I don’t get out much.

But I did this weekend! My wife and I went to the Greek Theatre in Hollywood to see Fiona Apple and Damien Rice. Great show. But an interesting thing occurred to me as I watched the video screens.

If you are in the back rows, the Greek is kind enough to provide enormous video screens, so you have a chance of seeing the artist’s face or at least some detail. For example without those screens I might not have noticed that Ms. Apple had both an EASY button and a little plastic giraffe on her piano. This screens are common in stadia all around the country and have been for some time.

When I’m home I often watch concerts on HDNet. A performer puts on a show and a TV crew tapes it for posterity, editing and polishing.

What struck me as I watched those screens this weekend is there was virtually no difference between the professionally shot and edited HDNet concerts and the one I was watching live. There were three camera angles, there were edits and fades, there were effects (at times a little cheesy, but that was a decision a better director would have improved) and on the whole, it was a complete concert film, being assembled in real time. As an afterthought. As a throwaway. When I was growing up the same video feed would have cost, at the minimum, $100,000 and you would have had it a month late.

We have Steve Jobs to thank for this. His whole career at Apple Computer has been about putting creative endeavors into the hands of common schmoes like you. At first it was publishing - once you needed a linotype machine the size of your garage to produce a flyer with a picture and times roman font 10 point typeface. Only a handful of professionals could produce that flyer for you.

Then it was filmmaking and music. Do you know what professional studio time costs? You don’t, because you don’t have to. Plug a mic into your computer and lay down multiple tracks. Computer editing has been around for years, but a company called Avid used to have a lock on the market, and an Avid cost between $40,000 and $80,000. Not counting monitors and tape decks. Now you need three guys with handicams, walkie-talkies and a someone in the lighting booth with a laptop.

It makes no difference to the consumer - the only difference is instead of all the money going to a certified Avid editor, it’s going to Steve Jobs.

I’m a little bitter about this because I started in the editing business just as Apple was releasing it’s $1000 dollar Final Cut Pro package. At first I was thrilled because it meant I didn’t have to sell the house to get my own setup, but I gradually realized that if I could get equipment for peanuts, I could charge the same to clients. I could underbid people who had a huge investment in equipment and produce the same result. But before long I was struggling just to work for free, because people who had just gotten THEIR equipment needed to put stuff on their resume.

I got out of editing because even with almost no investment I still wasn’t making a return on it.

That video feed of Fiona’s concert was great, but I’d have been just as happy if it had just been one camera trained on her pale blue eyes. Why do I need a TV show? I’m watching a real concert!

The days of easy money in the entertainment business are nearing a close. It’s probably how it should be - everybody knows actors and directors and union people are insanely overpaid. If politicians have to take bribes to just approach a voice-over guy’s salary, there is something fundamenally wrong. It’s the creativity bubble, and it’s just about to burst. Tell you what though, I miss having a chance at it. The comics are right. Timing is……

…everything.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 27th, 2006 at 2:43 am and is filed under General, Music, Television. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.