Project and Team Management

I don’t know if I’ve told you that I’m currently completing my Master’s degree at Full Sail University in Florida. If I haven’t sorry, and well, now you know. The point of the rambling is that I’m taking what I consider to be one of the hardest classes I have ever taken: Project and Team Management. This is the class where they teach you to start caring about other people beside yourself all the time. This is where you learn to remember that you’re not only working for your success, but for the ones that compound your team. To me is like, well, I couldn’t care less about what would happen to me, I can take care of myself, but if you don’t do something that has to be done for group grading, that small part that was assigned to you in the first team meeting suddenly feels like it weighs 100,00 tons. This class is perfect for that. You find yourself in a very professional setting, with audio chats, blog posts, chapter readings, etcetera. It teaches you about the importance of working in team. About relying not solely on your talents and skills but in others as well.

This class has been particularly hard for me because, while I have learned a great deal about myself as a future and potential leader of my own company, I have learned to take care of others and still operate a successful company/business.

Leadership is something that some people are born with. They just have this innate ability to lead others and influence them in many different ways. But leadership is also something that can be developed. As I have progressed in the degree, I have taken a few classes that have taught me to be a leader, like last month in Executive Leadership. One of the books assigned to the class was “Developing the Leader Within You” by John C. Maxwell. And he says in his book just that. You may not have been born a natural leader, but you can be developed into a great one.

I talk about this because the industry where we are submerging ourselves into can make and/or break you into pieces. And if you don’t have clear idea of the type of leader and team and project manager that you are, you won’t make it past the next week (at most). This is probably one the hardest career there is. It’s a constant competition and you must always know that you are dealing with other people’s money. Having a clear and big picture of the project that you are working on (managing/leading) is key to deliver a final product that would be acceptable to your clients.

As far as advice, that’s the best advice I can give you… for now. I’m sure that as my career develops, you will be hearing from me more frequently. Feel free to comment on this post! Happy Sunday!

The Joy of Finding a Job in the Entertainment Industry

We all know that the economy and the times that we are living in today are probably the worst in history. The level of unemployment in the entertainment industry is very high, and getting in one of the hardest tasks there could be. Gael Chandler in her “Joy of Film Editing” blog gives us new crop of editors a few pointers on how to prepares ourselves for breaking in the business. She states, “There is no one way to break in. No set path.” And she proceeds by offering us to follow her “Ten Steps to Breaking into Editing (or any job in the film industry)”.

She asks us to “survey the landscape” to find out the direction we want to go on”. Whether working in “Hollywood, NY, a corporation, the government, a TV network, visual effects, etcetera. Its important to know what we want to do, and if we don’t know, she recommends us to “take a PA job or any job so you can be on the set or in post or pre production to get as close as possible to the action and see how things operate.” Make sure you do your job well, always clarify your doubts and questions, network and finally “Figure out your direction.”

Training is important once you know where you are headed. So, “get trained”. Going to film school is a good option to getting ready for the job that you’re looking for. “Sign up for professional film classes, read books”, etcetera. Its important that if you want to work in movies, that you “learn film terms and concepts, the DI, and how to finish on film.”

“Networking” is the most important part of any career. So, its important to make sure that you get your network ready for your ‘job hunting’ experience. Gael says, “Throughout your career this is necessary. Keep a file of people you’ve worked with and contact them regularly when you’re out of work. You never know when they may have heard of something and you’re the last person they talked to” and proceed with the contact.

“Discovering the typical career path for your desired job” is something that most of us don’t even know how to do. “There are many side paths that help you get there too including sound editing and visual effects work (very useful as a picture editor).

Now a days in Hollywood being part of a union is as important as keeping your contacts in touch with you. So we must “find out about unions”. “In Hollywood, to work on major films in editorial, you need to be in IATSE 700 (the Editor’s Guild for LA & NY) or at TV stations in NABET.” Having said that, “Los Angeles is not a completely union town, so there’s lots of non-union work; people freely go between the two as there’s not enough union work to sustain”.

