Editor with a Heart of Gold

New Trailer for BE HOME SOON documentary by Melissa Howden

2013-04-15T13:11:00.000-07:00

The latest from Shirley Thompson Editorial...a new trailer for a gorgeous film by Bay Area Filmmaker Melissa Howden, called BE HOME SOON. A man who would become a saint: Rev. Frederick B. "Ted" Howden, Jr., a small town minister from New Mexico, leaves his wife and three small children to volunteer as an Army Chaplain in 1941. He's halfway around the world in the Philippines when World War Two erupts...only his letters home survive. His sacrifice becomes the sacrifice of three generations of his family, and sparks a granddaughter's quest to learn the truth about the grandfather she never knew. From the Bataan Death March to a Japanese POW camp, a filmmaker follows an emotional roadmap across generations and retraces history and her grandfather's final days. More about this film at http://melissahowden.com/ Trailer written and edited by Shirley Thompson.

Pacific Heartbeat New Season Promo

2013-03-23T22:59:00.002-07:00

A new season of Pacific Heartbeat! We are super excited to work once again this year with PBS Hawaii and Pacific Islanders on an updated show open and promo for the 2013 season. Featuring images from Let's Play Music! Slack Key with Cyril Pahinui and Friends; Hula, Language of the Heart; Tonga: The Last Place on Earth, and Na Lani ‘Eha From ‘Iolani Palace: The Music of Hawaiian Royalty.

Online editing by Stanford Chang, Gravity; Sound Mix by John Dennis, The Sound Spot, Dallas, Voiceover by the wonderful Marlene Sai. Executive Producer for PIC, Leanne Ferrer and Executive Producer for PBS Hawaii Robert Pennybaker. Check your local PBS listings for screenings throughout the spring! On the air now here in the Islands.

iPhone, Vimeo and YouTube For Clients on the Go

2013-01-18T19:21:00.000-08:00

Are you an iPhone user? Do you watch YouTube and Vimeo clips on your phone?

Today I just want to share a cool iPhone function that came in super handy with a client review last night. I was working late, and needed my client to watch a video and give me feedback. Typically I use my Vimeo channel to post video works in progress on password-protected web pages. My client was home, and so she received the email with the video URL on her iPhone, clicked on the link and viewed the video on her iPhone. Then, her terrific idea: she paused the video on the shots she wanted to change and took a screenshot with her iPhone and emailed the screenshot to me with her feedback.

I was easily able to see which shot needed changing and even had an idea of roughly where it was in the sequence, because the screenshot shows the running time. She emailed me a half a dozen screenshots and I got quick, clear feedback so I could make revisions. Super smart use of everyday smartphone technology!

To shoot a screenshot on your iPhone 4S, press the Home button and the Wake button, located on the top right of your iPhone, and press them quickly at the same time. Don't hold them down, or you will either power down your phone, or turn on Siri. You'll hear a camera sound when the screenshot is taken, and the image will be saved to the Camera Roll in the iPhone Photos app. Click on the image to get an email button, and email the image.

Kudos to Pacific Islanders in Communications' Leanne Ferrer, and her smart husband Frank, for coming up with this great working shortcut for sending feedback on a video while on the go!

New Video of Peace Pilot Installation for PeaceDay

2012-10-04T13:00:00.001-07:00

I love it when an irresistible project comes along. A project so compelling that I know in my gut and my heart that no matter what, I have to jump in and help make it happen. That's how I felt about Trayc Claybrook's PEACE PILOT, a monumental video installation of four films she made about peace, with which we enveloped an entire building. It was luscious. Trayc and an all-volunteer crew spent two years working traveling around Texas and the South filming the odyssey of an "every person" hero, who moves from a place of fear to a place of unlimited love. There are no words...the story is told all in images and sounds. It was intended to be projected on a massive scale: on monuments or buildings or natural spaces. For one night, the stunning Interfaith Peace Chapel in Dallas, Texas became a giant canvas for these moving paintings of light. It was gorgeous. I was thrilled to come on board as one of the producers of the installation, and used all my filmmaking, producing, writing and editing skills to help publicize, fund-raise, and wear any other hat Trayc tossed my way. We lit up the Chapel on 9.21.12 for International Peace Day. We are already at work on Peace Pilot 2013. Here is a quick video I edited showing the chapel on the night of the event. If you'd like to be involved with Peace Pilot, get in touch. It takes a village to make an event like this happen, and we'd love to have you on board.

Eating Alaska Screening in Honolulu - We're on for July 26!

2012-07-16T13:23:00.003-07:00

Free Community Screening of Two Powerful Films about Food and the Environment
Thursday, July 26, 2012 6:30 p.m - 9:00 p.m.
Location: R&D, 641 Auahi Street, Honolulu

Please join Slow Food Oahu at R&D for a free public screening of two movies at R&D, the creative space of local arts organization, Interisland Terminal, which is specifically devoted to innovation and creative collaboration. On Thursday, July 26, 2012 we will screen two films about food sustainability from around the nation - "EATING ALASKA" (co-produced by local resident and Slow Food member, Shirley Thompson) and "THE SHRIMP." The films aired on PBS stations across the US this past year, and have prompted viewers of all ages to think about their role in the food chain, our relationship to the natural environment and what it means to eat locally and regionally from your local foodshed. After the films, there will be a Question & Answer session with Shirley Thompson and a panel discussion about the issues the film raises about "what's on your plate" and how we can reach beyond the already converted to get more people to think about the social, political, ethical and economic impacts of what they choose to eat. This event is free to both the public and Slow Food members. Free pupus will be served and R&D will have Morning Glass coffee available for purchase.

Although the event is free, please rsvp to slowfoodoahu@yahoo.com to enable us to prepare for the appropriate size crowd.

