[Herb Sevush]

According to your analysis Apple will walk away from the entire video business the moment they decide it isn’t generating enough ROI. All of which goes to show why it’s a fools errand to build your companies work flow around a company not committed to your business. If Avid fails it won’t be for lack of interest in the video business, and if I was an Avid user I could live with that.

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

[Herb Sevush]

Gotcha. I was just sidetracked because your post came attached to mine, but yeah, that was an amazing load of crap. I always am deeply impressed when someone tells me how courageous they are. It’s safe to say that one of Apple’s core traits isn’t humility. In many ways their corporate identity reminds me of the WWF, another bold market leader that isn’t afraid of changing it’s identity and killing off it’s old favorites to make way for the new — unless they need Hulk Hogan for a quick ratings boost.

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

[Herb Sevush]

“Given the R&D resources I can’t imagine such a scenario”

But who determines the resources. We are constantly hearing about how successful and rich Apple is as a company. What would stop them from putting more resources into development if they wanted to? They didn’t seem to mind developing iMovie and FCP Legacy at the same time, why couldn’t they have continued development on Legacy while X was getting itself ready?

Announce X as iCut, the replacement for FCP Express, and a concept product that would show the direction they were taking Legacy. They could have done that. They chose not to, but it isn’t a crazy idea.

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

[Herb Sevush]

“Perhaps the others who wonder why Herb and myself are not happy, should be aware that it’s because we’ve been through this before. We both survived to fight another day, only to find ourselves being dumped by another huge, deep-pocketed corporation we thought we’d invested in for the long-term”

Apparently we never listened when Pete Townsend wrote “we won’t be fooled again.”

[Chris Harlan] “D/Vision–for those who have never heard of it–was highly successful NLE (and contender for the throne) that was eventually purchased by Discreet, and was improved and sold as Edit*. Edit*, of course, was brutally murdered in its sleep, and then dragged into a ditch to die.”

Lovely alliteration with those “Ds” there at the end Chris – it really captures the feeling.

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

[Herb Sevush]

“A-Roll/B-Roll editing has its origins in film actually where master shots were collected on one reel (A) and cutaways and other angles were collected on a second reel (B).”

I worked in film for the first 10 years of my career and I never heard of collecting either master shots or cutaways on separate reels. Each take was hung on a pin in the film bin, paired with mag track if it was a sound take; each pin generally had a label noting organization so you knew where to look for a given shot. What purpose would there be for cutaways to be on a separate reel when the vast majority of editing tables could only handle one film reel at a time?

The A & B rolls in film referred to the way the negative was checkerboarded after the film was finalized and prior to printing. This was generally done be a specialist negative cutter. In ten years of film editing I never cut negative myself.

The first time I ever heard the expression “B – roll” used to describe a cutaway was after I started working in video. I don’t know what the derivation is.

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

[Herb Sevush]

“I too am woefully ignorant of the traditions of film, but as I recall, film was actually the first “non linear” editing tradition wasn’t it?”

Totally true. It was non linear, but it was slow, without the instant access we all have grown so used to. And messy. There was nothing like hunting for a 2 frame clip at the bottom of a bin (that is a real physical bin, like a laundry hamper full of film) at the end of a long day.

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

[Herb Sevush]

“Excuse me if I don’t base my business on marketing motherhood statements,”

I have no idea what this refers to.

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

[Herb Sevush]

“just because Motion isnt after effects is hardly a reason to diss it”

I’m not “dissing” Motion. I use it all the time. But the facts are that while it was totally written from scratch by Apple it is neither the market leader nor the trend setter in compositing. I see no reason to believe that just because Apple wrote FCPX from scratch it will achieve either of those states either. It might, but then again it might not. Apple’s track record in this area, application software, is not nearly as strong as their track record in consumer gadgets.

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

[Herb Sevush]

“There are multiple millions of people around the world with with “NLE operation” skills today. Yes, fewer at the top end, but everyone who is currently NOT at the “top end” are likely getting better every day with practice – and that means “operational excellence in NLE driving” is going to be less and less a competitive advantage in the future. What I believe is left in the wake of that are the intangible skills of judgement, taste, and business skills. Not editing prowess.”

I am not in competition with those millions. My editorial skills are partially made up of two of the three intangibles you mentioned, judgement and taste, along with story sense and imagination. The editorial tools I need have to let me express those skills quickly and easily.

“Those same “features” that pro editors hate – the magnetic timeline, clip collision avoidance, looking at video in a vertical arrangement of connected elements rather than exclusively as discrete chunks over a rigid time base – those things might be mothers milk to new business editors who don’t have to overcome too much baggage about how editing is SUPPOSED to be done – but rather can remain focuses on how it IS done in the new software.”

All of this ease for newbies comes at the cost of making the software difficult to use to accomplish what so many of us here need. Nothing I do is in any way similar to a print journalist putting his Iphone interview on his newspapers website.

And guess what, in the future there will still be growing audiences for the kind of work I do.

https://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/online_mobile/americans-watching-more-tv-than-ever/

Traditional TV viewership is still growing, not shrinking. Given the enormous difference in size of audience, how many decades will it take for internet viewership to catch up? And by internet viewership I really mean the viewership for videos with no production value, the kind of work where the editorial skills of the millions is supposed to satisfy the entertainment demands of the billions?

For a news story anything goes, including a telephone call-in with a still photo. For a viral cat video, I’m sure iMovie will suffice. For Thursday nite at 9 O’clock, post skills still matter, and will do so for the foreseeable future. And those skills pay better.

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

[Herb Sevush]

“just know that the question reminds me of the classic conundrum of prayer in public schools. Like everyone else, I’m all for them – just as long as *I* get to decide which ones. Its when somebody else gets to set the prayer agenda, that we tend to bristle.”

But I thought I count as an “everyone” and I’m opposed to the idea of any type of prayer in a public school. Not trying to make this a political thread, just pointing out that you often argue from a point of view that intimates that your personal experience is universal, when it isn’t.

I think it’s quite clear what Apple means by “best” – being the market leader and trend setter. Time will tell if that applies to FCPX. It never did for Motion, which was also written from scratch by these same Apple geniuses to revolutionize compositing. Hardly. And if X turns out to be merely a good program that serves it users but doesn’t go on to become market leader – what then?

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