THE BACKGROUND:

Just 3-4 months earlier, we had never contemplated living anywhere but California other than the occasional “it would be nice to retire to Colorado someday” or “maybe when I have a lot of money we can buy a ranch in Wyoming or Montana and live there”. So the question is - what changed in the next months that would lead to us not only entertaining the possibilities but also deciding on where we wanted to live and executing the plan? Let me try to break it down…

The first set of factors that led to this life-changing decision with our growing unhappiness with living in California. When we bought our first house in June of 2008 I never dreamed the difficulty of living in California would escalate to the point it did just one year later. If you’ve never lived there, the taxes are mind blowing. In 2009 the California legislature, with support from Democrats and Republicans, passed the largest state tax hike in American history. The CA tax payer was already bleeding in the incredibly difficult economy, and our politicians had the audacity to try to make up for the budget shortfall that was initially caused by their out-of-control spending by bleeding the tax payer even further. California leads the country in four huge tax categories - the highest business tax, highest income tax, highest gas tax and highest sales tax (one of those categories is the highest in the West, not the nation, but you get the picture). All in all, it was a dismal situation - and all signs pointed to the State not being able to get their budget fixed in the following year - so how long these rates would continue to increase was anybody’s guess. The fact that even the Republicans had sold out told me that now nobody was on the side of the taxpayer, and it was sickening to me.

The next piece of this puzzle, possibly in part because of these extra taxes we were paying, is that I felt like I had to continue making $5,000+ more every year just to “keep up” with the way of life that is expected there. Life in southern california is so busy. Everyone is in their new cars that they had to borrow money to buy, speeding from place to place, never taking time to stop and chat, or wave, or strike up a conversation with a stranger or have anytime for anybody but themselves. My heart started to yearn for a place that was quieter, simpler, and place that had a lot of parks and rivers and streams and outdoors-ey things that I could take my kids to anytime we felt the itch. I didn’t feel like that was possible where we lived - everything was a long drive - whether it was the mountains, or the beach, or a body of water that didn’t cost money that you could actually swim in - it just didn’t seem very accessible to us.

The third big piece was related to my profession. I had spent the last 5 years at Outdoor Channel in Temecula, CA. I owe a ton to the company and the people there for essentially giving me a start to my career - but I was starting to feel that I had hit a wall and my professional growth was being stunted and I just needed a change of scenery and a new challenge. The thing is - I had a great job making good money in a very desirable position and a job that a lot of people wanted (this because clear after I announced my resignation), but it still wasn’t fulfilling me in the way that it has a few years earlier. To add to that - it was the only real media/tv/production job within an hour drive. So I knew that when it came time to leave OUTD (whether voluntary or involuntary) I would likely be looking at working at a place with a long Southern California commute - something that I dreaded and promised myself I would never do again. The other option is that I’d have to relocate somewhere else in the area anyway. Realizing this, I started to think that I’d like to get out ahead of that scenario and be proactive in that decision instead of reactive to a situation that was outside of my control.

THE DECISION

It’s hard to point to an exact moment where we made the decision that “we are going to leave our home, our state, a well paying job and all of our family and friends for a city we’ve never even been to” but one moment in that decision stands out to me. I was sitting at the lunch table at Outdoor Channel sometime in May or June with a few coworkers - and my buddy John was telling the story of one of his friends that had moved to Austin, TX about 6 weeks prior. He was telling us all the glowing things that his friend was saying about Austin after being there for just over a month and while I was hearing this I heard the echoing of other stories that I had heard about Austin - it’s great tech scene, low cost of living and location in a state with no income tax, SXSW interactive festival and all the tech startups in the area and shortly it hit me - we should just move to Austin! Crazy, right? At that moment my wife called me. I picked up the phone and the first words I said were, “Honey, it’s decided - we’re moving to Austin”. Her response, after a brief pause was, “Okay!”. And that very extemporaneous conversation actually set things in serious motion.

We started to do research on Austin and the more we did the more we realized that it was almost a perfect place based on the criteria that we would soon set. In not necessarily this order, we were looking for a new place that would be better in the following categories:

1. Lower taxes.
2. Lower cost of living.
3. More job opportunities in my field (digital/social media dash tv/video production).
4. More homeschool friendly.
5. More gun friendly (I like my guns!)
6. More outdoor opportunities.
7. A better Catholic/spiritual community that we could be a part of.
8. Nicer people, slower pace of life.

