#somebody take adobe premiere away from me | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

violetsystems · 4 years ago

Text

#personal

I was invited the other day to join a community as a Creative Advisor from a survey I filled out for Adobe. I made the choice last November to purchase Creative Cloud for an entire year at a discount. When I worked at an art school I had all those applications free. Anybody in the arts community will tell you that software is expensive. I don’t necessarily feel too connected to the local arts community these days. But being a Creative Advisor basically means I participate in focus groups and offer my opinions in writing. It’s a not a bad way to stay active as a creator. I bought a drone basically so I had 4k footage to mess around with in Premiere. I am a YouTube Creator by definition. Yesterday after posting a video of the stream there was another survey in the right hand corner. I cautiously opened it and read through it. It was an inclusion survey. YouTube wanted information to help with their community. The first question was what race I identify as. I can’t really argue I’m not white. The next question was if I identified as part of the LGBTQ community. I don’t so I answered no. The third question was what gender I identified as. I said male because I’m cis. I completed the survey and went on about my business. A few minutes later another popup asked me how satisfied I was with the YouTube community after all this. I answered Very Satisfied and closed the window. I’m also part of a larger community here in Chicago. This can be drilled down so far that you can find yourself standing in a lonely circle with a thousand fingers pointed back at you. My immediate neighbors identify. I wouldn’t know what specifically or why so I don’t ever really pry. I live on a pretty diverse property when it comes to tenants. That expands into a pretty diverse neighborhood with a pretty diverse set of issues when it comes to power sharing. I live the mad max sort of mentality these days. Think more Fury Road than Road Warrior. Where he helps out then silently fades away to focus on his own car wreck of a life. One winter while shoveling snow I discovered somebody had written something in front of one of my neighbor’s doorstep. It said “gay people live here.” I processed it, shrugged and shoveled it away. I couldn’t tell if my landlord was supposed to discover it, if my neighbors actually wrote it, or if it was somebody being hateful. I made a judgement call on the account of safety and made a mental note of it then made it disappear. I cared enough to think about it no matter how much this entire process exhausts me. People join communities for connection. People seek out authentic communities for safety, pride and respect. And people in America should be able to do this freely without being exploited, judged, watched, or compared. Communities overlap and the geopolitics therein get a little tricky. When you live in a city with so many different influences, cultures, and hang ups the fog of the ideological war muddles up everyone’s intentions. I think we retreat to the sanctity of our own communities because they understand the narrative and context best. I’ve been welcomed into many communities that aren’t my own. But my circle is pretty small these days. Mostly because for all the care and attention I apply to the concept of community, I’m often left out to fend for myself here in my bachelor Castle of Doom. Communities do consolidate power for better or for worse. Just like rich people hoard money and dodge taxes. Communities have their own cultural queues and signifiers. Communities in America have increasingly become more like tribes in the economic desert. Impenetrable communes at war with myopic definitions and hidden rules that are meant to keep people out for resource sake. So much so that the Road Warrior doesn’t seem like science fiction to me from personal experience.

It was the great poet Lord Humungus who may have set it best. Just walk away. Safe passage in the wasteland they said. Be your own boss. Own your sexuality and answer for your horny crimes. Shit, I don’t even know where to begin when it comes to where I belong in all of this. For me things have become equally obfuscated and easy to understand at the same time. I’m more of an anarchist these days than I would like to admit. I don’t really want to be on Tucker Carlson’s radar. Simply because everyone is looking for something to label you as so they can pass an easier judgement on you. People want you to identify so they can fit you into whatever conversational hole they wish to project at you. I run into my neighbors all the time. I treat people like people. Simply because I’ve been treated enough like shit to know I don’t want anyone else to experience that. I don’t really want revenge. I want all this nonsense to stop getting in the way of my pursuit of life, liberty and happiness. And the constant arguing and debate team every step of the way is troubling. It’s people with a beaten down sense of self confidence proving themselves in the arena of mob rule. For all the chest beating online on twitter or facebook people are kind of shook in the streets. It is a winner take all mentality. And even the more valid sides of the fight have taken to dirty tactics leaving some of us in the middle of an absolute shit show. Par for the course if you ask me. There are plenty of opportunities to be the hero these days. Not many to be acknowledged as one. You can be you and still support people that think differently. I had a dream about guns last night. I don’t own a gun. That’s not the right choice for a person like me. It doesn’t mean I can make a sweeping generalization for the rest of America. Neither do I actually care to. I’m cis. I don’t spend my time psychoanalyzing or judging gender or sexuality other than my own biases towards it. This is to treat people better and learn respectful communication. Communication is a two way street. And some communication is blocked, obfuscated or hidden for it’s own protection. It can also be self serving. Some of my closest friends are behind infinite onion layers of identities. Layers of firewalls that I pirouette through like a whirling dervish just to show I still care deeply. We take the time to show love. We take the time to understand the obstacles. And we have patience to understand that we have to sacrifice things sometimes for the sake of change. Make no mistake the way I see things on my own is fucked. I am part of a community here on Tumblr. A much wider community. There are times when I don’t fit in. When it’s not about me or you or whoever behind the screen. It’s what we connect to and how we learn to respect each other as human beings first. Not as names. Or fame. Who we really are behind all of this doesn’t really matter as much as the content and ideas we share. Community has it’s own memory and it’s own duty to hold things sacred. Some larger communities do a totally shitty job of understanding the needs of their ideological neighbors. And passion, pride, and lack of patience can burn bridges more quickly than building them. There are times when you realize you are part of a community that doesn’t honor your identity at the core. Sometimes it’s worse. You find you aren’t welcome in a community for whatever reason. If you are an abuser this is a safety issue and not really up for argument or discussion. But sometimes its far less deserving. And it’s a game of musical chairs to understand where you fit in and where you aren’t welcome. For me I’m part Swedish and also a minimalist in nature. Just look at Ikea and my habit of rearranging furniture. I grew more inward this year in terms of who I trust. Now it’s just me and a small percentage of screen names that might be owned by the same person or people. I identify them as my closest friends.

The thing about community I’ve learned over the years is that it can always be infiltrated. Trust can always be broken. We find we don’t belong to the bigger picture because motives are out of place. We long to just be normal and accepted for that. It’s exhausting to have to identify every time you walk out the door. I identify as human. Mostly I identify as Tim. Freedom in America is best summed up by a quote by my favorite person in the world. She’s from China. She said once she loved New York because it was the only place where she felt free to cry in public without anybody prying into why. I’m paraphrasing. But that shit has stuck with me like a knife for years. That isn’t what America is about right now. It’s almost like it’s looking for victims. Looking for signs of weakness to trick into a confidence game. It’s a setup on every corner. A prank waiting to happen. A constant obstacle to your main quest. And this isn’t what America is about. At least not the way I live it. I don’t think I solve the situation with more policing. I don’t think I solve it by doing anything other than continuing to live free. The challenge here in America is constantly evolving as it is around the world. America’s idea of free isn’t always well thought out. It’s riddled with paradoxes. And yet this is all I really have. I’ve seen enough people stalking me in the streets with shirts emblazoned with messages. Freedom isn’t free. Penetrate the world. Blue lives matter. Make seven up yours. I’ve made statements too and found myself more and more alone. And then I’ve started to realize geographically what’s worth fighting for. I’m tied to an address. That’s the address where the government sends my ballots and rejects my state taxes at. That’s the address where the utilities are in my name and I pay my rent on time. Sometimes even a month ahead. I’m fiscally responsible for once in my life. I’ve conquered years of societal glue that held me to mediocre and half assed standards. I’m a diamond in the rough except I’m not really all the rough. I’ve stood up for people who aren’t like me so much that I feel more isolated and weird every day. And I learn that sometimes it’s better to shy away from places where you aren’t welcome than to make a scene. I am stuck in my little hole here. If the answer were getting out there and networking, I’d ask people to look at my passport. It’s not good enough for the state to acknowledge as proof of my identity. But I spent a lot of money going back and forth to Asia trying to do just that. And I paid off all that debt awhile ago. I know the world is bigger than me. And I believe sometimes people think they’ve travelled the world in their computer. They’re the authority on everything. And here is the problem with freedom in America. The authority isn’t always right. This is why we seek out communities. For democracy. For peer review. To have our narrative understood and respected. And we need communities to be more about democracy and less about autocratic reactions to a zero sum game. I think it’s okay to not be part of something you don’t belong. And I also think it’s okay to respect people’s wishes to seek out where they do. But we have to learn to live together in America despite of this. And well this would require us as Americans to really look the beast in the eye. And doing that alone is scary. I should know. I do it every day. So much so that I’m literally not fucking around with much of anything other than what’s easy enough to read. Even when it’s easy to read it doesn’t mean it’s done in earnest. I can only really worry about the things I hold intimate and secret. The creative culture I’ve salvaged with my bare hands. I really don’t care if you don’t get who I am. But I want you to know I care about the world being free. At least for the people I care about. If you ever catch yourself crying in public just remember I’m right there over your shoulder cheering you on. I’ll fight for your right to cry about it and scare off anybody who interferes. That’s just who I am and nobody will know or even acknowledge me by name. Sometimes I do feel like a ghost. I’m not trying to walk through walls people set up for protection. But I will break down the barriers people put up to keep us from living together. <3 Tim

1 note · View note

duck-duck-me · 6 years ago

Text

Job Application Tips

So as somebody who had to take a class on professionalism, and has been through the job application cycle in my field a couple times I figured I would write down some of the things that I have learned about job applications, professionalism, etc. especially in light of the fact that we are getting jobs in the new age of tech and our parents might not be able to give us accurate advice. So here is a bunch of advice that I wish somebody had given me in high school.

Resumes:

Your resume doesn’t just need former jobs and work experience. You can and should have:

your education/ degrees

relevant job experience — this can be internships and volunteer positions

relevant organizations and community programs — are you a scout? are you a part of a community outreach group? are you in a band? is there a club in college that’s important to you? These all show skill or personality traits that look attractive in a candidate

relevant course work — this is especially important for students who may not have a lot of job experience. it lets you show that you know what you are doing

relevant projects— yes you can put projects (I didn’t know this until last year) Maybe you did an episode of a podcast, or a short film on how DNA unzips, or maybe you mixed and mastered your friend’s album. These really wouldn’t count as job experience but they can help you with an application. they show skill and dedication to ones work.

relevant skills — Do you speak another language? Do you know a programming language? Are there any softwares that you know how to use? are you good at public speaking and/or teamwork?

Resumes should only be a page long, so format is really important— google drive has a couple of really good layout templates and here is a link to the layout that I use (feel free to use it if you want)

Customize your resume for each job. Different jobs will want different things from you, so you can change up the projects, skills and coursework that you put on each resume (This past year I had visibly different resumes that I used for different positions within the same company)

Make a “Master Resume” with every job and organization, all of your coursework that applies to your field, every big project, and lists of skills. Save it as master resume on you computer, or drive. When you apply for a job, you can make a copy of this and just delete out anything that isn’t relevant. Update this often!

