An Exclusive Short Film (and a Bit About Steve Jobs)
A quick thought about Steve Jobs and a short film I put together using Final Cut Pro only available to subscribers.
I recently listened to an interview between Kara Swisher and Wicked director John Chu that I can’t recommend enough. He touches on the film, but also his upbringing and admiration for Steve Jobs. He shares a great anecdote about the time that he met Steve Jobs that was just delightful.
This interview gave me a bunch to dwell on, including the fact that I miss Steve Jobs. He has become a bit of a mythological figure, but that didn’t start after he left us. It was there from the minute that he came back to Apple. I never met the man myself, but I certainly “knew” him from the mythology around him.
I came up in the 90s when it was becoming pretty common to have a PC in the home. I also came up before the digital filmmaking revolution. My first short film was shot on a small cassette tape and edited using two VCRs. 1
All of that changed the first time I used an iMac. Suddenly, I could use iMovie to edit the videos that I was making with my friends. I was able to use it due to the kindness of the father of one of my friends who was a huge Apple fan. He had this beautiful iMac just sitting on his desk. All I had to do was attach my recently acquired digital camera via a FireWire cable and BOOM I was in the non-linear digital editing world.
From that point on I was hooked. In my mind PCs were for Word documents and AOL, while Macs were the key to unlocking creativity. They weren’t made for the rest of the world, they were for those of us that could “think different” and wanted to do something to change the world.
If you’ve ever watched or listened to the “Mystery Box” TED Talk from JJ Abrams he has this line, “So, you know, I love Apple computers. I'm obsessed. So the Apple computer -- the PowerBook -- this computer, it challenges me. It basically says, what are you going to write worthy of me? I feel this -- I'm compelled.”
That was how I felt when I got my first Apple Computer, which was an eMac. Suddenly, I had this thing sitting on my desk, and every time I got on to “surf” the internet, it challenged me to do something more. I still feel that challenge to this day whenever I set down to write or edit and instead get pulled into social media nonsense.
Speaking of social media, compare what Steve Jobs and Apple have done to people like Elon Musk or Mark Zuckerberg. They are in the social media business, which is about taking your data, selling you ads, and now building AI models for some reason. They do this by using algorithms that rarely give you something you want, and in my mind, is one of the reasons why we are so divided.
Thankfully, Tim Cook and Apple have continued to issue that challenge to those of us that respond to it. Every new device feels like it is either an invitation to either create something or to enjoy something that was created. I mean, this company developed and released an app just to enjoy classical music. They were the ones that opened the door to podcasting. Their Apple TV+ shows are attracting high-caliber talent.
Not to mention that these products come with great cameras and apps like GarageBand and iMovie. If you want to create something, there is nothing stopping you.
Their editing app, Final Cut Pro2, recently received a significant upgrade. There are a bunch of features, including “magnetic masks,” which is worth the hype around it. After reading about it and watching a few videos, I decided to give it a try and take advantage of Thanksgiving break to rope in a few actors I know. I used the iPhone 16 Pro and Final Cut Pro only to make this video. Now, I have to say this, but given the time constraints of the actors, I didn’t have time to really nail the audio and lighting. Which I want to say because I’m a professional, and both aren’t up to my standards. Still, this was about testing the magnetic masks, and they are both easy to use and very good.
You can marvel at the analog wonder here:
There are a few editing programs out there and here is the secret - nobody can tell which one you used. Use the one that you like the most.