E-NEWS
EDITION #032
July 2012
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Greetings Editing Colleagues,
Awards, awards, awards!
This has very much been on the mind of your Executive Committee this past month and will continue to be in preparation for the 2012 ASE Awards Call for Entries. Official announcement soon.
This year will have some exciting changes afoot, including new Award Categories, broader eligibility date range and a bigger venue for The Ellies.
The date has been locked, Saturday the 8th December '12.
We've made it a Saturday night for ease of our interstate travellers, as per requests.
So save the date! It promises to be a great night with friends celebrating our passion.
Remember, it really is a matter of "what can you do for your Guild?".
Please let us know what you'd like to contribute or make available to share.
Let's find great comfort in supporting each other.
Regards,
Jason Ballantine ASE
ASE President
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VICTORIAN UPDATE
While we enjoy our cocoas to melt the winter chill I will do the annual shout out to the ASE membership to let us know if your film is screening at the 2012 Melbourne International Film Festival. Send correspondence to[email protected] no later than the 27th of July and we’ll publish a list of ASE edited shorts, animation, documentaries, and features before the Opening Night of MIFF on the 2nd of August.
June’s event onSwerve went off with a bang on the 25th at VCA with Sean Lahiff in good form (see article and photo further down). We currently have five other events cooking but the newsletter deadline has beaten us so I can only tantalise you here. I encourage you to regularly check the website.
The ASE is delighted to reveal we are cooking an event with MIFF so keep an eagle eye out for the email when the programme is released on July 13th as seats are limited. If you are excited by that we are putting into place an event with ACCTA. A panel at the ATOM conference on the 10th or 11th of August. But wait there’s more! A combined social event with as many Guilds that can be mustered. If you enjoyed last years Christmas party you should enjoy this shindig. Add the possibility of a technical event before the end of July and you can only feel warm inside. Personally I feel like the ASE has burst out of a tiered cake wearing a cheesy grin holding sparklers shouting Ta Dah!!!
On that note I’ll leave you hopefully giggling at the ridiculous energy of the committee. Have a creative month what ever you choose to do; where ever you find yourself.
Swerve Has The Curves!
No I'm not referring to Emma Booth's lithe form. From the rocking' six minute opening you know this is going to be a fun thriller with spills and jolts along the way all for an innocuous briefcase chock full of hundred dollar bills.
On the 25th of June Sean Lahiff let us know what it is like to cut his first feature....
CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE...
Cindy Clarkson
ASE Victorian Chair
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SOUTH AUSTRALIAN UPDATE
June was a busy month for the South Australians. We held several packed-out events, ASE member numbers are on the rise and ASE Victoria kidnapped SA's co-chair Sean Lahiff for a Q&A Event on his first feature film edit experience on Swerve.
The ASE in conjunction with PRO AV Solutions were lucky enough to have AVID expert Dan Miall come down to SA to give a short demo of the latest version of AVID Media Composer 6. Dan gave the ins & outs to a room full of FCP editors, he showed off new features and demonstrated workflows with new media – like Canon 5D and GoPro. This provided a good insight to a future pathway option as an alternative to the fading FCP 7 software.
We also held a joint trade night with the Australian Cinematographers Society at the Adelaide Studios screening theatre where Marty Pepper from Kojo talked about his Visual Effects and Colour Grading work on Scott Hicks’ new film The Lucky One, amongst a plethora of other projects from the past year. He covered grading, VFX, and shooting for post.
Thanks and all the best,
Co-Chairs of South Australia,
Sean Lahiff and Carly Turner
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WESTERN AUSTRALIAN UPDATE
ASE recently presented an Advanced Avid Course in Perth run by Certified Avid Trainer Dave Forsyth from The Editor Academy. It was well attended by mostly experienced Avid editors. When we sent out a questionnaire about what should be covered the response was "I don't know what I don't know". I went along with the same attitude. After editing on Avid for fifteen years, I thought I knew all I needed to know but after about five minutes I started taking notes. By the end of the day I had filled six pages. Now I love the ALT key. I guess we all develop our own work methods and for the most part they do us well. But one of the problems of editing is that we mostly work on our own...with directors of course but seldom with other editors. So cross pollination of work practices and techniques is often a rarity. The course offered an opportunity not only of honing skills and learning new techniques and tricks but also of hearing from the other editors in the room. I sat down on Monday morning and immediately started using a couple of new approaches to a workflow I'd been using for years. And some of the techniques have saved me valuable key strokes. One of the most frequent questions asked during the course was "how long has Avid been able to do that?" Dave diplomatically answered, "oh just a short while" but we all knew he meant forever. One day I might even read the manual...
