Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/309120
23 MAY-JUN 14 / CINEMONTAGE intense the work used to be. "I worked on Schindler's List and it was a nine-reel show," he recalls. "They made 7,000 prints on that movie. I worked 12-, 13-hour days to the point where I didn't know what day it was." Mary Kaye Coates, who started her 39-year union career learning how to handle film, to use a power rewind and to break down film, became a negative cutter and ended her career as a color timer at Technicolor, which closed its Glendale lab last December. "I loved film," she says. "I loved going to work every day, and the union played a very big part in that." Most people who have worked in film labs have experienced the vicissitudes of changes in the industry. Christie Meyer, who has been a negative cutter in Hollywood for over 35 years, worked her way up to that job during a 10-year stretch. "I've worked for all the major studio cutters in town, and spent the last 12 years of my cutting career at Disney Studios — until they closed our department in 2012," she says. "I'm now retired and, as I like to tell my friends, I've taken a pair of scissors to some of the biggest stars in town!" Adam Clark, manager of dailies at Deluxe, has been at that lab for 21 years, worked as a color timer, and has been in dailies since 2001. "The best part of my career was color timing," he says. "Back in the day, when everything was shot on film, working with it opened my eyes to the beauty of film. Most people don't realize how much time it takes for cinematographers to create with lighting. Color timing demanded a lot. You either had the eye or you didn't." He remembers that 21 years ago, someone pulled him over at the lab and told him that video was going to take over. "Video has gone and film was still there," he says. But starting four years ago, he and many others at the lab saw the writing on the wall. "When we heard the May 9 date, it finally hit home," he says. As digital takes over, from acquisition to distribution, Clark bemoans the loss of the process of film. "You're taking away so many crafts," he says. "You're taking away such beauty created by so many different people." Bob Hand also feels the imminent loss of the medium of film. He began his career in 1966 working in the negative vaults during the transition from nitrate to safety stock, and his career took him from negative dailies to negative cutting. He is now head of negative assembly at Deluxe. "It's been the greatest ride that a person can have, and I'm proud to have been in it as long as I have," he says. Like everyone who has spent a lifetime working with film, he sees the difference with digital. "Film is totally better than anything done digitally," he stresses. "Pixels are not film, and I can see it in the theatre." James Rondou has been in the industry for 39 years, starting in 1974 at Deluxe and moving to Technicolor in 1978. "The industry was always busy, so we kept very busy — working a lot of hours and weekends…and had a good time doing it," he recalls. A cinetechnician, Rondou spent much of his career modifying the machines to provide specific looks for films such as Apocalypse Now. Technology was always changing, and the cinetechnicians kept up by teaming with the engineering department. But the biggest change of all has been the move to digital. "The biggest impact was that our production started going down, and there were fewer people," he says. "We all started to work on all the equipment. We started doing more with less. And there were massive lay-offs. "But I'm thankful there were so many good years and it took a long time for this to come experienced the vicissitudes of ago, someone pulled him over at Jim Passon with director James Cam- eron during the making of Avatar. CineMontage_May-Jun_14-3.indd 23 4/15/14 2:47 PM