That's a Wrap!

This past Wednesday, March 22nd, I wrapped up my work on the Playmobil Movie before the production moves up to Montreal. It was a bittersweet goodbye, but I am so grateful for the relationships I formed and the experiences that came with working on this independent feature.

I unfortunately wasn't able to make a blog post last month as we were in major crunch time for February and March. Believe it or not, we put together a whole new movie for our second screening in about 9 weeks! It's a feat that should not be the norm by any means, but it was an impressive achievement for our team and I'm quite proud of what we accomplished.

Over these past few months I was definitely put through the ringer and stretched to and beyond my limits in Editorial. Myself and our 1st Assistant Editor wore a variety of hats and were asked to act outside of our job descriptions at times. However, because of this, I was able to truly push myself to be the best team player I could.

Not only would I run the scratch sessions and break down dialogue, I was also "talent" for a handful of characters. Because we lacked a script supervisor, I was in charge of keeping tabs on all the pick up lines the Editors requested as well as any new lines added by our writers. In addition, because we were pressed for time, I actually got to edit a short sequence and even went through the process of getting notes from the director and addressing them.

That's what I found to be the coolest thing about our production. Due to the fact that we were so small, everyone was asked to do more than what was asked of them on paper. Unlike a larger studio where there is a job for anything and everything you can think of, we became an interesting meld of various jobs all working together in order to make sure we made our screening on time.

It was an emotional day when our screening rolled around. After the hustle and bustle of getting the file set up with our screening room and setting up breakfast for our guests, we got to enjoy this near brand new cut of the film with an audience who had never seen the film. Suddenly all the long hours and late nights became worth it as our audience clapped and laughed at the appropriate moments and left the theater with big smiles.

I am truly going to miss this production as it moves up to Canada, leaving almost all of the LA group behind here in the States. From Editorial, to Story, to Production, they all inspired me to strive to be the best I could be at my craft and allowed me to experience a sense of camaraderie I hadn't felt since my time at Dodge. I am so thankful that God allowed all the pieces to fall into place for this opportunity to take place. It was the perfect first feature for me to serve on as an Assistant Editor.

As I get the necessary materials ready to apply to the Editor's Union, I can't wait to see where I am led next in this industry and beyond. :)

P.S. Hope you enjoy these pictures I took with some of the crew, as well as a snapshot of the half dismantled sound Cube we built.

Part of the Playmobil crew

The end of an era. The end of "The Cube"

Tinkering Away

As I mentioned in my previous post, I've begun working at ON Animation Studios as a 2nd Assistant Editor on an animated feature film. With starting any new job, it comes with it's own share of challenges that continue to beat the dents out of you.

Having worked in Television promos at my previous job, it was a big change of pace jumping back into the animated feature world that I had experienced at Pixar. Thankfully, because my Pixar mentors shaped the Editorial workflow for the film I'm working on, I was able to hit the grown running on tasks such as dialogue processing and recording with ease. However, learning how much Editors rely on their Assistants has been a rather eye-opening experience.

At Pilot, our Editors cut short-form pieces, which meant that if they ever needed any additional material or aid with their edits, it was in the form of me bringing in a piece of media here or there for them. This was the case as I would always organize and ingest all the media needed for the project before the editor even arrived at our offices. Pilot had this structure in place as I was often juggling the Post of multiple projects, and the speed of Television production was extremely brisk.

Working on a feature, I've had to learn to think quickly on my feet and in the moment while the Editor is cutting. For example, one day I was processing some dialogue, when suddenly one of our Editors asked me to get her a certain line that I hadn't marked up yet. While I wasn't too far off from processing the requested line, I switched gears to get it to them, as the dialogue I was currently working on was for storyboards that hadn't been delivered yet. Promo multi-tasking tends to be on a single project by project basis, while feature multi-tasking concerns itself with the larger picture.

While less of a lesson, because my team and I were in a bit of a crunch recently, the Editors actually let me cut a few boards, sound effects, and dialogue. I had no idea that the Editors would actually hand off some of their work to their Assistants, but in hindsight, it makes sense. An Assistant Editor is there to pick up any slack and help ease the Editor's burden. The willingness to be ready to lend a hand at all times is necessary for Assistants as it shows the ability to be flexible under pressure and be an active team member.

Transition

Last Friday was officially my last day with Pilot. It was a bittersweet goodbye as I had grown rather close to my co-workers at both the LA and New York offices.

I have Pilot's Post Supervisor to thank for pushing me to challenge myself to be an independent thinker and troubleshooter. With each network having its own set of unique delivery specs, it forced me to become more observant and thorough, as it was crucial that deliveries followed the post requirements to a 'T.' It was overwhelming at first since it seemed like every network had vastly different specifications, but as I did more and more jobs, I realized they were more similar than I had originally thought, with me only having to make slight changes here and there to adhere to a specific network's guidelines.

The next leg of my career journey began Tuesday of this past week. I am now serving as a 2nd Assistant Editor on an animated feature film with ON Animation Studios. One of my former Pixar mentors approached me about this position, and I thought it would be a great next step as I'd be able to serve as an Assistant Editor in animation editorial. I'm very excited for what these next few months hold (especially since the 1st Assistant Editor is another one of past my Pixar mentors!), and getting to really dig my teeth into this project.

Pilot, I thank you from the bottom of my heart for a fantastic first full time job. It was a great learning experience and a time of growth that improved both my post skills, and confidence in myself. You will be greatly missed.