The course was run as part of the national Mentorship scheme and once again we thank Gwen Sputore and Margaret Slarke for organising it. To members in other states who may get the chance to attend a similar course, we highly recommend it. It was presented free to full members of ASE so pass the word around that membership has many benefits. As a follow on to the course, we will soon be organising a session where members will be invited to share their favourite editing tips and tricks. Keep you posted.
Cheers,
Lawrie Silvestrin
WA Sub Committee (Australian Screen Editors)
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MEET THE MEMBER:
Bob Blasdall
Bob Blasdall has been working in film and television for over 5 decades. Crikey you only get 20 years for murder. Bob edited or was edit supervisor on every “Crocodile Hunter” episode and all spin off series including “Bindi the Jungle Girl. He is CEO/chief editor of THEpostWORKS: Queensland’s longest established edit facility. Bob is an inductee into BAD (Brisbane Advertising & Design) Club’s Hall of Fame, and was awarded the ACS Qld’s Frank Hurley award. He is also the inaugural recipient of Qld. New Filmmaker Kinetone Award for services to the Qld. Screen industry. When he’s not mentoring students or editing, directing or producing his favourite genre: wildlife documentaries he is attending his crab pots or tempting fish from their watery domain.
I knew I wanted to work in post when… As a callow youth I stood among a large group of people and watched a new fangled innovation: television on display in a shop window, and later when I worked for United Artists film distributor and marveled at the early James Bond films.
My first break in the industry was… When I left UA and joined Channel 7 Brisbane. As a film handler I spliced film commercials into programs. I was seconded to the News Dept. where I was introduced into the intricacy of film editing and, like the all too few fish I was then catching , I was hooked.
The thing I love most about editing is… Editing wildlife and action adventure, turning what appears to be a mish mash of unassociated images into a comprehensive, finely tuned exciting story.
The best tip I’ve got for aspiring editors is... Persistence and patience! Persist with learning from mentors, persist with gaining experience in any way shape or form. But above all persist in changing frames, persist in trying alternatives to polish a final cut. For in editing a frame has relevance way beyond a 25th, or 24th, or 30thof a second.
If I wasn’t in postproduction I’d be… Probably retired, fishing a river somewhere. Because there’s always a river somewhere!. But, because I love what I do, and because I enjoy trying to help new filmmakers, I doubt that will happen in the near future. Health willing of course.
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MEET THE MEMBER:
James Sutton
James has been in the industry for over 8 years. His first job was working in the taperoom at post house, FSM. It was here that he learnt Avid as the job there entailed many assistant editor responsibilities. He worked on many films that were put through FSM like: Somersault, Suburban Mayhem, Jindabyne, Mask 2 and The Painted Veil to name a few, as well as doco's, TVC's and TV. Whilst at FSM, he started working Saturday mornings at SBS, progressing into the fast paced environment of an international newsroom as a senior news editor. He then hopped onto a few films "Cedar Boys, The Waiting City" and some high end TVC's as part of the camera dept, data wrangling on the then new "RED ONE" camera whilst still at SBS. Then moving onto lead assistant editor and post production supervisor on @radical.media's first 2 longform jobs in Australia in 2009 - 10 "Six Beers of Separation and The Poker Star". After that, he started cutting a good blend of TVC's, shortform, TV, music clips and also branded content. In 2011 - 12, he was the assistant editor to Veronika Jenet A.S.E on feature "Lore" and also to Marcus D'arcy, Ceinwen Berry & Stuart Morley on the film "Drift". James has just finished a web series and is currently working on some commercial jobs and cutting a short film.
I knew I wanted to work in post when…I was about 12 or 13. Me and a few friends used to make films. It was really fun and gave us a reason to write, make things and use petrol. The penny really dropped in 2002 a few episode's into HBO's "Six Feet Under". The show was shown on Channel 9 late Monday nights and they would shift the start time depending on how their days programming had run to time. It was supposed to start at 10:45 PM which it did only a handful of times but the other 90% of the time it started whenever. Mostly close to midnight and sometimes as late as 1:15am. You had to be a diehard fan.
