The Invisible or The I-Factor or The Post Freelancer's Star Wars Podcast Trilogy

I have had this Blog post in draft mode for the last few months now. As I was finished listening to Episode 53 of The Back to Work Podcast, I realize that I was listening to the "Return of the Jedi" podcast for freelancers editors. 

Which means that Ep. 51 is "The New Hope" & Ep 52 is the Pana-ultimate-cast "Empire Strikes Back"! So if your only going to listen to one of te podcast's, you should listen to that one. My struggling with this post was finished. I am not a writter, so why not just leave it to the pros. They pretty much hashes out all my thoughts and more on the subject of what I like to call the "Invisible".

Please read at your own risk the draft of my thoughts on Freelance intagngable that most Productions don't take into account when picking someone to craft their project in the most important final stages.

(Begining of Draft)

I was recently chatting with a peer of mine about software (FCP X and 3D packages), post work in general and the state of working freelance in the film industry when I started to talk about that INVISIBLE factor. It is the invisible advantage that hiring someone like me (meaning someone with a certain level of experience) versus someone who can just operate a software package (Thanks Mr.Jobs you made my life easier but you made some people think that they don't have to "study" film to make film*). 

I know that this is treading weird waters as I find it hard to write about this because it isn't a tangeble. Also, I don't think that there isn't a place for the "machine operator" as I call them. Moreover, I don't pretend that I don't opperate the machine and you should strive to know your tool to it's fullest so that it isn't stopping you or slowing you down from the task at hand. BUT, I know that most of my regular clients appreciate the INVISIBLE that I bring to the table. I think Malcom Gladwell touches on this on his book (which I haven't finished reading yet). 

I don't really have to explain this to my current repeat offender clients but the new clients that come for a quote always seem to look at it from a dollar and cents perspective. Rarely do they look at how far their dollar spent is going to seen in the result of the footage.

One last thing on this I-Factor, the I might be for INSURANCE. What I always say to my clients, is that your paying for insurance that if there is a "road block" or something doesn't go as planned, you loose some footage,... any of the thousand of situations that happen on a film production. The more experienced, seasoned individual has that set of invisible tools to deal with that situation. 

The sad and sometimes frustrating part of this is that the productions that don't run into a bad experience never really see the advantage of the INVISIBLE; since they completed the show, commercial or movie without the drama of a disater but one will never know how great it could have been if they hired someone with the INVISIBLE.

* What I mean by study film is not necessaraly go to schoold but read, eat sleep film. Really study it as a craft.

(end of draft)

The Invisible factor: Puppet elevate's the average actingfrom Good to Great.

I appologize if this isn't the most polished post, but like I said, I am not a writer. My stregth is writting with pictures, a soundtrack, ect... I am just "Shipping it"!

Shipped! (Thx Merilin Man & Dan Benjamin)  

The Guidestones: The Web Series Post Production or Behind the Scenes at Editing Little Bits of Media.

I just finished watching the Guidestones web series. It such a great interactive journey that I won't try to describe. They explain it better than me...

GUIDESTONES EPK from Thom Smalley.

Last year, I was brought on board of a project from one of my old filmmaking friends, Jay Ferguson.We have worked on many projects over the years and our relationship goes back to film school. (now that is a long time!)

Jay had already consulted with me about technical issues surrounding the production when it was in the pre-production phase. So, when he invited me on the project, I knew that this project seemed to be rather unique. I was busy at the time but I accepted to get involved because he always  seems to work on those "out of the box" projects that I enjoy working on. I was brought on with about one third of the project was already in the "can" and Jay was busy shooting around the world, literally (United States & India). 

So, my job on this one was to put the narrative storyline, pace and tone of the episodes together. Pretty basic stuff, or so I thought. Besides the challenge of packing in a story in 3 minutes, it became apparent that the story had an online element that branched off into various media that had alternate cuts. My first impression was "what great high end production value of footage for a webisodic". Also, the acting and story were ambitious and complex and I could see how the active interaction with the web searches would add to experience of watching the series.

Dug up some early cuts of concept stuff that I worked on as I was setting up the feel and pace. Here is a Prologue that I cut that ended up on the cutting room floor but you can still echoe's of it in the opening of episode 1.

On the technical side, rarely was a scene that didn't have more than 2 cameras rolling and the episodes ranged from 3- 1 min which has it's own challenges because the scenes were cinematic, intense and had to be watched in short span of time and convey a puzzle piece of a narrative nugget. So, most of the time you had to edit 2 or more angles that were not coverage angle in a standard shot counter-shot but used as a filmmaking device. Jay explained to me that it should have a feel like they are always being watched, so I used lots of partially abstructed and odd camera angles as possible, coupled with a lot of cuts. When you sign up to watch it you'll appreciate the scope.

Here is another version of the Prologue from the cutting room floor.

We ran into many speedbumps like media management (Multiple editors in remote locations), multicam sync or various camera formats, back up data and general workflow sync as episodes finalized. In hinesight, I see now that most of the solutions were right out of the Making of Cold Mountain book with some modern fixes that are unique to Final Cut Pro Studio 2.

