Welcome to Macintosh Page #9

...mainly because they love music.

And that's... And as do

the Apple employees who created it.

You know, people complain about it,

but it's...

The fact that they were able

to make the iPod is actually why...

You know, one of the reasons

why Macs are still around.

It's only really clear

when you compare it to other products.

They're a pain in the ass to use.

I mean, they are impossible.

There are more iPods in my house

than there are people.

By probably 2-to-1.

But I never use an iPod.

I have...

...five.

I think I have five or we have five.

The family has five, I think.

You know, that's like this whole

video thing on your iPod. Who cares?

I thought we used to complain

about postage-stamp movies.

I mean, that was the complaint we had

I got this iPod. What am l...?

A movie on an iPod.

I don't even get it.

Like, you think, "How long

can I hold this up in front of my face...

...before my arm gets tired?"

I mean, I can't even get through

one TV sitcom.

Progress.

A big part of Apple's marketing budget...

...was, like, sticking the machines

in movies and TV shows.

You know, so it culminated with...

What was it called? Independence Day.

When the PowerBook

taps into the alien computer...

...and blows up the alien ship.

They paid, you know, tens of millions

of dollars, I believe, to do that.

This is when product placement...

...was starting to become big business

in Hollywood.

But since then, you know,

you see them all over the place.

I mean, they are all over TV.

You know,

part of it is product placement...

...part of it is because Macs

are popular in Hollywood, you know.

Obviously, they're used for video editing.

I've edited somewhere

between 40 and 50 movies.

Television, theatrical movies.

No documentaries.

Richard Halsey

Los Angeles, California

We'll, I'll start with my calling card:

Rocky, Down and Out in Beverly Hills...

... Beaches, American Gigolo,

Sister Act...

... The Net, Payday,

one of my favorite movies.

I was a very successful film editor.

Editing mechanically

with German machines...

...KEMs, Steenbecks,

Moviolas, whatever.

Everything you can imagine.

Every piece of mechanical equipment

you can imagine, I used.

Well, I wanted to move forward

into computers...

...but believe it or not,

they were reluctant to.

They still thought it was cheaper

to edit the old mechanical way.

I had experimented around

with the Lucas system...

...the Laserdisc system.

That thing was ridiculous.

The Montage, that was ridiculous.

And the Lightworks,

that was sort of starting to happen.

And basically, it wasrt till 1995

which was late in the game.

And mostly at that point,

early '90s it was, you know, the Avid.

I went and I had to do a picture,

a Columbia Picture...

...a Sandra Bullock picture

called The Net.

Had a very short

post-production schedule.

I had no experience,

had no idea what I was doing.

Within three hours,

I had the basic principles down.

So it was a good system.

I continued editing on that system

for at least seven, eight years.

And then I jumped into Final Cut.

And I've been editing in Final Cut,

you know, ever since.

I mean, it's an amazing system.

Take a simple film

like Edward Scissorhands.

We were editing mechanically.

I was editing with my wife.

Well, we went to location

with four KEMs.

I was editing, she was editing.

And then we had

a husband and wife team.

They were our assistants.

So there was four of us

and that was really economical.

And we had four editing machines, and

we were able to keep up with camera.

We were able to get a Christmas release

and do the movie quite quickly.

With this system, I'm pretty much

a one-man band and my assistant.

I can do the job...

...of six or seven editors

in the old system.

Well, you can see.

I mean, look at the environment now.

Instead of editing in 1200 square feet,

I can edit in 200 square feet.

Apple is Steve Jobs, for sure.

I mean, he is the one

who defines the company.

He founded it, but I mean,

look at its recent history.

He has his personality

stamped all over it.

I used to say about Steve...

...that he was the best person possible

to work for and also the worst...

...because he's a man of extremes.

Steve's extremely passionate.

He's incredibly sharp.

He's, more than anything else,

incredibly quick.

He's got the quickest mind

of anyone I've ever talked to.

Yeah, I mean, I idolize Steve Jobs.

He's absolutely, you know, one of my...

He's my favorite celebrity,

but I don't pretend that I'd understand...

...what would come out of his mouth

if I asked him a question.

I cannot explain

how Steve comes up with these things...

...because he has a different

operating system.

So mere mortals

cannot understand him.

That's why

when people try to understand him...

...and his quirks and all of that, they get

very frustrated because you can't.

It would be like telling a fish how

to understand how a bird feels flying.

It cannot be. The fish is stuck

in the water, the bird is soaring.

It's a different operating system.

That's what it is.

I think Apple is his place in the world.

This is where it all began.

And obviously, it's...

You know, it's a piece of himself.

It's a company that...

...seems like it needs somebody who's

not just your ordinary CEO to run it.

They've tried a number of ordinary CEOs

in the '90s and it just didn't work.

Because if you look at the time era

that Jobs was not there...

...Apple fell into a category

where their Macs...

...were just becoming

like everyday computers.

And there was nothing special

about them.

But of course Steve Jobs

has an incredibly strong aesthetic...

...in case you can't tell.

I don't think you could change the DNA

of Apple if you tried.

So Apple's DNA

is in building cool stuff...

...it's an engineering company.

They can say

they're marketing and all that.

But a marketing-driven company

is a company...

...that theoretically listens

to the market...

...and delivers

what the market says it wants.

You could say many things about Apple,

but that ain't one of them. Okay?

They don't listen to anybody.

Apple's idea of market research is,

you know...

...Steve's right hemisphere

is connected to his left hemisphere.

That's the focus group.

Immediately when Jobs came back,

the first thing he did was the iMac.

He set the personality, he set

the tone of the computer. He's like:

"Here. We're gonna break boundaries,

we're gonna take it to the next level...

...the next edge."

You could make the case

that Apple III wasrt his...

...and Newton wasrt his,

and Lisa wasrt his.

So the only time it flubbed

or stubbed its toe...

...was when Steve wasrt behind it.

I don't see Apple being able to continue

at the pace that it's going right now.

I mean, I don't expect it to suddenly,

you know, fumble and fall...

...but it's not gonna be what it is now.

No, the problem is going to be

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