FinalTouch Apple Purchase

Ok I'ts time for me to voice my opinion.
I've been reading ALL the posts and just biting my tounge. The posts have ranged from people very angry wanting to sue, to people being very happy.

First everyone must understand how small of a company Silicon Color was. 4 engineers and Roland. Then they added Brian for customer support on a part time basis. A number of months later he was added to full time to handle customer support calls.

Silicon Color didn't take the money and run.. Last week was very hectic for them as you could imagine. In due time Roland I'm sure, will make a post. Until then cut them some slack. Things will be better.

I was added to the staff this past June 1 as part time with the title of Director of Training. Based out of Chicago with 27 years of color correcting experience, 24 of them on a daVinci was my resume. My duties were to help with customer support, gathering info and writing documtation with a goal of a user electroninc user manual, demo colorist at trade shows, Podcasts, onsite customer training and when possible training in San Diego at the factory. Even tho I was part time I was doing more than 40 hours a week because I love what I do and felt I was making a difference in helping people learn the system.

I knew in my heart from the get go, that this was a product that Apple needed and a some point in time in the future would buy the company. To me it looked like a no brainer for Apple to buy this company. My goal was be a part of Silicon Color and eventually to be included in any deal if and when the company was bought by Apple or someone else. I figured I could use my 27 years of color correction knowledge and help Apple in the world of color correction that would take them to the next level of post production.

Well the whole deal went down pretty quickly. All sales of FinalTouch after Apple bought the product were stopped, per Apple. So since there are no new sales, hence no need for a Director of Training, at this point in time. So no reason for Apple to hire Bob, at this point in time per Apple, I was told. Am I bummed out? You betcha...

I don't think Apple understands the need for a serious colorist on staff to help with this product. Hopefully as the time goes by they will reconsider.

Until then I do onsite freelance training, and am a colorist for hire on FinalTouch and still working on documentation. I still do demos for the system. Thursday at 9 am I will be speaking at NAB East and doing a demo with Finaltouch HD.

Now, my take on the free training at the factory in San Diego.
Anyone who didn't take the free training you missed out. Roland was the person who usually did the training. Roland is not a colorist. He is great with marketing. I can't say enough about Roland's marketing skills. But, he was able to show you how to use the software, period. After a while he got pretty good. He got the point across of how to make the software work.
Totally different than how I teach someone, but it was the only way to learn the software. We didn't have a manual.

We offered free training by me after NAB in San Diego but only a handful amount of people showed. We had many people before and during the show saying they would show up for the training.

I can only compare training using my past daVinci purchases and training experience. First of all I never heard of free training before. daVinci includes training as a line item during the purchase with the install. On the install you don't get daVinc's Director of Training for the training. It's the install engineer, not a colorist doing the training. I was lucky when we upgraded to the 2K Plus. Kevin Shaw at that time, was doing a daVinci road show in Chicago and was nice enough to come by and help me out. I REALLY APPRECIATED IT. If he wasn't in Chicago at that time I have had the install engineer doing the training. A colorist doing the training is the best way to train someone on the system. daVinci did offer training courses a couple times a year, for a cost.

So with this in mind, all the people that are pissed at Roland for their training experience in SanDiego, get over it. What do you expect for free.

The biggest problem we have had in the past was releasing software then having to fix a bunch of bugs. One step forward 2 steps backward. Supporting 2 different graphics and video card manufactures is a nightmare. Personally I wish we just supported the ATI Cards and the Kona cards. Much better preformance. My opinion entirely....

Anyway.... Then add the fact that Apple did not share any XML code info for the longest time. Then add the fact that people update their OS and QT and as I read the other day the decklink software and firmware without first talking with Silicon Color. Then all of a sudden Finaltouch won't launch or work. Now it's Silicon Color's fault??? Wrong.

Before updating any software or firmware speak with support first. I wouldn't
change my OS on the daVinci without talking with them first....

So as I see it Apple buying Silicon Color is good and here is why.
The product is not going away. It is an awesome application that will only grow with Apple's help.
More engineering and quality support.
More workstations with everything needed for detailed quality control.
Sharing of code between Apple's applications will help with integration with other Apple products.
These are things that will benefit everyone. This is what everyone wants. But just like everything else in the world there are compromises. We will not have the ability to talk directly with Andrew, Jimy, JR, Olivier, and Brian. This is Apple's way of doing things. But hopefully with the additional help the engineer team gets, there won't be the need to talk with the guys.

As for the people that want to be on the edge of technology and who just bought the new Mac just for FinalTouch, be happy you didn't buy a Luster or a daVinci and then the price goes down after your purchase. This happens all the time in this business. Personally I wouldn't have bought the new system until all the bugs are worked out. I mean this about all new technology. Being the first one on the block to own the new system comes with a price.
If you want to bail on the system sell your new Mac. You will find a buyer. Much easier than selling your new Luster of daVinci and trying to make your money back.

People who didnt buy the software earlier....
What were you waiting for? FinalTouch is the least expensive way to get into the REAL WORLD of color correction. The software works but just like all software and firmware products, there are a few issues and work arounds.
This isn't laptop editing people, this is color correction. Color correction is tough and not an easy process. You can really screw up a shot if you don't know what you are doing. Not everyone can be a colorist.

For the people that bought FinalTouch.
As you well know that the color correcting is only one of the parts of the program. Some people find color correction easy, some find it tough. I find the color correction being the easy part for me, a professional colorist. But as we well know you need to understand FCP. You don't have to be a certified user of FinalCut Pro, you just need to understand the product well enough for the integration between FCP and FT to work correctly. I had to learn how to use FCP and am not an editor by any means, but I have learned enough to make it work and am getting better everyday. I have a lot of FCP users out there who have helped me with questions. You guys know who you are. THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR ALL YOUR HELP.

You can't just be a colorist only and expect to have things be peachy keen. We had one colorist user who just sold his entire system because he couldn't / wouldn't learn FCP well enough to make the integration between the products work. He said he was paying freelancers to prepare the job before color correction and thus loosing money.

Everyone has to remember that the people that have had the product you guys are well ahead of the rest of the world. The workflows are the toughest part of the product. Once you get your workflows down, then color correction then becomes easy.

So everyone that has the system relax. FinalTouch is not going away. What I know and have seen for version 3.0, (which I saw when I was under NDA) is going to really cool and what everybody has been asking for.

So all FinalTouch users keep the faith the future is bright, you might want to get shades...

All The Best,
Bob