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This sounds like one of those tasks where 'I inherited this spreadsheet that handles it' is probably the answer 90% of the time

by bobbles 11y ago

anigbrowl 11y ago
Actually no, that would get a very skeptical response until you proved your spreadsheet was made of awesome. Long before computers came along this was heavily standardized using cardboard or magnetic wooden strips to build the schedule, with fixed colors for day/night, interior/exterior and so on, likewise the daily schedules that go to each person on the cast and crew are super-standardized. Remember that they've been making films in Hollywood for over a century (the first short to be made there was in 1910 and the first feature in 1914) and it's a very incestuous industry, so you have a smallish number of people floating back and forth between multiple film productions and sharing their techniques with each other, and the fundamentals of film production haven't really changed all that much. One upside of this is that you can very quickly tell whether someone knows what they're doing or not - scripts are formatted in a certain very particular way, there's a lot of set jargon and so on. As far as software goes, there's plenty of room for innovation (which I'd be happy to discuss) but you have to be 100% backward compatible with existing practices. Nobody wants to waste time learning something that fall short and result in them getting yelled at, fired, and talked about negatively, so people are pretty conservative.
- waterlesscloud 11y ago
  Movie Magic is awful from a software user experience perspective. But it's nearly impossible to replace because it's what everyone uses, and more importantly, has used. I've seen several competitors come and go without much of a blip because no one even gives them a try. Of course, Hollywood isn't the only industry like that. Most are, in my observation. One of the biggest challenges in B2B software is overcoming the incumbent, no matter how bad they are. To be fair, I haven't seen a competitor to MM that blew me away, and MM has improved jussssssst enough to keep people from running away. The ipad version of Scheduling is certainly a step in the right direction. It's an interesting situation, where it looks like there's space for a competitor, but there really isn't.

This sounds like one of those tasks where 'I inherited this spreadsheet that handles it' is probably the answer 90% of the time

by bobbles 11y ago

This sounds like one of those tasks where 'I inherited this spreadsheet that handles it' is probably the answer 90% of the time

anigbrowl 11y ago

Actually no, that would get a very skeptical response until you proved your spreadsheet was made of awesome. Long before computers came along this was heavily standardized using cardboard or magnetic wooden strips to build the schedule, with fixed colors for day/night, interior/exterior and so on, likewise the daily schedules that go to each person on the cast and crew are super-standardized. Remember that they've been making films in Hollywood for over a century (the first short to be made there was in 1910 and the first feature in 1914) and it's a very incestuous industry, so you have a smallish number of people floating back and forth between multiple film productions and sharing their techniques with each other, and the fundamentals of film production haven't really changed all that much. One upside of this is that you can very quickly tell whether someone knows what they're doing or not - scripts are formatted in a certain very particular way, there's a lot of set jargon and so on. As far as software goes, there's plenty of room for innovation (which I'd be happy to discuss) but you have to be 100% backward compatible with existing practices. Nobody wants to waste time learning something that fall short and result in them getting yelled at, fired, and talked about negatively, so people are pretty conservative.

waterlesscloud 11y ago
Movie Magic is awful from a software user experience perspective. But it's nearly impossible to replace because it's what everyone uses, and more importantly, has used. I've seen several competitors come and go without much of a blip because no one even gives them a try. Of course, Hollywood isn't the only industry like that. Most are, in my observation. One of the biggest challenges in B2B software is overcoming the incumbent, no matter how bad they are. To be fair, I haven't seen a competitor to MM that blew me away, and MM has improved jussssssst enough to keep people from running away. The ipad version of Scheduling is certainly a step in the right direction. It's an interesting situation, where it looks like there's space for a competitor, but there really isn't.