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Eastern Region |
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With a Presentation from Avid Technology |
by Damian Begley and Martin Levenstein
On June 6, the second-quarter General Membership meeting of the Guild’s Eastern Region was held in New York. The meeting was chaired by 2nd Vice President, Martin Levenstein and featured Tom Ohanian and Michael Phillips from Avid Technology. Tom, a member of the Guild, is Director of Product Design. Michael is a Senior Product Designer.
The meeting began with a report from Assistant Executive Director Lorraine Seidel. She discussed the Independent Feature Contract, an agreement which is offered to Producers who are not members of the AMPTP. She also reported on the Documentary Caucus held earlier this year (see the May/June issue of the Guild Magazine). Finally, she covered upcoming Eastern Region events and screenings as well as her wish to create a Commercial Editors Panel Discussion.
Guild Pension and Welfare Fund Trustee Louis Bertini informed the members of an increase of $5/month in the Pension Fund benefit, bringing the benefit to $65/month, for each year a participant is vested in the plan. Business Representative Norman Gay presented a report, as well, covering the work situation in the Eastern Region and announced that several production companies have recently signed contracts with the Guild.
At the conclusion of discussion following these reports, Board Member Laura Congleton introduced the Avid representatives. When the Eastern Region first invited Tom to make a presentation to our members, we asked him to talk about "The Future of the Media Composer". We had several concerns: Tektronix had recently closed its Lightworks division, leaving Avid with a virtual monopoly on high-end editing systems. Then, persistent rumors last year indicated that Avid was abandoning the Mac platform. The general feeling in our industry was that Avid had been devoting fewer and fewer resources to the film cutting room (where they had gotten their start and a lot of free advice and beta testing) and more and more attention to other markets. We wanted to get the word from the company itself.
Tom accepted our offer, but countered that he wished to give "An Update from NAB". He began the presentation armed with handouts and graphics projected on a wall screen. He indicated that the company’s strategy for the coming year is three-fold: connect with customers, connect their products, and connect customers with each other. The handouts outlined differences between recent versions of the Media Composer and Symphony. He then openly and honestly addressed the issue of customer dissatisfaction, indicating that the company was now making a strong effort to please its customers by staying with the Mac and adding support staff. They were, however, going full speed ahead with Windows NT development.
The second part of Avid’s plan, Tom said, is called ‘Copy Once, Publish Everywhere’. The idea is to enable customers to edit material and then output it in any format desired. Michael then covered the third leg of Avid’s strategy: connecting customers with each other. This embraces file sharing, streaming, and Internet sharing and review. He also covered new Media Composer features. Version 10 is designed to offer feature parity between Mac and Windows NT versions. It includes a ‘universal offline’ option, allowing editors to cut 24P/25P materials and output 24 fps EDLs, and also includes a ‘shared area’, allowing more than one person to work on the same system.
Attendance at the meeting was high, approximately 50 people, and a lively Q & A ensued. A key issue for members regarded the upgrading and support of older Avid systems. We were told that Avid will do everything possible to not let their longtime customers down, but few specifics were offered.
The Avid seminar was interesting, though perhaps more of a pep rally for Avid products than a sharing of ideas. It sometimes felt scripted and seemed to be geared more for an NAB audience than specifically for the Editors Guild. Avid appears to have a public relations goal of restoring alliances in the professional post-production community.
Thanks to Tom and Michael for making the trip from Boston and for providing attendees with a great deal of valuable information. Thanks also to Lorraine Seidel and Norman Gay for putting together the seminar, and a special thanks to Board Member Laura Congleton for coordinating the event. The seminar was videotaped for the Guild’s library. If you would like to see a copy, call the New York office.
Damian Begley is an editor and an
Eastern Region Alternate on the Guild Board of Directors.
He recently edited a feature-length black-and-white silent movie, 'The Rouge Shoes'.
He can be reached via email
Reprinted from
The Motion Picture Editors Guild Magazine
Vol. 21, No. 4 - July/August 2000
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