Our
mini-survey sampled New England area editors who
fielded a variety of responses, short and long. They
confirm suspected trends in editing tools but also
reveal interesting attitudes toward them. Here are the
questions:
1)
The past: please list a few of your editing credits of
which you're proudest over the years.
2)
Describe the area of editing you find most occupying
your time these days? (broadcast series, indie doc,
dramatic, commercial, etc)
3)
What is your current primary editing tool? On which
OS/platform? Do you prefer it over competitors?
4)
Can you identify other tools, small utilities or large
apps with which you have extensive seat time, and tell
us why they are valuable in your workflow?
5)
From your chair, what responsibilities and
capabilities are expected of a digital editor today?
6)
The future: how do you see your craft evolving over
the next few years?
David
Allen
1)
I have been working as an editor in Boston for 20 plus
years. My proudest involvement was with Blackside
Productions. I was the onliner/colorist for many
Blackside series such as “The Great Depression,”
“the Great Depression,” “War on Poverty,”
“I’ll Make Me A World,” and of course “Eyes On
The Prize II” It was a thrill to be a part of
television history. Another personal favorite was the
David Sutherland series “The Farmer’s Wife”
probably the best looking video piece I ever worked on
as a colorist.
2)
I work primarily in broadcast documentaries and
“Lifestyle” shows for PBS though I have no
aversion to a high-end corporate piece either. I just
completed a Nature on the treatment of chimps in
America and will be working on an American Masters
show on Woody Guthrie.
3)
I work in FCP as well as Avid XPress Pro and Media
Composer on OSX of various levels.
4)
I have lately been transferring my GFX skills to After
Effects and Photoshop. In fact I just created a
branding campaign for BUTV10, a student run cable TV
channel within Boston University. I find AE to be a
truly enjoyable tool and I can’t wait to explore its
awesome depths.
5)
The demands on an editor have expanded tremendously
since the days of linear online rooms. Editing with
innumerable formats, file cross conversion, constantly
updating software and hardware makes the process more
complex. Every month there is a new tool that needs to
be incorporated.
6)
There appears to be no end to the evolution of our
field. I
anticipate a system where I describe a desired product
and then debate the computer during the creative
process.
Daniel
Berube
1)
Recently noisybrain. produced and edited a
widely-distributed Analog to Digital Photography
Workflow CD for Canon USA featuring Greg Gorman,
Barbara Bordnick, James Nachtwey and other high
profile photographers from Canon’s Explorers Of
Light program. We also filmed and edited interviews
with Terry Gilliam and documentary filmmaker Vincenzo
Natali on the set of TIDELAND, starring Jeff Bridges
and Jennifer Tilly. Our pet project is working with
wildlife documentary filmmaker Arthur C. Smith,
who’s presently on the north slope of Alaska to
document the climatic changes taking place within the
Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (A.N.W.R.).
2)
Branding pieces for national clients such as Canon,
Apple Focus Enhancements and Formatt Filters UK;
collaborating with Art Smith on his A.N.W.R.
documentary intended for broadcast.
3)
Our primary editing tool is Final Cut Pro as part of
an HD Mac editing suite
with AJA’s Kona HD capture card. When possible we do
tapeless acquisition and editing with FireStore HD
Recorders. That I’ve been running an active monthly
Final Cut Pro editor’s group (BOSFCPUG) for the past
five years tells you which editing system I prefer.
4)
Apple’s Final Cut Studio. At the same time that I am
editing in Final Cut I’m also doing encoding tests
of edited segments in Compressor, building DVD motion
menus in Motion and authoring in DVD Studio Pro. This
is all intertwined together; telling the story remains
the focus in Final Cut, but the story can be further
detailed in the distribution channel with additional
content on DVD.
5)
As a digital editor, it is crucial to possess the
aptitude of listening to those you work with and edit
for. At the same time, it is important and validating
for an editor to master the editing skills you excel
at and realize what you need to pass off to others to
finish the edit. Collaboration is key in today’s
creative digital world.
6)
Already, software engineers working with QuickTime are
building the means to view dailies and edit footage
with SMPTE time code over the Internet through a web
browser. Imagine an edit choice strikes you while
you’re off work at a WiFi cafe, but all it takes is
to call up your project timeline through a web browser
and make that edit. And, while on the network, you can
go face-to-face with your director who’s
decompressing after the shoot in Hawaii by remote
video chat for instant feedback and approval. This is
already happening now with apps like iChat AV on the
Mac, and moving forward, it will become a natural
extension of editing. For the editor, the process of
listening will become more immediate, and improved
project collaboration will help realize the power of
the story being told.
David
Bigelow
1)
THE LEGEND OF LUCY KEYES.