Movie Synopses:

EATING ALASKA is a funny and sometimes serious film about the filmmaker's own true experiences of being an urban vegetarian who moves to a small town in Alaska, and is confronted with the question, 'What is the "right" thing to eat?' She goes on a quest, and along the way meets all kinds of every day Alaskans, from deer hunting women, to Eskimo kids in the Arctic talking about their favorite Moose meat, to a vegan cooking class in Wasilla and even her own salmon fisherman husband. It's a wry search for a meal that makes sense politically, socially, spiritually and tastefully. The film provokes dialogue about the complicated clash between the industrial food system and traditional foodways, and investigates such controversies as wild vs. farmed fishing, and toxins that may be contaminating our food. EATING ALASKA journeys from the source to the shelves, stopping in between to raise such essential questions as:

-How is food a bridge between the natural and the social world?
-What are the most healthy, safe and sustainable ways for us to be part of the food chain?
-What is our ethical obligation to the land and sea?
-What can be learned from indigenous food practices?
Trailer: http://www.eatingalaska.com/

THE SHRIMP. The commercial shrimping industry along the coasts of the American South is threatened by pollution, oil spills and consumer demand for less expensive foreign imports. THE SHRIMP is a meditative documentary film that follows the life, death and rebirth of one shrimp from the murky marshes of Savannah, Georgia. Beautifully etched images and a lush audio soundtrack create a rich observational work about coastal foodways, Southern culture, human folly and the interplay of natural and built environments. THE SHRIMP, a 12 minute film, is as unique and engaging as the people, culture and geography it follows.
Trailer: http://www.newday.com/films/The_Shrimp.html

NMC New Docs Rock the PBS Showcase

2012-05-19T16:32:00.000-07:00

Ready to dance? Rock to the newest documentary films offered by the National Minority Consortium with this new Sizzle Reel, screened at the PBS Showcase this week. This reel, presented by Ruth Bolan of Pacific Islanders in Communications, jolted everyone awake in the first session of the first day of Showcase, and opened for my favorite ukulele virtuoso Jake Shimabukuro. Graphics by Stanford Chang - Gravity, Soundmix by John Dennis - The Sound Spot. Play it loud!

Looking for a Hero and Finding KUKAN

2012-05-12T19:45:00.000-07:00

Four people, drawn together by sweeping historic events and their passion for storytelling, each seeking a hero; within one another, and within themselves.

This spring, I've had the pleasure of working with documentary filmmaker Robin Lung on her independent documentary Finding Kukan. It's a fascinating story about a lost Academy Award winning documentary, produced by Chinese American actress Li Ling Ai and directed by American photographer Rey Scott in 1930's war torn China. Neither Li nor Scott had made a film before, yet Kukan was recognized with the first Oscar ever awarded to a documentary, and the film influenced President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's decision to enter World War II. Robin is a crack history detective determined to uncover the lost history of the making of Kukan, and to find and save the film itself. Through personal letters, photos, newspaper accounts and archival film found in the attics and garages of Li and Scott's descendants, including Rey Scott's artist granddaughter, the painter Michelle Scott, Robin is carefully piecing together the story of why and how Kukan was made, and uncovering the secrets that caused the film and the filmmakers to disappear from history....until now.

Here is the extended sample reel for your viewing pleasure. Production is about 50% complete, and we plan on editing the film next year and releasing it in 2014. If you, or anyone you know would like to throw some money at a worthy film project, this would be a good one.

Pacific Heartbeat in 30 seconds

2012-03-05T11:17:00.000-08:00

A new PBS series Pacific Heartbeat. A diverse collection of five films featuring Pacific Island history, culture and music, coming soon to a PBS station near you. A co-presentation of Pacific Islanders in Communication and PBS Hawaii. Music by David Kauahikaua, voiceover by the wonderful Marlene Sai, Written by Robert Pennebaker, Graphics by Stan Chang, Mix by Ross Okamura.

Enjoy the promo, produced and edited by moi!

5 Tips For Cutting a Winning Fundraising Clip

2012-02-28T12:16:00.009-08:00

Every film project needs a fundraising clip, no matter what stage of production or post. As a documentary editor, I feel like I spend as much time editing fundraising clips for filmmakers as actual films. And now with the growing popularity of crowdfunding sites like Kickstarter.com and IndieGoGo.com, and individual film websites, a good short video that gives a potential funder a solid idea of what your film is about is essential.

So the question is, what to show?

Here are five tips to consider when crafting your film's fundraising clip.

1. The Top 20 moments. When I begin work on a fundraising clip, particularly if it's the first time any material from the film has been edited, I always begin by asking the filmmaker to show me the "top 20 moments" of the film. By that, I mean, what are the 20 most beautiful shots, or scenes with the most emotional intensity, or soundbites that succinctly raise the big questions of the film. I want to see those "wow" moments strung together in a sequence in no particular order. Once I know what the best of the best material is, I can begin to shape a storyline for what we should include in the trailer.

2. Play to your funder's goals. If you are making a film about Hawaii and one of your 3 main characters is Native Hawaiian, and your funder is specifically funding films about Pacific Islanders, then by all means highlight the Native Hawaiian character. You may find that you will need to make more a more general fundraising clip, say for Kickstarter or your website, and then more specific clips that cater to the funding goals of specific funders.

3. Raise the questions, raise the stakes. When you are editing the trailer, you are not editing the film. So you don't have to resolve anything. But you do have to raise the important questions and conflicts of the film. And you have to raise the stakes by making us feel that learning the answers to these questions is urgent, or resolving the problem is critical. On a piece of paper, make a list of the most important questions and the chief conflicts of the film (Will justice be served? Will Jane find her real father? Will the lost treasure be found?). And then include the footage that creates the greatest urgency or desire for those questions or conflicts to be resolved. Then leave your potential funder hanging off the cliff...until they write you a check.

4. Show that your main character(s) can carry a whole film. You want to introduce your main characters in a way that shows them in their strongest light, in which they create a strong emotional response and in a way that makes your audience want to see more. Even if your main character isn't necessarily likeable, they must be charismatic enough or interesting enough or important enough to carry the movie. Prove it.

5. Show the diversity of footage you have; show your style of storytelling. If you are working with interesting archival footage, or reenactments shot in a particular style, or interviews shot in a distinctive way, or animation elements, be sure to include a taste of all of that in your fundraising clip. If your film is told in the first person, make your fundraising clip in the first person. Give them a sense of the way the actual film will look and feel, and show your funder that you have the chops to be able to pull it off.

