ASE Newsletter 1999-05 Issue 32

[Matthew]

This is an archival posting of the ASE Newsletter 32, May 1999

editor Paul Healy

[Matthew]

ASE TRAINING
WORKSHOPS:
MAKING MEMBERS SMILE

Basic AVID - One day hands on training course
Saturday 17th April 10:00 - 18:00 - Gunpowder

[Matthew]

Saturday 17th April 10:00 - 18:00 - Gunpowder
Basic AVID
One day hands on training course
Mac literacy, file management, tips and techniques

We started the “Basic AVID Media Composer” training day by being greeted by Peter Bradstock and Roger Grant in the reception of Gunpowder in Crows Nest.

We introduced ourselves to our trainers Jacomiene Betlem (Jackie) and Leigh Elmes and to each other Mark Graham, Petros Manalopoulos,
Peter Somerville, Stephane Zerbib and myself Andrew Bambach. After commenting on the distinct lack of female participants on this day, we split up into two groups and settled into our edit suites.
I ended up in the off-line suite downstairs with Jackie. I was with a guy who worked with the ABC( in accounts) and wanted to become an editor and a guy who trained others on Media 100 and who owned a FAST non-linear edit system. I come from a linear editing background and I own an AVID MCXpress on NT.

The first thing we covered was basic Mac literacy; i.e. keyboard top right button to start, desktop settings, file management, disks etc.

Shortly after starting Peter delivered for the first of many times
throughout the day, some nice strong coffee and some cakes.
Great service!

We then went through the procedure of starting up media composer, setting up new projects and changing the user settings to suit
yourself. We then set up bins and the digitise video tools settings
and logged some rushes from “Deadheart” off Betacam SP, which we then batch digitised. Jackie then demonstrated the interface layout, how to assign shortcuts to keys, keyboard shortcuts, the effects pallet, title tool, transitions, insert edits, overlays, adding tracks, trimming, synching etc.

Lunch was then served by our Gunpowder host, Peter (it was prepared by his wife - a caterer). The first course was a meat stew with potato followed with a date pudding and ice-cream in a caramel
sauce and washed down with a coke. We sat around and talked about kine transfers, video verus film and the millennium bug.

After lunch Peter delivered coffee to our suites and we all took turns booting up from scratch and editing a sequence, adding transition effects and basically working with the keyboard shortcuts.

We were working on a Media Composer version 5.5, so the more sophisticated features available on the latest PCI based models. Bearing that in mind my main impressions of an off-line media composer on a Mac compared to working on MCXpress on NT are these:
1) MC is the industry standard as is the Mac.
2) MC has the ability to add multiple (24) video and audio tracks and MCX only has 2 video and four audio tracks.
3) High end MC can edit at 24fps (but then again so can the high end Xpress NT)
4) MC does not have easy adjustment of the input level of audio (unless you use an external audio mixer).
5) MC (ver 5.5) does not rubberband the audio, but version 6.x plus do.
6) MC (ver 5.5) does not play out more than 2 audio tracks because of the audio card used. PCI versions of the MC play out 4 or more tracks.
7) MC makes it difficult to identify and move around media from one drive or partition
to another. It does not have a Media Library as in MCX which means the media can be identified by the same file name you have given the clip.

I should point out that the editing I do on MCXpress NT is usually both off-line and on-line at the same time, so comparing against an off-line composer is a bit unfair.
At the end of a very informative day we were presented with a folder of Media Composer technical notes, including Apple System Error Codes, Keyboard Shortcuts, backing up to floppy, retrieving bins from the attic, database reconstructing on launch of Media Composer, rebuilding the desktop file, deleting unused precomputes to free up space and what’s in the attic all courtesy of Gunpowder’s Peter Bradstock.

One final note on courses run by ASE is how to pay for them. Courses are generously provided by editors and post houses such as Gunpowder and Island Films, with the ASE providing catering. These courses are presently free, however a donation box was placed during our course. I think that a nominal up front fee would be a better way of recouping some money, whether it is $50 or $100, participants would be aware of the cost before hand. The ASE would be interested in your comments.

