Adventures in Media

I seem to be at that point in my life where I’m starting to “get” certain basic principles. I’m not sure whether this is the normal process of aging and acquisition of wisdom, or some urgent cosmic message, but I’m starting to notice the insights arriving at a quickened pace.

One recent insight was that ideas are cheap, but passion and perseverance is priceless. In other words, “its all about execution.” Now, I have heard variations on this maxim for years, decades — but I never truly understood it. I would hoard ideas like putting butterflies in a jar, and think that all I needed was the “right” idea and I’d be all set.

But, butterflies will eventually die if left in a jar. Ideas, like butterflies want to be free and its in the observing that we derive value. Whether by choice or circumstance, I’ve had to execute tirelessly on some pretty simple ideas recently, and one day, after wading through dozens of emails full of well-intentioned ideas, I finally got it: Ideas are cheap, easy and effortless. But executing on an idea is difficult, requires trial-and-error, and requires us to fail on the way to realizing a goal.

The cool thing (for some of us, at least) is that execution is so difficult for most people that they won’t do it. Which is why ideas can be safely let out into the wild without fear that someone else will ’steal’ them. The value of the idea is in the observation, interaction, experimentation and execution.

The reason that most people won’t execute on an idea is fear of failure. The highs and lows associated with attempting anything, whether it be sports, stock market success, a new business or creative endeavors, is hard for a lot of people to accept. Its a part of the process of creation that not everything will be brilliant. Even God, if we believe the story, had to start over.

But, if you don’t try anything new, and you take no chances, you’ll never “fail”, but you’ll never produce anything great either. We are currently struggling with that at my day job — current management is so conservative that we are not allowed to “fail”, and as a practical consequence, the quality and impact of our work has dropped off dramatically.

So, the ability to tolerate highs and lows appears to be a prerequisite to achieving greatness. In this article from the recent Startup School entitled “What Startups are Really Like”, http://www.paulgraham.com/really.html, the author interviewed 70 or so startup entrepreneurs. A common theme was the sheer magnitude of the highs and lows on the way to achieving their ultimate success:

“The ups and downs were more extreme than they were prepared for. In a startup, things seem great one moment and hopeless the next. And by next, I mean a couple hours later.”

Getting back to perseverance — in addition to getting you through the highs and lows, its amazing what you can achieve if you continuously, and over time, keep pushing towards a singular vision:

The book: The Pixar Touch (Vintage) is an absolutely fascinating story of perseverance and struggle. Over the course of more than 20 years, Ed Catmull and the others endured setback after setback on the way to realizing a dream: to make animated feature films. At one point they made commercials; at one point Pixar was a hardware company; for a time, they suffered multi-million dollar losses. But through it all, the founders kept vectoring towards their singular vision. Whenever circumstances would knock them off track, or throw up a roadblock that required a detour, they would continue pushing, pulling, nudging towards their goal.

The whole notion of perseverance in achieving one’s goals is nothing new. What really struck me from the book was that: no matter how random or chaotic the circumstances, no matter how many times you are knocked off track, if you keep applying force in a given direction you will eventually overcome the randomness of life, and move things in the right direction. Its like herding cats: the random movements of the cats will be a little less random if you keep nudging them towards the door. Its also a little like compound interest, in that the force vectors (attention) that you apply begin to multiply and compound over time.

What this model absolutely requires, however, is a crystal clear destination. Something simple, almost mantra-like: “Make animated feature films.” I’m convinced that such a vision must be the product of the unconscious mind. That is, the vision must be worthy, lofty and game-changing. And that is the real difficulty. Because no matter how disciplined you might be, you can’t force your way to a truly inspirational vision.

So, I’m afraid, dear reader, that I’m leaving you with more questions than answers: “How does one train their mind to conjure a worthwhile destination?” “How do you know when an idea is worth pursuing, or is just plain dumb?” “Does it even matter?”

I started the day easy with a sit-down demonstration of eyeon’s Generation suite. It builds on the Fusion compositor and allows versioning, collaboration, and annotation of assets including 4K DPX plates. They had two screens set up simulating to different users logged into the system and it was neat to see the way the collaborative features worked in real-time. The pricing for the suite, at $10K seemed high for the functionality shown, but apparently the trick is in being able to show multiple streams of 4K DPX plates, and this represents breakthrough pricing for that type of capability.

Walking around the outside of the exhibit hall, I spotted the 3DConnexion SpaceNavigator left hand controller. After about 60 seconds with this device I bought one on the spot. It allows you to pan, tilt, zoom, and rotate your workspace with your left hand, while your right hand continues to work. I’m left-handed so when I’m using my pen tablet, I’ll use this controller with my right hand. Everyone should have one of these. The company claims that it improves productivity by 20%-25%. I believe it.

I then sat in on a couple of amazing Cinema 4D demos. One on on particles and included a clever use of cloth to create a moving flame front. The other was on their new matte painting tool called Projection Man. I will probably wind up upgrading to R11 just for this, the new Mac 64-bit support, and the new SpaceNavigator support for Mac.

