[Tim Wilson]

Who do you want as new clients? Can you be more specific?

To put it another way, what kind of projects are they doing? Who are they using instead of you?

And, if a particular kind of client isn’t doing your kind of projects, what would make them want to start?

Also, what’s your location?

More details, and we may be able to help you a little better. 🙂

[Tim Wilson]

[Bill Davis] “It’s so much more interesting to find things that resonate – but ALSO contain things that cause us take a brief second look at some of our assumptions. “

I much prefer when people agree with me. LOL

Being honest, I do also find that my reflex reaction in life is the same one in my post, to see the places where the other guy needs to have thought about it more carefully. Because surely if he had, he’d have agreed with me in the first place. Assuming he wasn’t a dinosaur, or somebody who “just doesn’t get it.” 🙂

So, as I reach out for common ground, what did YOU disagree with? LOL

Kidding aside, I’d love to get your thoughts about the issues he raises.

(Also kidding aside, I do very much appreciate that articulating my disagreement helps me clarify my own understanding of an issue. It often drives me to do actual RESEARCH to document my positions, an ongoing process of refining my positions. So I do in fact value disagreement….within a range. LOL)

[Tim Wilson]

[Oliver Peters] “It’s not just strictly the states. I spent a Thanksgiving in London one year and ate Thanksgiving dinner in a pub. “

Thankful to be rid of us, are they? LOL

[Oliver Peters] ” I was amazed that the town already had Christmas decorations up, too!”

When I was growing up in the 60s, the Christmas season was deemed “open for business” at the moment that Santa appeared at the end of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. So that sounds about right.

Nowadays though, it seems like you’re just not trying if you start any later than the day after Halloween….so consider my joining in on Thanksgiving greetings to be a belated Merry Christmas as well!

[Tim Wilson]

Thanks for the article, Bill. Perfect Sunday reading.

[Steve Connor] “Isn’t there a COW forum for this sort of thing?”

Well, sort of.

I’d started that forum as a place to talk about the stuff we WATCH, rather than the stuff we MAKE, and one of my regrets as a COW-boy is that it never really took off, and I’ve never figured out any other way to get those kinds of conversations started. I’d love to.

Hey, I’d be fine if we did it in this forum instead. 🙂

It started off as the Film History forum, actually, then gradually added some newer movies. I later explicitly included TV, both because I personally prefer TV to movies, but also, even the snobbiest cineastes are conceding that TV has some of the most compelling storytelling.

I’d still love to figure out how to build the right kind of place for talking about what we’re watching here. Suggestions?

Back to the article.

My very first job was in a bookstore, and in a lot of ways, my favorite job ever was being a bookstore manager for Barnes & Noble. (Back in the days before the super-sized ones.) I loved hand-curating recommendations…but the author of this article is nuts to think that this whole thing is gone because his video store closed.

The internet is actually pretty good at this stuff…and by “the internet,” I don’t just mean algorithms. I have access to articles like this guy’s, a ton of great links like ones in that very article to OTHER great articles, my friends and family on social media from whom I’ve gotten a TON of recommendations that I’d never gotten in person, etc etc etc.

I’ve also found that I talk more about this stuff with strangers and near-strangers than I used to. I recently had a great conversation with somebody in a checkout line about the adaptation of the book Moneyball into a movie, based on seeing Divergent next to the cash register. (Specifically, why some adaptations work, and why some don’t.)

Bill, I know that you noted that some parts of the article are uneven. A great conversation starter for sure, but here’s one part that pissed me off.

With online streaming, we don’t decide — we settle.

He’s f’in kidding, right? People didn’t go into his video store every single day and just “settle” for something? As in, almost every customer, on almost every Friday, who went in to get one of the 10 copies of the movie they wanted, found it was already gone, and had to “settle” for something?

Maybe he didn’t notice what 99% of his customers were doing while he was flirting.

That means folks are less likely to engage with a film on a deep level; worse, it means people stop taking chances on challenging films.

Ah yes, because people who don’t go into stores to take recommendations from clerks like him aren’t engaged viewers. They’re not as bold. They just don’t care as much.

