Did you know that as editors, we have a distinct kinship with sculptors? If you and I sat down for lunch with artists like the two described below, we’d actually have a lot in common, depending on one’s command of Italian or French. At a very fundamental level, editing, like sculpture, can often be classified in two main categories: subtractive and additive.
SUBTRACTIVE: What’s inside the marble?
Basilica, Santa Maria del Fiore
The year is 1501, and you’re looking for your next gig in the city of Florence, Italy. A group of citizens called the Operai has been looking for sculptures to decorate the massive buttresses of the Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore. They’ve spoken with some older, more experienced sculptors, but you convince them to give you the job in spite of the fact that you’re only 26.
The Operai is thrilled to have you on the job because they’ve been wondering what to do with an enormous, not to mention crazy expensive, block of marble that’s been weathering outside the cathedral for a few years, and they have it transported to your workshop, happy to lose their marble (so to speak) to someone like you. Keep reading →
I was perusing my Facebook feed today and stumbled across the below video – Pomplamoose’s cover of Beyoncé’s “Single Ladies.” Those who know me know that I don’t just randomly say “this rulezzz lol” and blindly post any piece of shlock that comes floating by. Not even of sneezing baby pandas, which is actually fairly cute. But I digress. Pomplamoose’s “Single Ladies” cover. Before discussion of why it’s so fantastic, you need to watch it first. Preferably in HD, full screen.
It’s all I can do to keep from watching it over, and over. But then I’d never finish this post… so there you have it – a self-produced cover of a megahit song, most likely done on a budget that wouldn’t even have covered the lunch tab for the recording sessions when Beyoncé and her peeps tracked the original. Let me count the ways this video works: Keep reading →
Humans constantly wrestle with ways to provide meaning to themselves and the world around them, and Hollywood provides the tantalizing possibility of an enormous venue that speaks messages to the entire planet. People coming here ponder dreams of becoming a movie star, an entertainment mogul, or a renowned artist known for communicating ideas and feelings that change the world. Heady prospects indeed.
Whatever the dreams may be, it’s safe to say that most people don’t come to Hollywood with the aspiration of putting out content that’s pointless, disposable, or both, any more than anyone else gets out of bed in the morning saying “I aspire to be useless and superficial today.”
Now it’s one thing to acknowledge that Hollywood puts out shocking amounts of content that is exactly that – superficial, or so ephemeral as to be outdated mere moments after being released to the world. It’s another thing entirely to get paid good money to crank out that material, day after day after day, realizing that those cherished dreams of saying something meaningful to the world through moving pictures could so easily languish or even die if we let them.
But every once in a while, we have moments (like those mentioned in the previous post) that remind us why we’re storytellers, and why stories are so powerful. Keep reading →
In an earlier post, I promised a series of posts on horrible notes some of us have gotten throughout our careers. I’ve since come to a realization: as entertaining as some of those stories may be, it’s not ultimately an uplifting, positive thing to keep rehashing things that have annoyed us in the past. So instead, I’m choosing to share some thoughts about what I love about Hollywood.
I was talking today with a friend about tourists’ perceptions of the Classic Hollywood Glamour. They drive down Melrose Avenue past the wrought iron gates of Paramount Pictures and say “ooh, that’s where the magic happens!” Which, in certain ways, is true. Once you get to the place where the security guards recognize you and checking your ID is only a formality, you see what’s actually taking place inside this massive complex of offices, alleyways, and soundstages. You see certain stages with guards stationed outside locked doors with flashing red lights above signs that say “Closed Set – No Admittance”, and think “Wow, I wonder what’s shooting in there.”
Then one day you’re on one of those stages, and you see exactly what’s happening – a whole subculture of people working away, day to day, doing their thing, doing their jobs. Instead of stocking shelves at a shoe store, someone’s organizing racks of clothes in the wardrobe department. Instead of the foreman overseeing a crew on a construction site, the director of photography oversees the gaffers and electricians as they light the next scene. Keep reading →
Lots of people who come out to LA do so in hopes of celebrity sightings. If they do, it’s usually some young starlet shopping for shoes or a handbag on Rodeo Drive. Or some random “hey look who just drove by in that limo!” For those of us living everyday life here in Hollywood, celeb sightings can take on a downright surreal vibe at times as said celebs go through *their* day to day… just like everyone else.
Dr. Phil
Recently, a friend of mine posted on Facebook of a recent encounter with Dr. Phil, whose long-running talk show shoots at Paramount Studios, smack-dab in the middle of Hollywood. He posted:
Almost ran over Dr. Phil on the Paramount lot today. He leans over to my car window and says “I was trying to play chicken with you”……..