Set up a linkedin profile, it allows you to follow companies, connect with other professionals, quick apply for jobs, and acts like a big online resume. Its like a professional facebook without your aunt’s comments and minion memes.

If you are in a project based field like me (Audio engineering) such as, art, photography, film, journalism, or music set up an online portfolio of your best work. You can use google sites for free. Put that link on your linked in and on the top of your resume (most are sent in digitally now anyways). Update it whenever you do something new. This lets people actually see/hear your work.

DO NOT lie on your resume, they will find out.

Interviews:

Dress nicely for interviews even if they are on Skype or on the phone. (it is always better to be over dressed than under dressed). There is a confidence that comes with wearing a pair of slacks that even extends over the phone.

Always wear pants on a Skype interview, they might ask you to write something on the whiteboard behind you with the express reason of seeing if you bothered to wear pants!

If you are presenting as a woman, wear makeup to an interview. Women who wear makeup are more likely to get a job than those who do not (I know its bad right?)

Style your hair professionally, even if it is just a ponytail or bun. Looking polished is especially important if you have an unnatural hair color. (when I had blue hair my go to was to straighten my hair and pull it into a sleek ponytail).

Prep for your interview the night before.

This means go over the resume and cover letter that you sent in, and any other application materials, and be ready for any questions about that material that may come your way. You will get asked about why you chose your college, and why you want this job, and what your biggest weakness is. Think of good answers that paint you in a good way or show off your priorities, they want to see that you care.

Look up the company on glassdoor, they will often post interview questions.

Interviewers will often ask you practical skills questions (I get asked about microphones and what I should do if they break).

You will get asked about a time you worked on a team, just paint yourself in a positive light and talk about your skills in a team and what you bring to a group (are you a good communicator, a good leader?)

be ready for curve ball questions, weird ones that show your personality more than your skill. Here are a few that I have gotten:

If you won the lottery tomorrow what would you do?

If you were a fruit what kind of fruit would you be and why?

What is a piece of media that influenced your career path?

What is your favorite movie/TV show/Band? Why? (The why is a tricky thing)

You might be given a test of practical skill, a problem to solve, a listening quiz or some sort of visual test, it’s to make sure you can actually do what you have told them. Be ready for these things.

Your interviewer will always end the interview by asking you if you have any questions. You should always ask something, it shows interest. If you don’t have a real question, here are a few cop-outs that work.

what is the work/social environment here like?

What is your favorite part of working here?

What is the typical day of somebody in the position that I’m applying for?

Send thank you notes after interviews!!! I can’t emphasize this enough. It shows that you actually cared, and it leaves a positive image of you in the interviewers mind.

Correspondance :

Have a professional signature with your contact info in your emails.

Letters of inquiry can be really good if a company doesn’t have an online job portal— there is nothing wrong with direct contact, and some times if you are lucky you will get a direct opportunity to interview.

Follow up! If they don’t get back to you in the timeframe that they gave you, write a polite email asking for an update

Some companies will never get back to you (big ones like Universal Studios, and Disney don’t have time for everyone, and they are pretty up front about it) don’t let it discourage you.

Other stuff:

Professionalism is pretty relative depending on where you work and the most obvious example of this is how you dress. Certain jobs (like the one I have now) will let you get away with jeans and a t-shirt, while others require you to wear a suit. Dress the way that your co workers dress.

That being said, if you are unsure of the difference between business casual and business professional, or just want an idea of how to shop for professional clothes, here is a link to a really good powerpoint about how to dress professionally for work (its like 8 years old so the trends are a little out of style but it is still a solid guide)

Remember to dress practically for your job, this is important especially with shoes, a solid black canvas sneaker can pass for a dress shoe from afar

This is gonna sound bad, but use every connection you have to your advantage. Have somebody you know on the inside put in a good word for you. Ask professors and old coworkers to get you in touch with employers. Take advantage of nepotism (if a family member can help get you a job in your field take advantage of that).

If a job posting asks you to know how to use a software, download the free version and pull an all nighter, I did that with logic and adobe premier.

code academy is a great (free) place to learn some basic coding languages very quickly, and slack exchange has coding practice problems for a bunch of languages — You don’t need a formal class to learn a programming language.

Job postings are often looking for “Unicorn Candidates” nobody has all of the qualifications, and if they do, that company probably can’t afford them, so apply if you have at least 60% of what they ask for.

In other words don’t be afraid of being under qualified, if worst comes to worst you don’t get the job.

If you have the ability to accept an unpaid job, DO IT. You will get experience in your field, business connections, and even a few fun stories.

unpaid jobs are often only part time too, so you will have the time to pick up a part time position that does pay you.

another note on unpaid jobs-- if a company is not paying you they technically are not allowed to make you clean or get them coffee, that being said that is how almost 100% internships work. Just make sure you are going to get to do some relevant work and that you are going to be learning something-- if you wanted to be a secretary you could go get a paying position doing that.

Don’t get discouraged if you don’t get the jobs you want. I applied for 27 summer jobs, I got interviews for 10, and an offer from 1. Most of the students in my program applied for upwards of 10 jobs, and not all of us got something.

Feel free to add anything else that you think people should know!

#mine #advice #jobs #resume #job application #good luck my dudes #adulating advice

2 notes · View notes

dannsmith95 · 4 years ago

Text

Week 10 - Gibbs Reflective Cycle

Description

Writing and recording my song has been a massive learning curve, I usually get a chord progression or riff I like and record it into my phone. If I get lyrics to it at the time I write down as much as comes out at the time then tend to leave it there, no thought of the context of the song or the audience etc. This time I came up with a riff during guitar practice which I noted on my first diary entry and I really liked the riff so I decided as I knew I would be working towards submitting a complete song for the formative/summative I would develop it into a complete song with lyrics, using the courses resources to expand on my knowledge of my discipline to develop guitar parts for the song, to also consider the audience it could be aimed at based on the sound and feel of the song so I could then write a full set of lyrics to it and work the song out from start to finish. I wanted to get more technical, adding layers to the chorus guitar parts and developing a bridge part that had more of a rock guitar sound. I also wanted to use my amp for the majority of the recording (I was initially unsure as to if I would use the Slate plugins as I liked the solo sound I got in the formative version) I decided to look into more miking techniques and dual miking the amps cap with 2 different styles of mic (dynamic and condenser) to capture a nice full sounding gain tone which in the end I was happy with. I recorded the songs and aimed for around -6db as I had in my head that this was a good recording input level, I watched a lot of tutorials before going into the mixing process to give myself a good base knowledge as shown in my research pdf, starting with the static mix once everything is recorded setting the levels and panning then moving through the mix track by track assessing the sound and tone and noting down what I thought could be altered and adjusted such as EQ on the snare sound to adjust the tone with some added compression to add more punch, softening the drum overhead track to take the harshness away from them also with the vocals some compression to smoothen out the vocals in the chorus parts. I EQ’d the bass to add more mid-range and cut some of the low end so it was less muddy and cut through the mix a little more while still sitting in the lower end. Strategically working through each individual track’s sound adding and taking things away with purpose was my main focus.

Feelings

I was feeling anxious about the process as I knew I wanted to make a big improvement on this version of the song in comparison to the formative version and I knew I had to work completely in line with my action plan in order to get it done with enough time for me to review it before submission. I knew that I had to create a bridge/middle 8 which would change the songs dynamic and feel completely to keep from the song being to much of the same and surprise the listener. I knew I wanted it to have a more rock feel to add sit with the other pop style elements as I feel this is my style and knew this is what it was missing. Once I created the piece musically, I knew I had to write lyrics for it again something I was anxious about however I thought best to record the music side then see what came out lyric wise which worked well. I really enjoyed creating the sound with different mic techniques for the chorus and bridge parts and adding a slightly more gainy sound for those parts also, this gave the song added punch and bite that I also wanted, the subtle chorus on the verse guitar parts I thought worked a treat adding a slight sparkle to the sound. Going into the mixing process was the most daunting although I had watched a lot of tutorial videos as much as it had informed me it had intimidated me to firstly how much of an impact this stage has and how crucial it is but also how complex it seems to be watching somebody do it. However, I had so much fun working through the song track by track and tweaking the tones where I though it needed adding and taking away where necessary. I thought to myself “treat it like tweaking an amp or pedal to find the right sound” once I simplified it a little in my head concept-wise I just had to watch some tutorials as I went a long of how to use certain features of Pro Tools. I found myself lost in the process spending a lot of time looping up parts of the track trying to get it to where I wanted it and then mastering the track to bring the volume up without losing the musical sound. Once the song was done I was unsure about the video editing process, what programme to use, how to piece multiple bits of video together showing all my contributions and then to match this up with the audio. After it was all recorded, I tried to load the different pieces of footage into a free video editing software which did not go to well as the video were jittery and the audio was sipping so matching up the video to audio was basically impossible, so I decided to invest in adobe premiere pro via the creative cloud as students get a big discount on the monthly instalments. This created another problem, learning how to use a more complex video editing software, so began the rabbit whole of premiere pro tutorials however after a few I was away and began to play around with some animation for the starting title and end credits.

Evaluation

I thought the process went well, I worked to my action plan creating checklists for recording and mixing making sure I was keeping tight to them to leave myself a good amount of time to review the track over before submission so I could take a day out and go back at it with fresh ears and show it to a few others for feedback. I was happy with myself that I managed to get the recording and middle 8 created with words done quicker than I had thought and planned for, so it gave me a few days extra time for mixing/mastering. I surprised myself honestly, I thought I would really struggle but I was having a lot of fun throughout the whole process that I was excited to get started from waking up everyday and not wanting to stop at night. The whole process of piecing the song together then getting the drums back and adding them in and hearing it come together as a full song as if I were creating it with a band was great and so inspiring so much so I have been working on a couple of other songs in preparation for next term. I have learnt so much in such a short space of time I can not wait to see what my next recordings sound like on the back of this one. I think the song sound great in comparison to my formative version not just because it has full band arrangements but tonally however, I will look to re-record the song as my main error was the initially input levels were too high and this does not sit well when compression is involved so that was a massive learning curve. I sent the link to my song/performance video to a couple of friends who are also musicians for feedback regarding the musical arrangements and sound, also my friend’s girlfriend as she is a big music fan and I was thinking about my target audience which should we would be a part of so I wanted some feedback from someone who the song would generally be aimed at and all was positive, my friends thought the riff was really catchy and had the John Mayer vide I got from it and also loved the middle 8 as it was a refreshing rocky element which again I wanted and was so happy that they noticed. Also, one of them said the vocals were a little Ed Sheeran like (I was not at all going for this, but I’ll take it). My friend’s girlfriend said it would be something she would listen to daily and will be doing as she cannot get it out of her head which you could not really ask for more, this is also something my brother and my dad have said, I hear them humming or whistling it sometimes around the house and it gives me a really good feeling. Lastly, I delved into video editing, something just as daunting as using premiere pro was not easy initially but after a few tutorials I pieced the video together with the audio and even delved into some simple animation for the title and credits sections. Once I had played around with the masking for the title animation as I did not want to use a template, I wanted to create my own and the rolling end credits I tried something different a section of the guitar solo. The video is in black and white for the most part as I had to record in different rooms of the house and wanted to clean up the background a bit without using green screen techniques, I felt the black and white was simple and gave it an old tv feel. However, for the section of the solo I wanted to add a bit of colour and movement at the part where I slide down the neck so I added movement to the screen and an offset colour effect which is almost like the blue/red colour effect you would get from a stuttering VHS tape.

