EDITOR'S NOTE
'Tis the Season for Awards Consideration
by Tomm Carroll
 Tomm Carroll |
Greetings, readers. Happy New Year and welcome to our sophomore edition of Editors Guild Magazine.
For 2005 we’ve got a newly re-elected President, which bodes well for our continued stability for another few years. I’m referring of course to our esteemed Guild President, Lisa Churgin. The putative winner of our country’s recent national election is quite another matter entirely (whatever your feelings about George W. Bush––positive or negative–– he is indisputably no friend to organized labor). So, as a union, we’ve certainly got our challenges ahead of us in the next several years as well.
On a more upbeat note, the new year also finds us once again in the midst of “Awards Season,” when MPEG members are recognized for their outstanding work in 2004 by their peers. The nomination process is already underway at the American Cinema Editors (ACE), the Cinema Audio Society (CAS) and the Motion Picture Sound Editors (MPSE) for their respective award ceremonies, as well as the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) for the mother of all award shows, the Oscars.
In this issue, as a prelude to the upcoming kudo-fests, writer Sharon Benoit talks to a selection of last year’s winners of accolades from these organizations about the effect their awards have had on their careers, current trends in the post-production industry, and whose work they admire among this year’s crop of eligible nominees.
Speaking of which, two picture editors with extremely good chances of receiving an ACE or Oscar nod when nominations are announced in January have granted extensive interviews to our publication. In our cover story, Britain’s veteran editor Terry Rawlings (who started as a sound and dubbing editor in the 1960s) relates to writer Kevin Lewis his experience cutting and shaping the latest filmic rendition of the classic Phantom of the Opera––this one based on the smash hit stage musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber––as well as his work with some of England’s top film directors throughout his illustrious career. The film, which is directed by Joel Schumacher and was entirely shot and posted in the UK, opened domestically in limited release December 22 and widens in January.
On the other hand, Ray––Taylor Hackford’s acclaimed musical biopic of the late, great genius of soul, Ray Charles––has been playing for months and generating palpable awards “buzz.” The film’s versatile editor, Paul Hirsch, is interviewed by fellow editor and Guild member Norman Hollyn about his phenomenal work on the picture. Director Hackford himself also sings Hirsch’s praises in these pages. (At press time, both films received Golden Globes nods.)
On the technical side of things, writer Michael Kunkes looks at several examples of sound editing automation software (Change Note Assistant, Conformer, EdiTrace and Virtual Katy) designed to streamline the seemingly endless work created by the nonlinear process, and talks with their developers. And Guild member Ben Bardens offers another in his recurring series of helpful “Tech Tips,” this time a tutorial for setting up and using motion tracking on Adobe After Effects.
Okay, I don’t want to give the whole issue away; go ahead and read it for yourself. And please let us know what you think.
Next issue, look for an investigation into the world of editing reality television, as well as an in-depth article on the sadly overlooked but groundbreaking post-production process that really was the engine driving the current feature release The Polar Express. Until then, thanks for reading.