Post Magazine

December 2011

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STEVE MARTIN Founder/President Ripple Training www.rippletraining.com Prescott, AZ Ripple Training's business follows an iTunes model where content can be downloaded and is then owned by the user. Cur- rently, Ripple Training offers video tutorials in apps such as Final Cut Studio, Final Cut Pro X, After Effects and Photoshop, among others. They are also branching out with tutorials for Media Composer 6, Smoke and DaVinci. STRENGTHS: "Delivering content online is a viable way for people to get trained now. There is an economy of scale that has made it more affordable. You used to have to take a monolithic approach — [with] six to seven hours of video to digest. That's a lot to down- load. Who has time to learn 14 hours of training? "We create a curriculum. We script it, and then we deliver that cur- riculum. That's where we [differ] from YouTube and some of the sub- scription services. Training has to be project-based, not software-based. I think we are now at a point in history where [people] are not interested pretty good tools. Everything is getting to be more software-based. For people who are looking to do training, that's compelling." THREATS: "You can put up a shingle and say you are going to do training, but that doesn't mean people are going to buy it. I started in 2002 and built a reputation. It's taken 10 years and if I put a product out it will probably do well because people have a strong baseline for what they expect with our products. Unless you are in it for the long haul you are not going to succeed." OUTLOOK FOR 2012: "It's interesting. Final Cut Pro X is $300, and the Avid Media Composer came out and it's $2,500. Right now the perception is Avid is better because it's more expensive, but I think that's going to change. A company like Apple, with a huge amount of resources, has a software that appeals to a mass amount people. Video is going to be as ubiquitous as using the word processor. I think Apple priced their software at a place that tons of people [will use it]. I don't think the market will support a $2,500-$4,000 editing system. I think those days are numbered. It's harder to justify charging $100 for train- ing when the software costs $300. That's the new reality of the econ- omy right now. You have to look at it in volume." A clip from Ripple's tutorial on Apple Final Cut X, showing the application's retiming tool. in learning software. They are interested in getting a specific job done." WEAKNESSES: "The nice thing about YouTube is you don't have to pay for hosting and you have all these eyeballs. What makes it nice is the immediacy of it. I can make something and boom, it's up there. But, there is this perception that it's done by amateurs. There isn't any quality control. There are going to be some people who are not going to want to pay for training, period. That's the downside for someone like me who is trying to make a living doing high-quality training." OPPORTUNITIES: "You can't survive as a company doing one product. You need to look at what's out there. The industry is changing rapidly — almost every day or month, things are changing. I am doing [multiple] products to meet head on these changes that are coming. People are still going to need to learn how to color grade and how to do compositing. The question is what tool? After Effects has been around forever, but now there is Smoke. And DaVinci's got some CHIP BUNNELL CEO Pro Media Training www.protoolstraining.com Miami Pro Media Training has 10 locations throughout the country. The company specializes in Avid Pro Tools and Media Composer training, presented in a classroom setting of six to eight students. STRENGTHS: "As technology becomes more and more acces- sible to the masses, the need for education to use that technology grows at an exponential rate. It is relatively easy to buy powerful tools today, but it is only through an investment in learning to use that tech- nology that one can truly turn a musical dream in to a reality. "Pro Tools remains the leading software for the music industry. While its power makes it an incredible tool, it can be complicated to learn, especially for someone just beginning with the system. Beyond the basic mechanics of the software lies the real art of audio engineer- ing — the workflow. Rather than relying on video clips or books, ProMedia believes the best way to learn Pro Tools is through an in- person training lead by a true audio professional." www.postmagazine.com Post • December 2011 39 Pro Media Training offers hands-on courses.

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