A Newbie's Look at EditFest LA
01/03/2024
Hillary Lewis February 29, 2024
0 Comments
Originally published on August 17, 2017
Presented by Blue Collar Post Collective and Professional Development Accessibility Program
Inside the auspicious event and a weekend with BCPC
Editor's Note: The Blue Collar Post Collective is a 501c3 non-profit organization that seeks to support emerging talent in all areas of post production. BCPC does this through free meet-ups and events, and a financial aid program called the Professional Development Accessibility Program (PDAP). Applications were accepted from individuals meeting income and employment requirements to provide one member flight, accommodation, and a ticket to EditFest LA. A BCPC committee chose Hillary Lewis, a short-form editor three years into her career in Indianapolis, to receive this aid in order to open up geographically limited opportunities to those who would not be able to take part in them otherwise.
Oh. my. God. They picked me .Holy crap! They PICKED me!! I couldn't believe it. Sitting there staring at the email a thousand thoughts went through my head. I pictured myself amongst legendary editors in a beautiful city I've never been to on the Disney Studios lot of all places!!
It was surreal and immediately made me anxious. Could I accept this? Did I deserve it? Could I do this all by myself? The answer, of course, was yes to all the above .how could I say no? So I took a deep breath, spiffied up my website and LinkedIn, and packed my bags.
To be honest, I didn't know what to expect. My worst fear was stepping into, what I had heard to be, the LA lion's den. A room full of competitive, out-of-this-world talented people who had no reason to take me seriously. Who had been exposed to more tech, more content, and more workflows than I had ever been exposed to in Indiana. Being an editor from the midwest with a background in short-form commercial work and no film/TV (scripted or unscripted) experience, I would have nothing in common with that world or so I thought. I admit I fell into one of the biggest misconceptions about LA, that it's a dog-eat-dog world. And while that may be the case in other industries in LA (I have no idea), I'm happy to say my experience with the post-production industry and BCPC was far from it. Let me tell you why.
The Build-Up Even before leaving for LA, Blue Collar Post Collective's team was incredibly accommodating. They scheduled my flight, hotel room, conference ticket (as a guest of the incredible film historian Bobbie O'Steen), and introduced me to an array of people to ensure my trip started out on the right foot. Right away I knew their team was extremely organized and passionate about their mission, and I would be well taken care of.
I arrived at Bob Hope airport early on Friday morning and walked out of the plane onto the tarmac like a celebrity my Snapchat was lit. (Exiting a plane without a gangway isn't a common occurrence where I've flown.)
I arrived at Portofino Inn in Burbank shortly after landing, and from there, on the recommendation of Kylee Pena (BCPC's President and my point of contact in LA), I immediately walked over to Frank's Coffee Shop (attached to the lobby of the Inn). Frank's is a classic American diner and has been featured in several movies/TV shows in the past. Larry Crowne, Parks and Rec, CSI, etc. Nothing overly special about the establishment itself besides the cinematic history but if you're a local in LA it's worth the stop-in! Great classic breakfast, good classic coffee.
Shadowing After my historical breakfast I headed down to Hollywood for a day full of shadowing, graciously scheduled for me by Kylee Pena.
Viacom was my first stop shadowing Assistant Editor Noah Diamond doing a ton of digital and episodic content for Spike TV and Comedy Central. Viacom also owns MTV, VH1, Nickelodeon, BET, CMT, etc., and had recently moved to their current location in January. The facility was modern and tech-savvy, with motorized desks and a plethora of editing bays.
I thoroughly enjoyed learning their workflow for social media and digital content. From shooting certain content in-house as horizontal AND vertical 4K video to re-purposing all content for every social media platform's dimensions (9:16 Snapchat, 16:9 Youtube, 1:1 Instagram etc.) This workflow resonated the most with me because of similarities that are used in my current job while creating short-form video. I enjoyed seeing Viacom taking their workflows to the next level!
I then took a short trek to shadow Kylee, Workflow Supervisor at The SIM Group, Bling Digital being her place of work and one of the MANY divisions under the SIM Group umbrella (I couldn't name them all if I tried ).
