Splice and Dice

I had to join in the “entertainment careers memes” and made this one for the fellow Colorists out there

An Actor asked me an interesting question: “I never say my lines the same way in any take. Is that a bad habit?”

YES, that is a bad habit. As an actor you have to be consistent in every take and setup. Here’s why:

1. As an actor, it is your job to learn your lines. There is no excuse for that. If you want to occasionally ad-lib a few lines you can of course do that with the director’s consent, but you must learn your lines first.

2. The writer wrote the dialogue a certain way and as an actor you need to respect that. That said, you may want to tweak a couple of lines here and there to make them your own and to help your performance, but in that case you would have to stick with that version throughout the shoot.

3. Changing your lines might confuse your fellow cast members and affect their performances.

4. The ever-changing lines might leave the editor with fewer choices and create problems with continuity as well. That is especially the case when cutting dialogue back and forth between over-the-shoulder shots. Most of us (if not all of us) finds this habit very annoying.

Changing your lines in every take is like serving the same dish with a different presentation in every plate. You can do that at home if you would like to, but it would be unacceptable in a professional environment like a restaurant where consistency is the key.

I’ve never really cared for Valentine’s Day. I don’t want to kill the spirit for the ones who do care, but let’s face it: it’s another commercial day where they want you to spend your money on hearts, teddy bears and… chocolate. Chocolate! That’s a word that changes everything… That’s how they trick you into (sort of) caring for V-Day.

Yesterday I attended a “Valentine’s Chocolate Workshop” at Sur La Table in Farmer’s Market. That was the perfect opportunity for me to get my hands and apron covered in chocolate, learn more about it, and actually get creative with it. We learned how to “temper chocolate” (I had no idea how temperamental chocolate can be!), make ganache, fudge, truffles, bark, as well as caramel and fondant for dipping. We experimented with writing and decorating with chocolate, we made strawberries wear little tuxedos… We were all clumsy with decorating but I think we did an okay job… And the best part of it all, we got to eat the treats we made. In fact there was so much of it, that we took some home with us.

Later this afternoon I’ll be baking chocolate cupcakes to enjoy after dinner. Photos to follow, if they turn out nice!

After a long day at work I don’t always have time to cook a hearty meal. I figured a pressure cooker could be just what I need to make a nutritious and tasty meal in no time.

Today I decided to use my pressure cooker for the first time and made a soup using basically what I had in my pantry. Here’s my Potato-Fennel Soup recipe:

• 2 russet potatoes
• 1 fennel bulb
• 2 carrots
• 1 celery stick
• 1 yellow onion
• 2 cloves of garlic
• chicken broth (low sodium, 26 oz package)
• 1 tbs vegetable oil
• 1 tbs agave nectar (or sugar)
• dried Italian herbs (optional)
• salt and pepper (to taste)

Chop all vegetables in small chunks. Add the vegetable oil to the cooker and select the sautee setting. Once the oil is hot add the onions and sautee them for about 2 minutes, until tender. Then add the fennel, the carrots and the garlic, continue to sautee for another minute or two. Add the potatoes, the celery and the chicken broth. I like adding the agave nectar to bring out the flavors, but you can choose to substitute this with sugar. You can choose to add some dried Italian herbs for seasoning. If I had fresh ones in my fridge I would probably chop those instead, but since I didn’t have any I went with the dried herbs. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Set the pressure cooker to “high pressure” and time it to 8 minutes. When the soup is cooked quick release the pressure. Taste it for salt and add more if need be. With the use of a hand blender, puree the soup. I chose not to puree it all the way and left some texture in the soup to make it heartier.

I had my soup ready in less than 30 minutes including the prep time and it is yummy!

Here’s a quick list inspired by a video that I have seen today:

REMEMBER: Most people aren’t comfortable speaking in front of a camera. As a documentary editor, it is your responsibility to make sure your interviewees look good and sound good.

This is just like making sure all your ingredients look fresh and at their best when you’re serving food. You want to cut out anything that is out of place, distracting and not flattering

Editing is just like making a puzzle. It’s fun, it makes you think, it requires patience, it excites you when you find the right piece and form little sections, and you can’t wait for that moment when the work will be complete and you’ll just sit back and admire it (well, hopefully!).

I feel like editing a feature is like having a 5000 piece puzzle that comes in a box with a black and white sketch of what it would sort of look like when completed. But what makes editing a little trickier is that you would actually have let’s say 10,000 pieces in there and only 5000 of them would be put to use.

Editing non-scripted work however, is like finding a bag of puzzle pieces in grandma’s house and she tells you “I think that one made a picture of a lake with houses around it, but some pieces might be missing; and there will be other pieces in there that belonged to another puzzle.”

I’m cutting a non-scripted TV show pilot right now and I feel like I’m working with grandma’s puzzle bag. It’s really challenging, but every time I find that little piece that fits, I get a thrill out of it.

I’m not sure what kind of puzzle would documentaries be… I think it would depend on the kind of documentary and the approach taken in the making of it. Maybe it’s the kind of puzzle that you design yourself… Another kind of fun, and very exciting as well!

OK, now back to work!