The ASE would like to warmly welcome our new sponsor Soundfirm. Roger Savage and his team are synonymous with Sound Post in Australia ... and indeed Asia.
Please take a moment to browse their website: www.soundfirm.com

Only a couple weekends from celebrating the 10th Anniversary for the 2003 ASE Accreditees.  This will be a truly special afternoon, with events in NSW and VIC on Sunday 28th July.   Please attend to support your fellow Editors.  Details on the flyers below.  Mark it in your diary!

The AFI have announced reinstating the ACCTA Craft Awards for Documentary, after strong protest by the Guilds.  These were intended to be dropped with introducing new Television Craft categories.  We can now look forward to three ACCTA 'Best Editing' Awards, with Feature Films too.

Entries are now being received for 'The Ellies' 2013.  Don't miss the deadline.  Check the flyer below for details.

Victoria

 

I knew I wanted to work in post when… Hmmm… still waiting….

 

My first break in the industry was… Working in ABC Drama on "The Damnation of Harvey McHugh"; hanging around at the right time paid off!
 

The thing I love most about editing is… Moving an audience.
 

The best tip I’ve got for aspiring editors is… Be open to every opportunity that comes your way, without losing sight of your long term goals.
 

If I weren’t in postproduction I’d be… Producing, working on it now...

Meet The Committee: Richard Greenhaigh

Richard has been on the Victorian committee for over three years. He has over 15 years experience in the industry here in Australia having worked in both South Africa and the UK before that. He currently works as the Media Production Coordinator at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image.

I specialise in… I mainly edit content for exhibition in galleries. I work with visual artists to cut multiscreen works which have been exhibited in galleries around the world. I also cut the occasional documentary too.



My first break in the industry was… I applied for a job as a Production Assistant on Big Brother and ended up editing for them.

The highlight of my career so far… I won the Ellie in 2007 for a short film I edited called 25 Cents.

I was inspired to join the ASE committee… I would often go to events and they were always educational and entertaining so at the 2010 AGM here in Victoria I put my hand up to join the committee and help organise the events.

The ASE is important… As editors we are often undervalued in the industry and with all of the changes and the squeeze on post budgets there has never been a greater need for a unified voice.

 

The Great Gatsby: VIC
3D Screening + Q&A with Matt Villa ASE & Jason Ballantine ASE
June 29th
 

After The Great Gatsby 3D Cinema Nova screening Matt Villa ASE and Jason Ballantine ASE answered a variety of questions with humour and honesty concerning the great American novel, co-editing, dealing with 3D and the copious amounts of CGI that drapes glamorously from almost every frame.
The lush rush of the hedonistic 1920s New York elite represented in the film is a testament to the creative army of people who worked to produce Baz Luhrmann’s vision.  An example of this can be found on the internet where visual effects supervisor Chris Godfrey has posted a 4 minute taster of CGI created for the film. It is absolutely worth a look.

Gatsby was cut in 3D during the offline edit on Avid Media Composer 5.5.  The edit itself lasted 18 months with the visual effects being feed to the editors as they honed the 3 and a half hour first assembly down to the final 2 hour ten minutes.  During the shoot Matt and Jason edit in tandem cutting whatever scene was awaiting attention.  Cutting 3D isn’t difficult and doesn’t change the overall focus of editing – cut for emotion/story.  The only consideration given to the 3D vision creatively was holding the wider shots for a beat longer to enable the audience to enjoy the frame.

Baz approached both Matt and Jason to cut the film but was clear that he wanted one editor to be the main driving force.  This turned out to be Matt.  When it came time to go to LA for audience testing Matt thought it was for two weeks.  He ended up staying for 5 months as the film was finalised.  While Matt and Baz where in LA a Skype conference was had at the beginning of the day for Jason and the third editor Jonathon Redmond who remained in Sydney.  They would cut according to the conversation had then Matt would take over in his day and then the boys would have another go.  As Jason said it was a great experience to work with his friend Matt as they both had started as assistants on Babe but there was the initial challenge to get over someone else working on something you had cut.

The audience testing done in a 400 seater cinema was super valuable (Matt’s words).  For each of the three screenings he sat in different places amongst the audience gauging their responses to the film particularly where they fidgeted. It initially took 30 minutes before Gatsby appeared in the film.  Now its twenty minutes.  Gatsby was perceived as a dark character so a few more of Leonardo’s smiles were peppered through the film giving Gatsby a more likeable veneer.  Once Gatsby was dead the question then became how long did the film continue to finish Nick Carraway (Tobey McGuire’s) story.

When the film was first screened to Warner Brothers they were happy with the progress of the film but did query the VFX budget that was blowing out. Jason grinned referring to a cut as VFX Bingo where the CGI guys took a week placing the cost of each effected shot on the edit.  Baz was startled at the rapidly rising cost as the film played.  A month was spent reediting the film to reduce the amount of CGI shots leaving the Studio wondering what happened to the film’s look and story.  In the end a balance was found that was agreeable for all.

The Q&A then moved to the Cinema Nova bar where Matt and Jason continued to talk to those who remained.  A massive thanks to both editors for surrendering their Saturday to come to Melbourne to enlighten the curious.  A huge thank you must go to Kristian Connelly, Olivian Simon, David Van Royen and Ben Buckingham at Cinema Nova who provided support for the 3D session and the space for the audience to enjoy the Q&A. Emma Snowden and Kat Remy from Village Road Show also deserve a loud round of applause.  To Andrew Brinsmead, who coordinated the event, fantastic effort and a shout out to the other committee members who provided their time and energy on the weekend.

- Cindy Clarkson

Adobe Roadshow:
http://adoberegoready.com/CreateNowRoadshow/?trackingid=KHAWS

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'The Great Gatsby'

An insight to creating 1920s NYC in 2011 Sydney:
http://vimeo.com/68451324

We would like to thank our Sponsors for their invaluable support of our Guild.