Part 2 of a continuing series of editor interviews

Similar to the one-man band corporate editor I interviewed, comedy editor Steve Rasch, ACE, whose current show, Curb Your Enthusiasm, has been running six years now, finds he’s doing more than ever before as an editor. “It seems like there are no rules now,” he told me over lunch in Brentwood at Chin Chin. “Every show is different.” Steve, like most TV editors, creates green screens and other VFX and puts in SFX. Additionally, few years ago he took over editing the music so he makes extra money filling that position.

Workflow

He edits on an Avid which is still the most used system in Hollywood on mainstream, higher budget shows. (Final Cut Pro continues to make inroads and is used on low budget shows.) Steve receives a transcript of the show and a hard drive with low rez HD dailies which he views in a quad split (channel that shows all four cameras on one screen). Once the show is locked, an online editor is hired to do the finishing work, including up-rezzing the show and making it network-ready.

Comedy today

Curb is a single cam show created in the mockumentary style which Rasch traces to Rob Reiner’s 1989 movie When Harry Met Sally. Steve maintains that “The written joke is no longer funny to viewers. They don’t want to hear it. They are more interested in story and character-based comedy.” Also, the show does not use a laff track, which, he reports, most single cam comedies avoid.

On being an editor

Over fortune cookies I asked Steve how he felt after years of editing comedy and drama. “I do not like to be barked at, considered a button pusher. I like it when they value me.” He added, “Editors are always working for some one. Editors are compliant. Editors are in it because they like the craft.”

admin Editing practices, Editor’s role, Technical and process, Television

After a over a decade of working for Disney in various capacities (actor, editor, and producer), Les Perkins went solo, creating an editing suite in a set-off part of his home in Glendale, CA. His advice on setting up a system, “Make sure it’s comfortable and ergonomically sound – your butt’s going to spend long hours in that seat.”

Due to his contacts and the economy (Hollywood studios let staff editors go and were looking to save money at big post houses on many projects), one project has led to another and Les’s business has thrived.

Over a lunch at a veggie place in the (San Fernando) Valley, he told me, “I love problem solving – finding editorial solutions for production problems so the client doesn’t have to re-shoot.”

His system

Les has a tricked out Final Cut Pro system and has just installed version 7, the latest FCP version. He provides basic editing, sound work, and does all kinds of effects work on all types of corporate projects. He produces many of the projects as well as editing them, hence is called a preditor. I featured Les in Your Cutting Room View which has his contact info but here it is again: www.LesIsMoreProductions.com.

Fix it in post – Not!

This is a less desirable approach than ever, Les believes. “Before you shoot a pixel or a frame, you have to plan your post production workflow all the way through delivery.” He rattled off many issues to be figured out including: determining the codecs in the camera, the editing system, how sound will be recorded, and how color will be graded (corrected). “Post has to be part of preproduction,” he insisted, in order to achieve the most efficient workflow

Getting work and keeping up

Les checks out many websites for jobs including: www.mandy.com (good for entry level) and www.Media-Watch.com. He also attends the LA FCP Users group (www.lafcpug.org Even if you do not live in the LA area there’s lots of useful info on the site and there’s probably an ug near you.) each month and asks technical questions from his circle of tech gurus.

Finally I asked Les how he feels about editing after all these years. He responded enthusiastically, “I look at editing as being a great big jigsaw puzzle and you’re the one who pulls all the pieces into one nice, big cohesive story.”

admin Editing practices, Editor’s role, Jobs, Technical and process

“Why do you want to move to LA and become an editor? You’ll just be stuck behind a Moviola in a dark room.”

A fellow grip said this to me when I was working as a local hire on a movie in northern California and told him of my desire to relocate to Hollywood. Kinda dates me, huh?

Anyway, I interviewed the editor and assistant who were working away in a motel. I also talked to everyone on the three-week shoot and got their contact info. This gave me confidence to move south and start seeking editing work. Three weeks after moving I got a job as an assistant sound recordist at a hole-in-the-wall sound transfer house. Assistant editors dropped off ¼” dailies which we transferred to 35mm for editing. I took some freebie jobs to learn to sync and the rudiments of the 1979 cutting room. In 1980 I landed my first paid assistant job on That’s Incredible! for Alan Landsburg Productions.

