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Filed under: Year End Lists •

New Year’s Resolution List

5 and 6) “Save early and save often” and know where all your files are saved. Nothing is worse than losing a valuable project. You may want to consider purchasing one of those utility programs that keeps track of off-line media. For example if you have thousands of DVDs and CDs laying around with data on them, plus a dozen or so Firewire and USB drives and maybe even some stacks of off-line SCSI drives, there are programs like DiskCatalogMaker (http://diskcatalogmaker.com/) that keep an on-line catalog of what is stored on all those disks and drives. DiskCatalogMaker, and others like it, allow you to search for files on drives that are not even mounted.  - You can be the fastest editor in the world, but if it takes you two days to find the files for that project a client wants to revise, your speed in delivering the project is significantly reduced.

7) Always know who the real decision maker is on a project. Who are you really trying to please? Often times a producer who is your direct contact may be trying to second-guess the desires of their client. Or it may not be instantly apparent by the interpersonal relationship of a team of clients in the room who is the REAL decision—maker. Don’t leave this to guesswork. Know whom you’re really trying to please.

8) Always learn new things. Every day, visits to sites like http://www.provideocoalition.com, books, classes and DVDs should be used to keep you up-to-date, inspired and excited about trying new things. Many times, even learning rudimentary things has inspired me to use a feature or function in a new way that adds creative flair to a project. With the speed that the industry is moving, it’s very easy to get left behind.  You could even consider bartering your knowledge of one application with another editor’s knowledge of a different application. I’ve traded color correction training for Final Cut training. In a similar vein, continue to expand your horizons and learning OUTSIDE of your career path. It’s amazing how much stuff from outside you can apply to what you’re doing. I call it cross-pollenization. You take ideas from other industries or other arts and let them inform YOUR industry and art. Sometimes those are the most innovative and interesting ideas.

9) In these uncertain economic times, expand your network every single day. Devote time to it. Make contact with new potential clients, new freelancers, other editors, equipment vendors, et cetera. And keep this list organized and easy to access. Use all the great computer tools for saving and cataloging your contacts. Then you need to make sure to contact those people frequently, especially the potential clients. I am confident of my skills, but I know that people who have not worked with me don’t know how much I can bring to the table, so I have to be persistent with those people. I just landed a new client and when I finally met the woman who booked the job she said “So you’re Steve Hullfish. You have to be the most persistent editor I’ve ever met.” I called her over and over again. She never told me to leave her alone or that she wasn’t interested, so I just kept calling until she finally took my phone call. I called once or twice a week and left short, simple messages. I didn’t want to be a pest, but I also knew that I could do good things for them. Until I get a flat “no” I will keep trying. It paid off for me AND for the client. I got the work and they were happy to finally work with a new, capable person that expanded their capabilities.

10)  Hey, it’s the holidays and times are tough for everyone this year, so my final New Year’s Resolution is to volunteer your talents to a cause. I don’t care what the cause is. For me, it’s a local church. For you, maybe it’s rescuing the whales or helping the homeless. Either way, find out how the talent you have been given can help someone else. There are a number of completely selfish reasons to do this: It allows you to further grow your network of people who have worked with you or who have seen your work. Those contacts could well provide you with your next paying job. Volunteering also allows you the flexibility and opportunity to try new things. Perhaps you wouldn’t try doing something with a paying client, but with some pro bono work you can break out and experiment, either technically or creatively.

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I certainly understand both of your points and they are well-considered. Delivering both tracks to a final mix and actually leaving them up full for a final mix are two very different things. The rookie mistake is in sending a boom and a lav or a lav and a camera mic to be used “full up” in a final mix because you don’t think about it. If you mix the two because you want some ambience or something, that makes sense. Leaving them in the mix, but one muted, also makes sense if you are sending it to an audio mix later. But I’d guess that maybe 1% of all video edits get an outside audio mix. Using both camera tracks is only a rookie mistake if you didn’t actually think it out. If there’s a reason for it, then it’s a good decision.

Your point about not wasting space on extraneous extra tracks is also valid, but I would favor my way because it results in a better mix actually in most cases. I just did a very complex show last week where the stereo music tracks needed to be “dissolved” together at edit points, but usually the incoming music needed a different fade up rate than the outgoing music edit, so the only way to do that is to put them on separate tracks.

I’m also not arguing that you should use the SAME track assignments on every production - thereby “wasting” some tracks. I am just saying that each type of audio should be on its own track. What you define as a “type” of audio is up to you. I just don’t think you should mix a dialog track onto a music track.

Thanks so much for adding to the discussion. I stand by my points, but I also agree with yours.

Posted by Steve Hullfish  on  12/22  at  10:06 AM

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Steve, I think I misunderstood your original point and that we’re in complete agreement.
It’s been a while since I needed to do a mix, but when I did I always: Mono-ed the best track (deleted the others); and separated the tracks in the manner you suggested.  Usually the first 2 being left for Sync, next 2 SFX, the next two Music, and the 7th VO.  This goes back to the old days of only 8 channels of monitoring!  Of course, this was always dependeant on the particular show, i.e. you often needed 4 tracks for Music.  Obviously, they’d be instances when you used different tracks on particularly complicated areas, but it generally worked well.
Leaving camera mics “open” used to drive me insane, and is indeed a ‘rookie’ mistake.
When you know you’re sending a sequence to a Mix, you want to give them as much as you can.  Often ‘rookies’ don’t - I recently worked on a show that whenever their was VO, the editor completely removed all sync, hoping that the VO and Music would be enough.  Took me hours replacing all the sync, so it could be ‘low’ in the bg.
Anyway, looks like I was wrong, I do agree with EVERYTHING you say!
Thanks for your comments, and once again, have a good holiday!

Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)  on  12/22  at  11:34 AM

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