1.  Click the burger menu in the lower left corner of the bin you want to search and select custom sift.

2.     In the sift dialogue box enter your search criteria. In this case I’m searching for the word ‘easter’ across all the Columns in the bin.

3.     Clips that don’t contain your search criteria will be removed from view.

4.    Once you’ve found what you need it’s always a good idea to return the bin to it’s Unsifted state, especially if your working with other people!

1. Under the Tools menu select Media Tool:

Select a drive and project, or if you not sure where the clip is just select all. Check the Master clips box and hit OK.

2. This will bring up all the digitised and imported clips on the drives and projects you’ve selected. You can sort in Media Tool like any Avid bin or use custom sift to search for your clip.

Roberto has worked on projects which have been included in Film Festivals and Arts Festivals globally. “Gallipoli: The first Day” won the inaugural AFI (Australian Film Institute Awards) for Screen Content Innovation. “Dugong” was nominated for an AFI Award, “Living in the Dark” and “Sukki’s Story” won the Silver Award at the Hong Kong Independent Short Film Awards and “Still Waiting2” was exhibited at New Crowned Hope Festival – Vienna, Austria.

As of January 2009, after a full time stint with award winning post facility SoundWaves, Roberto returned to his private studio and the liberating world of freelancing. From 2002 to 2007, Roberto worked at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI), Melbourne – in both Content Development and AV Services.

In December 2000, Roberto graduated with distinction from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (R.M.I.T.) – Media Arts and is invigorated when working on projects based on the other side of the planet, as he believes he’s a good swimmer!

Q. What is Sound Design for Screen Productions?

A.  In a nut shell – Sound Design for screen productions is the recreation of all sound we hear in the natural word and/or the unnatural world, recorded, edited, designed and mixed for screenculture. It’s like audio paint for the screen if you will.  A sound designer will take into consideration every sonic detail (with the exception of licensed music and or the composed musical score) which we hear in a ‘soundtrack’ and will ensure it propels the story being told.

At times a sound designer will cross over their design into what may be considered music or musique concrete (which to me is most inspiring). That is, when an atmosphere or sound effect (SFX) morphs to evoke a deeper emotion, or is created to be the subconscious ID or motif of a particular character or space in a film. This is also what ‘they’ call non diagetic sound. Decisions on ‘diagetic’ and ‘non diagetic’ sounds are made by the sound designer.  More on these categories shortly.

Q. What is the role of a Sound Designer?

A.  A sound designer skilfully recreates/designs sound. Sound is something we as humans are acutely aware of, as in we all know what the sound the world around us makes. So we are hard to fool if something odd happens in the soundtrack of a film, like a door closing and the sound = a cat meow! Sometimes this is good, but generally a cat meow won’t work for a door closing.

A sound designer goes out and records, edits and balances this ‘natural world audio’ as part of the soundtrack to accompany a screen production. It is generally broken into two catagories, Diagetic and Non Diagetic sound.

Diagetic sound = our natural surroundings eg: say someone walks thru a scene, opens and closes a door. We as an audience may hear decisions made by a sound designer the likes of: a low buzz of room tone, the characters foot steps and the rubbing of their clothes as they move across the set. All these individual sounds would be multi-tracked on the time line of a Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) and controlled via fader moves so as to balance the ‘reality of the scene’.

Non Diagetic sound = sound other than what we would NOT normally associate with the live action of a scene. If we go back to the above scene, the non diagetic sound may be expressing, what that person is thinking or their psychological emotion as they pass thru the scene. So we may not hear their footsteps, or may be they are mixed very very low and wet with reverb or delay and we hear a quick barrage of reversed whispers and sub sonic hits, etc, etc. Both of these approaches are powerful tools in controlling the audiences experience and conveying what is happening on screen.

Sound design contributes a minimum 50% and at times 90% of a story. Even 100% silence will express something if inserted and designed at the right place in a film. I have always believed sound design tickles two of our five senses – our hearing and our sense of touch. Obviously we hear sound, enough said! We also feel sound! Our sense of touch is tickled more through the science of sound. Sound volume and its frequency spectrum is measured via SPL or sound pressure levels. Obviously speakers emit sound and at times, depending on the SPL and frequency, we can feel this emission of the speaker as a soundwave. The most common of this is our experience of sub woofers in a cinema or our own home theatres – when a large explosion goes off or the rumble of ominous thunderstorms in the distance – we feel those low frequency vibrations. Designing sound with the sense of touch in mind can lead to very profound moments of expression in a film.

So a sound designer is responsible for the sonic signature or sonic aesthetic of a film. They build complex multi-tracked atmospheres, design multi-layered ‘spot’ SFX. They brief Foley artists, (specialists in recording and overdubbing the ‘walking’ and ‘movement’ of human bodies on screen in addition to other specialised detail SFX). They supervise the dialogue edit, oversee or insert all mixed music and consult on the final sound mix with the director, composer and sound mixer, to shape the final sonic feel of a film.

To break this down I’ll give another example:

Scene Description: suburban back yard with fruit trees / warm summer day / lady sleeping on a banana lounge / wakes up.

Sound Design: Diagetic

Atmosphere: Very light breeze with the occasional rustle of leaves as the wind passes through a nearby fruit tree. The light chirping of cicada’s in the background along with the occasional whistle of local birds in the area, and a constant little dog bark way way off in the distance.

SFX: The occasional creaking of a rickety looking wooden fence. The occasional bee flying around, pollinating a fruit tree. The flapping of clothes on the washing line. The distant rumble of a deeply pitched motorbike way way way off slowly approaching. The light gentle breathy inhale/exhale of the woman as she rustles from slumber.

Foley: The jarring creak of metal and plastic as the banana lounge is flexed by her movement. The zip of plastic on skin as her sandal slips off her foot and lite thud as it hits the grass. The slight grinding of cloth and she moves around and raises herself.

Non Diagetic Atmosphere: Low rumble shifting and over ridding the light breeze as dark clouds roll in along with the increase in volume of the low pitched motorbike overdubbed with human and animal screams, snarls and roars as it approaches closer.

Music begins….

A bit cheesy and over the top with the screams mixed in with the motorbike, but as a scene you get the idea yeah! This might go for 30seconds though will be painstakingly multi-layered and multi-tracked for each sound effect described above and mixed so that the mood and message of the film is expressed just right – before we go onto the next scene.

Q. Who works with a Sound Designer?

A.  Assuming that the picture edit is completely locked off (finished), the sound designer will lead a small crew, which includes:

Dialogue editor / ADR recordist / ADR editor: ADR = additional or automatic dialogue recording. This is performed in a recording studio when the location dialogue recorded on set is deemed unusable for inclusion, as part of the final dialogue track of film.

