E-NEWS

EDITION # 031

June 2012

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Greetings Editing Colleagues,

Winter sure is settling in.  Time to stoke the fire and keep the fingers warm with furious tapping on those keyboards.

Who wants to be outside anyway, right?

The most exciting news of this past month is the tremendous show of support by Brissie Folk for the first Queensland ASE Meeting(report below).  We are now in the throws of organising local events, an AVID training course first cab off the rank.  Stay tuned for details.

A reminder if you're in Perth, your AVID training courses are scheduled to run end of this month.

This is part of the ASE Mentorship and Training initiatives.  Please contact us if you'd like to know more details.

If you're in Adelaide, be sure to pop along to the Grading, VFX and Post Production Seminar being run in conjunction with the ACS, Thurs 14th June.  See ASE website for details.

 www.screeneditors.com

Sydney-siders are no doubt enjoying the Film Festival, running all this week too.

Here is what is on ... http://sff.org.au/public/schedule/

A special thank you to Executive Committee Member Adrian Barac who has volunteered his valuable time to produce the monthly eNews. I'm sure you will agree, the eNews is a valuable asset to the ASE. He takes over from Christopher Mill who for many years helmed this responsibility of spreading the news to ASE Members.  Now Christopher is heading off to inform the world of the London Olympics.  Thank you Chris and safe travels!

Remember, it really is a matter of  "what can you do for your Guild?”

Please let us know what you'd like to contribute or make available to share. 

Let's find great comfort in supporting each other.

 

Regards,

Jason Ballantine ASE

ASE President

 


 

VICTORIAN UPDATE

 

This year the ASE became a part of the St Kilda Film Festival Awards

ceremony by giving a years membership to the winner of Best Editing. It’s

uber cool to announce Merlin Cornish who won Best Editing at the 2012 St

Kilda Film Festival for his work on Transmission is the latest member of the

ASE. Really what more could you want but to have the editing community

become available to you! Next time you see a post-production practitioner

ask them if they are an ASE member.

 

I do hope you had an opportunity to go to one of the three events that was

held over May. The committee worked hard to ensure all three events gave

those who attended something to think about. I’d like to thank Belinda Fithie

– The Family, Rob Buttery - TV Comedy Editing and Rob Nairn – St Kilda

Film Festival for their work at coordinating and moderating their events as well

as Jill Holt for being the champ that she is in providing the Swinburne venue

and running table at the St Kilda Film Festival Industry Day. To the panelists:

Wayne Hyett ASE, Steve Robinson ASE, Dave Redman, Dani Raulli, Belinda

Fithie, Julie-Anne De Ruvo, Ken Hardie, Chris Branagan, Sasha Dylan Bell,

Megan Voevodin and Cameron Nugent thank you for giving up your time to

share the joy and trials you encountered while editing.

 

If you haven’t visited the Art of Guillotine website for a while give it a look see

as the team able coordinated by Richard Greenhalgh is working their way

through the events we have filmed. I don’t know about you but I get abuzz

seeing Aussie editors in the mix.

 

As always keep an eye on the ASE website as we have events being finalised

and will announce them as they find their slot. Have an amazing June.

 

Cindy Clarkson

ASE Victorian Chair



 

SOUTH AUSTRALIAN UPDATE

The South Australian Chapter will be co-hosting an event with the Australian Cinematographers Society at the Adelaide Studios with Marty Pepper on colour grading, visual effects and shooting for post.  Marty Pepper from KOJO has graded and been visual effects supervisor for films such as The Lucky One, Swerve, The Boys Are Back, Rogue, No Reservations and Wolf Creek (to name a few).


Anthony Maras took out BEST EDITING for his film The Palace at the South Australian Screen Awards.  This ads to a long list of great success for Anthony's short film which was picked up by Hopscotch Films and screened in front of Wish You Were Here at Palace cinemas.Anthony also edited his two previous multi-award winning short films Spike Up and Azadi.

An AVID Info night for the Editors of S.A. is going to be hosted at Pro AV Solutions later in June. More details to be announced for this event in the coming weeks.

Other than that everyone's trucking along and keeping their heads buried in work.

South Australian Co-Chairs,
Sean Lahiff and Carly Turner


WESTERN AUSTRALIAN UPDATE

The big news for us in the west is that the travelling Advanced Avid Workshop is making its way across the Nullarbor.  On June 30th, Dave Forsythe will be conducting a full day session designed to take editors to the next level (or at least into the secret world of Avid magic tricks and techniques).  The seminar is presented as part of the ASE Mentorship scheme and is free of charge to ASE full members.  We would like to thank the executive for arranging this and especially to Gwen Sputore and Margaret Slarke for helping organise it. 

Also, at the end of the month ASE WA will be attending a meeting with our state film funding organisation ScreenWest.  This meeting is an opportunity for the ASE to get briefings from the funding body and to present issues relating to our members.  If anyone has anything they'd like raised we would be happy to discuss this with them and present it at the meeting. 

