Fourwind Films

A BROOKLYN-BASED CREATIVE PRODUCTION COMPANY www.fourwindfilms.com

[fourwind-films]

Si On T'demande by MC Solaar feat. Bambi Cruz

I love MC Solaar.  Likely my favorite rapper next to Aesop Rock & Jay-Z.  The amazing thing about him is he tells stories like Country music, but still has that swagger.  He’s a bit boring in concert, but his albums are insane.  Born Dakar, Senegal at a young age he’s credited with popularizing rap in France.  This song Si On T’demande (If We Ask You) is my favorite song from my favorite album, Chapitre 7 (Chapter 7).  His flow is sick, he mixes it up, yet its seamless.  He also has an unreal step in from featured artist Bambi Cruz.  

My favorite part from the song is the delivery from Bambi Cruz “Les gens qui ment, on les tics n’est ce pas?”  That means “People who lie have tics, no?”  While he delivers that line he cracks his voice which seems like a mistake, but it’s him indicating his tick, showing he’s lying. He does this “cracking of his voice” earlier in all his question lines earlier in beginning his stanzas.  Should we believe anything he says?  It’s brilliant.

This song is less a story, but more of him showing his skills and dissing some random person for saying they don’t know anything while walking around them with their flow and incredibly various knowledge about the world.  While they do this they show what they care about, MC Solaar wanted to save the world but says he’s really just living. I have listened to this song just on repeat over and over and every verse blows me away every time and the chorus gives me chills.  Even though the mandolin really carries the beat, that fucking flute doesn’t hurt either.

Bold are the words Bambi Cruz cracks his voice with this delivery

MC Solaar

I wanted to change the the world like Bono & Yoko Ono

That without making clowning around, the masculinity or bonobo

I hideout in the streets like a functionaire of Beauvau (street in Paris)

Listening to Kid Loco, Powo Wow, and Lil’ Bow Wow

I loved K. Solo, Monsieur Hulot's Holiday

The scratches of DJ Polo, the nerve of Nico Hulot

Well ahead of No Logo, I believe that I was green

Because I lived through Seveso, Chernobyl, and then Amoco

Claude-Claude, M-M, C-C, So-So, la-laar

Of-of, te-ten, two-two, time-times over just one, which restarts me

Maybe that secret can prepare Raffarin 2012 (presidential candidate)

Maybe the bamboo crisis is caused by Bambi Cruz

Now, I’ll break it down: the girls want big jugs

The men become crazy, they have photos of Rocco (famous movie)

Liquid flows, think solid, Alstom (railroad manufacturer)

The gas state are the words for Gazprom (Russian Energy Company)

Chorus

If we ask you?

Well, you say you don’t know!

If we ask you?

Well, you say you don’t know!

If we ask you?

Well, you say you don’t know!

If we ask you?

Well, you say you don’t know!

Bambi Cruz

Call me Submarina because the taffy is what me make in loucedé (secret Parisian language)

In order to breath fresh air in our area

One asks myself often, Bambi Cruz, tell me what’s up?

The good pieces are more rare than the hair on our heads

Seriously, is God dead?  More hardcore

The seasons disappear in the Quartier Nord at Vercors (neighborhood in Paris at a mountain range)

Because mamas come from Panama savor my banana

Escalade like the ones that climb Himalaya

devour it like a Tagada (amusement ride)

Then they come to do dada on daddy

The most attractive pappa as the last Prada

The people who lie have ticks, no? 

If we ask you?  Well, you say you don’t know!

Chorus

If we ask you?

Well, you say you don’t know!

If we ask you?

Well, you say you don’t know!

If we ask you?

Well, you say you don’t know!

If we ask you?

Well, you say you don’t know!

There are more zeros behind their Euro

and even more they’re happy

Dude, you’re not net zero

we can save the planet

without making chicks

The Bible is the calculator

Chorus

If we ask you?

Well, you say you don’t know!

If we ask you?

Well, you say you don’t know!

If we ask you?

Well, you say you don’t know!

If we ask you?

Well, you say you don’t know!

Bambi Cruz

When we debark at the park in a 4x4 just chatting,

it claps, what’s that brand?

Chorus

If we ask you?

Well, you say you don’t know!

If we ask you?

MC Solaar

Name, Last, Age, Profession, Sex, or Religion?

Well, you say you don’t know!

Bambi Cruz

Are you brunette or blonde, skinny or round, dumb or the Mona Lisa?

Chorus

Well, you say you don’t know!

