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ALevel Exam - University - Hollywood !

Marco21 — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 22:09:54 GMT

Hey my name is Marco Würz.

I am new using AVID as my leading Editing Tool. I have advanced skills in, AE, Sony Vegas, AP other programms (check out my profil)

My lifedream is to become a A.C.E (no kidding) or minimum to make it to a very good editor in Hollywood. If i would earn enought money open a Movie Editor School ;).

Aswell i can speak english nearly as good as germam. Since this post shouldnt be longer then 100 words i will stop now writing ;) any more question about me go ahead and ask.

Greetings Marco ;)

My start in the ad biz...

Adman — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 18:09:03 GMT

I suppose my advertising career really started as a youngster. I loved to draw, build/photograph model cars, construct wooden go-carts (and coast down the steep hill on my street) and play drums. I was building "sets" and doing "photo shoots" and (after getting a drum kit for Christmas) learning about music. I would set up a drag strip with the model funny cars and rail dragsters doing "wheelies" with cotton placed around the rear tires to look like smoke and photograph them with my Polaroid camera. I also built model ships; only to rig them with M-80's and firecrackers with underwater fuses and take them down to the creek -- climbing out on a limb to light the fuse -- to watch them explode. I was setting up scenes and producing/directing live events.

Around eighth grade I became involved in amateur radio, later joining an Explorer Scout troop, specializing in ham radio. I had to study electronics and learn Morse Code in order to get my license. This experience probably helped me to become acclimated to using computers and working in broadcast (radio) advertising.

I kept a notebook of my drawings which were mostly hot rod cars. In tenth grade, a friend who lived on my street, showed them to his dad who owned an offset printing company. I was immediately hired to work for him in the art department...nights, weekends and summers. I learned the printing business and eventually became the art director. He sent me to commercial art school after I graduated from high school. I studied graphic design, typesetting and type specification, layout, paste-up, etc. My computer experience began with Compugraphic computer typesetting equipment -- long before the first PC.

I later worked in a corporate advertising department for a regional furniture store chain. The advertising department worked closely with merchandising and marketing departments...so I began to see the creative process as an integrated aspect of the overall retail marketing effort. I later worked myself through business school (GA State's, Robinson School of Business) while working as a graphics department supervisor and graphic artist for a large, web fed creative printer. I majored in marketing with a focus on computer science.

As VP of the marketing fraternity in college I developed the first place entry (out of 50 universities) in a national marketing/advertising competition. This led to an advertising agency job. The agency's billings were about 80% broadcast television and we handled advertising for an Atlanta television station that owned a leading video production facility. Awards covered the walls and shelves in the agency conference room -- including a Clio. I worked for several advertising agencies, both full time and freelance, over a period of several years, gaining extensive experience in all media, including broadcast and cable television.

Due to computer science studies in college and experience with computerized typesetting equipment on the job, I became enamored with the possibilities of having computer typesetting and graphics available as the first desktop publishing and photo editing software emerged on the scene. In fact, I had eagerly anticipated the inevitable development of computer software for graphics and typesetting on the PC...even accessing a type shop, via modem, that accepted *.txt files with embedded typesetting codes, similar to the codes used in typesetting equipment I had used for many years.

Even after the debut of early desktop publishing software, I was surprised at the difficulties I had convincing agency principles (nice people who suffered from computer phobia) to adopt computers in the creative department...one of whom said that computers would "stymie creativity." The "horse and buggy" mentality was rampant in the early stages of computer graphics.

Anyway, after having worked at several full-service agencies, my advertising agency was borne partly out of my desire to pursue these emerging technologies without the burden of convincing others of the feasibility and potential of a changing technology landscape. In addition to computer graphics (Illustrator®, Photoshop®, Corel Draw®, Painter®, Flash®, etc.) I was eager to pursue Pro Tools® audio recording and Avid® Media Composer® video editing and Softimage|XSI® 3d modeling/animation on the personal computer as these technologies emerged. It fascinated me that systems that previously cost millions had become available on the personal computer, with enhanced capabilities.

