Bill Davis
Forum Replies Created
-
[Herb Sevush] “Nothing “aesthetically refined” goes on until you get back to the edit room where the editor and director are taking the time to get things right.”
For you, perhaps Herb.
But while I was chatting with Jan Kovac – the editor of Wiskey Tango Foxtrot – we talked d about how he and co-director Glen Ficarra were constantly trading “editing ideas” on-set (and in the production trailer base camp and in their respective hotel rooms – etc. and that the ability to pull up the rushes and work with directly with the footage in the field at every stage of production was a change they heartily embraced.
This mirrors my general experience.
Editing is no longer something that must be done at an “editing station” anymore. Rather, it’s something that can be done whenever and wherever the editor has the time and need.
This is the direction the entire industry has been moving since processors on both desktop and laptop computers got to the place where moving frames through any computer system became trivial. And we’ve been there for a LONG time now.
That recent “look at this!” article about Baby Driver showing an editor working via AVID on set – seems to have created a bit of a “wow” moment for some editors. But in truth, that same “wow” moment for me came more than 5 years ago when I realized that I could do everything I could do in my office – anywhere.
It’s liberating to be ABLE to edit anywhere – even if you decide you prefer to work from the same desk 95% of the time.
That’s all.
Creator of XinTwo – https://www.xintwo.com
The shortest path to FCP X mastery. -
I suspect the modern MacBookPro would run rings around and Cheesegrater unless it was some hot-Rodded beast that somebody has sunk $$$ into in constant RAM/GPU upgrades.
These modern Apple laptops Appear to be MUCH practically faster than their mere specs imply – at least running X. Apparently AVID and Premiere are simply not as optimized from everything I’ve read.
Knowing Thomas Grove Carter reasonably well and having chatted with him a good bit and even watched over his shoulder as he’s cut on the road – it has appeared to me that he has NO performance issues of any kind while working on large/dense projects via his MacBookPro.
Upgraded GPUs and big SSDs seem to make the largest difference in expanding laptop editing capacity – but when TGC was cutting live at NAB For his Supermeet demo – his totally stock MacBook Pro was crazy quick with the whole BMW and Ed Sheeran source pool on IIRC a 4TB External SSD.
He’s had nothing but praise for the laptop approach when I’ve talked to him.
You might expect stuff like long form to be more challenging – but my friends like Ryan and Mads at Metronome in Denmark have done tons of episodic TV on older iMacs that are barely faster than the latest MacBook Pros. Raids are the key there and AFAIK USB C/TB3 attach as easily to a MacBook as to an iMac.
I’m sure processing or rendering out really massive layered rasters still requires all the processor grunt you can hook up to. So access to a shop style rig for mastering is maybe smart if you want to do big projects – but the editing really doesn’t seem to be a very big deal much anymore.
I don’t do stuff that complex, only working regularly with 4K stuff for HD web delivery – not the big rasters or deep color stuff yet – but I doubt I’ll ever own another desktop rig.
I’ve recycled too many big expensive CRTs and flat screens already over the years!
YMMV.
Creator of XinTwo – https://www.xintwo.com
The shortest path to FCP X mastery. -
I think lots of people here are still missing the real point.
It’s not “can” you functionally and usefully edit on a <1″ thick battery powered device in 2017. That was a BIG question for decades. But Its obviously gone now.
Now the question is more twofold, IMO.
The first is what type of editing do you wish to do at what stage. Trimming stringouts for review? Grabbing camera shots – tossing a LUT on them for near real-time review? Matching Action? – all those things are kinda trivial now – any laptop can play. Mostly any software too.
The next stage may be how much of the expected back end processes now start to collapse toward the shoot. Will there be an assistant editor on-set tagging selects as they are shot? If he or she is talented and assembles scenes with a refined esthetic, will that be a place the editor needs to eventually move so they can remain relevant?
Or will the editing be entirely on-line and cloud based where it doesn’t technically matter who touches what from where such that the Director, DP, AE, EDITOR and maybe the freeking Producer are all capable of futzing around with the image stream.
I kinda chuckled today in a Pre-Pro call when the Agency Art Director basically implied “I have Creative Suite on my laptop – if you’re cutting in Premiere – you could just send me your project and I could insert the titling and adjust the edits as needed to make the titles work best on my end – then send the work back your way…
Is the era of the ArtDirector/Collaborative Editor upon us?
And I’m not surprised. When everyone in every shop – creatives, admin, sales, (cleaning crew?) etc – ALL Have 24/7 access to the exact same hardware and software – the temptation to think familiarity alone breeds expertise is pretty powerful.
And so it goes.
Creator of XinTwo – https://www.xintwo.com
The shortest path to FCP X mastery. -
Not at all. I’m simply saying that there are likely between 20,000 and a million users who can reasonably conceive that it would be cool for an new NLE to have stuff like “a mixer” or “multicam” or “match frames” they’ve had a decades to become accustomed to – and that focusing on THOSE types of things should be a priority.
There are just a rediculously small number of people in a position to conceive and implement something like in-NLE range based tagging, vertically magnetic timelines, or Roles.
One lots of companies can pull off.
The others? Extremely few.