MC Solaar

Even if you know who’s going to win the World Cup and the lads ask you

Chorus

Well, you say you don’t know!

MC Solaar

If a dude in a parka approaches us from you and your name, what is it?

Well, you say you don’t know.

[fourwind-films]

Song: La Flaca by Jarabe de Palo

La Flaca has a classical coastal vibe.  Of course this song is catchy, the rhythm and lead guitar drive the thing, and the drums constantly slap you in the face to keep movin’ on the dance floor, but the lyrics really push this for me song over.  That and the constant change in delivery and flow of the song.

In the life a woman known as the Skinny Girl

Coral black from Havana, extremely mulatto

A hundred pounds of skin and bone, forty kilos of Salsa

And in her face two suns that speak without words

Speak without words

The Skinny Girl sleeps during the day, they say that’s how she gets hungry

And when the night fals, she descends to dance with the glass

To dance and dance, and drink and drink

One beer after another, but she never gains weight

But she never gains wait

Chorus

For one kiss from the Skinny Girl, I’d give everything

For one kiss from her, I’d give everything

For one kiss from the Skinny Girl, I’d give everything

For one kiss from her, even just once

Even just once

Soaking wet are my white sheets, like the song says

Remembering the caresses that brought the first day

And I’m becoming insane trying to win favor to sleep by your side

Because, God, this skinny girl makes me crazy

She makes me crazy

Chorus

Chorus

The song may sound a bit misogynistic, which it is a bit, but this guy is just infatuated with this party girl that seems to be hiding so much in her life and burying it each night in drink and dance.  He knows her and seems to be an acquaintance to wants more.  It’s a song of intrigue where they give you just enough to want more to the story.  The harmonies take you to the end repeating the lyrics, “Even just once.”  I love it.

[fourwind-films]

Robert Butler's Night of the Juggler (1980)

Jeez, they don't make movies like that anymore and for good reason. Aside from the outstanding action, car chases in Manhattan, shooting out windows, car crashes, and so much more, the filmmakers sure do love to make Puerto Ricans and black people the scourge of society. They blamed every problem of New York on the two groups. It was exhausting listening to that bullshit. Definitely of the 1980's and for a white audience of New York, who I watched the film with. It's like that "subtle" racism is so commonplace in media and that's the reason why it's still with us today. People who grew up with that kind of attitude in an otherwise normal movie thought it was normal. All black and Puerto Rican men were terrible, but a few women were okay, if they were beautiful.

Despite all that, it did capture so much of New York City in the 1980's, all kinds of transportation. It seems 1/2 of New Yorkers were running in this film, in their work clothes and whatever, which I also found odd. James Brolin is a delight and with a heavy beard looking like a lumberjack in Manhattan, he did feel like an unusual lead in a good way.

[fourwind-films]

Song: What He Wrote by Laura Marling

I was introduced to this song by a former love interest. What He Wrote by Laura Marling has such a mood. The lyrics carry it, as its a woman recounting the end of one relationship that cut her deep, she constantly is reminded of him referring to a letter the man wrote. She starts of by saying she had nothing to say after the devastation, but then goes to tell the rest of the story, a bit ironically. Yet you don’t feel that irony at all, the listener only falls into her sorrow that cuts much deeper than melancholy. She expresses a regret that she doesn’t quite place what she actually regrets or what she would have changed, I think because she loved the relationship how it was. So in lieu of regret she immediatley talks of real anger, fighting the man that she loved when he left and broke up with her.

Laura seems to relate both of the men in her life almost perfect, as she sees herself as the broken one and the men in her life are in control of something, maybe it’s in control over her. Laura’s in love with the man who left her alone, but respects the man she’s with. The idea is that there are these 2 lives she could have had: she’s living one, and the other is with the man she truly loved. This new man forgave her, but the scent of the first man holds her memory, which is so lustful that you can almost imagine the sins that she constantly accuses herself of.

The song feels like another version of Sisyphus, but instead of a rock, there is this forever longing that plagues our singer of this life unknown as a failed hopeless romantic. I learned it on guitar way back when and listened to it on repeat and have never gotten sick of it.

[fourwind-films]

Song: Quand Je Marche by Camille

Performer: Camille

Composer: Camille Dalmais

Here’s one of my absolute favorite songs, it’s actually much longer than presented on Spotify, it’s normally 39 minutes, mostly of a drone that represents the album which is called “Le Fil” which means “the wire” or “the line” in this case it’s the through “line” this drone that’s meditative, this drone starts the album. But they cut it off on Spotify, because Spotify’s lame. The whole album is A Cappella except for a bass line. The bass line in the above song is sick. The lyrics are so beautiful. Here’s the lyrics translated to English:

“When I walk, I walk.

