[Nick Griffin]

[David Roth Weiss] “lawyers are all about worst-case scenarios”

Thank you, David, for stating such a truism so succinctly.

[Nick Griffin]

Fernando’s reply is a good start, even though I disagree with some of his points. So borrowing from his use of the original format, here are some of my thoughts.

How do you manage your speed?
We get faster with experience. A good editor is in many ways like a professional musician. An amateur operates in starts and stops because he or she needs to figure out the next step. A pro already has the next several steps lined up in the mind’s eye or ready to happen if by reflex. The amateur’s performance is halting. A pro’s is fluid and flowing. Practice makes perfect, as the saying goes.

How do you avoid distractions?
How do you avoid wasting your time on forums, facebook, email … while editing.

Simple. DON’T DO IT when you have work you should be doing. Call it discipline, maturity, whatever. Children are easily distracted. Pros maintain their focus.

Multi-tasking:
How do you keep it organised in your mind and not lose it while multitasking (between converting, ripping, burning, …)
Same answer as the first question basically.

How do you explain to your boss the time wasted on technical problems and computer freezing and conversion problems…
Here I am in full agreement with Fernando. Don’t explain problems. Offer solutions. If your boss doesn’t know that computers crash (and that the more complex the computer and peripherals are the more prone the system is to crashing) then he or she has no business supervising people using some of the most complex systems in the workplace. This stuff isn’t Microsoft Word and nobody should think it will be that straightforward.

Are you ever satisfied with the final edit?
Here is where I completely disagree with Fernando. Certainly not on every little detail, but I can’t think of a single major project that I can look back on and not come up with ideas of how I would do something differently or try to improve. Call it personal growth or professional curiosity, I think this is essential to moving forward, getting better and not getting bored.

What do you do when your taste is “simplicity”…
Do what the job calls for. You can never go wrong by starting with solid story telling and using efx that enhance, not distract from the story.

How to become more technical, what to read, what softwares to use?
You’re already using one of the deepest resources available anywhere — the COW. Spend as much time here in the forums, tutorials, magazine, DVD Master Series, etc. as you can spare, preferably nights and weekends, NOT time you should be working.

Motion graphics ….
Can you be an editor and HATE motion graphics and graphic design in general?
Get over it. Do several of the tutorials and you may find that it grows on you. Motion Graphics uses a very different skill set than does editing and both are valuable. Push yourself. It will be worth it.

What’s the average hourly rate for editors in Sydney and when do I know if I deserve an increase?
I’m in the states so my answer is I don’t know. Make friends and network wherever possible. This is the kind of thing you pick up on over the years, not as a simple, one shot answer.

Where can I ask my silly questions about editing without being judged? like …
Why FCP is better than iMovie? I know it gives you more control but it also makes life harder in everything. And frustrates you with rendering just to preview a simple effect that you just added.

That’s one of the many reasons I use Media 100 even though we also have FCP and Premiere Pro (un-opened). Everything has its strengths and weaknesses. The more you know, the better you can do your job.

Why does AE has no audio? and how is it possible to animate to music when you can’t hear it?

Huh?? After Effects has audio. It’s just a pain to use because playback is from a preview, not real time. Spend more time with After Effects and you’ll find many things that it can do sooooo much better than editing software can. You may also find it useful to display the audio waveform to get a sense of beats and music cues. Again, spend some time with the tutorials.

And how does hollywood fit 3 hours movies on one disc?

Magic. And a deep knowledge of the use of compression markers.

HOW CAN I BECOME A BETTER EDITOR?
How can I become more quick, knowledgable, creative and technical?

Again, the COW is an amazing resource.

What do I need to read, edit, watch?

Read as much as you can, practice what you learn and watch everything.

[Nick Griffin]

[David Roth Weiss] “1) Vice President Cheney looking out through jail bars, discusses his arrest and conviction by the world court.

2) Rush Limbaugh arrested for falsifying another Viagra prescription.

3) Donald Rumsfeld and Karl Rove caught in Greenwich Village bath house tryst.”

Ladies & Gentlemen… Give it up for David Weiss!! He’ll be here all week and on Friday and Saturday nights there are two shows a night. And don’t forget to tip your waitresses.

But seriously…

Anthony –
You should probably try multiple sources to see what views you can get, although pricing is likely to stay in the same ballpark. If you REALLY need to do this on the cheap go to the cheap stock sources like iStock, Dreamstime, bigstockphoto.com and get a still image on which you could do a dramatic pull-out, zoom in, etc. The music you use will have a lot to contribute to the drama you are seeking to create.

And now, back to the oh so subtle political comedy-stylings of David Weiss.

[Nick Griffin]

[Marcus Warren] ” -Not tied to an A/B track workflow”

Huh?? Media 100 added 99 video tracks in version 10. Personally I find the A/B environment preferable, using it 99% of the time for most things besides adding graphics.