Analysis

I think I overlooked the recording aspect in favour of the mixing side of things initially, I thought I had the recording part down and was confident in my mic placement and tones however I did not take into account the input level as I set the input gain to as high as it could be without it clipping which in hindsight after some further research it seems -18db to -12db seems to be a sweet spot for input level to keep the sweetness of the sound and will be something I will be experimenting with moving forward before my next recordings as I found once the mix/mastering had be done the compression seemed to bring out some harsh tones in the chorus guitar parts, snare and lead guitar part. I will also be trying to relax more when I’m playing not worrying to much about how many takes I have to do and just having fun playing so that feeling comes out in the recording (I was so conscious about getting the lead guitar part right note for note that I picked to hard while playing) this is something that I come to notice a lot once the mix had been compressed. I will also be looking to purchase a better pop shield and portable vocal isolation booth, I feel the ‘T’s’ stick out too much in the mix (I have done all I can to take the harshness out of them) the pop shield I have is not very good and is a little small. Also, I want to isolate the vocals to prevent reflections from nearby walls as I work in small spaces mostly and this can be a problem, this will hopefully give me the truest vocal sound to work with when recording. Lastly, I want to look into video editing more to create performance videos for my songs that look clean and good quality and the after some investment into camera equipment potentially music videos as to add to my capabilities for my work portfolio, for use with my band and for my own personal satisfaction. I loved seeing it come to life in video and I also want to begin content creating via YouTube and Instagram in the future.

Conclusion

Moving forward I would set the input levels lower than I did initially as you can also turn the levels up in the mix, this will help to keep the tone and musicality of the instrument sounds when they are compressed when mixing/mastering. I would also make sure I am going into the recording stage with all parts of the song wrote so I do not have the pressure of writing while recording for the most part as I will always make adjustments where I feel they are necessary if they feel right when recording. I will be investing in some better equipment for recording, RODE NT-1a mic with Rode’s pop shield as mine does not cut it and a vocal isolation booth to capture the true vocal sound. Most importantly I will be learning to relax more and not take notice of the amount of takes I am doing as I am still very new to the whole process and it takes as long as it takes until it sounds right, I want the fun of creating my own music to come across in my playing and to capture that in the recording so when it comes to mixing and the end product I am completely happy with my work and what I have created. I have learnt so much about recording and mixing that it has inspired me to record and write more, I just want to create, capture, and release my music as much as possible moving forward. This course so far has been everything I could have ever wanted and needed, it had opened my mind to the possibility of me being a recording artist in whatever capacity that may be and has given me a passion I will continue to develop throughout my lifetime. Also, it has helped me prove to myself I am able to do it and given me the confidence to do so moving forward something I will be forever grateful for. I can know set up my equipment and get a song recorded, mixed and mastered to a point I will be happy with and if not I will know where I need to change it to make it something I will be proud to release to the world and then move on to performing live which will be the next step in my career when I have around 5 songs I can send to people and perform as a short set in local venues.

Action Plan

I would definitely create an action plan, recording/mixing checklist, again. This was something that helped keep me on track and gave me a clear path to follow and also eased my anxieties surrounding my progress as I was always aware as to where I was at. I will be researching further on recording and mixing so I can continue to develop my skills to get better sounding mixes and hopefully get good enough to add this to my future work portfolio as a private recording engineer. I want to develop my video filming/editing skills again to add to my future work portfolio, but I also want to create content for YouTube and Instagram for my band and my own personal channels, I enjoyed piecing my video together and adding the effects/animation bringing it all to life was great and I would also like to potentially do this for other people. I need to improve generally on the whole process, but I feel now I have a great base knowledge of recording music, video and mixing which I can develop on and progress for the next assignments and I am looking forward to it. One thing I have been inspired to do is write more and finish more songs, I have loads of riffs and chord progressions with either no words or some words so I will be going through the arsenal so finish them, something I have already done with 2 songs. I am going to continue to push myself to my limits as I think it brings out the best in me and I have surprised myself in how much I have accomplished in just a few months.

0 notes

momentumgo · 6 years ago

Text

Angie Taylor

Motion Designer, Animator, Author, Educator www.behance.com/AngieTaylor Brighton, UK Age 54 She/Her

How did you get your start in motion design, animation, or whatever it is that you do?

I graduated with a degree in Sculpture, drawing and humanities from EDINBURGH College of art in 1996. When I left, I thought, “what the **** can I do with a sculpture degree? I’d have loved to just be an artist, but I needed to make money. I had nothing. My choices, in terms of making money quickly were; make gravestones. Or become a prop-maker, I chose the latter.

I moved to London and began my prop-making career in the TV and film industry in 1987. I started freelancing and then got a full-time job making food props for TV and film - anything from non-melting ice cream and chocolate to pigs on spits, lobsters and pizzas. We made props for all sorts of amazing productions including Aardman Animations and the BBC. It was fun figuring out how to make stuff look real but I soon got bored recreating reality. I preferred the idea of surreal.

In my spare time I was deejaying in London’s punk clubs and gay clubs. I met lots of creative people in these nightclubs including; Heaven, FF, Turnmills, The Fridge, The Bell. When I was deejaying I attended a music and technology course to learn about Sampling and sequencing. We used Cubase version 1.0 on Amiga computers. There was also a copy of Deluxe Paint on there and I started playing with it during breaks. I’d make little cycling color animations.

I wanted to do more but I couldn’t afford to buy a computer at the time. My Dad had a Sinclair Spectrum and had the Hobbit game on it. I borrowed that when I could. I loved the idea of sequencing images and storytelling, it really excited me.

One day, when I was dropping off props at the BBC, I saw somebody using a very early beta version of Photoshop1. I thought “I want to do that!”. I realised I needed to make big changes for this to happen. I gave up prop-making and became a full-time Deejay in order to save to buy a computer.

In 1993 I met my wife, Jo. When we got together we spoke about our life goals. We both agreed that we needed a change. So we left London and moved to EDINBURGH. Jo loves books took a job as manager of a big, family-run book shop. I couldn’t find any courses on computer graphics so I enrolled in a course in traditional graphic design and another in IT - just to get access to computers.

The Graphic design course was very traditional - there were no computers. We had to use Letteraset to lay out text. We would enlarge text in a Grant Projector. It was a great course, I loved it. The IT course was also good, I learned the beauty of spreadsheets (no, I’m not joking!)

I also wrote my first tutorial on that course - teaching other students how to copy and paste images into their documents and make screenshots. There was a copy of Corel Draw on the computers. I learned it inside out. But I wanted something more. When I finished the course I was a bit unsure about which direction to turn.

Then one day I went to a party at a neighbours house. He had an Apple Macintosh Classic. I knew these were the dream of every graphic designer so I asked him whether I should get a PC (which I’d learned on) or a Mac.

“Ooh! Get a Mac!” He replied. “I work for a company called Adobe. If you get a Mac, I’ll get you a copy of Photoshop to help you get started”. I wasn’t really aware of who Adobe were but I’d seen Photoshop and was so grateful to him for this offer. I really don’t know where my career would be today without that lucky break. (Thanks Rory!)

So I saved, and saved, the bought myself my first computer. It was an Apple Power Macintosh 8500. He brought me a lovely, new, cellophane-wrapped copy of Photoshop 3. I watched a free video tutorial that was on the installation CD by the amazing Russell Brown. I thought, “this is what I want to do!”

As a thank you to my friend, I made him a card. I took a picture of his new-born baby. I scanned it, added a Mohawk hairstyle, tattoos saying “Mum” and “Dad” on her knuckles, and a leather jacket. All done in Photoshop. He was blown away with what I’d done. He asked me to come and show people at Adobe how I’d done it. As a result of this, Adobe asked me to do some Photoshop demos at a trade show in Amsterdam called CGIX. That’s when I first saw After Effects. It was version 2.0, it was love at first sight! I’ve been in love ever since!

My friend, Rory, got me a copy of After Effects and I was obsessed! I got myself the Total AE by Total Training course and watched it back to back, at least twice. Brian Maffitt is still the best After Effects teacher IMHO. I practiced for about 6 months, 12 hours a day while my lovely partner earned a daily income. I also started doing more demo work for Adobe. Doing After Effects demos as well as Photoshop, Illustrator and Premiere. But that wasn’t earning me enough and I really wanted to get into motion graphics.

I sent letters to about 40 production companies telling them I had a home setup to create motion graphics with After Effects and could be employed on a freelance basis. This was 1996, in those days most people laughed if you suggested using AE for TV graphics or animation. Luckily one person gave me an opportunity. He was interested in new technology and ran a business called Atacama Films (www.atacamafilms.co.uk) making films for museums. So I got my first AE job doing graphics on a film for the Cook Museum in Middlesbrough. From there things slowly grew by osmosis.

I worked for about 20 years, freelancing for other companies and directors. In between jobs I was still doing demo work at trade shows and events for Adobe, Wacom and Apple. I was lucky enough to work with great some great directors, including Chris Cunningham and John Williams. I also worked on projects with great artists and musicians such as; The Slits, Beck, Joan Armatrading. I produced motion graphics for the BBC, Channel 4 and other TV and film companies.

However being a designer didn’t come naturally to me. I was trained as a fine artist so loved to experiment and hated having to constrain my ideas to please clients - I found this to be very restrictive. The stuff I liked was not really inline with the latest design trends which I found to be boring and formulaic. I have never enjoyed creating stuff that looks like everyone else’s. It’s like fashion, I’ve never understood why everyone would want to look the same as each other! This is possibly due to my ADHD and Autism Spectrum Condition. I was diagnosed with these at the age of 54.

During my career I wrote a few books on After Effects and motion graphic design and I began making video tutorials. I enjoyed this creative process more than the work itself. I love helping other people come up with ideas and helping them to solve problems. This was always the stage of design projects I was best at. I find it very hard to focus on the fine-tuning aspects of the job! I need challenges to keep me motivated.

Another thing that motivated me was my negative experiences at art school. I found that it really knocked my confidence and had a detrimental effect on my creativity. Before art school I drew constantly. But art school instilled in me a worry that I was not good enough. That feeling has never left me. Because of this I possibly avoid doing my own work. Teaching others is a great way of doing this!

So I gave up freelancing in 2013 to pursue a career in education. I now run my own business. A private art school called Creative Cabin on the south coast of England, near Brighton. I offer people bespoke, one-to-one tuition as an alternative to traditional art school education. People come to the Cabin and I help them with their creative projects. I hope to inspire them in the career they desire. It’s very rewarding. I also provide “Creative Escapes” - retreat vacations for creative people where they can learn drawing skills, make sculpture, forage and cook wild foods and relax in our beautiful, cliff-top woodlands. I also offer a mentorship service to clients.