Srsly? If there was a draft of his article that didn’t say “People who stream movies aren’t as smart as the people who take recommendations from me in my store,” it’s only because he wasn’t being honest with himself.

Again, with sympathy to his fondness for The Life of a Conscientious Arts Retailer, I still think he’s way off base on some key points.

But I think Craig was a whole lot sharper on one of the biggies.

[Craig Seeman] “One might find the blockbusters but also the fans of niches can be introduced to those creations and their creators.”

One of the saddest things I’ve ever heard about Kickstarter: the LEAST successfully-funded category there is films.

I don’t have any sharp insights to glean from this other than the obvious one, that there are more people driven to tell stories than people are driven to support them financially.

I don’t think that this is necessarily a bad thing. Better to tell the story than not, no matter how few other people get to hear it. After all, the flipside of social media is that we’ll speak our minds KNOWING that nobody is listening.

But I do think that ease of creation is MORE than inversely proportional to ease of distribution these days. The difficulty of finding the niche movie I want to see is almost growing more quickly than the number of movies. Or the number of niches.

We ran an article in the COW a couple of months back, Six Benefits of Microbudget Filmmaking — and How to Succeed! that focused on some truly original outreach, in their case, starting with a live online map of swing-dancing clubs around the world. (Frankly, even crazier than it sounds, but also far cleverer. No kidding. Check that story out.)

I recently came across a community of documentary distribution called New Day Films. It’s actually been around since 1971, but they’ve come up with an approach I love. They’re not gearing distribution or outreach to individuals. They’re making it easy for schools, libraries, community groups, even corporations, with sliding scales based on the kind and size of group that’s booking it.

Some of the films distributed via New Day are probably available elsewhere. Maybe Netflix or Amazon, too. But their focus is on getting into the hands of people who can get other people to watch challenging films. Not only do I not think that this is limited to video clerks, I think that the environment for this is richer than ever….if we can just complete those last few steps between creators and viewers.

Anyway, very cool stuff, worth checking out. New Day Films

Incidentally, New Day was co-founded by one of my personal heroes, Amalie R Rothschild. She was a freelance photographer in the late 60s, and from 1969 to 1971 she was part of the Joshua Light Show at the Fillmore East. The wild slides, film loops and such in all those light shows? She was in the middle of it. She was also the Fillmore’s unofficial house photographer. Plus Woodstock, Newport Folk Festival, Isle of Wight, Dylan’s 1974 tour, anti-war demonstrations, The Who’s US debut of Tommy — it’s a crazy list. If you’ve ever owned any meaningful number of albums or CDs, especially for an artist who ever passed through New York in general or the Fillmore in particular, I guarantee you’ve got some of her photos in your house.

Along the way, she picked up an MFA in Film Production at NYU in 1971, and, in need of a way to get her movies and movies like hers seen, she founded New Day. Here’s her story.

Anyway, this question ain’t gonna get any easier to solve, I think.

[Tim Wilson]

[Ronny Courtens] “Mamba is very cheap for what it does. And its power is unrivaled. “

Can you say a little more about this?

Also, at the risk of veering off topic (?!?! what?), there’s not much in the article about HOW they used SGO in a unique way, or for unique tasks. Can you say more about that as well?

But mostly, I’m interested in your unrivaled power observation.

Thanks!

[Tim Wilson]

The first question: what kind of computer do you use? That will provide some guidance for the ripping software.

Second: what kind of videos do you want to make? That will provide some guidance for the kinds of files you will want to create, whether by ripping or going back to Cine to DVD.

[Tim Wilson]

I don’t typically weigh in on threads like this with “official” stats, because as an organization, Creative COW is omniplatform. We use every major OS and device platform to build the COW, and have used them all in our own productions over the years. We certainly do everything we can to support our members on the platforms of their choice.

But as a web community we do in fact have a unique insight into platform choices for BROWSERS. With over 18 million visitors last year, our numbers are statistically significant, no?

(As a result of the scale of our sample size, as well as our being online for 20 years, dating back to the days when MANY multiplatform apps — including those from Avid and Adobe — were ONLY MAC, I feel confident ruling out selection bias, that the COW by default skews toward Windows.