Music Composer: having continuous conversations with the composer is very important, so that minimal overlaps occur in a soundtrack. In that, competition or debate taking place in the final mix studio regarding what takes precedence in driving a scene is decreased ie: does music or sound design drive this scene? Having these discussions will also decrease the chance of double handling and creating undue work for each unit of the sound department. Plus ensures either unit or both, will always cover the soundtrack at any given time for the duration of the film.

Music Editor: inserts and edits all final music into the film at the appropriate points.

SFX Editor or Designer: creates complex and subtle atmospheres, rich and detailed SFX for all scenes in the film.

Foley Artist / Foley Recordist / Foley Editor: responsible for adding all body moves for characters on screen, be it foot steps, clothing rubs, eg: tacking off a jacket and/or specialised SFX eg: handling noise and the rattles of a WWII rifle.

Sound Mixer: in consultation with the sound designer, composer, director and producer/s shapes the final volume balance of all of the sound elements of the films sound track.

Q. How do you approach a project when Sound Designing?

A.  I get a sound brief from the director and producer/s of the film. Their direction and what they’d want to hear is of utmost importance. This means spending time watching the film with them, and the composer, to nut out and ‘spot’ what feel or emotions are to be portrayed sonically – what do we want to tell the audience this room sounds like? When we see a particular character should we hear something the likes of a motif?

Out side of the brief, and budget depending, I go out and record original atmos and sfx – come back to my studio edit and effect these original recordings to give the film a true and original sonic identity. Again budget dependent, I assemble a small team of people to take on other roles in the sound department as mentioned above and oversee their work. And ultimately, I be as true to the story as possible by building and designing a soundtrack that is authentic to the films narrative and messages.

Q.  When do you get brought onto a project?

A.  Sometimes it’s in pre-production or production, sometimes it’s when the film is in the can and locked off. Sometimes a director can engage a sound designer early on, so that a full history of the project and the requirements of the sound department can be met before crazy deadlines start to loom. Best practice is, the earlier you can get the guernsey as sound designer the better chance the project has at being fully realised sonically.

Q.  Can you take us through what happens on a project?

A. I recently worked on the video game de Blob 2 by THQ/Blue Tongue Entertainment. My role was to sound design and mix all the cut scenes and marketing trailers for the game.

Cut scenes are like short films at the start and then between each level of a video game, concluding with the final scene.

De Blob 2′s animation is highly detailed and required a sound track to match. There were fifteen cut scenes in all for the project. When I came onto the project some cut scenes required a little tidy up and additional fx designed and mixed. Eight scenes required a complete soundtrack to be built from ground up. Each scene was between 1.5 to 2.5 minutes in length, which amounted to over 30minutes of FMV (full motion video) for the game.

For this project everything was happening at once which is quite normal : the scriptwriting, music composition, VO recording, VO editing, sound design and delivering sound design for signoff was all going down at the same time. As was all the actual ‘in game sfx and music’ that amounted to thousands of discrete assets (which John Guscott [audio lead], Daniel Armstrong and Courtney Johns [audio designers] were responsible for.)

I had on average four days per scene to design and lay up all sfx and atmos. Some scenes were more complex than others, so I’d ask for another day to complete the design and layup. I’d begin by laying up all the atmos for the scene. Then I’d design and layup all the SFX over three sfx busses, which fed into the main SFX stem. These three SFX busses chewed most of my tracks as I required many layers to create the detail and sonic textures the project required.

After that I worked on my foley tracks, which was essentially a squishy wet spongey / kitchen glove sound (courtesy of Daniel Armstrong) for the ‘greydians’ and ‘inkys’ foot falls and some heavily cut and eq’d cloth for their ‘body’ movement. Once all the SFX were finished, I then moved onto the VO of the various characters for each scene delivered by Courtney – tidied it a little here and there if required, and premixed the VO for import into my main session. Music would be delivered from John around the same time as the VO sessions or at the end of my FX layup and I’d then mix the scene. I’d had around .5 to 1 day to mix each scene.

Some scenes were very complicated and busy, so I wanted to be sure that all the hard work put into the layup and design, would come out in the mix. I tried to keep my track count to about 140trks and had discrete stems for my dialogue, music and sfx. The project was first layed up as a 5.1 design @ 30frames per second for which I’d perform a final mix for John to sign off on. When approved this final mix was then folded down to a dolby prologic II encoded mix for delivery to the Nintendo Wii console. Deliverables were: final mixes at 30fps and also a pull down to 29.97fps for both the 5.1 and PLII mixes for other consoles.

There was a lot going on for one sound designer to do, but I got there in the end, the game got shipped. Best of all I got to work with a really talented crew and a great company that understood and took pride in attention to detail – knowing it takes time to create detail, and they invested in that philosophy. It was an absolute pleasure to work on such a challenging project. From memory I think they were working on building and rendering the picture component of the animations for 8 months or so before I got my hot little paws on it.

Q.  You have a vast skill set, tell us what else you do.

A.  Outside of sound design my number two role is as video editor. The roles go hand in hand, lending themselves to each other. So I can kill two birds with one stone as my studio is set up for both gigs. Some years I do more video work than sound work – like this year was all video – last year was all sound … it’s good to switch it up – it keeps me on my toes.

I am also a location recordist, so recoding and being on set is another facet of my skill set. Holding both the location recording and then the sound design role of a gig is a great way to ensure quality and continuity in the sound department. I can handle a video camera and DSLR camera to shot video, mainly short doco work or music video and I am finally doing more fun stuff like music composition and beginning to make that an income stream as well. I guess these days freelancing requires you to be multi-skilled in order to pay the bills, or at lest it seems that way in my world, maybe I got ADD … I don’t know?

Q.  Lastly where can we find you & your work.

A.  You can generally find me boarded up in my studio in the Melbourne CBD. I usually do all my sound design and video editing there and i mix / master at a facility if budgets allow. If there is no budget for a mix facility, then I do my best to realise the mix in my studio. It’s not a great sounding room but importantly I know what it’s limitations are and I can get stuff over the line to translate in another space.

Finding my work ….. I have held various roles on numerous projects, below is a list of projects (links where possible) where I have held the role strictly as Sound Designer. Check them out if you can / want to – I guess google is a good start if you can be bothered where no links are posted below. I will be posting a full archive of my work on my web site robertosalvatore.com.au …. I ‘gotsta getsta it’ some day …. That said I am in the process of relaunching by business name and logo under the name of ‘Pips n Tones’, so check that out early next year for my archive of work.

