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Mike Jones on the Demise of Avid
Published by Matthew Jeppsen March 31st, 2008 in Holy War, NLE, News, Post-Production We mentioned Avid’s “New Thinking” campaign launch recently, and the direction they are now headed to woo young and experienced editors alike to the Media Composer platform. There’s been a lot of discussion on the announcement, some positive, some negative. Here’s a few interesting comments by blogger Mike Jones. Excerpt from The Death of Avid (started a long time ago):
“The Avid interface, the Avid mentality, is one born out of keeping traditional editors relaxed and comfortable, designed around ensuring traditional broadcasters felt secure in their major financial outlay on hardware. But every year since Avid’s inception there have been less traditional editors to keep relaxed and comfortable. Every year there were new editors to take their place. Editors who were Digital Natives, not Digital Immigrants. Editors for whom the analogue language, the tape-to-tape paradigm, the hardware base, the stoic mechanics, made no sense - seemed simply old, archaic, inflexible and even irrational. The Digital Native editor whose life centres around a laptop so powerful they barely understand the idea of an ‘off-line’ edit, looks at the Mojo and the Adrenaline with the same quizzical smile as computer nerd looks at a ‘mainframe’ computer as big as a room from the 1970’s.”“…I feel angry that a company with such dominance, such power, such influence over the creative artform of our age was so condescending of its users as to refuse to grow with them, refuse to let them grow, refuse to aknowledge new ideas from new younger minds. I feel somewhat angry such a company would not seek to be more accessible, more efficient and instead trade their business on excess, superfluousness and a culture of snobbery whose only means of distinction was to forge a hard line in the sand and declare Real Professionals on their side and Child-like Wannabes on the other.”
Excerpt from Avid’s ‘New Thinking’ isnt ‘new’ to anyone but themselves:
“That Avid have launched a new online support portal for Avid users that utilizes a peer/user ranking system to rate the usefulness of posts and tutorials is positively laughable for its lack of vision. Where have you been Avid? The rest of the digital production world has been fully engaged developer-sponsored, on-line peer-exchange for years. Welcome to the 21st century, we hope you enjoy your stay.”
Strong words, to be sure. And I imagine that many could take issue with some of the claims (like the opinion that Media Composer offers “nothing” over other NLE options at twice the price). However, much of what is said here rings true in my ears. What do you think?
5 Responses to “Mike Jones on the Demise of Avid”
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Ditto Mike - so much of what you are stating rings true. I have worked on both platforms and made the shift some years ago. It appears that they have rested on their laurels banking on the fact that the traditional editors would refuse to relearn a new platform as long as the old one would always be available - the innovation that originally put Avid at the top stopped when they took customer loyalty for granted. A few new features have emerged over the years - only to the reveal that new versions would not play well with previous or different versions. Too many damn flavors of Avid. All too expensive - most requiring hardware based upgrades to run optimally.
“think new?” - come on Avid… It may not be your perception - but to a large extent it’s only two syllables different than apples iconic “think different”. I’m certain it may even be on a subconscious level for you. However-this to me seems like a desperate plea to appeal to the users who are switching over to FCP - crying out for them to stay as if to say “we’re not all that “different”. Our slogan is kinda the same. Please stay.” A new platform - if innovative should have been called “Avid Resurrection”. But then the hype would likely only be setting you up for failure.
Depending what region of the world you live in - outside of some of the hollywood and primary broadcast centers - it’s abundantly clear that Avid editors who continue to champion a dying system are viewed as dinosaurs due for extinction - and because of the lack of flexibility are finding it increasingly difficult to put twelve months of work together. I once was told by a once respected avid editor that “No self respecting editor would touch final cut pro system!” That editor is beggin for work with the handful of Avid systems remaining in the industry in our neck of the woods. The news here is that - yes some FCP editors can perform many of the duties that and avid based offline-online facility can provide. However - I don’t remember the last time we had to do an Offline on an FCP system. There are some whipsmart eager people out there willing to learn the tool of the 21st century. It still amazes me how many editors have approached learning FCP begrudgingly - but once they learned FCP - ended up wondering why they didn’t make the leap sooner. For many it creates ongoing opportunites. However sometimes their fatal hesitation makes it too late and they are labelled as “set in their ways - and unwilling to even try.”