I just don’t see any basis for assuming that we’re outside the mainstream creativity community. Quite the contrary. We ARE the mainstream. Did I mention over 18 million people a year?)

Browsers don’t tell us TOO much about platform choices for PRODUCTION, but let me put it this way. Do you know any people who WORK on Mac, but SURF with Windows? I don’t. There may not be anyone like that, anywhere. LOL

That is, I know people who use Windows for computing and rendering, but prefer Macs (or a mobile OS) for the web. So Windows artists are being undercounted…but you’ll get the gist.

Okay, let’s look at the numbers.

For the COW as a whole, about 50% Windows, 40% Mac, and 10% mobile.

Given the relatively few Mac computers in the world compared to Windows, 40% Mac is a LOT. It’s clear that Macs really are exceptionally important to the creative community….but Apple is by no means the “only” choice.

Past research leads me to suspect that I’d find that the Mac percentage is a little higher in the US than the rest of the world (Macs just weren’t available widely until recently in places like Eastern Europe and EMEA, where a LOT of COWS live)… But still. Not “mostly” Mac in any sense of the word.

Leaving aside the Mac-only FCPX (which gets a surprising amount of Windows browsing) and Windows-only apps including Sony Vegas (virtually no Mac traffic, but similar iOS traffic to FCPX!), what do we see in the NLE/vfx-specific multiplatform forums?

For a couple of examples, this is what the last month looks like. These numbers ebb and flow with OS-specific questions like, can I use Premiere Pro on El Capitan, can I use Creative Cloud with Windows 10, etc., but in general, here’s the recent sweep over the past 30 days:

Avid Media Composer: 56% Mac, 23% Windows. Much heavier Mac concentration than the COW as a whole.

Blackmagic Davinci Resolve: 55% Mac, 26% Windows. Likewise.

Adobe Premiere Pro: 36% Mac, 33% Windows – the rest on mobile; one of our most mobile-visited forums! Otherwise, let’s call it even for Mac and Win.

What about Adobe After Effects?

Windows 57%, Mac 34! This is by FAR the most Windows-skewed multi-platform forum in the COW….

…other than AE Expressions, where the Windows percentage goes all the way up to 72%!

(Kind of interesting to me: virtually no traffic to the AE Expressions forum on mobile.)

My theories:

— The AE forum does in fact skew global
— The Expression forum skews quite a bit more global than that
— Outside the US will, by default, skew a little more Windows-ward…

….but I’m thinking mostly…

— Because the COW skews higher up the production pyramid than lower, “sizzlecore” facilities, enterprise, Hollywood VFX — all those folks significantly gravitate Windows-ward, even if other seats in those very same facilities are using Mac for mainstream editorial.

This is even more true in the Expressions forum, which skews both global and larger-scale.

Just theories, but given how far the surfing profile here breaks toward Windows so far beyond any other multiplatform environment in the COW, I do give this some regular thought.

Any ideas on your part?

Again noting:

— These numbers ONLY reflect BROWSING platforms…

— …and facilities that do production on Windows are probably being undercounted…

— and nobody at COW HQ cares about this because we both use and support every major computer and device platform….

…but while there is a Mac-ward skew toward Media Composer, Resolve, and Premiere, 25% or more COW surfers have some Windows in their lives.

Nobody writes Apple off as a non-player even with far less than a 25% market share of desktops or phones, so don’t you dare do that for Windows either. Windows is straight legit, even in communities like Media Composer, Premiere, and Resolve.

But for After Effects? DRAMATICALLY skewed toward Windows. Especially remarkable since AE was Mac-only until 1996…although 1996 is a long freaking time ago. LOL

— The bottom line: in an After Effects forum, to use language like “everybody” uses Mac, “most” people use Mac, Mac is the “preferred” platform, etc etc? It’s not even close to true.

Not that this should factor into anything for you.

All of these multiplatform applications work just fine on all platforms. Macs in editorial were working just fine with Linux and Windows boxes for VFX, 3D, and finishing a generation ago, and still are. Any workflow integrations with other platforms are trivial, if not seamless. No big deal.

