[Bill Davis]

LOVE the line. “I’m not a musician, I just play drums.” CLASSIC.

But essentially, Scott has =this exactly right. Editing – by it’s very nature – has tempo. Whether you realize it or not, the very act of cutting is essentially changing time – which IS, by definition, setting a tempo.

Beginning singers often sing “on tempo.” And there’s nothing actually wrong with that at all. It’s just kinda boring when it’s the ONLY way you approach your structuring of passing of time. Without variation in time (or at least SOMETHING related to time like arrangement, dynamics, or amplitude) – you risk monotony. And that’s something most human’s don’t do very well with in long stretches.

But do a quick google search on “Sinatra phrasing” and you’ll probably find volumes of analysis of how Frank (and, for that matter,every really great musician on the planet, in out of the Jazz category ) goes well beyond simple “put it on the beat” playing and uses a variety of off tempo techniques to take the music to places that make it a richer experience to listen to.

Edits ALWAYS have tempo. Whether or not you realize that and begin to learn to consciously control it – that’s another thing!

FWIW.

(from a former university music major – who had to grow up and learn that love can’t always overcome a lack of significant talent in a particular area!)

“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’Conner

[Bill Davis]

Just to keep the record straight, at the show last night, it was VERY CLEARLY stated, that FCPX has keystroke equivelents for ALL editing commands. There was nothing said about the software being in any way shape or form any more “mouse centric” as an editing tool, and, in fact they spoke directly against that idea.

Whatever else you think, this was a room of 1500+ people who largely make their living editing video. Virtually all of them were registered owners of $1000 worth of pro level editing software represented by FCP. I know a lot of people came interested, concerned, even worried about what the announcement would mean to their careers and professional prospects.

In the very beginning, I watched and listened as the crowd was clearly hesitant. But literally by about 20 minutes into the show, the crowd not only defrosted, but started to literally applaud and cheer as feature after feature was revealed (along with the reasoning behind the approach that the team at Apple had taken.

I talked to a LOT of people afterward. And while there are certainly many questions still to be answered, the Apple team made it abundantly clear that they had NOT had any interest in making FCP any less PRO or any less a tool for professional editing. They simply realized that there needed to be a wholesale re-write from the core upward of the software in order to take advantage of a vast array of new capabilities and possibilities that have resulted from so many changes in Mac and MacOS architecture. And from my spot in the crowd, they made a VERY compelling case that they’ve done just that

The last half of the show was largely ooahs, aahs, and extremely enthusiastic applause (even literal cheering!) as Apple revealed feature after feature that none of us had EVER seen implemented in quite this way in editing software before.

This was NOT a pushover crowd. It was NOT simply a room of Apple fanboys. It was working editors and content creators just like me.

Still questions? Of course. But while it’s cute shortcut to call something iMovie Pro – only a dunderhead would see what I saw last night and reduce it to something that trivial.

And finally, regarding the price point. Understand that the App store infastructure functionally changes EVERYTHING about software distribution. No boxes, no warehouse flooring charges, no transportation costs, etc, etc, etc. You click, and $300 smackers drops nearly directly to Apple’s bottom line nearly instantaneously.

Ask anyone in supply chain management what that really means. It’s a TOTAL game changer in business models. And ONE company figured that out how to make that work before anyone else.

Like it or not, Apple is simply playing the business game at a whole different level than most companies.

Some will pick, and kick and resist. And yes, for some people with some business plans and some specific needs, this will NOT work the way they want it to. Sorry.

But I saw something that can make my professional life a whole lot EASIER – with state of the art tools in combinations and executions that will let me do more, more simply – than I can now.

I couldn’t be more excited to get it on my machine. And to start using what I saw to make better videos more easily. Because that’s EXACTLY what I saw on that stage last night.

End of story.

“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’Conner

[Bill Davis]

Either of them will allow you to view the composition of your scenes perfectly well.

NEITHER of them will allow you to judge the accuracy of color or luminance values in your shots or help uou see and hopefully resolve lighting issues in any manner that is dependable nor professional.