I was recently asked by Boris to write the following article about my shop, and how we use Boris effects:

http://www.borisfx.com/userstory/davis.php

"Studio D"

You young whippersnappers...

jwrl — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 09:34:09 GMT

I joined the industry in 1963 in Melbourne. Videotape as a production tool was then in its infancy, and editing was to say the least primitive. At that time our station had Ampex videotape machine serial number 8 (hand built), only the second export machine shipped.

In those days precise videotape editing was only possible if you physically cut and spliced the tape in roughly the same way as audiotape is often edited to this day. The tools of the gun editor were a chinagraph pencil, cotton gloves, iron dust, benzine, aluminised mylar tape, a splicing block and of course a razor blade.

The methodology for cutting videotape was in principle quite simple. First you identified where the cut was to be made and marked the tape on the backing side with a chinagraph pencil You then removed the tape from the heads and placed it backing side down on your jointing block, with the chinagraph mark centrally placed.

An image of the recorded tracks was developed using a suspension of iron dust in benzine. The "developed" tape was next examined to find the vertical interval. Once found, you then looked across to the bottom edge of the tape to where the control track was recorded.

There, close to your vertical interval if you were lucky, you would find a bright spot, which was the edit pulse. If you were unlucky you had picked up the vertical interval halfway through the frame, and had to move to the next vertical interval. You then cut the tape alongside that vertical interval with a razorblade.

The tape was then flipped over, cleaned, and spliced to the next prepared piece of tape using very thin aluminised mylar splicing tape. The ends of the tape were brought into precise alignment and held there while the splice was performed, and your edit was complete!

If you were successful, the tape played and looked roughly the way that you had envisaged it. If you had slipped up somewhere you had a reframe, which could take anything up to eight seconds to relock.

And we call them the good old days!

Fast Times at Viewmont High

dbeditorial — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 01:16:46 GMT

All I need are some tasty waves, a cool buzz, and I'm fine.

- Jeff Spicoli

I had enough credits to graduate High School, and we had a new TV Production class... Senior year 1972. Do the math. Persistence got me the weekend cameraman (cameraperson) job at a TV station in Salt Lake City. Today I am a Predator (Producer/Editor) in Dallas, and wondering why I did not study astro-physics! Back then the gear was so crazy expensive and you needed a herd (gaggle) of engineers to keep it running. The number of people working with TV gear was pretty limited, being able to drive a big Grass Valley switcher was like an "E" ticket at Disneyland and I had 3 M/Es. The first editor I got my hands was a Mach I at the Osmond Studios.

The first 10 years or so of my career was always near a TV transmitter, promos, cheap commercials, opens and long days in some semi-trailer parked under some arena directing some sport for somebody. Fool that I was, I thought if I could just get a job at a post-house, it would be 9-5! Heading south, I found myself in the velvet rut of Austin, Texas. I had a CMX-340, GVG-300 and two ADOs... We worked with GSD&M and won every commercial award given out for many years. I had a Clio when you actually had to WIN one and I cut music videos before Willie's beard was gray. With a Mustang convertible I was tan and happy! But then the owner of the company thought CMX was dead, can you say Paltex?

So that brings me to Dallas, If there was a Camelot of Post-Production, it was TeleImage. D1, D2, 3D... big rooms, lots of decks, catered lunches and a staff masseuse! Working 9-5 and loving life! But, then some guy in Tewksbury screwed it all up figuring he could save the client money by doing an OFFLINE! Suddenly, I was conforming EDLs and I saw the writing on the wall.

Almost 20 years ago I cut my first spot on Avid. Since then I have always worked with Avid systems. I have managed studios, supervised post of network shows, produced movie trailers and cut spots. I have changed history, made companies millions and entertained audiences everywhere. And I have made a nice living doing it. By the way, this is not me bragging, it is just the power of the Video Medium I am lucky enough to work in. I am just riding the coat tails and most days it beats being a roofer in Texas in July.