When I sleep, I sleep.

When I sing, I sing

I let myself go

When I walk, I walk straight.

When I sing, I sing nude.

and when I love, I only love you.

When I think of you, I can’t sleep

Chorus

I’m here

I’m inside

I’m at the beginning

I won’t mock myself above all

‘Understand,’ you told me

’The song of the world,’ so thereafter

When the sun rises, I am there

And when the night falls

I fall as well

Chorus

When I’m hungry, you nourish me

The cry of the dog, then the rain

When you leave, I wait here

I let myself go

And I forget you”

In the real song there’s an Easter Egg at the very end of the drone in the album which is a huge payoff where Camille basically they said she couldn’t do an album like the one you just heard, but she says it’s false, it’s false.

[fourwind-films]

Ertem Eğilmez' The Chaos Class (1975)

The Turks have the same humor as middle school boys.

[fourwind-films]

Why diversity is important on set and in Post-Production

Diversity is important when making any complex decision.  An artform like making movies is complex in that we really work with three mediums: visual, audio, and time.  Paintings only use visual, music uses audio and time.  It’s that diversity of three different variables that makes movies so effective in my opinion.  You can also add in taste and smell as theatres (and our own podcast Feature & a short) have started to bring what you see in the movies into your mouth and nose to taste what you’re seeing on screen.

In general I have a similar view in life as my approach to art.  The more ways we can view a story, a problem, the more effective it can be.  Diversity shows us more possibilities in what we understand.

There’s the simple parable about the Blind Women and an Elephant that is found in early Buddhist texts and likely a folk story.  A group of blind women who never had encountered a new object they came across. Out of curiosity, they inspected it by touch.  The first person, whose hand landed on the trunk, said, "This being is like a thick snake." For another one whose hand reached its ear, it seemed like a kind of fan.  Another, whose hand was upon its leg, said it’s a tree trunk. The blind woman who placed her hand upon its side said the elephant, "is a moving wall."  One woman who felt its tusk, stated the elephant is hard and smooth like a spear.  Finally, the last person felt the elephant’s tail and said, “It’s a rope.”

I think of this all of the time.  There are 8 billion people in the world.  We may only encounter maybe a maximum of 3 million people in our lifetime by sight, that’s not even getting to know them.  No matter how much we study, there are over 100 million books in the world (maybe more)!  There are over 1 million movies made.  

Just imagine, all of these artworks are so many experiences rolled up into a summary.  That is art.  We bring collected beauty, or emotion, or experiences and condense it to let others experience what we know.  It’s a way of sharing knowledge.  Because as a human race, that is something we’re wired to crave.  Just like the bees work together as a hive and a colony, we are bound to work together as human beings.  Art is the rapid way in which we can do that.  Most importantly, art can make us have shared experiences and gain trust, and most of all, empathy for one another.

Humans are designed/hard-wired to live in tribes, to find those that help us live.  We can distinguish those like us by sight, sound (language, accent), taste & smell (cuisine), and touch (imagine the possibilities).  That keeps us from unifying into a larger tribe and working together to make the world a better place for everyone in our human colony on this earth.

Through art, we can teach ourselves to accept and appreciate each other more.  As we are already connected globally and interracially.  That’s just a fact.  But some of our old hardwiring is preventing us from all working together to use all of our resources the best we’re able.  Again, that’s where art comes in to help communicate in a quick and efficient way.  The way that we can help us live together is to show to others those they’re not familiar with, those who they haven’t had the experience of relating to.

In order to do this we need diversity to make new art that communicates in our global world.  By working by including diversity in making movies, or other art, you are creating art that is fresh, that is advancing society, that is making something new.  It’s this blend that the art world calls “post-modernism” where blending of styles and ideas has really come alive.

I think post-modernism was an idea just combining styles, like Rap/Rock music.  Andy Warhol’s pop art mixing with fine art.  Fusion of Latin music and jazz.  Hong Kong featuring French music in their films.  The Russian montage filtering throughout the world.  All of this is post-modernism in style and cross pollinating cultures.  This brings appreciation and that empathy I was talking about.

It brings cultural diversity just as sex brings genetic diversity.  The same reason why we look down on incest is the same reason why we don’t want to be making art with people with our same background all the time.  Diversity is what advances and gives us new creations.  We will improve as a society and as a people by implementing diversity in our creation.  That I stand behind and am always thinking about in my work.