Shot the feature in Varicam 720P, edited it in
Final Cut Pro, output the files in HD to
the film out at Technicolor. I've never been on a more
streamlined project. I think the workflow we developed
will be an inspiration for many films to come. FLYING
DOWNHILL: BODE MILLER. Say what you will about this
controversial ski star who failed to medal at the
Olympics in Turino this winter. I edited the
"official" biography on his life and skiing
accomplishments. Over 250 hours of footage, this was a
real challenge to edit but worth all the effort. I'm
happy with the results.
2)
I’ve transitioned in the past two years from
commercial and short form broadcast to long format
features and television. I love long format.
3)
I cut with Final Cut Pro.
It's proven itself to be as professional a tool
to edit with as any out there. It's Mac based on OSX
Tiger, and I have a 3.5 TB XServe Raid attached to it
over fibre channel. There's a huge "Avid or Final
Cut" question that inevitably pops up. When they
ask me about my choice, I tell them it's just an
editing system that works like I think. If Avid
matched my brain, I might be more inclined to use it.
I did use it for more than 7 years. But, editing isn't
as much about the tool as it is the person using it.
It would be like arguing over who has written better
books based on their use of Word Perfect over
Microsoft Word. Who
cares what software they used to write their book –
it's about the content!
4)
My "toolbox" is loaded these days with
Photoshop, After Effects, Motion, Illustrator and
Final Cut Pro, with Cleaner, iTunes, QuickTime Pro,
DVDxDVPro and Excel in the smaller apps category.
5)
The editor's role is different today than
it was 10 years ago. Editors are storytellers as they
always have been, but now they're compressing video
for the web, making DVDs, compositing footage, color
correction... it's all possible now in one edit system
and the editor in the chair tends to be expected
to do all these things at some level of competency. I
still have producers in my edit suite who watch me
create multi-layered video with graphics in a few
minutes and say "Do you know how long it would
have taken us to do that effect in an old A/B Roll
suite?"
6)
I think digital formats will transform
the way TV and cinema is made. Tapeless cameras that
shoot to some form of hard drive are already starting
to show up, and the costs of shooting in beautiful HD
formats is dropping as well.
HD is proving it will be a huge alternative to
both filmmakers as well as TV producers. I see the
editor’s role changing in how he or she collaborates
with others. Imagine I edit a trailer for a major
feature film in Boston, and by that evening it's being
projected at a studio in LA via a web stream I posted
to an FTP server. Or when I edit a feature film, I can
output a high definition DVD that can be screened to
hundreds on a 40 foot screen without any quality
compromises. This is what's coming and I'm happy to
say it's about time.
Michael
Chapman
1)
NBC NEWS 1982 - 1988 (at the time, the youngest editor
working for "Nightly News" and youngest
bureau editor.) “World Monitor,” Christian Science
Monitor, 1988 - 1991. “Inner City Beat” (Emmy
Award Winner, Post Production Editing), Monitor
Channel, 1990. “Children’s Hospital Telethon,
2004.
2)
Industrial/commercial, with aspirations (on my boss's
part, anyway) of doing documentary later this year.
3)
FCP 4.5 or 5. Right now I do prefer it
to Avid, though I've been an Avid guy from 1992 on.
FCP has done what Avid used
to do well – offer a vertically integrated platform
that works!
4)
I use Quickens extensively. I also couldn't get
through an edit without After Effects... it's simply
the best tool there is for image "tweaking".
Of course, nothing will ever replace my four-channel
ADO or three-channel Kaleidoscope, but I'm dating
myself! Motion
is good for quick tweaks. I also use "Cinematize"
to pull video from customers' DVDs.
Soundtrack Pro is also fast becoming a favorite
for making the audio just right.
5)
It used to be that we were responsible for either (a)
cutting the piece and making sure the piece
"worked,” or (b) that it looked good before it
went on the air.
Now we need to be graphics designers, audio
mixers, effects jockeys... and always, faster and for
less! If you enjoy learning new software and
occasionally new techniques, you can keep up, even
thrive. It's
an exciting time, but all moving so fast.
6)
No one has yet written a computer program with a
button that can be clicked that answers the question,
"Does this cut work?" It's still a craft of
instincts, timing, and experience, the sum total of
thousands upon thousands of individual decisions that
eventually shape every edit, every trim. For that,
there will never be a substitute. Having said that, I
think the gulf between what is expected and what can
reasonably be accomplished in "x" amount of
time will continue to widen. How many times lately
have we all said, "Jeez, if only I'd had time
to do [x]!"
Additional
thought: I am amused by the whole Avid/FCP
"war". They're just tools! How many of us
are still editing on Datagram or CMX or GVG or Sony
systems? Now Premiere Pro is starting
to make some inroads... stay tuned!
