EVENT REPORT: Class of 2003 NSW

DATELINE:  Sunday 28th July 2013
THE MAIN EVENT: “Class of 2003” – A Decade of Excellence continues
VENUE:Upstairs in that grand old darling – The Lord Dudley in Paddo – scene of more than a few past industry crimes.

A very stylish event  and the welcome very warm for all who attended.  Delicious food was handed around by no less than our hardworking Administrator Margie Slarke  and President, Jason Ballantine ASE – the hosts with the most.Three stalwarts of the original ‘Class of 2003’ graced us with their wit and erudite musings on their life’s work.

Peter Whitmore ASE, Suresh Ayyar ASE and Stewart Young ASE.The afternoon’s conversation was hosted by Dr Karen Pearlman who easily managed put the chaps at their ease and extract the pearls of wisdom we’d all gathered to hear.

Peter Whitmore ASEtalked about how his career had evolved and lessons learned by working with amazing people that opened his mind to observing and  thinking about the rhythms of life that he echoes in the cutting room.  A great raconteur, he admitted to a current edit that was more a 48 minute tv pilot than the commissioned 90 sec ad.   He also talked about the reality of often being the meat in the sandwich with all the different stakeholders in the commercial editors cutting room.

Suresh Ayyar ASE made us all laugh when he admitted that his long list of credits on his IMDB page was the sole reason the bank manager gave him a loan to buy an apartment because he was obviously a working editor.  Suresh went on to talk about about how consuming each project is, working as hard as he can within the available resources: time, budget and performances and then having to let go at the end of each film knowing that he’d done his best.

And Stewart Young ASE now retired and smelling the roses – talked of the ‘luck’ he had enjoyed with the projects that chose him.  A start at Cinesound and not in the department he really wanted, but Despatch – then moving into the Sound Department, all lead to a long career at Channel 10 and the ABC cutting many wonderful documentaries.  We all smiled at the self-deprecating and hard-working Scotsman’s talk of ‘luck’ and being in the right place at the right time – the producers would have been mad to go past him.

The charm of the afternoon was that the chaps all have very different personalities , but are very much committed to a life in editorial, and it showed that there is no one ‘type’ of editor – just some very lovely and talented people doing the best they can for the people smart enough to hire them.

All hail the Class of 2003 – Hip Hip Hooray! and RIP Karl Sodersten ASE

written by Frayne Dyke-Walker