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www.postmagazine.com 6 POST DECEMBER 2015 BITS & PIECES BUILDING BRIDGES: EDITOR MICHAEL KAHN ON HIS LATEST SPIELBERG PROJECT LOS ANGELES — At 79 years young, Michael Kahn was busy editing by 7am in his LA studio before jumping on the phone with Post to speak about his recent work on Steven Spielberg's latest spy drama, Bridge of Spies (Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures). The three-time Academy Award winning, Brooklyn-born editor (Schindler's List, Raiders of the Lost Arc and Saving Private Ryan) has a long history with Spielberg, having first met in 1976 for Close En- counters of the Third Kind. The two have worked on many blockbusters together since then, including Jurassic Park, the Indiana Jones franchise, Minority Report and, most recently, Bridge of Spies, which Kahn describes as a "very patriotic film." Actor Tom Hanks, who stars in the film as an American lawyer during the Cold War, who is called on to defend a Soviet spy in court, says, "The timing and the com- position is all Steven and Michael." Kahn, who says he is "always on-location during production," explains that he and Spielberg tra- ditionally work closely in post, even with trailers set side-by-side, as was the case during the film's shoots in Manhattan, Germany and Poland. "We have an editing trailer [loaded with an Avid Media Composer and Avid ISIS] and that is always next door to Steven's trailer on location. That way, he can go in and out of his trailer and next door to ours, and he's not wasting any time during the day while they're light- ing or doing something else. He'll just come in when he can, even during lunch." In describing Kahn's editing style, Spielberg has said that Kahn will hold on a performance or let a scene run a beat longer to let the movie "breath." Kahn agrees, "I always do that. I don't want to do what they do a lot in shows these days. They cut off an actor's performance right away. But sometimes you want to hold on to a performance. Let him look, let the guy breath, and let them look at each other. I like when eyes look at each other." When asked about key scenes from the film, Kahn simply replies, "To me, every little scene is as important as every other one. I treat every scene I get in the editing room like it's the most important scene. And, while I'm working on that scene, there could be a million feet of film sitting someplace else, but that's the only thing I'm working on." Kahn says he typically receives dailies the day after shooting and will "run those dailies immediate- ly." Spielberg then selects the takes he likes and, "as we're shooting, he's already selected some takes. By the time he's through filming, we're always finished with the film. Which is really quite amazing." For Kahn's full-length interview, visit us online at www.postmagazine.com — BY LINDA ROMANELLO OFFICIAL LYRIC VIDEO: LAMB OF GOD'S ERASE THIS LOS ANGELES — Videohammer Studios' (www. videohammerstudios.com) Tommy Jones recently created an official lyric video for heavy metal band Lamb of God (www.Lamb-Of-God.com). The Erase This video is unique in that it does not feature any imagery of the band. Instead, it uses post apocalyptic imagery and motion graphics to visualize the band's heavy, guitar-driven track. Jones regularly works on videos for bands in this genre. In addition to Lamb of God, he's created content for Slayer, Testament, Kataklysm, and Death Angel. He also works with many of the Nuclear Blast Records artists. The 'lyric video,' he explains, began as a way for labels to make inexpensive content that could be used to market music interactively. "They are usually tied to a tour," says Jones, and are used to garner "buzz-worthy attention." In the case of Erase This, the video was used to alert fans to the band's European tour — which began November 17 th in Germany — and 2016 US dates. "Most lyric videos do have bands in them," says Jones, noting past use of press photos, album artwork and inserts. "The Lamb of God video was a little different." The band's management decid- ed to take out imagery of the band and instead, let the viewer absorb the footage from the Cher- nobyl disaster. "It was a call by the management, who wanted to keep all the organic-ness" of the footage, says Jones. According to Jones, Lamb of God guitar- ist Mark Morton had a specific concept of the imagery he wanted to see in the video, and even referenced the nuclear disaster at Chernobyl. With it being impractical to travel to Europe to shoot footage, Jones instead licensed HD mate- rial through Pond5. The video shows numerous sites that have decayed in the decades after the nuclear disaster, including buildings, factories, and an amusement park. Additional footage was licensed from Getty Images, including a time- lapse shot of a dead fox, whose body is shown breaking down. Jones used Apple's Final Cut X to edit the video, which runs just over five minutes. Motion was the main tool for the type treatments and graphics. "Lyric videos are all 1080," he says of the deliv- erables. "I have been shooting Slayer in 4K, and YouTube has a 4K stream, [but] that's not work- ing on cell phones. Fans may not have crazy-fast Internet and the latest phone, so 1080 is the tar- get. I work in a ProRes environment, then encode to Web encodes using QuickTime H.264." Erase This is off of Lamb of God's VII: Sturm Und Drang album from Epic Records. — BY MARC LOFTUS