[Chris Bové]

Digitally zooming into/out of people’s faces at like 500% mag is the new “page turn” transition.

Freeze-framing someone for their name-super while cutting them out of their background is the new “lens flair”.

Don’t get me wrong – I try hard not to dump on another’s creativity – but let’s just say I’ve stopped watching HGTV… permanently.

Absolutely the HUGEST pet peeve of 2007 is being distracted during a television program when the network keys-over the entire bottom-right of the screen with some giant, live-action animation promoting the date/time of some other program I have no intention of watching.

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\`(=)`/…Pixel Monkey
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A picture says 1000 words. Editors give them meaning.

[Chris Bové]

Dude, nice! If you don’t like the muffins on the plate, go bake yer own!

Just promise us that your solo career is more reminiscent of Jeff Beck’s Blow by Blow than of Ace Frehley’s Frehley’s Comet!

-PM

“He puts forth a quarter-ounce green rosette near the summit of a dense, but radiant muffin of his own design.” – Frank Zappa/Captain Beefheart

[Chris Bové]

Yup. Just took the survey. They still don’t care.

It’s basically the same question list the Avid-hired telemarketing center in New Delhi uses to bug you about how well your Avid Tech Support Representative fielded your call six months ago.

Dude as far as I’m concerned, if Michael Phillips pulled a “Jerry Maguire” and took Tim from Tech Support with him, I’d buy whatever edit system they made.

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`(___)

A picture says 1000 words. Editors give them meaning.

[Chris Bové]

Naaa.

As with any corporate survey, the results of this one will be projected onto a big screen during a really expensive lunch for 500 shareholders and VPs. Those VPs will crunch numbers that’ll be projected onto a big screen at the next expensive lunch. After that, they’ll decide if it’s cost-effective to “care”.

in the end, all that’ll change is the shade of purple used in the logo.

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\`(=)`/…Pixel Monkey
`(___)

A picture says 1000 words. Editors give them meaning.

[Chris Bové]

Done many national PBS docs like this:

Preproduction:
– transcribe interviews
– organize them on-paper into the best story possible
– write basic narration to fill in the holes and make transitions

In Editing:
– create an “Interview Assembly” (cut interviews together to the script)
– producer grabs the microphone and creates “scratch” narration (It’s important to have the scriptwriter – usually the producer – do this because he/she uses the inflections and pacing that they hear intheir head when writing it).
– Editor places this scratch narr in proper places
– Add B-Roll and pacing
– contract your professional narrator and send him/her rough-cut script
– constantly rewrite narration and revoice it as you edit
– schedule narrator for the Monday of the week you’re planning to be in picture-lock
– Picture-lock on Friday, after having laid-in new narration on Thursday.

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/-o-o-\
\`(=)`/…Pixel Monkey
`(___)

A picture says 1000 words. Editors give them meaning.

[Chris Bové]

Here here, Mark.

Zach, a full-blown editor equates to a full-blown housing contractor. Architect (producer) designs a house. Client (funder) pays for it. Editor (contractor) works with the architect to translate those plans into finished product. No architect nor client would ever have a house built by someone who takes a six-week contracting course.

Here’s one popular approach that works:
Go to school. Drink a lot and disregard your instructors because you think you’re the next Stanley Kubrick. Spend three years bussing tables because you’re actually not. In your off-time, start editing for no-pay for students at that school. Each one of them thinks they’re the next Stanley Kubrick. None of them are… but you’ve just created a reel that leads to your becoming the next Martin Hunter!

🙂

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/-o-o-\
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`(___)

A picture says 1000 words. Editors give them meaning.

[Chris Bové]

Because storage is soooo cheap, we now factor one 500gig WD MyBook into each project’s budget just for backup purposes. When the project is done, the drive goes into the banker’s box with all the project’s source tapes.

So when do the bored software engineers at Avid create a Windows Mobile version of Media Composer? With today’s memory cards, my Pocket PC already has 1/3 the storage space as our old $55,000 Mac AVBV. Come on you code monkeys, we’re waiting!

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\`(=)`/…Pixel Monkey
`(___)

A picture says 1000 words. Editors give them meaning.

[Chris Bové]

Still my favorite “cheat” of all time:

–Editor–
“I really think we should cut that line.”

–Producer–
“Aw man, you know how long it took us to shoot it? Plus the client really likes the line. Look, just try take three. He says it more forcefully there.”

–Editor–
“Let’s take a look.” . . . . “Hmmm, this is quite cool actually! But it just needs one more thing to give it some punch. Right after it, let’s have her say her line from take six. It’ll allow him time to walk across the room and grab the prop. Here, what do you think?”

(Hit play and watch it.)

–Producer–
“Nice. Really nice. Hmmm… but how much time did that add?”

–Editor–
“About 16 seconds.”

–producer–
“Yeesh! No, that’s too much. Damn – let’s just cut the line.”

🙂

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/-o-o-\
\`(=)`/…Pixel Monkey
`(___)

A picture says 1000 words. Editors give them meaning.

[Chris Bové]

Yeah it’s great for all those pressure-sensitive apps. Best part is that you don’t need an A-B box between it and your mouse – just put one down and pick the other up.

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\`(=)`/…Pixel Monkey
`(___)

A picture says 1000 words. Editors give them meaning.

[Chris Bové]

With a loooong list of physical reasons. I swap back and forth between mouse and tablet many times in the same day. Doing all of one or the other is equally bad. I did a 6-month doc with just a pen tablet and could barely sign a check at the end of it.

The tablets are still not “officially” sanctioned by Avid, yet I’ve never seen a physical conflict. I personally never integrated all the tablet’s features (shortcuts, etc) because those are the areas that might become affected by upgrading the MC software to a new version… so I just use the pen’s onboard buttons, and that’s it.

I can say that no matter what sensitivity you have the pen tablet set to, many tasks still require the stability of a mouse. Massive file searches that require a lot of double clicking come to mind.

With all that said, make sure you get the largest-sized tablet you can afford. The extra space = less jagged sensitivity.

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/-o-o-\
\`(=)`/…Pixel Monkey
`(___)

A picture says 1000 words. Editors give them meaning.