Experience speaks louder than the theory you may know or the pay you may have gained. So, “take any job on your path as long as it fits your personal ethics” (e.g. pornography or, on the opposite end of the scale, certain religious organizations may not be palatable.) so we must get experience (make our own films, work on others’ films. Whether we get paid or not, doesn’t matter. What does matter is the experience. If we were to find ourselves in LA, she recommends “going to AFI (American Film Institute) where the student and adult filmmakers in their various programs need people (no pay).”

As a part of our networking, we must also “talk to people who are doing what we want to do to learn how they got in”. Since we are entry-level filmmakers, we are not threats to their jobs. This means that people are actually happy to help others in maybe the same positions they once were, “as it isn’t an easy industry to enter or keep afloat in”. She encourages us to find a mentor, if possible.

It’s important to maintain our skills on the set, fresh at all times. So “check crew and internship postings”. On college bulletin boards, magazines (Variety, The Hollywood Reporter), as well as craigslist and other online sources. She encourages us to check out her “Resources” page on her website.

“Youth is in our favor”, my fellow film buffs! Its known in Hollywood that youth is very much treasured. The industry “trusts youth to know where things are at – YouTube, computer skills, etc.” Its important to “show that you’re willing to put in the hours to learn and that you have respect for all those filmmakers who went before you.”

We’re all different; therefore our “journeys will be different”. She encourages us to cherish our journey. We shouldn’t allow anyone to discourage us from our goals or the paths that interest us. She says that we may loose our sense of self or take a wrong step or path but learn from it. “Dealing with pain, can be a great source of growth, creativity, and humanity.”

In line with cherishing our journey and not loosing ourselves, we must always “be able to clearly state what you want and what you can do”. Gael says, “Get your visions and creations out there. Believe in yourself. I have to say I have heard this before, but don’t remember from where I heard it from: “there are no set path for filmmakers.” “She knows someone who got his first film job because he had been a life boy scout. And another young filmmaker who interned on a TV show and because she loved and had studied Latin in addition to film, she ended up coaching a well-known actor in Latin.”

I think these are very important tips to follow specially coming from someone who’s been in the business for as long as she has. Gael Chandler is a film editor and has written two books on editing “Cut by Cut: Editing your Film or Video, (December 2004), details the editing process from dailies to tube, screen, DVD, or Web. My second book, Film Editing Great Cut Every Filmmaker and Movie Lover Must Know, (October 2009), demystifies the types of cuts editors make and how these cuts advance the story and affect the audience.”

http://www.joyoffilmediting.com/

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http://www.joyoffilmediting.com/?page_id=245

"Independence Day" meet "Battle: L.A."

When I was about 13 or 14 years old a movie about aliens overtaking the Earth and the United States trying to get their country back premiered on the box office. The movie was called Independence Day. It was one of the impressive films I had ever seen in my life. The Bill Pullman speech to the fighter jet pilots was one of my favorite scenes in the entire movie. (Might I add, Bill Pullman is to this day a very underrated actor. But that’s another orange to peel in another moment.). So, Bill Pullman’s character did a great job as the President of the United States in “Independence Day” giving one of the best speeches I have ever heard (somewhat cheesy, but very good). And the aliens were defeated. Will Smith and Jeff Goldblum were heroes, they all got the girl, we all won.

In Battle: L.A. we get a veteran Marine soldier in Aaron Eckhart and a battalion of younger Marine soldiers, led by Ramón Rodríguez’s “Lieutenant Martínez” defending the city of Los Angeles from an unknown extraterrestrial force. In this day and age considering how much damage the human race has caused itself and the planet, I think that everyone is looking for a little bit of faith that things will get better, even after something so devastating as what happens in this great movie, or in the case of real life, the devastation in Japan or the aftermath of hurricane Katrina in New Orleans back in 2005. We are constantly looking for a ray of hope. This film has a feeling of finality that has you on edge from the moment the opening credits start to the moment the end credits come on screen.