Jean
Dunoyer
1)
“Nova”, “Coma,” “Everest the Death Zone,”
“Lost on Everest,” “Survivor MD Frontline:”
“The Suicide Doctor,” “Postcards from Buster
(PBS Children’s TV),” “Inside Supermax” (TLC).
2)
Broadcast documentaries, children's television
3)
Avid Media Composer on OS9 works great. I like Avid
XPress Pro on OSX less. FCP a LOT less.
4)
I farm out a lot of that stuff, I just like to cut.
5)
Make a coherent, entertaining viewing experience for
the audience, full stop.
6)
The tools change but the task isn't changing. Cutting
a film is a somewhat esoteric specialty that few
people on the outside understand, but we can all agree
on a film that has good pacing vs. bad. Herein lays
the craft. The other evolution I think
is the ever increasing expectation to do more work in
less time.
Additional
thought: it's fantastic how online forums have
addressed tech support, ironic that it is free when we
used to spend obscene amounts for phone support that
was a waste of time.
Steve
Gentile
1)
The first feature I cut 15 years ago is still my
favorite: COMPLEX WORLD, a rock & roll comedy shot
in Providence. What a crazy puzzle that was.
2)
These days, I'm cutting documentaries that I'm
producing with my production partner Jim Wolpaw. We're
starting our second PTV broadcast piece which has
acquired ITVS funds.
3)
Well, ahem, my last animation which I finished a year
ago was cut on “gasp” a Steenbeck.I shot on 35mm,
no sync sound; it was much easier just to slap it on
the flatbed. But, the sound editing, and all my
current cutting is on MAC OS 10.3.9, FCP-HD 4.5, and
G4 Dual 1.25.
4)
I use Photoshop a lot, although I'm having trouble
wrapping my little brain around After Effects. I'm
looking at an application called [MovingPicture from]
Stagetools as the lower tech moco substitute to AE. We'll see...
5)
You're expected to wear all the hats. Not just
cutter, but re-recording mixer, colorist, etc.
It's great if you're a control freak – and what
editor is “not” a control freak?
6)
I hope technology-wise, things stabilize
a bit, so I can focus on the work and not keeping up
with every two-week application change. But, good
cutting will always be good cutting.
Chi-Ho
Lee
1)
Series Editor – “Stories from Red Sox Nation –
NESN. Editor – “Bat Woman of Panama” - Animal
Planet Europe, Awards: Missoula Wildlife Film
Festival, Merit Award for Scientific Content Merit
Award for Educational Value. Editor - THE DAIRY
OF SACCO AND VANZETTI - WGBH
2)
Broadcast, Independent Films and Documentaries
3)
Final Cut Pro on a Mac. I prefer it over Avid due to
it format independence. But the Avid is a great
edit system as well. I edit on Xpress Pro on a
Mac as well.
4)
DVD Studio Pro, Motion, and Photoshop are the
other main applications that I use. DVD Studio
Pro is the industry standard DVD authoring software on
a Mac. Everyone and their great grandmother
wants a DVD these days. I used it extensively. Motion
is great for any motion graphic elements on a show.
Since I'm not a broadcast designer, I don't use
it everyday. But it has immense power and complexity.
Photoshop – what else do you need to say about
it? Everyone in every design field uses Photoshop.
5)
Depends on your field. If you cut commercials, you
need to know effects and compositing. If you’re in
documentaries, you can mostly edit with some broadcast
design expectations. If you're in feature films, you
can just concentrate on editing.
The
producers will hire other specialists for any effects
work. I'm a big believer in becoming a
specialist/expert in one or two areas of
post-production.
You know the old saying, jack of all trades,
master of none. If you're in corporate, they
expect you to do everything, including holding the
boom pole!
6)
With software and hardware becoming so affordable,
it's possible to perform all aspects of post
production on one system. The downside of this
is that Producers expect one person to drive that
system. It's nearly impossible for someone to be
skilled in editing, broadcast design, DVD authoring,
compositing, and audio mixing. Nonetheless, some
producers would rather hire someone mediocre in
all those skills then hire several experts in each of
those fields. On the positive side, the ability
to perform all those feats on a single system that you
can have in your house or small studio is truly
amazing. It opens a lot of opportunities to
people who would never have a chance at this business
six or seven years ago.
Peter
Rhodes
1)
Editor, “From Jesus to Christ: The First
Christians,” a Frontline series about the creation
of Christianity – 1997, Real Justice, a
BBC/Frontline co-pro following life in the Boston
court system – 2000, “The Most Dangerous Woman in
America, a NOVA about Typhoid Mary – 2003, RACING
AGAINST THE CLOCK, an indie doc about 5 women athletes
between ages 50 and 82 – 2004.