I was given short tours in the production/camera rental department, workflow dailies department, and offline/online editing departments. The building workflow was very efficient. You could try out cameras and equipment downstairs in the rental department, set up a test shot, send your test footage upstairs to the editing department, play with stylizing and color until your shots looked just right, and then take your final choice equipment out to shoot. I was pleased to meet both offline, online, and workflow dailies editors, and got a taste of each of their jobs as well.
I consider myself lucky to be exposed to both companies in the short time I was there, and was encouraged by how much more I understood than I originally thought I would. Coming from a job where the editors are expected to be a complete one-man-band, we ingest, we cut, we color, we create graphics, we add effects, we export deliverables.
Comparatively LA seems to thrive on having one specific set of skills at an expert level. It was refreshing to see you don't have to execu
Most recent headlines
04/08/2024
Dalet Appoints Santiago Solanas as CEO to Lead Next Era of Growth and Innovation
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, is excited to announce Santiago Solanas as its new Chief Executive Officer (CEO)....
03/06/2024
Dalet and Veritone Reach Agreement to Distribute, Transact and Monetize Media Archives
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, a...
09/05/2024
Rohde & Schwarz showcases operational efficiency at MPTS
Rohde & Schwarz showcases operational efficiency at MPTS Uncompromised quality and reliability coupled with simplicity and efficiency Rohde & Schwarz will ...
08/05/2024
Saved! and Rudo y Cursi Among Films With May Anniversaries
Diego Luna's character Beto aims to play professional soccer in Carlos Cuar n's film Rudo y Cursi....
08/05/2024
SGL Carbon: Focus on global growth trends pays off
SGL Carbon had a solid start to the first quarter of 2024. Despite the slight decline in sales of 3.9% to 272.6 million (Q1 2023: 283.7 million), adjusted EBI...
08/05/2024
The results are in from Malm Arena as Semi Final 1 participants move through to the Grand Final of this year's Eurovision Song Contest
The results are in from Malm Arena as Semi Final 1 participants move through to...
08/05/2024
Powerful NITV documentary Kindred to premiere during Reconciliation Week
Powerful NITV documentary Kindred to premiere during Reconciliation Week Media releases A journey of family, friendship and home *Watch the trailer here* ...
08/05/2024
Aerojet Rocketdyne Selected by DoD to Demonstrate Powder-in, Engine-out Hypersonic Propulsion Manufacturing
Aerojet Rocketdyne delivers a broad range of capabilities to support hypersonic ...
08/05/2024
L3Harris is Advancing the Future Fleet by Delivering Integrated Solutions
Selected by Fincantieri Marinette Marine, L3Harris is the shipboard design integrator and a key partner on the Fincantieri team for delivering critical subsyste...
08/05/2024
EditShare Goes Beyond Storage at MPTS
EditShare Goes Beyond Storage at MPTS Workflow, server and delivery solutions from storyboard to screen Stand D40, London Olympia, May 15-16, 2024 - EditShar...
08/05/2024
Tegna, Indiana Fever Expand Broadcast Distribution to 11 Additional Markets
TYSONS, Va. Tegna Inc. and the Indiana Fever have announced they have expanded the broadcast distribution of 17 Fever WNBA games to 11 additional markets....
08/05/2024
Comcast Business Boosts Internet Speeds
PHILADELPHIA Comcast Business has increased Internet speeds for customers, nationwide, at no additional cost and has introduced its fastest Internet plans yet ...
08/05/2024
Clear-Com to Showcase Cutting-Edge Communication Solution...
Clear-Com , a renowned provider of professional real-time communication solutions, is thrilled to announce its participation at InfoComm 2024, the largest profe...
08/05/2024
MRMC Achieves its Second Kings Award for Enterprise
Mark Roberts Motion Control (MRMC), a Nikon company, is one of the 252 organisations recognised with a prestigious King's Award for Enterprise. Announced to...
