This has been an interesting week:
big news from
Adobe, upgrades from
Apple and lots of interesting news even though we are heading into the summer months. (All the news is in the Articles section, below.)
Last Tuesday, Adobe announced a brand new product:
Project Rush. (It's my lead article this week.) This new video app is focused on two areas where Adobe has not been strong:
video editing on mobile devices and
social media. Now, some would say that this is Adobe's response to iMovie on the iPhone and I think there is some truth in that. But there's a bigger message here: video on social media - YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter - is as big, or bigger, than traditional media in terms of audience, audience engagement and worldwide reach. The budgets are not, but the audience is.
Equally true, however, is that most people posting to social media are not professionals. (Witness the rise of vertical media and the shudders that sends through video pros as an example.) Yet there are millions - MILLIONS - of content creators out there. They need and deserve high-quality tools that don't require a degree from a fancy film school to use.
Apple has iMovie, but, from what I've seen in limited demos of Project Rush, Adobe has the more completely thought-through product. Tight integration from Project Rush into Premiere, After Effects and Audition. A seamless workflow that allows someone to achieve quality results simply, with a clean transition into the professional-grade tools provided by Premiere for those that need it.
Yes, this will expand the
market. Yes, this will increase the
competition we face. And, yes, this will put even more stress on
budgets at the low-end of the market. As has always been the case, we need to build our business on the quality of our creativity, the ability to develop long-term relationships and the focus to meet both budgets and deadlines. It won't be easy - but, when you think about it, it never has. The tools we use are important - but the results we achieve with them are far more important.
Thinking of tools, I have
seven new articles for you this week, including an in-depth look at new media compression and transcoding software:
ff-Works. If you are concerned about the quality of your final images going into distribution, you need to watch these videos. I
wrote about this last week. This week, I show you how it works. (Here's the
download.)
Oh! I have a
favor to ask. We are launching new marketing to promote some of my video training. Due to the way we constructed my website five years ago, it is not possible to add comments or ratings to any of our training. So, I'm looking for some
short testimonials on my training. This will be used for marketing and we will reference your name as part of what we publish. If you have time, I would be very grateful for your comments. Please email your thoughts to me
here.
With the upcoming July 4 holiday here in the States, webinars are taking a two-week holiday as well. We'll be back with something new on
July 11.
Also, if you are in the greater Los Angeles area, the
LA Creative Pro User Group is celebrating its 18th birthday with a special presentation from
Randy Ubillos, the architect of Adobe Premiere, Apple Final Cut, iMovie, Aperture, and Apple Final Cut Pro X. I'll be there, too, and urge you to attend. It is impossible to overstate Randy's influence on our industry and this promises to be a fascinating evening!
Here's the link.
In the meantime, spend some time listening to the
Digital Production Buzz. This last week, we looked at
special effects; both on-set and in post-production. We talked with people who play with fire - both on-set and in software. From
pyrotechnics to massive monitor walls to the latest in effects software, if you can imagine it, one of our guests tonight can help you create it. Plus,
Red Giant made a surprise announcement of brand-new software. Listen to the
show here.
That's it for this week. As always, I'm interested in your comments. Chat with you next week. In the meantime,
edit well.