2)
My time is fairly evenly split between PBS doc series
and indie docs (usually for a company called Uncommon
Productions).
3)
I usually edit with – and prefer to edit with –
Avid Xpress Pro but periodically (like now) I work on
FCP. It's
all about what you are used to – once I customized
the FCP keyboard to match the Avid keyboard I was able
to feel comfortable on either system. Mac OS X on the
G5 seems to be the current box but last year I cut a
very elaborate series (“The War That Made America)
on Xpress Pro on a G4 and of course it worked just
fine. For offline editing you really don't need the
latest greatest gear because Avid has been working
great for many versions. The modifications these days
are usually in the area of Post which don't affect my
day to day work.
4)
I use Photoshop a little bit to modify stills before
inserting them into the cut. My favorite plug-in is [MovingPicture
from] Stagetools which allows me to make very smooth
and elaborate stills animations. I can make, fairly
quickly, all the decisions a real stills animator
would make – composition, speed, movement – and
then I can easily modify them if the cut changes. It
is much easier to picture-lock a documentary when you
have a firm idea of the pacing created by the movement
in your stills. In the "old days" we would
often need to go back and lengthen the cut once the
animated stills were laid in. I have had trouble
sometimes translating Stagetools moves to High
Resolution at Online so when the cut is picture locked
we often have the moves reproduced on After Effects or
with a motion-controlled camera.
5)
The job description of an offline editor has changed a
good deal in the last 10 years. Now we are expected to
be skilled at stills animation, title design, sound
mixing and even color correction.
But in many ways the fundamental job has not
changed at all. If you need a technician you have come
to the wrong guy: people call me because I can help
them tell their story. Editing on a computer has made
it easier to tell those stories and to do so in more
elaborate ways, but most of the work I do is
essentially the same thing I was doing when cutting on
a Steenbeck.
6)
The craft of editing has already evolved enormously
over the last decade and yet the art of story-telling
has fundamentally stayed the same. I expect the trend
to continue.
Mark
Steele
1)
On-Line editor for PBS’ “American
Experience,” “Nova,” “American Experience,”
“This Old House,” “Frontline,” and “Antiques
Roadshow.”
2)
My editing life has two phases; my work for WGBH
which, primarily involves conforming and color
correcting (CC) longform documentaries in both
standard definition and high definition; my work
at home involves CCing indie docs and my own work with
music based programming and creating short web based
movies for my friends.
3)
Two years ago I started editing with the Avid DS,
which has now progressed to the AVID Nitris. After a
long and arduous learning curve I now feel comfortable
on the system and find it to be the best tool for the
job of conforming and color correcting.
Accomplishing both tasks in one box is a very
effective way finishing docs. The AVID is a Windows XP
based system. At home I use Final Cut Pro and
enjoy the ease of editing on that system and while the
toolset is not as strong, it does get the job done and
I like it very much. FCP on the Mac has been very
reliable for me and consistent through various
upgrades and changes. I'm not a real expert on
differences between Mac and PC platforms and the fact
that the two systems are running different programs
means I'm not comparing apples to apples but... it
seems that Windows is a problematic platform for
conforming long form docs. I spend a lot more
time on the PC just taking care of the system than I
do on the Mac.
4)
The programs I use are Avid Nitris, Final Cut Pro,
Photoshop and DVD Studio Pro. I haven't gotten
into Motion yet because I haven't upgraded my G4 to a
G5 or a more powerful graphics card. I tend to keep
working with what I know and resist the urge to go out
and purchase the latest computer if the one I have is
doing the job.
5)
Today an online editor has to have a working knowledge
of many aspects of computers. Problems with
importing data across platforms is high on the list. You
need complete knowledge of cross format (Mac to PC)
color correction, and how to trouble shoot problems
not addressed by the offline editor. I now find myself
creating graphics, mixing audio and generally being a
one man band much of the time. I use the various
web forums for Avid DS and FCP to answer many of my
questions.
6)
All HD all the time, much more disk based media for
ingest and delivery. Output of programs for
various uses other than broadcast.
Loren S. Miller edits and consults for feature
and documentary filmmakers. 1) The latest assignment.
2) Features and TV series. 3) Final Cut Pro, Avid
Media Composer and Xpress Pro. 4) QuicKeys,
MovingPicture, Photoshop, Illustrator, Soundtrack Pro
for smooth round tripping. 5) What’s your budget? 6)
I see media moving into bionic liquid plasma data
streams controlled by pure thought, occasionally by
pets. Reach Loren anytime at techpress@mindspring.com
