwo.com
The shortest path to FCP X mastery.
