Episode 4 – Random Thoughts…
Remember back in high school or college or grad school or whenever you had a paper due and you had not a single written word down on paper? Well, welcome to Episode 4 of “Suite Talk”, the last minute paper written by yours truly. I have been brainstorming a way to get “Suite Talk” into a video format, and I came up with a great idea on how to do that, but unfortunately with the holiday schedule we won’t be able to do that until a later date. Trust me, it should be great, but for now, you are going to get the last minute thoughts I have rambling around in my head…
And since we are theoretically on a social networking medium right now (Cramer’s ‘A Wider Net’) I figured I would do what a lot of social networking sites do, give you a list of 10 random things you may or may not know about my everyday life as an editor.
10. I come up with most of my creative ideas in the car. They say that a lot of a person’s creative ideas come when they least expect it. Well, for me, I expect them in the car. Whether it is a song on the radio, a billboard or that guy that just cut me off, my brain starts churning the second I fire up the 4 cylinder power plant of my 2002 Honda Civic.
9. I am a keyboard editor. Some of you may know that most high end edit systems have specific keyboards for shortcuts. Most of these keyboards are customizable, but you can recognize them by the colorful keys they have that correspond to said shortcuts. Other editors prefer to use the mouse to navigate their way around the interface, which gives them the same result, but I go right to the keyboard.
8. There have been countless times I have engaged in the Final Cut Pro vs. Avid debate. And while at the end of the day I am in the opinion that whichever tool you feel you can tell your story best is the right edit system, I will always take an Avid over a Final Cut Pro system.
7. I steal all the time. That sounds bad. Let me rephrase…I “garner” inspiration from other editors. Basically I have had to privilege to work with some of the best editors in the business and have been able to learn a lot from their experience. They have worked on such programs as the Red Sox 100 Year Anniversary and Boston Globe Sports documentaries, as well as PBS’s Frontline and ESPN’s E:60.
6. Organization is key. This applies to most everyone out there. When you are organized, you can spend more time creating and less time fumbling around looking for elements.
5. In order of priority in quality control, audio is king over visual. If you have bad audio, a program becomes unwatchable. If something is not up to par visually, as a viewer you will unconsciously work your way through it. Luckily at Cramer, we have 2 of the best audio engineers in the business.
4. If I had my way, 4×3 would be a thing of the past. Whenever I see 4×3 content, it immediately looks old to me. I would rather see a 4×3 letterbox of a 16×9 program than a full screen 4×3.
3. If I had my way a second time, I would have everything shot with either a dolly or steady-cam. Even a little bit of physical movement with a camera can add so much to a shot. More so than a pan or zoom.
2. Sometimes the best edit is no edit at all. Drawing out a look on screen can really impact the feeling portrayed to an audience. I am also very impressed anytime someone can do a take in one shot.
1. I will always stop and talk shop. So here is my call to action to you…what questions do YOU have about post-production? I would be happy to answer them…or at least give my opinion.