Writing books was a struggle for me due to my dyslexia, whips is often comorbid with ADHD. So I started creating video tutorials with a company called Video2brain. They were bought by Lynda.com, who were, in turn, bought by LinkedIn. So my tutorials can now be seen on LinkedIn Learning.

I’ve also struggled throughout my life with anxiety and depression. These conditions are very common in those with undiagnosed ADHD and Autism Spectrum Condition. As a result have probably never achieved as much as I had hoped to. I also had to stop travelling for work due to physical issues associated with these conditions.

How do you balance your work with your personal life? How do the two influence each other?

I’ve always put home and family first so have turned down a few opportunities that could have taken me away from home. But all in all, I’m happy now to teach other people how to do the work that I love. To be honest, I find it more rewarding than actually doing the work myself. I was never satisfied with what I created anyway!

How have you learned to practice self-care? What do you do to take care of yourself?

My ADHD and Autism have pros and cons. I think my total obsession with After Effects, Illustrator and Cinema 4D are the pros. The cons are that I find it difficult to communicate with other people in a conventional way. I find it easier to get up on stage and do a demo for 500 people than I do having a two way conversation with a client. Funnily enough I’m fine when it comes to training on a 1-2-1 basis - that’s when I’m at my most happy. I have difficulty networking with people. I used to cope with alcohol and drugs. But now that I’m sober, I have to limit the stress in my life. So working from my home based studio, Creative Cabin, with my dog, Elsie, by my side, is where I’m happiest.

As I said,I’ve had a few lucky breaks along the way. Who knows what would have happened without them. My books on After Effects helped me get to the stage where I could get a mortgage and eventually buy our house with the Cabin next door, which I converted into a training studio.

I couldn’t have learned as much as I did without the friendship and help I received from the amazing After Effects community back in the 1990’s. I was part of the IMUG and subscribed to the wonderful Media Motion email user group. It’s was so open and everyone shared everything. There I met lifelong “industry friends’ like Trish and Chris Meyer, Brian Maffitt, Paul Tuersley, Steve Forde, Mark Coleran, Mark Harrison, Philip Hodgetts, Peder Norby, Pete Litwinowicz, Amacker Bullwinkle, Tim Clapham, Simon Harper and others too numerous to mention. We’d meet up at trade shows and seminars where we’d talk about nothing other than technology and animation - That’s the only thing I miss about my old life - the people.

But over the years I’ve learned how important it is to take care of yourself and those closest to you. I always found the traveling hard and stressful. To cope I would drink alcohol. I’d get home from a trip feeling exhausted, emotional and unhealthy. I put on weight and ended up with back and knee issues. Partly from too much sitting at a desk. I have a sit/stand desk so vary my working position as much as possible. I use a Salli swing, saddle chair which has really helped my back.

In terms of keeping well. I see a personal trainer and a psychotherapist once a week. I cycle everywhere and I swim as much as possible. My best friend is my dog, Elsie. A rescued Staffie-Patterdale (Stafferdale) cross who I walk every day. For my mental health I do mindfulness mediation and listen to inspiring podcasts from the Audio Dharma website.

How do you define success? What would success look like for you?

Success in life is being content and being around those you love. If you can leave something behind that inspires or changes the lives of others, that’s great. But if not, that’s fine too. Just being human is difficult enough. Be easy on yourself and enjoy the life you have.

What advice do you have for those just starting out?

To those who are starting out today I’d say, pick one thing and focus on it. Don’t be persuaded into becoming a multi-tasker like I did, it will only dilute your talents and prevent you from focussing. If you want to learn something don’t use Google or YouTube tutorials. Do a properly structured course that will teach you the fundamentals and principles as well as the cool techniques. And look after your body and mind. You don’t have to crumble before you learn that your health is the most important asset you possess.

1 note · View note

andrewmrudd79 · 7 years ago

Text

How to Get More Email Subscribers (17 Lead Magnet Ideas)

youtube

Subscribe to my YouTube Channel

https://www.youtube.com/subscribe_embed?usegapi=1&channelid=UCGk1LitxAZVnqQn0_nt5qxw&layout=default&theme=dark&count=default&origin=https://www.smartpassiveincome.com/

Want to learn how to get more email subscribers? One of the best ways to do so is through a tried-and-true method: offering a lead magnet—a valuable piece of content—in exchange for someone’s email address.

Now, hopefully you’re not trying to get people to join your list by saying, “Hey, subscribe to my newsletter.” If you’re doing that, you’re basically just saying, “Hey, I’m going to send you more emails!” People don’t want more emails. People want something of value in exchange for joining your email list.

So what can you give them in exchange for their email address? Today I’m going to share seventeen ideas for lead magnets you can offer. (Yes, seventeen!)

How Not To Build Your Lead Magnet

But before we get to that, I want to share an important tip. You see, times have changed. Back in the day, when I started building my email list, it was hip to offer the biggest, most comprehensive lead magnet possible—I’m talking a thirty-to-fifty-page ebook or PDF file. But this is no longer something people want to download. They don’t want to spend their time slogging through fifty pages—they want the quick hits, the information that will let them hit the ground running.

With that in mind, here are seventeen quick-hit lead magnets you can offer right now to grow your audience.

#1: Resource List

People love lists of tools and resources they can use to gain an advantage or do something more conveniently. By creating a simple list of such items, you can deliver a lot of value and give people something they will happily exchange their email address to get. Let’s say you have a photography blog, for example. You could create a list of the five tools a photographer should be using to edit their files more quickly, or to get better lighting in their photos. Almost any kind of list will work; just create a simple one with valuable tips and tools, and people are going to want to trade their address for it. Clay Collins, founder of LeadPages, was a guest on SPI Podcast Session #78, where he talked in-depth about how to rapidly grow your email list. The episode comes complete with resources and tools, and his advice still continues to work strongly today.

#2: Quick-Start Guide

Teaching people something they can do quickly is another great way to get email addresses. If you’re that photography blogger from above, you could offer a quick-start guide on how to use a particular kind of camera. Or a quick-start guide on using Photoshop or InDesign. Offering a quick start guide is a quick-start way to grow your email list.

#3: Cheat Sheet

A cheat sheet is exactly what it sounds like. It’s a one- or two-page PDF file containing the top tips to help a person go through a specific process that would otherwise take them a lot longer. A cheat sheet is similar to a quick-start guide, but it’s usually more condensed. For example, I offer a //static.leadpages.net/leadboxes/current/embed.js cheat sheet for people who want to start a podcast. My buddy David Siteman Garland offers one for people who want to start an online course. [Full Disclosure: As an affiliate, I receive compensation if you purchase through this link.]

For those of you who are old enough, cheat sheets remind me of the Game Genie, back when I played Nintendo. It was a device you plugged into your console and boom, you could walk through a level much faster, jump much higher, or start out a game with ninety-nine lives. So just like the Game Genie, you’re going to offer your audience a quick way to gain an advantage using your cheat sheet—and chances are they’re going to be excited to exchange their email address for it. We use this same strategy on this landing page we created dedicated to the podcast cheat sheet you can download for free here.

#4: Video Answer

You can record a video answer to one of the most pressing questions your audience has. So for somebody who’s brand new to your website, what is likely their number one question? Answer that in a video, then give them access to that video after they subscribe to your list.

#5: Checklist

A checklist is another great lead magnet. Let’s say you teach Facebook marketing. There’s likely a set of specific steps a person needs to take to go from zero to running a successful Facebook ad campaign. You could, in exchange for their email address, offer a handy checklist of the twenty things they need to do to succeed with that campaign. Whether you’re an expert in Facebook marketing or something else, think about a process you know well, write down all the steps, then format the list with checkboxes so your readers can follow along and track their progress. Then give it away in exchange for an email subscription! Amy Porterfield is a great example of how to do this well. She provides her podcast audience with checklists as “content upgrades,” to help them learn and integrate everything she teaches on her show. She’s providing a ton of value, and collecting emails at the same time!

#6: Email Scripts

If your area of expertise involves teaching people how to communicate via email, simply giving people email scripts they can copy and paste and tweak with their own voice can be very valuable. Writing emails is one of the hardest things to do for some people, and having a script to work from can save them time and anxiety. So make it easier for them by giving them a starting point.

#7: Mini-Course

A mini-course is a short training that’s hosted on a platform like Teachable. [Full Disclosure: I’m a compensated advisor and an affiliate for Teachable.] It can be an entire short course, or a portion of a longer course you offer. Either way, the idea is to deliver a ton of value in a small package while showing the person that you’re serious about helping them learn. By giving away your mini-course for free, you’re showing them how much amazing value you have to offer, so that you can upsell them something bigger later on. A good example of this is from Caleb Wojcik, who does all my video production. On his website, CalebWojcik.com, he offers a free mini-course on how to use Adobe Premiere to edit videos, which he uses to collect email address while delivering a lot value and promoting his premium course to subscribers.

#8: Email Mini-Course

Instead of a mini-course that lives on a platform like Teachable, you can offer an email-based course. An email mini-course is a great option because it’s high value and easy to set up, as it lives right in your email system. After someone subscribes to your list, they’ll receive an email each day with one lesson from the course. You can find an example of this over at 100emails.com, where I teach people how to go from zero to one hundred email subscribers in just seventy-two hours using three daily email lessons. And I built it easily using ConvertKit, my email service provider. [Full Disclosure: I’m a compensated advisor and an affiliate for ConvertKit.]

#9: Book Chapter

If you’ve written a book, or are thinking about writing one, you can offer your first chapter for free in exchange for someone’s address. Now, this is a really cool lead magnet idea, because people love books, and sending them a free chapter can give them a feel of what your book’s about—plus, if they like it, they might even want to buy the whole thing! And, you know, it’s also a great way to ask for their email address.

#10 Course Module

In a similar way, if you have an online course, you can take a module from that course—maybe your favorite module, or just the first one—and make it available in exchange for an email address. It’s a great way to show people exactly how you teach and what the course is like, which makes them potentially more likely to upgrade to the full course. And if they’re not ready to do that yet, you still have the opportunity to nurture them because you’ve collected their email address.

#11: Quiz

You can also offer a quiz with results that will help people. A good example of this comes from Michael Hyatt, who at the end of each year offers his Best Year Ever course in exchange for joining his email list. I take this course every single year, and it’s a quiz—a “life score” assessment that helps you look at how you’re doing in all the different areas of your life, along with what you can do to get to the next level in areas where you want to improve. I love this lead magnet, because it’s interactive and provides a lot of value. It’s way different from something your subscribers just download; it’s something they can actually participate in, which makes it potentially great for driving email subscriptions. One of the entrepreneurs in my accelerator group, Monica Louie, uses a Facebook Ad Quiz to collect email addresses. The quiz helps people figure out what their next steps should be when it comes to creating Facebook ads, but she’s also building her list at the same time.

