Guerrilla independents: it's never been a better time to post in unconventional environments

Post, March, 2004 by Christine Bunish

From urban apartments to country homes, on desktops and laptops, video and audio editors are enjoying life as guerrilla independents thanks to systems that are fast, efficient and incredibly full featured.

APARTMENT EDIT SUITE FOR 'FRIDA' DOC

After a distinguished documentary career during which post production meant sitting at a Steenbeck, Amy Stechler is cutting her new project The Life and Times of Frida Kahlo on Apple's Final Cut Pro 4.1. Stechler was co-producer, writer and editor of the acclaimed The Shakers: Hands to Work, Hearts to God and writer and editor of Brooklyn Bridge.

Although she had used FCP to edit family videos, Stechler had never cut professionally on a computer until now. Before committing to the Apple software she did a lot of research and asked a lot of questions. The Life and Times of Frida Kahlo, co-produced by Maia Harris and Victor Zamudio-Taylor, was shot in HD, and Stechler needs to deliver an HD master to PBS. It will air the documentary this fall.

"Cost was a big consideration in choosing an edit system," she says. "Final Cut was getting more serious so I talked to rental houses and editors I knew and decided to take a chance with it. But the question of getting out of Final Cut and back to the HD suite [for finishing] still makes me nervous."

Freelance technical supervisor Michael Yecies was confident about FCP's HD finishing compatibility and helped Stechler configure the editing system in the Daylight Films office (www.daylightfilms.org) in her Brooklyn home. She cuts on an Apple G4 dual processor with three extra hard drives for a total of 800 gigs of storage. Her system features a pair of large Apple screens, a smaller TV monitor and a Sony DSR VTR; the documentary's HD footage has been downconverted to the DVCAM format for offline.

With her extensive film background Stechler says she's "the last person who should be pioneering in technology." But she's a pioneer not only in FCP HD finishing but also in her unusual HD acquisition choice. "We were able to get gorgeous controlled interview footage with the Sony F900 at 30p," she reveals. "People shoot 24p HD because of the 24-frame film thing or 30i because that's the camera's native format. But shooting interlaced gives an ultra-crisp look to the image. Progressive gives a much softer look, and 30p is a perfect in-between solution. I have no regrets about not shooting on film."

About three quarters of Stechler's material consists of digital files of still photos, which will be rendered out and inserted into the timeline. "Right now my big challenge is moving on the photos, drifting in or panning across them," Stechler reports. "Our post supervisor Julia Mintz has done a lot of tests for this. The Final Cut software's only weakness is in this area, and After Effects is jittery and not very stable with HD. I'm using Stage Tools' Moving Pictures to simulate the moves in offline, and we've decided to use [Quantel's] iQ in the online for beautiful, seamless moves." At press time, she was still investigating where to go for iQ services.

Stechler is enjoying her newfound guerrilla independence. "I've had nine months to cut this documentary," she says. "I couldn't have afforded that if I were renting an Avid room."

BEST OF BOTH WORLDS

Like Amy Stechler, Ari Grief of Griefilm (www.griefilm.com), a Toronto production company he founded in 1999, also transitioned from a Steenbeck to nonlinear editing. The writer/director/producer learned to edit in film school and now has a home studio featuring a homemade Pentium Intel 4-chip, PC-based Matrox RTX100 system with three hard drives and a 19-inch monitor. It runs Adobe Premiere 6.5 software. Sometimes he also uses a colleague's home editing room, which boasts "more gear," but Grief hasn't needed to buy time at offline facilities. "Everyone I know has a system," he says, "because these tools have become so much more accessible. Making a film is somewhat less daunting than it used to be. You can try things, experiment without wasting money."

Grief believes his traditional film editing background gives him a bit of an edge as a cutter. "A lot of working editors were trained on the computer; they're not aware of film editing as a concept, and I think that takes away some of the skill aspect required of film editors. I'm happy I learned to edit on the Steenbeck. I've been able to apply the idea of editing by the frame to my Matrox system. It's the best of both worlds."

Grief's editing system has allowed him do for-hire work for clients while trying to "ignite" his feature film career. "My corporate work is financing my creative feature aspirations," he says. Grief has already completed his first motion picture, which he cut on the Matrox/Premiere system. Called 681-0638 the thriller is a Jim Jarmusch-style look at the people who use a New York City pay phone over the course of a day. "I made it as a calling card for my next feature," Grief explains, "but I'm also looking for a distributor."