Jason Porthouse
Forum Replies Created
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Oh that’s weird – I just checked on the UK store and it was up again, momentarily. Long enough to get a price on a maxed out one here – and it was £7,749. It’s down again now, which is probably just as well.
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Before you criticise a man, walk a mile in his shoes.
Then when you do criticise him, you’ll be a mile away. And have his shoes. -
It’s here. Motion 5.1 downloading from the app store now… and features optimisation for the new MP.
Exciting!
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Before you criticise a man, walk a mile in his shoes.
Then when you do criticise him, you’ll be a mile away. And have his shoes. -
TIm, you’ve done great. Difficult though it may haver been, the nature of the banter here was turning from spirited to mean-spirited, and once the rot sets in it’s difficult to repair. So kudos to you for making the tough decision.
Onwards!
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Before you criticise a man, walk a mile in his shoes.
Then when you do criticise him, you’ll be a mile away. And have his shoes. -
To me it’s not a binary thing – X or not X. I think that the entire post landscape has moved on from the ‘were Avid/FCP’ paradigm of the last 10 years. I’m cutting 3 hour-long programmes at the moment on MC5.5, and boy do I wish sometimes I was in X or legacy – but then something will come along and make me think ‘thank God I wasn’t in FCP’. But overall, and I say this as someone who learnt Avid way way back as my transitional NLE from tape based work, I prefer to cut in Legacy and X. I did a job recently in X and the fluidity with which I can manipulate the timeline astounded me again. But the trackless nature caused me an equal amount of frustration – mainly because I’m so used to working with tracks, moving items and using areas of the timeline as a ‘scratchpad’. It’s a headspace thing and I daresay if I used X more I’d be OK with that model and fighting it less.
That X is ready for ‘pro’ use is now a moot point, I think Craig’s work at the Beeb has answered that. I’m very happy to have it as a tool in my kitbag and I have a feeling that over the next month we may see it mature into the ‘go-to’ nle of choice for many people. I certainly hope so given Adobe’s stance with regard to CC which is a bit of a non-starter for me.
Jason
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Before you criticise a man, walk a mile in his shoes.
Then when you do criticise him, you’ll be a mile away. And have his shoes. -
Depending on the pricing structure, I wouldn’t have a problem with this. Indeed, if it meant I could continue care over and above the three years it currently runs at I’d be happy to. I see this as kind of like insurance – BMW do a similar extended warranty for their bikes that can run indefinitely.
Difference between this and Adobe is I still own the Mac/iPad or whatever is being covered, and I can still use it without Applecare…
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Before you criticise a man, walk a mile in his shoes.
Then when you do criticise him, you’ll be a mile away. And have his shoes. -
[Aindreas Gallagher] “some of the stuff there makes here polite, this one has a ring to it:
“For someone starting out, it’s a slamming deal, especially if you use all the tools. But maybe they don’t understand just yet the ebb and flow of professional life. Money comes in, but sometimes it doesn’t, and the bank wants the mortgage payment regardless. I could buy a Suite when times were flush, and coast for a while when times were a little lean and still work. With a rental model, an extended period of tight cash might mean I would have to make the choice between putting food on the table and working. Then, suddenly I’m without the tools of my livelihood. With a perpetual license, we all had the means of production, and could do with it as we pleased. With a rental license, you’re working for the man. As far as I’m concerned, that’s f**#ed up.”
“This.
I’m both a freelance gun-for-hire and have a small boutique shop. My ageing FCP7 suite suits 99% of my work, can be a little slow now in renders and the like – but it owes me nothing. In fact, I probably paid for it very quickly – and for the last 5 years it’s been making me money.
But there have been times when I’ve been hired for jobs without my kit – lots of small indies have their own now – and then I have a choice – pay Adobe each month, or have no kit at home I can go play with, or have a tinker on a freebie project (which can no longer be free – no more pro-bono work with the Cloud) or just do a quick revision for that client who you’ve known for years and it’ll only take a minute and ‘you’d not normally charge but you see…’
To me, regardless of the benefits it brings, the restriction of having to pay month on month, not being able to use MY tools to do MY work the way I choose – that leaves a bitter taste in the mouth.
Jason
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Before you criticise a man, walk a mile in his shoes.
Then when you do criticise him, you’ll be a mile away. And have his shoes. -
[Bernard Newnham] “Jason, further up, says-
“I’ve lost days before when using PC based systems – even with full tech support, I’ve had whole mornings where clever people have been ‘under the hood’ (this on HP 800 workstations so not cheap stuff) ”One does have to wonder what year that was – sometime in the nineties? And what software he was using. I remember all that stuff too, but I was a lot younger then.”
No Bernie – last year, hence the HP 800. Running Avid…
Overall I’m pretty platform agnostic, I’ll cut on whatever someone pays me to cut on. All I can go on is my experience, having owned both PC and Mac based systems. I had nightmares with some of the early Avids – especially the ones running on ‘custom’ hardware (what was the one with the rack-mounted CPU with big clamshell doors they sold in the 90s? I shudder to remember that POS…) yet my Fast Silver was rock solid running on a beefy PC. I think it has a lot to do with how carefully any PC is put together – and money does play a part here. Too many people cut corners and pay the price in terms of downtime and incompatibilities. I don’t want to have to troubleshoot that kind of thing – I can if I have to, but I’d rather be cutting. I have been fortunate in the reliability stakes with my own kit, probably because I can’t afford to have it crap out on me so I take good care of it.