I bought my first system in 2001 and delivered my first show the morning of September 11th.

I have 3 systems now. I like the power of my Symphony, but I really like the freedom opening my laptop and editing on the road. This industry has come so far in 30 years, we can only imagine!

Taking the MicroTrack to Altitude (and Inverted)

stevetupper — Fri, 08 May 2009 02:40:36 GMT

I've produced Airspeed, the Internet's most popular all-features podcast sof more than three years and 110 episodes. I'm a pilot and I need to concentrate on flying the airplane while I record. So I need a device that's completely configurable, yet press-the-button-and-forget-it when I get to the runway.

When I need to record cockpit audio to get my audience close to the action, I plug the MicroTrack in parallel into the airplane's intercom and capture all the action. The variety of inputs and controls on the MicroTrack make it perfect for recording in many different aircraft where I often don't have advnace notice of the setup until I'm strapping in. A tried-and-true device that's still going strong after 100-odd flight hours!

Check out the show at www.airspeedonline.com or subscribe through iTunes or your favorite other podcatcher. It's all free!

A Long Time Ago in a Place Not so Far Away

mBlaze — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 02:35:31 GMT

Well, maybe not too long ago in relation to some of the other Avid editors out there. I made my first short film in the early 70's when I was still in grade school. From that point on, I was hooked on film. In the early 80s I went to college for film production and discovered video. Editing video was so much better than editing Super-8 Sound film - Super-8 sound records audio about 18 frames offset from the image. It was also during this time that I had my first exposure to computers. After college, I went to work for a local access cable TV station. Although I had been continuously making films since grade school, this was where I honed my skills as producer/shooter/editor. I kept my hands in computers as well, starting with an Amiga and an Apple II, then moving up to a Macintosh Plus. Around the same time I started hearing about this company that enabled you to edit video on a computer. A colleague even had a demo video of the system. It showed how the "The Visitor" was edited without having to wait for shuttling or recording from source to master. For me, the biggest deal about this computer-based editing system was that you could actually insert a shot at the beginning of a program without having to re-edit everything that followed. In the early 90's, my friend AJ, who was one of the original Avid trainers, told me about an opening in the support group. I was employee 102 at Avid and was one of the original 5 telephone support reps when Avid Media Composer 3.x came out (during the "Dion Dynasty"). At that point in Avid's history there was no formal training for support reps, we were given parts and manuals and told to build the system, learn it and begin taking calls after two weeks. While answering support calls, I met a lot very cool editors and a few who liked to use expletives when asking for help. After doing support for a year, I transitioned to Corporate Editor and Tradeshow Support. I was the editor who cut the first Avid marketing video ever to be finished on an Avid system - not my favorite project. We had to re-shoot the whole thing with flat lighting because the Project Manager was worried that any contrast would reveal too much in the way of JPEG artifacts. The properly lit shots looked 100% better than what we ended up with. After moving to Avid's marketing team, I began collaborating with another editor from Avid's DC office. Because of an NAB video we cut, video mixdowns became a necessary feature in the Media Composer. At the time we were using a console command to edit precomputes into a sequence. This was cool, but because of the object count, it took about 5 minutes to play after clicking the play button. The great thing about being an editor at Avid - if you had a problem, ask an engineer. One of the engineers told us a trick on how to sever connections to all the objects connected to the render file. After that, the sequence played immediately. During those years everything was done inside the Avid walls by Avid employees, including editing, music composing and sound design/mixing. At the end of the 90's I left Avid and started a production company with the editor I had collaborated with for so many years while at Avid. I met a lot of great people while at Avid, most I still consider good friends.

Why do you climb mountains? Because they are there!

drbgaijin — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 23:49:27 GMT

I was reminded of an incident back in my Amiga computer days after I noticed an increasing number of posts here on the MC Forum from people who always seem to use Squeeze in going from MC to AvidDVD, and some others who are importing their tutorials from Screen capturing programmes into MC to edit them.