Based on all the criteria we set - it was clear that Austin was the better choice. It didn’t take us too long to get over the sacrifices we’d have to make - the biggest being just leaving your comfort zone and your friends and family. It wasn’t easy - it still isn’t - but we realized that the decision is for not only us but our kids future happiness - and our kids come first, no question. Austin wasn’t the only choice - we looked at areas in the Pacific Northwest, Arizona, Colorado and a few other states - but none seemed to have ALL of these things (for example, we liked the Denver area too but the job opportunities weren’t as good).

So there came a point where we just realized we were going to do this - and started to make the preparations.

Eventually I set a date to quit my job (technically I left my job but then started contracting with them doing remote work, so that turned out well), we found tenants, found a place to live and were able to set a date to move. That date became the last day of July - July 31, 2010.

THE AFTERMATH:

We made it to Phoenix on the first night, El Paso by the second night, and all the way to Austin at the end of the third day. Not bad considering we were traveling with a 3 year old, a 2 year old and a 5 month old, in addition to a few teenagers leaving very little room in the van. But we did make it and since arriving things have seemed to fall intro place perfectly.

I did come out here jobless - but so far I’ve been able to do enough freelance work to basically make about the same in August that I had made at my full-time job the previous month. I’ve been on a few interviews - all of which have gone very well. Because I had been at my previous job for so long and hadn’t applied to a new job in years I really had no idea how my resume and prior experience would be received. I was so glad to hear things like “we were really impressed with your resume” and “your resume looked so good we thought you were lying”. It’s a good feeling to get that professional respect form people you’re talking to. I haven’t yet taken a full time job but have been offered a part time job and am likely going to be offered a full time job from an incredible company very shortly (Will I take it? We’ll see - there is something to be said about the freedom that freelance gives you). And all throughout this process I’ve met great people - both professionally and personally, and things seem to be going extremely well. Our kids and my wife are adjusting well - and I’m starting to feel a little bit Texan. I realize it will take me some time to get my Texas cred, but I feel like I’m well on my way.

Austin is everything I thought it would be and more. The amount of jobs, the cheaper living, the better outdoor opportunities, everything is better than it was for us in California. Not only that - I’ve hooked up with the USC Alumni Club here in Austin (club of the year by the way) and now have fellow Trojans to watch games with and go to social happy hours! That’s better than the way I’d watch games in California (well, other than the games I’d go to at the Coliseum). Overall - we’re incredibly happy to be here, we’re still extremely excited at the whole “adventure” aspect of this move and we look forward to all the incredible things that are to come.

Well, that’s it for now - this is the longest post I’ve written in years. Hope you all enjoyed it! I will update you in a few months.

Yebol Video 1

Yebol Video 2

The men’s 4×100m relay last night in Beijing was one for the ages.

Here’s just a little something for all of you who love to see American’s beating the French at anything - especially when it’s a crushing victory that came after a lot of trash talking.

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Here’s a link to the forum post. Hopefully Apple can take care of this one quickly: http://forums.creativecow.net/readpost/2/925464

Update: I’m getting a lot of traffic here from Google from people who are having the same problems.  There seems to be no fix from Apple yet but some people have successfully downgraded from Quicktime 7.4 to Quicktime 7.3.1 and that should get you back to working. Here are the steps.

1. Download the older quicktime for your OS:
Panther: http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/quicktime731forpanther.html
Tiger: http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/quicktime731fortiger.html
Leopard: http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/quicktime731forleopard.html
2. Download and install the program Pacifist.
3. From Pacifist, install the Quicktime .pkg that you downloaded. Choose “Replace” instead of  “Actualize”

I’ve been told that this works and will downgrade you back to 7.3.1. This way you can wait to upgrade back up to 7.4 until Apple releases a more stable version. I haven’t actually done this myself since I never upgraded to 7.4 in the first place - so use this info at your own risk. Feel free to let me know the results.