#12: Template

This next one is awesome for business owners who do a lot of teaching via platforms like YouTube: offering a template people can build on to create something. For example, if you teach podcasting, you could offer a free GarageBand file that contains a few audio elements in it that people can use to start building their own podcast episodes. You’re giving them a headstart, which is always appreciated, and definitely worth trading an email address for.

#13: Transcript

If you do any video or podcasting, you can take your transcripts—the text files with the words you’ve recorded—and put them into a PDF file, then offer it in exchange for an email address. Some people aren’t going to be interested in listening to or watching something; they’ll want to read it instead. And also, because it’s in a handy file, they can print it out, and take notes on it if they like. James Schramko of SuperFastBusiness does this, by creating transcripts of his podcast episodes that are only accessible by joining his email list, and he’s told me that it’s helped a lot in growing his list.

#14: Bonus Audio

Let’s say you have a lot of written content on your blog. You can take some of it, and turn it into audio content—MP3 files that people can download and get access to after they give you their email address. This is another smart way of reusing your valuable content, because often people aren’t able to sit down and read, and just want to listen on the go.

#15: Contact List

Instead of a resource list of tools, you can tap into your Rolodex (remember those?) to create a list of people who are on your list who others should know about. By offering your contact list, it’s almost like a way to get involved with the network you’ve built—and this works in both directions. You’re providing a lot of value to your subscribers by connecting them with experts who can help them, and you’re also sending the people in your network new potential subscribers and clients of their own. So it’s a win for everybody!

#16 Live Training

I know a lot of people who teach a live training every week or month, and they’ll offer a free “seat” in that webinar in exchange for someone’s email address. So, pick a date in the future when you’re going to teach something. Then invite people to register, whether it’s in your web page sidebar, at the bottom of a blog post, or on your Facebook page. Voilà! They’re on your list.

#17: Webinar Recording

Instead of offering access to a live webinar, you can offer access to a prerecorded one. For this one, it can help to create a live training first (i.e., #16), then make the recording available for people afterward, so it’s all automated.

There you have it—seventeen different lead magnets and incentives you can create to get more people on your email list! You now have no excuse not to do this. I think you’ll find that by offering something of real value—and not just a promise of more emails—people will be much happier to say yes to joining your list, and much more likely to open your future emails, too.

How to Get More Email Subscribers (17 Lead Magnet Ideas) originally posted at Homer’s Blog

0 notes

judithghernandez87 · 7 years ago

Text

How to Get More Email Subscribers (17 Lead Magnet Ideas)

youtube

Subscribe to my YouTube Channel

https://www.youtube.com/subscribe_embed?usegapi=1&channelid=UCGk1LitxAZVnqQn0_nt5qxw&layout=default&theme=dark&count=default&origin=https://www.smartpassiveincome.com/

So what can you give them in exchange for their email address? Today I’m going to share seventeen ideas for lead magnets you can offer. (Yes, seventeen!)

How Not To Build Your Lead Magnet

With that in mind, here are seventeen quick-hit lead magnets you can offer right now to grow your audience.

#1: Resource List

#2: Quick-Start Guide

#3: Cheat Sheet

#4: Video Answer

#5: Checklist

#6: Email Scripts

#7: Mini-Course

#8: Email Mini-Course

#9: Book Chapter

#10 Course Module

#11: Quiz

#12: Template

#13: Transcript

#14: Bonus Audio

#15: Contact List

#16 Live Training

#17: Webinar Recording

How to Get More Email Subscribers (17 Lead Magnet Ideas) originally posted at Dave’s Blog

0 notes

lorrainecparker · 7 years ago

Text

Editor Carla Gutierrez on crafting “RBG”

Editor Carla Gutierrez recently completed work on the film RBG, a feature documentary about US Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. The documentary was produced by CNN Films, co-directed by Betsy West and Julie Cohen, and lensed by cinematographer Claudia Raschke. It debuted at Sundance 2018 and has garnered critical acclaim. While visiting the festival last weekend, I had a chance to sit down with Carla and talk through her process as editor of the film.

PVC: What is your background in docs?

Gutierrez: I’ve been editing for the past 12 years. This is my fourth time at Sundance with a film that I’ve edited. So, I’ve been editing documentaries for a while.

PVC: How did you get involved in the RBG project? At what point did they bring you in?

Gutierrez: It was a recommendation from somebody else, I believe from somebody at CNN Films. They were interviewing people, and I showed them some of my work. I was working on a film that also was made out of interviews and archival, and I got the job. I was ecstatic! They had already filmed the bulk of a bunch of interviews, and had gathered a lot of archival material, especially a lot of talks that the Justice had given at various times. Mainly in law schools, academic talks, and key archival; her confirmation hearings for example. But there were still a number of interviews to be done, and they hadn’t done the main interview with her yet.

PVC: What’s your approach when you begin editing a documentary? It’s a mountain of footage I’m sure…how do you start?

Gutierrez: When I interview for jobs, I’m very clear that I’m the type of editor who wants to watch everything. I love to discover the gems in the footage, and, obviously with a lot of interviews I want to look at transcripts and be able to highlight transcripts. But, I love to take the time to see what the potential of the footage is and then come together with the directors to really compare notes. To find out what they’re reacting to so that maybe I can take a look at something in a different way, and also to get a very, very clear understanding of what the vision of their film is. With Betsy and Julie the vision was very clear. Their research was amazing! These are very experienced journalists, they knew the big strokes of the story they really wanted to tell. And then, I come in also with ideas of things that really kind of jumped at me in the footage, and then we start a discussion. I am the type of editor that likes to have something planned. I like to have an idea of where we’re going. Like, this is what I’m seeing in the material, the potential of really strong arcs or the really great moments that we should explore, and let’s have an idea of a structure. It changes quite a bit later on, but I feel like that conversation with the directors allows me to then delve into the actual editing of segments with a true focus of what the story is about, so that we don’t get lost or distracted by tangents. You know, because it is overwhelming. Like, oh, we can do all this stuff! And like, can I edit this film, can it be a film? So, that idea of an outline, it’s very useful for me.

PVC: What was the co-director relationship like? How did that work?

Gutierrez: It was very much a share in terms of the way that I communicated with them. They were great. We had that big conversation at the beginning, then I would take some time doing the first pass of the segments, based on our conversations, and then I showed it to them, and then we just kept going. You know, you’re building a lot at the beginning, so you do get big idea notes at the beginning, and then it starts getting more detail. And hard structural conversations and index cards, but it was all great. I really love working with them, and I learned a lot from them. And I was kind of surprised because I tend to let go of things sometimes a little too fast, like, oh, we can cut down … Like, I always feel like films that are tight, the drama moves.

PVC: You’re quicker to throw something away than to keep it?

Gutierrez: Yeah. To see how that changes the structure, the dramatic arc of the film, and a lot of times I feel like letting go of things that are lovely and that are amazing, but sometimes you let go of them, it makes the film stronger, so I’m willing to go there quickly. With Betsy and Julie, I had to stop that from getting there too fast. For me, it’s normally the directors, sometimes it takes them a little longer to let go. But not with them. They’re very quick to, like, “Oh, we don’t need this. Let’s try it without that,” and sometimes I had to be “Whoa, whoa, whoa! Maybe, let’s just keep that for a little bit longer, and let’s try it in the next pass.” So, I loved that because I’ve never had to do that before and convince people to keep things in these early stages. But, no, these women were fierce with that stuff, and I loved it. Never had to do that before, so that was a treat.

PVC: So, in practical terms, what does your Premiere Pro workflow look like? When you ingest this footage, do you have an assistant, do you have log notes? How did you manage all of the disparate sources that came in?

Gutierrez: We transcoded everything. Which makes the archival much bigger, but it makes it a lot more stable. Adobe Premiere Pro has been really great at it, you can throw everything at it, but again, we’re talking about hours and hours of footage. I usually have an assistant because this was just such a massive project that media management, besides just organizing media management, had to be very careful. But, with all the projects, because I’m working with a lot of really low-budget films, I do tell the directors, it’s better for you to hire somebody because you don’t want to pay a editor’s rate to do media management. And I talked with the assistant editor about the type of material, so if it’s interview and archival, then I just kind of tell them how I’d like it, and then I’ll move things around if it makes more sense as I’m watching the footage. After that, I’d like to really get in touch with the stuff. I do markers a lot on the footage itself within the bins. So, I click on the master clips, and as I’m watching it I put markers, sometimes with notes. If it’s just a marker it’s because there’s something good there so that makes me make sure that I don’t miss it when I’m building that scene. I recently finished watching footage for the new project I’m working on, and on that one I ended up taking notes on a Word document just because there was a lot of vérité, and it just made more sense for me to know what’s in each scene.

PVC: How do you find the heart of a documentary? What is that process for you, in practical terms?

Gutierrez: I think it goes back to this planning thing, but the planning early on has to be informed by you becoming one with the material. For example, the film that I’m working on right now, it’s a film that there’s a lot of on-the-fly interviews, and the on-the-fly interviews are really helpful. It allowed me to understand what they were feeling or what they were thinking, these characters, but then the beauty of the emotions really lights on the vérité, right? So, it’s really easy. I mean, it’s really easy to fall in the trap of doing the easiest thing. Like, you can just say how they feel, right? And it’s more of a challenge and difficult to really start hacking away and hacking away at the vérité, but you know that that emotional truth is also there, right? So, that’s something that I react to when I’m watching the material, so now I watch all the material. The material has interviews, the material has vérité, but I know that the heart of the story, that’s how I felt when I was watching, the heart of the story lies in the vérité. So then that’s what I react to when I plan. Like, we’re going to restrict ourselves, we’re going to be very disciplined, let’s try to tell this story on the vérité. And then if there’s something that we need to say that just can not be told by the vérité, then we’ll start exploring the different elements. So, that particular film is being edited in a very different way where I’m starting just vérité scenes in the middle of the film, like, the third of the film, but also kind of having an idea of what their arc can be. Because then if you’re working on scenes that are on your third act, you’re going to have to set it up and you need to know when you’re going to land. So that outline that you have in your mind gives you a little bit of focus of how to edit those third act scenes. But all really good vérité is in the third act, so let’s start there, right?

With RBG, that was kind of like a puzzle made out of a lot of little pieces. It was kind of like being a thief, stealing from all these different elements to create some kind of intimacy with her. And a lot of the archival is her talking about herself but in public speech settings. Like law students. And they’re asking her about Harvard Law, for instance. So she tells one anecdote. There’s a lot of those. So, we took a little piece from here, we took another piece from there, and then suddenly you have her really talking about Harvard Law School. Early on I spent a lot of hours watching her confirmation hearings, and a lot of it is the senators. They like to hear themselves talk. They’re kind of talking through the TV. They’re talking to their voters. And she’s listening to a lot of it. They ask very specific legal questions, and she’s answering in very specific ways, but there was something about those confirmation hearings that I hadn’t seen in any other material of her that was just jumping out, and the way that she was defending her way of thinking, the way that she was talking about her inspiration for becoming a lawyer…there was just something about those hearings where the rawness of her experience was coming through. Even the stuff that she read of her life that was prepared, but there was something about the energy that just made it really special, and that became a thing that we really used in the film.