08/05/2024
EditShare goes beyond storage at MPTS
EditShare, the technology leader that enables storytellers to create and manage collaborative workflows at every stage from storyboard to screen, is exhibiting ...
08/05/2024
Magnifi and Linius Fuse Live and Archive Content to Redef...
Magnifi by VideoVerse an AI-driven video technology company and powerful video-editing SaaS platform is pleased to announce a strategic partnership with Linius ...
08/05/2024
NVIDIA RTX GPU Connects DaVinci Resolve to Power
NVIDIA RTX GPU Connects DaVinci Resolve to Power Brie Clayton May 8, 2024 0 Comments Two of the most important questions that the Creative COW audienc...
08/05/2024
Q&A with Visiting Artist Lei Liang
Q&A with Visiting Artist Lei Liang The acclaimed composer discusses his collaboration with Boston Conservatory, his work as a research artist, and what it mea...
08/05/2024
More Stations in San Antonio Launch NextGen TV Broadcasts
A second group of stations has begun broadcasting NextGen TV signals in San Antonio, Texas....
08/05/2024
NBC Orders More Deal or No Deal Island'
NBC has ordered a second season of unscripted Deal or No Deal Island. Joe Manganiello hosts, and executive produces alongside Howie Mandel. Manganiello will ret...
08/05/2024
Tegna Names Greg Retsinas GM At KGW, Portland, Oregon
Tegna said it named Greg Retsinas as president and general manager of KGW, the NBC affiliate in Portland, Oregon, effective June 3....
08/05/2024
Measurement Company Comscore Posts $5.2 Million Loss in 1st Quarter
Comscore lost money in the first quarter as weak linear ad sales impacted its cross-platform measurement business....
08/05/2024
Funny Business as NBC Orders Happy's Place,' Renews Lopez vs. Lopez'
NBC said it bolstered its comedy slate by renewing Lopez vs. Lopez and ordering Happy's Place, starring Reba McEntire....
08/05/2024
Knuckles' Knocks Fallout' From Top of TVision Power Score Rankings
Paramount Plus's Knuckles knocked Amazon Prime Video's Fallout out of the top spot in TVision's Power Score ranking of the top show on connected TV ...
08/05/2024
Tegna Adds 11 Markets To Lineup for Indiana Fever Games
Tegna, which made a deal to broadcast 17 Indiana Fever games featuring top WNBA draft pick Caitlin Clark, said it made deals that will put the games on stations...
08/05/2024
EchoStar Loses 348,000 Pay TV Subs in 1st Quarter
EchoStar said it lost another 348,000 pay TV subscribers so far this year, closing the first quarter with 8.18 million subscribers. That total includes 6.26 mil...
08/05/2024
Fox Has Net Income of $666 Million in 3rd Quarter
Fox reported a profit for its fiscal third quarter....
08/05/2024
IPG's Kinesso Unit Adds Senior Executives to Lineup
Kinesso, the centralized tech and data unit at media agency IPG Mediabrands, named Tom Amies-Cull as global chief operating officer and Amie Owen as global chie...
08/05/2024
Post production houses adopt Cleanfeed Cinema solution
The solutions in-browser stream focuses on low latency, making it suited to low bandwidth scenarios By Matthew Corrigan Published: May 8, 2024 The solutio...
08/05/2024
TAG unveils subtitling language detection feature
Driven by algorithms, the solution performs a quality analysis informed by language-specific dictionaries By Matthew Corrigan Published: May 8, 2024 Drive...
08/05/2024
Mobilelinks acquires 2 SAT Europe to increase SNG truck fleet
The increase in fleet size will reduce travel distances, aligning with sustainability goals, said Mobilelinks By Matthew Corrigan Published: May 8, 2024 T...
08/05/2024
Arqiva adds Caroline Cardozo and James Lelyveld to technology team
The company said the new arrivals would drive collaboration and technological transformation across key business units By Matthew Corrigan Published: May 8, ...
08/05/2024
Actus Digital Set to Shine at CABSAT and Broadcast Asia
Following a successful NAB Las Vegas 2024 and winning a Best of Show Award, Actus Digital, a leading provider of Intelligent Monitoring Platforms, will bring it...
