Editor's
Cut
The
546 semester at USC Film school
#6 in a series of 13
25feb2001
Fade up & zoom in.
Wendy &
Geof just finished the Editors' cut of Echo,
their first film edited on an Avid,
with sync-sound dialogue. It weighs in at ~17 minutes, and must be whittled down
to
12. Much work remains, but they're pleased with how the first cut
came out.
Wendy edited the
first half of the film. Geof did the second. Wendy would like to try
her hand at
editing the ending, which Geof did, cuz that's where it all comes together.
Mary Jensen, the head of
546, said that Pema's
film, more than any other, will come
together in the editing. The pressure is on the editors.
The Editors'
cut
is due for the director's (Pema's) viewing later today, & is due to show
in
class Wednesday. She thinks (not sure) that the Editor's cut becomes the Rough cut,
after they incorporate input from the director.
***
Wendy is
happy to be working on Pema's film, cuz it offers so much opportunity for
creativity in editing. With his
film, titled Echo,
Pema is trying to represent four different
state's of mind for the
main character, played by Jon. Pema is from
Tibet,
where they
recognize many different states of consciousness.
Just as Eskimos
have many different words for the word 'snow', Tibetan people (who
practice meditation) have many
different words for various states of consciousness.
Wendy is stimulated by working on a project with people from several different cultures
from around the globe, gleaning new ideas on life.
***
I haven't
seen her in a couple days, and don't expect to see much of her for the next
week or
two. She's
arranged to stay at Tara's place (in Silver Lake). Tara was one of
Wendy's profs as an undergrad. Tara's guest apt has its
own entrance & is separate
from the rest of the house.
Wendy was previously
staying with Alex & Berni, but their guest house flooded when
heavy rains
came. They were most gracious to let her sleep on their couch, but she
felt bad
about dragging in at vampire hours, waking them up in the middle of the night.
Tara has been
an inspiration to Wendy from the time she took her class on Feminist
Film theory. The films
Wendy makes are still influenced by that class. She seeks to
portray women in a positive light. (Tara wrote Wendy a letter to
accompany her
application to grad school.)
We went to a party at Tara's last
weekend. It one of those parties where you glance
at your
watch and can't believe it's 1AM already. Many
interesting people. For example,
we met two profs from UC Santa Cruz, where
Lani goes to school. They drove down for
the party. One is teaching a Critical
Studies class on the Techno genre, which includes
films like Blade Runner & The
Matrix, which we both love. Battman joined us.
Another
person at the party, a prof who teaches Sculpture, told us about an exhibit
at the Laguna
Art Museum,
by Stephen Hendee, called Presence
Control.
It'll be there
until July 8th. Admission is $5.
Tara's place isn't very far from school,
so I don't have to worry about her driving
very
much after she's been up all night editing. It certainly better than driving
all the way
to Laguna. I feel better knowing where she's
staying, after having been to Tara's house.
***
Pema &
crew shot 1200 feet of film during their final weekend of shooting. That's equal
to the total allotment for
the entire 508 project. So Wendy & Geof had their
work cut
out for them. Wendy called Monday night (Tues morn) at 4:30 to let me know she was
on her way to Tara's (I told her to call, no matter what time it is). She
said, "Traffic is
great this time of day."
She got to Tara's/sleep by 5:00, and had to set the alarm for 6AM, cuz she had class
at 7. One hour of sleep. She & Geof had a bad case of basketball
head in class the next
day.
***
Wendy's first
serious day of editing was not pretty. She had problems with the Avid
crashing.
No tech sppt people were there to help. Turns out that even the prof was
not aware of the problems, which had something to do with selecting audio tracks
when making individual
clips.
She came home in a foul mood, after wasting much time. Wendy does not
handle
technical problems very well, which is why I've had to learn how to set up her
video
editing system so
well.
When she has
a problem here, she doesn't complain to me directly, but rather talks
to her
computer, just loudly enough so I can hear, saying, "This
%&#! computer,
what a piece of &*%$! .. all I wanna do is edit some video without it
crashing .."
Now I have her system humming beautifully, so she can do anything she
wants,
without a problem. But we've
had to work thru many painful problems, which are
made worse by Wendy's complaining. I was so glad I wasn't there at USC
when
she was having her problems. She'll have to redo much of the work.
She loves her
Editing prof, cuz he tells it like it is. In class, some profs water down
their criticism of the films. But he speaks his mind, tho in a non-condescending
way.
Wendy & Geof love
how he articulates when something isn't working, or an actor's
performance stinks.
***
She posted a copy
of the 5-min adaptation of a scene from the book Green Mansions
HERE.
