Calling all Massachusetts Filmmakers / Techies: 9.25 Panel in Cambridge

Interesting in the future of filmmaking?

On Sept. 25th, I'm moderating a panel in Cambridge, Mass. that'll touch on what's next for visual effects, editing & post-production, and digital distribution of movies.

This is an evening networking event in the heart of Kendall Square, accessible by T. The goal is to bring together Boston-area filmmakers and techies. We've got folks on the panel from Avid Technology, Brickyard VFX, and EZTakes; legendary VFX artist Jeff Kleiser (he has worked on movies like 'Tron' and ' X Men'); and Katherine Hays, the new CEO at GenArts. There will be clips shown, lots of time for questions, and snacks!

I'm going to open things up by giving a short presentation on the role that Massachusetts companies have played in the evolution of the movie industry.

Best news of all is that there is now a special rate for students and filmmakers: $20. You can register here.

More Hollywood Editors Working on PCs

One of the things that movie editors love about PC-based software for editing is that they can work on a laptop while they're on the road -- just like all the rest of us.

The Wall Street Journal has a story today headlined 'Editing on Big Films is Now Being Done on Small Computers.' That's only news to folks outside the industry, and the piece doesn't capture the sea change that I think is happening right now -- big-name editors shifting from Avid's software to Apple's Final Cut Pro. (Am I wrong? Walter Murch edited 'Cold Mountain' on Final Cut back in 2003, and I've only been hearing more about Final Cut since then.)

Lee Gomes writes:

...[E]ven relatively low-end personal computers, laptops included, are now so powerful that Hollywood pros have joined student filmmakers and indies in taking advantage of them.

It's one more example -- along with music recording and graphic design -- of the way cheap computers are blurring the distinction between professional and amateur tools. Not that just having software makes you good at something, as a quick trip around the Web makes clear.

...[T]he typical Hollywood feature film these days is an analog-digital hybrid. Reels of film might be developed at a lab such as Technicolor, but then $1.5 million scanners digitize them and put them on a $100 generic USB hard drive. From there, it's on to the editors.

Editing on computers is so much easier than editing physical film that it's how nearly all movies are now cut. USC's film school once had 50 editing consoles; now it has only two. Indeed, editing may have become too easy. "You can easily recut your movie 10 times a day," says Matt Furie, who teaches editing at USC. "Some students go off the deep end and cut, cut, cut. We tell them they need to discipline themselves to push away from the desk, drop the mouse and just think."

The DGA's Digital Day: Leave no trace...

I'm sure the DGA's Digital Day is great if you're a Director's Guild of America member: panels on 3-D, visual effects, videogames, editing, and pre-visualization.

But if you're not a member, you're not gonna find out much about what transpired there... there's hardly any coverage of the event each year. (My pitiful blog entry about the 2005 event is the third result on Google when you look for "DGA Digital Day.")

This year, you get a photo montage of the participants, with captions, from the DGA Monthly magazine. (Last year, there was a slightly more thorough treatment in the mag.)

I met Michael Apted, president of the Director's Guild, at the Consumer Electronics Show this January. Really nice fellow.

So Michael, why not help out the young filmmakers who are future members of the DGA, and put some video/audio/blog posts on the DGA site about what happens at this great event?

A Little Blog Love: Steve Cohen's "Splice Here"

I've been doing some writing about the history of non-linear editing... and just stumbled across a blog maintained by Steve Cohen, Splice Here. Steve is the editor who helped introduce Avid's non-linear editing system to Hollywood, and cut the first studio movie on the Avid, 1993's 'Lost in Yonkers.'

Two other editing blogs that I need to add to my blogroll (in the right-hand column) are Scott Simmons' Editblog and the American Cinema Editors Tech Web blog (which may have gone dormant.)