Chris Jacek
Forum Replies Created
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[Gary Huff] “So engineers are always smarter than the customers? Or only Apple engineers?”
All engineers in general. But ESPECIALLY Apple engineers. Don’t you know that we, as a society, all failed by not loving the G4 Cube and the “hockey puck” mouse.
Professor, Producer, Editor
and former Apple Employee -
Am I missing something. Wasn’t the original post supposed to be humorous? As a joke, its level of offensiveness rises to “lampoon” at worst.
Professor, Producer, Editor
and former Apple Employee -
[Bill Davis] “Oh well. At least the forum looks like it might be going two for two. X waa a disaster right up until everyone started realizing out it actually wasn’t, at ALL.”
I think there is still a compelling argument that FCPX has been a disaster, especially when viewed as an overall event in the post-production industry. The software as it stands in its current state (still unacceptable to many of us) is only part of the equation. Much of the damage was done upon release, and at best, Apple is still playing catch-up in its effort to regain its position in the nonlinear space.
Professor, Producer, Editor
and former Apple Employee -
[Lance Moody] “external storage is the main way that most actual real editors doing actual real work do things anyway.”
So did you feel compelled to make a ridiculous statement just to support you claim of there being many ridiculous statements? Your assertion is absurd, condescending, and myopic.
I guess using internal drive arrays is the mark of an amateur? How naive of us resist additional cables that can short out, and don’t want to spend extra money on enclosures.
Professor, Producer, Editor
and former Apple Employee -
[Lance Moody] “[Joseph W. Bourke] “but I think that the lack of the ability to upgrade the cpu and other components will make it an orphan sooner than you think.”
You mean like you could upgrade all the previous pro machines? The ridiculous comments are facinating.”
Isn’t this a bit of a ridiculous comment? Yes you COULD upgrade the previous pro machines in ways you cannot on this new machine. You could choose your graphics card, you could add internal hard drives, you could add optical drives. You cannot do any of that on this machine without external boxes and cables.
Professor, Producer, Editor
and former Apple Employee -
Fail IMO. No internal expandability tells us everything we need to know. This is not a workstation. It is a beefed up Mini of Cube meant to be replaced every 18-24 months. People generally expect a longer lifespan out of a workstation. But all of those TB2 ports are relevant only until TB3 comes out.
Of course, the price will dictate how well this computer will do. If it is priced as a Mini or Cube, then maybe it has a chance to thrive as a “planned obsolescence” Apple gadget. I find that unlikely, however. If its price tag is over $2000, I don’t see it as an attractive option when you consider all the external add-ons you’ll need to buy just to bring its capabilities up to that of a traditional workstation.
Also, can anyone remember when a heavily daisy-chained solution was the most efficient or most desirable solution? Remember when people would pay the “Apple Tax” BECAUSE they offered the most desirable solution?
To me, there is no longer any incentive to stay on the Apple platform at all. You will pay extra for extra headaches.
Professor, Producer, Editor
and former Apple Employee -
I think there are maybe 2 unintended consequences of this move by Adobe. The first, more obvious consequence may be increased piracy. Even though it is hard to imagine any MORE piracy than there is now for their products, I think about my situation as a teacher and facilitator at a college. The CC is nowhere near as convenient for me to implement multiple seats for my program. The Teams option may be logistically solid, but at $40 a month, the cost is way too high for our budget. We currently pay about $6 a month for our maintenance license for Production Premium.
Going forward, the only option I see is to require the students to buy their own CC subscriptions at $20 a month (not really a bad price) to use on their laptops (which are required for the program). Many may buy it, but I believe many will not. And since the software is required for class, those who don’t pay will find other ways to get the software. Once one student figures out how to get a pirated copy, word will obviously spread. Not a good scenario.
I believe the longer-term consequence of this move by Adobe, coupled with Apple’s FCPX debacle, and the possible demise of Avid, is greater use of open-source software. I have to think that those who are involved with Lightworks are happy to see companies like Apple and Adobe make unpopular decisions. Quite frankly, I’d imagine that most of us have this secret hope in the backs of our minds (or front) that Lightworks will evolve into the best NLE in the market, and that would truly revolutionize the industry.
I am actually not as angered as most by Adobe move, but I am not exactly happy either. I think they are having their LeBron James moment. They made a decision that is going to be somewhat unpopular no matter what, but would be understandable to most, and turned it into a much bigger deal because of the way they did it. A more measured phase-out would probably have been more popular. The same thing happened with the immediacy of the FCP7 death. If we learned anything from LeBron, it that sometimes the way you do things can have more impact than the thing itself.
Professor, Producer, Editor
and former Apple Employee -
Seems that there are two topics here, but I’d like to comment on both.
First, the scenario that Oliver describes is exactly how I had been working for much of the past 10 years. Do all of the precise timing of the cuts and simply effects (dissolves, wipes, etc) in FCP7, and then use Automatic Duck to get the project to AE. Around the time of CS3, I slowly started integrating Premiere into my workflow. I felt that it would start becoming more of a player in the post world because it was cross-platform, and was getting more innovative with each release with things like Dynamic Link. And like most, I already had the software as part of the CS, so it was basically free.
The important factor, however, was always the ability to bring my project to AE as individual elements. Motion was always a fun program for trying things out, but After Effects could never be beat when it came to flexibility and intuitive interface. Expressions are IMO the most powerful tool in motion effects creation. For this reason, above all others, FCPX will not be a viable option for quite some time, if ever. The Avid-AE workflow is still okay, but it is definitely hard to beat the flexibility of Dynamic Link. Because of this, my workflow will be Premiere-AE for the foreseeable future.
I also happen to teach Digital Media at a college. Regarding the Broadcast/No Broadcast choices of my students, it seems to mostly depend upon whether they are sports fans. Those who follow sports tend to stick with broadcast, but heavily supplement with streaming and torrents. Those who don’t like sports tend to ignore broadcast almost entirely. Of course, I could certainly see this dynamic changing, as sports streaming has gotten very good. But for now, however, with the exception of major league baseball, the infrastructure to make online-only a viable option for sports-junkies is still lacking.
Professor, Producer, Editor
and former Apple Employee -
I also responded similarly to everyone else. My comments were that it wasn’t a lack of understanding that kept me from the cloud, but the price. This tends to be a bit of arrogant propaganda that I continually hear coming from Adobe: If you’re not singing the praises of “The Cloud” it’s because you don’t understand how it works, or can’t visualize the advantages. To paraphrase Clinton, “It’s the economics, stupid.” I guarantee you that just about every one of us who is reluctant about The Cloud would instantly become Creative Cloud cheerleaders if it cost $20 a month, and was locked at that rate.
Professor, Producer, Editor
and former Apple Employee -
Regarding Cineform, is the codec available to GoPro owners? Or would you still need to buy it? We recently purchased 4 of the Hero 3 Black Editions.
Professor, Producer, Editor
and former Apple Employee