It was the mid 1980's
I was arranging a weekend judo training camp in Sweden.
I needed a nice map to show the location of the camp.
I used a very simple hand scanner to scan the part of the map I needed.
I imported the scan into my Amiga Paint programme.
I tweaked it and cleaned it up.
I adjusted the contrast.
I spent almost 1 day in getting it as good as possible.
I then printed it with the text I wanted and IT LOOKED TERRIBLE!!!!!

Flash of inspiration!

Why not stick the map in a photocopier, with a piece of white paper over the area I want to write the text into?Take the copy and print the text onto it.
Then run off as many copies as I need.
Total time taken 30 minutes and the quality of the final page looked great!

Why did I use a handheld scanner/a paint programme and my Amiga? Because they were there!

The moral of this story is: Don't be blinded by technology. Just because you have MC and Squeeze etc. doesn't mean you always have to use them to do everything.

Take a step back and look at the whole picture. Then you may see an easier, quicker and more efficient way of working. Standing too close makes you blind to greater possibilities.

Regards,
Douglas

The Eyes of Doctor B.Gaijin!

drbgaijin — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 23:14:14 GMT

"drbgaijin"?

Yes it can be difficult to figure it out.
Most people assume "Doctor" and then after that there are various interpretations.

The truth is as follows:

"drb" are the initials for Douglas R. Bruce.

In Japan I found myself seeing lots of things that the Japanese didn't see.
Things that were so everyday and common to them, that they no longer gave them a second thought.
I have taken pictures and videos of umbrella stands/ toilets/ rice balls/ vending machines/ sandwich wrappers/ feet/ earwax spoons/ etc. etc.

In reality it is not so strange that a foreigner in a new country will see things that are considered "everyday" to the local inhabitants. But, here in Japan, I am seeing so many such interesting things that even after 8 years the flood continues to engulf me.

So I decided that I had "Foreigner" eyes.

The correct words for foreigner in Japanese are, "Gai-Koku-Jin" and those words are abbreviated in Japanese slang as "Gai-jin". (Gai = outside, Koku = Country, Jin = Person).
Thus was born "drbgaijin"!

Here is an MC-created visual explanation about my thoughts on Japan and my Gaijin eyes.
This was also the first time I tried using "Spectramatte".

(Please visit the site to view this media)

Regards,
Douglas

A Brief Introduction

Scott Carnegie — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 15:04:31 GMT

I was one of those folks in the 80's that rented a video camera that was tethered to a VHS record deck from the local video rental spot; that was my introduction to using video as a medium for storytelling. Since I was a teenager I have been interested in documenting life and displaying it in a creative form.

Most of my work today consists of promos and corporate videos, each of which has their storytelling aspects.

I started off as a camera operator before moving into editing, and as many editors will tell you, being able to "shoot for edit" is a huge plus, and that is one of the skills you gain by doing both.

One of the best things about this business is the variety of the material you get to work with, and the variety of situations you will encounter. My work in media has taken me from doing camera ringside at WWE events to cutting a short documentary about residential school survivors; the range of material we get to work with in this business keeps it interesting.

Preserving history

smyers63 — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 19:47:07 GMT

Most of my video work is archiving and sometimes restoring old film or video material. This was a natural progression from my long-time passion for restoring and archiving old audio recordings (from tape, phonograph records, Edison cylinders, player piano rolls, etc.). This work also fits right in with my love of antique cameras, projectors, phonographs, and so on. All of this is side-line work. My regular occupation is in another field.

The video material I work with ranges from historic news footage to a family's home movies. A lot of satisfaction comes from preserving material that maybe the younger generations now aren't interested in but could very well be interested in later. We sometimes don't know what we'll miss years from now until we get there and don't have it.

Films and videos are a snapshot of the time in which they were made. The sights, sounds, and attitudes of their era are locked in that footage. I find these materials a valuable asset to protect and keep available for future generations and greatly enjoy my involvement with them.

