Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/928269
www.postmagazine.com 31 POST JANUARY 2018 OUTLOOK 2018 O OUTLOOK O OUTLOOK JAY NELSON Jay Nelson is a founding editor at Cut+Run in LA; he divides his time between offices in NY, LA and Austin and also works around the world. He is the executive producer, writer and editor of the documentary, Wild In The Streets and editor of the doc, Holy Wars. His edit of the film, The Bronze opened Sundance 2015, and his recent work with Bryan Buckley, Pirates of Somalia, starring Al Pacino and Evan Peters premieres this month. In advertis- ing, he is known for brand-enhancing commercials, including multiple audience and industry favored Super Bowl spots. STRENGTHS: "With so much content being produced there's an array of op- portunities for editors. "All the new avenues of content that are emerging are creating new languag- es of film. Just when I thought the art of film had hit its peak, newly emergent editing languages begin growing and evolving — and with the nascent format of VR we're sort of the Lumiere Brothers of a language still to be defined. "Technology continues to keep pace with these emergent avenues too. We've enjoyed file-based editing for 10 years now; what I wanted to see most has come to pass. Looking ahead, we have to develop new ways to interact with our footage." WEAKNESSES: "One of the biggest struggles for editors and creatives is to stay relevant, to adapt to inevitable change and evolution. Like it or not, our jobs have changed, and we have to be willing to evolve with that. There hasn't been a lot of evolution to the interface, to how we interact with the timeline and our media. Tools look and behave pretty much the same since the birth of nonlinear editing. We need some evolved thought on how to better interact with our tools — a more tactile, direct, immediate finger to the page. We're currently fettered with peripheral devices that help us get the work done. We need to be closer to the media." OPPORTUNITIES: "When agencies say they need a social component [in addition to their TV advertising], most editors roll their eyes and hand that off to their assistants. But the market share is in the hands of young people [who are immersed in social media] and if you can capitalize on mastering the language of social media, the opportunities are enor- mous. Social media's viability as an ad- vertising format is gonna stick around." THREATS: "Social media as an adver- tising format also tips us into the threat category. Typically, we weren't getting paid for editing content for the Internet for clients. But the bottom line budgets continued to get smaller. So post compa- nies have had to find ways to maximize the bottom line, and that often comes at the expense of people, despite the amount of content being produced. "Also, a lot of agencies have set up post production in house. Some shops have been around a long time and pro- duce great work. But others have found it hard to attract talent." OUTLOOK FOR 2018: "My measuring stick for the new year is what happens at the beginning of October for Super Bowl bookings: How far ahead agencies and clients are thinking about getting their ad slots together and with what sort of vig- or. For the last two years, bookings are coming later and later, and networks are having a harder time filling those slots. "TV advertising is safe as long as there are live sports on television. Once they start streaming on paid services, we'll face a real problem — and that's happening with MLB, the NBA and the NHL all making deals with stream- ing companies and the NFL Network seemingly branching out with its own entity. A threat to live sports broad- casting is a threat to the conventional 30-second advertiser. "What I look forward to is advertising post production adapting to longer-for- mat media. The Golden Age of Television is becoming The Golden Age of Streaming. There are opportunities to work on great, revolutionary, bold programming and branded entertain- ment. It will be a great day when advertisers truly embrace that people pay attention to branding when something is entertaining." MORE EDITING & COLOR ONLINE Christine Bunish's full article can be found online, at postmagazine.com, featuring more Outlook views from editor Kevin Tent (photo left) and Nice Shoes colorist Lenny Mastrandrea (photo right). Cut+Run created this spot for Heinz.