Tony West
Forum Replies Created
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[Oliver Peters] “[Tony West] “One example of working for yourself in this biz would be, you approach the same client that the production house approaches instead of the production house. There’s nobody in-between you and the client.”
Yep. I live in that world every day. It simply doesn’t pan out for most people in reality.”
You don’t live or work in my town but if you ever want to come here I’ll take you on a tour of shuttered post house buildings and ad agencies that were king back in the day that don’t exist anymore. It’s working out for plenty.
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I don’t know if you are aware of it or not but you contradicted yourself in the same post.
First you wrote….
[Oliver Peters] “working for yourself is such a pipe dream”
Then you wrote…….
[Oliver Peters] “Look at high-end feature film and TV editors. They essentially work for themselves. “
I disagree with both statements anyway.
I didn’t think I would need to explain it with all the vets on this page but I guess I do. One example of working for yourself in this biz would be, you approach the same client that the production house approaches instead of the production house. There’s nobody in-between you and the client.
[Oliver Peters] “Not everyone will be a “YouTube star”.”
Ah……….yeah, who said they would? There is plenty of money to be made on Youtube without ever putting your face on there. People get paid these days to put commercials up there and on FB. Those weren’t avenues before. Heck, are you sure you really make more money than some of the people that are shooting weddings these days? I mean, have you seen any of these people’s stuff? A friend just showed me the “trailer” to their family member’s wedding video. It was fantastic. The “Trailer”, dude. I can only imagine how the actual video itself will look. It’s a whole nother game out there these days, with all due respect.
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[Michael Gissing] ” Those creative 12 year olds will not be using X in ten years because X will EOL before then”
You might be right but who knows. AVID’s been around for 32 years.
I remember people on this page claiming Apple wouldn’t make a new Mac Pro. In a bit they will have made two of them since those wrong predictions.
My main thought was what percentage of those12 year olds will be looking to work for someone else or themselves in the future.
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[greg janza] “This is directly opposite of how I approached the business when I was starting out and how I continue to approach the business 25 years later.”
I hear you Greg. Your approach mirrors mine almost completely and our paths are much the same.
Your experience that you saw in him are the same as what I see in other new folks coming in.
The industry has changed so much since we came in. You really had to be working for someone else to have a chance at making a decent living. You couldn’t purchase the gear to shoot, let alone the suite to cut in and even if you did you had few places to put it when done. None of that is the case anymore.
I’m not saying I have the answers, just thinking out loud and wondering : )
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[Neil Goodman] ” How many kids do you think will turn down a job because of the software?”
I don’t think they will turn it down. I think they will take it but keep doing their own jobs on the side that over time bring them closer to competing with the jobs that they are offered.
Things might not change at all, and independents will just keep chipping away at production houses like it’s been for the last two decades or more.
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[Oliver Peters] “I think that’s an assumption”
I base things I say on personal experiences for the most part. I have a cousin who just showed me his work that was really impressive. He’s 12. Anybody can go on youtube and see kids putting up X videos. That’s not a secret.
In Greg’s own story he mentioned that they are giving that young person a chance because he has talent. Talent built on his early use of X.
That’s why I asked him that question.
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[greg janza] “My wife is still going to give this young professional a chance because his portfolio does indicate that he has talent”
Question for you Greg, with so many young people starting to cut at a very young age in X (sometimes as young as 12) at what point do companies like your wife’s start to adjust to field all that young talent, or do you chance having them out there on their own competing against your wife’s company and chipping away at profits? I think that’s a question that this industry will be looking at across the board. Up until this point companies have done what she is doing, have them come in and learn what’s there, but does that change at some point?
Back in my day I had to wait until I was 18 and in college to learn how to edit. Now young folks coming out can have a decade of experience when they finish school.
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Oh yes, that Pro Display stand is a must ; )
The timing of my Blues winning that Cup couldn’t have been better. They knew how much I needed the extra work for that stand. Lets Go Blues!
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[Bernard Newnham] “Clients don’t give a stuff about what gear you have, any more that what car you drive. “
They “give a stuff” about what kind of car you drive in they have to ride in it. If you pick them up at the airport and your car can’t get them to the job, yeah…… they would care.
They care what type of gear you have also. They will request a certain type of camera and some will even say they want it shot at a certain frame rate and if you can’t do that you’re out. When you say “gear” you must be talking strictly about the computer you are cutting on.
I see the new MP as an investment. I’m looking at that machine as something I could run for the next 10 years or likely longer. I’m guessing that’s why it cost so much. They know people are gonna sit on it for years like the old one so they need to get paid now.
I also look at long term dependability. My last grader has been solid every day for years and that’s what I expect from this new one. I want to be able to do high level work on this machine well into the future. I’m not just looking at now, I’m looking way down the road.
I would think that the resale value of the new MP would be higher than some pc I snapped together myself, if I had to guess.
Since you know about our healthcare system (hopefully soon to be improved) you ought to know that a machine like that is a tax write-off here. You just hand the receipt for that box to your accountant at tax time and get a lot of money back.
People were happy with their graders. They wanted another one. They gave it to you.
Btw, if you get that monitor you likely won’t have to buy another one of those for a long time either. Also a write-off.
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Personally I would have stuck closer to the actual points that Micheal was making in that video (I’m guessing he made similar ones on stage) rather than the knife analogy. In the video he pointed out that 1. There were profession sound tools in X and 2. That he likes how easy it is for him to slip sections around in the X timeline making it easy for him to see how the sound plays with the picture. I agree with both those points and they are hard to argue against.
I would also make the case that what he was dealing with was not “simple” audio stuff. I would argue that most people who earn a living editing never touch some of the tools in that video. They likely spend most of their time fixing background noise, distortion and just having levels that don’t blowout the person who is speaking.