How I got started in this crazy biz.....

Marianna — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 14:34:46 GMT

Back in the early 90’s I worked for a “fruit company” based out of Cupertino, California and managed services for products like mice, keyboards and drives. While I liked what I did from day to day, it wasn’t hard to resign and head to Boston once my grandma got sick. This was new beginning for me with no job on the horizon….

A few months into my new life in Boston, I met with an old friend who offered me a position at a startup company who hadn’t even shipped a product yet! Come on it will be fun he said. You know the computer part so the video part will come later. Easily persuaded, I said yes. So as employee # 8, I started my new career as a support manager of a team of 1. Yes 1. I was placed in this little cubicle right in the middle of the engineering team… all 4 of them.

Once the Beta product started shipping the technical calls started to come in droves. Remember… back then most in the business were from the linear world so a computer was a whole new way of life. Some of the early calls where like:

What’s a clip? What does field double mean? How do I export a piece of media? How do I import a piece of media?

Once the product shipped, with EDL capabilities and a whopping 4 effects, the calls got a tad more advanced ( and a little more scary for "marianna")

My dissolve is going to fast, what do I do? I exported my EDL and all the timecode is off, what did I do wrong? I have a deadline in 30 min and the video is stuttering... help??????

Many times during the early years you would see me standing on my chair, headset on, chirping at the engineers for an answer while the customer was on hold. Never having been in the industry, I was learning just like they were - we called it the "sink or swim" approach. After 6 months or so of more than 75 calls a day, I was able to hire some great people (the audio guy Keith, Mac guru Tom, effects wizard Larry and more) and created a team that rocked the industry and provided the best service of it’s time.

By 1997 we felt the need to communicate to more people across the internet and engage them in a “group” like manner. That started off a grass roots effort where many of us ( manufacturers and customers alike) created one of the first online chat forum/list services for this industry “ the IMUG”. IMUG stands for International Media Users Group and is a loose collection of hundreds of digital media producers around the world. Subscribers to the IMUG mailing list use a diverse range of digital tools, some members are editors others are content creators, designers, directors, or compositors. No matter what their production background everyone was welcome. The IMUG email list has been quoted as "the coolest collection of digital professionals around".

Each year the leaders of IMUG organize a REELFEST where members send in clips which are edited together and shown during the annual NAB Motion Ball.

In 1998, the IMUG presented me with there first Vincent Award. The Vincent Award is given to the individual, individuals, company or group that IMUG members feel has done the most for the User community each year. In 1999, the award was presented to our own Rob Russo.

While I am no longer directly involved with the IMUG, I am proud to say that 17 years later I still love this industry and many of the folks I still work with and respect today.

1 minute to air - where's the lead story?

straker — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 14:10:23 GMT

While I sometimes miss my days in the newsroom...the adrenaline rush of breaking news and deadlines...the work I do at Avid is truly exciting. I had the pleasure of working for the first all-digital newsroom in the world and helped to define some of the earliest non-linear workflows for news. The year was 1996, and as the Chief Editor / Photojournalist - if any story was in danger of not making its slot, I was to bump out the editor, and ensure that the story made it on-time. This gave me a driver's seat view of the pressure that news producers, editors, and journalists are under, every single day.

In my job at Avid, I develop the broadcast market long-term segment strategy and define the solutions that will drive our customer's success today and in the future. What I love most about my job is that I'm constantly talking to customers in the quest to get a better understanding of their needs and challenges. In the course of defining a solution, I'm constantly referring back to my experience in news - asking myself - "How would this impact the producer, editor, journalist....what would their reaction be? - How can I make their life easier"

Because when it's 1 minute to air, and the lead story isn't ready for air, that's bad....and I've been there!

Here is a pic of me way back then in the editbay...boy was I young!

