[Bill Davis]

Interesting.
I’ll have to expand my thinking. Clearly modern processors are so fast I guess they can breeze through the calculations required to display, translate, skim, and output audio and video streams in real time a lot more efficiently than they used to.
Time and technology march on and with sharp enough math, even the counterintuitive is trivial I guess.

“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

[Bill Davis]

It’s a nice idea in theory. But I’m not sure there’s any way to practically implement it.

You can move an edit point fast, slow, or at any speed in between. It’s locked to the math of positional geometry, not RATE. The audio track, OTOH, is totally dependent on rate. So would you accept the pitch being higher the faster you drag it? Or lower the slower you drag it? Or do you want the interface to somehow store and playback the the audio in real time as you drag at whatever speed you think best? And if so, what should the interface do if you change direction and start to drag back over what you’ve just listened to?

As you can see, there would probably be a LOT of complexity underneath what seems to be a simple idea.

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

[Bill Davis]

[Herb Sevush] “”This why I think FCS was killed so suddenly. I suspect a long transition was not viable given certain licenses/IP, etc.”

Which might make sense except for the fact that, under duress, they put Legacy back on the market. As far as I know they are still selling it thru some channels. If the licensing issues were so problematic in June, how did they resolve them by August?
SNIP

If they had a bunch of unsold product in warehouses wouldn’t that have simply fallen under their old licensing agreements? (just guessing as I’m clearly NOT an IIP attorney .) But I *think* it might have been possible that Apple could legally sell anything produced under their existing agreements – making the decision to make Legacy available easy. What they might not have been able to do was produce NEW product if there wasn’t a new agreement. That would make some sense.

“[Bill Davis] “I don’t know what IP issues were buried in FCP-Legacy. But it would be silly to expect that there weren’t some. So the “blank page” beginning makes HUGE sense if you want to go forward with a product that is clear of as much IP baggage as is possible.”

(Craigs comment snipped)

Writing your own code from scratch does not in any way inure you to the threat of IP violations. It is the concept that is often at issue not the actual code. Picons in a browser, film strips in a browser, there are a lot of lawyers willing, for a fee, to prove that their is no difference, both are a visual representation of a clip … blah blah blah.

Herb Sevush
Zebra Productions”

To my knowledge, nothing can ever insulate anyone from being sued for anything. The key is having the strongest possible defense to the allegations. The act of starting from a blank piece of paper to develop a program might be a pretty good beginning, in my non-professional opinion.

Maybe there was a roomful of lawyers somewhere at Apple reading this very forum and after seeing all the posts about how the FCP-team had “destroyed what FCP-has been” ” they grinned ear to ear.

What better evidence that you’ve “destroyed” the old and created something radically new — than a bunch of “haters” publicly arguing exactly that day after day in open forums.

Be kinda ironic, actually.

“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

[Bill Davis]

How can IP not be an ongoing “issue” in any transaction between large companies?

Look at the patent portfolio battles of earlier this year with monster corporations joining into virtual cabals in order to secure shared ownership of huge blocks of patents so that they’re shielded from having to pay out royalties on stuff in their own work that might conceivably be deemed derivative in a future court battle.

Software development is ALL about IP.

And if someone sniffs that your solution might be built on somebody else’s patent, the lawyers start drooling because big money can be shifted, sometimes with just the “threat” of legal action.

I don’t know what IP issues were buried in FCP-Legacy. But it would be silly to expect that there weren’t some. So the “blank page” beginning makes HUGE sense if you want to go forward with a product that is clear of as much IP baggage as is possible.

Maybe that’s a small part of what drove the “X” transformation. Clean slate = best way to insure clean Apple IP going forward.

If so, that’s going to be a HUGE competitive advantage for X in the future – and might be why they can do it profitably for $299 on the ITMS. Sure no WMV direct support is a PITA for some users, but it also means no need to carve out dollars to send to external IP owners out of the revenue stream in every transaction.

“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

[Bill Davis]

Bob,

If you go with the SKB case, you might consider modifying it by drilling and re-bolting the handle support points. Lighting gear is typically heavier than golf clubs, and while the SKB cases have the advantage of being pretty light (which helps greatly when you’re dinged up to $150 for exceeding 50 lbs) a fully loaded golf bag gets pretty heavy pretty fast.

YMMV.

Good luck.

“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

[Bill Davis]

Craigs list still has “terms of use?”

Best joke I’ve heard this week!

Once upon a time it was a useful place for people to trade in things of modest value without any overhead.

Now, it’s a cesspool of exploitation and sadness. It’s the place where, typically, IMO, the ignorant go to be used by the morally bankrupt. The highest aspiration of the Craigs List “seller” is to get as much as possible in exchange for as little real value as can be managed. The referenced ad is a perfect reflection of that. In a community where the rules specify that there will be NO system of verifiable value as a part of the structure, everyone sets their own arbitrary values – including the inexperienced and clueless.

Nothing wrong with that, per se. It’s just that games with no rules are games that only losers play – since anyone can lose at any time and there’s no recourse.

I love free speech and have no problem regarding the existence of CL. I just see it as societies place that exists to teach people lessons about exploitation.

Hopefully, citizens with brains, including especially your young people, will learn fast and leave.

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

[Bill Davis]

Graham,

Again, the important thing is that you’re interested in improving. That’s the core of everything!
Since you asked so politely, I’ll try to give you some tips.. Understand that they are suggestions only. Not rules.

