The Guild Shines at CSUN
by Keith Lissak
On Saturday, January 23, members of Local 700 participated in a seminar at California State University, Northridge titled "Finishing Touches: Careers in Post Production." The panel discussion was part of the Entertainment Career Marketplace, a day-long event produced by the Entertainment Industry Institute at CSUN.
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Featured (from left): Keith Lissak, Alan Heim, Burt Weinstein, Lloyd Miller and Celia Hamel. |
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Moderated by Keith Lissak, the Guild's director of communications, the panel included film editor and board member Alan Heim, A.C.E.; supervising sound editor and Local 700 member Burt Weinstein, M.P.S.E., of Larson Sound Center in Burbank; Lloyd Martin, vice president of sales at signatory company Todd-AO Video Services in Hollywood; and independent post-production supervisor Celia Hamel. According to Lani Daniels, director of the Entertainment Industry Institute, the "Careers in Post Production" panel was the most popular draw in a conference schedule that also included discussions on animation and visual effects, entertainment financing, entrepreneurs, marketing and themed entertainment attractions. Over 110 students and members of the community attended the post-production panel.
The goal of the seminar was to introduce attendees to the many opportunities available in post production, from lab work to film editing to sound editing to video finishing. The attendees listened attentively as the panelists talked about their jobs and relayed stories of how they became successful in a competitive business. By all accounts, it was an inspiring morning for all those involved. Here are some highlights of the discussion:
Alan Heim: "Basically, what I do is interpose myself between the director's vision of what they think they shot and what they really shot. It's a political job.
"I've been doing this a very long time
and I've developed quite a few survival skills, which you
will all need to stay in the business...If somebody wants to
become an editor through the traditional channels, which is
learning as an assistant, I would recommend learning both
film and digital. There is a need for good people out
there."
Burt Weinstein: "You spend your life, once you become a sound editor, listening to the world around you. Suddenly you realize that there's more character to a particular sound than, say, just a car passing by. You'll start noticing what kind of car it is, whether it's a six-cylinder engine or a four-cylinder.
"Sound is kind of the afterthought of
the industry. Remember that movies started as silent films.
When movie sound was invented, the studios begrudgingly
moved into it, and only because they realized that the
audiences would accept it. Now sound has become much more
important. I think that George Lucas started the revolution
with Star Wars. He made people very aware of the sound of
that movie."
Lloyd
Martin: "Throughout my
career I did what I needed to get ahead in this industry,
something you'll all have to do. First of all, you've got to
volunteer to do things for free, with a lot of enthusiasm.
Second of all, you have to show that you really want to
learn. I spent 22 years in film laboratories, and I used to
think that if I learned every possible technical thing about
film that it would make me a real hero and I'd make a lot of
money. But that was wrong, because you can go out and hire
people who know a lot and will work at a lower price. That's
when I realized this business is all about
relationships."
Celia
Hamel: "There are people who
understand film really well, and there are people who
understand digital really well, but there aren't a whole lot
of people who understand both. You don't have to know
everything about film, but knowing as much as you can about
the process and what has to happen before you go into the
digital editing machine, and then when you come out, is very
important."
Alan
Heim: "The dailies, which you
have seen the night before, are digitized and loaded into my
machine by the assistant. Usually, I'll have an assistant
and an apprentice. In the morning I will start cutting the
previous day's material. I'll look at the dailies when they
are ready and make notes. At some point in the day when the
director is free, I'll sit down with him and go over his
notes. One hopes that the director's notes and my notes
coincide at many points. If not, one of us is doing the
wrong movie."
Celia
Hamel: "The one thing the
assistant has to do is keep the editor working at all costs.
If that means sleeping in the cutting room at night to make
sure all the dailies are clean and the system's running
properly, then that's what you have to do. If you're lucky,
on a bigger show there will be two systems: one for the
editor and a secondary one for the assistant."
Lloyd
Martin: (on the role of the
negative cutter) "It's a very
important job in our industry because these people are
excellent at not scratching film. As good as they are, the
film is usually scratched very badly by the time the
negative cutter is done assembling a picture. Luckily,
there's a process in the film laboratory called wet-gate
printing, and it masks those minor scratches that even the
best negative cutter causes."
Burt
Weinstein: "After I spot the
show with the editor, director and the producers, I go
through it on a computer and cue for the actors all of the
lines that need to be replaced or added, including those for
the loop-group actors. I'll also cue for my editors every
sound effect in the movie, including door opens and closes,
drawers, windows; anything that you see, if it moves we'll
put a sound to it. We have the option of not playing that
sound later, but my job is to make sure that everything is
there."
Celia Hamel: "With the acceptance of high-definition video, the studios are asking assistants in television cutting rooms to prepare for a film finish. That means the assistant still has to pull cut lists and make sure they're correct, because this information will be stored with the film. The studio will later use it when it's time to do a transfer to high-definition. So the worlds of film and television are becoming merged, and no one knows how it's going to play out."
Reprinted from
The Motion Picture Editors Guild Newsletter
Vol. 20, No. 1 - Jan/Feb 1999
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