It's about 36 degrees and raining outside and the sky looks like an impenetrable roof. That would be Albany, the Capital of New York, at the need of February. I’ve come on our third Radical Platypus mission. You may remember that my pal Jim Brazell, a futurist, scientist and general passionista for all-things Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Math; teamed up with me this year and formed Radical Platypus. We brought our very divergent backgrounds along with a couple of other colleagues together to form a new kind of speaking and workshop team. Radical, because we are intentionally iconoclastic on what we present on how the world might be likely to change and Platypus because we are an unusual but potent combination of attributes.
Tomorrow Jim and I will give a PlayShop to the New York State Association of Career and Technical Education Administrators called “How the Future Works Today: yourWORLD, yourSTORY, yourCALLING”. We’ll be combining some speaking (Jim focused on how the world of Tech-Prep education is changing and me on Story and Innovation practices) with some facilitation to help our audience create the future state of their discipline. When we rolled this work out in Atlanta a while back, we got good feedback, We've added and hybridized since then so hopefully we’ll get the same here. Now, if only I can avoid going outside...
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Ringling College 2010 Design Summit by Bob Allen
Last week I got to spend two days in Sarasota as a participant in the Ringling College 2010 Design Summit. It was energizing to be immersed in a group of business and governmental leaders for two days exploring the idea of Design and Business. What I heard and experienced was gratifying for us at IDEAS because the resounding message was that the design-thinking we apply in our Innovation work is deeply needed in business. Moreover, our StoryJam protocols are a viable system of applied design! I learned all this by listening to people from across the country explain it. It was at times all I could do to now leap up and yell “Yes, Right On! That’s us! We DO THAT!” OK...I DID leap up and say it but only once.
Friday our long time creative collaborator, designer and composer Tim Duffy, joined me in presenting a 2 hour seminar to 50 or so students. We got to share our own tales to The Creative Journey and listen to theirs. It's so powerful to see how much fresh talent and energy is being unleashed. Our pal Dr. Wanda Chavez teaches here and she got us connected. Friday afternoon I was able to give a talk on the Power of Story as a design tool to the conference audience and it went well. I think these kinds of events really stretch my head about who we should be working with and how we can help clients in new ways. Later this month, I get to go to Albany NY and do a similar workshop for educators. I’ll let you know how that goes.
To learn more about StoryJam and IDEAS Innovation visit http://www.ideasorlando.com/innovation/index.php You'll find additional information about StoryJam under Story Development.
Friday our long time creative collaborator, designer and composer Tim Duffy, joined me in presenting a 2 hour seminar to 50 or so students. We got to share our own tales to The Creative Journey and listen to theirs. It's so powerful to see how much fresh talent and energy is being unleashed. Our pal Dr. Wanda Chavez teaches here and she got us connected. Friday afternoon I was able to give a talk on the Power of Story as a design tool to the conference audience and it went well. I think these kinds of events really stretch my head about who we should be working with and how we can help clients in new ways. Later this month, I get to go to Albany NY and do a similar workshop for educators. I’ll let you know how that goes.
To learn more about StoryJam and IDEAS Innovation visit http://www.ideasorlando.com/innovation/index.php You'll find additional information about StoryJam under Story Development.
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Avid & Final Cut, Can't We All Just Get Along?
A couple weeks ago we hosted a round table discussion involving Kirk Arnold, COO of Avid, Michael Phillips, Principal Product Designer at Avid and about 20 of Central Florida's most highly regarded post production specialists. The evening was put together by the Orlando Post Pros group and we were very happy to play host as well as have our two staff editors involved. The purpose of the evening was for Kirk Arnold & Michael Phillips to tell all of us what they are working on and what's ahead for Avid and also to listen to everyone in the room about what they like, don't like and need from the future Avid products.
I thought it was a good night, time well spent. How often do you get the opportunity to visit with two high ranking people from the company who's product is very important to your business? Inevitably any discussion about Avid these days turns in to a discussion about Final Cut Pro as well. Often times those discussions end up being an us against them or a this is better than that conversation. And my question is can we all just get along?