Please note that every funder has different requirements, and you should read the funding guidelines on their website carefully to know what they are asking for. Sometimes funders want to see edited scenes of a work in progress. Sometimes a montage of footage in a trailer format will do. Every funder has a different length requirement: 5 minutes, 10 minutes. Some funders have someone on staff for you to speak with, in which case I recommend you call them, and introduce yourself and ask them what they would like to see. It's important for your potential funder to get to know you, and a good way is by talking to them to learn how you can best align your film project to meet their funding goals.

What has worked most successfully for you in a fundraising clip?

If you would like to learn more about documentary fundraising clips and how to host a successful Work in Progress Screening of your film, join us in Honolulu for the monthly Women in Filmmaking Meeting at 6 pm on Wednesday, February 29, at The ARTS at Marks Garage, 1159 Nuuanu Avenue, Honolulu, HI 96817. I will be speaking, along with filmmakers Kimberlee Bassford and Robin Lung.

Hawaii Documentaries Sizzle for PIC

2012-01-23T11:11:00.000-08:00

http://shirleythompson.net -- The newest trailer we created for the good folks at Pacific Islanders in Communication features film by and about Hawaiians, and will be featured on their website and Facebook page, as well as used for broadcast promotions and fundraising. A lot of strong films, made right here in Hawaii nei, including One Voice, Papa Mau: The Wayfinder, Under a Jarvis Moon, Pidgin: the Voice of Hawaii, Nā Kamalei: The Men of Hula, Dreams of a Pagan Tattooed Savage, Holomua, Keao, and the Sacred Land Film Project. Enjoy!

New Years Revolutions

2012-01-09T11:20:00.000-08:00

More water. Less gluten.

More walking. Less driving.

More blogging. Less procrastinating.

More hiking. More dancing.

My friend Trayc calls them revolutions, instead of resolutions, which I really like. Like most folks, I always begin the year with at least one big goal. Last year I vowed to use less disposable plastic, and that shifted everything about the way I interact with the world of commerce. It became a one woman revolution...much more than a resolution. I wound up meeting many new cool people, learning lots of new things, having lots of frank discussions about product packaging with all sorts of vendors and getting some to change to greener packaging. I started purchasing alternative products from great local vendors who are not using plastic in their packaging. I stopped buying and using a lot of things altogether, because I didn't want the disposable plastic it comes in, and realized that I can actually get by with a lot less "stuff" overall. My carbon footprint is a little lighter, and I now look at the world in a different way.

I can also still do better. Check out this photo:

These are the plastic caps I collected over the course of the last 12 months. Fourteen and a half ounces (I weighed them)...nearly a pound of plastic caps, indicative of all the plastic bottles that continue to come through this house. Some were grandfathered in (plastic containers that were in the house before I moved in with Stan), some were impossible not to get (how do you get a prescription medicine without a plastic container?), some were ongoing conundrums yet to be solved (deodorant, dental floss), some were plastic caps I collected while walking on the beach (tiny penance for the rest). They cannot be recycled in our recycling bin because they are not #1 or #2 plastic, but I can drive them to the local recycling collection center and drop them off where they say they will be recycled (hmmm...). It was an interesting exercise to see how much plastic managed to sneak in, despite all my good intentions. But I bet I cut it down by 75% of what used to come into this house and office.

So now it's January 2012 and I'm shopping for this year's revolution. It hasn't come to me yet, which is partly why I'm writing my New Year's blog on January 9th. But I'm looking for something transformative, from which I can learn and live in a more positive, healthy way. All the usual suspects have been considered: I should meditate, lose weight, etc., etc. But the white flash of realization hasn't hit me, so until then I'll keep searching for inspiration. The word "fun" keeps coming up for me. I've often advised people that we're supposed to be having fun in this lifetime, and that each day we should simply think of the most fun thing we could possibly do, and do it, and use that as a mandate for our day-to-day living, which in turn would shape our entire lives. For me, the next New Year's Revolution will certainly have a fun quotient, I'm sure.

What's your revolution?

Happy New Year. May your year be filled with positivity and goodness and healthy living and joy.

Happy Holidays from Shirley Thompson Editorial!

2011-12-23T12:53:00.000-08:00

Aloha and much merriness from my little red edit room in the tropics to you and yours. It's time to take a little break for the holidays, soak in this solstice time of renewal, rest, and regeneration...I'll be back cut, cut, cutting away after the first of the new year. Thank you for all the great sharing and collaboration and inspiration you all give me throughout the year. I look forward to much more fun, creativity and juiciness in 2012. My gift to you...here is the 2011 version of my Aloha Holiday Mix for you to enjoy. Mele Kalikimaka!

Micronesian Films Highlighted in New Sizzle Video

2011-12-19T07:47:00.000-08:00

I confess that when I began watching these films and working on this trailer, I searched Wikipedia for maps of Micronesia to learn where these small island nations are. There's an amazing amount of history out in the Pacific, peoples and cultures that go back thousands of years. For some of these nations, fortune shifted in profound ways due to geopolitical interests and policies of the U.S. I was woefully ignorant of most of this history. Fortunately there are talented documentary filmmakers doggedly pursuing and recounting these stories. And a terrific organization like Pacific Islanders in Communications making sure that these films are getting funded and getting on the air. Here is a small sample of the films about Micronesia funded through the good folks at PIC.

Pacific Islanders in Communications New Promo

2011-12-08T15:05:00.000-08:00

Think you know Pacific Islanders? Well, there are so many stories, yet to be told. That's the theme of this newest promo for Pacific Islanders in Communications, featuring the films that they fund and broadcast on public television. It was so great to get to watch literally dozens of the latest films executive produced by the good folks at PIC, and search for those "chicken-skin" moments that make you want to see more. I am so grateful to get to work with such terrific people who are committed to getting these voices and these stories out into the wider world. Enjoy...

Mahalo nui loa to composer David Kauahikaua for his spirited music, Amy Kalili for her warm, wonderful voiceover performance, Ross Okamura/Audio Bytes for his great sound recording, John Dennis for his terrific sound design and mix and Stanford Chang/Gravity for the beautiful online.

Plastic-free Editing in Paradise

2011-12-07T09:49:00.000-08:00

Watch out, this is a little rant.

