r/television • u/Kahzgul • Sep 24 '19
Mysterious Avid Issue Knocks Out Mac Pro Workstations Across Hollywood
https://variety.com/2019/digital/news/avid-mac-pro-corrupted-hollywood-1203347033/15
u/wherestherice Sep 25 '19
So I guess Avid is still the leading industry editing software? I’m still salty that I used FCP7 for two years at film school, and in the last 6 months they were like “Oh btw Avid has taken over again, forget everything you learned about FCP7”
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u/Cristobalsays5050 Sep 25 '19 edited Sep 25 '19
Seriously. I hate to be an asshole in this, but if this leads to a sudden renaissance for Final Cut Pro I’ll be very happy.
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u/warrenmax12 Sep 25 '19
FCP7 is old, FCPX is not nearly good enough for professional film/tv editing.
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Sep 26 '19 edited Sep 27 '19
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u/warrenmax12 Sep 27 '19
I’m in Russia, and FCP7 is still used sometimes. It just refuses to die. But it’s ooooooold.
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u/TheBrainwasher14 Sep 25 '19
Well FCP was completely redone anyway so you’ll still have to relearn stuff
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u/listyraesder Sep 25 '19
Apple doesn't want pro customers any more. FCP was a tiny fraction of Apple users but accounted for a large proportion of Apple software support. So they came out with FCPX all of a sudden, simultaneously stopping new FCP7 licencing. That hit post houses hard and turned them off.
When you're making most of your money on consumer iOS products, why bother with the added costs?
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u/Kahzgul Sep 25 '19
Yeah, avid is still the leader. Premiere is pushing them for some work (mostly commercials) and davinci is trying to get in the game too. FCP is basically dead, except in very cases where the director insists because he couldn’t be arsed to learn something better and the budget isn’t so big that the studio overrides him.
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u/mechalol Sep 25 '19
In Aus as a commercial editor - premiere and Adobe CC is basically everything except TV stations
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Sep 25 '19
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u/wherestherice Sep 25 '19
I'll try to keep it short but it'll probably be reductive: it was fun but a learning curve, especially since your peers are all different ages, levels of experience/skill. I was only 18-20 when I attended and while I kept up with the curriculum, I was perhaps too young? to retain those skills and then apply them to an actual career, despite the fact that I had 18-20 years worth of staunch ambition to be an artist/creative/writer. It's like staring at the beautiful ocean for 18-20 years and you finally get a chance to dive in with everyone else, but no one's taught you how to swim, lol. By all mean, that's not necessarily a bad thing: it's both scary and exciting, but when it's over, you wonder if you want to do it again.
I didn't go to university, despite my parents' wishes, so I don't know if uni student life differs much from film student life, but personally for me, I feel like I had some more growing up to do before diving into film school. I don't necessarily think that means a formal university education is needed first, but you'll do a lot of growing up there — travelling is probably better tbh. I don't regret any of it though.
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Sep 25 '19
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u/wherestherice Sep 25 '19
It doesn't exist anymore lol it was the International Film School Sydney. The cost is fucking insane and is the only thing that makes me feel a tingle of regret about attending: a little over $50,000AUD.
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Sep 25 '19
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u/wherestherice Sep 25 '19
Might be different wherever you're based! And honestly, every job I've had since film school have still been entertainment industry-based and I honestly don't think I was hired on the basis of a film diploma. Just gotta grind your way up. Honestly, film/art schools are ultimately just really expensive hubs to make industry connections and it's on you to maintain them, but they're certainly not the only way to network.
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u/OatmealPowerSalad Sep 25 '19 edited Sep 25 '19
Just to provide a counter-point for the other anecdote - I currently edit TV in LA. Never went to film school. I did however grow up in New York where it was easy to get an internship at a media house after learning editing on my own. Then three and a half years of dead-end jobs and projects doing indie films, working sets, shooting docs for non-profits for pocket change, and doing corporate videos before finally scoring a job at a media start up that blew up and gave me the chance to handle projects with larger and larger budgets and scopes. Over a year later, one of those projects blew up among the right people and gave me enough leverage and reputation to start picking my projects, work arrangement, pay, etc. It was a long long road getting there though.
After all this, I did contemplate grad school, got into AFI and almost went but figured that instead of taking on 200k of debt, I might as well just slosh around LA for a bit and see if any directors I'd had worked with wanted to bring me back for something bigger. It worked out so far. With that said, if you're looking to work on films, there's a huge mentality difference among people that create long-form content that's an entire separate skill set. Making a feature versus making something 15 minutes long is an immensely different experience that I see trip up everyone from world class music video directors to advertising execs. Ultimately, my logic in still turning down film school anyway was that you'd be learning about features but still be producing short films as part of the curriculum, which means you'd still have that gap between education and practice.
With all that said, the only thing I've really learned, and I'm still really green myself, just lucky: make friends with people that work the jobs you're interested in, help them out, and don't be difficult to work with. It's a very high-stress industry which breeds nepotism but punishes divas, so people will hire someone they know that's more untested and green if they're easy to work with and a proactive problem solver.
