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One Hour with ‘One Hour Fantasy Girl’ Editor, Jason Rose
By Kate Logan | April 15, 2009
By: Becky Garcia
I recently spent a lunch hour with Jason Rose (FCP and Avid instructor) to talk about his involvement with the new indie film titled, ‘One Hour Fantasy Girl’, which is circling the film festival circuit right now.
‘One Hour Fantasy Girl’ is a dark, coming-of-age story about a 20-year-old LA runaway that earns her living as a dominatrix, but dreams of having a career in real estate. What’s most unique about the casting of this film is that all the actors auditioned for their parts online. In fact, although most jobs that Jason has taken on have been through referrals from people he has previously worked with, he landed this particular job by responding to an ad on Mediamatch.com (job search website). The writer/director Edgar Michael Bravo viewed Jason’s online demo reel, and two months later he was asked to be their sole editor. “The nice thing about working on an independent film like this is that I get to be THE editor, not just one of several editors, like you would on a big Hollywood production.” This allowed Jason more creative control. Also, being that it was a non-union job, he was able to work out of his home and still teach editing courses here at Video Symphony.
When asked what format he prefers to cut on, Jason quipped, “Whichever format I’m getting paid to edit on, that’s the one I prefer at that time.” Thus, leading us to the topic: Final Cut versus Avid. Jason explained that it is not a case of which format is better, but rather which is best for a particular project. “I prefer to cut a feature length film on Avid, for trimming purposes. Finessing is easier to do on an Avid. It’s better for database management, basically by forcing you to be extremely detailed. However, when it comes to short form projects, then Final Cut is the way to go, because it’s quick, down and dirty.”
Editing ‘One Hour Fantasy Girl’ took him just over 3 months, which was just beyond what the budget allotted. However, when you’re an editor, just because the money runs out, does not mean your work is done. It’s a labor that extends well beyond that of meeting a contractual agreement, giving truth to the phrase, “a labor of love.”
There was one special challenge that Jason faced while working on this film. Although the film was edited using Avid, the color correction was to be done using Color, which is a part of the Final Cut Studio 2 Suite. Fortunately, Jason knew of a workaround called “Automatic Duck,” which is a program used for transferring footage from one format to another.
The film is now in the distribution process, and rumors of a sequel are buzzing. You can check out Jason’s editing skills now, as the first 15 minutes of the film are already online. For more information about ‘One Hour Fantasy Girl’, go to:
www.onehourfantasygirlmovie.com
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Topics: Video Symphony |