Toss a coin.

“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’Conner

[Bill Davis]

Just PLEASE tell me that THIS one won’t take 4 years from announcement to a purchasable device.

(sent from Ballys where the Supermeet chatter is palpable and Mike Horton mumbled something about “extra security” for tomorrow night when I talked to him at noon. Nothing DULL about this year at NAB whatever happens!)

“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’Conner

[Bill Davis]

Mark,

I absolutely agree that the tools are secondary to the skill of the person using them – and I argue that here all the time.

However, one reality of the current technology trend is that, for the FIRST time in video production history, there are INEXPENSIVE tools that produce visual quality that rivals the output of the professional gear that has dominated the high end of the industry for decades. That’s a fundamental change. The fact that I don’t have to depreciate a $60,000 camera over every single job I take has changed a lot of my decision making when it comes to picking and choosing what I can and should shoot.

Similarly, an edit suite built around equipment costing thousands, rather than tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars changes all the economies of my overhead structure.

Instead of commercial space, I have a converted hay barn on my property – purpose built out for video production – reducing my overhead from a mortgage AND office space to a single payment that builds equity for my family over time.

In the aggregate, these are gigantic changes in the business fundamentals that govern professional work in the modern era.

It’s a world where these kind of fundamental changes are sweeping through the industry that the new FCP will make it’s way.

I hold to my contention that those who embrace change will have an easier time than those who keep holding onto the processes of the past – simply because they’re the current standard.

The new FCP will sink or swim on it’s own merits. Maybe this isn’t the time for a major change in the fundamental concepts of video (and general motion content) editing. But then again, maybe it is.

It’ll be interesting either way!

(And if you’re coming to NAB, come by and say hi at the SuperMeet. I’m usually pretty visible since I participated in the birth of the LAFCPUG 10 years ago, and often pitch in helping Mike Horton run the festivities.)

“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’Conner

[Bill Davis]

Mark,

I totally understand your perspective. I will note however that the last time I faced this kind of technology rev – in the “what camera should I shoot on” quandry, I took a flyer and became an early adopter of the Canon 5dMkii. As a 3 decades experienced video guy, I understood the risks and the limitations.

That was nearly two YEARS ago. The first year, I had the luxury of building expertise without the stress of it being my MUST USE tool. Then, suddenly, everywhere I looked people were demanding the camera that I had significant experience using. That fact alone allowed me to move into higher and higher end work – getting calls from larger ad agencies and bigger corporations rather than smaller clients.

It’s always a toss up as to when you adopt something new.

Bet wrong and you waste time learning something that will be obsolete or irrelevant all too soon.

But bet correctly, and when everyone starts demanding the new toys you already know how to incorporate what they do with your existing experience.

YMMV.

“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’Conner

[Bill Davis]

Scott,

I understand your angst, and share some of it. But consider this.

Today’s editing interface is largely a digital implementation of the same editing workflow that was forced by the 3 deck A/B roll conventions of editing in the 1960s. Source deck? Rec deck? We all loved that as traditional editors, we could look on our screens and see little icons that represented the same boxes that we used when we were learning to edit.

But it’s 50+ years LATER, for pete’s sake. i love traditions and proven workflows as much as the next guy. But honestly, if people as bright as the teams at Apple have actually done some thinking about what editing MIGHT be from a 2011 perspective – especially given the ASTONISHING developments in computers and general digital technology since the 60s – then I for one am willing to give an alternate vision (if, in fact we will actually see something like that at NAB) a chance.

What we DO know is that Apple is investing heavily in orders of magnitude improvement in internal box thru-put (I was told that the first implementation (copper) of Thunderbolt represents a 10x improvement over USB3 and FW800 – but that implementations 2 (copper with optical) and 3 (all optical) will drive data rates up to 100 TIMES the current rates.

This means so much change about to how “data” is handled – that perhaps the INTERFACE necessary to handle digital assets like video, audio, and graphics also might be changed in ways to better leverage this new style of system wide global data access?

