[Herb Sevush]

[Walter Soyka] “Herb makes some great baseball analogies, but the Yankees aren’t playing right now. Avid looks like the Giants: a team with great heritage and some good current potential that just makes too many unforced errors to win.”

My point is that at the moment it really doesn’t seem to matter.

Looking at my options for the future Avid is clearly the most befuddled company with the most backward looking software – I really, really don’t want to go there. But the marketplace doesn’t seem to care – it’s safe and reliable, with proven workflows and a huge skilled labor pool available to handle it’s shortcomings.

Many of those shortcomings are moot because of the workflow – which for most broadcast producers still means external audio mix and color grading.

It is somewhat ironical that Apple’s flight to where the puck will be has left the playing field to the company that lives by knowing where the puck has always been. By the time content providers figure out what to do with 4K, Avid will be there, but it won’t be the first and it won’t be the best, but it will be the safest.

Herb Sevush
Zebra Productions
—————————
nothin’ attached to nothin’
“Deciding the spine is the process of editing” F. Bieberkopf

[Herb Sevush]

[Tim Wilson] “If you make a Venn diagram of the slice of the industry that Herb and others are talking about, you might find 90% of THOSE jobs are on Media Composer. These guys are saying that in some markets, for some of the best kinds of jobs, the number is, in practice, 100% Avid.

That’s what he means when he says, [Herb Sevush] “for employers of good paying jobs…. it is Avid or nothing.”

(I’m trusting Herb to step in if I’m misrepresenting him.)”

No, that’s it. I might add that I’m not particularly happy that this is the case, I’ve been avoiding Avid for 20 years or more, it’s just that the dissonance between this forum and the reality of the working world, at least in NYC, sometimes requires an airing.

Herb Sevush
Zebra Productions
—————————
nothin’ attached to nothin’
“Deciding the spine is the process of editing” F. Bieberkopf

[Herb Sevush]

[Walter Soyka] “This line is doubly funny (or sad, depending on your point of view), given Avid’s current lack of 4K finishing solution.”

I just finished talking to a friend of mine who produces shows for a lot of the cable outlets – discovery, animal planet, etc. etc.. While we were both complaining about the state of the world, as per usual, he mentioned that there are not enough Avid editors to go around, that if you could handle an Avid and were basically breathing you could get a job in NY. My friend is not technical, he neither knows nor cares about the debates on our little forum. In his world, for employer’s of good paying (around $3500/week for a 50 hr week) jobs for editors, it is Avid or nothing. The inroads FCP legacy were making have vanished. There are no jobs in reality or documentary cable shows for editors who use PPro, FCPX, Edius or anything else. It is all Avid, all the time, and more so than it has ever been.

The conversations we have here about the decline and death of Avid have no bearing on the media production markets of NY and LA. Since I have never been an Avid editor it would be a major pain for me to go that way, plus for the moment my clients don’t care what I use. But as I plan my future, the most logical choice to enhance my marketability would be to switch to Avid – my resistance is mostly a sign of my irrationality, not a comment on Avid’s future.

Herb Sevush
Zebra Productions
—————————
nothin’ attached to nothin’
“Deciding the spine is the process of editing” F. Bieberkopf

[Herb Sevush]

Tim –

I was raised in a household where dinner-time debate was the family entertainment – we had it, along with ice cream, after every meal. It was dirty, it was devious and it was always to the death. This upbringing has had occasional unpleasant consequences for those around me for many years and I would like to apologize to the forum, knowing that I contributed more than my share to the recent unpleasantness.

Herb Sevush
Zebra Productions
—————————
nothin’ attached to nothin’
“Deciding the spine is the process of editing” F. Bieberkopf

[Herb Sevush]

[Todd Terry] “The winner took his Oscar and began his speech, but he was laughing. Finally he stopped and said “Sorry, I’m laughing because those clips were all second-unit.” “

It was David Watkins when he got the Oscar for Out of Africa.

Herb Sevush
Zebra Productions
—————————
nothin’ attached to nothin’
“Deciding the spine is the process of editing” F. Bieberkopf

[Herb Sevush]

Evan,

One of the main topics of discussion on this Debate forum is the growth and viability of FCPX in major facilities handling high end productions – features, broadcast, commercials. Examples of such use are still relatively rare and when examples are produced they are big news here, in this little pasture of the Cow. Radical Media is one of the main examples of this high end acceptance because of the very public statements you have made about it and because you are featured prominently in Apple’s marketing of X.

The fact that Radical Media has not been using FCPX for over a year is therefore big news in this environment. It is a surprise, to say the least. The fact that you so publicly chose to champion your use of FCPX and then so privately decided it was really not ready for use in your facility is a reasonable subject for conversation. The fact that this conversation is public and not private was dictated by your choices.

[Evan Schechtman] “In the future if you have a question you can email me or call me like many strangers who read the article or who saw me speak do. I do not seek publicity- I do not sell products or even consumer services- I have no way to benefit by pulling the wool over anyones eyes.”

