Tom Sefton
Forum Replies Created
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Interesting. I’ve heard of issues with thunderbolt peripherals causing crashes when they go to sleep but never experienced it on either an iMac, Mac Pro or 2012 MacBook Pro Retina. Has apple support had anything to say about the crashes as that sounds like something that is fixable. The worrying cheap build comments don’t sound fixable though!
Co-owner at Pollen Studio
http://www.pollenstudio.co.uk -
How was a link to a great piece of tech that enables smaller production companies to compete with bigger firms on shared editing projects been swung around so you can bang on about Apple’s non upgradable parts policy?? How..!!!??? Is this actually Steve Woz posting through an alter ego on the cow, venting his spleen about the direction his company took, angry that billions of people have chosen to trust one firm to build them something that works instead of fiddling around with parts and building a super computer for less money? The fools!!!
If you think you can build something like this and write the code to leverage the performance from the drives whilst making it plug and play, and easy to use, and put it in a different rackmount case that fits in a different bloody box and doesn’t have a handle on top to make it easy to carry, and get 5 colleagues or co-workers to work at the same time as you to test performance, then go ahead. Come back and write your findings here. If it works better than this one perhaps you can start selling it to people and offer a warranty and tech support and can build up a list of clients that trust you with their data and their business. Why stop there – maybe you could get yourself a rotary kiln and produce the purest aluminium around, meaning you can reduce weight whilst building a more fuel efficient and powerful car engine.
When exactly in my working week am I supposed to learn how to build all of these things – the hackintosh that is less than a Mac Pro and the shared raid, and the internal raid? I want to do my job. I want to buy something that works immediately and has a warranty and that someone else has used and found reliable. It’s all getting a bit silly with the DIY angle now – if you can’t see the value in a product like this from a small company, then what exactly is your point?
Co-owner at Pollen Studio
http://www.pollenstudio.co.uk -
It’s small enough for carry on or you can purchase a custom peli case. The company make much larger options which have been installed rackmount – for a Swiss TV station recently I believe. If you want more details have a look at the Lumaforge website.
The performance/ease of use/ease of use with fcpx(or Adobe or avid)/size/tech support/plug and play are big selling points – probably would be cheaper options out there but same issues as with home made PC – you need to DIY and solve issues yourself. Directly competes with g-tech on price but allows up to 6 editors to work on a project with up to 240TB of rushes in raw in realtime, via 10Ge connection with great performance. And a 3 year warranty and remote support!
This plus fcpx is a brilliant package for completing medium to large projects that before were unavailable.
Co-owner at Pollen Studio
http://www.pollenstudio.co.uk -
Met sam in person at IBC last year – great guy. He has a brilliant product – really looking forwards to using one later this year.
For any editors wanting to work to a budget but requiring stunning performance from a shared raid should look no further!
Co-owner at Pollen Studio
http://www.pollenstudio.co.uk -
It’s a funny thing – Alexa have used the same sensors for years and shunned the pixel drive from other camera manufacturers and the cameras produce beautiful images. Red have cornered the market for Netflix but for cinema, arri is still king. Small screen goes for red much more often – even for better call Saul, which after breaking bad was shot on film is an interesting move.
Alexa has such an incredibly loyal following – so much that many rental markets are dominated by the request of a DoP and many of those only want Alexa. I’m looking forwards to seeing if the new helium sensors from red make any difference to what major releases use – especially with the tie in with panavision – a stunning technical achievement, but to be honest for a cinema experience I still don’t think you can beat film. Can’t wait to see what Christopher Nolan and Hoyte van Hoytema do with Dunkirk. Red is making some inroads to Hollywood but they seem to be used much more for VFX based films…?
NLE and movie making is really interesting. I thought that FCP started to get real recognition when Cold mountain was cut on it. I also find it really cool that one of the most celebrated editors of the last 35 years doesn’t use software made by avid, Adobe, Apple or blackmagic. It’s a personal choice that is fit to the task in hand…
Co-owner at Pollen Studio
http://www.pollenstudio.co.uk -
That’s fine – but you can be a class act and hand over all the assets for a project without giving them your project files. It could be pretty galling to find out your project is being finished by somebody else for less money who then claims credit for your work. I wouldn’t say this is a crybaby move – just protecting your business. Hope all goes well for you Ken.
Co-owner at Pollen Studio
http://www.pollenstudio.co.uk -
He absolutely should not get your premiere editing files. It could be argued that he doesn’t even have the rights to the rushes just the finished project, but if you are feeling charitable and want to get rid of the client, send all rushes without ANY project files. They are your IP, your work, your experience and your property. He is not owed them, unless you agree a substantially higher fee.
Co-owner at Pollen Studio
http://www.pollenstudio.co.uk -
Stunning deal. Aggressive move by Apple – adobe blaming currency and Brexit as a reason to hike costs for students is a bad idea…!
Co-owner at Pollen Studio
http://www.pollenstudio.co.uk -
Andy, stop being passive aggressive and snarky. I asked honest questions using the biggest footage available that would give benchmarks on rendering and editing that could show how how your homemade rig would shine.
Ive done 10 mins of searching around and found a few benchmarks for high res export from homemade rigs vs new Mac Pro or MacBook Pro and it’s enlightening. Thanks for the offer of testing the footage – let’s park that one for now.
Co-owner at Pollen Studio
http://www.pollenstudio.co.uk -
Who is mocking? I don’t like buying cheap hardware – mostly because I’m not technically minded to spend my time either building or fixing it and would sooner spend my time doing my job. I’ve trusted Apple with my business for the last 7 years and so far it’s gone pretty well.
You’ve built a PC that can edit for a smaller investment. Good for you – nobody is knocking that. I asked repeatedly about performance benchmarks and from what I can gather, to get similar performance to the Mac Pro for raw playback and export with tech support included, it isn’t as simple as using a cheaper model because so far you have only said you can just about play 4K red one which is an obsolete format. Yes, someone out there can build a hackintosh system that will do it and will far exceed this – like Maxx does, only with thunderbolt 2 and 3 and Mac OS support, but that isn’t me and there isn’t a shop I can buy it from.
Paying more money does not equate to a better product? How so? You’re mixing that up with saving money by having the expertise and patience to DIY. More expensive cameras and lenses are always a better product – otherwise the films you watch in the cinema or on Netflix would be shot with a £300 DIY camera. Plus with added investment comes potential revenue streams in hires which you asked me to disregard.
Let’s just agree to disagree – I think that external peripherals have given great opportunities and performance boosts, along with the new Mac Pro being a great machine – it just needs an update to be able to produce the sort of projects that will be coming along in the next few years – like high resolution VR for instance, and if that means some more connectivity then fantastic. If you want to build your edit suite on your own, have the expertise to shop for parts and service them, great job – I don’t. It doesn’t make us any different – both editors. FCPX leverages performance from a screenplay system in a pretty fantastic way – more grunt for the machine and the next few years will likely be impressive.
Co-owner at Pollen Studio
http://www.pollenstudio.co.uk