Free Work, a necessary evil…

Chances are if you work in a creative field, every once in awhile a friend or colleague may ask for your creative services as a freebee. Lots of people in the post industry get angry when asked this and for good reason. It seems like people think creative professionals are some how different from your family dentist. They went to school, earned a degree in their field and practice their skill professionally. Would you ask your dentist friend to come over and clean your teeth?

I actually accept lots of free work and side projects as a post production professional, but I make sure I get something out of it. Maybe I wont get money, but I may use the project to learn new technique, train myself new software programs or just to keep the skills sharp between projects. Picture Editors on the A.C.E. board have said they have even edited feature length documentaries free of charge for friends.

I use every free project offered to me, as it’s own college course. Here is a short list of things I learned cutting free work:

• 4K Red Online/ Offline
• Panasonic P2 Card Workflows
• XD Cam Workflows
• Final Cut Pro Studio
• Apple “Color”
• Avid Script Sync

I strongly suggest students and beginners in the post production field to take on free work. It will immensely help your post production career if used in the right manner. I started editing weddings for free around town and I still use some of that knowledge I learned from that experience in my everyday life editing documentaries, features and broadcast television.

Below is a quick look at the next “freebee” edit I’ll be working on:

Kept (2009), short film

Director/Writer: Travis Legge

DP/ Animator: Tim Stotz

Editor on/off line, Sound Mix: Robert J. Williams, myself

Summary:

Samantha and Derek try to make their way to a government outpost during a zombie outbreak. On an empty stretch of country road, the young couple encounters a man having car troubles.  Stopping to help, they soon discover that zombies are not the only monsters stalking the night.

Production Stills:

My Payoff:

- Working and collaborating with two local creative professionals that I may be able to get work from in the future.

- Practice in the art of cutting for suspense and horror.

- Experimentation with the Sony EX-1 footage workflow

- Practice using Apple Color to create a unique and stylized color grading strategy for a Horror Project

- Best of all, a chance to have my work shown at Cannes as a part of the “Nation Undead” short compilation project.

-IMDB Credit in the editorial field.

A lot of editorial students I come across strongly believe that once they are done with film school they will some how become rich and famous editing. For the ones who believe this, go down to your local grocery store. Then ask a random person who Steven Spielberg is, once they answer ask them who Steven Spielberg’s film editor is.

this blog site now has a new URL: www.theassistanteditor.net

I have been extremely busy lately. Should have a bunch of new links and a new blog post up in the next week.

So, I’m new to this blog thing. How am I doing? What do you like? What don’t you like?

Next topics on deck:

1. Offline/Online Edits, preparing Avid and FCP projects for Online edits.

2. Avid Media Composer 4.0 Review

3. Creation of custom presets in FCP.

For the past couple weeks I have been cutting a trailer for an anticipated feature that will make it’s presents known around 2011 (I have contractually agreed not to say it’s title, sorry guys). It’s been a fantastic job, lots of fun. There is certainly an art form to editing a trailer. This particular trailer happens to be shot in 4K on RED. The DP did an amazing job and using Apple’s Color program only made things better. I actually never have used the Color program, but my friend Bob Sliga (a Colorist chosen to test the app at Apple’s headquarters) showed me around the program on my last PBS documentary project.  And blah…blah..blah..

This blog entry is not a technically minded one, but rather to show a few techniques I developed during the course of the project. Some techniques I will show are my own and some are from other sites. If they are from other sites I will certainly give the reference link and credit to that individual.

For this project I did everything on my own, kind of the new “one man band” deal we see popping up all around the United States. Yes, this means I did both the offline and online edits myself.

Anyways, here are a few tips-

1. A solidly edited trailer reflects the feature.

Just like the feature has three acts, I believe that the trailer should too. The first act of the trailer should be used to introduce the characters and setting. The second act of the trailer should introduce the character’s situation/ problem. The last and final act should build up some sort of climax while still leaving the audience with a thirst for more. This, to me is a strong trailer structure. Before embarking on editing a trailer take the time to read a few short stories as a short story structure is told in a manner similarly to a film trailer. Short story writers also come across many of the same structurally problems as trailer editors.

