[Tim Wilson]

Dude, if you don’t buy the plaque from them, we may need to take up a collection.

Wait, set up a Kickstarter for it. I’m SO THERE.

[Tim Wilson]

The perspective of guys the age of me and Bob is that, when we went to college, NONE of this existed. I went to a large, well-heeled liberal arts college you’ve definitely heard of, 10,000 students (much bigger now of course), and ONE computer that students had access to. Punch cards, man.

Cameras under 75 lbs? Dream on. With no computers, there was no software. The industry as we know it simply didn’t exist. It wasn’t there. So the BEST we could hope for was learning how to learn in general, as well as some barely related stuff.

For example, cutting film taught me SOMETHING useful, primarily, media management = not letting strips of film fall between the desk and the wall, or else you have to move the desk to pick them up. Which sucks.

I’m talking about the days when the radio guys in my department had better and more lucrative job prospects than TV and film guys. That’s another story, but it’s an indication of WHY guys our age say the things we do.

Today is incredibly different. You actually CAN learn stuff that’s DIRECTLY applicable – media management of files rather than strips of celluloid, workflows, and a vast array of other skills that DO exist today that did NOT exist 35 years ago.

Learning how to learn is still critical. It’s conceivable that the environment you’ll make your living with hasn’t been invented yet, perhaps even moreso today than when Bob and I were coming up.

So while you’re thinking about how to prepare for the job you want, don’t forget to prepare for the job after THAT. Whatever job you want, this one or the next, don’t forget to prepare for replacing your boss. You DO want to be in management some day, right? Or you can keep grinding away, trying to keep your job while your boss wonders why he shouldn’t be paying some kid with a degree and an internship under her belt HALF of what he’s paying you.

Or you can be the guy making the decision about that stuff. Better to prepare to be the guy holding the axe than the guy wondering when it’s going to split his skull.

[Kylee Wall] “To get past the HR of a corporation or hospital or agency, they’ll expect you to have a college degree in something.”

Huge huge huge.

Microsoft and Apple were both famously founded by college dropouts. Given the growth in numbers of college graduates, how many people without a degree do you think they’ve hired in the last dozen years?Why the hell should they have hired ANY? I doubt they have.

So you need a lot MORE than a degree to get a job, but these days, you CANNOT have LESS than a degree. Not for a job that’s going to sustain you across a career, or enable you to move up the ladder.

Note that it doesn’t need to be a four year liberal arts program. There are many technical programs, as well as job-oriented programs at places like Full Sail.

Here’s the thing I like about four year programs though, in addition to sex and parties — neither of which I actually achieved in my four years of college, so caveat emptor. It’s the opportunity to be surprised.

This is the field you want to get into NOW — but you may find yourself a year from now thinking that you’d rather get into medical research, economics, law, fine arts, or, god forbid, education. You may find yourself more interested in DEVELOPING software than USING it, more interested in being in FRONT of cameras than BEHIND them.

The fact is that I think there’s a lot to be said for lack of focus. LOL

[Mark Suszko] “many businesses have exclusive internship deals with nearby schools.”

Also critical.

To Mark’s earlier observation, there are single schools that are turning out THOUSANDS of students every spring all on their own. Beyond my experience as a student in a media program 35 years ago, I had a front row seat to this just a few years ago when I worked at Avid. If there are fewer than 200,000 students coming out of media programs next spring, I’ll be shocked.

Again, this was not the case when guys my age were coming up. But it IS the case today. You’ll be doing well to get an internship before your junior year. In many places, it’s simply not an option. Employers can afford to be choosy.

This is starting to veer off topic, but I hope you’re getting the gist.

I’m going to end by expressing my 100000% agreement with Bob on the need to be a relentless hustler.

With hundreds of thousands of new graduates for the industry to select from each summer, you need something to set you apart. I don’t care about your reel. I expect you to be able to have a reel ten times better next year anyway.

I want to know that you will destroy every obstacle in your path to do what I want you to do. I need to know that you have no respect for anyone standing in your way. I want you to be a predator. Not that “Preditor” thing. PREDATOR, bloodthirsty, relentless.

AND with a degree, skills and experience, AND be pleasant to be around.

There. Does that sound so hard? Didn’t think so. LOL

[Tim Wilson]

[Craig Seeman] “[Andy jackson] “A staff job is what you need. Not many available.”

Staff jobs may not be much better given the frequency that companies go under.”

Certainly true, in which case the worst that has happened is that you’re back where you started.

In the meantime, you’ll have had a span with an actual salary, and with a halfway ethical employer, even benefits. If one is looking for guarantees, The Man is as close as you’ll get.