We were also thrilled to have Victorian ASE Committee Chairperson Cindy Clarkson with us last week.  It was great that she could make time to come to dinner with a number of WA committee members and share her experiences. It does give us a wonderful sense of community, so if any ASE member is thinking of heading west, we'd be happy to catch up and show them some west coast hospitality.

Lawrie Silvestrin

WA ASE Sub-Committee Chairperson

 

 


 

MEET THE MEMBER

Josh Dawson

Josh Dawson, born and bred in Brisbane, grew up with an overly healthy dose of exposure to documentary and film. He spent time in front of the camera as a child, but was far more interested in everything else going on behind the scenes. He is currently focused on his long form slate of projects, and is one of the owners of newly established creative editing facility The Post Effect.

I knew I wanted to work in post when… I was in year 10, and it was the first time I sat in front of an Avid system. It was Avid Express Pro. I was blown away by this awesome thing called editing, and basically spent the rest of my time at high school locked away in the main edit suite on campus.

My first break in the industry was… I did work experience at7 news in Brisbane for about 8 months. I essentially had the keys to the building, and they had no problems with letting me sit and watch and help out wherever I was most interested on a particular day. It was a huge learning experience and I eventually got my first industry job out of it.

The thing I love most about editing is… The think that I love the most is being able to take a series of shots or pictures and telling a story, and having that story affect people emotionally. I really like to be able to sit in a screening and watch the audience more so than what is being shown.

The best tip I’ve got for aspiring editors is... There are two major parts to progressing with a successful career in editing.Firstly, just get in there and edit. Edit everything and anything that you can.Experience is the most valuable asset when looking to improve your skills. It doesn't matter what your working on in particular, as long as your using the tools and learning while you go! And don't be afraid to ask questions or to grab opportunities that might otherwise pass you by. This is a pretty competitive industry, so every little bit counts. 

Secondly, get to know the people who are making the films in your local industry, the directors and producers. Forge relationships with your peers from university who are in these roles, because more often than not, you will come to work with them again in the future. And certainly make an effort to introduce yourself to the senior practitioners in the industry. 

If I wasn’t in post production I’d be… a Paramedic

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MEET THE MEMBER

Bryan Mason

 

Photo by Sophie Hyde. Bryan Mason shooting part of “52 Tuesdays in New York”.

Bryan is in the unique position of shooting a lot of the footage that he cuts, giving him an incredible relationship to the material he works with.Coupled with his ability to make a fantastically steeped cup of tea (he waits the full five minutes), openness, dedication and creativity he is absolutely someone you want in the trenches next to you. 

I knew I wanted to work in post when…  I realised how much of the feel of a film was created there. 

My first break in the industry was... Getting paid work first shooting and later cutting furniture commercials straight out of university, I was already making skateboarding films in my spare time but getting paid to do something that I really enjoyed was amazing, I couldn't believe it. 

The thing I love most about editing is... seeing a project go from just a bunch of shots to something with its own identity. That phase of any edit process where you start to see and feel what the final film is going to be, its an exciting and often surprising moment.

The best tip I've got for aspiring editors is... cut, cut, cut and keep on cutting. If you think the edit is a bit clunky the chances are an audience will too, keep cutting, refining until it sings.

If I wasn't in post production I'd be... out shooting all the time I think, its my other passion.



MEET THE MEMBER

David Ngo

 

David Ngo has been an editor in the film and TV industry for over 8 years. He got his first big gig as senior editor on the prime-time series My Restaurant Rules at the age of 23 and has cut several TV shows and films since then including Risking It All (SBS), My Generations (SBS), The Adventures of Figaro Pho (ABC) and the feature film Broken Hill produced by Chris Wyatt (Napoleon Dynamite) and Julie Ryan (Red Dog). David is currently preparing to produce and edit the feature film One Eyed Girl directed by Nick Matthews.

I knew I wanted to work in post when… I was fired from my job at the pub for offering too many suggestions. I knew then and there, to my father's dismay, regular work just wasn't for me.

My first break in the industry was… When I got accidentally interviewed for a job as an animator. The interviewer got a bit annoyed I was wasting their time, having absolutely no experience or portfolio to show in animation. But I guess they liked something about me because they offered me the assistant editor job instead.

The thing I love most about editing is… Collaboration.Bashing out a difficult problem with the director and/or producer. The flip side of that coin is working with someone who has their own 'vision' and no ability to consider alternatives. When you're working with someone like that it's just operating the computer and any monkey can do that.

The best tip I’ve got for aspiring editors is... That it's an art. And by that, I mean you'll never perfect it. Just get incrementally better until you eventually develop your own style. And, like all arts, there's a major craft component to it, so learn from those with more experience. Editing is constructing stories in time, and that won't change just because you can cut on an iPad in HD.

If I wasn’t in post production I’d be… A video store manager. Probably not a very good one at that.