Andrew Bambach
In Your Face Productions
Sydney

[Matthew]

Due to popular demand, there was another course arranged for the following week and another four members were able to learn about the operational basics of the AVID. Maria Kaltenthaler and Paula Lourie training with Maria Barbagallo and Mark Chapman and Darmyn Calderon training with Roger Grant

[Matthew]

petros manolopoulos, stephane zerbib, andrew bambach, jaciomene betlem (trainer)

[Matthew]

Presletter May

Thanks
You will have read in last month’s newsletter, that Sophie Meyrick and Michael Church have both resigned from the Melbourne Committee. I personally want to thank them both for their enormous contribution to the ASE. I want to especially thank Sophie, who took over the helm last year when Roberta Horslie had to withdraw because of illness. Sophie has done a colossal amount of work for the ASE especially in organising THE FIRST ASSEMBLY: A POST PRODUCTION FORUM in Melbourne last year. She has also offered invaluable advice and support to me, which I will really miss.

However, although Sophie says her ’days as a drab committee member are over’ she has not disappeared entirely. She and Michael continue to represent the ASE on an inter guild committee that came out of last year’s Forum. Once it is underway she will report back to the ASE via the newsletter. She sounds extremely excited and so we look forward to hearing from her in the future. Thanks Sophie.

Fade to Black update
Talking about conferences, after months of frustrating timetable negotiations, the AGSC (Australian Guild of Screen Composers) has succeeded in organising a get together of reps from guilds and associations involved in the 1995 FADE TO BLACK Conference for an ’Information Exchange’. I will be attending along with past President Henry Dangar and Administrator Helen Martin. Hopefully the gathering will address how far we’ve come in four years, what recommendations were realised and what issues are in need of attention. We intend to raise issues such as Editor consultation, Scheduling, Contracts, Wages, Assistant positions, Training and the possibility of an Academy. I will report on that meeting next month.

This month’s reminder to all is that Superannuation is every worker’s right. 7% of your gross wage must be paid into an approved fund and is in ADDITION to your gross wage.

Til next time.

Denise Haslem

[Matthew]

AFTRS Melbourne is running a Composing and Sound Design for Documentary over the weekend of June 19-20. Composer Martin Friedel and Sound Designer/Editor Craig Carter will be taking the course having collaborated on the ABC Natural History documentaries Wolves of the Sea, Mysteries of the Ocean Wanderer and Dragons of Galapagos as well as worked on numerous other documentaries and dramas seperately. The cost is $175 and the closing date for applications is 31st of May. If you read this after the closing date it may still be worth give AFTRS a ring. For more information please ask for Russell Porter or Alan Woodruff on (03)9690 xxxx

[Matthew]

This article is reproduced from the MPSE web site/Editors’ Net
http://www.editorsguild.com

