NOR'EASTER
Eastern Region Training Program
Off to a Running Start
by Martin Levenstein
 Martin Levenstein |
With the completion of our move to the Guild’s new Eastern Region office on Hudson Street, we have been able to start an ambitious training program that we feel will be very advantageous for our members.
In February we held a Final Cut Pro (FCP) seminar taught by Guild member Sara Thorson, with a two-day FCP workshop led by Thorson the following weekend. In March and April, three more two-day FCP workshops were offered, and a fourth will take place in early June. Besides Thorson, FCP workshop instructors include members Estelle MacDonald and Katie McQuerrey. All three members have extensive experience working on films and broadcast projects using FCP and concentrate on bringing this “real world” experience to workshop participants.
Also in April, May and June, we are offering workshops in Avid Express Pro, and utilization of the Avid Mojo interface. Member John Acosta is leading these workshops. Each workshop has a maximum enrollment of five members to ensure more individual attention and hands-on experience. A modest tuition stipend is charged each student.
In addition to our Final Cut Pro and Avid Xpress Pro equipment, we have a full system loaded with Adobe Professional Products such as Photoshop and AfterEffects. Tekserve, Inc. donated the FCP hardware and software and Michael Phillips of Avid Technologies gave us the Xpress Pro software and Avid Mojo. Phillips held a very informative seminar in March to explain Avid DV products, specifically the Adrenaline, Xpress Pro and Nitrus DS, and answered many member questions.
The Adobe package, including a Dell computer was given to us by Adobe. We are grateful for their support. In the near future we are also planning to obtain both Avid Adrenaline and ProTools systems. We will then have a fairly complete complement of tools that our members need for work.
Our goal is to provide hands-on training on all of these systems, taught by members who have the expertise to instruct fellow members how to use them on jobs and as tools to further their careers. We feel it is a responsibility of the Guild to offer these resources as filmmaking technology is constantly changing and members must actively strive to keep their “chops” current to remain employable.
In addition to the above-mentioned instructor/members, Louis Bertini, Bobby Cotnoir and Angela Organ will be teaching ProTools and Craig Cobb will be teaching Avid and Final Cut Pro and Louis Erskine will be teaching Avid. If anyone else is interested in teaching, please call the New York office. Instructors are paid for their work. This equipment is also available during the week for unsupervised training time, so everyone has a chance to practice. Board member Carrie Puchkoff has been essential in setting this program up and getting it off the ground, as has Field Representative Annie Ballard.
The spring series of workshops is completely filled; response has been very positive.
It is important that the office has your e-mail address if you wish to be notified of these opportunities. Training schedules will also be posted on the Guild website, www.editorsguild.com, under Eastern Region training. In general, notification about all union meetings and events will only be sent by e-mail.
Martin Levenstein, a Picture Editor member, is the Second Vice President of the Editors Guild.