Stop using disposable plastic, for crying out loud!

There is a floating garbage patch in the middle of the Pacific Ocean north of Hawaii the size of Texas. No lie.

Where did all that plastic garbage come from? It comes from you and me, folks.

You can never imagine how far and wide the plastic you throw away travels. And the truth is there is no "away." Think your plastic get recycled? Only about 27% of plastic gets recycled. The rest gets dumped into landfills or washes into the ocean where it kills fish, sea animals and birds. Don't believe me? There's a terrific documentary on the topic: WATCH IT.

And if you're in the media biz, listen up...in this era of YouTube and Vimeo, we have got to stop using DVDs. It's estimated that it will take a CD or DVD a MILLION years to decompose in a landfill. I shudder to think about those hundreds of AOL disks I tossed in the 90's. So how do I deliver quicktime movies of projects without burning any DVDs? I now deliver all video projects on hard drives or flash drives (either mine or the client's). I don't even have DVDs or CD's in the office anymore. A link to a Vimeo or YouTube page works great for almost all clients and projects.

So what to do with the DVD's and CD's you need to get rid of? Recycle them!

Google "E-Waste (name of your city or state)." Find out if there is a recycler that will take them near you. Often there are Electronic Waste collection days that are scheduled...see if you can find one nearby. They will take your CDs and DVDs and also your old cell phones, old hard drives, old electronics. There's usual a small charge for taking old TVs and old monitors.

If there is no E-Waste collection near you, there are several companies that will recycle E-Waste for you for free or for a low charge if you send it in. Greendisk is a great company that I have used in the past...I have a box for used CDs and DVDs and old tapes in the studio and I save them up, then once a year I pack them up and ship them Media Mail rate (cheapest slowest postage) to Greendisk, who shreds them and recycles them. There are other companies. This one says they will recycle your CDs and DVDs for free.

And what about printer cartridges? I basically have cut my printing down to the absolute minimum. If I don't print, then I don't use printer ink in a plastic cartridge. I think I used half the ink this year as last year. Before, I think I was printing a Google map every time I left the house...now I just jot the directions down on a piece of paper using a pencil. Old school, but it works. Office Depot takes back old printer cartridges, any brand, and gives you $2 each.

Perhaps 2012 can be the year of living with less plastic for you. Here are some other resources:

My favorite reusable bags are ChicoBags. I get them for $3-$4 bucks, often the grocery stores sell them with their logos on the sides. They are super strong and fold down to nothing in their own little pouch, so you can always have three or four with you. I have some that are 5 years old now.

Stop using take out containers. Get yourself reusable stuff and only shop with folks who will refill your reusable container. My soup lady at the farmers market is tickled that I bring back my containers every week. And it saves her money (which she gives to me as a 25 cent discount). These are the ones I covet. I think they're nice enough to whip out in a nice restaurant instead of taking home styrofoam in a plastic bag. Styrofoam is gross.

Get yourself a stainless steel water bottle and an insulated stainless steel hot/cold beverage container...they sell them everywhere. If you have a Starbucks habit, buy theirs. They will give you 10 cents off your drink every time you use your own cup.

The main tip is this: whatever you think you can't do without that comes in plastic, see if you can use it half as much, and cut your use in half. Sharpies are my downfall...great tool that I love for making my post it note boards. Big nasty piece of disposable plastic. In researching this article, I did a quick Google search, found out that Sharpie makes a gorgeous Stainless Steel fine point marker! I just ordered three, plus 10 refills. No more plastic sharpie purchases for me! And that's how it works.

Editing Kukan

2011-10-14T15:04:00.000-07:00

This little editor has been so busy making edits that she hasn't blogged for THREE MONTHS. Thank goodness that she has friends and colleagues who blog. So I'm cheating...this is a re-blog...or whatever the blog equivalent of a Re-Tweet is. Lazy of me, I know, but I swear after I meet a couple of upcoming deadlines and after baseball season ends, I'll be back to my bi-monthly blogging ways. In the meantime, I offer you this wonderful blog from recent collaborator, Hawaii documentary filmmaker Robin Lung, highlighting our recent work on her film in progress, Finding Kukan. If you need me, you know where to find me...I'll be in the edit room, for certain...

My, that full glass of green tea is awfully close to that laptop....

Living in Public: Addressing Privacy Fears About Your Online Posts

2011-07-11T18:23:00.000-07:00

Would you hire me? Read on...

Usually, it begins with a comment like this: "Oh, I could never risk putting something out there on the internet, and have it come back to haunt me years later. That stuff never goes away. Once it's posted, it's on the internet forever." Lately, I've been having this conversation with certain clients, friends and fellow filmmakers who still are avoiding social media, because they fear that someone will post something unflattering about them, and they won't be able to control it.

And granted we hear stories about young people not getting jobs because a prospective employer looked at their Facebook page and saw some drunken party photo of them. And we see on the front page examples of knucklehead public officials and celebrities texting photos of their private parts -- as if the photo wasn't going to get saved and passed on? This is simply internet-imitates-life. (In other words, don't be an ass). And some folks have real-life privacy issues to reckon with because of the unfair world we live in. I was once at a gay friend's birthday party who reminded everyone not to post online pictures of him and his beloved, because he worked for "The City" and feared he could lose his job if he was outed at work. Still. In 2011. I don't want to trivialize how badly this sucks.

Would you hire ME?

But most of us, lets face it, are just workaday regular folks with relatively mundane lives. Plain and simple. And I think if you treat the internet like what it is, a public forum that almost everyone can see, then you have nothing to fear...and plenty to gain.

By making myself super easy to find online, and fostering a reputation as a subject matter expert through Twitter and Facebook discussions about my work and the industry, I give people a way to connect with me, get to know me, and begin a relationship with me. This, I hope, will lead to interesting and fruitful collaborations. To keep things interesting, I post a lot of personal opinion and ideas in hopes of sparking a connection with likeminded folks.

