LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Unsung 'War' Heroes
 Magdaline Volaitis. Photo by Meagan Frappiea |
Two sound editors who contributed greatly to the success of Ken Burns’ The War were unfortunately not mentioned in the articles on the film, published in the SEP-OCT 07 issue of Editors Guild Magazine.
Magdaline Volaitis, a new member of the Florentine Films creative team, was the dialogue editor for Episodes 2, 3 and 6. Her top-notch work made crystal clear the extraordinary stories of all the aged veterans and their families interviewed in the film. Every word of their eloquent and emotional tales came through without making the audience strain to understand their voices. Magdaline also added significantly to the sound effects in many sequences of those episodes, especially making the tanks and armored vehicles come to terrifying life.
Jacob Ribicoff, whose association with Florentine films goes back to The West (1996), is a trained musician who has become an ace music editor. Since Ken always cuts his films with the music in place well before locking the film, I always rely on Jacob to “fix” my own and my editor colleagues’ horrible music cuts, and to use his impeccable musical taste and technical knowledge to combine the best sections of our musicians’ performances into the richest, most emotional and perfectly played takes possible for the various film sequences. Jake often will cut an alternative version of what the editors have done and, during the mix, we will discover that the alternate he has put together is far better than anything we tried.
 Jacob Ribicoff |
Hats off to both Magdaline and Jacob for their invaluable contributions to the great success of The War’s extremely dynamic soundtrack. We couldn’t have done it without you.
Paul Barnes
Supervising Film Editor, The War
Walpole, New Hampshire
NY ™s MPEG
The Mayor’s Office of Theatre, Film and Broadcasting facilitates production
throughout the five boroughs and provides customer service to production companies
shooting films, commercials, television shows or music videos. As a result,
job opportunities have increased in the New York City film, television and
commercial production industry, as shooting days have more than doubled since
the 2002 low point and are a third higher than any year since 1993.
As part of New York City’s partnership with the entertainment production industry, the Mayor and the New York City Council brought together film production companies, labor unions and other industry groups to form a Task Force on Diversity in Film, Television and Commercial Production in New York City. The Task Force was charged with developing comprehensive and practical strategies to increase diversity in the industry so that future film, television and commercial jobs in the city are open to all qualified New Yorkers.
The Task Force has made great strides towards achieving its goals. A pipeline has been established to attract new and diverse people to the industry, build mentorship programs, and strengthen cooperation with the Department of Education, the City University of New York, employers and unions. School-based and on-the-job programs have been established to train and prepare pipeline candidates for employment in the industry. In addition, a placement program will soon be established to help candidates secure solid job opportunities with good pay.
The Motion Picture Editors Guild, Local 700, has been an active participant in the work of the Task Force. As part of its commitment to diversifying the entertainment production industry, Local 700 submitted a $137,699 V-TEA grant proposal to the Department of Education for a vocational film program at Banana Kelly High School in the Bronx. This proposal would encourage diversity in the industry and address a serious lack of entertainment production training opportunities in the Bronx.
I commend Local 700 on its commitment to diversifying the entertainment production industry and support their efforts to attain a V-TEA grant. [Editor’s Note: See late-breaking item, “Big Apple’s Top Banana” in Short Ends.]
Christine C. Quinn
New York City Council Speaker
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