[fourwind-films]

William Wyler’s Roman Holiday (1953)

I didn’t expect to cry watching Roman Holiday. I knew it would be a beautiful romantic film I’d enjoy watching, but it was so much more than that. Be prepared to go through an entire rollercoaster of infallible, beautifully chaotic emotions.

The rush you feel when watching it kicks in halfway through. At the beginning, you’re simply intrigued by the lovely Audrey Hepburn as Princess Anne, and the incredible Gregory Peck as Joe Bradley. In the first half hour or so, you’re interested in how the film will turn out. Then, when Princess Anne makes a run for it from her country’s embassy, meets Joe Bradley for the first time and goes on a whole series of adventures in Rome, the emotions kick in once they fall in love and dance.

The moment is completely timeless. The princess enjoying a simple, unobserved dance for the first time, and Joe enjoying the company of someone he never thought he’d meet. It’s something out of a fairytale; something they’ll both remember forever. Now in this moment, both seem to forget that they’re from completely different worlds, but when the secret service men locate the princess, that’s when everything turns chaotic.

Princess Anne starts to panic, thinking about the horror of returning home, and Joe is frantic, trying his best to save her. It’s completely rambunctious until finally, they make an escape. Here, romance makes an entrance. The pair has their first kiss and get a glimpse of what it truly means to love. As the night goes on, it goes from excitement, to passion, and then to mourning. Soon, the princess understands she must leave. Joe understands as well.

Both are heartbroken, completely out of it, and then they embrace. Their second embrace on the way back to the embassy is their last. It’s heart-wrenching to watch because they both know it’s something they’ll never get to do again. Towards the end of the film, the emotion you go through is one of defeat, because after experiencing every kind of emotion there is (from intrigue, to excitement, to laughter, to tears of joy, anticipation and sadness), you simply accept that there is no fairytale happy ending. Princess Anne won’t marry Bradley, and they won’t end up together. 

In the final moments of the film, when the pair look at each other for the last time, you just know there is a sense of defeat. There is a sense of longing to cross the threshold that’s keeping them apart and embrace one another again. The acting is brilliant, the directing and editing as well.  It’s simply flawless because it leaves you completely moved as a viewer. An audience member must accept defeat as well because the happy ending they want for the characters will not really happen.

When so many romance films these days have that typical, must-have happy ending, you have the slight or gigantic expectation that Roman Holiday might be like that, too. It wasn’t, and that’s okay. But I somehow think it ended the way it was supposed to. Somehow, it showed that the “holiday” the characters went on, the adventure of a lifetime, was just that, a holiday. And now it’s time to go back to their own lives. It’s like a little sprinkle of reality after all that magic.

All in all, Roman Holiday is an incredible film. A no-brainer must-watch. Most importantly, the emotions are truly there.

[fourwind-films]

Blake Edwards’s Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961)

Breakfast at Tiffany’s is a film that honors its name. In the beginning, it does so by introducing main character Holly Golightly (played by the iconic Audrey Hepburn) having a literal breakfast at Tiffany’s. She does so by getting out of the taxi cab, standing in front of the shop and pulling out a coffee and pastry from a bag. She starts eating, sipping her coffee and enjoying the scene. Having her breakfast there shows she feels right at home.

The second instance or the second few, rather, is how often the name “Tiffany’s” is mentioned, whether by Holly Golightly herself or her love interest Paul Varjak (played by George Peppard). When Holly explains her adoration for Tiffany’s to Paul, that adoration remains even when it’s slightly subdued as the film’s plot thickens. Then, halfway through, we have Holly finally enter Tiffany’s, the abode she’s been waiting for.

This is the third instance in which the film’s name is recognized, and it is even more so when Paul purchases the engraved ring for Holly. The way in which he carries it for a long, couple months, the shot of him exiting Tiffany’s with the ring box in hand… somehow, it shows how connected Holly is to Tiffany’s, how it’s truly her very own soulmate.

What’s more important is the connection between Holly and Tiffany’s. It means so much because it taught me a few things. I thought, “How nice it must be to have a connection with something.” The way in which Holly seems tethered to Tiffany’s is similar to how people feel connected to a particular passion. It shows how, no matter what we go through in life, if we have at least something that makes us happy, we should keep it in our lives.

It also made me realize that it’s okay to have a passion. Whether it’s a hobby or a career or a simple, daily walk in the park, that’s important when it comes to looking for happiness.