Okay, I'm not an expert on online privacy issues. I'm strictly speaking from personal experience. And my personal experience, in a nutshell, has been this: I've had my home phone number, address, photos of me in all manner of circumstances, two relationships, links to all my lefty, feminist political groups, and an endless supply of personal opinions -- on Facebook, on Twitter, on my business website and my personal blogs for almost 10 years now, and not one bad thing has happened as a result. I freely embrace the ethos of social media, of living in public, and have had zero negative repercussions. More importantly, I can't say enough good things about how having a strong presence on the internet has had on my small business. I make connections and get hired because people know me. And they know me, because I've given them a peek at my professional and personal life, online.

How 'bout this girl?

I have had people disagree with me. I have been "warned" by well-intentioned clients that perhaps it would be better to say less, for example, about my political leanings. However, I have never felt it necessary to hide any part of myself online, anymore than I would in person. Indeed, I would rather lose a potential client because they don't agree with my world view than have them hire me, because I'm pretending to be something I'm not. Authenticity, my friends is key.

The "official" portrait (thx Kris Hundt)

Here's another way to look at it. My website is my storefront, open to the public, easily findable via search engine and containing everything you could want to know about my professional life: bio, resume, awards, work samples. Ditto my LinkedIn account. My @shirleythompson Twitter account is an extension of my film editing business Shirley Thompson Editorial, and hence includes mostly tweets about documentary films, film editing and the film business, intermingled with personal and political comments and discussions about what to eat (a Twitter staple, but I happen to have made a film about local, sustainable food, so it works). My Facebook Page for Shirley Thompson Editorial is similar, with a lot more video links, since it's easier for the moment to post video on Facebook. This page is also completely public, and I'm pleased as punch that there are folks who have "liked" this page whom I don't even know yet. Note that on both Twitter and Facebook and newer sites like Google+, you can remove a post, a picture or a status update. So you can edit yourself after the fact, in case of a typo (the main reason I ever delete something), or because you've had a change of heart.

Racewalking, a FB featured activity!

My personal Facebook page is just that - personal. You have to be my Facebook friend to see it, everyone else is blocked. There are 278 photos of me, my friends, my family, my sweetie, my cats, my garden, my travel, my parties, rainbows over Honolulu, etc. It also includes photos of me with ex-sweeties (one in particular who I still absolutely adore), a lot of party snaps with wine glass in hand (I do like my wine), the occasional unfortunate shot of my butt or with jeans that are a tad too tight. All those photos have a privacy setting that allows only friends and friends of friends to see them (and you can control who sees the photo even more). If it's a photo from someone else's Facebook account that I don't want published, I can always remove the tag with my name to disassociate myself from it, or report the photo and have the photo removed altogether if it's abusive. By the way, this has never happened with me. (You can learn all about Facebook privacy settings in the Help section).

It's all GOOD!

On my personal Facebook, I hold nothing back. So if I've deemed that you are a friend, I am going to share my life with you. Not everybody wants to be this open and free. I value being my authentic self, for the good and the bad of it, more than being closeted for the sake of any goal or personal gain. And I think that people who agree with or admire this approach will be more willing to hire me as a result of it, or "like" my company or be my friend.

So if you've avoided social media because you fear it, remember that you can control the message and the view of what people get to see about you, because you get to choose what you put out there. If you don't want to share it, don't share it! And if you do share it, be awake to the fact that everyone, including your mother, your minister and your future employer, may indeed someday see it, unless you learn how to use your privacy settings.

For a little levity on all this social media talk, here is a favorite humorous video on the topic.

Does this change your thinking in anyway about this social media stuff? Let me know what you think.

Filmmakers Using the Web to Build a Brand

2011-06-19T19:59:00.000-07:00

I am obsessed with social media. As a documentary filmmaker from the old fashioned school of long-form storytelling, I am completely taken with the newest form of telling a story: tweeting it in 140 characters or less on Twitter. Or telling the ongoing saga of your life in status updates, photos and links on Facebook. A blog like this one is so old fashioned, really. It's so 2008. But call me old school, I do like scribbling out a story, setting it up with a lead, even a rambling one like this one, and taking you, the reader, on a journey.

And Twitter and Facebook aren't all that different really...you're just telling a story serially, in small installments over time. And the totality of what you are crafting with every tweet and with every status update, link and post, is the story of you as the character in the movie of your life and career. In marketing terms, you are creating your brand. If you are a filmmaker, or any type of creative professional, the brand you put out there as "YOU" is what will get you jobs, funding, respect and recognition. Are you using the web as well as you could be?

Here is a fast list of web resources and some quick thoughts on how you can use them to tell your story, build your brand and get more recognition for the work that you do.

twitter.com - Are you tweeting? A Twitter account is a fast way to create an online presence and to start networking with like-minded folks who are interested in the same types of subject matter, be it film or the subject of your film. You can also, over time, build a reputation as being an expert in your area, and be in the same social media circle as other experts you would like to reach and collaborate with. Open a Twitter account and join the online conversation and meet some new people. Commit to tweeting 3-4 times a day for a short period of time so you get the hang of it, then you can just set up a time to tweet 1 or 2 times daily (first thing in the morning, and at lunch, for example). Or you can use a utility like TweetDeck or HootSuite to program your tweets. Post a picture of yourself and tweet like a person! And always thank the folks who follow you. BTW, you can follow me, too!

facebook.com - If you are a filmmaker, you should have a personal Facebook account, a Facebook page for your production company and a Facebook page for each of your film projects. Pages allow you to separate your posts by subject and relevance to different groups of followers. People can "like" your page, and that means that they will get a status update from you whenever you post a status update, photo, video or link. These are the fans of your work, people who want to hear from you. They are your allies, and a Facebook page gives them a place where they can contact you and keep tabs on what you are working on. You can build fans of your company and your film over time throughout your production and post production so that when the film is released, you have a small army of people who can help you spread the word and get folks into the theater.

YouTube.com - Go to YouTube and create your own YouTube channel and start uploading short video clips to share with your viewers or short work samples from recent or previous work. By building a body of work online you help create a powerful online presence for yourself as a filmmaker. The search engine for YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world, after Google. Shouldn't you be on it? Also, I can't tell you how great it is when folks want to see your work and you can point them to a link online. Super fast, and it makes you look like a real pro.

google.com/profiles - Speaking of Google, you can create a Google Profile, which includes as much information as you would want people to find of you online. This helps Google direct traffic to you when people are searching for you. And it helps you to control the links you want folks to see.

