Bill Davis
Forum Replies Created
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[Herb Sevush] “Until you can transmit a potato or a couch over the internet truckers will be in high demand, cause even a couch potato can’t eat a picture of a pizza. The US mail may be in trouble but the teamsters are doing fine. And while your software is internet downloadable your iphone, ipad and ibook are not.
“Herb, I agree with this.
But one UPS driver can probably service 100 homes a day – thousands in a year.So the folks living in all this other homes have to find something else to do once that single “driver” slot is filled.
And all the hands that used to fill up my FCP-Legacy boxes supply chain have less to do now that the App Store is working.
I’m not saying this is best, or ideal, or not an issue that society has to confront. I’m saying it’s simply a reality that wasn’t present before. Local store to national chain to big box specialist to warehouse club – the need for physical distribution of stuff will persist until someone perfects the “replicator” model from Star Trek or puts some uber-CNC-product assembly micro-plant in your local mall.
But not to see the change that the App Store has thrust upon us is to ignore reality, IMO.
That an alternate process is not “perfect” is not the same as saying it’s “irrelevant.”
Hey, good point about FCP-X to bring us back on topic!
“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’Connor
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[Neil Goodman] “and beta monitoring, but its still buggy as all hell.”
Really?
I’d be interested in your reasoning supporting the above comment Neil.
I’ve finished and delivered 17 paid projects to date and not one of them missed deadline because of anything I can attribute to the software.
Yes, actual learning is required to operate this software. And no, it’s not perfect. But to describe it as “buggy as all hell” nearly totally miss-represents the state of the software in my experience as a daily user.
To my thinking “bugs” are repeatable flaws in software code that are reproducible, universal, and stop the user from being able to do things they need to do. “Bugs” technically aren’t missing features, or elements that software A does that software B does not.
Do you use it regularly? If so, where are these “bugs” causing you grief? Are they show stoppers, or merely annoyances? Have you missed deadlines?
We’re all here essentially learning about the software so I’d like to know what you can factually contribute to the discussion.
You say you’ve experienced this software as “buggy” and I’d like to know how and why.
Thanks.
“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’Connor
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[Walter Soyka] “Which do you think would damage the economy more: if all the world’s trucks turned into sports cars, or if all the world’s sports cars turned into trucks?”
This economy? The former.
But is that where we’re going? How many truck drivers does the future need compared to “information workers?”
Apple has already showed us the economic implications of disassembling the supply chain and going direct from manufacturer to consumer in IP commerce.
And it’s pretty clear that the dominant fortunes in the new era are tied more to IP than brick and mortar operations.
Both will survive, but the bit distributors seem to be steadily outperforming the box distributors these days.
And as someone who’s edited as much in Marriott rooms as in my fixed studio these past few months, I’m thinking that this is a reflection of new realities that I’ve got to get a handle on.
Thankfully, my hay-barn to studio conversion workspace means I don’t have to support the commercial real-estate industry while I make my current living. But if I did, I’d have to look long and hard at what paying all the infrastructure costs of the space is contributing to, (or dragging down) my bottom line.
Yes, clients still want to come sit in my studio and work. But for how long? I can literally do ALL of the same work on a laptop in any space I like. So today, (literally since I have a client coming over at 2pm) I get to ask him if he’d prefer to hole up in the studio this gorgeous afternoon, or should we move out to the patio by the pool and do the project there.
New choices for a new era.
“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’Connor
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[Walter Soyka] “I doubt you intend to hold FCPX up as a vehicle built mainly for fun against Premiere Pro and Media Composer as vehicles built to get work done…”
Walter,
I’m quite surprised at your constrained thinking here!
Who do you think generates the greater economic results in modern society – the folks driving work trucks … or the folks driving the sports cars?
(grin)
“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’Connor
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[David Lawrence] “Maybe it’s a niche but it’s a niche comprised of the best of the best in the industry. Oscars make for excellent ad copy last I checked. Guess Apple plans to make up for the loss of prestige users with volume.”
David,
The problem is that “prestige” is a funny thing. Hard to get, easy to lose.
I produced spots for a big local Cadillac dealer back 15 year ago – when those cars were pretty mediocre.
The brand that was once clearly the “leader” had become significantly less than stellar. They didn’t keep up with the technology, the times, or their customers wants and desires.
Apple, more than any other contemporary company seems to take the long view and are willing to create software for a new era they see coming – instead of just “tweaking” the approaches of the past.
If, in fact, the greatest need in editing is for “big shop collaborative work” or even if everyone in the smaller shops wants to pay more just to have the “prestige” of using what Angus Wall uses to edit Hollywood movies, then Apple’s betting wrong.