But in keeping with the previous paragraph, there is a moment in the film where Staff Sergeant Nantz (Aaron Eckhart) decides to resolve a situation that has been building since the beginning of the film, and gives THE speech. It brought me back to when I saw that President Bill Pullman scene in Independence Day. And it was good. It’s in times that we are living now, times in which countries don’t even know who to trust, times where people don’t know if they should trust the ground they are walking on; were we look for these tidbits of faith whether it’s in in movies or your place of choice. But this veteran soldier was promising his boys that he will not leave them behind. And that was hard for some of them to believe considering the soldier’s history, but they went with him… And the rest you’ll have to see because I don’t want to spoil the film. It’s truly an amazing story. One that has you on the edge of your seat the entire run. On the editing part of the film, my favorite part of the film, I have to say that considering the way that the D.O.P. decided to do it, I have to say that it was genius, it gave the editor a broad range of footage to work with. And let me tell you, just because he had a lot of footage to work with doesn’t mean it was easy. It was handheld camera most of the film and that meant that the footage had to be pretty difficult to choose from. Well, when you see it, you’ll understand what I mean. I hope you enjoyed the blog, have yourself a fun weekend and let me know what you thought of the film.

Battle: L.A. is in theaters now, starring Aaron Eckhart, Ramon Rodriguez, Michelle Rodriguez, Ne-Yo, Bridget Moynahan and Will Rothhaar. 


For more information on Battle: Los Angeles box office progress go to: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1217613/business


Image courtesy of www.battlela.com

Let's Save the Movies!

So, I live in Puerto Rico, which means that I get my weekly entertainment magazines approximately one or two weeks later. I just got my March 4th Entertainment Weekly issue, in which there is an interesting article co-written by Anthony Breznican, Josh Rottenberg, and Benjamin Svetkey called "How to Fix The Movies". And it basically talks about the downward spiral the box office is in right now, how it’s been 20 years since the last time the box office was in such a precarious situation. They proceed to offer some good and best of all, FREE advice on "How to Fix The Movies". I personally loved this article because it is so true! The theme in this article was basically that big budget movies (i.e. "How Do You Know?" was budgeted in the $256 million and it bombed in the box office) don't do well in the box office, while small budget movies end up being the most successful (i.e. "Black Swan", "True Grit", "The King's Speech"). 

They recommend, among other things, to instead of remaking old but good movies, to remake the old bad ones. Its clear that studios are going to always remake old movies, they just remake the wrong movies. The article advises to “remake a movie that had a good idea at its core, but was poorly executed in the initial intent or has aged badly.” Examples of movies that followed this path and succeeded go from “True Grit”, “3:10 to Yuma”, “Ocean’s Eleven”, “The Fly”, “The Thomas Crown Affair” among others. Films that didn’t follow that path and failed go from “The Women”, “The Longest Yard”, “Planet of the Apes”, “Sabrina” and “The Pink Panther”.

Another good advice by the article was to stop killing their audiences with their popcorn. You’d think that popcorn is a pretty safe food, its not. According to a 2009 study “a single medium-size bag of popcorn from the Regal theater chain contained 1,610 calories and 60 grams of saturated fat.

“Treat 3-D like the good silverware: only bring it out for truly special occasions”. I couldn’t have said it any better. The fact that almost every movie that has come out in the past year has been made in 3-D is a joke. 3-D should be treated with utmost respect; I think that just because it made the highest grossing movie of all time doesn’t mean that everyone should use this technology. The only people that love using this technology are the studios because they can charge a premium of $3-$4, but misused 3-D in movies like “Clash of the Titans” has created a backlash against big-house “Avatar”. The time for no-nonsense in the movies has come.

Another advice that I thought was very well thought of was the fact that TV writers have a really hard time transitioning to the filmmaking business. The article questions if we’ve seen a romantic comedy that is as funny as “Modern Family”, the answer is a resounding “No”. “And yet, a snobby caste system still exists in Hollywood that makes it tough for TV writers to cross over into features (unless your name begins with “Aaron” and ends with “Sorkin”). What’s odd is that TV guys nowadays are running studios, and yet the writers are having the same problems that back in the day TV actors used to have. Let’s love, not hate!

