[Darren Roark]

[Jeremy Garchow] “The showstopper is the XML bugs though. Those are hard to workaround, as well as the audio channel misreporting. “

Is this happening when going from FCP X to another app? Or going from FCP X directly back to FCP X?

[Darren Roark]

[Jeremy Garchow] “Again, I don’t really know or care, but there are bugs to the things that Apple has designed and released. They should probably be fixed as it was Apple that implemented them, not users.”

What are on your list?

Mine are that copying complex or long projects to another event just beachballs for a really long time and you have to hover the beachball over the event for 1-2 minutes to get a crack at moving it.

[Darren Roark]

[Jeremy Garchow] “I would expect quicker updates to get rid of the real life bugs in the application.”

I’m not going to say it’s perfect, but it’s been far more reliable than the Premiere jobs I’ve done recently. The updates are generally bug fixes that actually fix things in my experience.

[Jeremy Garchow] ” And I’d expect more major feature updates/workflow enhancements than once every 1.5 years or so.”

I guess people are still sore about 3D text.

[Darren Roark]

[Oliver Peters] “The high-end color correction market has been decimated in large part because almost no one shoots on film any longer.”

Here in LA the major facilities are still trying to keep that reality alive using the ‘digital lab’ business model.

I completely agree that the part of this that people forget is that BMD buys tried and true tech for pennies on the dollar once the bottom drops out of the driving specialized need.

The fact you can buy a film scanner for the same price as a low end Prius nowadays is the last chip in the dam.

I am in a situation now where we contracted for a 4K final, the place the producers went with said they grade 2K DPXs on their “Not Resolve” system and that’s just how they do it. I sent the white paper to them on how well the “Brand-X” color grading system handles native r3d’s and has for four years.

4K is now a Netflix delivery standard for acquisitions.

For whatever reason they didn’t think we were serious and just did the 2K DPX grading anyway. Essentially they said they would have to start over from scratch. This is a big mess.

Paying for talent as opposed to gear will win sooner than later.

[Darren Roark]

[Jeremy Garchow] “I don’t want FCPX to be free. It’s nice that it’s cheap, but honestly, I’d pay more for it, but I’d expect more from Apple.”

I paid over $15K for my version of FCP X so far, that’s two MBPs and one fully spec’d nMP.

What aren’t you getting from them now that you would expect if you were paying monthly for it?

[Darren Roark]

[Jeremy Garchow] “Of course not. But it sometimes is in the tool. Producers, Directors, whoever, sometimes need to see an expensive tool to “legitimize” the costs to clients. Sad but true.”

Agreed, especially in advertising work this is the case. If the ad fails it’s because the ad failed, they used the best people and stuff to make it happen so no fingers can be pointed. No expense was spared.

The thing is though, there are also ad agencies that are starting to use FCP X for pitch reels, rough cuts of spots, etc. Two different places I’ve worked for at their in house facility I’ve cut sizzle reels and the senior creatives couldn’t believe how much quicker it was to try things out than what they were used to.

The common question I get is something like “Why do people hate this program so much if it works this well?”

With the client I’m comfortable making jokes with I just smiled and said “I dunno, you’re the ad wizard, you tell me.”

I just don’t see how much longer the idea of paying for the ‘machine’ will last. It’s only been seven years since facilities stopped charging a premium for HD work.

Any facility that makes decisions based on paying more for the more expensive machine because they can justify the cost even if it’s not the better system is doomed to fail.

I can win any argument with one dumb irrelevant statement. “Resolve was good enough for JJ Abrams to do the color finishing of Star Wars, what benefits do “Color System X” have that I need that Resolve doesn’t?”

The cat is out of the bag and it’s not going back in peacefully.

[Darren Roark]

[Jeremy Garchow] “Pro grading shops I work with have moved away from Resolve since it’s now free.”

It’s to ensure the downstream income stays with them.

[Jeremy Garchow] “They didn’t like the Blackmagic acquisition and thought that it would eventually devalue their business.”

And they are right, the shops that are doing that in LA as a reactionary measure for that reason are succeeding in turning off producers and post sups.

Blackmagic aren’t the people they need to worry about, it’s the home colorists and independent owner operators who have worked at major facilities. They are much easier to deal with and charge much less.

[Darren Roark]

[Scott Witthaus] “Where does BMD say “no, that’s it. Any more and you pay $999″.”

Probably when Avid is out of business and Adobe can’t afford to develop Premiere anymore.

[Darren Roark]

[Oliver Peters] “If you are in a location with more than one store, they often call around to the other stores (or check their computerized inventories) to find a configuration that might not exist in that specific location.
“

I was meaning demo units in the main bit of the store. My understanding is that they are supposed to have the same products on display consistently. Not necessarily the same quantity.

[Darren Roark]

[Scott Witthaus] “famous last words! :-)”

For the hardware manufacturers supporting multiple paid versions of apps is hell. With Resolve, if you are using it for ‘pro stuff’ you need to buy a thing from them.

Plus you give away the color grading thing, it’s easier to find all the would be colorists out there in the world who will demand to use Resolve.

Win/win.

Unless some securities laws change, this is the new normal.