Throughout the film, Holly’s afraid to be happy because of a number of things. Then, when she finally wears the ring from Tiffany’s, finds her “nameless” cat and embraces Paul, she’s finally accepted happiness. Whether that came from acknowledging her love for Tiffany’s or elsewhere, I believe that can be up for debate. 

Holly’s connection with Tiffany’s is always there, lingering, waiting. From her breakfast at Tiffany’s, to Paul buying her the ring, and her finally wearing it, her relationship with the store means so much. All in all, Breakfast at Tiffany’s is an excellent film. And as always, Audrey Hepburn is simply stellar. 

[fourwind-films]

How I Found My Purpose in Writing

How do you write without being stopped by fear? What is the number one thing you need to do in order to believe in yourself as a writer? Beyond confidence, it’s having faith in yourself. It’s trusting that you can produce the work you’re afraid of creating.

When I was 16, I was writing poetry like it was no big deal. For days, even weeks on end, I would write poetry seamlessly, treasuring every word I wrote and being so proud of it. However, at some point, I stopped doing that. At 20, I was not writing a single thing for fear of it not being “good” enough. I got stuck. For years, I endured a long, wintery writer’s block, not knowing what my true purpose for writing was.

When I forced myself to write even when I didn’t feel like it, that’s when things shifted for me. The more I wrote – whether it was blog posts for my blog or poetry for myself – the more I trusted myself. It was this key I never knew I had, an awakening that set me free.

When I turned 23, I opened the doors to the key I was holding and finally found my purpose: putting out work that I’m proud of, creating something I’m proud of, and only releasing it if I think someone will benefit from or become inspired by it. When I forced myself to write even if I didn’t like what I was creating, it became easier and easier to cling to what my soul wanted to say rather than what I thought it had to say. That’s the difference: to write for yourself rather than for others. It made me more in tune with my creativity, it made me who I am, and it made me accept my writer’s mind more. I sat and just wrote stories. Some I posted online and some I didn’t. I wrote like it was nobody’s business but mine.

When writing poetry, I use the stream-of-consciousness form because I find that really helps when it comes to creating intuitively and in the end, I’m proud of whatever I produce. Journaling as well, which is a form of writing that allows you to document your emotions, thoughts and experiences, helps when it comes to figuring out what you’re feeling and what you want to write about. When I’m journaling, sometimes I get an idea when expressing a thought or emotion and that usually inspires a poem or story. Journaling, or writing poetry, in the stream-of-consciousness form is personally my favorite thing because when you write with it, you’re not thinking about the form or structure of your work, you’re simply producing whatever comes to mind.

When it comes down to it, you’re stuck, just write. Use prompts that guide you, ask fellow writers on what helps get their creative juices flowing, and most of all, be you. Be proud because that story came from you. You’ll be unstoppable. And eventually, you’ll find that story you want to write. 

[fourwind-films]

Tariffs in Movie Industry History

Tariffs in film history have a long history, smaller less popular filmmaking  countries than the United States of America have implemented them to increase local production so there are less imported films abroad and it works seemingly about half the time if the citizens pay to see the new movies.  In 1947, the United Kingdom imposed a 75% customs tax, primarily to keep films made in by the United States at bay to make sure their country was creating and making money off of their own culture and ideas.  A more common practice was, instead of tariffs, to implement quotas that mandated screening films produced within the country.  Almost all of these quota systems were to prevent Hollywood dominance in their entertainment industry.  They were implemented in Amazing moviemaking countries like Brazil, France, Italy, Japan, South Korea, and many others.  These quotas were very effective in getting people in their own country to see domestic films, despite American movies still being very popular abroad.  

One of the most well known quotas is China’s current system under the Communist Regime.  China only releases 34 foreign films per year which are only permitted to a 25 percent share of all ticket sales.  Because China is such a huge market, 1.4 billion people who could feasibly go to the movies and buy a ticket, it’s a really big deal.  Because the government is so controlling and basically autocratic, the movies they do release do not tend to criticize the government or officials in the least, saying their film market isn’t necessarily free artistic expression.  It is similar to how the Soviet Union controlled movie content shown in theatres, although they didn’t stick to a particular quota.

However, American citizens today already pay to see the movies we make primarily here in the United States.  We have a much stronger economic strength through our great motion pictures which are in high demand worldwide already.  So much so that Hollywood and independent American companies often can work around quotas and tariffs by helping fund and make movies for international productions due to our technical expertise, strong economy that helps finance, or even American star power that gets foreigners demanding to see American-made movies.

Tariffs proposed by the United States recently have often been received by other countries retaliating.  A lot of American movies are funded partially through international pre-sales and sales, so any kind of retaliation may decrease our overall output.

