Chris Jacek
Forum Replies Created
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[Jim Giberti] “To quote Sir Paulie, “Let it be”.”
Of course, he also said “I’m comin’ down fast, but don’t let me break you.”
Sorry, I tried to find something more ridiculous, but my mental roledex of Beatles songs has taught me that most of the silly lyrics were sung by John and Ringo.
Professor, Producer, Editor
and former Apple Employee -
Ric,
Kudos to you for having the guts to address this tough crowd. There are many strong opinions and harsh criticisms that come from this group, and I am just as guilty as anyone. Thanks for keeping a good debate going. That said, I’m sorry to set up the big “BUT”, but…
I have to disagree with you regarding FCPX even being the best tool for video art. I run a Digital Media program at a small college. We emphasize both employability, and artistic video creation. One of our major annual projects is something called the “Big Box” where we create a four-sided video “room” that people stand inside of, and are surrounded by video on all 4 sides, similar to the parlors in Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451. To make this work, we must create a master video in an obscure frame size (4096×768). Unless things have changed dramatically since I gave up on the software, this is not even possible in the FCPX environment.
Though FCPX and Motion are indeed capable of compelling visuals, they are also quite often limited to a “preset” mentality. Yes, you can create some lush animations, but there are likely 10,000 other people making the exact same visual. For truly original work, I believe that After Effects is far better suited to the task. I could not even imagine attempting some of the things we have tried without the use of the expressions language in After Effects. And of course, Premiere benefits from offering the easiest pipeline to After Effects.
As an educator, I do feel that I must echo some of the sentiments of other professionals on the board. It should not be the goal of instructors to find the easiest path for our students, nor should we cater to their deficiencies, such as their lack of organizational skills. That would be like assigning less homework, because students have a tendency not to do their homework. Or starting class late, because students are notoriously bad at getting up early. We owe it to them to help overcome their deficiencies.
We use DSLRs. in part, for this very reason. DSLRs’ lack of adequate autofocus, quality sync-sound, power-zoom, and other features that have become standard on video cameras, is actually a benefit to teaching, rather than a liability. It allows me to teach the students the skills that many of us may have let slip over the past 10-20 years. And by doing so, the students are able to create a much better product than they would have been able at the same price point (because, in education it’s also ALWAYS about budget).
Okay, now I am straying wildly off-topic, which is starting to sound like one of my classes.
Professor, Producer, Editor
and former Apple Employee -
Wow, between this and the thread on 3D printers, this is becoming my go-to place to feed my brain. I feel like I’m 12 again, watching the Cosmos on PBS in the 80s. Eyes wide, jaw dropped.
Professor, Producer, Editor
and former Apple Employee -
First of all, can I just say that my mind is blown. I knew this technology was out there, but I guess I thought it was still in the theoretical realm rather than the practical.
I tend to agree that 10 years is closer to reality than 50 years. But I do not think consumer printers would be used for everything. But think about much of what we buy now. Lots of plastic gadgets, utensils, etc.., Many more than we used to buy, because they are actually cheaper than they used to be, thanks to cheap labor and the industrial infrastructure overseas. Those things could be made cheaper, and more importantly, more customized.
Things like toys, kitchen utensils, sunglasses, phone cases, etc.., could be made in any color or pattern you want. As a Michigan grad, a maize and blue spatula with a block M on it might appeal to me. Today, I could probably get it online, and it would probably be very overpriced. And what if wanted something from XYZ Art College instead. There’s no chance that such an item would even exist.
My guess is that most people won’t have these printers in their homes in 10 years, but I’ll bet they buy products made on them. Imagine a Kinko’s type store down the street that has a few of the nicer versions of the printer. You could place your order online, and go pick it up like you might pick up you photos from Walgreens. And you could probably have your photo made into a spatula. Or pick up 50 sets of customized tumblers and plates for the office birthday party.
Again, I don’t think we are all going to have printers in our house that make every household item we use. But I think a fair number of things we already buy could either be made at home, or could easily be made for same-day pickup in town, and made exactly to our specifications. All for a modest mark-up that will still keep the prices low enough to keep us addicted to “must have” fads.
Professor, Producer, Editor
and former Apple Employee -
[Bill Davis] “[Michael Aranyshev] “The have no idea about editing.”
Really.
Dont’ tell Randy, the chief architect.
Since he coded KeyGrip, Premier 1.0, FCP Legacy – all before he designed X, I’d say the evidence indicates he understands editing better than either you or I do since his name has been high up on the architecture lists of at least three of the best selling video editing apps of the past generation.”
Not necessarily true Bill. I worked with Randy in the FCP 1.2-3.0 era, and I can say that he did not fully understand editing then. He fully understood programming in ways that I cannot even comprehend, but that does not necessarily mean you understand the needs of the end-user. To the best of my knowledge, FCPX is the first project that he was the product designer for. For everything else, he was the lead engineer, which is definitely NOT the same as being the chief architect in my opinion. That would be the designer’s job. There were many good-natured yet heated arguments between the FCP designer at the time and Mr. Ubilous about “what editors want”, like keyboard mapping, which Randy insisted that nobody wanted. I can say that in most (probably ALL) cases I think the designer was right, and Randy was wrong. That doesn’t mean that he isn’t a kick-ass engineer (which he is) but at that time at least, he did not truly understand his user-base.
Since many of these arguments took place at Quark’s cafe during NAB, I’ll use a geeky Star Trek reference. Scotty might have been the best engineer in the galaxy, but I don’t think we’d want him taking over the bridge when the Enterprise is in Klingon territory.