Selected Works:

“DeBlob2” – 5.1 Sound Designer, SFX Editor, Mixer – 6 month contract – 15x2min animation game cut scenes and marketing trailers – mulit platform delivery [John Guscott, Nick Hagger – Blue Tounge / THQ Games]

De Blob2 marketing trailer links:

http://vimeo.com/20086362

http://vimeo.com/20003929

“Gallipoli: The first Day”” - Sound Designer, Music Composer, SFX Editor, Mixer – Large Scale Hi-res Web site – [Sam Doust - Creative Director, Astrid Scott - Producer - ABC Innovation Unit]

“Dugong” – SoundDesigner – Short Film – [Erin White, Feather Films]

Trailer link – http://www.featherfilms.com.au/dugong/

Other Selected Gigs I have worked on:

“Overture” – Sound Designer, SFX Editor, Mixer – 15min short film [Jonathon Dutton, Andrew Benjamin Smith – Crankyfish]

“Tasmanian Mine Rescue” – Permanent installation @ the site of the disaster @ Beaconsfield Mine – Sound Designer, SFX Editor, Mixer – Installation – [Bryce Grunden, Sound Environment, Beaconsfield Mine]

“LifeBoat” – Sound Designer, SFX Editor, Mixer – Short Film – [Mikael Brain]

“Pests” – Sound Designer, Mixer – Shot Film – [Timber Dean, Kate Breen, Butterfly Productions]

“Living in the Dark” – SoundDesigner and complete Audio PostProduction – Short Film – [Thomas Leung]

“Sukki’s Story” – SoundDesigner and complete Audio PostProduction – Short Animaton [Thomas Leung]

“Still: Waiting2” – SoundDesigner and complete 5.1 Audio PostProduction – Interactive Video Installation – [Lynette Wallworth]

“Planet Protectors” – 4 Part Animation series – SoundDesigner and Mixer – [ELC Hong Kong]

“ESD Ride or THE EDGE” – 4.1 Sound Designer – Observation Deck, Eureka Tower, Melbourne – Installation – [Bryce Grunden, Sound Environment]

“Bird” – Sound Designer, SFX Editor, Foley Performer, Mixer – Short Film – [Mel Brunt, Feather Films]

“Skelton Interactive Simulator” – Australian Institute of Sport – 5.1 Sound Designer, SFX Editor, Pre Mixer – Installation – [Bryce Grunden, Sound Environment, AIS]

“Tasmanian Aboriginal Gallery” – Sound Designer, SFX Editor, Pre Mixer – Installation – [Bryce Grunden, Sound Environment, TMAG]

Before you start work on a new project it’s important that you name your project.
1. When you open Final Cut Pro automatically comes up with an untitled project.

2.  Go to FILE and click SAVE PROJECT AS…….

3. Save your project.

NOTES ON PROJECT NAMING PRINCIPALS

- Always save your project in a dedicated project folder on a drive separate from your media drives

- Always name your project in a simple and straightforward manner without the use of symbols and with clear version numbers.  As an example a dailies project for “The Example Project” days one to twenty would be TEP_Dailies_D1to20. And the Editorial version would be TEP_Editv1

- Backup your working project on a daily basis.

1.  Firstly thank-you for chatting with us.  Tell me how Art of The Guillotine came about.

Not a problem.  Art of the Guillotine started a couple of years ago when I was asked by a local university to come speak about editing documentaries.  I gave the talk and throughout would reference current editors, theories that might be useful, and techniques I learned from the great doc editor John Kramer.

When I finished the talk many students asked me where they could learn more about these editors, techniques and theories on the Internet.  I couldn’t think of any comprehensive pages so I began to search and amalgamate sites that could be useful for students.  That photocopy list grew to a basic html website I threw together and then my good friend Richard started helping code php to make it more interactive.

2.  It’s interesting as I think the idea behind both The Edit Forum and Art of The Guillotine both sprung from similar places.  For me it felt like with the explosion of cheaper technology the craft and essential knowledge behind assistant editing was being lost.  What about AOTG? Tell me about your philosophy.

I definitely agree, anyone can push the buttons but an editor moulds the story.  My philosophy began to grow out of that initial day at the university.  I personally believe that knowledge is a right and should be as easily accessible as possible.  I try to encourage students to become editors that are as  well-rounded as possible and really examine the ideas behind the cuts they make.  Some editors are not fans of theoretical work and that’s fine, as long as they are challenging the ideas put forth in the script and the approach to the scene.  Does it work?  Does it push the films story forward?  Will it have the desired affect on the audience?

3.  And what has the response been from the wider community?

The response has been amazing!  We’ve had letters from around the world from students and young people just making their way into the industry to retired editors who have worked on award winning films and television shows.

We want to work with associations and user groups and help them get the word out and so far they have all been extremely welcoming.

Our editing podcast, the Cutting Room has also really become quite popular and allows people to send and communicate with myself and others through email, twitter, etc.

4.  Any stories to tell about your experiences with AOTG?

The story I love to tell is from my first year at Edit Fest.  I was given an office on Universals lot to conduct my interviews in and when they showed me the office they said, “This use to be Hitchcock’s office” I was so excited.  However, this was just an office that visitors use so I feel that this is just something they say to everyone who uses the office, something to give them a story when they head home.

5.  Tell us a little about your own professional work.

I mostly cut documentaries here in Toronto.  I shift between TV documentaries and feature docs.  However, over the last year my focus has been more helping the editing community on an educational level.  I’ve been helping the local university build an editing program and on my own time working on several articles for various sites, magazines and journals.

6.  Why is editing so important to the filmmaking process?

It is the last stage for making major alterations to the story.  If a filmmaker isn’t active in the editing process and doesn’t make sure their story is working at this stage they are out of opportunities to craft their film.

7.  Is it an art form or is it a craft?

I would argue that this depends on the director or producer you are working with. I have worked on projects where it was very assembly line-esque.  However, I’ve worked with some amazing producers and directors who see editing as an art form and allow the editors to really explore ideas and try things out and this is usually the type of environment I thrive in.

8.  What is the industry like in Toronto, Canada?

Toronto at the moment is quite exciting.  The Canadian Cinema Editors formed a few years ago and have really got the editors in this town engaged again.  I feel we are at this perfect moment where the young editors just entering the industry are full of excitement and curiosity and the elder editors are wanting to share their knowledge and from these two areas this energy has developed where young and old come together to share ideas.

Just the other day, I attended the CCE AGM and afterwards a group of about 10 editors ranging from young 20’s to 60’s sat in a pub and discussed ideas.  We had a cross section of feature film editors, TV editors all the way to corporate editors all talking about ideas and work.  It is rare that editors that can work in very solitary and isolated environments have the opportunity to connect with one another and bounce ideas back and forth.

It’s moments like that one that gives me energy to build the site.