Basically, Guidestones is made up of over 50 episodes which the running time exeeds a feature length and has all the added problems of the online environment. One of the more subtle challenges was making sure that the web nest eggs were in place and all the media was managed to not leave out any elements. We used some master documents and some very key members of the post crew glued the project together and aided me in getting my part done. (Thom Smalley, Jenna McMillan, Sam Thomson and many more after I did my part) 

ep.1.4 Rough Cut Guidestones.

I only worked on the project in its infancy when I look at the final project it is has "graduated University"; but the skeleton is still intact of my contribution (which is interesting to see). Moreover, the visual polish, soundtrack, sound mix, motion effects and graphics are motion picture quality. So don't expect a handycam, low budget or Youtube cat movie experience. I found some interesting rough cut ideas that we worked through, interesting to compare with the final episode.

It is true hard to describe the experience of watching the episodes but I highly recommended it since it is for the active viewer. I just finished watching the episodes in the push format via email as it was intended to be seen. Very engaging.

So, have a coffee and watch the first few episodes and let me know what you think.

2011 Look back to Look Forward to 2012

This year was a bigger projects year but less volume which is good for my creative health. 
After buying a house/relocating my office space and doing some renos. The year ended quietly.

Here is some of the work I produced this year but unfortunatly, 2 of the bigger projects are under Non Disclosure Agreements, but I will post up when they are released. 

CRIBSIDE.CA: By far the best thing I worked on this year since it wasn't purly for entertainment but for a good cause. A small group of pastionate Fathers (myself included) collaborated to produce a Website to help new Dads, please pass it on to expecting Fathers and Mothers.

SHAW FESTIVAL 50TH ANNIVERSARY PROMO: A Historical Review of the Shaw Festival.


OTMP: Short series of films exploring Ontario Tourism
 

Now I should get Back to Work (also the name of a great productivety Podcast that I have been binging on as I renovated) and find the next Great thing to work on... Have a great year! 

Anthony K. Baird

Editor/Motion Graphics/Colorist for Gorillaproductions.ca

Not only an "A" in team or The A-team

This year I have worked on many small team projects. Meaning that we were a smaller team than what usually a regular production company would assemble to execute a project. I must say that all the projects were successfull and executed as well or even better than a bigger production could have done with larger ressources.

In highnsight, I looked at why this small team concept was successfull. I must say right off the bat that it wasn't always an all-star crew and I realize now from these last few projects that it doesn't have to be an The "Best of the Best" (BOB) to pull off an exeptional result. The real key is a good dynamic. Like most great sports stories the cast of players on the team were not an amalgamation of all the best players of the league but a rag tag crew of derelligues that rise to the occasion to win the Super Bowl ('83 Raiders) or the World Series ('94 Montreal Expos... I know they didn't win because of strike but the romantic in me likes to Dream).

This is not to say to try to get the best people but in most occassions I have been in a dynamic where it was BOB; the interactions between the various creative and administrative personel created a sculpture out of "poop". Meaning, in the end the result was looked good greek sculpture but it's composition was lacking. On my scale, good is not something to aspire to or even settle for. Basically, a gathering of the "Best of the Best" doesn't guarantee a strong result sometimes it it implodes.

I use Hitchcock as an exemple to my point when I work with directors or in creative meetings. Hitch was a genius director because he didn't storyboard the shower scene or create the sountrack for it. He got Saul Bass and Bernard Hermand to work on it for him. Genius.

Being able to assemble a great team, work with different personalities, get the right people connected with the right people on any level is talent that is underated, undervalued and often overlooked.

One last thing on The "BOB", they don't always work/interact with other properly. One thing that I noticed is that if one ore more of the extremely talented team is not participating for some reason, the team dynamic as a whole becomes chaotic and leads to the demise of the project. Film is by nature chaotic and minimizing the pieces that risk your project is the ultimate goal to put yourself in the best posible positiion. Assembling The BOB is no guarantee of success, I would even say that building a team that way decreases your chances at success.

My 2 cents... now back to the #NextNewThing. 

Final Cut Pro X : Crossing Out Jobs or Multiplying Them.

The new Final Cut Pro X was announces tonight and I hit the twitter-verse. People were buzzing about the price point, the features and some were worried about their professional future.

I think it is important to remember the past and not drink too much of the "Kool-aid". Yeah the features are great and they might keep things in sync for you and import natively from your DSL camera directly... Yeah, it's too be expected. Computers are suppose to do the robot work.

But I don't think jobs (Editor and/or Assistant Editor Jobs) are in trouble. 

I think the easy access might yes create some people who think that now they are "editors" because they know software but most in the industry are use to weeding out those folks. And with the coming of the digital age of filmmaking (1998-present) we lost a few transfer House techs but gainned onset media managers. Jobs die and new ones pop up, c'est la vie.

Moreover, I am presently working on a project that has 2 assistants, 2 editors and even the director is doing some touching up. Thus, the assistants must keep 4-5 sets of drives organized. This makes me believe that filmmakers will just use more cameras requiring more man power to keep up with more ambitious projects. I remember a time where documentary shooting ratio was 4:1, now it's more like 40:1; the cameras are rolling.

Most importantly let's not forget that the computers have not taken over yet. They won't work flawlessly like in a demo in a controlled environment. They will be glitches, fixes and most importantly people who will push the software to it's limits requiring some creative troubleshooting from an ace assistant.