A 29-year-old colorist in Lisbon makes $11,200 a month grading wedding films on a $599 Mac mini.
The Mac mini came with 256GB.
Apple wanted $800 more for 2TB. He paid $310 for 4TB instead.
The trick is a dock that sits under the Mac mini like a second floor. Same aluminum. Same footprint.
Inside are 2 NVMe slots, with room for up to 16TB. He dropped in 2 Samsung 990 Pros and set them to RAID 0.
Blackmagic Disk Speed Test: 2,549 MB/s write. 2,851 MB/s read.
That's fast enough to cut 8K ProRes in DaVinci Resolve without proxies.
The front has an SD 4.0 card reader and 3 USB-C ports at 10Gbps. The back adds 2 DisplayPort outputs at 4K 60Hz. Add the Mac mini's own HDMI and he runs 3 screens.
Left screen: timeline. Middle: the grade. Right: scopes.
14 studios across Portugal and Spain send him raw footage.
They still mail him the SD cards, because it's faster than uploading 400GB.
Each card goes into the front slot and copies straight onto the RAID.
Each film takes 6 hours. He charges $350.
32 films a month. $11,200.
The whole setup cost under $1,600: Mac mini, dock, drives and 3 used monitors.
It paid for itself in 5 days.
He hasn't filmed a wedding in 3 years. He hasn't been to one since his own.
The studios own the cameras. He owns the last 6 hours.
More alerts ≠ better security. Less noise. More impact.
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