9.  Any advice for those starting out?

It won’t be easy.  But anything worth doing is never easy.  You need to place yourself in moments where you can meet editors, go to local user groups or association meetings.  If there aren’t any user groups or associations in your town or country start one.  Then edit as much as possible, cut whatever you can get your hands on, use whatever software you can.

The best editors I know, you can hand them a pair of scissors and tape and they’ll hand you a film.  Their real skills are in assembling the story and shaping it to create the most engaging final product they can, not in how absorbed they are in the technology used.

10.  Bringing it back to AOTG. What are the future plans for the website?                                                                          

We are always looking to get sponsors to help cover our costs (ensuring that our website and information can remain free for the editing community) and companies such as Blackmagic Design, Grass Valley and Focal Press have really stepped up to help us achieve this.  This has allowed us to work to expand our systems and we hope to have our mobile apps out soon.  We’ve also been in discussions with historians to have them build a full-fledged historical section that documents the history of editing.

2012 will definitely see some expansion of Art of the Guillotine’s systems so be sure to keep an eye on us and if there’s anything that you feel we are lacking, speak up so we can fill the gap!

Click here to check out the website Art of the Guillotine and find them on twitter @artguillotine

After the interview….

Gordon - BTW I wanted to mention the Australian Screen Editors as they are really doing some fantastic stuff and are building quite the community.

TEF - Yes they do, they put a lot of time and effort into industry training, I’ve been a member since July and  wish I had of joined sooner!

Bio:  Cameron McCulloch is an editor by profession and an award winning short film director. In this article Cameron takes us through the editing and post-production process of his latest short The Tea Party. This film is a follow up to the short Home, a Rom-Zom (Romantic Zombie film). Which was made with a no/low budget, and has screened in 40 festivals around the world and picked up a quite a few awards.

The project: The Tea Party is a short black comedy, comprised of two actors and four puppets. It was shot over 2 days. “Princess has waited a long time to finally meet her Prince Charming, the only thing standing in their way is her foul mouthed pets and the lack of a afternoon tea condiment.” Check out The Tea Party TRAILER here.

 Cast & Crew

Cast: Leslie Simpson, Michelle Bourke, Samuel Johnston, Steve Bastoni.  Production Designer: Emily Curtis            Sound Designer: Paul Shanahan @ Final Sound  Composer: Apollo Symphony Orchestra                                  Puppeteers & Puppet Creation: Michael Bevitt & Beth McMahon. Director Of Photography: Matt Scott                        Editors: Cameron McCulloch & Stefan Engelhardt Writer: Cameron McCulloch                                                            Producers: Cameron McCulloch, Zoe Rixon and Emily Curtis Director: Cameron McCulloch

POST PRODUCTION WORKFLOW

Shooting Format:
DSLR Cannon 5d Mk2, to card. The cards where backed up the end of each day to 2 separate sources. We where running 2 splits one for the camera and one under the table for the puppeteers. Audio was recorded using a Sennhieser Mic and Zoom Recorder.

DIT or Data Wrangler on Set: No. We just had numerous cards, which we backed up each day. (We only shot for 2 days)

Editorial System & Set up:                                                                My Macbook Pro, 4 gigs ram running project off firewire 800. I wanted to try Premier Pro. By changing the short cuts to final cut ones it made it much easier. Not sure if I am going to use Premier again though, Yes it works natively with DLSR footage (Something I wanted to test) but I think I am going to go back to converting to prores and cutting in FCP 7.

Dailies process:                                                  I synced all my footage using Dualeyes and began to edit in Premier. It was very easy, Dualeyes worked a treat.

Storage and backup system:                                                          My project was running off a Firewire 800 drive which I would work off. After each session it was backed up to a secondary USB drive, (As during the first weekend of editing, my cat jumped on my laptop pulling out the firewire which corrupted my project file so I had to start from scratch). The cat is still alive.

Edit Schedule:                                         I wanted it all done in time for Sundance (this did not happen), that was the only schedule, about 2 months in post. The edit took about three weeks for a rough cut. Then another four weeks of me piss farting round with the edit. I had a co editor who did the rough cut, and then I came in and cut the hell out of it even more. We had to pick-up two reaction shots, which took about 30 mins to shoot with the lead actor. Once the edit was done I took it to my co producer Zoe, who then made some suggestions. I trimmed some more, and then we went into final Sound and our Grade.

Post Production Advice:                                                                                                     Zoe, @ Final sound advised on the edit. As did my DOP Matt. I also had friends comment on the edit.

Grading:                                                                                                We are grading @ Complete Post On Scratch. Our grader is Grayton Hevern.

Sound-post production process:               This had a massive sound post-production process. All of our puppets needed to be voiced by actors. Firstly we had to cast them, I was lucky enough to get Samuel Johnston and Steve Bastoni to donate their time to do the voices. I was also very lucky to have Final Sound behind me again (they did the sound work for Home), for the sound post-production. Paul Shanahan is our sound designer and an amazing one at that! Without him I am nothing. (That also goes for all of my cast and crew, they worked so hard for no money to make the film for the under $2000, budget both on this and Home, I now owe them all a Liver, A Kidney and a Lap Dance.)

Mastering:                                                                                              I will keep a digital master and make whatever the festivals ask for.

Screening At:                                          Hopefully it will be in December at a festival in Melbourne (LIKE US at www.facebook.com/teapartyfilm for updates). Soon after fingers crossed it will tour the world like the last film did!  

1.     Hit the settings tab at the top of the Project window.

2.     Scroll down to Media Creation.

*You can also get to Media Creation under the Tools menu or by pressing Apple 5*

3.     Under the drive Filtering and Indexing tab make sure all 3 boxes are ticked.

This will prevent media being imported, captured or rendered to any drives that can’t handle the selected resolution (Filter Network Drives Based on Resolution). And filter out the System & Launch drives (these are the drives where Avid and your OS are installed – usually the same).

4.     Under Media Creation you can also specify which drives different types of media are stored on. So for example, you might have a Unity Partition that is just for Renders etc.

She studied Creative Arts at Melbourne Uni followed by a stint in Post at Digital Pictures. After that she spent 3 years in London working on commercials, music videos and features at RSA/Black Dog before returning to Melbourne in 2007 and very briefly studying multimedia at RMIT. She has traveled to Mexico, Morocco, Japan, L.A, New York, London and Europe.

Her favorite animators are Yori Nurstein, Jan Svankmajer, and the Brothers Quay.

“Did That Move?” is a short animation produced as part of an jewellery exhibition in a gallery space.  Here Maya takes us step by step through the technical process of creating this work.

