I’ve used the original Casablanca and a few upgrades over the years. At one time it was my ONLY or primary editing system. Although layering and multi-pass efforts took some rendering time, many of the basic transitions and effects were immediate, making simple productions a breeze. I also owned and have, but rarely used, the black box effort to compete with the original Casablanca, Applied Magic’s Screenplay system.
Though I do the majority of my work with my buffed up MacPro and Final Cut Pro Studio, and occasionally some very basic, simple productions even using iMovie & iDVD, I continue to hang onto my Casablanca AND the Screenplay because I want a fast, simple, go to backup in the event something wacky knocks me down with my primary system.
I learned my lesson in my Amiga Toaster/Flyer days when purchase of the original Casablanca was a year out on my game plan, but became immediate when my Amiga system went belly up and NewTek had begun its transition away from the THEN cutting edge capabilities of the Amiga computer system. That Casablanca saved my bacon over six months of a HUGE production schedule I’d originally banked on the Toaster system to see me through.
So yes, even though there have been MANY iterations of the Casablanca systems since, and many changes in focus, approach, etc. I will use mine as a backup until it no longer functions at all. It gets the job done.
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