2. Music first or Music Later??

This question has constantly been posted on Creative Cow’s forum for both editing trailers and personal demo reels. Should an editor lay a music bed before or after he begins cutting picture? Well, I think it clearly depends on how you as an editor work more comfortably. Whatever works best for your. I usually start with music supplied by one of the films producers or a piece of temp music that reflects the mood I am looking to set with this current edit. Then later a composer will come in and replace the temp music with his custom music composition. I generally cut the picture and sound at pretty much the same time. Then double back; check the work and throw is some sound FX.

Great places for sound effects:

Soundsnap.com / itunes (yes itunes), just search royalty free on it.

3. Editing on beat to the music.

If you are a younger editor, still experiencing, still learning new technique like myself. You may have come across this same problem. I came across it first while editing my 2009 reel (should be up shortly). I was cutting the intro, kind of a short sizzle reel intro to my reel and noticed an odd thing. The picture seemed very weird when it was cut exactly on beat to the music. Hmmm… in a feature the picture is never generally cut on beat to the music. So, I did what every editor does every five minutes of everyday – I looked for a solution to my problem on the net. This is also how I came across a beautiful blog site, which was cleverly titled: The Film Editor’s Blog.

If you are unfamiliar with this site, it’s a blog focused on editing technique rather then technology. The writer of the blog is Craig McKay, A.C.E. and he definitely knows his shit. He has a post all about this problem called “Music Trickery”. In the blog he explains that one should cut the picture about three frames before the music beat hits.  I used this technique in both my reel and the trailer I was working on with great result. Problem fixed.

Craig McKay, A.C.E. has an amazing blog site on editing techniques and “tricks of the trade”. You can find it here: http://thefilmeditorsblog.com/

4. Mixing the Audio of a Trailer.

For the audio of a trailer there are no real guidelines or “red book” for the mixing of a trailer. I generally try to mix the dialog between -12 and -10. Then mix the music in after the dialog is done. I always keep my peaks at -6 or under. And if your mix sounds a bit different than a commercial trailer try adding reverb and noise reduction to the dialog sections, then add a compressor and limiter to the master track. Sometimes I will throw in a noise gate if needed. Once I believe I have a strong mix I will burn it to a CD and listen to it through a stereo, then a television to see if any frequencies are dropping out or if any dialog is being buried. I generally will mix on a Pro-tools set-up or on Logic Pro, definitely prefer Pro-tools though.

And there you have it. A couple tips that may or may not help you with the editing of a trailer. I would say 70% of a good trailer is in the sound mix.

As a beginning assistant editor in the television and film industry a lot of my projects happen to be documentary style projects. If you asked every film editor in Hollywood where they started out about 65 percent of them would probably say documentary, another 20 percent would say children’s shows. I can see why some of the best feature film editors started out assistant editing or editing on documentary style shows. It’s hard, the amount of footage the assistant editor has to keep track of can be mind bending at times and the story possibilities are endless. It is great practice for feature work.  Kids don’t knock the Doc.

I felt like writing about this topic because I just finished my stay at PBS and Boyer Productions assisting on a 90min documentary special called “Retirement Revolution: The New Reality”. This project was somewhat of a big deal to me as I am just starting in the industry and I would love to share what I have learned.

Many young people starting out as post production assistants and assistant editors think that for some reason if their first assisting job is not on Spiderman or the next Michael Mann project that they are not on the right path. I also thought this, being somewhat young and stupid myself.  If you are just starting out like I, the chances are you read blogs, listen to podcasts, receive three billion postproduction magazines in the mail and read In the Blink of an Eye once a day. I also contacted many Hollywood film editors and asked them questions. Well, actually asking just one question – “How did you get where you are now?” surprisingly the answer I kept getting was – “Oh, I started out editing children’s shows and documentaries.” Umm what? You cut four out of five of my favorite television shows and you started at the same place I am now? That can’t be right? Can it? Maybe I’m on the right track.

