Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/78511
Rentals & Resellers facility in a box, and this new technology is revolutionizing our industry. " Some big-time features Pivotal has been involved with recently include The Bourne Legacy, Snow White & the Huntsman, Total Recall, all the Transformers and Pirates of the Caribbean films. Upcoming projects to be released over the next year are Oblivion, Maleficent, World War Z, 47 Ronin and Rush. MOVIOLA It would be difficult to be in this business and not know the name Moviola (www.movi- Typically it starts with a conversation and questions from Moviola: What kind of end result do you expect? How are you finishing? What are you delivering on? What's your budget? How many editors, assistant editors will you have on the project? Do you need to rent space? "All of these questions are asked once you define where the client is going with the project," says Mostin. "It then becomes easy to determine a workflow that works for the client and provide the best possible equip- ment we can." Once a show begins, Moviola will spend a few hours in the cutting room with the editors and assistants, helping to acclimate them to the workflow they've chosen and to make sure they are ready to start editing, imme- diately. If a problem pops up that's out of Moviola's realm, they will help find a solution. "You have to be in their face, and do a lot of troubleshooting," explains Mostin. "The budgets on the TV side continue to get lower and lower. In many cases they hire young assistants who need some hand holding, and it's important to be available to help from a technical side. " The director of their education center, Jonathan Amayo, also inter- acts with clients and manages tech One of Moviola's technicians prepares a system for shipping. ola.com). The word itself evokes images of old Hollywood. They opened in 1923 after creat- ing the first film editing machine, named, of course, the Moviola. They now have five different divisions, which operate as a "digital ecosystem," that grew out of their desire to provide more services to more customers — there is a full- service NLE rental division with 24/7 support for technology and workflow, an on-site train- ing center (Avid, Adobe After Effects and Photoshop), DIT training, a media division providing HDSR and HDCAM tape, and SxS cards, a camera and production rental division, and a new online learning division. They also rent production and post production space at their offices in Hollywood and New York. Moviola's focus is the entire workflow solution from start to finish, with a focus on reality and episodic television. Michael Mostin, senior VP at Hollywood's Moviola, is a realist and acknowledges that most rental houses carry the same gear, so what has to set each company apart is how it services the client and the relationships they create. "Our business is so time sensitive, it's all about relationships. When people call you, it's because they are familiar with the company and they know you've been around long enough to know what you are doing." 40 Post • August 2012 support. His job is to be looking at new technologies and figuring out how to fix any problems that arise. He was originally the head of education, who was then put in charge of tech support and workflow design and architecture for NLE clients. "We really upgraded our act technically," says Mostin. The Moviola Training Center was originally established as a way to get high school graduates to further their education and maybe come back to Moviola in the future with work, but instead it has turned into a place where pros teach pros about the latest software and updates. "One of the benefits of having an education center is when you are in the very competitive rental business you can offer our clients training and classes, and in many cases that will help to close a deal for Moviola," he reports. Some recently added classes include DSLR workflows and a new growth area digital on- set and off-site dailies. "It's the way of the future, " declares Mostin. One of the newest arms at Moviola is its Webinar training division. They have started doing free weekly Webinars that are then available for purchase after the fact, such as Editing Bootcamp: The Psychology of a Scene with editor Chris Nelson; Color Grading in Resolve with Andrew Balis; or Avid Media www.postmagazine.com Composer Bin Management, among others. In a similar vein, Moviola hosts regular edu- cational events, bringing together technology makers, producers and executive producers for real-world seminars in a casual atmo- sphere that encourages networking for the post community. The learning never ends. The more edu- cated the user the better the work turns out, and Mostin suggests asking these questions when dealing with rental houses: Are your technicians certified? How long have they been with you? How old is the equipment you'll be providing? Why are you recommend- ing this product versus that? He sums up: "There is nowhere to hide in this business. If you don't do the job the first time out, you aren't going to be asked back again. Do it right the first time and be totally committed to doing and throwing whatever resources you have when a problem arises." ABELCINE AbelCine (www.abelcine.com), which offers sales, rentals and technical services for film, HD, cameras, optics and digital media, has offices in New York City, Burbank and Chicago. Their New York and Burbank loca- tions offer sales, rental, technical services, training and consultation, while their Chicago office is focused on sales and training. Many customers often come to AbelCine with a project in mind and speak with a spe- cialist about the acquisition, workflow and post. AbelCine sells full post solutions for editing and color correction, shared storage, asset management and archiving. "It's pretty common for us to begin the conversation with a customer by talking about the distri- bution method (TV, explains Jonathan Epner, director of Abel- Cine's digital media services. "We'll move backwards from there to post and discuss finishing, offline editing, data management, and finally, come back to the camera and lens choices." (AbelCine is the authorized US Warranty Service Center for Zeiss cinema lenses and recently became an Authorized Service Center for Angenieux lenses.) "With the diverse client base AbelCine rentals works with, these projects can some- times involve technical issues that need to be worked out," says Mike Nichols, rental man- ager at AbelCine NY. "We appreciate a good challenge, and when it comes to these com- plex jobs, we maintain a firm resolve to handle any situation." An example might be a client needing to pull off a very specific type of shot and not being sure of how to achieve it. "I like to refer to this as 'reverse engineering a solution,' where we break down what's needed to theatrical or Web),"