Equipment check - not always to be recommended!

drbgaijin — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 01:13:37 GMT

It was the late 1970's.
I was living in Sweden at that time.
I spent most of my "free-time" working for the Swedish Judo Association, as a coach and as a producer of instructional material.
I had just bought an Akai portable VTR and b/w camera with an optional zoom lens.
At that time the highest tech around a judo tournament was in the form of 8mm cine cameras.

The weekend in question, I drove to the Swedish National Judo Championships and, because of my status within the Association, was allowed to set up my new equipment by the edge of the contest area.

I had been given my own table for the Akai VTR.
As I set up my tripod many eyes turned to watch me.
As I mounted the camera body on the tripod, even more eyes fixed themselves on me.
I was feeling very important!

I connected the cable to the VTR.... all eyes were on me.
I opened the carrying case for the zoom lens.
It was EMPTY!
(The night before I had been checking everything...... I had forgotten to put the lens back in the case.)

As I had that sinking feeling, the first match of the day started and all eyes left me and focussed on the contest area!

Guess who quickly unmounted everything and slipped into the shadows?

(Below is the offending VTR and camera body - Minus the Zoom lens)

Regards,
Douglas

Giant lizards rampaging Madison Square Garden

Johnla — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 22:46:30 GMT

In my previous career, I was part of a team where nobody saw our work – and that was the goal. Being a high-end compositor on feature films meant using the tools-of-the-day to painstakingly weave shot elements together, making them seamless to the audience. It was a collaborative environment where exchanging ideas and tackling technical challenges contributed to a common goal.

That goal was simple: how do we take all this technology at our disposal and use it to propel the story? It was all about keeping to the integrity of the story and what the scene called for. That scene could’ve been giant lizards rampaging Madison Square Garden (“Godzilla”), removing the head of a dramatic actor and replacing it with the head of a comedic actor (“Kung Pow – Enter the Fist”), putting an airport runway that previously didn’t exist behind two iconic actors (“Heat”), or changing the appearance of a sky to make it look like twilight time (“Executive Decision”). Whatever it took to make the unbelievable, BELIEVABLE - so the story could be told.

I still carry that same passion for story telling, collaboration and technology here at Avid, where it’s exciting to see the tools-of-the-day become the stories of tomorrow.

My most memorable

Larry Rubin — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 21:30:40 GMT

Not really my most favorite, but definitely my most memorable:

Many years ago when I was just establishing my reputation with successful word of mouth, I was contacted by a friend who said some business associates of his father wanted to hire me to videotape some depositions to be used in a trial. The amount of money they were offering was jaw dropping to say the least. I was pretty poor and needed money badly at that time, so I jumped on it, even though I had to drive to New Jersey to do it.

I followed the directions and found myself way out in the middle of nowhere, somewhere near Cherry Hill - nothing for miles in any direction except corn fields and a small shack - that was the destination. Well, it turns out the client was the Teamsters, complete with a goon squad. The "godfather" of the group came up to me and said - "We're glad you're here, you come very highly recommended and we know you'll do a good job, BUT...(and he got right in my face and punctuated his words with his finger in my chest)...you f us up, and we'll f you up!"

I was never so nervous or fearful for my life since 'Nam. Needless to say, I made doubly sure everything went off perfectly. And I promised myself next time to look the next gift horse I'm offered very carefully in the mouth first.

Night Shift

camoscato — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 21:16:54 GMT

A few years ago, I worked on a sports talk show that was produced in New York City. There were three staff editors; 2 on the day shift, and me on nights (4pm to midnight). Usually a segment producer would stay and work with me until about 8pm or 9pm, and after they left I'd finish whatever we'd been working on and cut stuff for the following day's taping.

Before I took the job I'd never worked nights, and was a little apprehensive about it, but it turned out to be excellent. I spent the last three or four hours of each shift working on techniques and effects without the distraction of people coming in and out of the edit suite or a producer on the phone behind me. It was my last staff job before going freelance, and it was one of my favorites.