Looking overall at the computers I’ve used and owned both at work and domestically, I’d say Apple have both the best reliability and longevity – heck my Blue & White G3 still worked when i junked it (couldn’t even find someone to give it to) and we’ve still got a pair of eMacs that work fine. Must’ve been through at least 3 desktop PCs and a couple of windows based laptops in that time. But as always YYMV…
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Before you criticise a man, walk a mile in his shoes.
Then when you do criticise him, you’ll be a mile away. And have his shoes. -
It’s an interesting and ongoing argument I have with a lot of editors and friends who aren’t Apple users. In my experience of both working freelance and at the Beeb, I’ve had more trouble with PC based systems than Mac ones. My own suite is a venerable MacPro 1.1 (the earliest Intel) that I’ve had since new – crashes I can count on one hand, and downtime due to hardware or software problems would be a few hours at most. I’ve lost days before when using PC based systems – even with full tech support, I’ve had whole mornings where clever people have been ‘under the hood’ (this on HP 800 workstations so not cheap stuff) and I’ve been unable to edit. So in terms of billable time the Macs I’ve worked on have been, as a rule, ultra-reliable. Were it not for support for X and some of the new hardware coming out I’d not be considering changing my Mac, but I can’t complain as it’s provided sterling service for 5 years now. Worth every penny IMHO.
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Before you criticise a man, walk a mile in his shoes.
Then when you do criticise him, you’ll be a mile away. And have his shoes. -
[Bill Davis] “I hereby bestow upon you the Ironic Post of the Era award, (with beech nut clusters!!) hands down!”
Gotta chime in here Bill. I understand Aindreas’ point totally. I’m a jobbing editor, and pre X, 7 was definitely in the ascendent here in the UK, in my experience. I’d not done a job on Avid for about 4 years, all my clients (across the board from BBC Broadcast to small corporate producers) were on 7, or happy to cut on my suite running 7. Post X launch, many are still on 7 reasoning (wisely) that 7 still works, ain’t broke, still does what they want… but many are switching rapidly back to Avid. X isn’t even in the shortlist. Now, whatever the rights and wrongs of this are, as an editor who makes a healthy living doing this I’m forced into a situation where I have to use Avid more often (which as an end user I consider to be inferior to FCP7 in a number of key ways, better in others – but I prefer 7) or convince clients to use Legacy, which is fine for the clients who trust me!! So yes – in terms of the people who pay the bulk of my wages, X is non existent in their world. Much as you might wish it otherwise, in the circles Aindreas and I work in it just ain’t happening yet. I suspect that is true for much of the world. It may not be right or fair, and they may all be missing a trick by not drinking the Kool-Aid or taking the red pill and adopting X with loving arms, but it’s the reality we’ve been working with since Apple introduced X. There is a reason for the vitriol, and ‘get over it’ kinda misses the point.
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Before you criticise a man, walk a mile in his shoes.
Then when you do criticise him, you’ll be a mile away. And have his shoes.*the artist formally known as Jaymags*
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[James Mortner] “As I say, there are plenty of people getting a lot out of this package. Why is no-one advertising jobs founded on it here in the UK?”
My experience of it is that it’s going to be a slow uptake. It took a while for Legacy FCP to be accepted, and even now there are pockets of the BBC that won’t touch it with a barge pole, believing that anything that doesn’t have a purple triangle on it will cause their programme to crash and burn in a fiery mess of lost clips and unsynced screwed up footage. Much of this is due to the protectionist mindset certain key Avid editors had when FCP was on the ascendant, putting the fear of ‘here be dragons’ in to the heads of simple producers…
That aside, Apples royal ****-up of the launch of X, alongside the fact that there were deficiencies in the original program (and there still are for some key applications) has meant that post houses (who are very conservative in the main) have been either ignoring it completely or tentatively exploring it’s potential, alongside a known system they can trust. It’ll be a while before it’s talents and advantages result in adoption, and even then wholesale switchover won’t be for a few more years, if at all. It’s fine for small boutique post houses (or in-house setups for production companies) but I feel that it will be an uphill push for it to be accepted widely. And that’s no surprise really – Legacy wasn’t really a player until maybe version 4 or 5 – what’s that, 3 or 4 years after launch?
So I think we’ll see a slow burn for professional acceptance, and the key question will be if the momentum built with 7 has been totally squandered with X. Of course none of this matters a jot to Apple as they’re shifting more units (allegedly) than they ever did with 7, but I think we may be heading back to a time when ‘Pro’ editors use ‘pro’ software once again and the upstart X will be relegated to the (wannabe) ‘Pro in all of us’. I hope this isn’t the case as I don’t believe it’s an accurate perception of X at all, but as I said the ‘missing elements’ on launch and revolutionary paradigm shift meant that as many were put off as were exited by it, especially amongst producers and facilities. I have X, like many bits of it, but still use 7 and I’m brushing up on Avid again (and indeed cutting 3 one-hour films on it, much to my dismay) to ensure my hire ability for the foreseeable future.
Jason
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Before you criticise a man, walk a mile in his shoes.
Then when you do criticise him, you’ll be a mile away. And have his shoes.*the artist formally known as Jaymags*