• THE COMMISSION:

Pieces of Eight Gallery  and Dougal Haslem wanted me to make a stop motion animation using Dougal’s amazing objects and jewellery. He makes these fantastic creature-like objects using found materials and gold and silversmithing processes, that although not motorized, have articulated parts that can be moved. The finished animation was to be included in an exhibition of Dougal’s work at the beautiful Pieces of Eight city gallery at the beginning of 2011, and used in some of their publicity for the show. I’d never really made a proper stop motion animation, but I was up for the challenge.

• THE IDEA:

Initially I thought I would do something quite minimalist and graphic; using maybe only the pieces themselves against a white or very plain background. But the gallery director Melanie Katsalidis suggested I go and have a look at Dougal’s studio and see what the space inspired. Once I’d visited his wonderful studio space, I wanted to include it in the animation, as the background or context for the story, which plays with the idea that all of these personality-filled objects have an independent life of their own, and come alive in secret.

• THE SHOOT:

I shot the animation over several weekends, with the help of two animator friends, Haydn Kwan and Elin Soderlund. They each brought something completely different to the animation. Among loads of other things, Haydn has a great sense of character, and Elin brought a very creative attention to detail in movement.

I used a Canon DSLR EOS 5D borrowed from Exit  Films, and an 18mm Canon lens because the pieces were so tiny,(some of them a bit bigger than a 10 cent coin!). I tried to keep the F-stop fairly consistent, although I had to make a bit of a compromise because while I like shallow depth of focus in stop motion, it also makes it hard to see any animation going on anywhere else in frame that isn’t in focus. The Brothers Quay seem to be really brilliant with this. I can only hope I will get my head around it a bit better next time.

The lights were actually just ordinary domestic lights, although I did replace all of the bulbs so that thery were all fresh and had the same colour temperature (daylight). I also used a truck load of blutack, mainly to keep all of the objects that were’t supposed to be moving steady.

It would be great to try animating camera moves too in future. I did include a stop motion focus pull (I think about 2 frames for each increment), but everything else is focus pull free and locked off on a tripod (probably a good idea for someone new to stop motion).

I hooked the camera up to my MacBook Pro and shot the whole thing frame by frame via Dragon Stop Motion. The main advantage of using this program was that we could onion skin, meaning, that we could shoot a frame and then set up for the next using the previous frame shot as a semi opaque reference layered over the top.

Below a screen grab of the Dragon Stop Motion interface

I shot it all straight ahead, with only a rough idea of where I was headed, although I did rough out a series of shots on paper at the start of each shoot day. I did it this way because I hate over planning, I think it kills my creativity. I like to be able to respond spontaneously to what is on location on the day.

I shot in doubles not singles, meaning, instead of shooting 1 frame for each animated movement, I shot 2 frames. I did that because it was a faster way of working. Purist animators who had more time to work on a project would probably shoot on singles, because the movement is a lot smoother.

The 5D set up worked really well with Dragon Stop Motion, although I did have a few flicker issues. From what I can gather, ideally you would use a Canon 5D body, and something called a Novoflex adapter with older manual Nikon lenses. These lenses apparently have a manual aperture ring which stops the flicker created by using non-manual lenses. Next time I would definitely try to work this way, as the flicker problem caused a few long, frustrating delays.

• EDIT:

So when it came to the edit, it was pretty much all there. Although, I did swap around a couple of shots at the very start, and slow down and speed up here and there. I used After Effects to edit, because I like that I could layer all of the frames. It seemed to offer more control over detail than something like Final Cut.

I had to import all of the frames as stills, as a frame sequence, which is very straightforward to do in After Effects. You can specify how long (how many frames) you’d like each still to go for, and then it imports and distributes them all along in a sequence.

• SOUND DESIGN:

Darren Ballingal very kindly did all of the sound, and I think he did a fantastic job. I don’t know what software or processes he used. The only brief I gave him was something like “Hello, you don’t know me but can you please create a playful, wind up toy, clockworkish soundtrack for my animation?”. I really think he saved the day actually.

• GRADING:

Desaturated a little using an adjustment layer in After Effects.

• COMPLETION:

I exported it as an uncompressed Quicktime movie, which was kind of my master. From there I created a web version (mp4) and also a playable DVD (to be played in the gallery window) using DVD Studio Pro.

Check the finished production out at

“Did That Just Move?” http://vimeo.com/19584641

Recently Isobel animated and co-directed You Were In My Dream, an interactive animation for Experimenta which travelled nationally and internationally, most notably winning the Premier of QLD’s National New Media Art Award. In 2004 she animated a short film directed by Van Sowerwine that received a Mention Speciale at the 2005 Cannes Film Festival as well as a Golden Hugo for best animation at the Chicago Film Festival. Her animated shorts have been screened at Miff, ACMI, Federation Square and at the Shanghai World Expo.

Isobel is currently in the development stages of several projects including a new interactive artwork with Van Sowerwine, a short film directed by Anna Jeffries and an artwork for a Jim Henson tribute exhibition.
www.youwereinmydream.com
www.vansowerwine.com
www.mygoodhalf.com

1. When did you first become interested in pursuing a career in Animation?

In my commerce class in high school we had to write a fake job application as an assignment and I flipped open the job guide to the first page, put my finger randomly on a position description and it was ‘Animator’. It just felt right! I was really into drawing and art and had always much preferred cartoons to live action, (I had to force myself to watch neighbours instead of Count Duckula so that I could pass myself off as a normal teenager) so from that day on I was very focused on pursuing animation.

2. The medium animation covers a broad spectrum; tell us about your work?

The first real animation I did was an alphabet that acted as a platform to try 26 different ways of making animation. I have always tried to find new mediums to work in and new techniques but I have discovered that puppet animation is my strength. I prefer working under a camera with 2D or 3D puppets but often the things I want to do are far too time consuming to do this way so I use the computer. I enjoy watching things that look hand made. There is something about watching an object that you can tell is inanimate moving around. It’s a trick that doesn’t seem to grow old for me.

3. What are your technical tools of the trade?

I use a digital SLR to capture stills. I have a copy stand, a hefty tripod and a set of Dedo studio lights. I use a great animation capturing software called Dragon that takes a feed from the camera straight to the computer and has instant playback. I use the computer to add effects and extra animation, editing, grading, etc.

4. How do you find out about new tools and techniques?

The discoveries usually come when I’m going into a production, trying to figure out exactly what’s needed, doing some research to see if it exists, making it if it doesn’t or is out of my budget. Most of the time when I shoot something there is a part of the setup that has to be custom built to suit the exact needs of the animation. For instance, with You Were In My Dream, (a stop-motion installation I made with Van Sowerwine) we had our carpenter build an animation bench that specifically catered to our background needing to do a lot of panning, and for the current project I’m working on with Van, It’s a jungle in here we built a looping background on two big lazy susans. Usually these setups are only useful to that one particular animation but we keep them in pieces in sheds ‘just in case’.