Digital Video: The New Aesthetic
By Elif Cercel
Monday April 26, 1999,


Fledgling filmmakers packed into a comedy club on Sunset Blvd. on a Sunday afternoon last week for a panel on digital filmmaking -- many of them already sold on the notion. Digital Video (DV), after all, promises dramatically low production costs and greater creative control, and trend-setting films like "The Celebration" and Oscar-nominee "The Farm" have helped to spread the word fast in the independent film community.
But the session, part of the Los Angeles Independent Film Festival that ran from April 15 through April 20, offered a sobering look at issues arising from the treatment of video and audio as digital data. They ranged from camera choices and desktop editing to crewing and transfer to film.
The event's message was, there's more to DV than 'grab-your-camcorder-and-go.'
On the panel were Michael Backes, co-founder of the interactive software company, Oxonian and the AFI Digital Media Studies program; Patrick Lindenmaier from Swiss Effects, a high-tech video-to-film transfer facility; Bennett Miller, director of the DV documentary, "The Cruise;"
Peter Broderick, president of Next Wave Films, a company that provides finishing funds to low-budget projects; and Sharon Sklr, head of Blow Up Pictures, a production facility specializing in DV projects. Jonathan Wells, editor of RES Magazine for digital filmmaking, was on hand to moderate.
"It's very exciting, the way power has shifted from the financiers to the filmmakers," said Broderick who believes that DV is challenging the old model of writing a script in isolation and finding a third party to finance the project. In his view, low-cost technology has given filmmakers
more creative control by allowing them to assess their resources and
choose equipment, crews and labs.
"We are seeing good features being done for a couple of thousand dollars,"
Broderick added. Next Wave, backed by the Independent Film Channel, recently funded "The Last Broadcast" a feature shot digitally and edited on a desktop system for a budget of $900. Broderick offered the DV
Filmmaker's Handbook, as well as the British publication, Sight & Sound as a useful resources for would-be filmmakers
Features like "The Last Broadcast" and Thomas Vinterberg's "The Celebration," according to Wells, are examples of work that is creating "a new aesthetic" through the use of DV.
"It would be a shame if all we did was make films in the style we've been doing in the past 100 years," said Wells, who has led discussions at Sundance and AFI and launched ResFest, an annual forum specifically intended for DV projects.
Non-narrative features have also been at the forefront of the DV trend and a spate of documentaries were mentioned by the panelists, including "The
Farm" and an upcoming animated documentary, "The Roadhead."
One the few to win theatrical distribution is Miller's documentary, "The Cruise" which was acquired by Artisan after it premiered at last year's LAIFF. The film went on to win an award at the 1999 Berlin Film Festival.
Miller discussed the freedom, inconspicuousness and intimacy with the subject that he gained from shooting his film solo with a hand-held Sony DCR-VX1000 camera (also known as a mini-DV). The VX1000 is a popular
choice which offers high image quality with 500 lines of resolution. From his perspective, he said, "It really helps not to be a spectacle." He is currently developing a television special with Ira Glass, the producer of the popular public radio program, "This American Life." "The Cruise" was transferred to Beta SP and edited online onto digital Beta and color-corrected in the same format.
Lindenmaier, whose company is working on the upcoming documentary "Saltman of Tibet," warned, "It's a mistake to think you can do everything from
camera work to editing, alone. You can get overloaded with technical problems." He recommended that filmmakers give careful consideration to the choice between the PAL or NTSC standard, and should set aside time for tasks like checking tapes for dropout -- a common problem in the digital medium, he stressed. "Saltman of Tibet" was shot on the DV1000, which offers the standard 1394 interface (Firewire link).
European facilities like Swiss Effects, which currently transfers up to four films a month to film, are at the center of the DV trend in part because of the appeal of PAL, the 25 frames per second standard which is closer to 35mm film than its 24 frames per second, U.S. counterpart. (When transferred to film, video captured in PAL results in a 4% reduction in speed).

[Matthew]

Letters to the editor:

Nikki,

Firstly let me say I'm sorry that you took offence to my story about the AFC seemingly promoting a preference for cutting on sprockets. Let's both take heart that many have been only grateful for "the most entertaining newsletter" for ages!
I'm a little perturbed that you think that I'm uninformed when you know I spend every day, as I have for the last twenty years, talking to editors and producers about post production.
I can assure you I have no personal agenda on this issue. Please note I made it clear that the AFC suggested I present my views to the ASE. I have no sour grapes about either Bored Olives nor A Wreck A Tangle not coming to our facility. I had many discussions with Nick Myers about his preferred choice for "Bored Olives". I respect his decision to cut on film and he knows I do. Likewise I talked to Shawn. I know he prefers Avid to Lightworks and until only recently Lightworks was all we offered.
My story was about an issue which affects editors, and that's why I wrote it for the ASE. ( I admit I also promised Paul Healy I would put my pen where my mouth was).
I have a concern that precedents are being set about post methodology with dubious rationale. I realise I'm treading on thin ice, and I have tried to choose my words carefully...but frankly ...what's happening worries me. In the past few weeks more has come to hand that reinforces where I'm coming from. For reasons unknown to me it feels like cutting non linear has aquired a bad reputation with the AFC and with respect I think any kind of blanket approach on post is crazy.
Like you (and all of us), the bottom line is to make the best movie we can with what's available. Of course the choice was yours. My concern was that it stays that way for everyone.

Mark Atkin

[Matthew]

Letters to the Editor

Mark,
Thank you for your balanced and sharp response. At least you have been hearing the same kind of things as I have.
I agree entirely with your feelings about screening cuts on film. I can say though that over the past couple of years, most features we have done have appeared to get by quite well with two or three film screenings (35mm). I guess the fact remains...for whatever reason, most people are now cutting features non linear.
I must point out that I did not actually say I would never cut on sprockets again. (although I admit it is extremely unlikely). What I did say was, that Tim Wellburn has a splicer that is engraved "never again". Thinking about this, I wonder if it was because it was one of those American ones which are quite dangerous.....
Anyway.... regarding my rash statement that no experienced editor would go back to sprockets......it should have read "numerous more experienced editors ..."
. My apologies to all experienced editors who still cut on film.
My statement about the stone age was meant to refer to the equipment...not the method. This was also my error. Please excuse!
(Makes me wonder if I ever want to write to the ASE again without running it by the solicitor!).

With respect

Simon Dibbs