Month: June 2019

Departments

A Bundle of Sounds – New Krotos Audio Plug-Ins Cover a Spectrum of Sonic Effects

June 7, 2019

Along with a compelling musical score, convincing sound effects are one of the most important audible ingredients in a motion picture or television production. In a movie with a chase scene through the downtown area of a city, all sorts of sounds are required, such as revving engines, flying helicopters and the rapid fire of automatic weapons. In an off-world, sci-fi movie, you might need the sounds of futuristic spaceships, laser beams and robots (maybe even a scary monster or two). Whatever the movie happens to be, if you’re the sound designer, you’ll need to create authentic effects so that audiences believe what they’re watching is real. […]

Columns

Beth Stiller on Los Angeles Lakers Road Telecasts

June 7, 2019

Beth Stiller is not a professional basketball player. She isn’t known for shooting from the three-point line or for scoring fast-break points. In fact, she prefers surfing to basketball. But, for about eight years in the late 1990s and 2000s, Stiller found herself on the road with the Los Angeles Lakers. […]

Departments

Beginnings and Endings

June 7, 2019

It’s well known, and often cited, that of all the filmmaking crafts, editing is the only one that did not exist before the advent of moving pictures. In fact, editing was actually created in the process of making those early films — first within the movie camera (or kinetograph or cinématographe) and then after the film was developed and printed, in the phase that became known as post-production. […]

Columns

The Long Journey to Overnight Success

June 7, 2019

I don’t remember exactly how I fell in love with storytelling. Perhaps it was because I was read to as a child — a lot. Editing is a different story. I first touched an Avid in 1999 as a summer intern in the creative services department at McDonald’s (yes, that one), and was hooked. I returned to Ball State University and would spend nights in the college editing bays, cutting anything I could, powered by Cherry Coke and Hostess frosted honey buns. […]

No Picture
Departments

PASSAGES – William L. Manger

June 7, 2019

William (Bill) L. Manger, age 79, passed away Sunday, March 24, 2019 in Van Nuys, California. A loving husband, father of three daughters and grandfather of seven grandchildren, he succumbed to a long-fought battle with diabetes and is now at peace. […]

Departments

PASSAGES – Norman Hollyn, ACE

June 7, 2019

Norman Hollyn, ACE, was a large persona: tall, with a head of snow-white hair and a great laugh. His life was enormous and touched thousands of people around the world. He was an assistant editor, a music editor, a picture editor, an author, a teacher, a husband and a father. He was also the first holder of the Michael Kahn Endowed Chair of Editing at the University of Southern California, where he served as a full professor at the School of Cinematic Arts. […]

Departments

PASSAGES – Barry Malkin, ACE

June 7, 2019

Barry Malkin.

Although I was a new kid in a new neighborhood — pretty much in a new school each and every year — I do have a memory of another boy I met when I was about 14 years old. He was shooting baskets alone at the public playground near Springfield Boulevard in Queens and, seeing me watching, asked me to shoot baskets with him for 25 cents apiece. I knew I had no such skill, but was anxious to have a friend, so I took on the challenge. I lost about $1.25 in quick order, but little did I know that this boy, Barry Malkin, would remain a friend and more; he became an important professional associate throughout my life. […]

Columns

Bernardo Bertolucci’s ‘Last Tango In Paris’

June 7, 2019

I fell in love with Last Tango in Paris in the summer of 1973 when I was 20 years old. But now, decades later, I’m sorry to say I’ve fallen out of love with the film much as one eventually discovers that Old Spice aftershave (and the guy who wore it) wasn’t that cool after all. […]

Departments

Personal Effects: The Power of Peer-to-Peer Interaction

June 7, 2019

One of the social media companies competing for my ever-diminishing supply of attention sends me almost daily e-mails imploring me to log onto its site so that I can build an online simulacrum of my professional network. Those e-mails egg me on with a declarative catchphrase: “It’s not what you know, it’s who you know.” […]

Columns

When Editing Began: The Cut that Launched a Filmmaking Craft

June 7, 2019

By the time film pioneer Georges Méliès made this only slightly exaggerated claim, the making and exhibition of narrative film was establishing itself as a business separate from the variety stage and lecture circuit. As more people visited storefront theatres to see moving picture stories, they watched the art and craft of editing evolving on screens right before their eyes. […]