Creator of XinTwo – https://www.xintwo.com
The shortest path to FCP X mastery. -
Seems the group has spoken.
Apple needs to plumb into X a nice virtualized 1980s style NEVE/NECAM 64 channel audio console – add a big virtual normalized patch bay and a way to let the user change things using virtual patch cables.
And make sure there’s a satisfying virtual CLICK as each virtual plug goes into it’s virtual socket.
Offering virtual “splicing tape” and “channel labeling paper tape” would enable add-on sales as well! Win/win!
The more skeuomorphic the better!
(obviously teasing.)
Creator of XinTwo – https://www.xintwo.com
The shortest path to FCP X mastery. -
[Jeremy Garchow] “Because Apple adds a feature you don’t use, but everyone else will use, including people who use X, Apple stands a chance to stop dreaming big?
I don’t know, Bill. This is far fetched, even from you.”
Jeremy,
Nothing I say is ever going to preclude the CHANCE of anyone dreaming small, big or in-between.
It’s a shift in the PRIORITY of dreaming big that I fear..
A difference WITH a distinction.
Creator of XinTwo – https://www.xintwo.com
The shortest path to FCP X mastery. -
[Chris Harlan] “Dang, Bill! Cranky and dismissive as ever! Who says there’s nothing constant in the Universe!
“
If someone were to isolate just all OUR discussions over the past 10 years – there’s your ipso facto evidence of “consistency” right there!
Be well. ????
Creator of XinTwo – https://www.xintwo.com
The shortest path to FCP X mastery. -
[Neil Goodman] “Wow Bill, if some of those features that Oliver listed were implemented, more people might take X a little more seriously and more people might use X. Good thing no? A lot of those things, like timecode views and UI customizations and dupe detections are basic and would go a loooooong way.
There’s gotta be something you wish X could do or did differently.”
Neil,
Of COURSE there are.
The issue for me is that there are 100 voices all asking for 5,000 things that are important to each of them. And I totally understand that there are many on that list that whole consituencies are looking for. And I truly hope they get them over time.
What I can’t abide is thinking that Apple will start chasing all those things the “experienced” editors are focused on – and start trying to nibble away at those – and in doing so diminish the REAL potential progress that it represented by NEW THINKING and CREATIVITY. I don’t want them to play SMALL BALL here. I want them to dream big.
THAT’s the voice I want to be.
An advocate for Apple keeping focus on the BIG ideas. Lets be clear here – I’m the FIRST to admit I’m not qualified nor bright enough to conceive what that would be. I have the same exact constraints that I see in ALL the people arguing for dup detection or better keyframing – EVERYONE can see that. It’s NOT transformational enough to be interesting. Plus, I don’t have enough fundamental understanding of what’s practical nor possible and what’s imaginary and more trouble than it’s worth. So I LEAVE that up to the people on the X team – because it’s a team bespoke assembled to figure those types of things out.
I just argue for a constant focus on the MAGIC. In the midst of these lists of the prosaic.
There’s NOTHING wrong with these sorts of lists. Just when they’re posted, expect one voice over here in the corner arguing for something MORE than just what it’s easy to identify and bitch about.
That’s all.
Creator of XinTwo – https://www.xintwo.com
The shortest path to FCP X mastery. -
I know this runs counter to the prevailing sentiment – but it’s there result of something that happened just a week ago.
There was a pretty big fire in my neighborhood. One street over a house had an electrical fire.
The smoke was seen all over the area.
My son ran in and told us there was a fire – so I went to look. Had my iPhone 7+ and since I was able to get there close, fast – I shot some fire coverage.
Came home and rough edited it. And called a friend who up to a year ago, was a news producer at a local network affiliate and presuming she’d like to turn her station mates onto some decent fire coverage – gave her the link: She popped back with a “i’ll alert the station” email.
I did a package of raw footage for the station to use and a :30 highlights thing – expecting an email.
Crickets. At 5 and 6pm the stations in the area ran 10 seconds with helicopter broad shots and that was it.
Yes, nobody died.
But I realized looking back that there are circumstances where quality SIMPLY doesn’t matter any more. What matters is businesses working in their EXPECTED pre-set system. Fire? Is Helicopter available? Can we get a clip? Write a blurb for the anchor – roll it – and move on.
THAT is where we are today.
Nobody has time for perfection for anything but VERY long tail – long value content crafted and presumed to create a return over years, not months or days. And IMO, that’s getting tougher and tougher. When was the last time you paid to watch a Movie that was popular more than 2-3 years ago? And put another way – how many OPTIONS did you REJECT and not pay – along the way towards any of those that you actually watched?
Content is churning at a blistering pace. Finding a reason for someone to click on YOUR content is crazy difficult already – and willl be more and more so as every day passes.
It’s a new era. And the old rules work less and less.
My 2 cents.
Creator of XinTwo – https://www.xintwo.com
The shortest path to FCP X mastery. -
My CC Photo subscription was $9.95 ($10.62 with tax) monthly.
And Affinity was $49.95 retail.
Still, the overarching point is the same.Creator of XinTwo – https://www.xintwo.com
The shortest path to FCP X mastery.