My first break in the industry was…My first job. It was at FSM. 4 years of working on films, TVC's, doco's and TV. I was in the taperoom and had assistant editor duties there too. I loved it and worked hard. It was my film school. I learnt so much and my peers where great, open and knowledgable.
The thing I love most about editing is… Finding a little something and tweaking it just right. a look, a movement, a car going past, whatever. The way an edit can make you and an audience feel. When I work with a director or producer who is open to lot's of idea's that's the best. I also love the people I get to meet, the laughs, the struggle's, the discussions. I'm also a "big" music person and I'm stoked that came in handy later in life.
The best tip I’ve got for aspiring editors is... No job is too small. Throw yourself 100% at everything that comes your way. Bring all your skills and prepare for the ones you don't yet have. Sure, as you progress there will be work you want to naturally gravitate towards but until you have all those choices - always say yes. How you travel through this industry and get to your goals is different for us all.
If I wasn’t in postproduction I’d be… Racing cars. Driving a car on or near it's limit is a lot of fun. I love cars and driving. F1 and WRC. I also love how things work and love engineering (I was a lego baby, boy, teen) whether it's a herman miller chair or a 100 year old warehouse building or in this case - cars. Just the euro brands and also a few japanese ones. They are superbly engineered vehicles. Some of the cars they have been building over the last 15 - 20 years are perfect motor vehicles from a mechanical and driving perspective.
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MEET THE MEMBER:
Charlotte Cuting
With a surname like hers, Charlotte could have opened a hair salon with a very cool name, but instead she felt an irresistible pull towards editing. She is currently taking time out to oversee her latest "production" - her 10 month old son, Arlo but is set to get back into the edit suite in the coming months to work on a doco for the ABC on ABBA in Australia.
I knew I wanted to work in post when… I first sat down in the dark and quiet of the U-matic tape to tape edit suite at uni (probably showing my age), with a complete EDL on paper. I loved the organization, precision and imagination required and still do.
My first break in the industry was... Straight after Uni, I got to edit a 45min doco on the Marshall Islands for UNICEF. I had to cut it on a Media 100 (!) and learn how to use it in the process - so it was a huge learning curve both technically as well as narratively but it was a great challenge and opportunity.
The thing I love most about editing is…The actual physical feeling you get when you have an edit or a sequence right.
The best tip I’ve got for aspiring editors is... There seems to be so many different paths that all ideally lead to the same place - doing interesting work in interesting ways with interesting people, I guess you just have to find a path that works for you.
If I wasn’t in postproduction I’d be… Working in a job with perks like paid holidays, sick days and a fantastic super scheme!
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SPONSORS UPDATE:
NSW Committee member Deb Peart recently caught up with Peter Whitmore ASE, an editor with 30 odd years of experience under his belt, a former prez of the ASE and a partner in The Editors, a long time major supporter of the Guild.
There are a few pretty clear reasons why The Editors are called The Editors. Firstly there’s the building that houses this collective. Based in the Sydney suburb of Newtown its cavernous, and extremely spacious with 9 edit suites, large common areas, a great kitchen and heaps of natural light (not to mention the massive car park!). If only all editing suites could be housed in such an inviting creative space. Secondly and perhaps more importantly there is the underlying ethos that The Editors stand by, “we have one aim, one goal and that is to respect the craft of editing and respect editors. That’s what we try and do,” explains Pete Whitmore ASE, who established the collective with Bernard Garry ASE, David Jaegar and Peter Barton.
The dedication The Editors have to this ideal is shown not only through their long standing support of the guild (focusing solely on the mentorship program and training) but in the extensive commitment they have in house in developing emerging editors. ”Our goals at the moment are trying to get the senior partners to maybe edit a little less and have the young guys like Dan Lee, Jesse Mutascio and Dave Whittaker, (who recently picked up the first Gold pencil at AWARD, the advertising industries premier award night) get more involved. That’s our world now, promoting the younger editors through and that’s happening. That’s my love.”
This push to promote emerging editors also means the development of assistant editors. The Editors are working on getting assistants back into the cutting room by creating streamlined processes in data wrangling and post paths; to allow such invaluable exposure to take place. “The assistants we are looking at have to want to be editors because that’s our goal to put them into that role. And if they are good, it’s a terrific thing for us to be able to step off that chair and talk to clients and let these guys do a lot of the heavy lifting in terms of editing. And they also get to understand whether it works or not”.
