That’s right! Everyone knows how to write a script, the
format, understands the concept of narrative, importance of pacing, non-cliché
storytelling, how to recruit cast, crew actors, equipment and how to book it, insure
it, check it, transport and set it up as well as use it, correct any technical
faults along the way and most recently I just found out that they know
perfectly how to edit it after a client who’d already told me how quick I was
on Adobe on editing one of their film trailers together THEN told me I had
taken HOURS to:- Insert an extra header
- Reposition some text
- Recalibrate music timing to leave enough time to read it
- All over 5 sequences
EAAAASY – No problem! EVEN when don’t know that until your
client arrives almost an hour and a half late and seems more interested in
selling his bike outside and doesn’t stop singing and whistling every 2
minutes. What does matter is that it’s a model of Final Cut Pro version 5 or 6 with
a full RAM with hardly any room to render, NO files left in any discernible
order so you have to rebuild most of these changes rather than just make a
simple change that would update itself straight into the timeline. More
importantly ‘EVERY’ piece of work you do on such an old version does NOT render
in real time! For those of you unfamiliar with editing.
Try comparing the days
of broadband to those of the dial-up modem! EVERY tiny inch you drag a single
letter of text does not require rendering nowadays, usually these are aided by
a tool within Adobe referred to as the Mercury Playback Engine.. Whatever… In
the version of Final Cut Pro I’d been given to work with, for every 30 seconds
of work, required around 2 minutes of rendering each time! It VERY quickly adds
up. Furthermore, this computer had been JAM-PACKED and the constant warning of
no ram being available 9YES, THIS AFFECTS RENDERING – NUMBNUTS!) Any editor
will tell you their favourite out of the two they are fluent in will tell you
Adobe – Why? Because we were sick of FCP’s speed. Of course since version 10 /
X, this isn’t too much of a problem anymore but this version took hours to get
the work done but at the end to have YOUR work ethic challenged and slagged
off, who is getting freelancers to come and do his editing for him and claims
to have been doing this for over 20 years –
How the HELL can you blame this on your editor?
Try comparing the days
of broadband to those of the dial-up modem! EVERY tiny inch you drag a single
letter of text does not require rendering nowadays, usually these are aided by
a tool within Adobe referred to as the Mercury Playback Engine.. Whatever… In
the version of Final Cut Pro I’d been given to work with, for every 30 seconds
of work, required around 2 minutes of rendering each time! It VERY quickly adds
up. Furthermore, this computer had been JAM-PACKED and the constant warning of
no ram being available 9YES, THIS AFFECTS RENDERING – NUMBNUTS!) Any editor
will tell you their favourite out of the two they are fluent in will tell you
Adobe – Why? Because we were sick of FCP’s speed. Of course since version 10 /
X, this isn’t too much of a problem anymore but this version took hours to get
the work done but at the end to have YOUR work ethic challenged and slagged
off, who is getting freelancers to come and do his editing for him and claims
to have been doing this for over 20 years –How the HELL can you blame this on your editor?
Definitely one of the best freelance stories I’ve come
across for a while. Just amazing how everyone thinks they’re an expert. What’s
brilliant is that I’m sure it won’t be the last and it’s not even the worst
story I’ve come across. Then again, here’s an interesting sketch of how bad its
getting for freelancers in film. Of course, its been adapted to the profession
of plumbing just to illustrate how fucked up our industry has become.
Recently, whilst I made a new friend; Louisa Trigg earlier
this month from Darkside Studios at Film Expo South. Only got to one talk this
time around annoyingly but I got to learn a bit more about the visual effects
industry. Almost EVERY job hunt and film I come across wants these things
thrown in and even indie’s are willing to pay out that little extra to get
them. I went along to their talk and got hearing from far younger freelancers
who were getting snapped up from as early as their work in the BFX festival by
local post-production groups and sent all over the world working on
compositing, modelling, textures… All sorts.
My brain started thinking; “These
guys have been handed films that their clients MUST have their work to get from
one part of the story to another. The older generation don’t really do
computers… These guys are usually far younger and aren’t neglected by a set of
rules and traditional bullshit that stop them from making a living. Lets go
find out more.” What I learned is stuff I should have thought about earlier as
I’ve come across it many times. Even corporate firms want people who can apply
vfx to their adverts and events. All the shit you see on television with the
incredibly painful stories, most likely written by the egotistical dickheads
you see partake in ‘The Apprentice’ require something to morph into a fireball,
create some animated graphic to illustrate some science bollocks on that smug
cow’s face from the Oral B advert. This seems to be a sustained area of the
industry. Why?
Take a look at gaming just as one example. All you need is
an actor’s voice – THE REST – All animation and digital effects. Sure there may
be green screen and motion capture but does that matter to filmmakers – YEP of
course but certain coordinators from my postgraduate degree didn’t seem to
think so. Despite it being called “Cinematography for Film & TV” not only
did they not teach a single bit of TV but there was no motion capture or green
screen either but guess what? They teach it in MA Digital Effects at National
Film & Television School. We could waste time slapping our foreheads and
asking why but it all comes back to higher education tossers more concerned
with PhD’s & their salaries to give a toss for their students – their
customers. This shit really needs to change – NOW! Not only are they missing
the boat as it is by not mixing filmmakers with their PR & Marketing
courses but also NEITHER one to be working more closely with animators and
digital effects artists… No wonder some of us are finding it nearly impossible
to get in and / or sustain ourselves as freelancers.
Like I said everyone out there is an expert – Another quick
freelancer story to prove it? I was commissioned by a group last year who
wanted me to help produce, shoot, record sound, edit, grade a film for them
within a week. Yep… you read that correctly. Then they also expected I was
going to create a magical book with all sorts of pages that would flicker when
it opened with graphics and animations fly out of it and oooh… The best part…
Only pay me £200, which wouldn’t even have included my car costs. Of course
fellow filmmakers, you’ll already have guessed what they’d called this role,
don’t you? Wink-wink* - Yep you guessed it – VIDEOGRAPHER!
I think I needed a new project so badly I ended up saying
‘yes’ to a new indie project and rolling on with one of my own just to take a
break from the insanity. Believe it or not I’ve even started looking into VFX
courses but to even get 6 months tuition back at my old establishment; Met Film
School, they’re charging £10,000 for a mere 6 months. I’m telling you, the
number of holes you can walk into in this game are ridiculous.
