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editor’s note Embracing green By RANDI ALTMAN EDITOR-IN-CHIEF raltman@postmagazine.com that better than Amber Isham, a production coordi- nator/manager working on commercials and music videos.“It’s been my own personal mission to bring recycling on-set and create awareness,” she says. On any production she’s working on, Isham Y brings what she has named “The Happy Can”— a trash can divided into sections — one for recy- cling and one for basic trash. Isham doesn’t run a company and isn’t hired by the production to re- cycle; it’s just something she feels strongly about.“I do it on my own, taking the can back to my house and recycling the trash.” She sees first hand the kind of waste produced on set.“It’s my job to make sure people get to the set, that there is enough parking and bathrooms, and I am bringing drinks and stuff as well, so I know there is a certain amount of recyclables that are definitely coming off these sets.” Isham realizes that unless it’s in people’s faces, they might not think twice about how they dispose of trash. “If you create a dialogue and have a con- POST SCRIPT Commercial workflows T his month, Post looks at workflows for commercial productions, following footage By MARC LOFTUS SENIOR EDITOR mloftus@postmagazine.com as it is acquired, transcoded (or not), edited and conformed.At each stage of production and post, pros need to be able to handle, process and store footage that is increasingly being cap- tured with newer cameras from Red,Arri, Sony and Canon. See our feature on page 20. Shane Dillon is a partner as Seattle’s Lightpress (www.lightpress.tv), a studio that reg- ularly handles transfers, editing, color correction and conforming for commercial projects, in addition to longer-form work and independent films. Looking back 12 months ago, Dillon says Red would have been the most popular acquisi- tion format, but starting in June, he noticed a shift to cameras such as Canon’s 5D and 7D, Arri’s Alexa, and even the high-speed Phantom. “They are all evenly matched,” notes Dillon. The studio recently posted spots for Nike, BlackBerry, Seattle’s Best Coffee,Washington’s Lottery and T-Mobile.The lottery commercials were all shot using Alexa. One BlackBerry com- mercials — Lightpress has posted nearly 60 to date — used 5D and 7D, Red and 16mm film. “It’s surprising,” he says of the Canon cam- eras.“We’ve seen stuff, and it looks really good, 2 Post • February 2011 ou don’t have to be a large corporation to make a difference when it comes to pro- tecting the environment. Nobody knows versation, they are going to make the right choices, especially if you make it easy for them. If it’s in front of your face, you are going to recycle,” she believes. “We are in a very excessive industry; we have a lot of things at our fingertips. I think people have an idea of this green lifestyle, but I also know we are lazy in general, so if there is no recycling can or trash can, they might just throw it in what’s closest to them or just leave it on the floor.” Isham is sort of at a crossroads at the mo- ment with where where The Happy Can goes next.“It works. I know it does, but I am at a point now where I don’t really know where to go with it. Personally, it’s a messy job dealing with all these recyclables.” But she has no intention to stop her efforts. “We are at a really pivotal place right now — people can make a real shift in their lifestyle.We can’t be so excessive as far as the film industry. There is so much waste,and so much gets thrown out at the end of the day.Any little bit helps.” If anyone wants to connect with Isham, reach out via email at amberisham@me.com. And keep recycling! EDIT ORIAL RANDI ALTMAN Editor-in-Chief (516) 797-0884 raltman@postmagazine.com MARC LOFTUS Senior Editor (516) 376-1087 mloftus@postmagazine.com KEN MCGORRY Consulting Editor mcgorry@optonline.net CHRISTINE BUNISH Film& Video RON DICESARE Audio BOB PANK European Correspondent bob.pank@virgin.net DAN RESTUCCIO West Coast Bureau dansweb451@aol.com IAIN BLAIR Film MICHAEL VIGGIANO Art Director mviggiano@postmagazine.com AD VER TISING MARI KOHN National Sales Manager (818) 291-1153 cell: (818) 472-1491 mkohn@postmagazine.com GARY RHODES Eastern & Intl Sales Manager (631)274-9530 cell (516)410-8638 grhodes@copcomm.com CHRIS SALCIDO Account Manager (818) 291-1144 csalcido@copprints.com CUSTOMER SERVICE but there are certain limitations with the Canon cameras in terms of panning or moving the camera about.That’s kind of a ‘no no’ because you get the rolling shutter problem. But if you do fast pans, even on the Red you get that.” Lightpress has Avid, Final Cut Pro and Adobe Premiere for editorial. Its finishing solution is Quantel’s iQ 4K Pablo with the Neo control panel.The Pablo is powerful and able to handle footage from all of the popular cameras in their native format. Dillon says it’s also useful for fix- ing problems in projects that are posted in the QuickTime format, which he feels has inherent problems.“Anyone who tells you otherwise is wrong. I can give you a dozen instances where you can import something and export it and it will look different. If you are really critical about color, you should not be using it, but people do.” For lower-budget projects that are edited out of house, Lightpress has Red Rocket cards and will transcode files, putting them on a drive for editing. If the client needs further polishing, they can come back for finishing. “We are here to help,” says Dillon.“If you want to come and polish [it] at the end,we can give you something that will look better than what you had to start with.” www.postmagazine.com 620 West Elk Ave, Glendale, CA 91204 csr@postmagazine.com (800) 280 6446 opt 2 (publishing), opt 1 (subscriptions) REPRINTS Reprints (781) 255-0625 • (818) 291-1153 LA SALES office: 620 West Elk Avenue, Glendale, California 91204 (800) 280-6446 WILLIAM R. RITTWAGE President / CEO See us on Post Magazine is published by Post, LLC,a COP communications company. Post does not verify any claims or other information appearing in any of the ad- vertisements contained in the publication, and cannot take any responsibility for any losses or other damages incurred by readers in reliance on such content. 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