Editors Guild Booth
Busy at ShowBiz Expo

Editors Randy Morgan and Joanne D'Antonio (in new white-on-black Guild t-shirt) talk to a visitor.

The Editors Guild rented booth space at ShowBiz Expo for the first time this year. Situated at a strategic corner, it was continuously busy with a steady stream of producers, post-production personnel, members and potential members. Our website was available for exploring on a computer, samples of work edited by our members ran on a monitor (including an ACE tape of differently-edited versions of the same footage), and desks and top-of-the-line work chairs from Jules Seltzer & Associates could be tried out.Our rates card and a special 4-page issue of the Newsletter were handed out and the Membership Directory and Guild t-shirt were for sale. Thanks go to Board members Mary Prange, who initiated the idea but was in the hospital during the show, Patrick Gregston,

Displayed at our booth: Top 10 Reasons To Hire Guild Editing Staff (with tongue firmly in cheek) 1. They've been there, done that. 2. The catering is better. 3. Pay it now or pay it later. 4. You feel less guilty when you overwork people with healthcare. 5. Your cutting room won't be subsidizing education. 6. You won't have to hide under a rock to do your project. 7. At least you'll get a better argument! 8. You won't feel like you're driving a Yugo. 9. The assistant editor won't bail. 10. Your tires will last longer.

Joanne D'Antonio and Maggie Ostroff for organizing and running the booth, and to Chris Cooke, Victoria Jensen, Tina Hirsch, Lisa Churgin, Jay Scherberth, David Dworetzky, Erik Andersen, Julie Janata, Randy Morgan, Sharon Smith Holley, Duncan Burns, Neil Mandelberg, Janet Weinberg, Lorraine Salk, Karen Greene, Marty Nicholson, Peter Lonsdale, Alan Bell, Norman Hollyn, Jan Northrop, Doug Ibold, Halima Gilliam, Barbara Boguski, Avram Gold, John Conte and Jan Ambler for helping staff it.

Also at ShowBiz Expo was an amazing array of exhibitors, from Motel 6 to the Screen Actors Guild, from the Wine of the Month Club to Samuel French Bookshops, from Avid to Zonal Ltd. And New York IA locals had a booth, with brochures for local 771, the NY editors. Perhaps the most innovative exhibitor was Play Inc. with Trinity.Drawing a crowd near the Guild's booth, Trinity digitally integrated live people into a virtual set including their reflections in a shiny teapot and bowl. That should make set builders nervous (though it's just "vaporware" at present).

Lightworks Hosts Seminars

Lightworks hosted several well-attended workshops at their booth at the show. Guild member Allan Holzman, who won an Emmy for 'Survivors of the Holocaust,' talked about creating dramatic tension in documentaries. Don Zimmerman and his assistant, Scott Hill, (above) talked about using the Heavyworks to edit features. Jim Carrey's unpredictable ad libbing was easily handled on 'Liar, Liar' with four versions of a scene running simultaneously on the Heavyworks. Eddy Murphy spent seven hours prepping makeup on 'The Nutty Professor' which necessitated multi-camera shooting which the Heavyworks is made for. The future direction of film may be editing within frames as well as conventional editing, as Don did with the multiple Eddie Murphy characters assembled in the dinner table scene, for instance. Proving once again that the craft of editing is being made more complex with the new technology, not simpler or faster.