I’m just blue-skying here, but REAL advance only happens when someone is ready to adapt to new realities – rather than settle for incremental advancement on the old – which, while comforting for the existing base – hardly ever really change the way people work.

Nobody knows if this will be a LISA change (amazing tech, but a flop because the market was no where near ready) or a MAC change (a whole new way of icon-based graphical computing that changed EVERYTHING about computer interface design, forever)

I’m actually pulling for the latter. Yeah, it will be uncomfortable. But even at my age, I still love riding scary waves of transformation. Makes me feel fresh and young again!

YMMV.

“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’Conner

[Bill Davis]

Ok, now THATs funny! (I’ll have to consider changing my idiom list top choice from “more cowbell” to “more wolf-moons!”)

As to the release, I’m NOT in the apple inner circle, NOT under non-disclosure and literally know nothing more than anyone else – but I have been talking to a lot of friends high up in the FCP community and my sense is that this is NOT going to be a simple re-tinkering of the existing interface, but rather a whole new approach to editing. I think the I/O improvements via Thunderbold – plus the Apple concept of CORE technologies giving programs fundamental building blocks that can shuffle data WICKED FAST – means that whatever they do, it might be a WHOLE lot more efficient, than just stringing bunches of reference clips along a timeline.

That kind of excites me AND scares me at the same time.

I’ve met a good number of folks on the FCP team casually including the product manager and the cheif architect (tho I certainly don’t know them well enough to have ever asked them things that are not public knowledge) – and my sense is that they’re very smart people who work really hard at building great software. The issue is whether the direction they went this time is truly a “re-invention” of the base concepts/interface of editing – or just building more whiz-bang into the existing interface.

We’ll all know in a week!

“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’Conner

[Bill Davis]

AppleInsider is reporting that Apple has bumped ALL the speakers from the FCP Supermeet and is going to use the entire evening for a MAJOR announcement. Most people I chat with who are close to the issue are betting it’s the long awaited Final Cut Pro Total Re-build.

We shall see next Tuesday at the Supermeet!

“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’Conner

[Bill Davis]

Just to amplify the whole mess …

Understand that metrics like cost “per finished minute” are best as AFTER THE FACT checks and balances.

It gives a producer a sense of whether they’re working efficiently or are getting sloppy at controlling costs.

If you FLIP the metric around and try to make it PREDICTIVE – you’re making a HUGE mistake, in my estimation.

This thinking is based on my first year in college where I decided (wrongly) that I was going to be a music major. I sat in my very first class and the instructor had us diagram an early composition by Palestrina. He pointed out such musical conventions as “leading tones” “Picardy fifths” and other bits of the common language of classical music breakdown and study. Sitting in that class, it struck me that no composer worth the name sits down and composes by saying to him or herself – “I think I’ll insert a leading tone here” – They sit and assess SOUNDS. They strive for pleasing combinations of notes and chords and melody lines. They do not ANALYZE – but rather CREATE. Analysis comes AFTER the creation.

If you wish to create great videos, DO THAT. Create them. But understand that in that act of CREATION, there’s NOTHING more destructive than trying to impose an arbitrary analysis in advance upon your work.

Yes, budgets matter. And you can’t run a business or make a living without paying attention to them.

But they are NOT EVER to be confused with the actual task of creating work. One restricts, the other MUST be allowed to reign free.

When you’re tempted to sit and do line item, budget, or yes PFM analysis – understand that you’re in a DIFFERENT PLACE than the place where you make your videos. And none of the metrics will matter if you don’t school yourself to do the REAL work of creation.

More than that, if you FOCUS on the metrics, you risk ROBBING yourself of the time to learn the real arts of creation.

It’s a tough balance, because both are critical.

But I think THIS is important. Some people will inevitably turn out to be a bean counters who pretend to be creative. And some people will be creatives who pretend to be bean counters. BOTH are typical life paths. But I know WHICH I am called to be. And so I struggle with the beans mightily to serve my passion for creation.

It’s who I am. And I try not to forget that, nor to be too harsh on myself (or others) in the face of that reality.

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’Conner