Flash forward to 2010. I am re-writing my first book, Cut by Cut: Editing Your Film or Video. Before leaving LA I was madly interviewing editors of all types: assistants, comedy, reality, feature, TV, sound, online etc. I have found that each type of editing requires special skills and brings different as well as similar perspectives on our calling. So follow along as I relate their observations and particular challenges, and feel free, as always, to make your own comments.

admin Editing practices, Editor’s role, Jobs

This blog suffered for a month while I packed up and left LA after 31 years. It was hard to leave friends, family, neighbors, and my LA life but time for the third act of my life. I have returned to northern California to a different county than I left 31 years ago and with a spouse. Now we’re unpacking to a new life in a grove of CA oaks and seeing longtime friends.

A feature editor and commercial producer bought our house. The house is registered as an historic home. (Only in LA is something considered historic after 65 yearsJ.)  They’re gaga over it and will take great care of it which helps take the sting out of leaving it. We connected to the point of inviting them over for dinner and I still hear from them.

So I am back now and will be posting regularly again. Talk soon.

admin Editing and life

“It’s not a mystery. It’s pretty blatant,” says Carlos de Jesus, director of NYU’s Future Filmmakers Workshop. “The film industry has been dominated, especially at the upper echelons, by white males.”

The statistics for minorities are grimmer than for women: I couldn’t find any online. If you know of any sources, please let me know. Here are a couple of articles that I did find. However they’re not even from the last year:

http://www.npr.org/blogs/visibleman/2008/08/minorities_get_little_respect_1.html

http://diverseeducation.com/article/7441/flocking-to-film-school-minorities-and-the-film-industry.html

http://www.newenglandfilm.com/news/archives/99january/womeninfilm.htm

This article tackles TV and video games with the same dismal results:

http://www.media-awareness.ca/english/issues/stereotyping/ethnics_and_minorities/minorities_entertainment.cfm

But let’s get the latest statistics and hopefully see some improvement!

admin History/research, Jobs

Here are the depressing, er, challenging statistics for 2009:

Box Office
Stats from Motion Picture Association of America

• 113 million female moviegoers bought 55% of the tickets.
• 104 million men bought 45% of the tickets.

Behind the Scenes
Stats from Center for the Study of Women in TV and Film, San Diego State U

Women

• directed 7% of the top 250 grossing films.
• wrote 8% of the top 250 grossing films.
• comprised
  • 17% of all executive producers
  • 23% of all producers
  • 18% of all editors
  • 2% of all cinematographers

Womencentric Films
Stats from Box Office Mojo

• 2 of the top 10 grossing films
• 9 of the top 50 grossing films (two of these are animated – The Princess and the Frog, Coraline);
• 18 of the top 100 grossing films;
• 26 of the top 150 grossing films

Relationship between women behind the scenes and on-screen
Stats from -Boxed In: Women On Screen and Behind the Scenes in the 2003-04 Prime-time Season, by Martha Lauzen

• Women working behind the scenes influenced the number of on-screen women. When a program had no female creators, females accounted for 40% of all characters. However, when a program employed at least one woman creator, females comprised 45% of all characters.

More statistics at http://womenandhollywood.com/statistics-on-women-and-hollywood/

Help!

Woman Make Movies exists to overcome these harsh realities. The site has resources as well as statistics to help empower women to be filmmakers and make their movies.

admin History/research, Jobs

This post concludes my report on my evening at the TV Academy where part of IFC’s six hour docu-series on Monty Python was screened followed by a panel discussion with Python actors and filmmakers involved.

What struck me was the scrappiness of this irreverent band of brothers and how hard they worked at experimenting and creating all the loony, slyly subversive skits and movies that so many of us love to play and replay.

Show expectations

Monty Python’s Flying Circus ran on PBS from 1969-1974. Eric Idle recalled, “It wasn’t promoted, sold, or hyped so kids could find it. It was subversive [so they found it].”

“We were never sure anyone was going to laugh at what we did,” Terry Jones stated.

When moderator Pete Hammond asked why the show is so long lasting and still fresh, Idle responded, “It followed a period of political satire so it had to be generic.”

Pythons on comedy

Idle made a series of observations:

”Comedy is about telling the right thing at the wrong time.”

