I agree as well. While he made a few solid points that every filmmaker should understand, this interview felt like a verbal handjob to me. Hard work, passion and dedication are not lacking in the film industry and as far as I see it in NYC at least, and the cream doesn't always rise. There are so many factors that play into it. There are a lot of dedicated people vying for limited opportunities. The qualities he mentions are the baseline for the film industry.
Another point I'll make is that filmmaking doesn't always involve the typical roles. Not everyone is trying to be the next indie darling.
To all the people commenting that you can build a cheaper set up. Yes you can build a setup for cheaper but you would be hard pressed to find a better fluid head for under a grand than what Sachtler offers. In terms of quality nothing comes close in that price range period. Anyone who has used a cheap head and then used a quality system will feel the difference immediately. The only drawback I see is that the when I last used the Ace the sticks were kinda flimsy. I wonder about the quality of the other components weather they match the fluid head or the legs.
Also a tripod system is not something you should be trying to save money on.
Great interview! I will say, I think he vastly underestimates pricings effect on adoption and technology. It's just too expensive right now. Not enough people have access to good viewers. On the content creators side still there are no somewhat affordable 3D 360 cameras of even barely acceptable quality. Hopefully it all changes, but it seems it's not for quite the foreseeable future.