One night the producer I was working with, Steve, had an invitation to see a New York Rangers hockey game at Madison Square Garden with his future father-in-law, who was (and is) a prominent TV news anchorman. Steve was nice enough to ask me if I minded if he took off earlier, and I said that was cool. The Garden was right across the street from the studio, so I knew I could call him if there were any problems.

As it turned out, I was able to get a ton of work done, cutting a flashy :25 intro for a guest, a full set of in and out bumps for the show, and about 25 b-rolls. Steve called me in the break between the 2nd and 3rd periods to see how I was doing, and this conversation ensued:

Steve: Any trouble?
Me: Nope. I'm getting a ton of stuff done. How's the game?
Steve: Awesome. I'm sitting next to Tim Robbins and Susan Sarandon.
Me: [expletive deleted]
Steve: Haha! Thanks again, dude. See ya tomorrow!

Steve was very happy with the stuff I cut, and because he's a good guy, he made sure I got recognition for it.

This was the crew photo.

Me Time

Sycophant — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 20:49:23 GMT

One of the fears I had when I made editing my fulltime job, rather than a hobby, was that I'd start to hate it and would never have the motivation to pursue my own projects. But about the same time 48HOURS started in New Zealand. Challenging entrants to write, shoot and edit a short film in 48 hours, it was just the 'holiday' I needed from day-to-day editing.

The intensity and focus of the event is enough that I can feel fairly satisfied in myself just doing it once a year. It's an event I can look forward to, and then fondly remember from most of the year and always provides new creative and technical challenges.

A team of friends, we have competed every year since it began, and are now counting down to our seventh outing. We've made regional finals 50% of the time, and even managed to win our region last year, but regardless we're always happy with what we turn out. So every year I can look forward to my 'me time' in pushing to create a quality short film in only 48 hours.

Sounds...

Baklap — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 19:06:35 GMT

A while ago now i was a sound engineer. Been that for over a decade and it was one of the most enjoyable work i have done. My most remembered project was a 6 parts drama series.

We originated with a crew of 6, a director, DOP, assistant, producer and 2 sound guys (me as one of them). We had a studio rented for 1 month and in this month we had to get these 6 parts on tape.

The director was someone willing to experiment and decided to realy experiment.. The scripts where thrown out and every night at the end of a long day the script was re-written to fit the storyline we went in to.

It was a very tough time for all teh actors and the crew as we never knew what would happen the next day. I have never ever experienced such a professional and flexible group as them. 18 hour days and still having fun every single day.

The end product was a great piece of experimental work and made all involved proud to have made that.

It was a great experience in working at the creative edges of picture, sound, acting and producing.. it set the standard on how we where going do our business later

One of my favorite projects - Dresses for Humanity

Adam Kranitz — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 17:40:38 GMT

When she decided to auction 79 of her special dresses for charity just 8 weeks before her untimely death, the late Diana, Princess of Wales communicated her desire to see the royal costume used in some way to assist others less fortunate. The result was "Dresses For Humanity."

An exhibit that traveled the world from October 1997 - June 2001, Dresses for Humanity had proceeds in excess of $900,000, which were given to charities in the U.S. and Canadian cities that were stops on the exhibition tour.

When the exhibit was in Washington, DC, I had the opportunity to join the creative team producing the event. At the time, I was freelancing as a digital media producer and graphic designer. My part of the project was to create video bumps and interstitials that would play on the projection screens during a VIP banquet. The only creative I had as a starting point was the Dresses logo, a crown above a formal typeface.

Going for a warm, nostalgic look, I layered rich shades of amber and gold along with some punches of royal blue for contrast as a background element. The typeface animates in from off-screen at an axis and edges defocused to add depth of field. In the foreground, the crown I kept hovering in a gradation of white to give it an ethereal presence. This particular animation was :05 seconds and bumped video introductions.

Overall, I was very proud to have worked on this project, and it remains one of my favorite creative pieces.

Directions: How to share your story with Avid

Avid Community Team — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 14:44:43 GMT