There’s only one reason to choose a platform, and that’s because YOU like it.

But, in the world’s largest community of media professionals, plus a significant contingent of students (who are traditionally — perhaps mistakenly — assumed to be skewing Mac-ward) — Windows outnumbers Mac for web-surfing to the AE forums anyway, and not by a little. By a LOT.

I don’t want to go too far down this rabbit hole, both because it’s irrelevant, and these numbers tend to get a little LESS reliable as you get more specific, but I thought it might be worth throwing in some very broad, but ice cold and objective numbers that most people never get to see.

Yours in math,

Tim Wilson
Editor-in-Chief
Creative COW

[Tim Wilson]

Apologies for the temporary glitch with this thread. Everything should proceed swimmingly from here.

In an attempt to have the thread read more smoothly to anyone arriving late, I’ve made a few edits to the management-related threads, but have otherwise left everything as it was.

Anyone who’s gotten this far will definitely want to click on through to read Oliver’s insightful reply.

Thanks to the folks who let me know that there was a problem. I rely on your help to keep things running smoothly (or at least smooth-ish), and am grateful for it.

Regards,

Tim Wilson
Editor-in-Chief
Creative COW

[Tim Wilson]

[David Lawrence] “Or they could do what Avid is doing, or maybe get creative and invent something new. Choice would not be rocket science *if* they wanted to offer it.”

Yes.

With one major note, to underscore why Senator Sarbanes, Representative Oxley and I were invoked: Avid does NOT apply subscription dollars toward discounted purchase, rent to own, or any of the other ideas implied in words like “off ramp.”

That is ALL I was talking about, and the only part of the subscription-purchase matrix that I think Sarbox applies to. Certainly the only area to which I referred. VERY VERY NARROW.

[Okay, I came back and deleted a whole chunk of stuff that I meant to come off humorously that in retrospect sounded way snarkier than I intended, and not funny at all. Apologies.

The short version: the subscription-free Google will confirm the baselessness of any suggestion that there haven’t been scores of convictions under Sarbox, and that corporatist America hasn’t been fighting this tooth and nail. There have been, and they are.]

To circle back to my agreement with David’s point, and my reiterating the narrowness of what appears to me to be the applicability of Sarbox in this context, I’ll point you to Avid.

Anybody remember what got them booted off the stock exchange? A disagreement with the SEC over the distinction between a bug fix and a new feature. Avid had to hand re-cipher 5 million transactions…but ONLY for customers who were NOT on service contracts. Anyone on a contract, there was no problem.

Avid’s solution from then out: service contracts, or no upgrades. Your choice.

Net effect: subscribe until you’re ready to buy. No discounts, no transfers, no off-ramps. True for Avid, true for anyone else….

….aside from a few theoretical, honestly not very realistic scenarios I described in forum where this is only slightly more on topic. LOL

[Tim Wilson]

[Andrew Kimery] “[Craig Alan] “Or maybe just allow end users to buy the current version of the software for an additional fee. Kinda of like buying the car you have been leasing.”

Tim has mentioned before how this option isn’t very viable due to unintended consequences from the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.”

It was an intended consequence, but yeah. 🙂 Not to say that it CAN’T be done, but in the real world, once you see what’s required, I honestly can’t believe that anyone can imagine a company that would want to try.

(Related, anyone heard the word “upgrade” from a publicly traded company lately? Even Avid’s “upgrade” language is “buy an annual service contract and receive any upgrades issued during that time.” I’m thinking that we’ve just about seen the end of a pure “upgrade” as we understood it 5 years ago to be gone, for the same reasons.)

Avid’s “buyout” solution is the only one that will actually work, which is, at whatever point you’ve decided that you’re ready to stop subscribing and would like to buy, you can buy at full price. Full stop. No discounts.

Of course, any scenario anything like this would also require Adobe selling software again, which, while undoubtedly appealing to a number of customers, is also long past the point of feasibility.

I could say that that’s beyond debate, but debating whether it’s debatable is a debate for another forum. 🙂