I try to see the animations coming out at MIAF and MIFF and it’s always exciting to see one that uses a new technique. Madame Tutli Putli, http://madametutliputli.com/ for example looked so disturbing with the real eyes being incorporated into the stop-motion.

Sometimes the discoveries happen by chance too. A lot of the time something new gets born out of trying to imitate with a small budget some technique that’s very expensive to achieve. It’s always fairly experimental and the medium is constantly evolving.

5. What editing software do you use?

Usually I use Final Cut Pro but for this new interactive project Van and I are doing we’re having to use Premiere because it has that dynamic link with After Effects which is necessary for the technical aspects of the interactivity. There are some baffling shortcomings with Premiere though!

6. What process do you use to create a master?

Ooh I’m pretty bad when it comes to masters. I have them all just as quicktime files on hard-drives. I make sure there are duplicate copies on several drives but I generally don’t master to any other medium because it’s often not necessary for the places I’m screening at. The installation work all plays off hard drives. When I need something on digi-beta I take a dvd of the quicktime of to somewhere that will put it to tape.

7. When you have an idea what is your process you use to bring it to life?

A lot of the time it sits and stews for months or even years and when an opportunity to bring it out to the open comes I develop it and match it to the purpose. When I’m working collaboratively I like to sit with the other person and talk about things that have been interesting to each of us and try to find some common interest to base an idea upon. In both working collaboratively and alone it often it takes several tries to find the right avenue for the idea to manifest. I usually will make a quick test to see if it’s an idea that is interesting once it’s out of the head and in front of the eyes.

8. What are the pro’s and con’s of working in this medium?

I love that it’s something I can do all by myself especially when I’m making something small and spontaneous. I don’t need too much equipment or to organise a bunch of people, I can just go ahead and explore an idea. On the other hand it can take such an awfully long time to get to the finish line!

9. How many people work with over an entire project?

Most of the time it’s usually just me making everything and animating – sometimes I will get an animation assistant to operate the computer and speed things up a bit or someone to help me with lighting. I usually have a sound designer too but sometimes I even do that myself.

When I’m working on bigger productions it’s usually with Van. We’ve worked with a producer, a cinematographer, carpenters, programmers, editors, electricians, sculptors, sound designers, industrial designers, armature makers and silicone casters. It really depends on the project.

10. Tell us about how you approach making work for exhibitions (rather then screen based projects).

With installation work I try to figure out an interesting way of presenting a certain experience. Because you’re dealing with the space that viewer is watching your work in as well as the content there is scope to immerse the audience and in a way, extend the screen. There’s also the consideration that the temporality is quite different. The work needs to be able to be viewed for any amount of time. I try to make work that can have an effect on the viewer within the first few seconds but can be rewarding and interesting for a much longer time.

Nathan continues to provide sales and consulting services to productions and companies looking to save time and money using the latest technology. Recently, Nathan provided technical services, workflow consulting, and on-set data management equipment and services for David Fincher’s The Social Network. Nathan continues to work with Mr. Fincher on his most recent project, Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, currently shooting in Sweden and editing in Los Angeles. Nathan’s core business has evolved to focus primarily on asset, storage and archive management solutions and workflow.

1. Describe an “average” work day.

Well, I wear a lot of hats so I don’t really have an “average” day.  I have average editorial days, and average DI days, and average production days, and then average days trying to find work, which is probably the most average day of all.

An engineer I know says, “Plan the build, then build the plan”.  So when I’m doing a project for Cinematomic, I start with a scope of work that everyone can agree on.  Then I create a plan for every stage of post and try to stick to it.  As things change and evolve I try to make sure everyone has changes to the plan at least a week in advance. This tends to keeps everyone in lock step.  A lot of editors, myself included, can get wrapped up in the minutia of nudging a cut one or two frames back and forth so on a feature, I’m always pushing to just make the cut and move on.  Odds are we’ll be back here trimming the scene down in a few weeks anyway.

These days, when editing unscripted content, the edit room takes on a more creative vibe, which is fun, but it makes the process slower.  Suddenly the story is getting created spontaneously based on the footage, and the collaboration between producer, director, editor, and others becomes very apparent.  It reminds me of when I was a recording engineer.  I loved catching those serendipitous moments on tape; the perfect drum take, or the perfect vocal take. It’s the creative process in its purest form.  That’s why I do this stuff.

2. What is a common mistake productions make in regards to workflows?

Not enough planning. It’s amazing how much money gets thrown away in production and post-production because of preventable mistakes.  If you plan properly, you end up saving time, hiring the right people and minimizing the surprises that cost money.  Too often I see productions jump into the deep end and then they realize they don’t know how to swim.  It’s a shame because they end up spending their entire budget on production and there’s nothing left for post.  A good A.D., U.P.M. and/or Line Producer can make the difference between staying on budget and blowing it.

For instance, I got a call from a client a few weeks ago that lost 11 days of a 13 day shoot because they hired an unknown as their data wrangler.  Well, he just opened the SxS cards and started dragging, dropping and material and he completely screwed the entire production.  It was a disaster.  They ended up doubling their budget and losing money on the job, and their client was still unhappy at the finish line.  What a nightmare.

Unfortunately, most people think they’re much more talented than they actually are.  And the ego’s are so big, that no one will admit they’re in over their head. If productions would just stick to word of mouth referrals things would be a lot better. People should be rewarded for honesty.  Instead, they’re punished. I love people that say, “I don’t know but I’ll find out the right answer for you”.  It means they’re not full of crap and they don’t mind humbling themselves to get the right answer.  That just shows integrity to me.

3. At what point do productions usually bring you onto a project? i.e development/pre-production

It’s different for every project.  In the past, I usually stepped in after the bulk of editorial was completed.  I would shepherd a project through DI, sound mix, film print, Digital Cinema mastering, Dolby encoding, etc. all the way to theatrical release.  But now, I’m doing a lot more consulting before a single frame has been shot.  Now that so many shows and features are shooting with file-based cameras, at least half of my discussions revolve around how they’re going to safely add metadata on set, back up the files, and get them to post.  Of course everyone has their own product, widget, software, etc. to handle this.  I’ve just started directing for the first time, and I’m so meticulous about everything.  I’m literally storyboarding interviews so everyone knows what I want, and there’s no surprises.