LinkedIn.com - I was one of the original LinkedIn naysayers, and years later, I admit that I was wrong and I have gone back and accepted all those invitations to connect. LinkedIn is serious business...folks in the business world look here to see your credentials and check out your professional circle. As a filmmaker as well as a film worker (and most of us are both), I think this is a great place to send folks to see your resume and your glowing references. You have gotten people to give you references, haven't you? Again, be sure to post a great profile photo of yourself. People want to see who they're doing business with. And film is a business...and all your connections on LinkedIn are people with potential funding and resources to help you make your film. And update your status regularly. My brother told me he once got a good paying gig because someone with whom he had never worked, had just seen a status update from him. Status updates = free publicity for you, your film and your work.

flickr.com - As filmmakers we are visual storytellers and we want to reach all those folks we are now connected to with images as well as words. Posting pix on Facebook is fast and fun, but it doesn't reach all those folks who are not on Facebook. But if you post your pix on one site, be it Flickr or Picassa or Twitpic, you can then post links to your photos on Facebook, Twitter, etc and you can email folks and send them a link to your pix. Carry a camera or your smartphone with you on every shoot and take behind the scenes photos, then post a photo or two to your fans and followers let them into your filmmaking process.

klout.com - Ok, for those A students out there, don't get addicted to checking your Klout score.
These folks have developed metrics to measure how effective you are at getting your message out through social media. You can check it over time and it will tell you how well your strategy is working, and you can experiment and see if your score rises or lowers.

These are just a few of the free resources that are available to all filmmakers on the web, to help you become your own best publicist and get the word out about your film and your work. Which one will you try first?

If you want to know more, I'll be speaking about this topic at the Honolulu Women in Filmmaking Hawai‘i meeting on June 29, 6:30 pm at the ARTS at Marks Garage. In my next post I'll talk about crowdsourcing and the Kickstarter phenomenon...

Old Editor New Trick...Staying Current in a Rapidly Changing World

2011-05-22T16:15:00.000-07:00

I wonder if DeDe Allen ever worried about going out of style? For those of you not in the know DeDe Allen was one of the greatest film editors to ever live. She had a fifty year career, and edited so many groundbreaking classic films: The Hustler, Bonnie and Clyde, Dog Day Afternoon, Serpico, Reds, The Breakfast Club. I wonder if she ever worried about staying current or relevant?

My gut says no: she was a film editor working in Hollywood. She did one thing for her entire career. She edited film. But then I did a quick Google search and found a great interview with Ms. Allen where she talked about editing The Wonder Boys in 2000 and how she learned how to edit digitally on a computer after 50 years of editing on film. Old editor, new trick.

Remember these? Anyone?

Nowadays the change of pace is downright dizzying. I began editing almost 30 years ago in 1982, with a razor blade, a splicing block and tape to stick the edited pieces together. I then learned how to edit electronically on video, then with a computer using a controller with a joystick. Then with bigger more powerful computers. And then I went through the desktop revolution, where suddenly we were all editing on Macs. For the past five years I've edited on a laptop and delivered my content over the web. Now, we can shoot videos on our phones and upload them to the web where we can edit them with cloud-based software and publish them in minutes for all the world to see on YouTube or Facebook. With all that technical capability in the hands of every single person, why does anyone need to hire a professional editor anymore? And why would they hire me?

I never want to be in a position of justifying my professional existence. And in this time of diminishing film budgets, greater competition for work, and ever more rapid pace of change, I find that the best thing is for me to continuously hone my skills and work harder to learn new ways of working. Fortunately I'm lucky in three ways: I love being a filmmaker, I love change and I love learning new things.

My latest fascination is with video on the web and with social media and thinking of ways to connect the old and the new in order to communicate compelling ideas and stories. My partner Stanford Chang and I have created a company that focuses entirely on creating video for the web, and we have immersed ourselves in the social media world, schooling ourselves by creating highly evolved Facebook pages, YouTube channels, LinkedIn Profiles, Twitter accounts, websites and then interconnecting them and using them to create and build new relationships with a bright, exciting new community of engaged people. I'm even dabbling in newer and more specialized social networks: Namesake, which is more personal and utopian in approach and less about business, Kanu Hawaii, which is about social justice and community building.

Through it all I have met, either in person or online, dozens and dozens of new people, all of whom are extremely excited and passionate about what they do. The social media crowd is a curious, chatty bunch and by their nature they push me to put the best, most honest, most authentic version of myself out there every single day. This journey has also put me back in touch with long-time colleagues and given me a platform from which to reach out, reconnect and build on those relationships. And with each new task I have tackled I have learned dozens of new skills, from building our website to understanding HD video and the myriad ways one can deliver it on the web, to creating video for mobile devices. I feel like I've learned more in the last three months than I've learned in the previous three years.

So for now I have my sights set on using my filmmaking skills from nearly 30 years in the business to continue creating stories and conveying ideas, but equipped with the latest tools and savvy about new approaches. I think more film and video is being made and watched now than ever, and I am stoked to share my knowledge and use it to help the people I collaborate with achieve and communicate their highest goals. Life is juicy...I feel lucky to be on this path right now. Old editor, new tricks!

Want to continue this conversation? Leave a comment, or connect with me on Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn.

Laughing Samoans Kick off with Samoan Documentary Trailer in Hawaii

2011-04-19T20:33:00.000-07:00

I had never heard of the Laughing Samoans before, but it turns out that they are pretty funny guys who travel all over the world doing stand-up comedy about Samoan life and culture. The good folks at Pacific Islanders in Communication in Honolulu tapped me to create a 2-minute trailer highlighting their documentaries about Samoa, which would show on a big screen before the Laughing Samoans' concerts while on tour in Hawaii. Pretty cool! Hope I get to go to Samoa someday...looks beautiful. And the films I pulled from were so interesting, including: The Calling, Skin Stories, Polynesian Power, Made in Taiwan, Black Grace, Goodbye Charlie, A U O Le Taupou and O Tamaiti. Check it.