[Marcus Warren] ” -Easy rotation and scaling of clips and images without leaving the timeline”

I will give you this one. It’s the one thing that makes FCP the faster choice when this type of manipulation is needed.

Now how ’bout we start a new thread on the merits of various religions and/or political beliefs?

[Nick Griffin]

Thanks, Gary. Exactly the kind of reply I was looking for. I too have an OctoCore with slot 3 open, so that’s where I’ll start.

[Nick Griffin]

[Michael Slowe] “I’m afraid though the joke was lost on me, explanations please”

The joke was no doubt lost on EVERYONE not in the Washington / Baltimore TV markets. Ty was referring to a huge referendum vote here last fall to allow a SLOT PARLOR to be built next to a shopping center named Arundel Mills. Millions was spent on TV by both sides. Please direct your groans to Ty Ford, c/o Audio Professionals COW forum.

[Nick Griffin]

Funny boy. Fact of the matter is for the past few years Media 100 has been coming out with new features about twice as often as Final Cut Pro. It’s also been speculated that there will be another new version sometime this spring. And anytime you’d like to do a little side-by-side shoot out at my place I’ll be happy to set up identical projects in both FCP and M100 and we’ll see who gets more done. Remember I’ve used both and greatly favor M100 as the result of informed choice.

The major difference from a hardware standpoint is that Media 100 corporately offered very specific advice on which slots should be used for the i/o card, the RAID and the video card to obtain maximum performance. Not sure if this will matter or be affected by the compression card, hence the original question.

[Nick Griffin]

Way to go, Ty. A joke that a fraction of a fraction of a percent of our fellow Bovines will get. And you’re not even a Media 100 User!

[Nick Griffin]

I couldn’t agree with Bill more. Over the years we’ve ran into big corporate situations where we were told not only that individual gifts could not be accepted but gifts of any type, including deli platters and such had to be taken and given to homeless shelters because they would not, under any circumstances, be accepted. Every situation is different and you have to be aware of your environment.

Two thoughts on what we do these days. Who’s to say what our items are worth other than what we say? Virtually nobody who monitors these sorts of things stops to think what it costs for us to have the item custom-embroidered, come in a custom-printed box, get hand packed and hand wrapped. Even when the postage paid is right there under their nose, no one has questioned (yet) that the ITEM is under $10? (This becomes especially absurd on the items we send to the UK and Europe where the postage alone is more than twice the cost of the item.)

Second, my philosophy has always been to start at the top and that includes with gifting, uh… I mean holiday promotions. It’s one thing — and potentially easy to criticize — when our “item” is just going to a product manager or a VP of marketing. It’s entirely different when the same thing goes to the CEO, the Exec VP, most departmental VPs, their managers and even select secretaries and admin. assistants. We make interfacing with our clients on multiple levels a goal, no where more so than during the holidays.

My final (for now) gift story. One of our clients uses us for content creation but insists on using their own firm for content delivery. Last year my partner happened to be in their office when an OBSCENELY LARGE fruit and gift basket was delivered — we’re talking something which was easily in the $200+ range. When I later subtly brought this up with one of the VPs and made the quiet remark that they must consider you a VERY profitable customer (in contrast to the numerous lower cost providers we had suggested), he simply replied, “Oh no… they just really like us.” Unlike Bill’s story of the magnum, sometimes even the obvious fails to get attention.

Live and learn, indeed.

[Nick Griffin]

When you’re in the business of advertising and promotion you’d better be prepared to prove that advertising and promotion works. That’s why for the holidays most years we pull out the big guns: high individual cost, 3D mailers. Instead of sending a card to everyone or a gift only to selected large clients, we do a promotional item in a themed box for about 150 to 180 of our clients, closest suppliers, friends — and here’s a key — prospective clients.

Themed means that the box has a tease which is paid off once the box is opened. For example, the box says:”This year it seems like our idea of a holiday message will just go over most people’s head.” Inside the box is a neatly folded custom-printed Griffin Communications sweatshirt wrapped in gift tissue. Another year the box copy was: “After years of Nick Griffin’s blatant attempts to promote his services under the guise of a holiday gift, FINALLY a seasonal message that’s in good taste.” Inside the box was a set of high end bottled spices, re-labeled with our logo and copy.

This year we sent a fleece vest with our logo embroidered onto the breast pocket. By the time we add up the cost of the vests, the customization, buying the right boxes, having the boxes printed, paying for professional assembly/wrapping and postage costs, not to mention all of the costs shipping items and boxes to us we’re typically around $25 – $30 per recipient. These are sent as deep as needed into client companies. At some of our larger clients multiple people in multiple departments can originate projects so we want each of the key people, along with their gatekeepers, to receive our mailing.

Here’s the good part, once we are doing these for a 100 clients there’s very little incremental cost to adding key suppliers, business friends and even selected past employees to the mailing. It keeps our name out front with everyone, reminds people that they pay us to originate clever ideas, and is completely different from anything they’re getting from anyone else. Well worth the $5k when all is said and done. That’s our secret recipe for holiday cheer.