08/05/2024
TAG Revolutionizes Closed Captions and Subtitles Quality...
TAG Video Systems, a leading force in video monitoring solutions, has developed a new Language Detection feature set to transform how operators ensure quality a...
08/05/2024
Pliant Technologies Unveils New SmartBoom LITE Headset at...
Pliant Technologies, a leading provider of professional wireless intercom solutions,presents its new SmartBoom LITE Headset at InfoComm 2024 (Booth C5116). The ...
08/05/2024
Prism Sound Showcases High-Quality Audio Conversion at MP...
At the Media Production & Technology Show 2024, Prism Sound will showcase high-quality audio conversion products designed to suit the demands of professional us...
08/05/2024
Julian Day Joins FooEngine
Soho stalwart Julian Day has joined FooEngine as Business Development Director after 13 years at ZOO Digital. Julian has been at the heart of the London post pr...
08/05/2024
Cleanfeed Cinema Redefines Audio Post Production Workflow...
Following its successful launch at NAB 2024, Cleanfeed Cinema - the latest remote recording innovation from Emmy Award-winning Cleanfeed - is already helping au...
08/05/2024
DHD to Showcase New Product Line-up at MPTS 2024
DHD's range of digital broadcast equipment, systems and related software will be promoted on stand D22 at the Media Production & Technology Show by UK-regio...
08/05/2024
MSP CloudReso selects Cubbit hyper-resilient DS3 distribu...
Cubbit, the innovator behind Europe's first distributed cloud storage enabler, today announced that CloudReso, a France-based distributor of MSP security so...
08/05/2024
MwareTV boosts Americas presence with Daniel Conde Coto
MwareTV, a prominent cloud-based multi-tenant platform provider, has attracted Daniel Conde Coto to join the company as director, sales operations. This is a si...
08/05/2024
LiveU Demonstrates its Efficient IP-Video Workflows for L...
In a year set to see record-breaking IP-video adoption, with over 70 elections and global sports events, LiveU heads to Broadcast Asia 2024 with a focus on its ...
08/05/2024
nxtedition Showcases a Fully Automated AR Studio Gallery...
Pioneers in microservices-based production environments, nxtedition, will demonstrate the latest advances in storytelling technology at the Media Production & T...
08/05/2024
MPTS 2024 - Leader and PHABRIX to showcase multiple new T...
Test & measurement innovator, Leader Electronics of Europe, has announced that it will again exhibit at The Media Production & Technology Show (MPTS), which tak...
08/05/2024
Livepeer Studio cuts the cost of live streaming and trans...
Livepeer Studio unveils a revolutionary video streaming platform offering an unprecedented combination of quality and cost-efficiency to content creators, media...
08/05/2024
Ikegami to Demonstrate Complete Broadcast Media Productio...
Ikegami Electronics (Europe) will demonstrate a complete broadcast media production system on stand S1-A15 at CABSAT 2024 in Dubai, Tuesday May 21 through Thurs...
08/05/2024
Experience Commerce Bags Digital Agency Mandate for SAVSO...
Experience Commerce (EC), a leading digital agency within the Cheil Network, is pleased to announce that it has won the digital mandate for SAVSOL, the flagship...
08/05/2024
Global Telecom & Pay TV Services Market to Slowdown in 2024
NEEDHAM, Mass. The International Data Corporation is predicting that worldwide spending on telecom services and pay TV services will increase by 1.4% in 2024 to...
08/05/2024
Apple Unveils New iPad Live Multicam Production Studio
CUPERTINO, Calif. In a notable development for news and live video production, Apple has unveiled a number of significant upgrades to its Final Cut Pro software...
08/05/2024
Pliant Technologies to Showcase New Smartboom Lite Headset at InfoComm 2024
Pliant Technologies has announced that it will be presenting its new SmartBoom LITE Headset at InfoComm 2024 (Booth C5116). The latest updates include enhanceme...