Lightworks Blog: Post 3

Lightworks Editor News
I've been distracted from my playing with the Lightworks editor over the past week, but Mike Jones has written up a provocative post: "Lightworks editing software is free and nobody cares."
Lightworks is Powerful and its Free but it’s also archaic and illogical; the wrong tool at the wrong time doing the job the wrong way.
and goes on to say:
There’s no doubting what Ligtworks can do - its a feature-rich system - but its also a system predicated on defying the natural user instincts of a standard computer GUI.
A reader of his blog, Richard Blakely, calls him to task:
I do find your comments about standards odd though. On one hand you're saying that it is the worst word in the world, and that it is wrong that someone should define 'standards' and then you criticise Lightworks for not conforming to standards such as drag and drop.
To which Mike responds:
The point of my post wasn't about my opinion of whether Lightworks is any good or not but rather that the strange culture of brand-loyal digital-native Post production will find it very hard to accept Lightworks whilst it insists on positioning itself outside of known and common parameters.
The problem is, while I see Mike's point - people find it hard to switch to different paradigms - that's not how he presents it in the original post; the original post spends quite a bit of time dismissing Lightworks as being backward and wrong; not just different. Which sort of undermines the brand loyalty argument.

And I actually agree with him in a lot of ways; launch Lightworks and it is disorienting; your first thought is "do I want to spend time dedicated to learning something this different?"

On the other hand, it is capable, and it is free. So while it might not be easy for those of us already using Final Cut or Avid or Premiere, but you would think that those starting out who can't afford to spend several hundred would have a completely different opinion.

But as Mike points out, that doesn't seem to be the case.

Yet it's probably too soon to dismiss Lightworks; it was only the most recent build that I could even get to work, so we need to give it a few more months before writing it off completely.
MikeJones.tv: Lightworks editing software is free and nobody cares

Lightworks Roadmap
And if you're wondering what's coming, they have posted a Lightworks roadmap for 2011: Roadmap



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Sony GV-D200 review

Image
Sony GV-D200 I've been using a Sony GV-D200 deck to transfer old Video8 and Hi8 tapes. Some of these tapes are over twenty years old, and no longer having a Hi8 camcorder that worked I was concerned that if I didn't do something about transferring them to a more modern format soon, I might never be able to. While Sony no longer make camcorders that use these tapes - that I know of - Sony does still sell the GV-D200 deck (or Video Walkman, as it's sometimes labelled.) They also offer the GV-D800, which is almost identical but adds a small LCD screen for about $120 more. I didn't think I'd need a screen since I was using this to capture to the computer, but you will need an external monitor when you first set it up. Physically, the device is small. At 5 7/8" wide, 5 3/8" deep and 2" high, it's the smallest video deck I've encountered. I used to have a Video8 deck that I thought was small; and it was twice as deep and twice as high. The t...
Read more

Response: Which iPhone to Get?

Image
In response to my iPhone musings, I got the following reader email which actually sums up a lot of my second and third thoughts too: You might have a point about the fancier camera, but otherwise I would buy the smaller model. Its screen is about the same size as that of my Nexus 4, and I don't feel at all like it limits me with a too-small screen. But I do sometimes stretch to get my thumb the reach to the other corner of the screen. It is plenty big for a phone. A phone is a pocket thing. (Well, in my case it lives an ancient REI soft sunglasses case that I have on my belt.) Ubiquitous, handy, convenient, almost always with me. Small is crucial for all of that. Certainly a large screen is cool, but you need a place to put it: don't break a fundamental feature of a pocket phone by getting too big. That is what your small tablet is for. I have my phone with me almost always. I have my Nexus 7 tablet with me nearly as much. The bigger screen is great, yet it fits in some...
Read more

Should you buy the Sony NEX-FS100 Kit Lens?

Image
The Sony NEX-FS100 is available in two configurations: B & H : NEX-FS100U Camcorder only $4,999 B & H : NEX-FS100U (with 18-200mm lens) $5,599 But what does that extra $600 get you? It get's you this: Sony 18-200mm f/3.5-6.3 Zoom Lens for NEX Camera This lens is also available separately for $799.99, so at $200 off you'd think everyone would be jumping on it. But not so fast... In his article about switching from the Canon 5D Mark II to the Sony NEX-FS100 , Paul Antico  at Need Creative says of the kit lens: 7) Its 18-200 F3.6-6.3 kit lens absolutely sucks and should be avoided (thankfully, you can order it without one) [ 1 ] But is it that bad? At B & H 's site, 43 reviews give it an average of 4.6 out of 5 stars. That's not a bad rating, though many of these people are using it for stills, and the most common complaint noted is how large and heavy it is. Of course this feeling of size would be exacerbated when you put it on a tiny camera ...
Read more