Wendy's 508 partner, Lisa, ran the camera for the shoot. I went along
on the
shoot to the Huntington
Gardens. It was good to see
Lisa. She's currently dating an
industry
cinematographer, who she says reminds her of me. (I'm not sure whether
that's
good or bad.)
It was interesting to hear Lisa & Wendy talk their Film
lingo, as they planned each shot.
Sounded Greek to me. I could tell they learned a lot
working on their 508's.
Liliana's
negative is cut. Next step is to get the (high-quality) answer print
made.
USC has the (cut) negative now, and will send it to Fotokem. Wendy will
schedule
a sit-down with the people at Fotokem in what's referred to as timing session.
That's where they'll look at the negative to make sure that the areas that were
lightened & darkened came out right.
***
After the 546
film is shot, it first goes to the developer. From there, it gets timecode
added to it. Then it goes to the Telecine,
where the 16mm footage is converted to
3/4-inch tape. Wendy & Geof get the
3/4-ich tape, & use it to 'digitize' the footage
with the Avid
(Film Composer).
After the footage is digitized into the Avid, the first job is to sync the sound from each
scene to the picture. (cuz the sound &
picture are recorded on different mediums)
They use the clapperboard sound
to sync the audio. They sync the instant they see
the clapperboard make contact
with the clap sound. (I never knew what a clapperboard
was for before.)
Sound is recorded on a device
called a Nagra, which also must be digitized. The Nagra
is an analog
device. Wendy & other students prefer digitally recorded audio,
as that's the
way the industry is heading.
Word is that there are many
advantages to digital audio, with devices such as this
Portable DAT
recorder,
and this ADAT, but
word is that, unlike analog devices, digital
devices give no warning signs before
they fail. So if you have a problem, it's better
to have a problem with an analog unit. Most students feel this is merely old-school
thinking.
***
Every once in a while Wendy
goes thru a period of feeling insecure, where she feels like
Film school is too hard for her, like she doesn't have the raw intellectual horsepower to
compete with her high IQ classmates, graduates of Ivy league & other
top-tier schools.
This is surprising, cuz Wendy is normally a confident
person. Some of her classmates
have expressed similar feelings of insecurity.
It could simply be
a result of the
level of competition. Even in the athletic realm, I'm sure
the high-school track
star feels less confident competing at the state level, and certainly
at national or Olympic level. She now has world-class competition, at the finest Film
school
in the nation.
The main
dynamic of Film school is this: you work your butt off to create something
aesthetically & intellectually appealing & engaging, often sacrificing
sleep & hygiene in
the process. Then a room full of very intelligent people view it with a
critical eye, and
pick it apart, telling you everything that doesn't work, pointing out all the places where
(they feel) your
film falls short.
We've been thru this insecure thing enough times that I have my spiel
wired.
I usually begin by asking,
"Have you seen the fridge lately?" That's where we post a
copy of her
most recent grade
report. I say,
"It seems like your professors & TA's think
you're doing okay, and they're the ones whose opinions really
matter."
If that
doesn't do the trick, I ask, "Didn't Pema
select you first, to edit his 546? .. and
ask who you'd like to work with? I wonder why he didn't pick someone else first?
How
many people signed up to edit a 546 Narrative this semester? 35? 40? How many were
selected? eight? How many were selected first? only four? You
were selected as one
of the first four out of 35 or 40 applicants? Sounds like you have a good
reputation."
If that doesn't work,
I ask, "Didn't
Tania also select
you first, to produce her 546? then
ask who'd you wanted to work with? I wonder why she didn't pick someone else first."
Or I say,
"What did that message say? the one that Denise left? I
thought I heard her
say, 'I've heard nothing but glowing things about you.'"
(I exaggerate the word glowing,
like Denise did.)
If none of
that works, I start pulling out the heavy artillery: "How
many of your
classmates are graduates of USC Film school? None? Hmm, seems like you might have
an unfair advantage there, girly. Maybe you should be required to
make films with one
arm tied behind your back, to even the playing field a
little."
Another
ace-in-the-hole is, "What did the announcer say at
your graduation ceremony?
After calling your name? You know, those
Latin-sounding words, Magna Cum Laude.
What does that mean? Does it have anything to do with those unpaid
parking tickets
you have at school?
If none of that works, my last-ditch effort is:
"You're
at the finest Film school on the planet. You have world-class competition. If it
was easy, if anybody could do it, how
good could that school be? How many people
have dropped out already? Did they drop cuz it was too easy? I don't think
so."
But if none of that works, I
ask, "How 'bout if I make you a martini & a hot bath?"
=D
That always does the trick.
Fade to black.
Next ->
Editor's Cut Shown
Previous -> Making
an Unconventional Film
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