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SPONSOR NEWS

Some news from ASE sponsor, DIGISTOR

DIGITAL MEDIA WORKSHOPS

Get Upskilled
Digistor offers a comprehensive range of full day (6 hour), half day (4 hour) training courses from our Sydney training centre. Courses can also be arranged in Melbourne.

Adhoc and custom courses can also be arranged for company groups or individuals contact Digistor's Training co-ordinator, Lachlan Robbins.

 

AVID Media Composer 101 Certification Course– 25th – 27th June

Cinema 4D Level 1 – Thursday, 28th June

Cinema 4D Level 2 – Friday, 29th June

 

Details here:

http://www.digistor.com.au/Training.aspx

Digistor will also be running some Adobe specific courses in July focusing on CS6.

 



AVID SYMPHONY PROMOTION

This terrific promotion from AVID continues to gain traction!

Here’s their latest update…


UPCOMING EVENTS

Autodesk’s Blockbuster Tour

The ASE is proud to be an industry partner of Autodesk’s upcoming “Blockbuster Tour”.  Confirmed speakers include Alex Lim from Industrial Light & Magic Singapore and Ian Cope from Rising Sun.

Alex will be sharing their work on The Avengers and Ian will be talking about workflow,working with the clients and behind-the-scenes of the various movies that they have been involved in like Hunger Games and the Harry Potter series.

So mark your diaries for what will surely be a great event!

3rd July – Melbourne

5th July – Sydney

(Locations and other speakers to be confirmed)

Autodesk Webinar

Autodesk are holding a live webinar on June 22 (13:00-14:00 EST)entitled:

Autodesk M&E Meet the Expert Webinars

Featuring Smoke 2013 – The Big Picture

Join Rob O'Neill, ANZ Creative Finishing Specialist, for a live webinar and discover how Smoke 2013 can give you professional editorial finishing for high-quality commercial and broadcast projects on a tight budget.

In 60-minutes, we take an eagle's eye view of the new Autodesk Smoke. This is a must-watch for anyone who has ever attempted to finish an editorial project with high expectations. With a new user interface designed to give you expensive looking content on even the tightest budget, we'll show a brief "How To" segment to get you started on our public beta of Smoke 2013 :

-  Getting  media in to Smoke

-  Using the media to edit

-  Conforming the media to an AAF or XML from an NLE

-  An introduction to the FX Ribbon and Connect FX

-  Accessing the beta version

Event Date: 

Friday, 22 June 2012

13:00-14:00 EST

Other Upcoming Webinars :

13 July (Fri) - Animation tips andtricks

20 July (Fri) - Games : Creating a Racing HUD

27 July (Fri) - Creative Finishing

 


 

Motion Picture Industry Benevolent Society Appeal

The MPIBS has been serving the industry for over 80 years, providing financial and emotional support for cinema industry workers.

*Click here to read more*


 

“Funny Business - The art of editing comedy”

– Melbourne ASE event 15th May 2012

So the old question goes: “What is the secret of comedy?” and the answer: “Timing”… but as we found out at the ASE panel discussion “Funny Business: The art of editing comedy” – timing isn’t the only element that makes for a great comedy edit.

*Click here to read the whole article*

 


A Big INDUSTRY Day Out at SKFF

-Saturday 26th May

As part of the St.Kilda Film Festival Industry Open Day, the ASE had a front table position on the balcony at the beautiful Astor Theatre. As is tradition, Paul Harris sets up shop in the corner to go 'live to air' with 3RRR's Film Buffs forecast (12 -2pm), interviewing some of the star presenters at this year's SKFF including Damien Walshe-Howling talking about his opening night film 'Suspended', and Maia Horniak talking about 'Love Untitled'.

*Click here to read the whole article*

 


 

CONTINUATION OF AACTA MEMBERSHIP REDUCTION FOR ASE MEMBERS

In order to expand our services and membership program, we have revised our price structure and as such, we invite members of ASE to become members of AACTA at the rate of $80 (full AACTA membership is $110). This is a saving of over 25%

For further information, or to join please visit

WWW.AACTA.ORG/MEMBERSHIP

 


 

ON THE WEB

The 'Invisible Art': A Woman's Touch Behind The Scenes

Click here to read the New York Times Article

 

29 Ways to stay creative:

http://vimeo.com/24302498

 

Link to Post Production Checklist from our site:

http://www.screeneditors.com/wages_%26_conditions/index.htm

 

Link to informative transcript from our Just What Are You On event (NB - if you are not a member you will not be able to log in to see it):

http://www.screeneditors.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1980

 

And for anyone that has missed the fantastic ASE promo:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cdm-V04pyFA&feature=player_embedded



 

QUOTE OF THE MONTH

“Like a lady who has lost weight and she’s just getting to that point where she can fit into that favourite dress, you get the film down to just about the right cut.

You can feel it when it happens.”

 — Thelma Schoonmaker on editing a Martin Scorsese film

 


 

Until next time…

The ASE Committee