The cost of editing is becoming perpetual.

I have never agreed with paying Adobe for the rest of my life to keep access to their tools. However now RedGiant is beginning its transition to subscription only use by launching RedGiant Universe. It start free and then you can pay monthly for more exotic tools. In their video they say your paying for access NOT OWNERSHIP.

Eventually, editing will cost 300USD or more per month for the life of your career and when you are retired you will either have to quit cold turkey or pay for 1 month of access to reedit/play around with stuff you have already created. While your in the business the monthly cost might be a good trade off but after your career not so much. For some of us we do this because its fun and even in our spare time this is what we think of doing.

What if all editing, graphics or color tools were monthly?
Would you be ok with perpetually paying for whats on your workstation?

""" What you do with what you have, is more important than what you could do, with what you don't have."

> > > Knowledge + Action = Wisdom - J. Corbett 1992 """"

It always is and always has been this way - just now in smaller increments as things change so rapidly.

Please don't tell you that haven't upgraded anything at all in the last couple of years? That would be A. dumb and B. contributing to market stagnation.

The computer market and indeed any market must evolve and offer new things and people must purchase them in order to keep companies in money to invest in making and selling new things which need editors and other creatives to help sell them or teach them. Circle of life JC circuit of tech-life...

If the ever-lasting light bulb was sold then no one would need to buy new bulbs!

Planned obsolescence has been part of the Western capitalist philosophy for well over 60 years long before you were working in video so please don't harp on like you remember any time before when things were different. They never have been in your experience and looking at human history as a whole they never have been - period.

One other reason companies like the subscription services model is there's less chance of piracy so actually they are getting paid for their hard work! So of course companies want to go this route. Plus there is no need to wait for major updates to role out new features.



For instant answers to more than one hundred common FCP questions, check out the LAFCPUG FAQ Wiki here : [www.lafcpug.org]

If you don't like it - find another industry where you only have to pay for your "indestructible infallible machinery" once and stay at the same level making money only for yourself and never contributing to progress forever.



For instant answers to more than one hundred common FCP questions, check out the LAFCPUG FAQ Wiki here : [www.lafcpug.org]

actually, i think it sucks.
i would rather own the software outright.

upgrading when you need is not the same as running out of a monthly licence.


nick

and I'd rather pay a small fee for up-to-date software and not $1200 or more every other year to keep up.

Also on a monthly sub you can stop and continue whenever you want. You cannot guarantee as a freelancer or business owner than your outlay will be covered on big box costs



For instant answers to more than one hundred common FCP questions, check out the LAFCPUG FAQ Wiki here : [www.lafcpug.org]

as long as there is an OPTION to go wither way
overall i am wary of the global move to rental based economies


nick

There are multiple issues here: ownership, continuity, and flexibility. Editors are craftsmen, and softwares are their tools. A craftsman owns his tools so he can use them as little or as much as he pleases and for as long as he pleases and also so he can customize them to fit his special needs.

Editing software is complex enough that it probably should be written professionally, even by greedy companies, and so is unlikely to be open-source. Customizability may therefore be limited to independent plugins. The subscription model probably discourages plugin makers.

Many version-to-version "improvements" to software are made to attract new users, and they are unnecessary nuisances to ongoing users. We may hope that the subscription model will be more conducive to software continuity than the ownership model, but it could work the other way round. It depends on the ethics of the company.

Watch the 1972 film "Cousin Jules" and consider the relation of a craftsman to his tools. It is mighty impressive what Cousin Jules could do with one large hammer. Why do I have eight hammers? Cousin Jules shows real mastery of his tools and materials.

Editing video editing isn't metal smithing. The digital video "material" belongs to a fast-changing technology. But the editing of that material rests on slower-changing aesthetic principles, so editing software probably should quietly absorb the changing technology rather than pulsing to its beats.

Dennis Couzin
Berlin, Germany

Yeah I'm still cutting on a 9600 Avid system in avr12 cud that's how I role... Not

Can't agree with you guys - sorry but it's the difference between little and often and gorging yourself. Either way you pay.



For instant answers to more than one hundred common FCP questions, check out the LAFCPUG FAQ Wiki here : [www.lafcpug.org]

>Cousin Jules shows real mastery of his tools and
>materials.

I think Walter Murch mentioned that on Apocalypse Now, they made approximately 7 cuts a day. Sure, speed is not the goal of editing, but you could make the same argument about writing a book.



www.strypesinpost.com

the difference i see is between owning something and leasing something.
either way you pay,
but only one way you have something you can keep


nick

However, I own every version of FCP, and Premiere CS6 (which would have cost in around $3K in the production premium set except I got it on special) but I don't use them at all anymore.

So was that money better spent just so that I could own all that software sitting on the shelf? Do I really need to buy CC so I can have it on my shelf next year when I buy the new version?

i'm not sure,
but i would love for it to be MY choice.