In RBG, we have interviews of people talking about her, they’ve got a lot of interviews of people that share her experiences, which is great, people that were there, that worked with her, so that’s amazing work that the directors do, right? It’s my job to get a little bit of personality even though it’s an interview and the person’s talking about Ruth Bader Ginsburg, you can inject personality, you can use the personality, the energy of the person to help tell the story of somebody else. Some people are really difficult to edit because they don’t finish a thought or stuff like that…but they’re just so rich in terms of how they’re saying things or the details that they choose to share with you, so I never really just take what’s the actual exposition. It’s about reveal of character. Even if the film is not about them as a character, that’s still really important. Like, how are you mixing the energy of the interviews with the archival that you’re choosing? How are you building a scene with archival to really paint an emotional picture of something, to take the viewer emotionally there? And it takes a few passes to get there. Because if you have a film that is just exposition, you can read that film on an article. That’s what makes film special. And it’s all about a feeling that you get, right? The interviews read very differently on paper than they do on screen. A lot of times, the notes from the field or the reactions that the directors had on the interviews, they’re very surprised as to how the interviews come across once we edit them. Interviews that that they are really excited about, sometimes they don’t come across as exciting with the cuts.

PVC: My friend Peter Nicoll worked on the film, but I understand that RBG was primarily created with a team of female creatives?

Gutierrez: Pretty much. There was the cinematographer, myself the editor, two female directors, our associate producer, our archival researcher, our associate editor, and then also the CNN Films team, the two other producers on the film are also female. We also had a few other DPs coming in to help out, and some of those people were male. But the core team was all female, which was pretty cool.

PVC: I understand that the Justice will be here at the Sundance premiere?

Gutierrez: Yes, and there’s going to be a luncheon with her that the Sundance Institute. So, I’ll be there, and that’s where I’ll meet her. And I’ll look at her really weirdly…like, “I know how you talk and your pauses.” And she’ll think I’m a stalker, and the marshals will be like, “Hey.”

PVC: Is there a lesson that you learned from this project that will change the way you approach future projects?

Gutierrez: Lots of lessons. I think the biggest lesson I learned over and over again is to try to be open to how all the people are reacting to the material. Because there’s definitely something that attracts me, special moments that attract me, and I just really have to remind myself always to be listening to the directors and how they are reacting to the material. So, I think that that’s something that we just have to re-learn over, and over, and over again. I love watching other editors work, and I can tell sometimes, oh, “this was done by this person,” and you can tell a style…so we definitely tend to react to things in one way.

PVC: If you had any advice for a new editor, what would you tell them?

Gutierrez: To ask a lot from other editors. I had a great mentor at the very beginning of my career, and I’ve been lucky enough to meet people with a lot more experience than me throughout the years. So I study their work, and there’s a really strong community that we have. I find documentary editors are incredibly generous. I would say to be curious and to want to be there. Because the hard part is thinking about long-format structure, the big picture of storytelling, and that’s not something that you can learn by media management or cutting something to music in a cool way. So, to just ask to be present, ask other editors to allow them to be around when those conversations are happening. The worst thing that you will get is a no. But I know a lot of experienced documentary editors like to get those questions, and for them it’s also important to mentor the next generation. And I’ve mentioned this before, but the Sundance Institute is incredibly supportive of the art of editing and the craft for documentaries, and they’re really supportive of mentorship of young voices. It’s applying for jobs and then being very respectful of who they’re working with. But also asking, tell them that you want to learn, and tell them “I’ll just be quiet, taking notes on the side, but I want to be around. Please include me if you can.”

On RBG we had this very technically savvy assistant editor that made everything run really smoothly, and then because it was a massive project, and we were going against deadlines, she came onboard full time, and I just gave her scenes to do. And we would discuss what was the point of the scene before she started, then she would do a pass at it, and then we would watch it together, and then I would give her notes, and then she would do another pass at it. And there’s a couple of short scenes that she has in the film, and she’s an associate editor. But also, there’s a great organization in New York called the Karen Schmeer Editing Fellowship that supports young emerging editors. They have a fellowship that grants one person and does mentorship for them, but they also have Editor’s Center events where they invite editors to talk about their craft, and show their work. And young editors, they need to look for that stuff because hearing how other editors do problem solving, or the way that they approach thinking about archival, or thinking about vérité…for me it feeds me and shakes me up a little bit, and then maybe I will approach a scene in a different way. Young editors can definitely learn from that. And the Sundance Institute has a partnership with them now. There’s support out there, and then there’s some drinking things happening in the city. Editors come together.

RBG screened at Sundance 2018, and was sold to Magnolia Pictures and Participant Media for an undisclosed sum in a deal that includes worldwide theatrical and streaming rights. CNN Films retained US broadcast rights.

The post Editor Carla Gutierrez on crafting “RBG” appeared first on ProVideo Coalition.

First Found At: Editor Carla Gutierrez on crafting “RBG”

#viddy find

0 notes

anthonyjackwilliamspp · 8 years ago

Text

Research and Planning (ii): Casting, storyboarding, and planning for the day of the shoot!

Casting

As a group, we decided that we wanted both of our lead characters to be female, because female leads are not typically seen in this genre of film. “Women are never in the position of power in the movies, unless they are the deranged psycho/demon infested villain. But beyond that, all of these roles you could attribute to women in horror films are hyper-sexualized, through their body language or even how they are killed off.” (Haley, 2017)8. As Haley states, women are typically the weak characters within horror films, and therefore we wanted to make both of our characters, in particularly Ellen, hold some form of power over a threat, in this case one of “the infected”, who is purposefully a male. Knowing this, we wanted out cast members to be able to portray this powerful nature very naturally, and I think that the two actors we casted were perfect for the roles, even with a last minute cancelation (discussed in Evaluation and Reflection), I was still pleased with the actors who portrayed Mattie and Ellen. I used knowledge and experience from casting the actors in the TV Studio (CINE1049, 2017) production to help me with this process, even allowing me to contact some of the same actors.

Storyboarding and making a shot list

Whilst storyboarding, I took in to account shot types that I liked and noted down when watching zombie films for inspiration (mentioned in Research and Analysis). However, I wanted to make sure that decisions to use certain shots were authentic and original, whilst conforming to the conventions mentioned previously (Research and Analysis). I did this by insuring that some of the shots were different to what we typically see in programmes and in films within the same genre, making the audience feel uneasy, unsure, and even questioning the shots at times. For example, mid-shots and close-ups (of the same subject) cut next to each other).

Also, when drawing out the storyboard and writing out the shot list, I avoided using point-of-view shots mainly because I feel as if you can easily lose emotional connection with the characters by doing this, simply because we would no longer be a viewer, but a participant, and almost subconsciously breaking the fourth wall. “Shaky-cam doesn't work on a human level: we, as humans, don't see that way. Ever. Shaky-cam is an interruption to our visual sense, and is very dangerous to use” (Shootingpeople.org, 2017)5. This is another reason as to why I did not want to use shaky-cam, also known as, hand-held camera, because it takes out the realism from the scene. Despite the fact that Ellen and Mattie are in a world that is entirely fictional, and not very realistic at all, I wanted to keep as many realistic factors as I possibly could to increase tension and the believability that the virus in their world could be possible in real life, which is another element of horror typically found in modern films and TV series’. This is why I only added the shaky-cam or hand-held camera technique when filming the flashback scenes, when Ellen and Mattie are not in a typical “human” situation).

Location

During storyboarding, I also had to take into account the location that we were using. Originally, we were going to use an abandoned building in the middle of a forest, similar to figure 7, however due to complications (discussed in Evaluation and Reflection), we were unable to use a location like this.

We decided to use a house that was in the garden of one of our group member’s house, and actually decided that we preferred this location more so than the original because the “perfect” and “preserved” nature of the house add a very sinister atmosphere to the entire scene. Inserted are some images of the location we used for the majority of the film. As you can see, the bright greens and cream colours are different to the original location idea (figure 7) however, as mentioned, this worked to our advantage.

Scheduling the day as a director

Another task I completed during the planning stage of this project was making a schedule for the director, myself, in order for the day to run smoothly. “The director and assistant director usually make the schedule together. The process includes figuring out what scenes can be shot together in the same day, scheduling actors to work consecutive days, and how to tighten the schedule so the film can be shot in fewer days. If you don’t have an assistant director to help schedule and be on the set to help things stay organized, then you have to do the schedule all by yourself” (dummies, 2017)6. My schedule included the shots I would be filming, when I would be filming them, and who/what I would need in each shot.

Shooting day

On the day of the shoot, as director, it was my responsibility to make sure that all of the planned shots were filmed successfully. Because of our last minute actor change (see Evaluation and Reflection), our camera operator was needed to act in our film, and therefore I was in charge of actually filming the shots that we needed as well as direct the actors. I did not mind this being the case as I was able to shoot the shots to my own taste a lot more easily than if I was constantly asking somebody to do so. When we arrived on location, I made sure that all the present cast and crew were briefed on the day’s schedule regarding filming so that we were all ready to film as soon as possible, allowing us to be on time or even ahead of schedule.

We began filming at ten o’clock in the morning allowing us for two hours of filming before the lunch break scheduled by our producer. We did not start filming straight away due to the fact that we could not use the boom microphones booked out for the day as a piece of the equipment was missing from the kit, and therefore we couldn’t plug the microphone into the camera. This meant that we had to improvise on the day, and we ended using our phones to record audio from different angles, allowing for multiple choices of dialogue audio during the edit (discussed in Evaluation and Reflection). The lunch break allowed for the cast and crew to have a break and revise the afternoon schedule, it also allowed for our makeup artist to start working on makeup for the extras who were arriving at the time.

This process took longer than we expected which set us back forty-five minutes, however, we were still able to complete all of the shots needed before the end of the shoot on location one. We then proceeded to move to location two, which was a forest, to start filming the flashback sequences. We made sure that all of the equipment and cast was safe during our travel between locations. Once we had reached the location, I briefed the team once again allowing them to all be on the same page in terms of what was happening over the next few hours. Some of the shots we got at this location were improvised on the day because I felt as if some of the planned shots did not work with the exact environment we were in (for example shapes of trees, path sizes etc).

Post-production: the edit

The producer thought, and I agreed, that it was very important that I was present during the edit. “Film editing is a creative and technical part of the post-production process of filmmaking.” (En.wikipedia.org, 2017)9. As director, I was in charge of the creative decisions made, and therefore needed to be present during the edit. Before each editing session, I briefed the editor on what I would like to see and the story I was trying to tell, allowing for her to feel confident going forward with the edit. If I saw something that I didn’t like, I would open it up to the team and see if anyone had any suggestions to make it better, whilst also inputting my own ideas. This allowed for my creative ideas to become reality (for example the colour grading and fast paced editing mentioned in the Research and Analysis section), but also for the whole team to input fairly also as this is a group project at the end of the day. We used Adobe Premiere 2016 to edit our short film, we felt this was the best program to use to edit a film this length, allowing us to successfully mirror our inspirations (for example the warm colours from The Walking Dead and the fast paced editing in 28 Days Later). We exported the film as H.256 1080i in order for it to be the best quality on most platforms.