Now, the movie industry has been in a downturn due to the tech industry stopping competing in the streaming market, due to the recession and the extended Hollywood union strikes that cut off a lot of work over two years time.  Two streamers seem confident in their place in the industry at the moment: Netflix and Amazon Prime.  The others don't know where they fit yet and have eased on spending to get a top spot.  There's more room for streamers, but too many players.  Likely consolidation will help the other big players.  On the other hand, niche players seem to be holding on stronger and still creating a slower business and finding spots for independent streaming.

We talk a bit about protectionism on our podcast, Feature & a short, in the 1930's Fresh Air Award episode.   Take a listen and inform yourself a bit about cinema history.

Writer’s biography

Justin Joseph Hall, from Brooklyn, Fourwind Films continues to explore statistically underrepresented points of view with emotional depth.

[fourwind-films]

The 1940's Fresh Air Award

Episode #45 - Welcome to the sixth Fresh Air Award! Four cinephiles continue a Fourwind Films tradition of awarding a film that pushed cinema forward the most as an artform during a particular decade. To be nominated, a motion picture has to have advanced cinema in some way and made a lasting impression on how movies are made. This episode delves into the decade frought with the greatest war ever known to humanity, World War II.

To start the episode, our host, Justin Joseph Hall goes through a quick history lesson on what was happening in cinema business during the decade.

The four cinephiles who select the nominees in this panel are cinephiles Kevin Cecil, Justin Joseph Hall, John Robert Hammerer, and Kevin Hinman. Any moving images that came out in the appropriate decade is eligible for nomination. Nominations spanned documentaries, shorts, animated films, and feature films. They featured cinema with thoughtful use of the first green screen, Post-Traumatic Stress Syndrome patients, and maybe the most immediately influential film in all of cinema’s history.

Here is the link to all the nominations: 1940’s Fresh Air Award Nominees - Letterboxd list

There were several overlaps, but here are the main nominations made by each panelist:

Kevin Cecil’s nominations

Citizen Kane (1941)

The Thief of Bagdad (1940)

Hellzapoppin’ (1941)

Meshes of the Afternoon (1943)

Bicycle Thieves (1948)

Justin Joseph Hall’s nominations

Thief of Bagdad (1940)

Bicycle Thieves (1948)

Von Gogh (1948)

It’s a Wonderful Life (1946)

Begone Dull Care (1949)

John Robert Hammerer’s nominations

Citizen Kane (1941)

Cat People (1942)

Fantasia (1940)

Fireworks (1947)

Rome, Open City (1945)

Kevin Hinman’s nominations

Citizen Kane (1941)

Children of Paradise (1945)

Let There be Light (1946)

Fireworks (1947)

The Red Shoes (1948)

We hope you enjoy this episode! Share with us your own lists, comments, arguments, and films that we left out via social media @fourwindfilms. We’re on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and LinkedIn.

Thank you to our cinephiles who did joined this out of their passion. To hear more from them, visit links below:

Kevin Cecil

Movie Trivia Nite

Justin Joseph Hall

Fourwind Films

John Robert Hammerer

Director's site

Kevin Hinman

Magnum Opus

Spesh to Death

Credits for podcast:

Production Company - Fourwind Films

Fresh Air Award Contributors for 1940’s Decade - Kevin Cecil, Justin Joseph Hall, John Robert Hammerer, & Kevin Hinman

Host, Producer - Justin Joseph Hall

Sound Mixer - Hans Bilger

Intern - Olaf Jiménez

Special Thanks - Laura Davi

The theme song of Season 6 is New Tires by Silent Partner.

Additional Music - One Machine at a Time & Driving Nowhere by Shonali.

[fourwind-films]

David Lynch's Twin Peaks: The Return (2017)

It’s a great study on experimental movie making and sound in cinema.  There are many jokes that Lynch seems to think are funny. I rather enjoy the slower silent sound scapes and less enjoy his visual effects most of the time. The many versions of agent Cooper don’t do it for me, and they actually distract me from the show. There are great actors in here who sometimes fit very well.

[fourwind-films]

Mikhail Kalatozov's The Cranes Are Flying

Beautiful cinematography. Fitting score. Melodramatic acting that works, especially due to the cinematography and framing choices. Incredible new visual elements such as when Veronika (Tatyana Samoylova) is running past the fence in the short emotional montage.

It almost pulled a tear out of my eye with the last few shots. My only quibble is the rape that resulted in the wedding I think was left ambiguous just out of conservatisms. By being ambiguous and not facing the difficulty story point head on, the film confuses and clouds and otherwise incredibly devastating and critical scene to tell a believable story.

