When we look back to how things were done in the past, we usually say, “wow they must have loved what they did because it took so much time and work to accomplish.” Now imagen seventy-five years from now what people will say about us, “wow they must have loved what they did because it took so much time and work to accomplish.”

When you only know how we do things in the present its hard to imagen how different it’s going to be done in the future. But when you know the past it’s easy to compare to the present. (That’s some wild Shaman word scramble, uh?  But you get what I mean.)

Imagine the photographers in the 1900’s looking at a digital camera or better yet your phone.  Then explain to them that we no longer hide in smelly dark rooms loaded with toxic chemicals while waiting hours to see if what we shot actually came out.

They would flip when you show them that in one click they can take a picture, see what it looks like instantly, send it to a printer and BAM photo done (you’d also have to explain to them what you mean by printer.  That it’s not a guy in a room turning the wheel on a gigantic printing press).

But what happens when they tell you they want to be able to control pics’ color exposure or maybe they were really talented and wanted to do a double exposure. You then point to the free app on your phone or grab a copy of Photoshop and let them go crazy creating anything they can imagine, all while sitting home in their sweat pants. (you will probably have to explain what sweat pants are..) 

Since I spend a lot of my days writing and complaining about why spell check can’t identify the random word I totally misspelled, I completely miss how amazing spell check actually is.  Imagine writing on a type writer with a big ass Webster dictionary next to you and using white out to try and correct a misspelled word. (White out was basically a small jar of white paint with a little brush that you painted over a word you mistyped.  Then had to go back and retype. Yup.. your right that fix looked like crap!)

Then there is always Googling something verses looking it up in a hard copy of the Encyclopedia Britannia or World Book Encyclopedia. If you have no idea what the those are I guess you’ll have to Google it. hahaha

How about GPS vs a paper map, pocket calculator vs slide ruler, pocket calculator vs the one on your phone, video doorbell vs a barking dog, cell phone vs the TV in the living room… need more…Go ahead take literally a minute and name ten more.  I bet you’re not going to be able to stop at ten.

The point I’m making is however it was done in the past, will always be much harder than the way we are doing it now. No matter what “it” is. But harder doesn’t mean it was done better. The reason it didn’t seem harder was because that was the only way it could be done.

The assumption that the new way is cheating and the old way is better, is just NONESE.

The problem is that the new way will obsolete the old way and if you don’t adjust to the new way you will also become obsolete. Rather than just give up and complain about the new tech or new methods take a deep breath and tweak your skills to the master the new way.

It’s not going to be like you will be learning something you’ve never done.  You just have to be open to learning a NEW way of doing the same tasks you mastered years ago.  This “new way” is usually much easier and will allow you a wider range of creativity once you adjust to some basic changes.

Is memorizing the music session’s recording console settings cheating, compared to the old method of writing down all those settings and then having to come in two hours early just to reset the console to those settings. You’re still using all the music engineering chops you mastered years ago and now your saving those two hours of session resetting.  You just need to learn some basic techniques for saving settings and tweaking the digital simulation of the controls you’ve been using.

The same is true for your lighting console, your video switcher even your camera settings.  Is having instantaneous and perfect digital recall cheating? HELL NO.

But if you have no idea how to operate or save those setting then of course you’re going to bitch and make some excuse about how “you’ll never learn anything if are always taking short cuts!” Actually, what you mean is “if you don’t waste hours writing settings into a note book and hope you reset every knob correctly you’re never going to learn how to be a great engineer.” and that’s just ridiculous. 

There is definitely something to be said for learning how your craft evolved but professionally staying locked into an old method or tech is absurd. If you like analog tech (as I do) using it when time and money is not an issue, GREAT. Blending the sound of music recorded on tape or the visual feel of film verse digital is absolutely valid. But dismissing new methods without learning the benefits is only stifling your potential.

I bet you if you went back to the 1930s and showed todays CGI technology and Pro Tools to the Disney studio artists and musicians you would NEVER hear “No thank you we would much rather work thousands of manhours while being underpaid and overworked as hundreds of us paint thousands of individual cells by hand. 

At the end of this blog there is a link to a video that inspired and focused this blog.  Having friends who work in Hollywood animation studios and being familiar with their CGI visual creative process and digital sound modeling.  It amazed me when I saw what it took Disney in those early days to produce an eighty-three-minute animated feature.  

Could you even imagine what Snow White would have cost in today’s dollars if they had to be produced with the “old” method. I’m betting Disney’s animated feature catalog wouldn’t even be 5% of what it is today. We should all be grateful for advances in both technology and methods rather than complaining. LOL

Make sure you check this link. It’s amazing that Walt was able to successfully pioneer animated feature length films using this tech and these creative systems. Snow White