-Paul

I’m a professional video editor so I’m going to be looking at the product from this specific professional point of view and trying to see where or if this could fit into any post workflow. Before you yell - yes, I do understand that this computer is clearly not “designed for” the video professional - but I still think it’s a fair question and no doubt one that will be asked. It’s not uncommon for a product designed for one thing to get adapted by a community and be used in ways the creators didn’t originally envision. I did, after all, go over a year using a Macbook (not Pro) as my main editing system at home even though Apple doesn’t officially support this for Final Cut before upgrading to a Mac Pro this year - and I cut some fairly high profile jobs on this with nobody knowing or caring.  As for the MacBook Air - I haven’t seen one of these in person yet I’ve only seen the specs, the keynote, and the pictures but I’ll share my initial thoughts with you.

First - a quick glance. I’ll list the good and the bad, along with a score on a scale of 1 to 10 on how important that is for the video professional.

THE GOOD:
1. Ultra portable and really thin. (2/10 comment: the difference in size and weight between say a MacBook Air and a MacBook Pro is probably negligible to an editor)
2. Apple-chic - will get stares. (2/10 comment: most editors I know could care less what their equipment looks like)
3. Can extend desktop to a 1920×1200 external monitor (9/10 comment: more or less essential to have an option for extra workspace with any serious creative app)
4. The solid state drive option should blow away traditional hard drive speeds, but you pay for it. (7/10 comment: disk speed is huge to most professional editors, but not all DV editors would ever tell the difference)
5. Cool new gestures with the trackpad (3/10 comment: Will you be gesturing with Final Cut Pro? Probably not.
6. Fits in an envelope? (no comment)

THE BAD:
1. Limited connections, NO FIREWIRE. (10/10 comment: this is probably a deal breaker for 95% of you out there)
2. Non existent upgradability - no user replaceable hard drive or ram like the Mac Books (8/10 comment: 2 gigs of ram isn’t bad, but definitely on the low end of what you’d want in an edit system)
3. No optical drive - installing software wirelessly sounds like a hassle (5/10: this effects probably any end-user equally. If you need to load something from a DVD, you need to use their other options)
4. Speakers are mono and apparently sound very thin (not surprising) (3/10 comment: not too huge as most laptop editors are probably using headphones or powered speakers)
5. No ethernet jack - but you can get an Apple branded USB external (2/10 comment: annoying, but no big impact on the video producer)
6. 4200 rpm drive on the stock option (7/10 comment: similar to my comment about the SSD drive - you’d like to see at least a 5400 if you’re editing, preferably a 7200 drive)
7. Pricey! Yikes! (9/10 comment: even professionals love deals. What reasons would someone pick this over a MacBook Pro - especially given the price difference?)
8. The battery is internal like an iPod (5/10 comment: annoying, to be sure - but probably not a huge deal to an editor)

Let’s tackle the first question that has already been asked on the forums - can this thing even run Final Cut Studio? My guess is that since spec wise it is more powerful than older G4 laptops that can run Final Cut studio and similar to my MacBook that is already running Final Cut Studio - then yes it should be able to install the software. You can forget about Motion and Color right off the bat as those applications have more demanding requirements for video cards and the MacBook Air comes with an Intel GMA X3100 graphics chip that just won’t cut it with those programs. But I see no reason why Final Cut Pro wouldn’t be able to install, launch, and run decently.

But now we have to talk about the biggest thing from a post production standpoint that Apple left out and that is the lack of a Firewire 400 or Firewire 800 port. As most hobbyist and DV editors know - firewire is crucial for getting your footage onto your computer. Without a firewire connection this results in  what I would guess is about 95% of the Final Cut Pro user base having no ability to load footage onto this computer. Without this connection the only way you can work with media (on the fairly limited internal hard drive mind you) is to transfer it over. This is not that difficult if you’re shooting with a solid state camera such as the HVX200 or Sony PMW-EX1 and can bring it over USB (I think that’s how footage is transferred from these cameras but I’ve never used one) but it’s a hassle if you actually have to capture from another computer to use the MacBook Air. This is a glaring omission from the video editor’s point of view - yet not one that is shocking considering who this computer is clearly designed for. This makes it clear that Apple has no intention of marketing this product to editors as their higher end laptops give editors most everything they need and more. Again, I’m looking at this from the standpoint of someone who might be potentially thinking about this option as an editor and I am not making the argument that the decision to leave out firewire is bad or saying “shame on Apple” for doing it - I am however just pointing out how big a deal that is for someone who maybe had the thought that this would be something they could use with ease for editing.