0 notes

lorrainecparker · 7 years ago

Text

ART OF THE CUT with Lisa Bromwell, ACE on “House of Cards”

Lisa Bromwell, ACE has been working in feature film and TV editorial for more than 30 years. She moved into the editors chair in 1992 and has edited more than a dozen feature films and numerous TV series, like The Practice, Weeds, Better Off Ted, Cold Case, Gravity, and Criminal Minds. Art of the Cut talked to Bromwell about her work on the Netflix series, House of Cards. (There are specific examples of editing scenes that you can watch if you have Netflix or even a trial subscription to Netflix.)

All previous seasons of House of Cards have been edited on Final Cut Pro7 (including last season!). Bromwell and I chatted as the team was on hiatus before next season, which will be cut on Premiere Pro.

(This interview was transcribed with SpeedScriber. The entire interview was transcribed within 15 minutes of completing the Skype call. Thanks to Martin Baker at Digital Heaven)

HULLFISH: Where do you start? What guides you in your edit?

BROMWELL: I use the lined script, so I always know what I have. I like to watch a new scene and then wait till the next day to cut it. It doesn’t always work out that way. But at the end of the day, I try to watch the dailies for the scene I’m going to cut first thing in the morning. Just watch it through. Or I’ll watch select dailies at home before I go to work so I get an overall view of the scene and how it’s covered and what’s happening. I like to have at least a few hours before I actually start to work so it can percolate in my mind. Then when I’m ready to start, I sit back and I watch the dailies thoroughly and take notes about what I like in terms of the performance. There’s always a moment in a scene that is the key moment, and I want to make sure I know where I want to be for that moment. Sometimes it’s a close-up, sometimes it’s a wide shot. It’s knowing where that most important moment is, then working to construct the scene around it. Maybe the best performance is in a wide shot and it happens in the middle of a scene, so I’ll construct it with that in mind. Of course, things don’t always go the way you plan and I do something totally different. But I try not to get caught up in too many details in my first pass.

I try to build a scene and get a pass on it where I’m kind of in the right place at the right time. You can tell if you’re going to be able to make a cut work or not. And sometimes rather than get caught up in the details, which can kind of hold up the flow of thought, its best to keep moving forward knowing that I will go back and refine it all later. But I get through full pass, then put it aside and move on to the next thing. I will always review it maybe later that day or in the morning – look at what I’ve done and do another pass on it. Generally, before what I think of as my editor’s cut, I’ve done three passes. For example, say I get the dailies for scene 14 and if I’ve already cut scene 13. After I watch the dailies for sc 14, I’ll rework sc 13, work out the transition between the scenes and continue on cutting sc 14. Then I’ll probably rework sc 14 when I’m ready to attach sc 15. I find that having that small distance on it gives me a better perspective on what works and what doesn’t.

HULLFISH: I’m a huge believer in sleeping on a scene… let it kind of percolate.

BROMWELL: Yeah, you’re not really thinking about it, but it’s there in your brain and it’s kind of working on it. I like to do crossword puzzles and if I get stuck on the New York Times crossword puzzle, I walk away for two hours and go back to it later and you say, “Oh, that’s easy.” Same thing for cutting a scene.

HULLFISH: So you guys have been cutting House of Cards in Final Cut Pro 7 all these seasons right?

BROMWELL: Yes. We. Have.

HULLFISH: How am I going to translate that tone of voice?

BROMWELL: I almost said no to the job because I so detest FinalCutPro. I’ve done a bunch of really low budget films where that was the only option and when I took the job I decided I wasn’t going to hate it. I couldn’t go to work and hate it every day. I was going to find a way to make it work so I did the on-line Lynda.com classes and that helped and we have a really good support staff. I have to say that after all these years it’s as second nature to me as Avid. It’s still irritating in many ways but I don’t hate it actively every minute of every day, which is what I was afraid was going to happen.

HULLFISH: So you’ve cut a bunch on Avid, you cut a bunch on Final Cut Pro. Now, House of Cards is moving to Premiere Pro for its final season.

BROMWELL: The one thing I can say on House of Cards is that they take really good care of the editors. We’ve always had amazingly good support staff. They’ll have somebody spend the day working with me to teach me how to use Premiere and then that person will be there on site when I start cutting for a day or two to answer questions. Fortunately, my assistant knows Premiere and has worked on it on a couple of jobs so he knows it. I know that whatever the bugs are, they won’t be my problem. Somebody else will know how to get around them and whatever problems arise I’ll be able to get my questions answered.

HULLFISH: Well, you’ve also got the rest of the Fincher production team who’s been working on Mindhunter using Premiere now for a while, so they’ve got a lot of the kinks ironed out. I was with the Mindhunter team while they were cutting this summer.

BROMWELL: They had an Adobe guy there full time when they were cutting Gone Girl and he put Premiere on my system, just so I could try to play with it, but until you’re actually working with it…

HULLFISH: There are a couple of episodes that I would love to chat about. There’s one scene in chapter 46 (season 4 episode 7) that has this intercutting back and forth between the Conways and Underwoods. You’ve got the passion of the Conways and then you cut to the passionless Underwoods.

BROMWELL: Originally, they wanted to do the entire episode in a split screen. It was like, “OK. Interesting. I don’t know how that’s going to work.” The original director that was going to direct that episode was all excited about the idea, but he had to drop out. Then another director took over, and the planning for that idea sort of fell away. First, they dropped the idea that the entire show would be split screens and then it would just be sections. In the end, everything that we intercut was supposed to be split screened. But I spent a huge amount of time trying to make the split screen work although it was clear to me it was never going to work. Part of the problem from the get-go is if you have a split screen between the sexy young Conways going at it in the bathroom and boring Frank and Claire… who are you going to look at?

I knew that the splitscreens were a road that we should not be going down, so I started coming up with another way to present it. I have to say, people were on the same page with me pretty early on. The intercuts thing was far more interesting and it was still something that was different. It’s not really what we do on House of Cards.

HULLFISH: That brings up an interesting point. You have to be pretty confident in your choice to be able to say, “Look. It’s not going to work. I could spend forever on this but it’s just not going to work.” That’s a difficult choice to make, isn’t it?

BROMWELL: I suspect that by the time they were shooting it, everybody was having their doubts about whether or not it was really going to work. I tried early on to develop a good rapport with the director. They shoot on the East Coast and we’re on the West Coast. Actually, on that particular episode, the director was in London when we were cutting. I was in L.A. and we had the remote system that works really well. I had him on Skype and we had a really great time working together. I had to really think about it to remember that he wasn’t actually in the room with me. He’s a good guy and he really was open to talking about what works and what didn’t work. I just sent versions. it was really easy. We used PIX with a private folder so nobody else can see what the editor and director are sharing. That’s how we just decided to go down the intercut road. Once you looked at both versions I think it was pretty clear that that the splits weren’t going to work. And then in order to make the intercutting work we just had to reposition stuff as much as we could to make the shots work.

HULLFISH: Because they were framed for a split?

BROMWELL: Yes.

HULLFISH: So was determining the timing for the intercutting something you had to play with?

BROMWELL: It was something I had to play with because it was scripted to happen simultaneously.

HULLFISH: I really like the scene about halfway through chapter 18 (season 2 episode 5) when Claire and Frank are in her office rehearsing how it’s going to go with the NRA lady, because in that scene Claire would start to say something or Frank would be saying what the NRA lady was going to say, and you would smoothly go to the gun lady finishing the line.

BROMWELL: So the way they shot it is that both people did all of the lines so I could choose when to make that change from Frank saying her line to her saying her line. Those intercut scenes were ones I worked on a little bit every day until I turned in the editor’s cut because there’s a lot of ways to go and I would find this perfect transition but then getting back around… it was just a tricky balance to find. And you just sit there for a long time and just keep working.

HULLFISH: And I noticed also in those intercuts some really nice pre-lapping of dialogue. The other thing I really loved about those two “practice” sessions with Claire and Frank prepping for meetings is that one starts with the practice and goes to the meeting and the other one starts with the meeting and goes to the practice.

BROMWELL: They were a lot of fun to do.

HULLFISH: That episode also has Claire talking to the Joint Chiefs about sexual harassment.

BROMWELL: Yeah. That’s one of my favorite scenes. I tried to have no line on camera. (laughs)

HULLFISH: I was going to say that! That scene is SO much on reactions! It’s also a huge amount of overlapping dialogue everybody steps on every other person. Nobody waits to finish a line. Obviously, you are the one that was in control of that, but nobody waits to finish line before the next person starts. They’re all overlapped.

BROMWELL: Yes. And it’s all on reactions. You could turn off the sound and know exactly what’s happening. Every woman out there has had a man telling her what the right thing is. We’ve all been there. So it didn’t matter what they were saying. At the same time, you didn’t know exactly what Claire was up to but you knew she was orchestrating this whole thing to put those guys in their place. I just love that Congresswoman. Those two military guys, they have great faces.

It was something Fincher had talked to me about when I met with him. When I interviewed for the job he talked about how he wanted the show to be cut untraditionally for television. What’s important about this show and what makes it good is that: it’s never about what’s being said. It’s always about something else. And people are always manipulating each other. And we’ve got these fantastic actors. Kevin Spacey. Robin Wright. You can always cut to them. They are always doing something interesting, but sometimes it’s more interesting to play against that and cut to the person they’re manipulating to see their response. David envisioned the show being cut like that. I think about it all the time. And I have to say just having that interview with him, made me a better editor because it made me go a little bit deeper in how I thought about the scenes and I knew that nobody was going to give me the note of “Put that person on camera.” If you find the perfect reaction, nobody will give you that note, but with network television it’s like, if somebody’s talking, cut to them. It’s so boring and it makes the words so important. I think often in House of Cards that it doesn’t matter if you understand the specifics of what they’re talking about. It doesn’t matter if you know you know how Frank’s trying to manipulate the Chinese government. All you need to understand are the personal dynamics and the personal dramas of who is screwing over who and how they’re reacting. That’s far more important than understanding any of the details. I swear, half the time I don’t understand the details of what people are doing. It’s not that important, it’s not why people watch the show.

HULLFISH: That scene was so on-target with the whole mansplaining concept. He doesn’t even let Claire finish her thought before he’s rebutting her.

BROMWELL: Yeah yeah yeah. It’s that man thing, stepping all over her, then Claire sticks the knife in and twists it.

HULLFISH: And then, of course, the great reaction when the First Lady walks in and the two generals are like, “Oh man we’ve been taken.”

BROMWELL: Exactly.

HULLFISH: Another great one is chapter 39 (season 3 episode 13) about 40 minutes in: a big argument between Frank and Claire. There’s just a great use of reaction shots, different sized shots and the music doesn’t come in until almost the end of the conversation. You really kept it very dry.