“If you’re an actor you’re always playing something that isn’t you. I’ve been sheep, fish, women.”

“Comedy is dangerous. You’re telling the truth to people who don’t want to hear it.”

Reunion

Hammond quizzed the two Pythons on this possibility and got these response:

Terry Jones, “We’d look too old.”

Eric Idle: “When people ask this, they’re really saying -- as they would with the Beatles -- is that they want to be young again.”

Movies

Hammond pointed out that none of the troupe’s films ever got any awards. Terry Jones agreed, “Python films were never taken seriously by the film people.”

When I first heard it, I thought “Always look on the bright side of life” was an old pop tune. I didn’t realize that Idle wrote it to end The Life of Brian. Here are the boys at their witty, subversive best:

admin Uncategorized

Every year, as part of the run-up to the Emmy awards, various production companies and TV channels hold screenings at the TV Academy in NoHo (North Hollywood) of what they consider their most award-contending work.

Last week I went to see IFC’s contender in the Emmy awards, category, Monty Python Almost the Truth: The Lawyer’s Cut. It’s a 90-minute cut down version of IFC’s six hour documentary series celebrating the 40^th anniversary of the comedy troupe that stands on its own.

After the screening LA Times movie critic and Oscarologist (this Hollywood term makes me laugh derisively) Peter Hammond led a panel discussion.

Present: Pythons Eric Idle and Terry Jones, and two of the series’ three directors: Bill Jones (yes, son of Terry) and Ben Timlett.

Missing: Pythons John Cleese, Graham Chapman (deceased in 1989), Michael Palin, and Terry Gilliam.

L to R: Pete Hammond, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, Bill Jones, & Ben Tillet

Photo by Craig T. Miller

Fathers’ and sons’ expectations

Bill Jones prevailed upon the group, presumably starting with his father, to sit through in-depth interviews that lasted up to three hours. So this will be THE definitive series on the group. It peers into the Pythons’ childhoods and how their fathers influenced them.

Jones fils, who edited the series, when asked about he dealt with the volume of footage, commented, “You work your way through. You select stories.”

Part 2: My observations about the panel and the Pythons’ take on comedy and the possibility of a Python reunion.

admin History/research, Humor, Television

Interestingly, DSLR has been a career changer for a few people. Here a Hollywood cinematographer steers his career to commercials and talks about how he shot on DSLR in this demo meeting.

http://www.digitalcinemasociety.org/Popup.php?video=DSLR_Cascio4.mov

Video pioneer and Pulitzer prize winning still photographer Vincent Laforet claims to have made the first DSLR video in 2008 when Canon gave him a camera to test -- no strings attached. Since he had been preparing to make moving pictures for years, he was determined to succeed. He shot with mostly natural light at night in Brooklyn. Looks like a music video cum camera test to me:

Laforet has now made his first movie for which he used a Canon DSLR. Here’s the trailer: http://www.laforetvisuals.com/#pi=10&p=-1&a=-1&at=0

Laforet brings a voice of sanity to the case for DSLR case so I am going to leave the last word to him. In this interview shot at NAB, he talks about DSLR and shooting documentaries. But then he talks about how filmmaking skills are paramount. Here’s to keeping tools and technologies in perspective!

I look forward to hearing your experiences with DSLR in editing.

admin Editing practices, Technical and process

Hollywood is trying out DSLR for segments of movies. The season finale of House was shot entirely on DSLR.

Although Canon, Panasonic, and other manufacturers are furiously working on improving the technology, still (pun intended), DSLR is in its infancy.

DSLR drawbacks

• Image quality great but tech details not all worked out.
• Double system so separate A & V files. Sync on DES (digital editing system). Make sure DES recognizes files.
• Can only shoot for 10 minutes due to overheating and load limitations.
• Long time to transfer to DES
• No timecode .
• No HDSI
• Shallow depth of field – need separate focus puller to rack focus or zoom unless you use special lenses do that.

Here’s a tutorial for Adobe Premiere Pro CS5 about editing with DSLR. Again, I am not advocating one DES over another – all are tools to do the job and get you work as an editor – but this Adobe tutorial gives a view into the post process.

admin Editing practices, Technical and process