I just recently finished visiting with Stormwind a great local company that does video work both for classroom and for advertising and promoting. The owners are a great couple that have been involved with New City - Barrio over the last two years. They had just recently sent a video team to both a painting blitz and also our tutoring program. Now after a little time for their editor, Matt, to begin the process of viewing selecting clips we were ask to visit the studio.
We purposely asked two in our group who have an interest in doing video work and editing to be involved from the beginning. The night before I had just gotten Darious, one of our interested future video guys, to start learning Final Cut. I had a couple of questions for him about doing video using I-Movie and was humbled to see that even though I do know a little bit that it a different world when you actually go for the mainline tools of the industry. So Darious spent hours trying to figure out the basics of Final Cut. I actually went to bed and my wife took Darious home around midnight. I reminded him that we would be going to Stormwind the next morning before his late start for school.
I had also texted Mark, a young dad with four, that he needed to be up and ready by 8AM. He isn't always the most punctual, especially in the morning. So after getting a refill at Starbucks I picked up Darious and retested Mark to make sure that he was ready to rock and roll. We drove for about 30 minutes and ended up in a nice business park in Scottsdale. As we pulled in the owner, Tom also pulled up in a rather nice Audi which Darious obviously lusted after and made a few comments when we were leaving. I could tell as we entered into their office and saw firsthand the decor and arrangement that it took both of the guys back a little. This is a real company with fancy office and all of the expensive equipment to do real work. We are just a bunch of beginners that are wanting to learn a little or a lot. I know that Mark was dreaming that he would be an editor like tomorrow making big bucks. The reality as we listened to Matt who was the main guy is that it is a slow process of learning, doing, learning doing and connecting.
He quickly showed us a couple of different programs and formats for doing our work. It was great to see some of the clips and get a sense for how he was able to go through 2 hours of clips in 4 hours and cull out what wasn't good. I asked him to talk about his background and story. How did he get interested in doing video? What type of school did he have behind him and what was his story about getting into the business. The main message is that there wasn't any short cut and that taking classes, getting a degree, doing an internship was the only way to go.
I asked my questions about what is the best program and computer setup. He came back with my answer of mac and mac software. So now Apple was coming out with a great compromise between high end and low end video editing software that was no cost effective. So once June rolls around I'll invest in Final Cut 10 and learn from the ground floor up with Darious as my teacher. Obviously I won't let him know that but it will be fun.
I know that we live in a world that in one sense is very complicated and not easy to figure out. Yet, I also know that the basics of what makes life happen are pretty much the same. My hope is to find a balance between being someone who loves high tech stuff but also loves real life such as walking on the canal with the dogs or watching Anne of Green Gables.
The stark reality is that life does have its moments where everything is just amazing and then I am reminded that I live around many who go to bed at night hungry and not knowing if their mom will get food stamps and still be in their apartment in the next month. I am so fortunate to be able to relate back to different types of people who live in totally different contexts which allows me to see that all life has value and meaning.
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