The Stranger in the Bathroom
My multi-talented friend Mike posted recently, after a long day of work at Raleigh Studios – coincidentally right across the street from Paramount:
So I’m exhausted after working all night and accidently walk into the ladies room at Raleigh Studios. I notice and shuffle back into the men’s room to do my business. Upon exiting I find a woman at the sink. Am I losing it? Disoriented. I ask the lady if I’m in the right place when she answers back in a deep voice. Finally I realize it’s Jeff Bridges in drag. Needless to say, lifting a dress to pee didn’t shock me.
My assistant texted me that day, saying “Jeff, check Mike’s Facebook status RIGHT NOW.” It was a beautiful thing. I texted Mike myself congratulating him on such a fantastic story. Mike, who is happily married, replied:
Thanks. WE GOT A DATE. I’m at the studio now. He’s hot.
Since you probably don’t have the privilege of knowing Mike, some of the humor may be lost in translation. Suffice it to say, I was laughing so hard I almost fell off my chair. Because that kind of story is at once so odd, yet oddly normal out here.
This is the first in a series of posts discussing some jaw-droppingly bad notes and directives some of us have dealt with through our careers. But first, an introduction to notes in general…
Virtually every film or TV project which you yourself don’t completely control will at some point go through the notes process. As in, the people who have creative oversight or general authority give comments and changes, a.k.a notes, to those whose job is to implement them. This can take many different forms…
A production executive discussing the studio’s agenda for an upcoming film with a screenwriter who is forced to tweak – well, ok, completely rip apart – his/her masterpiece and make it more commercially popular… if it’s to be made by said studio. (Hint hint.)
A story producer giving new interview soundbites to an editor to tweak the attitude positioning of a character in a reality TV show. (No, she didn’t actually really say that, but take this part, and this part, and it totally sounds like she did. Cover that one part where she’s wearing different clothes from the other day of shooting.)
An executive producer taking another exec producer of a TV pilot out to lunch while discussing how to modify the pilot to make it more pleasing to the broadcast outlets who may consider taking the pilot to series. (Why not dress the host like a vampire? Vampires are HUGE at the CW!)
A staff writer at a nightly/weekly comedy show taking suggestions from the supervising writer to make the jokes “more funny”. (Depending on who you ask, of course.)
Examples abound. Thousands of different situations and roles.
Note-giving situations are as varied as the people who give them, and can differ wildly depending on levels of authority, trust, and likeability between involved parties. Reasons for notes can be rooted in brand identity, political philosophy, economics, ego, power struggles, or maybe even – gasp! – a genuine desire for artistic integrity. Those of us in creative positions would like to think that shared artistic integrity would be towards the top of the list for motivation for notes, but the sad fact is, that’s not always the case.
Sometimes you get notes that you just plain hate. They come down for reasons you may know full well, or have no clue. Sometimes they’re just plain dumb. And sometimes they’re outright hateful, like these:
THE BLACK LOCATORS
I (Jeff) was editing for a primetime, major network series which shall remain nameless. The executive producer (EP) had an Avid in his office and would review edits of different pieces every day. You always knew he had seen your cut when you saw little black locators in your cut, and you held your breath to see what he said. Because he would leave comments attached to said black locators like:
“What the hell were you thinking? You call this editing?” I believe an editor actually quit over a comment like that.
And a particularly notable one on a holiday special: “With this edit, you have single-handedly ruined Christmas.”
As you might imagine, none of us on that show particularly enjoyed seeing those little black dots. I truly do wish that EP well… can’t guarantee that many people want to keep working for him though.
Part 2 of the recent online discussion of ADR and looping took place via Facebook email – on my asking permission to use her name in the Actors in tiny boxes post, Jill D’Aubery sent along some extra details about her experience as an ADR editor. Oh, and by the way, the project which she mentions below earned her an Emmy. Not bad.
Jill D’Aubery: The story behind my Emmy win is quite interesting since it was for The Day After way back in 1984. The TV special was originally 4 hours long, cut to 3.5 hours when it showed. But since over half of it took place after nuclear bombs fell on Kansas City and there was an EMP effect story-wise, and all the dialogue had to be replaced after the bombs fell because we couldn’t use any sort of white sound. The EMP meant that there was no electricity; so no air conditioners, no traffic noise, etc. I worked alone on that one project, no other ADR editors, and lived with those damned bombs for 6 months of my life. And the sound that was concocted for the actual bombing reel was incredible!!! I think, if I remember rightly, that we went out to some 93 reels of sound for that one reel alone…a great deal of which was added ADR.
Jeff’s added comments: Of course at that time, they didn’t have Avids, Pro Tools, Final Cut, any of that… sound was compiled on separate reels of magnetic film stock and eventually played back at the dubbing stage for mixdown on “dubber” machines like the one shown here. So when you see the term “rerecording mixer”, that’s literally what they were doing – the ADR and SFX editors had assembled all the sound elements on separate sound reels that were played back all at once in sync to picture and were literally rerecorded on the mixing stage to the final mixdown tapes. So as Jill mentions above, just imagine 93 dubbers spinning at once in the machine room of the mixing stage. Crazy.
