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Jim, Interesting thoughts indeed. Mind if I add a few more? As preface, I put myself in the “corporate producer” category. Playing off your mention of Arri RAW and Red, it strikes me that some in this industry have gravitated to Arri and Red for the express purpose of being able to call themselves “Pro”. IMO, if they’re not shooting for cinema-sized outputs, what’s the point of all that resolution? I’ve always chuckled at some in that crowd, anxious to call themselves indie film makers, who don’t have the infrastructure, storage space or means to edit and handle 2k-4k material. I simply want to add my 2-bit opinion that in your excellent analysis and search for new definitions to distinguish what “pro” is—as I consider my own production kit which includes Panasonic P2 and Sony F3 cameras—that the primary over-arching object that has contributed to my own sense of “pro” is the massive amount of (fiber channel) storage that I’ve been lucky enough to acquire and have access to. Every Pr and Ae project, every edit, every P2 and SxS card’s worth of video since May 2006 (when I switched to tapeless and HD) is live and editable on my system. My strategy is and has been to keep all my data and keep moving it forward to larger storage systems, and so far I’m 2 generations deep into that strategy. But to have everything live and editable has helped me become fast and efficient in ways that no other single object, camera or computer, could ever do. So I’d simply like to add to your analysis that “pro” also means you have a data strategy that transcends camera or computer. I know….my point has little to do with what Mac does with their MBP, but it caused me to think about my own definitions and formula for success working within the same corporate entity for 26 years with the past 16 of those years being as video content creator. John From: After Effects Mail List [mailto:AE-List@media-motion.tv] On Behalf Of Jim Curtis
"Power users" doesn't mean what it used to. I saw an Apple ad on TV yesterday for the new MBP. They were running FCPX on it. This tells me that their definition of what constitutes "pro" has morphed. It now means "anybody with a camera and laptop." Just as "broadcast quality" and "HD" got hijacked by marketeers, so goes other once-meaningful terms. People who "need" a MacPro has been reduced to people who use ProRes4444, uncompressed HD, Arri RAW and RED. That's a small fraction of the "pro" market. I'd guess that the rest of the "pro" market, which includes corporate producers, news gathering, marketing destined for the web, wedding and event videographers, and so on, is 90% of the total. For them, a laptop or iMac based equipment package will suffice. We're going to need a new word to distinguish between what used to be "pro," and what is now "pro." Pro HD? Ultra-super Pro? I digress. I'm starting to think that if you're in the desktop class, just forget about Apple. That's a dead end. They're catering to the 90%, and doing a swell job. A three-year product cycle is not good enough. Fire them. If I were running Adobe, I'd consider dropping Mac support for the CS, except for maybe a dumbed down feature set line of iCrap apps. Clearly, there's money to be made there. I don't know. Maybe I'm succumbing to what Seinfeld called "The Preemptive Breakup." Perhaps the companies that make Apple products worth having should dump Apple before Apple dumps them. That could be cutting off their nose to spite their face. But, investing in development costs for a dead end product could be a risk not worth taking. If there was justice in the world, Apple's intransigence communicating with their customers should cost them dearly. Seems to me that investing in Windows hardware is a much safer bet for the Super Ultra Pro HD set. This message, and any attachments, is intended only for the use of the addressee and may contain information that is privileged and confidential or otherwise exempt from disclosure under applicable law. If the reader of this e-mail is not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any unauthorized use, dissemination, distribution or reproduction of this message is prohibited. If you have received this communication in error, please notify the sender by return e-mail and delete this e-mail and any attachments from your system. |