Pro Bono Editing - Good Business, Good Cause

2011-03-04T15:18:00.000-08:00

They caught me on a good day.

I was reading the SF Cutters Final Cut Pro editors listserv when a post appeared seeking editors for a pro-bono editing project. Great music, great cause, no pay.

I was feeling rather sorry for myself that day. This first quarter was typically slow...folks tend to start projects at the beginning of the year, and my business is finishing projects. It usually takes until March for my business to ramp up. But in spite of 20+ years of seeing this pattern in my freelance business, it still saddens me to see nothing on the calendar. "Not booked for the rest of my life," I joked with other freelancer friends, laughing while trying to push down the worry over my ever shrinking bank balance. "I've always worked and somehow always paid my bills," is my mantra. You can't be a freelancer for twenty years without being able to surf the waves of lots of income followed by no income. However, on this day, the worry was winning, and I was feeling low. I needed to work.

So I emailed my interest in the project, and over email and phone I met Joe Baker, the director of a project whom I have yet to meet in person, in spite of the fact that we made a rather nice music video together. Joe is making a CD/DVD compilation of African and American music, with collaborations by accomplished African and American musicians. It's "Playing for Change" meets contemporary African music, where by the magic of editing, musicians in different cities and on different continents play a song together. Proceeds of the project go towards building a school for village children in Ghana, through a non-profit run by Joe's brother. You can learn all about it by "liking" The Africa Project on their Facebook page. Anyways, Joe was agreeable to working with me long distance, with him reviewing cuts over the web in the Bay Area and me editing at home in Hawaii.

So for a week, I threw myself into editing African music and images. The project had its challenges. Joe is a first-time filmmaker, and some of the footage reflected that. But the recording was rock-solid and he and the project have enormous heart. You could tell that it was recorded and filmed with a lot of love, if not expertise.

I found myself with footage of 10 musicians, each filmed in a different location and I needed to sync them all so that they appeared to be playing together. I created a poor-man's multi-cam by just syncing all musicians and their individual music stems, plus the final recording, in one big sequence. Then I cut for performance until I got the very best moments of each musician, looking always for opportunities to show musicians playing "together" through split screens. Once the performance was edited, I turned to the b-roll material looking for a character and a story. The piece became a road trip through Ghana, with the driver as main character, which lined up nicely with lyrics about the beauty of Africa and its people. It was a great stretch for me craft-wise...I found myself using my FCP software in ways I haven't used it before, and the effects I chose required a lot of precision. This turned out to be much harder than I originally planned. I loved being challenged.

But the best part is this. The instant I started working on it, the phone began to ring. I don't know why this happens, but it's always been true: work begets work. If I'm sitting around doing nothing, I get a whole lot more nothing. But if I'm busy working, even working for free, suddenly I'm in the mix, interacting with folks, and inevitably I get a call for paying work. It happens every time.

So I made a deposit in the karma bank and was immediately rewarded with a paying job. But even better, I have a credit on a nice little music video, and I met a whole new group of folks that I never would have met otherwise. Hopefully we'll all get to work together again in the future. And most importantly, the kids will get their school, which is the cherry on top.

Long Form Documentary Editing Workflow I - Organizing Your Project, Bins & Clips

2011-02-14T12:59:00.000-08:00

Recently a colleague who was setting up his first long-form documentary project asked for advise about how to best organize his footage. Specifically, he asked, "How do you/and your editor review and log the observational footage and determine what is relevant? How do you organize your selects inside FCP? (By scenes, events, themes?) Any red flags to be aware of that might bite me in the rear 9 months from now?"

I loved his last question...it really cuts to the heart of the matter. A recent informal survey I conducted among a few filmmaker colleagues revealed that most long form docs are edited over 4 months, many over a year and some over as long as 5 years. How do you create a system that allows you to be able to find that one favorite soundbite or image on the last week of the edit as easily as you found it on the day you logged it?

Here were my recommendations to him...what would you add to this list of things to consider?

In response to his first question, I think the director has to look at everything and determine what is relevant. How does the material "hit" you...how strong is it and to the point of your subject? As editor, I rarely see 100% of the footage (there usually just isn't enough money or time...although by the end of the edit, I've often seen most of it...it depends how much footage we are talking about). Often I'll ask the director to start off by just showing me their "star" takes...or the best 30 - 40% of the footage. But sometimes a director will want to screen whole interviews with me...this is really a time/money issue.

My first pass of organization is usually to work with the filmmaker and the assistants to begin, as early in the process as possible to come up with a label and numbering system for the footage that tells me what I need to know. For example, the last couple of documentaries I've worked on had multiple cameras. So we came up with a reel naming convention that allowed us to know right away what camera we used:

So clip 1 from tape 1 shot on the Vericam was

LL_001_V_01

That's LL (name of project), reel 001, Varicam, clip 1

LL_001_HDV_01

That's LL project, reel 001, HDV cam, clip 1

This way, every media file has a unique name, and the media file name precisely matches the clip name. For me, matching the clip name and the media file name are crucial to long term media management success. The specific content of the clip name depends on what's important to you....the date it was shot? The location? The character's initials? This can all be encoded as part of the clip name. Consistency is key.

I use "Master" Bins to first organize the clips by tape or groups of tapes, so I can find things in tape order or chronologically. I then make additional work bins to organize material by type: Music, Voiceover, Interviews, Interviews by character, Clips by scene, clips by location, archival, archival by subject, etc. It really varies depending on the project. Then I use a combination of Markers and the Log Note & Description fields in the FCP Browser to write additional logging information about shots. If I have time, I'll sub-clip material to further break it down and log and organize it. You can always make more bins, and create bins of bins to better organize as you go.

Generally, I love having every bit of interview material transcribed and transcripts printed and in binders. Often the director and I have our own separate sets of binders so we can each scribble and write on the transcripts. I also want the transcripts as word documents, or as one giant word document so I can search for keywords. Often the director will use these paper transcript to literally circle the best takes when they review footage, and create the first subset of "star" takes for me to watch.