It is simple psychology here - most people will take the path of least resistance - and stick to what they know. It’s easier to not re-train and hope for the best.
Of late I notice a couple of the A list post facilities are switching to FCP. Their editors, colorists, and motion graphics artists have mandatory FCP training as it is appearing imminent that the post house will eventually become a full blown apple facility.
They are moving to where the market is going to shift. That is the paradigm in this rivalry.
Until I read Tom’s comment, I hadn’t yet associated Avid’s “New Thinking” slogan with the Apple’s “Think Different” slogan, but he’s right, it does seem derivative. In fact, there’s something lame about the syntax of “New Thinking” in terms of marketing. Like it was written by someone who only speaks English as a second language. It’s so unimaginative, and I guess that doesn’t really bode too well.
I should say, I’m an Avid devotee. I refuse to go Mac and FCP. And truthfully, I predict the bloom is going to go off Mac’s rose in the next couple years. Avid is still amazing software. But stating that a price-drop is somehow “new thinking” or even “New Thinking” is just dumb. Everyone has been saying they had to do this for years. Nevertheless, for Avid devotees like me, the idea that Avid is finally seeing the error of its ways is really encouraging. It means I get to stay in Avid’s camp a little while longer! Maybe indefinitely…
On the other hand, I still find Avid’s forum to be perpetuating some of the “old thinking.” Threads that don’t accord precisely with the rules and opinions of the moderators get locked instantly. It’s an arrogance that seems like the old Avid to me. Because there aren’t nearly enough people on that forum to begin with. Who are they to start locking a thread just because they think the answer is already to be found in the byzantine mess that is the Avid website. If someone’s asking, they should act like a company that wants to do business and answer the bloody question.
My 2c… I think that FCP is an awesome tool for most projects. On others, Avid is simply the smarter choice and pays for itself very quickly.
Personally I have been using FCP since 1.2 but find am a bit tired of its instability, its lack of responsiveness, and the clumsiness of its core editing tools. I prefer to cut on Avid if I am doing something narrative. No arrogance. It just sucks less.
I guess the article author isn’t a full-time narrative editor, so I understand why FCP probably suits him much better. I also find it a bit funny that he complains about Avid being about “stoic linear assembly”. Time is linear. A certain amount of stoicism is not a bad thing too. Just focus on telling the story with good selections and cuts.
For new media stuff I can imagine a new way of doing things, but for film editing, you might want change TOO much, just as word processors haven’t changed much since the 80’s. Yes, we need much better ways of sifting through footage (Walter Murch has great ideas on that) but probably you’re still going to want a good trim tool in 100 years’ time - and Avid has the best trim tool IMHO.
That said, a more-intelligent editing timeline interface would be great. But I don’t think Apple innovates much there at all. Worse, if anything it’s easier to mess up synch, etc. in FCP than in Avid. Sony Vegas, Avid DS, Discreet Smoke, Quantel eQ etc all bring new things to the table. But I wouldn’t want to short film in any of them, thank you very much.
It’s very good that we have competition, of course, and we have Apple to thank for delivering us from 90’s Overpriced Avid Hell.
Bruce Allen
http://www.boacinema.com
Bruce, you bring some great thoughts to this discussion. I cut on FCP but miss things about Vegas (track effects/volume; speed; amazing audio editing; instant and intuitive clip transitions) and think that FCP could be so much more. For example, why not take a page from the new iMovie, with its quick clip-scrubbing and multithreaded rendering (while you work)? Didn’t Speed Razor do that, or Edius? FCP’s UI is decrepit and the codebase needs a complete overhaul. Instead, they keep tacking features on, making it bloatware.
I’d love to hear what Murch had to say on clip searching/review. I hope Final Cut Server - if it ever ships - addresses some of these challenges.
One thing I have envied, at least in concept, is AVID’s scriptsync. If it works as advertised, automatically matingg video to transcript seems revolutionary. I would like to see a platform agnostic versionof that.