Our philosophy here at IDEAS is that there is a time, place and budget for both Avid and Final Cut Pro. It doesn't have to be a conversation about whether one is better than the other. It should be a conversation about what's the best product for the project you're working on. We take great pride in the fact that we have both Avid and Final Cut Pro in our facility. Currently we have a Final Cut Pro with all the bells and whistles (Color, Motion, etc.), a Media Composer Nitris DX and a Symphony Nitris DX. All of the systems work almost exclusively in HD off both files and tape.
We have been working with Avid products since they became mainstream back in the 90s. We have been using Final Cut Pro for about two years now so we admittedly have much more knowledge and are more comfortable on Avid. But that doesn't change the fact that we realize the pros and cons of both. Cost will always be something that hurts Avid. Stability will always be something that hurts Final Cut. Avid has the hardware and software parts down to a science. Final Cut is only software so while it will always be on a MAC, there are a variety of media drive choices as well as video cards depending on what you're doing. The Avid DS, which we had for 6 years, is the best tool out of all of them for compositing and effects. But DS is more expensive which means there's less out there which means (as we found out) there are less people out there who know how to operate it.
The bottom line is that some projects are better done on an Avid while some are better done on a Final Cut. Anyone who tells you that every project is best suited on one or the other is, in my opinion, incorrect. We talk to our clients, see what materials they have, what they are trying to accomplish, figure out the best way to produce the best possible final product, then decide whether it should be done on an Avid or a Final Cut. And as far as price goes, we don't really have a rate card for our services on either system. We have done editing for $75 per hour because it's pretty low maintenance (cuts & dissolves only) but we've done editing for $200 per hour because it was intense and it required a lot of resources (color correcting, plug-ins, etc.). And those rates have been charged on Final Cut or Avid so price isn't driven by which system. And of course, the $75 & $100 per hour rates are offered, regardless of the system for higher volume, longer term clients and projects.
Anyway, just my $.02. Both Avid and Final Cut are good systems. There's no need to bash one over the other, they both have their place in our industry.
I thought it was a good night, time well spent. How often do you get the opportunity to visit with two high ranking people from the company who's product is very important to your business? Inevitably any discussion about Avid these days turns in to a discussion about Final Cut Pro as well. Often times those discussions end up being an us against them or a this is better than that conversation. And my question is can we all just get along?
Our philosophy here at IDEAS is that there is a time, place and budget for both Avid and Final Cut Pro. It doesn't have to be a conversation about whether one is better than the other. It should be a conversation about what's the best product for the project you're working on. We take great pride in the fact that we have both Avid and Final Cut Pro in our facility. Currently we have a Final Cut Pro with all the bells and whistles (Color, Motion, etc.), a Media Composer Nitris DX and a Symphony Nitris DX. All of the systems work almost exclusively in HD off both files and tape.
We have been working with Avid products since they became mainstream back in the 90s. We have been using Final Cut Pro for about two years now so we admittedly have much more knowledge and are more comfortable on Avid. But that doesn't change the fact that we realize the pros and cons of both. Cost will always be something that hurts Avid. Stability will always be something that hurts Final Cut. Avid has the hardware and software parts down to a science. Final Cut is only software so while it will always be on a MAC, there are a variety of media drive choices as well as video cards depending on what you're doing. The Avid DS, which we had for 6 years, is the best tool out of all of them for compositing and effects. But DS is more expensive which means there's less out there which means (as we found out) there are less people out there who know how to operate it.
The bottom line is that some projects are better done on an Avid while some are better done on a Final Cut. Anyone who tells you that every project is best suited on one or the other is, in my opinion, incorrect. We talk to our clients, see what materials they have, what they are trying to accomplish, figure out the best way to produce the best possible final product, then decide whether it should be done on an Avid or a Final Cut. And as far as price goes, we don't really have a rate card for our services on either system. We have done editing for $75 per hour because it's pretty low maintenance (cuts & dissolves only) but we've done editing for $200 per hour because it was intense and it required a lot of resources (color correcting, plug-ins, etc.). And those rates have been charged on Final Cut or Avid so price isn't driven by which system. And of course, the $75 & $100 per hour rates are offered, regardless of the system for higher volume, longer term clients and projects.
Anyway, just my $.02. Both Avid and Final Cut are good systems. There's no need to bash one over the other, they both have their place in our industry.
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