My year seems to have three major themes: sucking while learning, family history video and small production kit. Along the way there have been 13 episodes of Lunch with Philip and Greg.Â
Category: Business
If there was a theme to 2015 in production technology, it would be that this was the year of more. More pixels – 4K and beyond; more dynamic range with HDR video; more field of view as VR establishes; and more programming sources as Netflix et. al. become fully fledged ‘networks’.
From Variety:
Joss Whedon shared an eye-opening fact during Saturday night’s reunion of the “Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog†team: He’s made more money from his independently financed 2008 Internet musical than he did from writing and directing Marvel’s first blockbuster “Avengers†movie.
That’s pretty amazing considering he would have picked up between $5 and $10 million for writing and directing that first Avenger’s movie.
I previously wrote of Dr Horrible’s Singalong Blog in February 2009, where I discussed where the income was coming from. The iTunes revenue and DVD sales must have been pretty good as streaming served more as promotion for the iTunes and DVD sales.
Episode 69 of The Terence and Philip Show has us discussing how we adapt to change, as change is inevitable.
Peter Wiggins is a freelance editor who has been using Final Cut Pro for broadcast since 2003. He runs the successful FCP plugin website iDustrial Revolution and he is the force behind FCP.co.
Peter joined us for lunch in San Jose during the recent FCP X Creative Summit.
Peter Wiggins of FCP.co asked me why we changed the name of Xto7 for Final Cut Pro to XtoCC.  Here’s my answer.
Although Final Cut Pro X’s initial release was four years ago today – June 21st – the story starts much earlier for me. Much more significant was the NAB 2011 preview that completely killed our software business for a couple of months, and even before that, with the speculation leading up to Apple’s formal release of a fresh approach to what a modern NLE should be.
There are important lessons from our experience.
In the latest episode of the Terence and Philip Show, Terry and I discuss how to survive an ever-changing world and keep your career alive. Triggered by a discussion of a family history video project I’m undertaking (and will be writing about more shortly).
You may have read that Randy Ubillos – Chief Architect, Video Applications at Apple – retired after 20 years with Apple, yesterday. Â I’ve had the great privilege of meeting him from time to time, and offer my hearty congratulations on his retirement, the strongest of best wishes for the future, and heartfelt thanks for largely making my career possible.
The question on everyone’s lips is “how does this affect Final Cut Pro X?” My honest thought is “not much”. There are concepts in Final Cut Pro X that clearly came from Randy’s mind, but so also did the original Premiere Pro (1-4.2), the original Final Cut (Pro) (aka Keygrip at Macromedia), Aperture where he was lead architect, and iMovie 08. There were other apps before that, and the full history can be found in Timelines 2 by John Buck.
Randy was also an important part of the team that developed Final Cut Pro X, but more in the role of supervising architect, rather than as part of the detailed group of Product Marketing, App Design, and App Architecture. The people working in those key roles remain in those key roles, and I sense nothing that would affect, or change the direction Apple are taking with Final Cut Pro X. Final Cut Pro X is in exceptionally good hands moving forward.
As I’ve written before, the tools of creative endeavor will always be part of Apple’s DNA, and therefore I expect we’ll see evolution of the tools over time, but never abandonment. There will always be professional, and consumer level, audio, video and photography apps in Apple’s world.
Professionally, I’ve benefited from (writing an unreleased book about) Premiere Pro; from decades of Final Cut Pro classic; and from Final Cut Pro X. I still prefer Aperture over Photos but I’m keeping an open mind that the metadata functions in Photos will improve. For all that, I simply say “Thank you”.
Finally, a little bit of advice from Randy, on taking “holiday videos” (I may paraphrase slightly):
At each location, take out the video camera and shoot a shot. Now, put the camera away and enjoy your holiday and the location in the present.
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My Take on NAB 2015
A very subjective take on NAB 2015 because I spent very little time looking at tech! Instead my focus was on the FCPWORKS demo room and particularly my Lumberjack System presentation on Wednesday. But, of course, NAB is also about the socializing.