How can you say you do not seek publicity – did Apple hold a gun to your head? Did the guys at Tekserve drag you to their store by force? What you obviously don’t seek is bad publicity – but sorry to tell you that is part of the price for all the good Pub you’ve gotten from that Apple article. I realize you make nothing for your demo’s, that they are in effect a public service, and I know that Apple doesn’t pay you a penny for your testimonials, but that does not mean you do not benefit by them. You do, anybody in your position does.

I believe that you are honest and sincere with your opinions, I do not believe you set out to deceive anyone with your statements, and I have no reason to doubt that you will be switching your facility over to X in a few months time. But for the past year you have knowingly allowed Apple to mislead people by using your example. It must be embarrassing to be put in that position and for that position to then be made public. But don’t shoot the messenger.

[Evan Schechtman] “You are essentially asking me to publish a retraction of an article that was written, not by me.”

I wasn’t asking you to do anything, but if I were to advise you I would say you have three reasonable choices:

You could ask Apple to pull the article until such time as you have switched back to FCPX.

You could write a piece about why you stopped using X at the time you did, even though you fully intend to switch back. The details of what worked and what didn’t would be very informative and helpful to editors and facilities who are still exploring making these kind of changes.

You can do nothing and go about your business knowing this tiny tempest will blow over before your next cup of coffee.

(Personally I would prefer number two.)

But what is not reasonable is to come on here all hurt and upset that someone actually noticed that what you had been doing did not match what you had, very publicly, been saying.

[Evan Schechtman] “I wrote a response telling the entire story. If that doesn’t satisfy you and get you to drop it, then thats your damage at this point.”

Looking back through the first series of postings I will admit to being more than a bit snarky and for that I apologize. But for the tone, not for the content.

Herb Sevush
Zebra Productions
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nothin’ attached to nothin’
“Deciding the spine is the process of editing” F. Bieberkopf

[Herb Sevush]

[Jeremy Garchow] “Evan mentions that at the time, FCPX was being used on real projects, now, it’s being used on only some projects. The scale was pulled back.

“At the time we were testing a good deal of work was being done on FCPX. This was pulled back @ 10.0.4.”

So, is Apple going to print that on their webpage? I doubt it.”

Which is the crux of this whole thread. There was a lot of Pub about Radical Media converting to FCPX as far back as the fall of 2011. The fact that he needed to “pull back” and has not yet fully converted has gotten zero Pub, until right here and now. I do not think it unfair that the unannounced pull back get at least a percentage of the notice that the supposed conversion did.

This has nothing to do with the viability of FCPX now or in the future. It has to do with standing honestly by your public pronouncements, and if you have good reason to change your course, say so with the same voice you used before as opposed to running and hiding and blaming everyone else for being unfair to you, like a sad little baby unicorn.

Herb Sevush
Zebra Productions
—————————
nothin’ attached to nothin’
“Deciding the spine is the process of editing” F. Bieberkopf

[Herb Sevush]

[Jeremy Garchow] “There is nothing wrong with recognizing potential, talking about and discussing this potential, but waiting for further development before fully utilizing that potential.”

Your quite right, there is nothing wrong with your approach, nor the approach outlined by Evan in his response to Bob.

But that has nothing to do with the question Bob raised at the beginning of this thread. The question under consideration is if there’s something wrong with proclaiming the virtues of something, seeking publicity for that proclamation, and then quietly not acting in accordance.

It’s not about being right or wrong, it’s about hype and BS. Apple published that article about Evan’s company trying to use his example as an argument to sway people to buy into FCPX today, not tomorrow. I didn’t read anything in that article about “waiting for development.” Nor did I read anything in the post I linked to from 2 years ago.

Evan’s post here was logical, concise and persuasive – but it wouldn’t have gotten him the pub he received by being highlighted by Apple, and they weren’t interested in writing about “waiting for future developments.”

I suggest you read the article and then explain to me how you would reconcile it with Evan’s post on this forum.

https://www.apple.com/finalcutpro/in-action/radical/

I am wounded to the core at this dissembling and now feel like crying “the tears of a sad baby unicorn.”

Herb Sevush
Zebra Productions
—————————
nothin’ attached to nothin’
“Deciding the spine is the process of editing” F. Bieberkopf

[Herb Sevush]

[Jeremy Garchow] “There is nothing wrong with recognizing potential, talking about and discussing this potential, but waiting for further development before fully utilizing that potential.

There’s a baseball analogy in here, but I’ll leave those to Herb.”

I’m a Yankee fan and therefore have been proven to know nothing about evaluating and developing potential.

Herb Sevush
Zebra Productions
—————————
nothin’ attached to nothin’
“Deciding the spine is the process of editing” F. Bieberkopf

[Herb Sevush]

[Bill Davis] “like the tears of a sad baby unicorn.”

lovely, remind me to steal this line at some later date.

Herb Sevush
Zebra Productions
—————————
nothin’ attached to nothin’
“Deciding the spine is the process of editing” F. Bieberkopf