January 28, 2007
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I don’t know if you noticed the slow down in posts that began in early
fall, but here finally comes the reason. I just don’t want you snooping
on me anymore.
Oh you gullible geese, I’d never leave you. No, in reality, I was working my ass off playing with my multicolored keyboard.
But the story begins months ago in another time, and another post. Remember when I went to Prague? That’s when I met this man.
You see, commercials come in different sizes. The most traditional
length lasts 30 seconds, but 60s and 15s come too, as well as the
occasional psychotic 10 or cinema 2 minutes, plus the mutant 45. When
you’re slated to make a 60 and a 30, you usually cut the sixty first,
then make (in the parlance of the biz) a cut down. So for the Dell
Prague job, Maury cut the all important 60s, and had to move on to
another job. Which meant I got to cut the 30s. But an editor never
works a cut alone (well he does in the beginning), at his side (or
behind him) always sit the Art Director, Copy Writer, and Producer.
They work a cut into a pretty shape, and pitch it to their Creative
Director, who adds his own comments. The cut then goes to the head of
the agency or Executive Creative Director, probably gets one more
revision, before finally going to the client. So when I cut the
thirties, Stephen MC, pictured above, CD at BBDO in the Atl, rode
editing shotgun. And once we made mince meat of the first Dell round,
he joked that he might let me cut the next one.At least, I thought he joked. Imagine my surprise when my producer came
in a month later and told me Stephen had pushed to get me to cut the
incoming Dell job. What an effing opportunity! Sure I was a senior
cutting assistant, but no assistant got to cut a fully funded official
campaign!The only problem? Well, that’s this great pacing man, Scott.
Scott was producing the next round, but had not worked with me yet. He
tentatively accepted my cutting because of a deal that JJ would oversee
(i.e. take over if dusty didn’t cut the mustard) and more importantly,
and a go ahead from his producing partner (at their production company Driver) who vouched I could do it, thanks
JD.Little did we know, this would be the start of a great trio.
So the footage finally arrived, and the stress of cutting began. This
shit was serious! I has to cut the whole thing by my lonesome, I had to
show two jaded business pros with a ton more experience that I could do
this. I had to cut like the wind.
I had to learn how make my mouth look like a vagina. (Okay, fine, Stephen taught me that).
The first few days were tough as hell. They came in and liked the cut,
and we went to work, but Scott was still a bit skeptical, throwing in
asides to his assistant like “can you believe this guy is cutting this,
he’s just an assistant, this is a huge campaign.” JJ sat in the room
the first day, but then gave me my space. The nights were late, and
many different directions were tried, and for the first 72 hours, I
kept thinking my producer would walk in take me aside and say, “dustin,
this is nothing about your skills, but they just wanted someone with a
bit more experience.” But no, we just worked our assess off, and Scott
let me ride, and maybe, just maybe, even appreciated what I had to give
the project by the end. All right, enough exposition, let’s get to the
pictures.As I said, we just worked for a full week straight, so I wasn’t really
taking any then, but once some cuts got approved, that’s when we
started stepping out a bit.
Like going to the transfer. That’s when we pay tons of money to
transfer (get it) the film footage to tape. You do it once the cut is
locked, cause you only use the footage that you need, not everything
you shot, and you can fuck with the color and contrast like you
wouldn’t believe. And if you use The Mill, which is a british based
company, you can also try the prawn cocktail chips.
Also, as they are building a new floor, we took a second to try out some championship ping pong.
Where I sneaked out a a tough win against our colorist Fergus.
Then, because we had been working so damn hard, Stephen and I took a
shopping break to this pretty dope store where you can make your own
shirt and heat press it on, it’s pretty cool, check it out. Bang On.
Where I made Jenna a dope shirt, pictured later, and got her this awesome bag as her birthday present.
Now, you might think this all looks like fun and games, but you don’t
understand the horrid, petrifying adventure we like to call the
conference call.
Three people in Atlana, the account team. Three people in Dallas, the
Dell client. Three people in New York, us. Everyones looking at the
cuts, and discussing. It ain’t ever easy. The type of bullshitting that
goes down, the bureaucratic diction that must be played like an award
winning diplomat…
And it mostly falls on Stephen, who took it like a champ.
But Scott had to get into it as well. I had to listen.
And dude, I am not kidding here, they last for hours. Hours and hours
going over what seems like the most trivial shit. Asking for changes
that we know wouldn’t work…
It’s almost surreal.
You start doing crazy things to pass the time. Like taking all the communication devices.
And making them do each other.
Then you have to get back to work, offering up the changes they want, and sometimes it just makes you want to jack off a shadow dick.
It got so crazy that I just…
Couldn’t take it anymore.
I had to edit au natural.
And mind you, this whole time, Stephen, who lives in Atlanta, has to commute every weekend.
Flying in, and leaving his cute little daughter and wife. He’s a real trouper.
Sometimes Stephen and Scott went off together.
Taking portraits.
Riding town cars.
Or going to the music house Big Foote to take a look at the newest cut of a jazzy Christmas tune.
Which brings us to sound. Once the picture is locked, and the script
set, we go to a super expensive mix house like Sound Lounge, to record
the official Voice Over and get the levels of all the different sound
items, effects, music, dialogue, perfect. Don’t try this at home,
trained professionals like Peter, there in the background do this for a
living.
We also got to work with one of the best VO actors I’ve ever heard,
Nicole. She busted out 67 lines with no flubs in about twenty minutes.
That might not mean anything to you, but trust me, it’s truly incredible.
But why record 67 lines? Because part of the conference call madness
meant the script never seemed approved. We had to record and record and
record, which isn’t that usual. And the calls kept going to the point
where we found Stephen like this.
Helpless in the corner.
I wasn’t doing to well either.
But this is why they pay us, to get back on the phone.
Finishing the audio, we went on to the effects and the conform, once
more at The Mill, this time with the fabulous Flame (the hardware and
software used for finishing effects) operator Angus.
The Mill only works with dope people like these two.
Not to throw this all off, but in the middle of all this hoopla, I got
the most disgusting zit. And not only of incredible size, but also of
incredulous position… who gets a zit inside there nose?
Anyways, through the weeks and weeks of work, I finally got Stephen down to the poker game.
Where he came in and took almost everyone out, then settled for second place.
Also through all this, my birthday came and went. But Stephen would not
have it being forgotten and celebrated by making his chili, birthday
chili.
The worked dragged on, but I did get to drive in Scott’s car. What crazyness, a car in the city?
We were back at the Mill.
And even though it’s blurry, it was a celebration. We has just shipped the first spot!
What wonders!
So we celebrated, at fru fru Soho House.
With previous producers JD
And Vera.
But worry not, the conference calls did not stop.
Two more spots had to be shipped.
So we packed everything up (yes, Scott carries all of this most of the time).
And headed off into the Advertising Sunset. Or Flatiron.
In (almost) the end, we had a celebration dinner.
Everyone came along.
Even Scott, though a bit late.
The shrimp were as big as you head.
The bacon cut thicker than paperbacks.
And the ice cream, delicious.
Aw. What a croud.
So what was all this fuss about? Here, you can take a look yourself.
In the (real) end, we shipped the final spot, and the number one Trio finished it off with a Thai meal.
Sorry my postings have been coming at such slow pace. Worry not, the
blog shall continue. I just must juggle my time better. Thank you Stephen. Thank you Scott. You let me sign off, as an editor.
