Saw “Print the Legend” on Netflix this morning. Highly recommended for anyone interested in 3d printing although it’s basically all personalities and business politics. Remarkable that in the entire movie the word RepRap was not heard once however.
From the previews it looked like it might be a little MBi heavy, but it was OK. But agree, it left a lot of the RepRap crowd out and was very buisness centric.
That is because it is an advertisement for MakerBot Industries and Stratasys.
@NathanielStenzel I disagree. If it came across as an advertisement for anything it was 3d Systems and FormLabs. Bre did not come off well at all.
@John_Davis Ah. I did not see it yet. All of the previews show Bre, so I thought it was an advertisement for that prick.
@NathanielStenzel It starts off that way, but he looks like a bit of a monster by the end.
@John_Davis Oh. Just like real life then. He started off with good intentions and all and then he turned into a monster on the leash of Stratasys.
It’s not a movie about the history of 3D Printing at all. It’s about how people and companies change over time. As long as you go into it with the right expectations it’s good.
I enjoyed it. Knowing Bre and Max and a bunch of the others made it kinda wild to see. From my perspective, it was gut wrenching on a lot of levels, living out echoes of what they were going through.
A few things I want go on record with:
Editing only shows a single facet of each story.
No one walked in any of these character’s shoes except those individual people.
Even in all the struggle, everyone on that screen- small and large - experienced a very special moment in time. After talking with many of them… They all take away some very fond memories.
It’s a good time to be alive.
Brook
@Brook_Drumm , thank you so much for your contributions to the community, the respectable way you run your business, and giving those of us who haven’t started off on our ventures yet, someone to emulate in the future. I may not agree with your non-commercial licensing, but I do sincerely respect the hard work you’ve put into the community. (There are many people who fit this glove here, in fact)
Maybe one day we’ll have a nice video on Netflix about the RepRap community and we’ll be able to cover some of the important people around here, even if the Printrbot wasn’t a RepRap for long.
It would have been nice if they had included people in the maker community. They opened the door by comparing the emergence of personal 3D printing to the emergence of the personal computer. Today’s “Homebrew Computer Club” is the maker community building things around micro-controllers like Arduino, and today’s Apple I is the RepRap project. People watching the movie as a quirky story of ruthless capitalism —who don’t know anything about RepRap– might not get why MakerBot comes off as a bit of a fraud from the outset. They make decent printers, but they hardly invented anything.
I thought it was funny that Bre Pettis couldn’t figure out a way to discuss guns and 3D printing, which is just a sensational non-issue. If you want to make an unregistered weapon that won’t blow up in your hand you’ve always been able to do so in a wood and metal shop. “Lost PLA casting” makes it possible to make a very nice cylinder for your custom revolver, but that will still require skills beyond 3D printing. To make a comparison, I don’t think Steve Jobs would have shrunk from the topic (at any age). He would have done his best to put the issue in perspective and undermine the media narrative. I never got the feeling Bre Pettis was spending more time at the library than at the stylist, and that annoys my inner-Da Vinci.
I suppose the movie has the most to say about what it means to be a small fish in a big pond. Capitalism makes a young profit-seeker feel that he must debase himself, screw over everyone who stands for temperance, and sell out quickly. MakerBot took a slice of innovation, hyped it all the way to the bank, kicked the creators to the curb, and in the end as marketing guy Bre gets to parachute out, move on and try to capitalize on the next big thing. This is all seen as virtuous. He made lots of money, employed lots of people, created lots of buzz and interest in all this amazing stuff. But yeah, some credit where credit is due, to Adrian Bowyer and all the rest, would be nice!
As for Form 1 Labs, I hope they get it together and do really well. Pettis may have been unable to use his Form 1 properly, but I know more honest people will appreciate it. (As if MakerBots don’t ever produce a pile of spaghetti or require constant tuning and calibration.)
All in all, yeah, I was annoyed. If 3D printing is indeed a revolution then I want to see the nice, smart, honest, truly creative people of the RepRap community driving the narrative and generating success stories, not this bunch of low wattage fools and game players who only want to capitalize on the innovations of others.
@Scott_Lahteine I didn’t find it quite that annoying, but it could definitely use a follow up. Something covering RepRap (duh), Ultimaker, Printrbot, Lulzbot, Deezmaker, SeeMeCNC (there are plenty to choose from here) and some of the notable Kickstarter fails would be awesome.
It’s not a movie about the 3D printing movement. People will be much happier once they accept that. Remember that the producers of this were following startups in a few industries - they were looking for stories of startup success, change, turmoil, implosion, drama, intrigue, etc.
I think I can understand the choices made in making the video. I also think there’s plenty of room for more documentaries on the topic. Hopefully a filmmaking team gets inspired to try a different angle.
@ThantiK For the record, the metal simple is the only non- open source. All other laser cut models and accessories are completely open on Youmagine. I dumped the non- commercial license a while back
@John_Abella
Agreed and for that alone I think they nailed the topic…startups can be very messy and that really showed.
@ThantiK isn’t deltamaker closed source?
@J_O11 , http://www.github.com/deltamaker - and the parts that we haven’t documented and specifically given an open source license, I disagree with too. I’m an employee of DeltaMaker, not an owner…I can still disagree with them on their practices as well. (And I do)