Jude & I live in a country where ownership has been a culturally important thing.
well over 50 years ago our (conservative) leader-of-the-day made it a bit of a mission to have every Australian own their own home.

achieving that goal that can put a lot of strain on you, especially these days,
and i do admire my European friends who rent their whole life, and don't have the burden of paying off a mortgage,
but i have lived (briefly) in the UK and simply detested having to put 10p into the slot just to get the gas turned on.
it made me feel like a serf!
and that's what enforced renting, not ownership, of software (applications / music / movies / books) feels like to me:
a slippery slope into servitude.


nick

I can see where people are coming from, but in reality we also 'rent' our phone service, electricity, gas, water and so on, paying a monthly or bi-annual or whatever fee mostly for the privilege of having the service, as well as for usage.

I dunno. It just doesn't bug me not to have decades worth of software to feel bad about throwing out in the future. It's cheaper, it gets upgraded more often, there's no packaging, shipping or wait time, I have access to absolutely every Adobe product, instead of having to choose a limited package, or buy them one by one, and it works great.

I suppose I've also been trained by WoW too - I've been paying an access fee for that for about 8 years now, and I was happy to not have to go and physically buy the boxes every time there was an upgrade.

Now it's more of a 'Hooray! New stuff!' feeling, than a 'Oh crap, now I have to upgrade.' feeling.

I see both sides too, and I abhor metering of my tools. Let me install what I like, not pay for tools I won't use much at all (Flash, Adobe Air, Water, Earth, Underworld, whatever) and upgrade when I need to-- usually client-driven.

Bad idea going whole hog like that. Choice is good. Ticking clock bad. Very bad.

It's interesting that Adobe is offering the occasional 3-fer or 2-fer bundle. They know there's some steep resistance. US$600 a year should go to my utilities, not my creative tools. I used to upgrade those for no more than $350-- every two years!

- Loren

Today's FCP 7 keytips:
Copy clip Attributes with Command-C
Paste selected Attributes with Option-V
Remove selected Attributes with Command-Option-V !

Your Final Cut Studio KeyGuide™ Power Pack.
Now available at KeyGuide Central.
www.neotrondesign.com

I see it as metering my tools also. I have cs4-6, however I have been using cs5 since it came out. I have a good amount of projects each year and cs5 is completely customized to my working style. AE does everything I need and so does the rest of the suite. I have c4d r12 and that dies what I need.

I do not have a reason to use cs6 yet but got it with plans for the cylinder.

If business goes sour for a while I still have my software and it's not costing me anything. Some people just do not chase upgrades unless they are necessary.

My son is using my g5 dual 1.8 running 10.6 and cs4 with FCS2. That system will still do 1080p edits. It's not ideal but I owned it long enough to teach my kid how to edit.

I would prefer to own something.

""" What you do with what you have, is more important than what you could do, with what you don't have."

> > > Knowledge + Action = Wisdom - J. Corbett 1992 """"

Quote

I do not have a reason to use cs6 yet but got it with plans for the cylinder.

So don't upgrade to CC.

Quote

If business goes sour for a while I still have my software and it's not costing me anything. Some people just do not chase upgrades unless they are necessary.

As I pointed out - you have already paid for it and if you don't use the boxed version it's still cost that upfront fee for every day you have it. That is unless you didn't pay for it in the first place...

For people who normally stay current or want to stay current a CC subscription (which you can stop at any time if you don't use it) saves you money when not working and should be as cheap as the boxed versions overall unless you are the sort of facility or person who misses every other upgrade and/or only updates with new hardware or when forced to.

TBH I can see the box vs subscription argument is going to go on. However it won't change back to the old days, of that you can be very sure.

So if you are that bothered about staying static - keep hold of a copy of the old software you old hardware and a working copy of the last OS it runs on so you can use that if you don't need/want to upgrade. Perhaps in the case of Photoshop (and it's rivals) if there is a large enough market then someone else will make a "boxed" app that rivals the Adobe CC apps.



For instant answers to more than one hundred common FCP questions, check out the LAFCPUG FAQ Wiki here : [www.lafcpug.org]

I was sales first. In running my own business I have learned that you only upgrade when your projects dictate. It's more cost effective. This does not mean that the quality is any less than a production house that's got the latest software. I tend to lean more to getting better footage and actors than more up to date software. These are the only things that really effect what the client sees and places value in. Most clients never say " Wow! that NLE you used on my friends commercial looks awesome ".

At about 1500 per 2 year period I also see the value in CC. It seems to be very smooth and for a passionate editor/graphics artist with low money this is an easy start up. Its always up to date and thats nice too.

Subscription base will PROBABLY not change but what happens when a pro setup cost 500. per month cause every part of your suite is subscription, plugins also?

It would be nice if you paid a subscription for say 3 years and then it becomes yours. I do not mind paying monthly or yearly. However, I like what I do and this is even 40% of what I do in my spare time. When I decide to retire in say 2035 I would like to have an old 2030 MacPro Orb 6.9ghz 20core and a production suite that I could go to every other blue moon without paying an admission price.

Wouldn't you?

BTW I paid for every piece of software or hardware I have ever used. I think most people do and the prirated software thing is over blown. How the hell would you get updates with bootleg software.

typos corrected May19, 2014 - Sorry for any mistakes but this was sent from my phone.

""" What you do with what you have, is more important than what you could do, with what you don't have."

> > > Knowledge + Action = Wisdom - J. Corbett 1992 """"