Female focused films are fresh.

[fourwind-films]

Avid Media Composer Transcoding Instructions

These are instructions to transcode in Avid Media Composer for a professional network workflow. It’s been used for television programs on HBO, PBS, and other networks.

For cheaper cameras like the SONY AS7, CANON 5D series or often most cameras that shoot in the H.264 codec, you need to relabel the linked clips before you import them. This is just to ensure that each clip has a unique and individual name to help later on with the Onlining process. Add the Disk Label with an underscore to the very beginning of each clip. An example is as follows: Original Name: C001 changed to the Modified Name: AxS01_20180918_NEG01_1of1_C001.

In a new bin, right click. In the drop down menu choose Input > Source Browser.

In the pop-up window, navigate to the desired camera card. Click on the root of the camera card. Double check that the target bin at the bottom right of the window is the bin you want to populate with the clips in and press the link button.

Check to take out the data tracks and any blank audio tracks that come in with the clip. This is common extra data that is imported into Avid that are annoying to edit with from SONY cameras like the FS7 as well as other brands of cameras. Do your research and know your camera and what was recorded by talking to the camera operators or reading the camera reports.

Once the clips have populated in your bin, highlight all of the clips and right click. In the drop down menu select Modify > Unlink Media. (The clips need to be Offline/The AMA link broken in order to modify the clip)

Select all the clips again, right click and select Modify > Modify Clip. 

At the top of the new pop up window, click the drop down menu and Set Tracks. Uncheck the D (Data) Track at the bottom and deselect any blank audio tracks (TBD which are blank). 

Once you’ve disabled the Data track and blank audio tracks, click OK. 

Right click inside the bin and select Import > Source Browser again from the drop down menu. Navigate back to the card folder and click the link. The clips should appear online in the bin now, but without the Data track and any audio tracks you also disabled.

Once all of the linked clips are brought in with proper names and data tracks have been disabled, you can assign a Disk Label to each clip to assist in final online relinking. To do this copy the designated Disk Label and paste it clip by clip in the Disk Label column.

[fourwind-films]

How much should I charge as an Editor?

This is a complicated question.  It depends on a lot of things.  The answer can range from $0 for a project up to maybe even $1,200 a day.  That’s the highest rate I’ve heard, but I’m sure there are people who charge even more.  Now what constitutes the vast difference of these answers when bidding.  Well there are four factors in deciding what to charge.  Experience (the biggest), Production Budget, Time to Execute Task/Length of Employment, and Equipment.  If you take these things into account, you’ll know what to charge.

The biggest factor on what to charge is whether or not you’ll get hired.  This has a lot to do with your experience.  If you’re fresh, only have cut home videos and never worked with a client before, you may need to do one or two for free before someone will pay you to do it.  It’s like that in every art form.  I think a lot of people in the industry forget this, but your first projects, the first time you’re doing a task, you need to keep your rate low and you’re educating yourself on what it’s like to have this sort of client.  You may also be learning on the job, hence it’s likely going to take you longer.  Now, I’ve been a professional Editor for 20 years.  Really I don’t charge $0 for anything editing-wise anymore, unless it’s a friend’s project that I love or something, but that’s extremely rare.  But when you start out, you need to be able show that you’re not going to waste a client’s money before you get paid.  Movies are expensive and time consuming to make.  There’s a lot of uncertainty.  So most Producers want an experience person who’s already done the specific task they’re asking for.  So, I suggest only your first 1-3 years to work on anything for free and only in cases where you may be doing something new.  Soon after, start charging something.

Make sure whatever your experience is, that you’re going to be able to be sustainable.  A lot of time for figuring out a starting rate in this year of 2025, I’d start with at least $250 for an 8-10 hour day (12 hour days are just silly in Post-Production or in most jobs, raise your rate if it’s more than 10 hours a day).   This rate is for beginners with very minimal experience.  For example a starter’s salary for working on social media or internet videos for smaller companies.  You’re still likely much slower than folks with experience.  On top of that, the product you put out will likely be not as good.  The more experience the faster you are at making changes (if you work at it) and the higher quality product you’ll put out (if you work at it).  Hence, you can charge more as you’ll get more done and likely have a better product.

I tend to believe after 10 years of doing the same job, you’re pretty close to the top of the totem pole.  Meaning if you’ve cut for 10 years Editing wedding videos, you can charge top dollar.  If you’ve cut 10 years in documentary features, charge top dollar.  This doesn’t always translate if you switch what kind of video you edit.