First, about lighting. I started with the worlds cheapest Smith Victor kit. It was big, uncontrollable scoops that vomited light all over the place. No control, but it didn’t matter because I didn’t even know what control even was back then. They were tungsten only, so they taught me what goes wrong when you try to use tungsten lights in situations where daylight, fluorescent, and tungsten all mix together. (It’s a color temperature mess.) But seeing that it was a mess is how I started to learn. When I started getting paid a little, I started doing “front fill” using Home Depot fluorescent tube fixtures on stands. Since those lamps matched the lamps in the stores where I was filming, they helped since I started learning to TURN OFF stuff that was a problem and shoot in ONE kind of light.

When I finally scraped decent money together I bought my first Arri kit. Fresnels were a RELEVATION. It was the first time I could use a barn door to actually cut light off of something. I’m still using that kit today. It killed me to pay over $2000 bucks for it USED, but the $500 SV kit lasted me about 2 years and fell apart, and the $2000 Arri kit has lasted me 25 years plus. Do the math.

Then over the years I added and or worked with every lighting technology available and each and every time, I used the knowledge I learned on EVERY light I ever owned and operated – including the crappy stuff I started with! (It’s every bit as useful to see what doesn’t work as it is to see what does.)

So buy what you can. Shop for used stuff. Read, read, read. There are no shortcuts. You can take a great light and use it terribly, and you can take a flashlight and a piece of typing paper and make art if you take the time to learn how.

One more thing.

I want to compliment you for posting your work. The fact that your work is a bit raw is totally insignificant compared to the fact that you had the guts to put it in front of critics.

Learning to take criticism (as tough as that might be) is the single most important aspect to your continued growth and success. CRAVE criticism. And learn to toss off the stuff that’s uninformed (EVERYONE’s a critic these days) and zero in on what people tell you that you can learn from.

In that spirit here are a few gentle notes on your posted video.

Take a piece of paper and watch your video again and do this exercise. Describe EACH AND EVERY shot in it in terms of how you framed it.
Shot 001 – Medium wide
Shot 002 – Medium wide
Shot 003 – Wide
Shot 004 – Medium wide
Shot 005 – Close Up
Shot 006 – Wide
Shot 007 – Extreme Close up
etc. etc.

When you do, I think you’re going to find that you actually don’t have much “variety” in your shots. Variety is a way to keep your audience involved. We like being shown something different more than seeing similar things strung together.

I know at an event, you might feel that you’re stuck in one place. But as a videographer, your JOB is to get the best shots you can. That means you have to get up and go to where those shots are. A videographer stuck in one place is one that’s NOT going to be able to make a very interesting modern video.

Next about your subjects. Your video, as it stands, is mostly shot after shot of two things – the place and the machines. Machines are well and good. But kinda boring after the 5th or 6th shot. It’s machines going through the mud. We get it.

So what else was interesting there? What about the PEOPLE? I didn’t see a recognizable person until the last frame. A dozen close ups or even medium shots of the crowd watching the machines would have made a MUCH more interesting video. We’re all curious about people. Who goes to events like this. What are their reactions to the event? Are there kids watching? Grizzled “old timers” Girls? You’re telling the STORY of the event. And the real story isn’t just the obvious (quads in mud) it’s much bigger than that. What about the expressions of the drivers? Were they stressed? Joyful? Hurt? We don’t know from your video. Yeah, they were covered with mud. But only from where you were and when you were shooting them. They weren’t’ obscured when they were getting ready or when they were washing off. Think about that.

Just a few tips.

Keep practicing. And watch how the masters do it in movies and on TV. Do the same exercise there and look at how they use wide shots, mediums, close ups and even EXTREME close ups to bring more visual LIFE to their stories.

That’s enough for now.

Good luck. And keep shooting.

“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

[Bill Davis]

Hoover dam.
The Manhattan Project.
The interstate highway system.

Should I go on?

The Saulk Polio Vaccine (public health care without the profit motive, imagine that!)
Draining the malarial swamp to build Washington DC.
THe Golden Gate Bridge (or any other major one, in the US, really
Nuclear submarines (know any private corporations building those for profit?)
DARPA and the Internet (Bennett Cerf is still on record saying that Al Gore was the key guy in congress that would even listen to him)

I’ll stop here my point being made.

“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

[Bill Davis]

Bit like asking
“which are the best spices to use for American style cooking”

Sure you could answer “salt, pepper, and (fill in the blank)” and at one level it would be hard to argue with that – but it certainly wouldn’t be an answer that really tells you much of anything about how to season food well.

A cook has to understand a wide array of spices and get experience in which ones complement what you’re doing. For example, the flavor combination of lamb and mint is historically revered. Ham and mint, not so much.

Therein the problem.

just keep curious and keep learning and you’ll do fine – no matter what “gear” you end up with. Even if it’s not ideal, you can learn a whole bunch about how, where and why it FAILS to meet your needs – and that’s very precious information.

Good luck!

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

[Bill Davis]

I use both PayPal and Square for amounts under $500 or so.

For most “right now” transactions I think Square has the best solution. For “virtual invoicing” I like PayPal better.

Used with restraint, the charges for each are insignificant verses the value of fast collections and avoiding “corporate float” of net-30 systems that turn out to be “collect in 60 or so after internal processing.

If you get into amounts over a few thousand bucks, talk to your payees about direct ACH payments. I remember the strain of waiting for and handling physical checks of mid five to six figures and it’s just dumb in the electronic banking era, IMO.

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