Price would also factor heavily into one’s decision to buy a system like this and I think when you see how much the MacBook Air is and start to compare it to a computer like the MacBook Pro the choice becomes clear. For $100 less you can configure a MacBook Pro system with a larger screen (15″), a faster processor (2.2GHz Core 2 Duo), a faster and bigger hard drive (120gb 5400 rpm), a DVD superdrive, a much faster graphics chipset (NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT 128MB), and all the ports you’ll need (Firewire 400, Firewire 800, ethernet, ExpressCard34, multiple USB). What are you losing with the MacBook Pro vs the MacBook Air? It’s just a little bigger and a little heavier - but that’s it.

Upon a thorough look - it is clear that the MacBook Pro is the computer of choice for the video editor. In fact, it’s pretty silly to even think that anyone at all will adopt the MacBook Air for this purpose when the MacBook Pro is there with a lot more features and a smaller price tag - but inevitably I’m sure it will happen and I’d love to hear your experiences with this setup when you do get it up and running and your decision on why you went with this.

I’ve been trying to figure out what application a computer like this might have in production where it would excel over a MacBook Pro and I’m having a hard time coming up with even one. Maybe as a lightweight and ultra portable screen for a teleprompter system - but even thinking of it as such is a stretch. Anyone else have any ideas? Please enlighten me with your thoughts!

Well that’s it - hope you enjoyed my thoughts on this. Again, I know that to some of you even opening up the discussion on this as a possible editing machine is probably high treason - but I think it’s always a fair question to ask and some people might not really know the details on exactly what this machine is lacking and how that would effect the editor. I’ll leave it up to the community though to take this product to a whole new level and do things with it I never thought was even possible.

Maybe I’ll take a look at the Modbook for video editing purposes in my next installment!

Ray Doran Show - 2008 Teaser from Paul Escandon on Vimeo.

Credits:
Irish man: Ray Doran
Camera: Richard Sinatra
Producer: Alex Brennan
Executive Producer: Paul Escandon because it was his camera we were testing out
Laugh gallery: John Beattie, Jason Williams

read more | digg story

I spent this New Years day like I spent last year - cheering on the USC Trojans to victory in the Rose Bowl! One of these days they’re going to match us up with a tough opponnent - but I’m not sure when that’s going to happen. There is no doubt in my mind that USC could take Ohio State or LSU the way they’re playing right now. Unfortunately - a stupid loss to a bad team is going to keep them from getting that chance. Maybe they’ll learn their lesson. I’m digressing…

I just wanted to tell people to check out the Outdoor Channel if they get it tonight and/or any other Friday night for a show that I work heavily on. It’s called Ultimate Match Fishing College Edition and it’s a head-to-head fishing tournament that matches up one school against another. It’s a unique format so even if the outdoors and fishing isn’t your thing you might get some entertainment out of it. Or - if like me motion graphics and post production is your thing then you can just focus in on those elements :]

It’s on tonight on Outdoor Channel at 6:30pm EST (OUTDOOR CHANNEL is NOT OLN or Versus or some other channel with Outdoor in it’s name). Just so you know - I did the show opens, the bumpers, the motion graphics and the color grading. This episode was edited by the talented Danielle Patterson. It’s Oregon vs. Pursue in a battle royale (okay now I’m sounding like I’m in marketing).

I doubt many people are going to get a chance to see it - but if you do - let me know what you think.

Peace!

I shot on Sony HDCAM and composited the pieces together in After Effects. Big ups to Rich Sinatra for virtually creating a copy of our entire site from within After Effects - he did all the dirty work and I just had to tweak some of the changes that have been made to our site in the last few months. Also, John Beattie recorded sound and produced the final mix. Michael Dorsey wrote the script. Llloyd Byran Adams producing. This was a total in house production from beginning to end.

Go to Outdoorchannel.com to check it out - the tutorial should load immediately when you enter the site. Also, you can check out the other tutorial on Outdoorchannel.tv - although that one plays regularly but won’t necessarily play when you enter.