The truth is that Chris Dickens didn’t fly out of the womb and cut Slumdog Millionaire, he worked on sketch comedy shows and BBC documentaries first. It can take close to or even over 20 years to get on major features as picture editor.

But anyways, here are a few things I learned while assistant editing on a 90min PBS documentary.

1. If the editor asks for a coffee, you should probably get him a coffee. Simple right? Nope, I screwed this one up. I actually said “no” when he asked and he didn’t finish all his work that day because he had to walk down the street and get himself a coffee. Yeah, next time I think I’ll just go get him coffee.
2. Do not be afraid to speak your opinion when the Executive Producer asks for your advice at a Producer’s Cut screening. A lot of people like to tell the Executive Producer what he wants to hear and then you have twenty people saying, “Yeah, that’s great.” He, like most people probably asked you because he trusts your opinion and has found you to have a good understanding of the project. I was asked, “What do you think about the ending of this segment?” and my response “Honestly, I think it’s crap. It doesn’t lead into the next segment well and I kind of think it feels like the story was cut slightly short” So, what happened? Well, they decided to do a different take on the ending using some ideas from me, the shy entry-level assistant editor. Guess what? it all worked out and the new ending is now in the final broadcast version. I was also awarded my own 20min. segment to cut for broadcast too. Not bad.
3. Write notes and communicate, don’t be shy. As I said in learning experience two, I am a pretty shy person. In the beginning of the post process there were originally two assistant editors. We had to figure out how to communicate to each other which tasks we finished so we didn’t use up time doing the same work. I would probably put good communication at the top of the requirements for an assistant editor. We left notes on paper in the edit suites, talked by phone and color coded project files to stay in synch to what the other person has been working on. Communication never became a problem.
4. GO FOR IT! Seriously, if you have finished up your work for the night, stay late. Duplicate the last sequence and give it a go. Start cutting a bit of the project and show it to the editors the next day. What’s the worst thing that could happen? An editor deletes it? No big deal. Who knows they may like it. I am an assistant editor that stays after as much as possible and spends as much time in the edit suite as humanly possible. Yes, I usually pull 14-hour shifts, the last four usually with no pay. Just experimenting, laying b-roll for the editors. Once I started staying after hours when everyone else was gone and began duplicating and cutting segments I would show up the next day and see some of my edits in the actual project. Also, the Senior Editor noticed my skill level and promoted me to Associate Editor because of this.
5. Keep in strong contact with every person you worked with on the project.This is very important. As a younger, newer assistant editor it is extremely hard to find work. Please, stay connected to the industry professionals you meet. Once the project is over ask them kindly if they wouldn’t mind giving you a reference. Also ask if they know of any companies who might be hiring or hire assistants on a regular basis. Always inform them if they may be receiving a phone call from a future employer checking references. Most professionals in this industry are very busy and hate being caught off guard.  I usually keep in touch with everyone I have worked with once a month at least. If you live near a big city check for user group meetings. Going to user group meetings is a great way to meet editors and senior editors.

Well, I hope other younger assistant editors and post PAs can learn a thing or two from this post. Everyone makes mistakes, everyone learns from mistakes, everyone knows they will make and learn from mistakes. It’s part of life. I learned from mine and the next picture editor I work with will get some amazingly brewed coffee.

More Stories to Come-

Some great podcasts I enjoy listening to:

1. The Cutting Room

2. The Edit Bay

3. The Post Show

4. The Editor’s Podcast

5. The Rough Cut with AVID

6. Avid DS Tutorials

7. The Ricky Gervais Podcast (you need some comedy in life)

So, a couple of days ago I was hired by my old media school to fix their HDV workflow. I was pretty stoked about this because it gave me a chance to show off what I learned assistant editing in Chicago and because the solution to their problem wasn’t actually on the Internet yet. Suck it Creative Cow, I have dibs…

I am assuming that I am not the only editor in the world that thinks editing HDV is like being sent to your own personal hell. HDV is like kicking an editor in the junk. Well, a male editor anyways. Probably wouldn’t have worked in the early years when they thought editing and sewing were the same task. I’m sure HDV would hurt Anne Bauchens and Margaret Booth similarly though. If you wanna listen to more diatribes on the subject of why HDV is a very substandard format just google “HDV Shane Ross” or “HDV Larry Jordan”. Now let’s get off the subject of testicles and back onto HDV.