If the FCP-X engineering team has actually looked down the road and are correct that people want new tools for a new era of editing and content distribution – more web centric and less “movie screen” centric – then they will win.
I’ve made my bet on who’s correct in their view of where editing is generally heading.
Time will tell who’s got a better vision of the future.
“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’Connor
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[Lance Bachelder] “But it’s sitting in a junkyard now, replaced by a hybrid that has just enough battery power to get to the office but you better bring your extension cord. “
Given.
The problem is if oil really does continue to suck more and more money out of your life, you look around and eventually ask why everybody ignored supporting an alternative development path.
Right now, every gas station is still pumping. And while we might not “like” prices pushing up towards $5 a gallon – overall we tolerate it.
But when I was in my 20s I remember my first trip to England and seeing gas prices two and a half times what I was accustomed to back at home. The price of the asset seemed totally decoupled from the costs of production. I suspect it still is. So having an alternate game grow up and become a viable choice sounds pretty good, even if here in the development phase, I can’t own and operate an electric vehicle at significantly less than the cost of a traditional one.
The only thing you can’t argue with is that nobody’s making any additional fossil fuels any more. So while it might not be in my lifetime, there will come a day when we’d better have some kind of alternatives in place – or our society will face a crisis – whether it’s me, my kid, or some future grandkids.
Heck, If I ran an oil company, I’d try to extract maximum value in these years too – then when the wall gets closer, I’ll be sitting on enough bank to buy and control whatever replaces it.
That just makes sense.
If you can see the problem coming, intelligent people usually prefer to start solving it before it becomes critical – but that doesn’t mean there’s only one “right” way to solve it.
And having more alternatives is typically better than having fewer.
“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’Connor
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Chris’s post, in my opinion is totally correct.
If you tow airplanes today, or practically believe you will need to tow them tomorrow – then one of those airplane towing carts is the only rational choice.
But buying an airplane towing vehicle to shop for groceries, run daily errands, and take vacations to the coast is just as crazy.
Choice is better than no choice.
There were 3 trucks and a bunch of golf carts in the editing tools offered by most dealers for a lot of years.
Now there’s a sports car. It’s a poorer choice for dragging heavy planes around right now. But it’s innovative, smaller, less expensive and has interesting new feature combinations. Apple may make heavier and more powerful versions of the new vehicle over time – and towing capabilities may improve. They’ve publically announced their committmtnt to users who need beefier capabilities – but nobody knows for sure.
Learn to drive the new class of vehicles or not.
That’s up to you.
“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’Connor
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But Walter.
If its true that the very first decision was to “zero out” the existing code base and write on an entirely new foundation – re-examining every design and implementation decision in light of where the hardware, software, and even the market has evolved – then it has to be fair to allow the same amount of time for this code base to evolve and stabilize that all other programs have needed to mature.
This constant need to compare X to Legacy and lament the change (talking of others here, not you.) is understandable – but getting old.
Those who can’t live with the change need to move on. Premier has their switch discount in place again. Avid remains a safe and fully developed choice.
I’m simply saying that after this long, those remaining fixated on what Legacy “used to be” are in danger of getting stuck in the past. Someone experiences an unwanted divorce and yes, grief is natural and accepted. Maintaining the shrine in the back bedroom and visiting it daily – once inevitability is fully established – is a sign one is having trouble moving on.
FWIW.
“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’Connor
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FCP was introduced in April of 1999 at NAB.
IIRC, Walter Murch’s Cold Mountain was cut in 2003 on FCP Legacy and IMDB notes that as the first oscar nomination where the “sub-$1000 FCP was used.
So that would indicate that it took at least 4 solid years of development IN APPLE (discounting the work done by the Macromedia team on KeyGrip before Ubillos and the team took it to Apple) before the software developed into something “Oscar level work worthy.”
No telling if X will ever again develop in the “big movie” direction – since that’s such a niche part of the overall industry of editing visuals today.
FWIW.
“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’Connor
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Thinking about these forms of contract will probably be a good start, but in more practical terms – all contracts are just written agreements between parties and as such, there’s not really a “standard” that works in all cases for all uses.
The examples you’re talking about sound to me like they’re based on stock footage and stock photography agreements, but I haven’t found that much consistency in typical “work for hire” agreements I’ve dealt with over my career.
Essentially, you can write up anything, with any terms, and for any length of time you like. You can assign all right, some rights, or hardly any rights. And as long as the other party agrees to it – you have a written agreement that’s going to be better than a verbal agreement and a handshake.
But unless you work with an Intellectual property trained attorney who’s being paid to analyze your particular situation and write specific language that protects your interests, any contract will likely have “holes” in it that can come back to snap you.
FWIW.
“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’Connor