aloofman said:
My video career was launched in college on U-matic SP in the mid-'90s.
Best way to learn, as far as i am concerned! I learned to film and edit the hard way using linear, bulky U-Matic SP and wish the rest of the pupils following me at my school had had the same opportunity. Editing is one thing, cutting video together on a computer is another, much easier task.
I found that the students i was teaching to edit at my college who followed after me picked up the computing side of it much faster than i ever did, but took twice as long to learn how to actually edit. My own experience with a non-correctable, linear U-Matic SP edit suite proved invaluable when editing on FCP as I was able to appreciate its ease while putting it to good use.
For the record, when i started at college (in the UK, 9 years ago) we had a U-matic SP edit suite, moving to a Media 100 suite, run on a g3 (similar spec to the post made above). We upgraded the computer from time to time to keep the other software (Boris Graffiti, mainly) running up to scratch. Then, when the time came for computers to run video editing software well without the need for dedicated cards, the entire suite was upgraded to Final Cut Pro. Camera wise, we used 2 sony M7's up until they were completely wasted (the image quality before compression was top notch) and then moved on to a DVCAM based system. I have since left the college and only pop back now and then to check on how it is all running and to maintain the current hardware.
I consider it a real privilege to have been at a school where we had such high end equipment, and , more importantly, where i had access to it. I don't for one minute take it for granted.
I hope that the rest of you who are attending, or about to attend high school with such brilliant (or better for that matter!) facilities will appreciate it as much as i did, while making full use of it and going on to great things.
Multo benne,
ac2102