Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1262492
43 S U M M E R Q 2 I S S U E F E A T U R E "The pandemic made me wonder if I have other useful skills in life to con- tribute more," Palmer stated. "But my mom reminded me that entertainment is important, and we need to laugh some- times, or we'll all go insane." Therefore, for people like picture editor A.J. Catoline, an MPEG board member, the scramble in March to figure out a remote workflow to continue cut- ting the upcoming Apple TV+ comedy, "Ted Lasso" became a crucial endeavor as the madness hit. "My boss sent out a PA that very day with a credit card and told him to buy every hard drive he could find," Catoline recalled. "We downloaded 10 episodes of media onto four encrypted terabyte drives. Then he said he would pay us for the weekend to go home and get our home Avids up and running." Fo r w o r k i n g e d i t o r s , q u e s t i o n s abounded about things like logistics, expenses, kit rentals, use of personal equipment, workday str ucture, and m o r e . G u i l d m e m b e r s f o u n d t h e m - s e l v e s g r a p p l i n g w i t h r e s i d e n t i a l broadband speeds as they attempted to run sessions from home using Zoom or Evercast streaming software. Sound editors started reporting it required a full day to upload finished mix files. An industry that spent decades perfecting digital post-production infrastructures suddenly found itself riding home In- ternet connections already clogged by a nation of streaming content watchers. " W h e n I w a s o n t h e d u b s t a ge, I walked in and started mixing," said Frank Morrone, MPSE, CAS and MPEG Board Member. "Technicians worked on all the file management. Now, I'm putting in a lot more hours, because you are focused on uploading and downloading." And yet, despite the frenzy, Catoline and other working editors were the lucky ones—for now, they still had work. Many in the editorial community, by contrast, suddenly had no work at all. Erik C. An- dersen, also a picture editor and MPEG Board member, was among them. "Pilot season was starting, so I was sending out emails for potential work," Andersen said. "Everything suddenly shut down. I decided it was insensitive to continue soliciting work, so I stopped. I eventually realized there was a freedom in not looking for work so I decided to divert my energy into something else. Since then, I've been helping the Guild work on some of the issues facing edi- tors, and started volunteering my time to worthy projects, including IATSE's 'Buddy-Up,' designed to help retired members. " M e m b e r s s h o u l d re m e m b e r t h e expectation is not to turn our homes into an office," Catoline added. "We are just doing our best to keep going during this crisis. Normally, we work together on the job site as a crew, and suddenly we found ourselves working apart. This runs counter to the logic of a union. But the principles of the union must stand strong—we suppor t each other as a team." Wi t h t h a t i n m i n d , C i n e M o n ta ge reached out to a group of Guild members representing various job classifications to find out how they were coping with this sudden shift in their work and per- sonal lives. Following is a sampling of their responses. Dorian Harris, ACE P I C T U R E E D I T O R Q What was your professional situa- tion when you realized a shutdown was coming? We were about to f inish shooting "Hit and Run" for Netflix when they shut down on March 11. By Sunday, [California Gov.] Newsom issued the stay at home for 65-and-older, which included me, so I did not go to work. Q Describe your personal and profes- sional quarantine situation: Moviola set up my work Avid at home. I work from home with a drive of my episodes only, while my assistant and I communicate and share media all day. I am quarantining alone at home, although I frequently see my daughters. I am set up to work in my daughter's bedroom, in fact. Being on the Boards of the Guild and American Cinema Editors, I have been doing many Zoom calls, including Erik C. Andersen. A.J. Catoline.