“It’s funny, we live in a world of advertising and the last thing we want to do is advertise, it’s not about that for us, it’s all about support. Supporting editing. One major point of difference that we continually work through is that we are an editorial house, we are not a post production house. We do grading and finishing here, particularly if there are budget constraints, but we don’t flag that. Our first goal is about editing.”
It’s a commitment that is certainly yielding success. Considering the current climate in ad world, The Editors have just had their busiest year. Topping it off with the recent Woolworths campaign currently gracing TV screens (see https://vimeo.com/44709102). Edited as a partnership between Dan Lee and Dave Whittaker.
“Sometimes I think this is like a café or a restaurant that does editing on the side! The more you play, the more you have fun with it and make it as good as we can for editors, then you’re making it as good as it can be for your clients as well.”
Can’t argue with that (or the size of that carpark!).
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SPONSOR NEWS:
AUTODESK
Autodesk present ILM, Rising Sun Pictures & Alt.vfx in Blockbuster Tour2012
The Power of a Modernised Pipeline
Melbourne (3 July, Tuesday), Sydney (5 July, Thursday)
The very best in the industry stay ahead of the curve by constantly tuning their pipeline to improve productivity without compromising their creative vision. This year we are bringing you the very best the industry has to offer to share their incredible story of staying ahead of the curve.
Do not miss this rare opportunity to meet top professionals from ILM, Rising Sun Pictures & Alt.vfx as they share their experience working on The Avengers, The Hunger Games, Journey 2: The Mysterious Island, and Tooheys Extra Dry commercial. They will take us behind the scenes, to show how some of those amazing shots were assembled and the creative journey that has brought audiences flocking to the cinemas.
The Visual Effects Challenges for The Avengers
Alex Kim, FX Technical Director, Industrial Light & Magic Singapore (ILM Singapore)
Alex Kim joined ILM Singapore in April 2011 as FX Technical Director in charge of FX and rigid body simulations and particles. In the one year he has been with the team, he has blown stuff up, wreaked destruction and shot at people and things for Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol and The Avengers.
He started his career as Pipeline Developer/Technical Assistant at Rising Sun Pictures in Sydney, Australia. He then moved to MPC in London. Over the next four years, he moved from Crowd R&D Developer to FX R&D Developer and then to FX Technical Director. His credits include two Harry Potter movies (Deathly Hallows Part 1 and Order of the Phoenix),Clash of the Titans,The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian,G.I. Joe: The Rise of the Cobra and Superman Returns.
Adaptive Solutions - Visual Effects at Rising Sun Pictures
Ian Cope, Visual Effects Producer, Rising Sun Pictures, Adelaide
Australia's Rising Sun Pictures (RSP) has been crafting visual effects for feature films since 1995. Visual Effects Producer Ian Cope will take you on a journey through the diverse range of visual effects solutions that RSP has created for their clients to contribute to its filmography of over 90 feature films. This will include a behind the scenes look at how Autodesk Maya was an integral part of the pipeline for films such as The Hunger Games, Journey 2: The Mysterious Island, Green Lantern, Red Tails andHarry Potter & The Deathly Hallows.
Ian has been with Rising Sun Pictures (RSP) since 2001 and has contributed to the design & execution of visual effects on feature films such as Prometheus, Red Tails, the Harry Potter series, Green Lantern, and Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides. He is currently working on Alfonso Cuarón's sci-fi thriller,Gravity.
Fake It Till You Make It
Colin Renshaw, Owner, VFX Supervisor, Alt.vfx, Brisbane
In July 2011, Altvfx exploded onto the scene and immediately established itself as one of Australia's pre-eminent vfx houses.
In 2011/12, they have won metal at every major award show around the world with the hugely popular Tooheys Extra Nocturnal Migration commercial. Alt's VFX supervisor, Colin, will bring you on the creative journey through which beer, some deer and Autodesk helped shape a new facility.
