IN THE TURN trailer

Here is the trailer for the documentary I am ALMOST DONE working on…about a ten-year-old transgender girl who finds acceptance and empowerment in a group of queer roller derby skaters.

Enjoy!

Vagine Regime - Web Exclusive Preview

Here is a special preview clip from my upcoming feature doc "The Vagine Regime: Queer Roller Derby."  This is uncorrected and unmixed, but I think you can see we have something really special here…

7th Annual Prime Cuts panel

Yesterday I attended the 7^th Annual Prime Cuts panel, put on by American Cinema Editors and the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.  The panel is made up of currently Emmy-nominated editors discussing their craft with moderator Shawn Ryan (creator of The Shield).  Among the panelists this year was Lisa P. Trulli, who is nominated for editing the hit reality series “Project Runway.”  Her answer to this first question was the highlight of the entire panel for me.

SR:  Let’s move on to our next nominee, Lisa, who is nominated for Project Runway.  Reading your pre-interview stuff, you said something that I really appreciated, because a lot of times when I talk to editors who work in the reality and competition space, they tend to have aspirations to do movies or scripted; you talk about how much you love the genre.  Talk about why you love editing the genre.

LISA: Well, yeah, sometimes reality gets a little bad rap, but as an editor, it’s the most amazing place to work.  You have complete control.  And I literally have had shows where they put me in a room and say, “Six weeks later, you need to come up with a show.”  And it’s really fun.  It’s a great way to craft stories and develop characters, and it’s a very broad approach.  Like, I’m listening to these beautiful, nuanced things that the feature world has—I don’t have that.  I don’t have a beautiful, crafted, composed shot.  These guys are running, gunning, moving and we’re lucky if we get anything on film.   We’re racing all the time, so we cannot depend on a beautiful visual to tell our story.  We have to use every trick in the book and I really love doing that.

Vagine Regime: Queer Roller Derby

Hey everybody!  This site has actually been getting some decent traffic even though I haven't posted in quite some time.  I hope that means you are finding useful information and I hope to make some new informative posts in the future.

One reason I haven't been as active on this site is because I've been keeping very busy with work.  In addition to editing several episodes of the hit MTV series "Catfish: The TV Show," I have begun working on my very first feature!  It's a lifelong dream for me to work on a feature, so this is very exciting.  It's an independent documentary about an international collective of queer derby skaters known as "The Vagine Regime."  Check out our first trailer:




If you like it, please help spread the word about our little film! Thanks, Dan

Production Music Libraries

Where does the music come from in reality television?

Many of your favorite television music tracks come from popular libraries, such as the theme song from Curb Your Enthusiasm.  And much of the music from It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia, also including their theme song.

Production music libraries are a popular source of music for television for several reasons.  The chief advantage is that they are designed to be easy to license.  The production company pays a flat fee to use music from a particular production library, and for that fee they are allowed to use all of that music in perpetuity, anywhere around the world that the show may be broadcast, on any platform or format even if it hasn't been invented yet.  If you know anything about the nightmare of licensing music under these situations, you begin to see why using a production library is a good, no-hassle way to get music for your production.

Additionally, production music libraries are much cheaper than licensing commercial music or hiring a composer to write original music for your production.  This is particularly true if your company is making several shows and can cut an overall deal with one production library.

There are many libraries available for you to investigate before deciding which one is right for your project.

My personal favorite is the Extreme Music library.  This is a vast, vast library with every style and combination of styles you can imagine.  I love that it has a large collection of classical music, as I tend to use it whenever I can (it's good for comedy, action, drama, everything if you know what you're looking for...)  I love that they are constantly adding new stuff.  The website is very easy to navigate and search for different tracks by feel or description or instrument or keyword or whatever!  I've never had to struggle to find something in this library, and I always get exactly what I'm looking for after a little searching.  I would use the Director's Cut series to score a film, should I ever get the chance.

The library I've worked with the most as an editor is called iSpy.  This library has a lot more of what you would think of as typical reality music and I find is particularly suited for comedy and action, though it is used in all types of shows.

There are plenty of libraries out there, and here are some I have occasionally come across in my professional life:

Killer Tracks is a very popular library.
So is Vanacore
Lovecat Music has a lot of pop music with lyrics.  I used it on Plain Jane for the CW.
Combustible
Signature
APM
AH2
Discovery Music Source is used by all the Discovery family of networks, such as TLC and Discovery Science.
Audionetwork is a British company that is gaining footholds in the US.

The downside to using a production library is that none of the tracks will be truly unique to your show, and there is a risk that viewers will begin to recognize or even tire of the music.  I find this is generally a small risk, and one well worth taking.

EDIT:

Here are some more libraries I have worked with now, on MTV and other networks:
Beach Street Music
Black Toast Music
In The Groove
Jingle Punks
Pfilbryte - I particularly like this library for quirky and docu stuff
Pacifica
DL Music
AudioSparx - Easy licensing for independent filmmakers

Double premiere tonight!

Tonight I have two shows premiering...

"Danger By Design" has back to back episodes on Discovery Science at 9pm and 10pm...
Specifically I cut episodes five and six, which should air back to back on July 2nd.

Also tonight is the premiere of "Miss Advised" on Bravo at 10pm....
I specifically worked on episodes 4-8, which will begin airing July 9th.


Enjoy!

Well it's Emmy season, and now that I'm a member of the Academy, my opinion matters for a few months.  I've been receiving tons of packages for my consideration, including some pretty impressive items.

My favorite so far is the Food Network lunchbox, filled with DVDs...

The window for applications has ended already, but voting for nominations doesn't begin for another week, with the noms being announced five weeks later on July 17.  

A reflection of the landscape of television these days, I've been receiving about an even split of reality and scripted programming for my consideration.  For those who can't afford to mail screeners (or just want to go green), the Academy is offering online submission viewing as well.  Here's what I can consider right now...

From what I can tell, this is the widest competition for any genre.