4. Which members of the production team do you work with closely when designing a workflow?

Almost always there’s a guy on set that’s managing the data.  He’s the key.  Either he’s the DIT or a dedicated data wrangler, or the producer’s nephew who’s “interning” for free (bad idea). On the Social Network, I worked with Tyler Nelson, David’s Assistant Editor, and Joe Wolcott, David’s Technical Advisor.  We had a prototype system that we had already used on set for a couple of projects, but we had to make a lot of changes to it for David’s workflow.  We needed new software from Red for the Red Rocket card to handle the footage from the Mysterium sensor (this was long before the sensor was released to the public).  The studio required an LTO-4 backup of the camera masters, so did the production, and we needed a fair amount of RAID storage to handle all of the new content Tyler was generating. Tyler spent weeks prior to production timing things with a stopwatch so he knew exactly what the system could do.  He is the most thorough “planner” I’ve ever met.  And it worked beautifully.  Tyler not only handled the work of the assistant editor, he also did the job of a DIT, data wrangler, telecine facility, editor, composite artist…I could go on for days.  He’s amazing.  I don’t think he requires sleep like the rest of us.

Anyway, the key to designing the right workflow for me is the seamless hand off from production to post; to blur the line between the two.  The person that is responsible for data management needs to understand both sides of the coin, read between the lines, and be two steps ahead of everyone on the production and in post.

I do have some basic rules that I try to live by.  I always try to write everything down.  I always speak to the Line Producer and get budget restrictions.  I always quadruple the amount of data the director thinks he’s going to shoot.  And perhaps the most important rule is that I always start the plan from the finish line and work my way backward.  For instance, if we’re finishing for the web, we don’t have to post everything in 4k and do a DI.  The problem comes with productions who say, “We want to keep our options open to prepare for 4k DI and theatrical release on film”.  They usually change their mind when they see what that does to the budget though.  More and more I find myself just recommending that we finish in Prores for low budget features.  Prores looks great and I’ve even seen it recorded to film and it looks really good for many projects.  And what a time save it is to edit “online” the entire time.  It’s great for non-technical directors to just adopt the WYSIWYG philosophy.  Keep it simple.  I think that’s my new motto.

5. How have you seen the DIT role change since HD has really taken off?

Take a step back and look at the migration from film, to HD tape, and now file-based HD productions.  When a DP shoots with film, they can, for instance, shoot with the aperture wide open and still be able to recover detail in the areas that were [intentionally] overexposed.  In a digital world, once the image clips, there’s no more information there, so the switch to the all digital world of HD required a DIT to manipulate the color on set, like a telecine colorist, to make sure that they could get the desired end result given how the DP shot it.  Basically, the DIT was primarily responsible for making sure the actual image reflected what the DP and director actually wanted to see.  In the last few years, as things have shifted away from tape to file-based workflows, the DIT’s responsibilities have increased significantly.  On small productions, the DIT often handles the role of a data wrangler, in addition to the typical DIT duties of image manipulation.  On bigger projects, the DIT tends to focus on basic color grading, image enhancement, LUT creation, transcoding, and even some compositing if needed.  The bigger the project, the more people they can usually dedicate to making sure that the files are safely backed up, with the necessary metadata applied to speed up post later.

Lately, it seems like the experienced DP’s have their own DIT who knows them very well.  The DP can shoot totally flat, to achieve the right exposure and get the optimal amount of color information to the camera’s sensor.  Then the DIT and DP can create a look, which can be saved as a LUT and applied to other images that need that look.  The LUT can be baked in to the offline editorial content, delivered to VFX houses along with camera master files, and eventually to the final color correction as a reference for what everyone expects the end result to look like.

6. Here in Australia it is sometimes suggested that the 2nd Assistant Camera take on the role of DIT in a small production. How important is an experienced DIT to a production?

It depends on the production, but usually it’s pretty critical.  If there is any image manipulation happening on set, it’s a necessity.  The big question in Hollywood has been, “Who is that person and how do the unions approach that position?”  It seems like at first it was a hot potato that no one wanted to touch.  The cinematographers were pushing it to the audio guys, because they were the ones that had previously dealt with data and hard drives.  Suddenly, they all realized that the hard drive was their NEGATIVE and the cinematographer’s guild took the hot potato back.  In general, it seems like DIT’s typically gets paid on scale with a 2nd Assistant Camera, as they have to do many similar duties.  If there’s a person dedicated to data management, he/she usually gets paid on scale with a film loader.

It’s all very political in Hollywood.  There’s a system, and it seems like those that try to circumvent the system from the bottom up, get easily squashed.  I am genuinely thankful to directors like David Fincher, who take the process on themselves and deliver a finished product to the studio.  It eliminates the committee that can get in the way of creativity.  Clearly, if you’re at the top, you can dictate the process.

7. Storage and archiving of materials is an important part of ever increasing data-centric workflows. Can you offer any advice on the best ways keeping track of media?

This is the question that is perplexing everyone right now.  My business partners at CET Universe have done some interesting things with their asset & storage management software, Constellation.  It’s what Tyler used on The Social Network.  But it’s got strengths and weaknesses, just like everything else.  Sometimes the best thing is a laptop and Shotput Pro and a few EditVault’s by Maxx Digital, for cheap, durable firewire storage.  It’s just such a moving target that it’s difficult to pin down a standardized workflow process.

I’ve seen interesting solutions from Fotokem, and from MTI, and from One Beyond, but the one company that seems to consistently stay ahead of the curve is LightIron Digital.  Michael Cioni does an amazing job of anticipating the next great thing and he addresses the problems before anyone even knows there’s an issue.  It’s like running a marathon and you think you’re in first place, and you get to the finish line and there’s Michael, resting with a beer in his hand, playing cards and waiting for you to catch up.

I just worked with Sean Cooney, the VP of Advanced Production Technology at Warner Brothers Studios, to help answer these questions and we had some real revelations.  First, all LTO software is not created equal.  Most of the software writes to LTO tape in a proprietary format, which can be cheap, but it makes it difficult for the other person at the end of the line who is trying to actually recover the files from that LTO tape without the necessary software.  Additionally, very few apps actually have some sort of management GUI that allows you to search for archived files that are sitting on a tape in a vault somewhere.  Cache-A does a good job of addressing both of these issues, so I like their products a lot.  The other thing we discovered is that many of the “on-set” solutions are really more like “near set” solutions.  But vendors just don’t think about a RAID array cranking out 120db of noise in the background and how that just isn’t going to work when the director needs quiet on the set.  And the big question mark is creating and applying LUTs in a cost effective manner.  I can’t believe there isn’t an inexpensive application for LUT creation that will bake that LUT into Prores or DNXhd files for offline editing.  There are plenty of devices that do it, but they’re prohibitively expensive for most independent DIT’s.  Most DIT’s that I know say, “Hire me and you get my gear for the entire period”.  The best solution I’ve seen, and it gives you a lot of bang for the buck, is Speedgrade by Iridas.

