Bill, great post. Have been doing a little work on Premiere recently, and you realize what you miss from X and didn’t know you needed before X was released!
Having done beta-test cycles for Media Composer (and DS), yeah, the MC crowd is conservative because that workflow is solid and proven for them. And that’s a good reason not to upset the “apple” cart. Being on the beta run when the Smart Tool was released certainly re-enforced this notion (granted, it was a pretty ‘dumb tool’ when it was first released). This conservatism also has Avid using R&D dollars on doing version patches for software that may be one or two full versions old. And that slows things down too. Again, for their core market, this is a good reason not to go too fast or get too radical. It simply has to work for them.
But that’s a small niche. What system Gravity was cut on really means nothing to me and my market (there are no Avid suites left, so MC is not even in the conversation). Coming from an Avid shop and then losing places to use that skill, I had to find a replacement, which was FCP-Legacy, and then three years ago there was another fork in the road. You pick the path of what gives your client the best product and let’s you make a profit. Might be X or not. I am keeping my Premiere chops up because there may be another fork. Same with Resolve. So yes, I am actively looking at other alternatives simply to be as marketable as I can going forward. But it has nothing to do with “Gravity” or any other blockbuster for me.
Just my humble opine on a cold frosty morning! 😉
Scott Witthaus
Senior Editor/Post Production Supervisor
1708 Inc./Editorial
Professor, VCU Brandcenter