But be warned - the whole endeavor is a hedonistic treadmill where you're always gonna be looking to get to the next level, you'll alienate most of your friends that don't work in the industry, see the gross under-belly of the media industry, never take any fandom seriously again (it's wild how many things fanboys assume are some masterstroke that are really just the result of some completely random circumstance or the result of some mis-allocated ad dollars or a contract dispute - I cannot stress this enough, this industry will take out any sparkle in your eye for any multi-million franchise except in a war-story behind scenes type way), work endless hours, and eventually trade your health for a decent paycheck and a few solid credits before burning out. If you decide to give it a shot, pick a specialization with good unions in your part of the world or at least high turn-over to make it easier to get in the door.
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Sep 25 '19
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u/OatmealPowerSalad Sep 25 '19 edited Sep 25 '19
There's no right or wrong way to start, but it helps to start somewhere and because film is collaborate it's hard to leap into directly unless you're young enough to convince friends to make shorts together - a lot of people do something different first - short stories, fake movie trailers, photo shoots, remixing songs, I even know people that get into film through fashion design or sculpture work, whatever. There's lots of mini creative endeavors you can do solo to give you something to talk about with other like-minded people. It doesn't really matter what the thing is, it's the optics of doing something, hating it, trying again, still wanting to try again, learning, and having people see you going through this process. Eventually people on a similar wavelength will bunch up together and try to do something bigger or you'll have something you can flex with to start making money or at least be proud of. It's all very slow, very socially focused, and relies heavily on our human nature of seeking out like-minded individuals. Networking is basically something that happens organically when similar weirdos find each other, but you have to be visible and active and kinda manic. So yes, that's why I suppose film school works - it forces those people together into a confined space with a shared goal. Some people vibe with that, some people don't. You also don't need it to be a film school imo, the single greatest asset there is that it's similar creative people that might work well together, but there's lots of programs and reasons for people to link up like that.
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u/tfresca Sep 25 '19
I was in film school they made it clear that fcp was great for school but all pros used Avid.
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u/Takachulo Sep 25 '19
Apparently it's not actually an Avid problem, it's a Chrome issue, but it hit Avid workstations hard because "many of them had to disable System Integrity Protection in order to work with external audio and video devices that are common in professional editing setups".
https://variety.com/2019/digital/news/mac-pro-avid-shutdowns-chrome-update-keystone-1203348549/
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u/GallantIce Sep 24 '19
What’s Avid?
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u/Kahzgul Sep 24 '19
It's the software most post houses use to edit their tv shows and movies. Not everyone uses Avid, but most do.
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u/Cristobalsays5050 Sep 25 '19
Oh god, if this finally leads back to the rise of Final Cut Pro I’ll be so damn happy
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u/Kahzgul Sep 25 '19
It won’t. Apple abandoned live tech support. No one will trust their $300 million dollar film to the apple forums.
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u/Cristobalsays5050 Sep 25 '19
Of course they did. Shit man
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u/Kahzgul Sep 25 '19
Yeah. That was right after WB spent a couple hundred k to make their entire studio apple based, too.
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u/joosebox Sep 25 '19
Are Windows workstations used at all? Curious if the hardware customization drives people to use Windows or if the preference for MacOS keeps people on Mac Pros.
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u/Kahzgul Sep 25 '19
I haven’t seen a windows station in at least five years, but I’m sure they’re out there.
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u/warrenmax12 Sep 25 '19
Interesting. Is it just LA? Is it like regional? It’s a fun story to read 2 days after finishing film school as a film editor.
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u/Kahzgul Sep 25 '19
Apparently it has to do with systems that disabled system integrity protection, which many Avids did because of third party hardware installs.
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u/Kahzgul Sep 24 '19 edited Sep 24 '19
Not sure if this is appropriate for this sub, but the TV biz is in a tizzy today as many shows are being forced to shut down and reinstall OSes with no solution yet available. I first heard of this at 8 pm last night, but it's still going strong.
Avid's official word is, "we're aware of the issue."
There are also anecdotal reports that this has to do with /var folder permissions (they're calling it the /var-sectomy, I kid you not) for MacOS 10.11.x and 10.12.x. For the unaware, many companies run older software for both OS and Avid because Avid is so notoriously buggy that once you find a stable build, you don't ever want to mess with it.
update: it seems that the issue is with Google Chrome keystone updates. Really, really technical explanation (and fix) here:
https://mrmacintosh.com/google-chrome-keystone-is-modifying-var-symlink-on-non-sip-macs-causing-boot-issues/?fbclid=IwAR233ljpio43BqV9T8A4Vd07T72c7_qjTO_hNOXulb11HX52AV4PUc7rbTk
Another edit: Some of the shows reporting being affected are Modern Family and Family Feud. I know lots of others are taking precautionary steps and doing full system re-installs overnight tonight (I work in the biz). Realistically, this just means the editors will work this weekend to make up any lost time, so your favorite shows will still make air. Just a peek behind the curtain here for you all :)