Re: One year later... NOW: standardizing on one tool or using them all?

[Jeremy Garchow] "FCP was not flexible, it was Mac only, and you needed to be immensely tied to quicktime which made sense when everything was on tape, but outside of that and in this digital age? FCP7 is not very flexible."

I guess its how you define flexible. By your definition nothing was flexible. The few NLEs that weren't confined to a single operating system were confined to proprietary hardware. And, if it wasn't tied to Quicktime, that simply meant that it was tied to AVIs.

For the record, and from an editorial point of view, FCP 2-7 was one of the most flexible NLEs I had ever seen, and that IS why I eventually chose it over many other now forgotten rivals. It could approach any given editorial question from so many different directions that its flexibility often amazed me. At that point, I had worked on so many different NLEs with so many truly different metaphors--each with their strengths and weaknesses--that finding one that embraced most of the strengths was astounding. I could treat timelines like bins, have multiple timelines open and operating on different monitors, could cut and paste, drag and drop, insert and over right, slide clips around, lasso chunks. It had great compositing features and unlimited video tracks. You could make transitions on the same track or you could build them in a stack. It just goes on and on.

And, it wasn't the only relatively cheep NLE out there. There were many. People forget this. Or just aren't old enough to remember it. So, for the record--I chose (and changed platforms for) FCP BECAUSE of its extreme flexibility. That was my number one reason for choosing it.

[Jeremy Garchow] "[Walter Soyka] "I was saying that a director of photography chooses a specific camera or lens for what it will contribute to the project or even the shot at hand."

It's a different model, and that was my point. You can't rent NLE's"

Of course you can.

[Jeremy Garchow] "My point is, I have heard over and over to throw it in the tool box. I won't be buying everything, I will make a decision, just as Mark has. I just happen to be one of the ones who hasn't moved on quite yet as the answer is not that obvious.
"

I can't afford that luxury, though it is always tempting to try. I think of it more like a good musician does. Through the course of my career I find myself able to play a whole variety of instruments, learning and enjoying them as I go, but I'll only be a virtuoso on one or two.