Debe
Forum Replies Created
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I know this is advice not asked for, but I’d double check that your assistant editor REALLY is experienced with FCP, and decide whether or not you want to rely on expertise that might not really be there when YOU really need it.
This is a very simple thing that any editor with chops, whether they like the way Media Manager functions or not, knows about. To tell you that it’s not possible is just plain wrong. I certainly could make room for the possibility that your assistant misunderstood the original request, but I’d make sure this person really has the pedigree thay claim before moving on.
debe
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Anna-
Any off-the-shelf drive must be reformatted Mac OS Extended before attempting to capture with FCP.
Most come formatted for PCs. Even if it says it’s Mac formatted on the box, people usually find that the factory Mac formatting leaves something to be desired.
If there’s anything you’ve put on that drive you might want to save, put it somewhere else for safe keeping. Use Disk Utility to format the drive Mac OS Extended with journaling off. This will erase all information on the drive and leave you with a fresh drive that you can use for media.
Be ultra-careful that you are formatting the right drive. You wouldn’t want a mis-click to erase something else.
debe
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Wow, that’s a lot of great insight there, Frank.
Maybe it’s part self-preservation, but I certainly had let why I really left my staff job get crammed back into the far recesses of my memory. Usually I just tell folks that the company had grown and changed and we were going in different directions. It had become clear that it was time for me to strike out on my own. That’s my professional “if you can’t say anything nice…” response when queried.
The company changed dramatically. When I was hired, I was employee number 11. I was also the last non-management position that the owner of the company personally interviewed. It was an assistant editor job. Lowest job on the totem pole at the time. Yet the owner and the VP of Post spent nearly two hours with me that day.
Through mergers, buy-outs and other methods, the company grew and grew while I was there. By the time I left, there were divisions, multiple levels of management, and unfortunately, a “you’re lucky to have this job” mentality. I WAS lucky to get the job originally. Most of my co-workers and I had more than proven that our talent, expertise, and personalities are what kept the clients coming back. It had been a mutually benefical relationship. Originally.
When I was accused and punished because an on-staff producer (acquired through a buy-out) thought it was a good career move to blame the failure of a project on me, rather than taking responsibility for the failure on her part to adequately produce…I figured it was time to move on. If they couldn’t see what really happened, if management was more intent on pointing fingers and being able to “prove” to the client and the owner that they had taken measures, rather than finding the actual cause, I knew it was time to spread my wings and fly….
I waited a full fiscal quarter before tendering my resignation. I wasn’t the first to leave, and I certainly wasn’t the last to leave voluntarily. There was a mass exodous of almost all of the real talent in that place. One person admitted to me that the treatment I received was part of what started him thinking about if this is still the kind of place he wanted to be any longer. It certainly wasn’t the entire reason he left, but it was the impetus to get him thinking about what kind of company he wanted to work for.
Yet, still, I grew up in a family where my dad went to work for the same company every day for 23 years, and my mom is just about to retire from the same hospital she’s been working at since before I was born. I understand loyalty, and I’ve always been loyal to my employers. It’s the way I was raised. Somewhere in there, I finally figured out that in this day and age, companies that are as loyal to their employees as I’ve seen my parents be to their employers are very few and far between. Unfortunately, it’s almost a dead relationship, and that is really very sad. Quitting that job was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. I felt very disloyal to the owner of the company. I ran into him in the airport a few years later. It was one of the most awkward situations in which I’ve ever found myself. I certainly feel no guilt for quitting to the management at the time, yet I still feel badly about quitting to the owner.
People know that the best way to get a raise is to get a new job. Employers know that the best way to get someone cheaper is to make the guy or gal with lots of experience quit. Somewhere in there, both sides have forgotten that there’s more to this than the bottom line. They seem to have forgotten, or have yet to figure out, that a happy employee is a large part of the equation for happy clients. A crabby employee says horrible things about your company, makes your clients uncomfortable, and may make them move along. The smartest way to keep your clients happy is to keep your employees happy. Of course, client loyalty is the part of the equation that seems to be missing in most of our conversation here. A loyal client is a client that likes to work with you. If it ceases to be fun, or productive, or efficient, or cost-effective, clients will leave. How do you keep it fun, productive, efficient & cost-effective? Keep the employees in top form! This is not to say that employees should come before clients, but a delicate balance needs to be achieved. Employees shouldn’t suffer to keep the clients happy, and the clients shouldn’t be ignored to keep the employees happy.
Most of my clients today are people that I worked with or at least had met while I was on staff. Now that the company no longer exists, it’s easier to have honest conversations with them about those days. Most of them tell me that things over there changed dramatically about the time everyone was leaving. It wasn’t fun anymore. There was an air of something is “no longer right”. It wasn’t about the price or quality of services, although those were a factor, but really that it had become a soul-less place. There was one guy left from those “golden” days, and he was the saving grace. People would go back for him. Most of the rest of them came along with the rest of us. Clients don’t keep coming back because they like the managers. People come back because the like the product and the experience. Translation: They like the employees. The people who earn the company the money should be much more respected than they seem to be these days.
Would we have all been better off if we’d stayed together? Would the company have survived past 5 years if we had not all left? No one can really answer that, I know.
I’m certainly not regretting my decision, but sometimes I wonder how long it could have gone on if different decisions had been made at the management level. Maybe the owner would have still sold 5 years later, but if management had made better decisions and had been more loyal to the employees, I bet the company would have been worth a whole lot more when he did sell.
debe
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er, three…three posts down!!
😉
debe
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Look two posts down…and keep going. There’s been a ton of chatter about it.
Then make up your own mind.
debe
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Add one more to the “find an Engineer” tally.
I learned more in one hour of uninterrupted attention from our Chief Engineer when I was but a wee assistant editor than I ever did from the books I read in school. Without someone there explaining what you are seeing, it just doesn’t stick. I’ve gone looking for good books on the subject to refer others to, and there really isn’t one. Nothing I’ve found so far has surpassed one-on-one learning.
If someone could do a video tutorial, showing good signals and bad signals, in real time and with accompanying video. Explaining it like you were in the room and showing real-world scenarios…now there’s a tutorial that would be of incredible value!
debe
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It’s hard to judge someone you don’t really know, but he sounds like the employee equivalent to a “grinder”.
What’s the benefit of keeping him around? How many of those resumes coming in the door are from folks who would be happy to be a part of the team, instead of being….well, whatever it is that this guy is? Are there folks out there that could slide into his chair with minimal effort?
It does sound a little bit like burnout, though. Was he always like this? Is it possible to get the “original” guy back? Was THAT guy worth keeping around?
If it were me, I’d find out what’s REALLY up with the guy. If he’s a malcontent, I’d find a way to show him the door. Morale in a small business can go in the toliet faster than anywhere else when just one employee starts carping about things that aren’t his business to carp about. (Of course, carping about things that ARE his business to carp about are certainly things to pay attention to…)
If he’s just “off” for some reason, and you can find a way to get him back…then he might be worth the investment.
Otherwise, can ‘im!!
Just my 2
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I hate suggesting this, but unless you have 99 sequences in your project already, it may be time to trash your preferences. This is not normal behavior.
For info on trashing prefs, look at this site…
https://www.lafcpug.org/Tutorials/basic_trash_prefs5.html
The following is a nifty little program that stores and trashes prefs for you. Just be careful backing up the first time. Make sure you’re backing up clean prefs.
https://fcprescue.andersholck.com/
debe
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Sorry, sorry. I mis-read it and did the math in my head and it didn’t make sense to me at first.
debe