There are a several 3D printers and 3D printing services here at the show. This stuff is just so cool. Basically, anything you can model in 3D can be ‘rendered’ out as a plastic model. Some include color. Great for character design, prototyping new products, and architectural models. Sounds ’so what?’ until you actually see the models. I’ve just got to think up something to model for no other reason than to have something cool to put on my shelf.

Heard about the new Squiggles iPhone App by Scott Squires (VFX artist extraordinaire) which is essentially a mini-Photoshop for the iPhone. I can totally see using it to rough out concept art as it has great brushes and support for opacity and transfer modes (like overlay, screen, burn, etc.)

The highlight of the week for me was the fxPhd roof top Bar Camp attended by John Montgomery, Mike Seymour, and Jeff Heuser of fxguide.com. A bunch of folks from fxphd.com and pixelcorps.com were there. The discussions were lively and insightful. About halfway through, they started recording on a podcast and I was the first ‘volunteer’ to talk about the conference. Several folks took pictures of the affair which featured a spectacular sunset.

I missed the Ed Catmull talk on Monday, but heard all about it at the Bar Camp. The central theme of his talk was a question: Are good ideas, or good people more important to the creative process? This was in response to a (now infamous) high-level level Hollywood studio head’s comment that “our central problem is not finding good people, but finding good ideas”. Through many anecdotes taken from Pixar studios, he explained why some projects work and others don’t. He made a convincing argument that it is not the idea, but the team who drives the implementation that leads to success. (i.e. “Its all in the execution.” Where have we heard that before?) A mediocre team with a great idea will produce a mediocre result, and a good team with a mediocre idea will find a way to make it great, or reinvent the whole thing.

This was my first Siggraph conference and I found it to be an intensely educational and interesting trip. It will take my brain many days to catch up with all of the things I’ve seen and heard, and I met a lot of really great folks. I came away with whole new perspectives on how I might integrate more pre-vis and VFX techniques into our productions.

I’ve bought six Macintosh computers over the last five years and have paid for AppleCare on every one of them. I’ll tell anyone who asks, “Yes, you want AppleCare.” At the Genius Bar, you’ll be treated like someone of above-average intelligence rather than being left to feel that you are inadequate and unworthy.

I once accosted someone in line at the Apple Store, a Mom, buying her daughter a laptop for college: “You know, you really *do* want the AppleCare.” She didn’t care that she was buying into 3-years of guaranteed utility, or seem concerned that all things (even great things like Macs) can sometimes break. She just didn’t want to spend the stinking 200 bucks. She has my pity.

Just last Friday afternoon, I trundled into my office/studio and found it ominously quiet. The trusty G5 PowerMac, nearing its 3-year mark, was not making its usual jet-engine sound and the screen was dark. No power light. Odd. After checking the power switch, cables, power outlet and everything else I could think of, I made an appointment for the Genius Bar. While I was waiting, I ogled a bit over the new Mac Pro systems. Dang! Why do they have to be *so* much faster than my (now relatively impotent) dual G5?

With only 37 days left on my 3-year AppleCare contract, the technician informed me that the liquid cooling system had leaked all over the inside of the computer, corroding and destroying the motherboard, one of the processors, the power supply and the case. It was a total loss. It would have to be replaced by a new system with approximately the same configuration.

“You mean… are you saying… I get a new Mac Pro?”

“Yeah, do you want the base 2.66Ghz model or do you want to pay the $1500 difference for the 3Ghz model?”

“Huh? Uh, the 2.66Ghz model will be fine.” (I’m thinking 6 times faster than my G5 is more than adequate.)

Aside from now fully understanding why Apple abandoned the G5 for Intel chips, I am again completely sold on AppleCare. I don’t know whether my experience is common or not, but this is not the first time that AppleCare has saved me a ton of cash. I recommend it.

Life is good.

The woman next to me was looking at me as if I was some kind of terrorist. I was finishing up an SMS message and I might as well have been feeding cyanide to her baby.

The persistence of this urban myth about cell phones being able to cause a plane crash is unbelievable. No planes have ever crashed due to WiFi or cellular interference and I challenge anyone to produce one confirmed instance.

From David Pogue’s blog: “Cellphones were initially banned from aircraft in the U.S. at the request of the cell carriers and the FCC. Navigation issues were not the real reason for the ban; it was cellphone companies who asked for the ban, based on technological interference issues. The public wasn’t told the truth because many people would not care if they caused interference to wireless networks, but most everyone cares if an aircraft’s navigation might be affected.”

Basically, the cellular system does not deal effectively with a cell phone moving at 500 miles per hour. It can’t handle the handoff from tower to tower that quickly, and then there is the problem of determining the nearest tower when you are 5 miles up in the sky. The skipping around from tower to tower also runs down your cell phone battery in a hurry.

There are actually plane manufacturers and carriers who have piloted WiFi service on planes for travelers. Personally, I’m more concerned about solar radiation and microwaves than cellular signals.