Live long and prosper
Professor, Producer, Editor
and former Apple Employee -
[Bobby Mosca] “Very, very few people can do what CEOs do”
This is because most successful CEOs are sociopaths. Most of us could not do what they do, because we have consciences. In order to be one of the big dogs today, getting 8 or 9 figure bonuses each year, you must willingly do things that will hurt or even kills thousands, if not millions, or people.
I know it sounds like hyperbole, but there have actually been numerous studies supporting this position. Being able to act without any regard for how your actions affect others is a common personality trait among the CEOs of the most successful corporations. This character trait is clinically known as sociopathy or psychopathy.
I’m not saying that Jobs or Cook fall/fell into that category (Jobs could certainly have been labeled Narcissistic), but I think it is pretty clearly the case with others, like the Koch brothers, or the CEOs of the major oil and health care corporations.
Professor, Producer, Editor
and former Apple Employee -
[TImothy Auld] “Something really great. I can’t wait. Oh, but i guess I have to. Three years worth. I think there are few in the post production business who care about or believe a shred of what Apple says any longer. 2013? Really??
Tim”
To follow up on this point, why are we spending so much energy on whether it is “true confirmation” of Mac Pros or not. Even if this is iron-clad proof that there will be new Mac Pros in the timeframe promised, what value is that? Promising to deliver a product “some time” next year, when we aren’t even half-way through THIS year, and giving ZERO details? How is this at all acceptable?
I’m sorry folks, but they might as well have said “Don’t call us, we’ll call you.” My opinion is this: You’ll can to Windows now, before everyone else does it, or you’ll be switching later, after everyone else. I personally try to stay ahead of that curve whenever possible.
Professor, Producer, Editor
and former Apple Employee -
I can only speak for myself, a liberal-minded professor of digital media, and son of a UAW assembly-line worker. I’ve also worked in the video production industry for about 20 years, and worked on the FCP team in Cupertino for two years. Five years ago, you could not have said a bad word about Apple to me without hearing a manifesto about the virtues of Macs.
Over the past few years, however, I have seen the corporate culture of the company deteriorate. IT was slow and subtle at first, with things like customer service getting worse, or the sudden $200 price-drop in iPhone 1 and Apple’s initial stance that the the early adopters could go pound sand. The pace hastened as Steve Jobs’ health declined IMO. Things like the iPhone 4’s antenna issue “you’re holding it wrong,” the instant killing of FCS3, and finally the China stories.
Although Apple still may not be on the same level of evil in my eyes as companies like BP or Monsanto, I’d say that they are about 80% of the way there. And I certainly wouldn’t call them liberal any more. Fortunately for them, in a PR sense, their legacy liberal image (thanks mostly to Jobs) carries on. It’s similar to how Walmart’s change went largely unnoticed for several years, thanks to their “American Made” philosophies of the 1980s, and the legacy of Sam Walton.
Smartly, Apple seems to be doing just enough to keep that image alive in the minds of most, like raising workers pay in China. But at the end of the day, the liberal thing to do would be to bring those jobs back to the U.S., and find a way to innovate their way past any financial setbacks that this might cause.
For a political junkie like myself, I’m not buying it. I purchased my first Windows laptop in over 20 years last summer. My house once had as many as 10 Apple computers in it, and I had 3 iPods/iPhones. Now I have no iPods or iPhones and my only Mac at home is a Macmini, which was only purchased because my wife needed iChat for some of her clients. Within the next 12 months, I will be converting my entire curriculum to Windows from Apple.
Was all of this because of politics? Certainly not. But I’d be lying if I said it didn’t play a role in my decisions.
Professor, Producer, Editor
and former Apple Employee -
[Michael Gissing] “Have any of those afraid of Windows had any recent experience with Win 7 64 bit? “
I’d been an aggressive Mac advocate for nearly 20 years, almost never touching a Windows machine. Last year, after the release of FCPX, I bought a Dell desktop replacement laptop (XPS 17). I thought I’d start getting used to Windows in case the industry shifts away from Mac, which had been a slowly growing suspicion of mine over the past 5 years.
Using Premiere CS5 and CS5.5 on the Windows laptop was far easier than I’d expected, and the performance just killed my MPB (admittedly, not really a fair fight since it is 13″ MBP). The only reasons I still used the Mac more than the PC was familiarity with OSX, stubbornness, and the fact that the curriculum I teach is still uses Macs.
Objectively looking at the situation, I’d say the experience is about the same on both. Both Windows 7 and OSX have things that are frustrating to me. Sadly, the annoyances on OSX are growing (to me, Lion is an example of Apple’s new “we know what’s best for you” philosophy), while the annoyances with Windows have been shrinking over the years.
I am most likely doing the change-over to Windows laptops in my curriculum this year, rather than next year or later as I had planned. I now am convinced that the industry will indeed shift to Windows as a result of Apple’s new direction. Given the fact that for the same price as the entry-level 13″ MBP, I can get a 17″, dual HD Windows laptop with a CUDA-enabled NVidia card and Blu-Ray, it just does not make sense for me to force my students to purchase the lesser machine. It pains me to say it, but dollar for dollar, that lesser machine is the Mac. It used to be worth the extra money for a Mac, because you would get extra performance or a vastly superior interface. I no longer believe this is the case.
Professor, Producer, Editor
and former Apple Employee -
I like the idea of a new “Crossroads” forum in addition to this forum. If you build it, I will post.
Professor, Producer, Editor
and former Apple Employee