Here’s just one of the cool exchanges that took place online recently. Actor Mark Atteberry (The Shield, Dexter, 24) made an online post about an ADR session that sparked some intriguing comments, some of which you might already know, others you might not. Some names have been omitted for sake of privacy.
Mark Atteberry Just finished doing some ADR. Nothing like trying to duplicate your on-set performance when you’re in a tiny soundproof box. Who said acting’s easy?
Actor 1 ADR is murder. It’s part of the job, but I can’t stand it. It is what it is.
Friend Splain please…for all of us not in the entertainment biz what is ADR? Keep reading →
Sign up NOW for the new category of this year’s speed filmmaking competition from our friends at the 168 Film Project.
Write a 12-or-fewer-page screenplay for a chance at cash prizes, meetings and feedback from top Hollywood producers and writers (X-Men, Smallville, Law & Order), and even get your short produced by veteran 168 filmmakers, of which I am one (Producer, Stained Best Picture 2008, and Exec Producer, Up In The Air Best Picture 2009).
The 168 Film Project is a faith-based, speed filmmaking contest that fields entries from all over the world each year.
Applications run from now until October 18, 2009. Sign up NOW.
UFC 101 Countdown airs August 6th at 2AM ET/PT and August 8th at 6 PM ET/PT on Spike TV.
My latest gig has me cutting for the UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship) – about once a month they put on a big fight night, usually in Vegas, featuring some of the top MMA (mixed martial arts) fighters on the planet. In the weeks leading up to the actual fight night, SpikeTV airs the latest UFC Countdown Special, an hour-long promo telling the backstories of the main fighters and what’s at stake in the upcoming matches.
This particular countdown promotes UFC 101 – Declaration, which goes down Saturday, August 8th. I edited backstories for the headliner fight, BJ Penn vs. Kenny Florian.
When you watch it on Spike, here’s what to look for:
Ha!!! RT @fringeblog:1986 was the yr where people *faxed* to let friends know they had arrived. I believe the yr you're thinking of is 1987. 5 days ago
I was talking today with a friend about tourists’ perceptions of the Classic Hollywood Glamour. They drive down Melrose Avenue past the wrought iron gates of Paramount Pictures and say “ooh, that’s where the magic happens!” Which, in certain ways, is true. Once you get to the place where the security guards recognize you and checking your ID is only a formality, you see what’s actually taking place inside this massive complex of offices, alleyways, and soundstages. You see certain stages with guards stationed outside locked doors with flashing red lights above signs that say “Closed Set – No Admittance”, and think “Wow, I wonder what’s shooting in there.”
Then one day you’re on one of those stages, and you see exactly what’s happening – a whole subculture of people working away, day to day, doing their thing, doing their jobs. Instead of stocking shelves at a shoe store, someone’s organizing racks of clothes in the wardrobe department. Instead of the foreman overseeing a crew on a construction site, the director of photography oversees the gaffers and electricians as they light the next scene. 
Recently, a friend of mine posted on Facebook of a recent encounter with Dr. Phil, whose long-running talk show shoots at Paramount Studios, smack-dab in the middle of Hollywood. He posted:
I (Jeff) was editing for a primetime, major network series which shall remain nameless. The executive producer (EP) had an Avid in his office and would review edits of different pieces every day. You always knew he had seen your cut when you saw little black locators in your cut, and you held your breath to see what he said. Because he would leave comments attached to said black locators like:
Part 2 of the recent online discussion of ADR and looping took place via Facebook email – on my asking permission to use her name in the 
white sound. The EMP meant that there was no electricity; so no air conditioners, no traffic noise, etc. I worked alone on that one project, no other ADR editors, and lived with those damned bombs for 6 months of my life. And the sound that was concocted for the actual bombing reel was incredible!!! I think, if I remember rightly, that we went out to some 93 reels of sound for that one reel alone…a great deal of which was added ADR.
Jeff’s added comments: Of course at that time, they didn’t have Avids, Pro Tools, Final Cut, any of that… sound was compiled on separate reels of magnetic film stock and eventually played back at the dubbing stage for mixdown on “dubber” machines like the one shown here. So when you see the term “rerecording mixer”, that’s literally what they were doing – the ADR and SFX editors had assembled all the sound elements on separate sound reels that were played back all at once in sync to picture and were literally rerecorded on the mixing stage to the final mixdown tapes. So as Jill mentions above, just imagine 93 dubbers spinning at once in the machine room of the mixing stage. Crazy.