In general, I think the studios need to standardize on a mezzanine format so there’s a delivery standard.  I’ve dealt quite a bit with the folks from one particular studio (nameless), and they are really struggling right now to find the right workflow process for their episodic television shows.  They have always had a production hand them a reel of film, the film gets telecine’d and then sent to the vault for archive.  Now, the same people are getting a firewire drive with a bunch of .R3D files on it (for example).  Well, the studio doesn’t want to do transcoding and color timing and archiving that they’ve never had to do before, and I don’t blame them.  But neither does the production company whose budgets have been squeezed to the limit from the studio.  So it’s a real issue that hasn’t been totally resolved, but it’s getting there.  The first step is for the studios to set a delivery standard.  If they said, “We will only accept 2k DPX sequences on LTO-4 in .TAR format”, or something like that, then the production companies could have a target to hit, and include that in their budget.  Until then, it’ll be a constantly moving target and everyone will just keep handing the problem off to the next guy.  Kudos to Sean Cooney and the folks at WB Studios for making the most involved, thorough, concerted effort I’ve ever seen to really get to the bottom of the issue.  It’s a tough one to resolve right now.

8. What was it like working with David Fincher on The Social Network?

Honestly, I worked mostly with Tyler Nelson and Joe Wolcott behind the scenes.  It’s not like I was hanging out sipping wine with David between takes.  But his presence is felt in everything related to the project.  He is a perfectionist, but he’s not a diva, and he’s totally fair and realistic and logical in the way he gets things done.  He knows what he wants, he does it his way, and he keeps things under wraps until he wants others to see it.  So most of the post happens in his facility.  He also works very fast, so everyone else just has to keep pace or catch up.  Perhaps the most important thing I’ve taken away from my time with the Fincher camp, is to surround yourself with great people.  Everyone involved with David’s projects, from the studio executives to the runners, are all at the top of their game.  It really drives you when you’re around people like that.  It makes you want to go the extra mile, not to avoid a problem, but because you believe in his vision and you want to help him get the best result possible.  It’s truly inspiring.

I got involved because I was showing off a mobile Red Rocket system at a trade show with LTO backup, metadata tagging, transcoding, etc.  This was the summer of 2009, so the Red Rocket card was still pretty new to the market and the solution I had designed was pretty cutting edge for the time.  I met Joe Wolcott there, and he told me that he needed to replicate the HDCamSR workflow he had devised for Zodiac and Benjamin Button, but we needed to do it for Red.  So we (CET Universe) had to design a new system based on an untested prototype, and we had very little time to do it because of all the camera tests and the fact that David wanted the Harvard material to take place in early autumn with the trees changing color.  To further complicate things, David wanted to overcrank the Red camera to 36fps but stay at 4k, which the Red One camera couldn’t do.  So Red generously retrofitted a Red One with the (relatively untested) Mysterium sensor, and they wrote new software for us to try with the Red Rocket card.  It was an interesting combination of a proven process on unproven equipment, so we were very cautious and stayed up many nights testing and retesting and timing things with a stopwatch with Tyler.  He ended up in Boston (and Baltimore and London and Los Angeles) ingesting, duplicating, archiving (to LTO-4), and transcoding over 80GB of Red CF cards per day.  Additionally, he was transcoding to ProRes and H.264, then uploading the H.264 versions to the dailies server so Angus could pull the selects in LA and get cutting while the ProRes material was shipped on a firewire drive to be relinked in at David’s post facility in FCP.  It was hectic but a solid workflow that allowed David to have a rough cut by the time he returned from principle photography.

Angus is a really cool customer.  We rented and supported their entire post setup, a 96TB XSan, 4 FCP stations and a few After Effects systems.  There was a really tense moment in the post process where we had to shut the SAN down for some maintenance.  I was really nervous about telling Angus and David that they had to stop for a few days, but Angus was really cool.  He understood the situation, he said, “No problem David, we’ll just keep cutting from the ProRes on the firewire drives”, and that was that.  They are total professionals that really want to focus on the best way to tell their story.  Sometimes the chatter of gear and technology can get in the way, but they all really use it to their advantage.  I’ve always said, “Use whatever serves the story”, and I think David would agree.

9. What are the challenges (with regards to Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) on workflow’s that cross continents?

Well, the workflow is very much the same.  The production is much more mobile though, so Tyler had to go much lighter this time.  And David is moving at an even faster pace in many ways.  They shot a bunch last year in the winter, then came back to LA for a few months, and returned to Sweden in March.  As a matter of fact, they wrapped in Sweden today.  Angus and David just flew back and drove to the edit bay straight from the airport.

This question is probably better posed to Tyler as I’ve just been here in LA the whole time dealing with the edit systems and the After Effects systems for conform.  I think the cross continent challenge was more of a shipping concern than anything else.  They’re basically using the same workflow, only they’re using a custom built system that Angus made for data wrangling.  In an effort to save costs, they’re not shipping a single drive every day, but several drives at a time once a week or so.  But other than that, the workflow is pretty much the same as The Social Network.

10. What is the industry like in LA?

Competitive.  I know a lot of incredibly talented people with a long history of successful work, and they’re totally broke and unemployed.  People are doing ridiculous amounts of great work for peanuts, and it lowers the value of the work they do, but everyone’s got to eat I guess.  Last year I started a list of crazy job postings that I discover.  I saw one the other day where they asked someone to do After Effects work and 3D modeling in Maya.  He/she needed 12 years of experience or more, a reel showcasing only their work, with a description of what they actually did in each shot, and the list went on and on.  The end of the ad says they can’t pay ANYTHING!  And I’m sure they found someone.  The new crop of kids coming up can do it all too, and they’ll work for beer money, so unless you stay sharp and hip to the latest technology, you’ll be left out in the cold.  The days of the prima donna editor that won’t even reboot a computer after a crash are over.  And it also means that the editor also has to be a graphics guy, and a sound guy, and an assistant editor, and he has to know compression, and camera operation…the works.  It’s the dawn of the Producer / Editor, or PREDITOR.  One guy, that does it all.

Color correction has changed dramatically too.  Color correction used to be a process used to make subtle changes to different scenes, or cameras, or reels of film.  Now, in the DI process, artists are relighting scenes and doing amazing things.  The “fix it in post” mentality is still in effect, but now a lot of the problems actually CAN be fixed in post, for the right money.  On The Social Network, most of the stuff Jeff Cronenweth shot was handheld.  The footage was meticulously stabilized in After Effects and it looks amazing.  Every shot seems so deliberately smooth and deliberate.  I love that.

I think we’re already seeing that technology makes power available to the masses.  More productions are happening outside of Hollywood than ever before.  New Mexico, Lousiana, Florida, Michigan…they’re all doing big “Hollywood” features.  There’s talent everywhere now, and the technology means that talent doesn’t have to come to LA or New York.  They can stay in Nova Scotia, or Sydney, or Detroit, and get good work.