My biggest advice to you is this: By all means make a duplicate set of media and put it in a safe place. I recently had a brand new out of the box, 1 week old, 4 TB G-Raid, fully loaded with media, just stop working. It would no longer mount, and the only recourse was to send it back to G-Raid, who took a month to replace it because it was out of stock! So on all documentary projects, once I have all my media loaded, I make an exact duplicate of that media, and put it on a shelf (it's an assistant's job to be sure to duplicate all additional media, once a week). That way if a drive goes down, you have a back up on the shelf, and you are back up and running in minutes. The best insurance any edit room can buy...and cheap!

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The filmmaker also mentioned that he was setting up his projects according to this very good article by documentary editing teacher and author Karen Everett. Worth a read.

What Impact Does Video Have on Your Website?

2011-02-07T12:51:00.000-08:00

What a difference a video makes!
A small non-profit with a big heart and even bigger goals and aspirations puts it all out there on their home page with this short rock-umentary style video, directed and produced by long time co-collaborator Tacy Hess Gaede, co-produced and edited by moi, with some hot graphics and effects by Stanford Chang. A great team effort to showcase the big talent and enthusiasm in a sweet little Colorado town... Almost 500 hits on Vimeo already, and another 50 or so on my You Tube channel as well. The good folks at SpokesBuzz are perfectly poised to launch a big promotional push for their upcoming showcase at South by Southwest in Austin next month, reaching out to tens of thousands. Stoked to be part of the effort to get the word out. How are you using video on your website or social media page? What results have you seen?

Heartbreak, Lies, Film, Healing & Justice

2011-01-28T13:55:00.000-08:00

I wonder at what point I became aligned with the underdog? To me, it feels like it's coded into my DNA. I naturally want to support and back David instead of Goliath...the A's instead of the Giants...and of course, never the New York Yankees. This sentiment serves me well as a documentary editor...the most interesting stories are about those who are down and out, disempowered, disenfranchised. Those who must somehow rise above insurmountable odds to speak their truth to power, or find justice, or sometimes, just make it through the day to live like anyone else.

Today I listened to this amazing radio story, one that has been developing for some time. Over a year ago, Hector Salgado, the hero of our documentary Special Circumstances, forwarded to me the most amazing letter, written to him by a woman in Chile who believed her father was somehow responsible for wrongdoings during the 1973 coup in Chile. It was a heart-wrenching letter, and I remember crying when I read it; this poor woman struggling to come to terms with her own fear of asking the hard questions, and yet unable to stop herself from wanting to know the terrible answers.

Now, the woman, Paulina, has come forth, in an exclusive radio interview with Dick Gordon on American Public Media's THE STORY. Paulina's story picks up where Special Circumstances leaves off...Hector has told his truth, and now people in Chile are beginning to ask questions, like: "Dad, what did you do during the war?" Paulina found Hector through Google...just like Hector found most of the perpetrators in his search. And through emails she discovers that her father worked at the prison where Hector was held as a prisoner of war; and Hector knew him and remembers seeing him. I get chills just thinking about it. Their entangled histories are at the heart of this radio story, which is well worth listening to.

This has been a hard week...kind of slow here in the edit room, and funding for documentaries is scarcer than it's ever been. Been having conversations with editor friends about the future...will we be able to keep doing what we do? How? It's good to experience a little tangible evidence of why it's so important for us all to keep fighting the good fight. Hector pursued the perpetrators of the violence in his home town of Tomé because he simply couldn't walk away. He was stuck in 1973 and he had to find the truth so he could move forward with his life. Through the process of making and showing the film, along with his partner and film director Marianne Teleki, they gave thousands of others a voice. Each of us a tiny grain of sand...yet all our energies adding up to big impact and big change. Adelante!

Computers & Water Don't Mix! Back up your work! And put your tea far away from your electronics!

2011-01-19T19:06:00.000-08:00

Okay, this is one of those cautionary tales you often read on the internet...starting with this question:

"If you kicked an entire pint of iced green tea on your computer right now, how much work would you lose?"

MacBook Pro motherboard, which I hope never to see again

I so know better than this! I've worked on computers almost 30 years. And when I work on other people's computers, I am meticulously careful to keep liquids and food away from them. And I religiously backup all work.

But working at home, on my own gear, sometimes I get lazy... It's Sunday morning. I'm super tired, a little sleep-deprived. I set the laptop on the ground to show Stan a photo on craigslist. I set down the iced tea, and I suddenly remember something I need from the other room. Step, kick, tea all over the laptop.

Ay, ay, ay!

I did everything they said you are supposed to do. The computer was in sleep mode when it happened, so it was powered down. I removed the power cord and flipped the computer over and shook as much tea out of the keyboard as possible. I dried as much as I could with a towel. I removed the cover and dried as much tea as I could see inside. I took a blowdryer and carefully blow-dried for a while, making sure to dry all ports and the connections to the screen. I left my laptop turned off and open in an inverted "V" with a small fan blowing on it for 3 days. Since it was just water and tea (no sugar, nothing corrosive), everything I read online said that as long it dried completely, there was a good chance it would come back on and work.

Finally today I turned it back on...hallelujah, it powered right up! I was beyond relieved.

In the last three days I was working on a deadline, of course. I had to deliver a show today. Because I was lazy and didn't back up my work properly on Friday, I spent half a day on Sunday rebuilding a day of edits. I actually remember thinking late Friday night, "I should back-up." And then I didn't! I swear, I think that's the voice of God when intuition speaks that way. Why oh why didn't I listen? I culled through emails to find copies of scripts I had emailed to clients. I downloaded reference videos I had uploaded to YouTube. Fortunately, I was able to reconstruct everything in half a day. But if I had backed up, I wouldn't have had to rebuild a thing.

The first thing I did when my computer came back to life was plug in the external firewire drive and run Time Machine to do a complete backup. Then I made additional backups of my current editing projects.

Thanks to Stanford Chang for loaning me his laptop, with the most current version of Final Cut Pro, so I could finish my show on time today. It's a blessing to have two editors in one household!

I think the key is to make backing up simple, so that it can be done more or less automatically, and then it happens, whether I'm tired or sleep deprived or not.

Resolved, I will backup my computer daily. And I will keep beverages FAR away from my poor computer!