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Subject: Re: [AE] USA and the emerging 'Software Piracy Gap'!!
From: James Culbertson <albion@speakeasy.net>
In-Reply-To: <list-5187213@media-motion.tv>
Date: Sat, 24 Aug 2013 17:46:41 -0700
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References: <list-5187213@media-motion.tv>
To: "After Effects Mail List" <AE-List@media-motion.tv>

On Aug 24, 2013, at 4:17 PM, Steve Oakley wrote:

> On Aug 24, 2013, at 4:51 PM, James Culbertson <albion@speakeasy.net> =
wrote:
>=20
>> On Aug 23, 2013, at 11:50 AM, Jim Tierney wrote:
>>=20
>>>>> I have to say that I think Adobe's method of business with =
creative cloud is the best idea so far. Make the purchase price of your =
product more attainable at a longer stretch profit and more people will =
be inclined to purchase.
>>=20
>> The biggest issue for Adobe that I can see is their educational CC =
group pricing. I am going to be teaching career and technical education =
classes in Graphic Design and Video Production at our local high school =
and they cannot afford Adobe CC educational pricing in any of its forms. =
So we will be teaching FCPX/Motion instead of Premiere/After Effects. We =
are still on Adobe CS2 (running on Windows 7 in BootCamp because it does =
not run on OSX 7 and to be compatible with a Roland Vinyl Cutter) and =
Photoshop Elements 6. We are not alone by any means.
>=20
> you know the entire point of CC is that everyone stays current, and =
gets more frequent updates. the entire we're on CS2/3/4 goes out the =
window and everyone is on CC now. in fact I think its a very serious =
disservice to the students to be teaching them FCP X / Motion as the =
primary apps because they just don't have market share. you'd be better =
off using FCP7 because that resembles most other NLE's. I suppose whats =
worse is that the students may well have adobe CC on their own laptops. =
I've seen that a lot. you know those kids are paying perfectly good =
money to learn whats current and relevant and not be using apps that are =
6 or 7 years old. why not simply require the students to have their own =
machine with CC ? its quite common these days, not different than buying =
books for a class.


Steve, just a reminder that I am talking about high school and not =
college level courses. You do know the current state of educational =
funding in America I assume?

Where do you live? Perhaps by the time students get to college (at least =
those who can afford college) they can afford text books or a laptop (or =
at least go into debt to acquire them). But to assume that most high =
school kids/families can afford laptops and software isn't realistic =
around most of the country... I would even say that such an assumption =
was laughable if the level of poverty wasn't such a depressing state of =
affairs.

To give you some perspective, there is a $10 required fee for the CTE =
classes (don't ask me why this particular amount), and there is a =
hardship waiver available for the families who cannot afford it. As =
another example, the last couple of years we have had to raise $350,000 =
- $500,000 from our local community just to prevent riffs of essential =
teachers.=20

Over the years, I've occasionally taught Premiere, FCP legacy, and FCPX, =
and around here at least, FCPX is currently what most youth have on =
their Macs (almost all the subset of students I have encountered with =
computers have macs). In my experience, FCPX is also by far the fastest =
way to teach basic editing software techniques and get on to the task of =
teaching more intangible editing aesthetics, rhythm and pacing. I've not =
figured out why yet. Youth these days were born into today's exploding =
visual literacies and don't appear to have problems for the most part =
moving between diverse editing platforms. In any case, I am interested =
in teaching what one can do with the tools more than just focussing on =
the tools themselves, to that end I will do what I have to with the =
tools I have; at the very least I want awaken students to career =
possibilities and perhaps a budding passion in some.

Of course, if you want to make a (yearly) charitable donation to help =
our school district upgrade to the latest Adobe software I can put you =
in touch with the proper folks... Seriously.  ;-)   =46rom my estimates =
we would need about $2500-$3000/year to do CC at the high school. We =
could perhaps afford that every 3-4 of years, but not every year.

James

ps, I don't think you can say any editing application has an upper hand =
in market share at the moment... perhaps FCP7 still?=