Tony West
Forum Replies Created
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[Walter Soyka] “How does exploration work for you in pre-pro?”
It’s all about understanding what they do and what they want to convey. Listening and learning about them and then using creative talent and experience in the biz to craft the project that will achieve their goals.
That’s the time to kick around ideas and concepts for me.
The latest Dove ad disaster is a perfect example. You better believe that if I were in the room that “concept” would have never got out the door. I would have shot that down early in the process. You see, sometimes they don’t know, and they are relying on you to advice against a tone deaf spot like that.
[Walter Soyka] “It’s really interesting to me how similar our work may seem on the surface, but how different the expectations and process can be.”
I’m not so sure the expectations are that different. I’m looking at options same as you, maybe just earlier in the process.
It seems that your options in post would be somewhat limited to your footage that was already shot.
Do you find yourself going back and reshooting often and if not, how far can you expand on what’s already there?
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[Walter Soyka] “The thing that surprised me most about this thread is how many folks seem to charge straight ahead, with one solution in mind. We find clients expect options and value exploration of multiple ideas.
“It’s all about the pre pro Walter. I tend not to roll a single frame until there is a script and or shot sheet.
The time for “exploration” is in that process, not the day of the shoot. That’s not to say that you can’t add stuff during production. We do that all the time but by this stage we should all be on board with the general concept and goals.
After pre pro and production, there doesn’t tend to be many surprises in post.
“Options” can cost money and these days budgets are tight.
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[Brett Sherman] “Which makes me wonder, if FCP X had library organization, SMB support, media storage outside the library, audio lanes from the get go, whether it’s support would have plummeted so much. Sure there were those that didn’t like the trackless arrangement. But having switched from tracks to trackless, I can say that the hurdles would not have been as great as imagined. Especially if lanes had been there to partially mollify the switch.
“I certainly think it would have been less, but there was a belief for many that Apple didn’t care about “pros” anymore and that fueled a lot of distrust.
I never believed that myself. I never believed they were making iMovie 2. They didn’t need 2 iMovies.
People said that they were not going to build a new mac pro and that was wrong also.
They missed the mark with it and now they are coming back with another one.
I read Herb’s account on the other thread and I totally see his frustration. I had never seen him describe it in that kind of detail.
I was lucky I guess. I liked X better than 7 out of the box. 7 could do things it couldn’t but X could do things 7 couldn’t and I believed they would keep improving X and they did. I used it just fine for broadcast work but I understand why others couldn’t.
I believed you could cut a feature film with it before they cut a feature film with it.
Apple doesn’t tell anybody anything because they know folks will just copy their stuff. That’s just how it is with them. Always has been.
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[greg janza] “Just to clarify, for those of us who had established freelance careers when FCPX was introduced it made absolutely no sense to waste any energy learning and adopting FCPX. In my market no post house even considered converting to it and so over time some freelancers started dabbling in it on their own but from a purely business perspective there was very little upside to learning it or incorporating it into a real workflow.”
Most freelancers I know do side jobs on their own to bring in extra cash. They could do that with the same software they use at work or a different one. It doesn’t really matter what work has in that scenario. When X came out it so affordable, It made all the “cents” in the world from that perspective.
Really no different from people working on AVID at work and Legacy on the side back in the day.
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[Herb Sevush] “If guys were posting misinformation on YouTube why didn’t Apple’s marketing department post solid information to counter that on both their web site and social media?”
I agree Herb. They should have been on that.
The first real push back I remember was the tekserve Schechtman video. I remember thinking at the time that Apple called on him to get out there and rescue it. He knew way too much about the program too early on to not have been part of the team in someway. I still would like to know the story behind his appearance that day.
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[Herb Sevush] “They shot themselves in the foot and no one else is to blame for it. “
I have a bit of a different take on it Herb. I never read any press on X pro or con before the release. (I just wasn’t paying attention)
I remember seeing the people in the room applauding and liking what they saw.
YT is where a lot of people go these days to get up to speed on many products and I was no different.
There were all these people on Youtube giving their “reviews” before they had a chance to learn the program.
I would see one person say it couldn’t do something followed by another person actually doing what that first person said it couldn’t.
It became clear to me that I needed to use the product and find out for myself.
The other thing I remember is people mainly focused on what was missing and almost none of what it COULD do.
Yeah it was missing stuff, but it had some really cool new stuff also.
That part wasn’t completely on Apple. There was a ton of misinformation out there.
To ignore that side of it, is to not tell the whole story.
It’s actually still happening. Check out this video by Jason Vong. I think Jason is a talented young brother and I’m not picking on him because he admits in the video he is still learning and is asking for help but it’s way too early for him to be making this video not knowing so much basic information.
Looks at the views, over 60 thousand. That’s a lot of people he reached with that information.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3G9V3NjYfzk
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[greg janza] “[Tony West] “They want you to have “Their computer” with you at ALL times.”
Oh I get it Tony but I’m referring to the computers that we use professionally to create content. And if you use your iphone to edit and create videos for clients then you must be way ahead of me.”
No, I will be using their new MPro when it comes out to edit and create my videos, and my clients will be watching it their “phones”.
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[greg janza] “The idea is to simply point out that making computers and software programs is a secondary priority for the company. “
I still think you are missing it Greg. It’s “their computer” in a miniature form that you can carry around in your pocket and you just happen to be able to make calls from it.
They want you to have “Their computer” with you at ALL times. Even when your “phone” is too much to carry, you will still have “their computer” on your wrist.
They don’t care anything about telling time, it’s all about their computers being with you at all times.
They know exactly what they are doing.
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[Oliver Peters] “”Open in timeline” is a lot more work than the same function used to be in FCP7.”
How so?
It’s 2 clicks. Was it 1 click in 7?
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[Oliver Peters] “Right, that’s “open in timeline”. The terminology changed in the newer version.”
You were using the old terminology of “Timeline” and I corrected it with the new one “Open Clip” For people new to X
[Oliver Peters] ” when you cut that clip into your sequence, you don’t see the clip-based correction within the color board any longer,”
You just hit open clip again from there and you do see it.