As a production assistant myself, I have been through the experience where myself and fellow PA’s haven’t really believed in the project that we’re working on. “Chairman and CEO of Legendary Pictures, Thomas Tull, says that commercial considerations have overtaken the creative ones far too much of the time. Which may be a reason why we’ve seen so many movies based on everything from old TV shows to board games to fairy tales. If you have to think hard about why the movie is special, then you should also think hard about why you’re doing it.

I personally like the commercials before the feature, but even I can’t deny that the amount of commercials before a feature is downright ridiculous. Obviously theaters need every nickel they can get their hands on - and cinema advertising accounted for $584 million in 2009. But that’s precisely what turns off moviegoers from actually going to the movies. So, instead of pushing these ridiculous amounts of commercials down our throats, why not a cartoon? They say. Pixar has done a lot of great-animated shorts. In fact they’re going to premiere their next short “Hawaiian Vacation” before the June 24 premiere of “Cars 2”.

Now, for something that I believe a lot of people can agree on. No more than 2 writers per film. The best films in history have had no more than two or three writers. 1994’s “The Flintstones” had more than 35 writers working on the script. Says a producer: “If you look through history, most great movies were a singular vision.”

Well, there it is, my point of view regarding this extremely informative and entertaining article. I believe that the movie going experience is the last step in the movie-making process, as well as being a teamwork experience. It starts with great single or double vision writing, followed by great pre-production, production (in which you have reliable people working on it, that truly believe in the product that they’re making), post-production (great editing!) and last but never least, enjoying the movie. Hopefully a time will come where moviegoers will actually be taken care of. What are your thoughts?

Editing My Life

Hello strangers reading my not-so-good writing! I'm Ileana and, by now its pretty obvious that what I want to do is become an Editor for Film or TV. First, let me tell you how I came upon that crazy, lunatic idea.

I was around 23 or 24 years old (I'm 26 now) and studying Small Business Administration here in Puerto Rico. I'd already been taking my Human Resources and Management classes, I already was like 12 credits into that concentration. I was miserable. So miserable that I was leaning towards the deep end of frustration and misery with the help of The Cure. Don't get me wrong, I love The Cure, but I was listening to "Love Song" way too much considering I was depressed and miserable about something that had nothing to do with the theme of the song. Anyways, one day I'm in a Corporate Behavior class and my professor at the time (she's fantastic) looks at me and she says to me: "Ileana , you hate this class". I was, of course, apologizing to her if I disrespected her with my "boo-hoo" attitude, and she tells me the best thing I have ever heard anyone say. She said to me, "You hate this class, you hate this area of study, why are you here?". I was, of course, dumbfounded, I had no idea why I was there. So, I proceeded to think up an answer. I had nothing. She told me to walk by her office and there she told me that I should evaluate my life and really think out of the box for something that I never thought in a million years that I could do. Well, I never in a million years thought that I could work in Television, let alone in Film. And those are things that are truly interesting to me. So, I looked up information on what to do for that type of study. Long story short (too late!), I ended up changing from horrible Small Business Administration to Communications - Radio & Television Production. When I was taking her class, I was already 3 or 4 years into my college career. 4 years later I graduated (June 2010). When I was finally taking my Television Production classes I discovered that I have an unpolished and barely there talent for editing. Never in a million years, had I thought that I could do something as creative as editing. So, I have taken that newfound interest and talent to practice and I would love to eventually have my own business as an editor to whoever needs the service.

I believe that you can already see that I'm not as good a writer as many 'bloggers' out there. But had I not written out that entire snore-fest, I wouldn't have been able to tell my story of self-discovery (*rolls eyes*). Anyways, I hope you enjoyed my commentary about my fascinating life. Make sure to check for updates on my journey to becoming an Editor. If you have any comments please feel free to write me up. And if you have any suggestions as to what I can do to improve my skills or the skills of any readers out there, be my guest. Thanks for your attention! Come again!

Ileana M. a.k.a. LillyCB

PS: There's an awesome article in Vanity Fair where "The Social Network's" editors talk about the arrival of digital filming and editing on Final Cut Pro, it is very interesting, if, you know, you're into that sort of thing... The link is down below... Enjoy!

http://www.vanityfair.com/online/oscars/2011/02/the-social-networks-editors-on-editing-and-underwear-drawers.html