CompuServe Messages

Very smooth and polished reply, good style. You earned plus points after your initial one. Still, your views are accurate but, as far as my situation is concerned, they are slightly off-mark. You're not wrong generally, but you're wrong to put me in your perspective. I know A LOT about the problems of adjusting to change, since I was trained with film and I still think no other method of dealing with motion pictures can surpass it in terms of quality, flexibility and pure production crafts. It is men who make movies, not machines, and without the craft of dedicated men all motion pictures are flat and squallid. A machine can be a perfect tool for a job, but if a man is not comfortable with it, it won't produce the best he is capable of. I refused to move into video editing because I hated the mechanicalities of the editing process, because I hated the flat image quality, because I hated the fact that I couldn't physically touch the thing and edit it with my hands. I was behind many competitors and felt cut off somehow. I lost a lot of work simply because I didn't want it, but I stood by my principle that it had to be closer to film. Then, when Avid came about, I fell for it because suddenly I could use all the things I learned about editing and I could cut with a method that was similar to editing films. I had a Mac myself and that obviously helped a lot. Editors hardly knew about it whilst I was all eyes and ears for video and multimedia on a Mac, long before everyone else. Suddenly, I was ahead of the competion, and to a large degree I still am. Because I am comfortable with my tool, I have exploited my film knowledge and mastered Computer-based editing to the point where I can cut so fast within broadcast standards (more on this some other time) to be able to work in the news. That alone is such a change in the Television industry that before new standards come out, there will still be people trying to come to terms with editing on a computer, never mind the logo on the case. When you get good at a job, people demand you and it's you who dictate the condition of your work, not the others. You choose the tools, not the other way around. And considering change simply a different platform is like identifying a season by a different wind. The real change will not be, in my view, Avid on Windows (which I still refuse), but by an entirely different approach to Television, the Media and communication. That's what the next real change is all about, and this is the very reason for this forum, together with a few others. And I am preparing for this change already, never mind your Windows PC. Your views only take into account INSTALLED base of personal computers. Television companies so far were only working with VCRs and expensive, yet complicated, editing consolles. They DON'T have a Windows computer in their cutting rooms. They look at systems, and buy a complete package. The fact that Avid has built a reputation for non-linear editing means they will buy directly from Avid. From this point of view, Avid has no interest in doing a Media Composer or NewsCutter on Windows, when they already have a set-up which is tried, tested and is already into its 5.0 or 3.1 version. The problem will only arise with a system that can be set-up using a computer that's already installed, and that's why they may do Media Suite Pro on Windows as well. This is your grey and boring 'economics 101', and it stops there. The professional TV editors like me have grown with Avid on the Macintosh and the installed base in production companies and TV stations is on the Mac: this is the side of your 'economics 101' which makes me say that there's no need for a Windows-based Media Composer or Newscutter. Just like all main DTP industries which have started on the Mac are definitively not turning to Windows – God forbid! What TV and production companies may do is look at other systems, which offer different features or costs than Avid. I would be very hard pushed to see a Windows NewsCutter (if it ever appears) having better performance or costing less than a traditional Mac one. Take a walk around a few TV stations and ask around. Then what YOU and the others do with your own PC is not really my concern. Clear enough? ;-} Alberto