I think it’s an idea that more people should pursue, frankly. Andy’s right of course that these jobs aren’t as easy to find as they used to be, but think broadly. One reason that certain kinds of freelance jobs in some markets are drying up is because of the work going in house. Not all of it is being done by hacks. More companies are hiring qualified videomakers than are getting credit for it in some quarters.

But yeah, in general, if you want a salary, go someplace that’ll give you a salary.

[Tim Wilson]

[Nick Griffin] “I’d say, “Don’t get me started,” but apparently I already have.”

To me, this isn’t political, but personal.

The happy flipside of the insurance requirement is that you can’t be turned down for pre-existing conditions. After I left off working with The Man to go self-employed, a pre-existing condition left me uninsurable. I’d spent myself nearly dry going it on my own when in 2006, thanks to ROMNEYcare 🙂 — I was finally able to get coverage on my own.

(Not often talked about as a benefit — once I was back under regular medical care, I became eligible for life insurance coverage, which I’d repeatedly been rejected for by every insurer in the state when I was medically uninsured.)

I couldn’t afford to move anyplace else until Oregon started a state-managed high-risk pool. The insurance cost five times as much for one fifth the coverage, but at least I could get SOMETHING. My issue was never that I needed it to be cheap. I just needed it to be POSSIBLE, and for a period, it wasn’t possible at all…then finally in one state, then in two, and now, everywhere.

Being free to move freely (now to California) may not seem like that big a deal to people who don’t move around a lot — but I have my entire life, probably 30 times in my 50+ years. It was sobering to find myself nailed in one spot after a life of free movement across this great land of ours (with indeed, 5 cross-country moves), and I feel more liberated than ever to know that I’m not endangering my health, or being limited in my ability to provide for my family after my passing, because insurance is finally available.

My main issue with Obamacare, ironically, is that it isn’t as extensive as Romneycare, which could certainly go further. I can’t think of anything that ANYBODY does — government, business, myself — that can’t do better, but in any case, the insurance mandate has made my life so, so much better that I take any threats against it quite personally. It’s the only way I can afford to manage my health, my life, and my family’s future.

All the more important that we be reminded of the part we all play, Steve, and all the more reason I’m grateful for guys like you, Nick and Todd — and for me now, Creative COW!!! — who go the extra mile to take care of your people with 100% coverage. Blessings on you all.

Yr pal,
Timmy

[Tim Wilson]

He left out the part about, if, after being told what a bad idea this is, if you’re ridiculous enough to want to freelance, you’re going to inflict permanent damage to your mental health, and the mental health of the people who love you.

Kidding aside, I think that one of the dominant themes of the forum is becoming that freelancing is a siren’s song. I’m okay with that. It’s not for everyone, and as our boy Andy says, if the question is “How much should I charge?” the answer is probably “Don’t freelance.”

[Tim Wilson]

[Tony Brecknock] “Do you have any thoughts on the single best workflow to go 60i (capture from tape) to 50i prores”

Pretty much everyone else you know will be of more help to you on that than me. 🙂 Glad to help with the ProRes on Windows solution for you.

tw

[Tim Wilson]

[walter biscardi] “As far as I know you cannot export a ProRes file from Windows “

Yes you can.

This comes up quite regularly, and I never mind repeating the facts. There are multiple options, including free ones.

ffmpeg is free. Downside: clip-based…but works faster than Apple’s own exporter.

5DtoRGB, also free, offering a happier GUI front end to ffmpeg’s engine.

A product called Another GUI offers an even BETTER front end, and unlike the other two which are oriented toward single files/clips, offers batch encoding. Also very fast.

A lot of you have heard of those, but I’ll throw in a new one: Cinemartin Cinec. It not only does ProRes, but DNxHD, XDCAM, and all your favorite flavors of H.264. Even better, it also DECODES files including RAW, Cinema DNG, DPX, MXF, etc etc.

All of the ENCODE options I mentioned — including encode to ProRes — are FREE. Several of the DECODE options I mentioned are only available in paid versions (very reasonably priced), which offer additional options for other stuff too.

But to underscore: the ProRes encode is FREE.

Telestream Episode Engine, Vantage, and FlipFactory are incredibly full-featured resources that offer every bit of codec conversion control that you can imagine and then some. Even a small facility working with shared storage will find something very much worth their while.

And obviously not just for that one task, and by no means Windows-only. For anybody doing large amounts of ANY encoding, say for online, mobile, etc. – these Telestream products will change your life…with yeah, encode to ProRes on Windows, directly from inside Premiere – no problem.

Harmonic Procoder is the server-based progeny of the old Canopus Procoder, which was a vastly more full-featured version of Cleaner — raise your hand if you’re old enough to remember THAT thing. But again, as with Telestream, every bit of control that you can imagine, directly from inside Premiere or standalone, ideal for mixed platform, mixed codec environments.