There are many reasons to not allow cell phone use on planes — like the sound of 200 people all yacking away on a 5 hour flight — but crashing the plane is not one of them.

At the relations house on Thanksgiving, Grandma pulled out a bunch of newspaper ads for Christmas sales she had been saving. (Having been through the Great Depression, she saves everything.) “Door Buster” sales. 50% off! 5 a.m. ’till Noon. Hmmm. With nothing better to do I circled a few items from the Toys R Us ad, and got to thinking, “Hey, this might be a way to stuff the kids’ stockings on-the-cheap!” All I had to do was get up at 5 a.m. and fill my cart with fabulous bargains. How bad could it be?

List in hand, I arrived at the local Toys R Us at 6 a.m. (I couldn’t get up any earlier, the turkey was still wearing off). OK, no shopping carts — that’s strange, you would think they’d have carts out for the shoppers. Undeterred, I grabbed a basket from the parking lot and proceeded to work through the items on my list. Most everything I wanted was already sold out. (I guess I shouldn’t have been an hour late.) But I did manage to fill up my cart with some arts & crafts toys, four tubs of “moon sand”, some tubes of “Magnetix” magnet things, a tin of plastic tinkertoys (whatever happened to the wooden ones?), and a Ben-Ten wristwatch (sounds like the real thing.) All 50% off. Not a great haul, but at least I wasn’t one of these mom-uncle-grandmother teams all trying to keep a 6-foot stack of toys from falling off the cart.

All I had to do next was find the line. Cool, found it. I’ll be back home sipping coffee before the kids wake up.

A rather dour woman (probably from Oakland) in a red shirt approaches. “Sir, the line is back there. We are just keeping the aisle clear here.” “Uh, sure.” So, I head over to the line. Hmmm. Where is the back of this line. Keep walking. Around the corner. There it is. Odd. No one else has carts. “Yeah, this is the line to get into the electronics department.” “Huh?” “They have the Zune on sale.” “You’re kidding!?!” Right. Nobody, I mean nobody buys a Zune. Except, I guess, these people who got up at 5 a.m. I feel sorry for the poor kids who are hoping for an iPod for Christmas, but their loser parents are here buying them a Zune.

OK, where is the toy line? There it is. Nope. Around the corner. Down there. Nope. Keep walking. Down this aisle. This must be it. Nope. OK, this isn’t funny anymore. Keep walking. You gotta be kidding me.

Somewhere between the Lil’ Miss Glamour Makeup Set and the Enfamil was the end of the line. This sucker was snaking all throughout the store, doubling back on itself 6 or 7 times. This is nuts. Whatever. The kids are all asleep at home; I’ve got my StarBucks, my iPhone, and the “Ruby on Rails Cookbook” (I always bring something to read, even to school plays.) I’m set.

Now, the stupidest woman in the world has gotten in line behind me. I know she is the stupidest woman in the world because I’m listening to her chattering on her cell phone while she tries to push two stacks of toys along the floor with her feet. (She didn’t get the memo about grabbing a cart from the parking lot.) “Hi Stacy! You wouldn’t believe the crowd here! Oh boy, I bet there’s ten-thousand people here. Well, OK, maybe five-thousand. And, I’ve been in line for like, half an hour already.” (It had been 3 minutes.) She spots another toy that is on-sale. “Hey Stacy, do you know what the Millenium Falcon is? Is that cool? Oh, its Star Wars? Yeah, I think I saw that one. Oh. Its 30% off…. Well, it says its for an 8-year-old. Yes, I know he’s 3. Well… alright.”

I can’t concentrate on my Ruby-on-Rails book. I try listening to a podcast on my iPhone. My back is starting to hurt. We’ve been in line for 15 minutes and have moved 30 feet. Hmmm. 15 minutes / 30 feet. I should be able to calculate this. Let’s see, each tile on the floor is exactly 1 foot square. The aisles are spaced about 15 feet apart. There are 3 more aisles to go, down here, then 7 aisles, then a corner, then 7 aisles, then a corner, then 7 aisles, then down to the cash registers. OK, so that’s something like 28 aisles worth, or 14 30-foot segments, or, holy cow, 3 1/2 hours!! That can’t be right. But even if I’m off by 50%, that’s still an hour and 45 minutes.

I look at the stuff in my cart. Its all starting to look like a big load of crap. And there is always internet shopping where I bet I can find all this stuff just as cheap. The woman behind me is still blabbering on her cell phone. “But if you put a little vinegar on it, it clears it right up. Yeah, I saw it on Oprah.”

My body is moving out of line. Its parking the cart in an aisle. I don’t seem to be in control here. I’m picking up my StarBucks and Ruby-on-Rails book and heading out the door. My subconscious is firmly in control. Once outside, the cool morning breeze hits my face and I find myself back in my body crossing the parking lot. “Whoa. What was that?!?.”

I arrive back home and sneek in to the house. Everyone is still asleep. I’m logging in to Amazon.com. I’ve learned my lesson. No one needs to know.