A break from the Horror movie marathon for a sec to acknowledge the passing of Steve Jobs. I’ve been an Apple nerd from the start and the news makes me really, really sad. Seriously, we had an Apple in our house in the 80’s; in school, our computer classes were all taught on Apples in the 90’s; in the early 2000’s I scraped my dollars together for an early iPod (the thing was a BRICK); and I used a Macbook Pro, my first laptop, to edit one of my very first short films. A horror masterpiece I titled “Blood in the Halls” and I’m not being sarcastic at all when I call it a masterpiece. Really. Not at all. (I’m being sarcastic, it’s incredibly silly).

The summer I shot “Blood in the Halls,” I spent hours fighting with Final Cut Pro, learning the software, trying to edit, staring at the ceiling waiting for things to render. I would be up all night, laptop set up next to my bed, working.

My parents like to tell the story of how one night my dad fell asleep in the living room while watching TV. Around 3 AM something woke him up – there was a horrible screaming coming from my bedroom. Panicked, he went running down the hall to my room. He was sure someone had broken in and was killing me. He opened my door, “Are you OK? What’s going on?”

“DAD! Close the door! I’m working!”

It wasn’t ME screaming. I had been cutting the scene where my actress was attacked by the monster in the dark. And I was playing the shot of her screaming over and over. And over and over and over. At 3 AM. Because I’m smart? And my poor father. He had no idea.

He just stood there for a moment, not really even sure what to say, before just shaking his head and going to bed. I guess I probably should have turned the volume down. And maybe reacted a little better to the interruption. I am a terrible daughter sometime.

Of course, to be fair, my mom did laugh quite a bit the next morning when we told her the story. (Don’t worry, I had apologized by that point. And my parents are used to me).

But anyway, my point is that while I’m sure I could have worked without my Mac and Final Cut Pro, Apple has made products that helped make the tools that I needed to learn easily accessible. Years later, my first post college film was cut entirely on Macs, again using Final Cut. For an independent, low budget filmmaker, Apple has been a lifesaver. And Steve Jobs was at the head of a lot of that.

RIP Mr. Jobs. You’ve helped make creativity possible.