Those are just the EIGHT ways of encoding ProRes on Windows that I know about, FOUR of which are FREE. There may be others.

Please spread the word. 🙂

Yr pal,
Timmy

[Tim Wilson]

[Warren Eig] “BUT the stories and screenplays are worse.”

I completely disagree. On pay cable, start with Game of Thrones and Homeland. On basic cable, start with Breaking Bad, Mad Men and Justified (my vote for best written show this century). On broadcast, it’s not only no worse than ever, but I think there are some genuine highs, including Elementary (a top 20 show), Arrow (why are you comix lovers not checking this out? I prefer it to Nolan’s Batmans, but it’s indisputably in that category).

Movies, I think the maturing Tarantino is one of the century’s pleasantest suprises and most welcome trend. Silver Linings Playbook, Argo, Moneyball, a couple from Fincher – I could keep going on.

Admittedly, none of those are from people younger than their 40s. People in their 20s have never had any power in TV in particular, but even 40s is a big freaking deal. The age of people in control is dropping over time, and I’m still going to say that quality is overall going up.

I haven’t even mentioned spots. The best spots have always been as entertaining as anything in any medium, and there are a bunch of great ones, and these too are being art directed by younger and younger people.

But since we’re talking about the *craft,* shooting is up, editing is up, VFX is up, music is up — there’s really not a single category of the *craft* that’s going anywhere but up.

You know I’m a huge fan of a classical education and paying dues — even though punks with MacBook Pros have neither and respect neither.

BUT, for the group of people that Bob and I are talking about, people who ARE rigorously trained, who HAVE gone through high-powered internships, after having done this since they were 11, this is real.

(Remember when it was a big deal that Spielberg and Abrams were making movies as 8 year olds? That seemed so exotic and rare, so “of course” they’re ambitious filmmakers. Guess what? It ain’t rare anymore, and kids today can be MORE ambitious, because they have examples in front of them that didn’t exist for these guys in their 40s-60s.)

It’s not just the community colleges and trade schools (Full Sail, LA Film School and the like) that are booming either, and I respect those immensely. MFA programs like AFI — whose graduates include the aforementioned Fincher, David Lynch, Caleb Deschanel, Cassavetes, Aronofsky — are also off the hook right now, in addition to the 4-year programs that are at every school of any size.

This market isn’t just being overrun by clueless wannabes…which again, I’m not disputing. But in the fashionable lamentations over THAT, we’re completely missing the REAL trend that’s going to change everything: smart kids who are going through tough programs. There are thousands of them being turned out every spring, and they’re part of the reason why the quality of things is getting better over time, not worse.

Not that I have any good news for those folks being displaced right now, but I think it helps in the long run to be talking about the actual dominant dynamic instead of being distracted by a few obvious examples of the one that’s changing the STRUCTURE Of the industry.

[Tim Wilson]

[Bob Zelin] “What will ultimately happen, is that they will hire a bright, fresh 23 year old journalism major, who has been taking photos with his own 5D/7D for the last 6 years (and they all look great), and this new hire will bring HIS OWN CAMERA (because he is so happy to have a job as a senior sports reporter), and he will write the article, AND take GREAT photos, and the paper will then realize that “we can fire the old bag reporter that has been here for 20 years, and get this new kid, who is getting paid $28,000 a year, can do the same job, AND takes great photos, AND he supplies his own camera !!!!!””

This. My favorite post of the year so far.

Bob’s right: the problem isn’t who they took the job FROM. The problem is who they gave the job TO. They grossly miscalculated by giving new cameras to old reporters. Their plan will work to perfection when they get rid of those guys too, and bring in people who are dying to do both.

Despite the dominant recurring theme here, the future isn’t ultimately being re-written by high schoolers who skipped college to compete against you with pirated copies of FCP. In places like Chicago, it’s going to be journalism majors from Northwestern who are educated, skilled, and who, coming out of college will, be more experienced in more things than most of us were at 30.

I’m looking at TV and movies and thinking, I don’t see the quality coming down. Quite the contrary. Newspapers are always slow. They’ll eventually figure out how to do this too.

[Tim Wilson]

[Gary Huff] “Had it resend the activation e-mail and all is good.”

Cool. Glad that worked. It really is typically something just that simple. We have hundreds of thousands of registered members, and lots of emails running back and forth, especially for people with subscriptions to forums or threads. We respond immediately to bounce reports to avoid being flagged as spammers.

We’re always happy to take a look at individual cases, but like I said, it’s usually something very simple, easily remedied.

Thanks,
Tim

Tim Wilson
Vice President, Editor-in-Chief
Creative COW