BROMWELL: My favorite part of that scene is when they’re on either side of the desk and Frank is saying, “You keep saying it’s not enough, not enough!” and Claire says, “No! You’re not enough.” And the music comes to a crescendo and at that moment… dead silence… and that silence lasts for a really long time. And in that silence, you understand that Claire has blurted out something she never intended to say and that Frank is so angered by that. It’s what I love about House of Cards that we could do that. I have to say that that scene never changed from the editor’s cut I turned in. I temped it that way and Jeff Beale, our composer was like, “Oh, this is exactly the way to do that.” There was never any argument to change the way the music came in or where it came in and where it went out. I think too many shows rely on music. Much more than they need to. And it’s the lack of music – the lack of sound – that can work just as well. If you’ve already chosen the right sound and music, having silence becomes an equally important element in storytelling.

HULLFISH: After that climax, there’s a long silence and a series of reactions without words. That had to have been kind of hard to determine right? Because a lot of times your pacing of a scene is based on dialogue. And there’s no dialogue. So how do you decide how long you sit on Frank speechless?

BROMWELL: What I tried to do is to literally make it as long as I could. I actually think there were places where they weren’t moving where I slowed it down a little bit where you couldn’t tell that I manipulated the speed. I was just like, “How long can I make this and still get away with it?” You could always cut back on it later. But I remember trying to find every frame I could use.

HULLFISH: It’s an interesting thing after that scene is a scene that some people would say, “Oh, it’s just shoe leather. You should cut that out.” If you remember immediately after that there’s a fairly long scene of a couple of guys just walking through the White House to come back and tell Claire that she’s got to go to New Hampshire with Frank. But the audience needs that time to go, “Whoah! That was powerful.” You can’t just cut to the next scene right? You need a breath. It’s also a change of time.

BROMWELL: You would have lost the impact. They go to Claire and she’s sitting there looking at a picture. And then she comes out and says, “I’m leaving you.” If you got to that too fast you’ve lost the impact of it because you can’t have two big charged moments that close to each other. You need the time to process, because Frank grabs her by the face and you think she’s just going to fold to him so you need to have time to think, “Claire’s been screwed-over and she’s been put in her place.” You need time to think that. It’s the nice thing about House of Cards that we get to do those things and we tend to not get stylistic notes. I really appreciate that.

HULLFISH: You’ve cut a bunch of features and a bunch of TV shows, like Criminal Minds. What’s the difference between the TV work you do and the feature work you do? Is there something when you switch between them where you say, “I have to get my head in a new place?”

BROMWELL: No. The biggest difference between television and features is that to be successful on television you have to be able to come up with solutions to all the problems yourself. There’s a lot of people making a television show but there’s also a lot of episodes so nobody has the time to come and sit with you in your room and figure out how to fix a problematic episode. There’s always some crisis on the set because they’re always shooting something or the script isn’t ready and they’re about to start shooting it.

So for an editor to keep getting asked back, you’ve got to be the kind of person that can come up with a solution. They’ll tell you, “This doesn’t work and that doesn’t work.” You’ve got to figure out options and present them.

In features, everybody is working on one thing. And by the time you’re in editing, nobody’s shooting anything and nobody is still writing the script. So when there’s a problem, everybody’s in your room helping to solve the problem. It’s a little bit of a different skill in terms of how you work with people.

I really enjoy that really close collaboration you have with the director when you’re on a feature. You don’t really have that in episodic. In the best of all possible worlds in episodic you’ll have that relationship with one of the executives. But again, they’re always being called off to go solve another problem. So I think that’s the biggest difference. With features, you’re working with a group of people together solving the problems and you have to have good people skills. In episodic, world, it’s much more likely that you just have to figure it out on your own.

HULLFISH: In episodic TV, that relationship with the director is like serial monogamy right? Where the first week you’re devoted to the director and his vision. And then after those four or five days: “See you buddy!” Now you’re working with producers or the show runner and now your loyalty has switched.

BROMWELL: And with a feature, your loyalty is to the director. It’s my job to support the director in a feature and support the director’s vision because it’s not my vision. So I try to mostly keep my mouth shut if there’s a dispute between the director and the producer. But I’ll share my opinion with the director in private. In television it’s like you’re totally loyal to the director but as soon as they’re gone, they’re gone. And if what the director did isn’t working, I will say to the producers, “We did this and I agree it doesn’t work.” I don’t feel any obligation to make the director’s vision work if it doesn’t, but I do on a feature.

HULLFISH: But while the director is with you in episodic you do feel like you need to make it work.

BROMWELL: Yeah absolutely. However, I think it’s part of my job to have an opinion. And if something the director’s doing isn’t working, or if in my first cut what I think works is markedly different from what I think the director intended, I’ll do the version I think works best, and I’ll put that in the cut I first present. But I’ll also do the version I believe the director intended, and I’ll do my best to make it work. Then when we’re working together, I can say, “I know this isn’t the way you saw it”. And I’ll show the version of the scene that’s more of the director’s intention. Then there’s a discussion, “What wasn’t working for me was this and this and this. And so I tried it like this.” And we can work all ideas and maybe even come up with something different altogether. Bur directors generally acknowledge that I know the show better than they do and they all want to turn in an episode that is consistent with the show’s style.

HULLFISH: Talk to me about that idea of being the steward for the feel of the show, because the editors in episodic TV generally do know the show better than the director. So how do you interact with the director when you know you might know it better than him or her?

BROMWELL: I have a tendency to be very opinionated. And that’s something I have to try to rein in a lot.

HULLFISH: You have to have something to say and you have to have an ego to be an editor, I think. But you can’t have such a big ego that it’s stepping on your ability to let the director have this vision.

BROMWELL: Right. Right. You have to keep reminding yourself: It’s not your vision. It’s the director’s vision. Or in television it’s the writer. I have to say, by and large, the whole House of Cards experience is a really good one. I really like the way the show is run. Most directors acknowledge that I probably know better how the show works and they are looking to me for guidance. They’ll say, “I tried this thing but I’m not really sure that it’s House of Cards. Can we make it feel like House of Cards?” And when a director approaches me that way, I will do everything I can to make what they want feel like House of Cards.

HULLFISH: With the speed of working TV, do you have to change your methodology from when you’re working on a feature?

BROMWELL: I still work the same way. We shoot 10 days per episode and we cross board so we’re getting dailies for 20 days. There’s always a scene or two that I work on for the whole 20 days before I’m happy with it. On a feature, however many days they’re shooting, there’s always a scene I’m working on for the entirety of that time before I’m happy with it. So I don’t think I change.

The last the last couple of features I did were with Ben Lewin and we have a really good relationship. Ben enjoys an argument so it was lively in our editing room and I would have to remind myself that in episodic I tend to know better than a lot of the directors what’s right for the show. I would have to rein myself in when I was working with Ben because even though I had an opinion about what was right for the show it’s not the same thing. And you can fall into a bad habit Especially when you’re working with a director who enjoys an argument. There’s always that period of feeling out a new director and trying to adapt the way you work to the way they work.

I like to have a conversation on the first day: How do you like to work?” Even basics, like, “Do you want to sit here with me while we make the changes or do you want to just go through the show and give me notes and go away?” I’m always trying to adapt myself to how that director likes to work. Good thing about television is that we work with so many different directors you get better at that. It’s a people skill where experience works in your favor. I’ve done a bunch of super low budget movies with Sebastian Gutierrez and we just have a blast. We argue and he totally trusts me. There’s a reason people work with the same people all the time. We have similar sensibilities and we both like to have a good time. And everything was done out of mutual respect. I thought he was a very talented guy and I totally admired what he was trying to do. He thinks I’m a very talented editor and has a lot of respect for my opinion. So it’s hard to go wrong.

HULLFISH: Any words of wisdom?

BROMWELL: Stay in a shot until you need another piece of information. And that’s why you cut, because you need another piece of information. And too often people who are starting out they’re like where can I cut? You’re telling a story you’re not cutting.

HULLFISH: Why are you cutting? What’s the reason for the cut? What piece of information do I need? Or what am I what am I about to reveal that I shouldn’t?

What do you look for in an assistant editor? Is skill at actual editing important at all?

BROMWELL: I hate more than anything having to find a new assistant. So sometimes I think I’d be better off finding an assistant who doesn’t ever want to be an editor.

For me this is the most important thing in an assistant: I need to be able to trust that person that they are very meticulous and they’re not going to forget things because if something doesn’t happen from the get-go, then I will always worry. If need to know that if I ask for something to be done it will be done and it’ll be done right.

I like an assistant to be another set of eyes for me. I do want somebody that wants to be an editor because I want them to pay attention. Do you like the scene like this? Or like that? Which one is working? Especially when there’s a problem you get tunnel vision and all I can see is the problem and maybe I’ve solved the problem but I still can’t see it. I want my assistant to come in here and take a look at this and tell me what they think. So I really value that because when you’re alone making all those decisions one after another after another after another. I want an assistant who is comfortable saying “No that’s terrible. That that doesn’t work at all.” I try to foster that with people. It’s a private space just you and me in the room we can say anything we want to each other. So that matters to me. When I have an assistant, the first time I show them something I can tell if they’re going to be a good assistant by the feedback they give. Do they have good judgment? You can tell. I had an assistant once and the first time he looked at something all he could talk about were technical things. And I told him, “That’s not what I’m looking for.” and he totally got it, and he learned it and he’s a fantastic assistant.

HULLFISH: But he was concerned with maybe continuity issues or something and you said, “No, what I care about is the glint in the eyes.”

BROMWELL: Right. He noticed that Claire’s hair was different in one shot and the other. I said, “I don’t care about that.” Sometimes I feel like I’m the least observant editor because I miss a lot of those things continuity-wise because I’m focused on something else. I’m trying to tell the story. Now, if the continuity scene is glaring and you keep noticing it after the scene is polished, Well clearly it’s something I have to pay attention to. But if you’re in the story if you’re in the right place at the right time you’re caught up in the emotion of the moment that continuity error? Nobody’s going to notice it. When I was an assistant editor on a feature, they had to do a reshoot for something and they got the color of one of the guy’s shirts is wrong and you know what? Nobody noticed. It just went right by you that in the middle of the scene his shirt changed colors.

HULLFISH: Great story. It was wonderful talking to you, this was filled with great information.

BROMWELL: Thank you. Great talking to you too.

To read more interviews in the Art of the Cut series, check out THIS LINK and follow me on Twitter @stevehullfish

The first 50 interviews in the series provided the material for the book, “Art of the Cut: Conversations with Film and TV Editors.” This is a unique book that breaks down interviews with many of the world’s best editors and organizes it into a virtual roundtable discussion centering on the topics editors care about. It is a powerful tool for experienced and aspiring editors alike. Cinemontage and CinemaEditor magazine both gave it rave reviews. No other book provides the breadth of opinion and experience. Combined, the editors featured in the book have edited for over 1,000 years on many of the most iconic, critically acclaimed and biggest box office hits in the history of cinema.

The post ART OF THE CUT with Lisa Bromwell, ACE on “House of Cards” appeared first on ProVideo Coalition.

First Found At: ART OF THE CUT with Lisa Bromwell, ACE on “House of Cards”

#viddy find

0 notes