Life After
Editing:
All Roads Lead to Peanut Butter
by Tony Schmitz
Most editors will tell you they love their work. Being at the center of the creative process in what is arguably the world's most popular art form compensates for the long hours and the pressure. While some editors eagerly anticipate the relief of retirement, others wonder what they would do without the creativity of the cutting room and would happily give their last heartbeat to the business they love.
 |
|
|
|
|
So is there life after editing? Just ask Herb Dow, A.C.E., editor, entrepreneur and "Godfather of Nonlinear."
Herb got his introduction to the business as an apprentice in film shipping at Desilu in 1963. He learned the craft of editing as an assistant to Bob Swanson (his father-in-law) and Bob Kern, among others, and took his first job as an editor on "Lucan" in 1977. "I remember when editing was all hardware," Herb recalls. "We had metal reels, plastic cores and a hunk of machinery whose only weakness was that a light bulb could burn out."
The days of the beloved Moviola were numbered, however, and Herb was one of those responsible. In 1983 he edited a season of "Still the Beaver" on one of the first electronic nonlinear systems, the Ediflex. Later, as a vice president of Ediflex Systems, he became a standard-bearer for the nonlinear revolution. Anyone who asked, and even some who didn't, got free training on the Ediflex. By 1988, according to Herb, 80% of the TV editors in Hollywood were stabbing at a computer screen with a light pen.
Then the second wave of the revolution hit. Digital. Ediflex's entry into the digital nonlinear arena never took off, though, and the company would have the life span of a quick cut in the history of editing. Herb moved on to some other endeavors, including the development of Encore Nonlinear, but he began to realize that his future was no longer in hardware. Instead, it was software. Peanut butter, that is.
A life-long passion for peanut butter blossomed into an idea. Where could peanut butter fans find a good peanut butter sandwich other than their own kitchens? Nowhere. A little research showed that peanut butter was a $1 billion a year industry. Why not bring peanut butter fanatics into the open by serving delectable peanut butter concoctions out of kiosks and storefronts in strategic markets? The company would be called "Peanut Butter And..."
The concept gestated until Herb met Sorrells Pickard. An apprentice editor to Bob Bring walked into Herb's Ediflex office one afternoon, saw a jar of peanut butter with a custom label on his desk - one of Herb's early recipes - and said, "You have to meet my friend, Sorrells Pickard."
Country western singer, songwriter and occasional actor, Sorrells grew up on the family peanut farm in Lovedale, Florida. He too loved peanut butter, and had even built his own roaster to recapture the original flavor of the fresh roasted peanut butter his grandma used to make. Herb had found the perfect spokesman for his venture, and a new name: The Sorrells Pickard PeanutButter Company.
Armed with a business plan, Herb began searching for capital to finance his dream. Where better to look than the multitude of friends he had accumulated in the post-production community? With the same enthusiasm that made Ediflex a dominant force in nonlinear editing, Herb cajoled, badgered and wheedled enough money to produce the first 5,000 jars of Sorrells Pickard PeanutButter on August 5, 1998. He then opened a web site to begin selling his unique recipe.
The idea was spreading. Another entrepreneur, Brian Corlett, who had successfully turned his Pounds Off nutrition bar into a multimillion dollar company, saw the potential for Sorrells Pickard PeanutButter to sell direct to supermarkets. He joined Herb's venture, and, almost a year to the day after the first jars were produced, another 80,000 jars of Sorrells Pickard Gourmet PeanutButter were turned out for a test-market run in Denver, Colorado, scheduled for the end of September. And this fall Sorrells Pickard Gourmet PeanutButter will become a regular monthly feature on QVC (Home Shopping Channel).
After all his years in post production, Herb recently found himself above the line, sitting on the set of the first commercial for Sorrells Pickard Gourmet PeanutButter. Always the editor at heart, he would have loved to cut the spot, but left it in the skilled hands of Lee Cowan, an editor at Lost Planet.
The only cutting Herb anticipates in the future is slicing fresh fruits and vegetables for dipping in his gourmet peanut butter. "Sorrells Pickard PeanutButter Company will owe its success to the Hollywood post-production all the editors, assistants and heads of post that helped finance our start-up" said Herb. "My greatest reward will be seeing all my friends prosper who have supported my dream of 'Spreading PeanutButter All Over the World.'"
Herb invites you to learn more about Sorrells Pickard
Gourmet PeanutButter at his web site
Reprinted from
The Motion Picture Editors Guild Newsletter
Vol. 20, No. 6 - Sep/Oct 1999
Guild Home | Newsletter Home | Top of Page
Copyright © 1999, All Rights Reserved by The Motion Picture Editors Guild, IATSE Local 700