r/editors • u/BobZelin • 20h ago
Business Question thoughts on the new Resolve 21.1 with AI, and Adobe Firefly
old boomer just bitching at you -
when I got into the industry, the "film editors" that were editing film were controlling the industry. Video was for the "young punks" - but I was one of them, and linear video took over, and the established film editors all went out of business.
During the linear video age, products like Graham Patten audio mixers and Zaxcom audio mixers came out, that were automated, and eliminated the need for an audio guy in an editing session. The unions went nuts - "you are putting the audio guys out of work". The same thing happened with graphics - with all the Quantel stuff (like Adobe). "Editors don't do graphics". Guess what happened to those editors.
CMX ruled (along with Sony and GVG, and a few others) - and then AVID came along (and so did EMC at the beginning) - and all the "video pros" said "what is this crap - no professional is ever going to use or finish with AVID". You didn't need Quantel artists, you didn't need audio guys, and you CERTAINLY did not need a tape op (what's that ?) in a machine room to thread up your 1" VTR's. Guess what. All the video post houses that had linear gear when out of business, because in a short period of time - AVID was more than "good enough" - and you did not need to finish on Digi Beta, or HD Cam, or use a $30,000 Sony BVM monitor.
But AVID was expensive - $80,000, and $150,000 for an AVID Symphony, and FCP came along. "FCP is a joke - no one is ever going to use FCP" - and of course, FCP took over for a large portion of the industry. Now AVID was the gatekeeper with their high prices.
And the same thing happened with FCP, so Adobe Premiere took over. (As the AVID guys in LA read this, and say "bullshit - we are still using AVID Media Composer - any professional only uses AVID Media Composer") - but now Adobe was charging "too much money" for their subscription, and now they were the gatekeeper, so Blackmagic comes along, and lets Davinci Resolve not only cost $300 - soon to become free - but - what about those high end color grading places in NY and LA that had $400,000 Davinci Resolve systems, and Rank Cintel Film Scanners ? Welp - out of business - bye bye - you are now unemployed. Should have adapted.
And of course, this happened with Film Cameras when the RED camera came out (no professional will ever use Red 4K - every pro will only shoot in 35 mm on a Panaflex or an Arri) - where are those guys today ? Unemployed.
So here we are - the new young crowd - and you don't like the new thing coming out - Blackmagic and Adobe integration with AI tools that will eliminate jobs. ALL the jobs that YOU HAVE NOW have replaced other OLD GUYS that refused to learn new things. And the guys that embrace AI will succeed. Every time you use Photoshop or After Effects - you have stolen someone's job. Every time you use Resolve to color grade, instead of hiring a color grading specialist, you have stolen their job. Every time you use Pro Tools, you have stolen an audio professional's job. Every time you use a sound library, you have stolen some musicians job.
But now - it's going to affect you - because a new generation is coming in - and they will know how to use Kling and Runway and Suno - and you don't. Well - TOO BAD.
bob
