Avid, Apple & Adobe (Again)

Today's essay comes with a caveat:  We are always, always, always having this conversation.  Production folk don't ever stop talking about it.  I do not expect it to be helpful a year from now as the marketplace changes.  But because a colleague asked (she's on the cusp of a major institutional purchase), I'll submit some observations that feel true to me in the moment.

Our school (70 production majors at a liberal arts college of 3500) was firmly committed to Avid. The company had market share. They had ProTools. They had the edge in server-based file sharing. They had great student pricing. Then, in February, Avid stock was delisted by NASDAQ following some financial shenanigans. Even though they’ve been reinstated, I think institutions are (rightly) a bit wary of financial dealings with them.

If you buy an Avid system, turn-key, you’ll have the planet’s most powerful editor. If, however, you buy only Avid software, expecting it to run on machines purchased through your school’s IT department, prepare your engineer to devote regular attention to compatibility issues. We hold our breath at every operating system update.

Apple, it seems, has the prosumer market in its cross hairs. Understandably, students love (indeed, too often rely upon) its many presets. The shortcuts it takes in service of a friendly learning curve will likely result in a sameness of product among entry-level editors (famously and deservedly lampooned by Conan O’Brien). For my money, color grading functions feel more accessible in Final Cut than Avid. 

Of late, Adobe is the real marketplace winner. For $20 a month, students can access the entire Creative Suite. Project files travel seamlessly between Premiere, Photoshop, Illustrator, AfterEffects, Audition, SpeedGrade, MediaEncoder… But Adobe hasn’t done such a great job making its software affordable for colleges. Despite a solid lobbying effort from University Film and Video Association (are you a member?) president Norm Hollyn, Adobe is completely uninterested in the old site-licensing structure. Be prepared to pay a subscription fee for each of you school’s computers. 

If you keep your eye on the Occupational Outlook Handbook (and for the sake of your graduates, please do), you’ll see that the Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts most media producers will be employed by firms of fewer than 30 persons. Because the likelihood of freelancing is so high, our graduates will be buying their own computers, their own software — they won’t buy Avid to shoot weddings. They might buy Final Cut (it’s cheap enough with a new Mac). But they will also buy Photoshop. And once they’ve stuck a toe in the Creative Suite water, they will buy everything else Adobe sells. Putting myself in the shoes of those entrepreneurs of the future, I’m more and more inclined to outfit a college with Adobe products.

One final thing: No matter which platform you adopt (a timeline is a timeline — ultimately, who cares?) I’d strongly consider some kind of certification program. You can find authorized training by certified instructors in Apple, Avid, and Adobe. Every one of the graduates who attended a weekend certifying seminar says it has absolutely made the difference in getting hired. We tried like crazy to maintain certifying credentials among the faculty, but the semester calendar works against academics — easier and more cost effective in the long haul just to bring in someone.