Event details:
Melbourne
Date: 3 July 2012, Tuesday
Time: 1.00pm to 5.30pm
Venue: State Library of Victoria, Village Roadshow Theatrette,
Door 3 Conference Centre, 179 La Trobe Street
Sydney
Date: 5 July 2012, Thursday
Time: 1.00pm to 5.30pm
Venue: Shangri-La Hotel, Heritage Room,176 Cumberland Street, The Rocks
Register here…
http://south-apac.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/pc/item?id=19814278&siteID=1157326
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SPONSOR NEWS:
DIGISTOR
Digital Media Workshops
Get Upskilled
Digistor offers a comprehensive range of full day (6 hour), half day (4 hour) training courses from our Sydney training centre. Courses can also be arranged in Melbourne.
Adhoc and custom courses can also be arranged for company groups or individuals contact Digistor's Training co-ordinator, Lachlan Robbins.
All courses are instructor-led, hands-on training courses.
JULY Workshops
24th: Photoshop CS6
25th: After FX CS6
26th: C4D Level 1 *limited places
27th: C4D Level 2 *limited places
AUGUST Workshops
20th: C4D for Architecture Level 1
21st: C4D for Architecture Level 2
22nd: AVID MC101 Certification course
23rd: AVID MC101 Certification course
24th: AVID MC101 Certification course
For more details, see here…
http://www.digistor.com.au/Training.aspx
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UPCOMING EVENTS:
Autodesk M&E Meet the Expert Webinars:
Animation Tips & Tricks with Autodesk Maya
Join David Zwierzchaczewski, ANZ Media & Entertainment Technical Specialist, for a live webinar and discover the new features in Autodesk Maya 2013 and some great workflow features to help you streamline your animations.
In 60-minutes, he will walk you through some tips and tricks surrounding animation retargeting, layers preferences and other Maya User Interface features you may not have stumbled across. No matter how long you've used Maya, you'll pick up a new trick or two from this webcast. You'll also get a close look at some of the latest workflows in this release and how they can help streamline your animation.
- Display layers, animation layers, viewport 2.0
- Ball and car tire animation with "editable motion trails", ghosting, lattice deformation and traveling along a path constrant
- Animation retargeting with human IK
Event Date:
Friday, 13 July 2012
13:00-14:00 EST
Registration URL: https://www3.gotomeeting.com/register/647854566
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CONTINUATION OF AACTA MEMBERSHIP REDUCTION FOR ASE MEMBERS
In order to expand our services and membership program, we have revised our price structure and as such, we invite members of ASE to become members of AACTA at the rate of $80 (full AACTA membership is $110). This is a saving of over 25%.
For further information, or to join please visit WWW.AACTA.ORG/MEMBERSHIP
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PETITION FOR EDITORS’ RECOGNITION
Dear ACE and MPEG members,
During the past year, the American Cinema Editors Board of Directors has been actively pursuing film festivals and awards presentations, domestic and international, which do not currently recognize the category of Film Editing. The Motion Picture Editors Guild has now joined with ACE in an unprecedented alliance to reach out to editors and industry people around the world.
The organizations listed on the petition already recognize cinematography and/or production design in their annual awards presentations. When you sign this petition, you will help to send the message that EDITORS ARE IMPORTANT TO THE CREATIVE PROCESS AND SHOULD NOT BE OVERLOOKED at annual Film Festivals and Awards Presentations. The signatures collected will aid in persuading the organizations listed to add the category of Film Editing to their Annual Awards Presentations.
PLEASE VISIT:
www.EditorsPetition.com
TO SIGN OUR PETITION
The link will soon be available on the ACE and MPEG websites or directly through EditorsPetition.com. We would like to target as many industry people as we can.
Thank you for your help.
Sincerely,
The Committee for Creative Recognition,
ACE Board of Directors, MPEG Board of Directors
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ON THE WEB
More Reasons to Stand Up For Your Health:
http://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/diet-and-fitness/more-reasons-to-stand-up-for-your-health-20120627-212zt.html
Conan O’Brien’s editors "praise" Final Cut X:
(Many have seen this by now, but it’s still a fine chuckle)…
http://osxdaily.com/2011/06/24/final-cut-pro-x-conan-video/
And for anyone that has missed the fantastic ASE promo:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cdm-V04pyFA&feature=player_embedded
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QUOTE OF THE MONTH
"The shark could only look real on 36 frames, not 38 frames.
And that two frame difference was the difference between something really scary, and something that looks like a great white floating turd.”
-Stephen Spielberg on editing Jaws.
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Until next time…
The ASE Committee