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American Film Institute and the Mac: Happy Bedfellows

According to AFI dean Sam Grogg, AFI's program depends completely on doing rather than talking. "We make something like a hundred films a year. The directors direct; the screenwriters write," he told MacNewsWorld.

With its emphasis on hands-on learning, AFI can't waste time on bad technology, so according to the school, there's no question what the preferred OS is. Here, it's Mac all the way.

Avid's Mac Symphony

Only a few years ago, however, one company was on the verge of a decision that could have driven Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) from studios and schools alike. Since the early 1990s, different competing companies have been vying for the leading position in digital editing software, including Light Works and Media Pro and others, but Avid won out in the end. Avid rose to a virtual monopoly in the industry, with the power to decide just on what platform it was going to operate.

Phil Linson, AFI production and post-production dean and director of its Sony (NYSE: SNE) Video Center, described the moment as chaotic. "They [Avid] were just going to stick with the PC platform, and, of course, they caught a lot of hell in Hollywood."

Linson said that, like many of his colleagues, he has an almost evangelical love for Macs. When he came to the school five years ago, he knew that he wanted to work on Mac-based Avids.

"I'm just not a PC guy -- I don't know why. That was one thing we made sure of when we upgraded," he said during an interview with MacNewsWorld. "We now have 15 Avid Symphonies, all running on Macs, and in another building we have Final Cut Pro."

David Cook, a lecturer in the editing department, told MacNewsWorld that, at one point, the school had an Avid Symphony editing and mastering system that ran on Windows NT, and it constantly crashed.

"We had 14 Media Composer 1000XL's that were running 10.5 software for the Avid that were Mac-based, but Symphony at that time was not offered on the Macintosh," Cook said. The NT version "was very slow, and we had a lot of problems with titles moving over from the Mac to [Windows], and it really made that Symphony not as useful as it should have been."

When Avid started making a Mac version of Symphony, the school switched over. "They became perfect platforms, and we haven't had any problems," Cook concluded.

The Accepted Platform

Although less of a fanatic, AFI IT head Paul Jacques still finds the Mac platform superior to Windows . "It's the legacy. [Macs] are easier to support , more reliable, more secure," he said during a MacNewsWorld interview.

According to Jacques, Mac software and hardware are invaluable for "a school that endeavors to offer real-world tools to [its] fellows." While Apple's overall market share is very small, it has a much stronger position in the media and entertainment spheres, where Avid's Mac installed base is significantly larger than its Windows one. Indeed, the Mac is by far the more widely used and accepted platform.

At the same time, Jacques indicated that the industry drives the platform and not the other way around. "You know, if tomorrow the industry switched over to PCs, we would follow suit."

Moreover Jacques noted that OS X isn't -- or least hasn't always been -- perfect: "We were an early, early adopter on a test level, when they first announced OS X," he said. "We ordered an OS X server when they first came out, and it was the one that shipped with a four-port Ethernet card, and the four-port Ethernet card wasn't even supported with the software. So basically we couldn't use it. It was not a happy turnover. We saw that the software was not ready for prime-time."

The Institute held off until version 10.2 was released before upgrading across the board. But even now, issues still exist, Jacques said.

"Actually with OS X, the power is increased in terms of what we can use the software for, but that has required more support resources," Jacques said. "It's more sophisticated and more complicated and has its inherent bugs and learning curve for the staff."

A Few Windows

While AFI uses only Mac-based systems for production, it does employ some Windows systems for office-based operations.

"At least 25 percent of [the school's computers] are Windows-based," Jacques noted, adding that Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) is both a big sponsor and donor to AFI.

"We are perfectly happy to use Microsoft products as well as Apple products," Jacques continued. However, for digital production and graphics, Macs rule the day.

"The Mac just handles font issues and type issues better…in terms of displaying what you see on the screen and how it translates in the final product. It just doesn't have the inherent problems in terms of aliasing and other display issues," Jacques said.

Jacques attributed the Mac's superiority in title design and motion graphics to a combination of its software and hardware. "It's a matter of how the hardware displays the images," he explained. "Macs have always been strong on the graphics side because they put a lot of emphasis behind the video systems in the actual units."

Hallie Faben, a second-year editing fellow, concurred with Jacques' assessment. "If you are trying to move between programs [like FCP and Adobe's After Effects] and moving your media around a lot, it helps if you are on a Mac," she told MacNewsWorld. "I wish I could give you solid evidence why, but I have found it's just easier."

Getting an Edge

Faben is somewhat of an anomaly at AFI. Only 24, she is several years younger than many of her peers, whose median ages range between 28 and 30.

Faben learned how to edit on Final Cut Pro while an undergrad at the University of California, Santa Cruz, working on donated Macs in the school's labs. She believes her FCP background definitely gave her an edge.

According to Grogg, the primary result of the development and expansion of digital content creation technology is that students who matriculate at schools like AFI often have more expertise in putting imagery together.

"The ability to manipulate, to put images together, to make motion pictures is no longer a matter of access to the best or very expensive equipment," Grogg said.

"It's like when [Kodak] invented the Brownie camera. Suddenly everybody could be a photographer, when before that it had been a very rarified profession," Grogg continued. "It doesn't mean that everybody is good at it, but it certainly means that there is a level of skill and understanding at a higher threshold and that everybody is starting out a little more sophisticated. And I think that's good."

FCP vs. Avid

While Apple is providing the OS and the hardware for AFI's editing systems, it has yet to succeed in dominating every front. Avid is still the editing software choice over Final Cut Pro.

"Whatever the industry is using we are going to train on. For the last several years, Avid has been dominant, just like back in the old days when there was the Moviola and then the flat-editing tables," Grogg explained. "As Final Cut Pro becomes more and more the professional choice, we will probably move in that direction."

According to Grogg, there is not much difference between FCP and Avid, as it was with other systems -- a big plus in his opinion.

"I think the pros will embrace it, but right now Avid managed to take that position and they've got it," Grogg said.

For his part, Jacques thinks of Avid as a solution, and FCP an application.

Linson agreed. "Final Cut is competing on a personal level, but, as far as having an industrial-strength network, and in terms of tech support and reliability , it's not there yet," Linson said.

Moreover, FCP is "weak in going back and forth between film and digital. That's not their deal," Linson said. While FCP's ability to edit 24-frame, high-definition video improves the application's functionality, overall, Apple's high-end editing application is a very personal system.

"Ten people can set [FCP] up 10 different ways," which can lead to problems when it comes to tech support, Linson noted. "You still need things that aren't made by Macintosh."

Even though the school is not completely sold on Final Cut yet, as a whole it seems they are just waiting to see what happens. Regardless, Apple and AFI, as it stands currently, are very happy bedfellows.

This story was originally published on June 2, 2004, and is brought to you today as part of our Best of ECT News series.