Focusing on the Future by Steve Cohen In this issue we continue our coverage of 24P video and also describe the first use of the Internet to deliver a motion picture directly to a theater for digital projection. These two technologies have the potential to change some of the foundations of our business and will surely affect the ways that we work. When shows shoot on video they tend to do so with less discipline because video is so cheap. The result is more ‘film’ in the cutting room, which will make keeping up with camera more challenging for picture editors. At the same time, digital finishing removes one of the last remaining limits that film technology imposed: cutting negative. For some features, the result will be picture changes that continue almost to the day of release or perhaps even during a film’s release. All of this means that our jobs are going to get more stressful and the technical expertise we’ll need to do our work will grow. Stress is becoming a theme in technical occupations throughout the country. As we were going to press, the Verizon strike had become one of the largest and most contentious among technical workers ever. One of the key issues was job stress. Another was the unions’ ability to organize the company’s many non-union workers. As we watch other workers struggle to form and keep their unions, we in the Guild should never forget how successful we’ve been in building our organization, nor should we be complacent about what it took to get here. The Guild is doing more organizing than ever before, as witnessed by the list of signatories on the facing page. Meanwhile the HD revolution in the home appears to have temporarily stalled. The networks have been slow to begin HD broadcasts and standards confusion has undercut consumers’ comfort with the technology. Instead, the technology that’s taking off is the hard-disk-based VCR, made by TiVo and Replay. Essentially tiny non-linear editors marketed to consumers, they permit you to record and pause a live broadcast and, most dangerous to advertisers, jump quickly through commercials. They come with subscription services that allow the provider to watch your viewing habits minute by minute and record shows for you, tailored to your tastes. They are going to change our business in big ways, making conventional ratings systems look increasingly crude and making CG product placement more attractive to advertisers. Digital distribution also lowers barriers for the creative community. With the price of video cameras and post-production gear plummeting it’s becoming easier to produce your own show and distribute it, at low cost, on the net. But it’s harder to see how you can make money doing so, and digital distribution makes piracy a real threat. To deal with these challenges, the economic models that underlie the media business are going to have to change. How those changes will affect us is anybody’s guess. No one yet has a reliable road map. More than ever, we’ve got to work together, follow these trends and focus on the future if we are to continue to succeed.   Steve Cohen is an editor, Guild Board member and editor of the Guild Magazine. He is currently cutting '15 Minutes' for New Line. He can be reached via email   Reprinted from The Motion Picture Editors Guild Magazine Vol. 21, No. 4 - July/August 2000   Guild Home | Magazine Home | Top of Page   Copyright © 2000, All Rights Reserved by The Motion Picture Editors Guild, IATSE Local 700