Anyways they were having problems down converting HDV to a Standard DV-NTSC format. They prepared a drive for me. I took it back to my studio and took a crack at it. So, here is a tutorial based on my findings. Later on I will post another entry to show how to make “easy setup” presets and “Sequence Setting” presets for both this workflow and the RED FCP workflow. Following this I hope to have a Media Composer 4.0 review up also.

NTSC Project Setup & Compression Guide for HDV FCP Edits

1. Open Final Cut Pro
2. Go to Easy Setup and set it to the settings in the image below

3. Create a new sequence

4. Then go up to the top menu, click on “Sequence” and follow the menu down to “Sequence Settings”

5. Once the Sequence Settings menu appears, set it to the NTSC Format shown below that properly expresses what you want your final offline edit to be.

640 X 480 NTSC

720 X 480 NTSC DV

CCIR 601 NTSC (40:27)

CCIR 601 NTSC (4:3)

6. Once you have your Sequence Settings right, click on the “Video Processing” Tab. Make your video processing settings identical to the image below and then click okay.

7. Your project is now setup to start editing for Broadcast NTSC with HDV. Everything you place in the timeline will need to be rendered. If the clip looks strange in the timeline, click on the clip in the timeline to highlight it, then just go up to the “Modify” menu located above and go down to “Conform to Sequence”.

8. Once your picture is locked and your edit is ready for export, just simply:

- Go up to “File” in the top menu

- Go down to export

- Click on “Quicktime Movie”

- Leave everything as is and click okay.

END

Good HDV Sucks links:

http://www.larryjordan.biz/articles/lj_hdv_learn.html

http://lfhd.blogspot.com/2009/03/imho-why-i-dont-like-hdv.html

http://lfhd.blogspot.com/2009/03/hdv-pixelization.html

http://lfhd.blogspot.com/2009/03/in-hdv-hell.html

Cut in Final Cut Pro with a very tricked out first edition MacBook Pro. I actually offlined it using the low rez proxies and then onlined it back up to full 4k resolution (yes with a five year old MacBook Pro). I’ll post a blog about how to give your old, slow MacBook Pro the power to cut some RED footage.

Avid Media Composer 3.5 RED Workflow

So, it’s been about a year now since my last post. Yeah, that’s right finally getting some assistant editor work here in Chicago. I noticed my last post on the RED workflow for both Avid and FCP is now a bit outdated. A lot happened in just one-year workflow wise, Avid wise, FCP wise, and – well you get the point. So, here I am updating my blog with the new Avid 3.5 Media Composer Red workflow. Yes, there will be a FCP 7 one trailing later.

Let’s get started shall we. With Avid’s newest software release the workflow is getting a bit easier for the Red, sweet… finally!

There are three ways to go about this. You can either use the Avid MetaFuze/ VM Fusion (for OS X), REDCINE, or REDrushes. REDCINE has always been a pretty good program; with it you can save your projects to XML and them convert the file into ALE. Two steps don’t sound too bad right? And your right it’s not, but things can get much easier with REDrushes which has the ability to create the ALE file directly in just one step (this is the way I prefer).  Lastly, we have the Avid MetaFuze/ VM Fusion way. This program can simply convert the R3D files directly to native Avid DNxHD files.

It’s very simple, really. I’m not going to ramble on for five pages like the last post. The links listed below will certainly help you out enough. With Avid’s new site, new software and help forum I’m guessing you’ll be just fine.

REDCINE download link:

http://www.red.com/support

REDrushes download link:

http://www.red.com/support/release_history/3

Avid Red Workflow Page:

http://www.avid.com/red/

Avid Red Guide (great guide):

http://www.avid.com/red/REDstepbystep.pdf

FCP 7 diatribe coming soon.

Later, R-