So then you may ask, what is top dollar?  I follow pretty closely based on the Editing Guild’s standards.  These are what unions charge per person per day.  This is very informative.  It ends up being around $800 or a bit more a day for top editors in their fields, which is around what I charge.

So you have the opposite ends of the spectrum in 2025 when this article was written, $250-$800 a day for an editor for their experience.  This is basically a living wage salary to start up to the union limits.  Obviously if you have less than 10 years under your belt, you slowly raise your rates until you get to the top dollar rates.  This has been my experience and has worked well.

How do you slowly raise rates?  I suggest at the beginning of a project if you have a new client, just try it out.  Raise them slowly.  If you have a lot of work and are busy, it’s a great time to test raising rates.  

For example, if you have a project that’s difficult to fit into your schedule, try bidding it higher so if you get it you're happy to complete it for the extra money.  If the client ends up saying yes, you’re gonna be really busy, but you may have permanently established a new rate for yourself.  

Another good time to raise rates is if you have a repeat customer.  They’re coming back to you and probably don’t want to use someone new.  Because for Producers, anything new is something unknown which they want to avoid.  So raising a rate slowly with an older customer is a great way to test and establish a new rate.

Now experience, as I said, was not the only factor in determining rates.  Production Budget is also important.  Ask yourself if the production realistically has enough money to pay you.  If it’s a friend’s short film, maybe asking for your normal commercial rate doesn’t make sense.  If it’s a commercial for a big brand like AT&T, for sure they have the money!  So you can always have a sliding scale and negotiate with the contractor who  wants to hire you.

So what’s the best way to do this?  I suggest to start with a higher rate and be willing to come down if needed.  Most of the time I just give them my rate.  Much of the time clients say it may be too high, I may come down, and may not.  You sort of have to read the situation on how close you were to what they were thinking.  Great producers come back with an offer pretty quickly.  If it seems like you may be losing the job if you bid too highly, tell them you’re willing to negotiate to fit the Post-Production budget that they’ve allocated.  You can bargain likely in being more strict about notes and deliverables so it doesn’t take longer than expected and you can still feel like the project was worth your time.  In other words, always define how much work you can get done in the time allotted.

Another huge factor for a bid on a job is how long will you be employed?  How long will it take to finish the job?  I tend to give discounts the longer the job is.  Because if I’m working, I don’t have to search for more work.  They say that applying for jobs is like a job.  And it is!  You’re marketing yourself.  It’s tiring and uses your resources.  So if a gig is longer than a week, I give a discount.  If it’s longer than a month, I’ll give more of a discount.  If it’s even longer, possibly even more of a discount.

Sometimes your bid has to be for a whole project.  So you may also wonder how to bid that.  If you know about how long it takes you to complete a project, I usually estimate that then add an extra 20% for unknowns.  So, like if it’s going to take me a week, I’d charge my rate for 6 days total, because you never know what wrench might get thrown into your perfect Post-Production plan.  The first person I assisted for, Nathalie Gage, taught me that early in my career and I’ve always found it useful.  It helps you to stay calm when clients want changes and makes sure you’re appropriately paid.  It’s always good to build that buffer into the original bid, as it’s easier than having to go back to the client for more money, as they may have assumed certain notes were included in the original bid.  So when also doing a bid for a whole project, make sure to define in written word what exactly that includes.

When doing time estimates, don’t forget to include render, color, or any other tasks you may be working on if it’s being bid as a project.  Remember, even if you’re not editing or constantly sitting at the computer for a render, it’s using your computer’s processing power and you may not be able to do other tasks or work for other clients in the meantime.  That, in fact, brings us to what to charge for your equipment.

It’s important to think about the equipment that you have that the producers want you to have for a job.  If you’re on set editing and are required to bring your own laptop, your own power station, or whatever, charge for that.  If you have to provide your own hard drives, charge for that (and backups).  If you’re using special equipment like an expensive color monitor or a powerful computer to handle 8K footage on a quick edit, charge extra for your powerful computer.  Software and online services like Dropbox and frame.io are also appropriate to charge for in certain situations.  Tell the client why you're charging and see what they say.  You can always say, “No problem, I just can’t provide file transfer services without a fee, we’ll have to use yours.”  So these terms for equipment especially are always negotiable.  I usually charge about 3-5% of the cost of the piece of equipment if I charge for it.  It’s just a simple way to calculate the number.

All in all, stick to the range based on your experience first and foremost, consider the client’s budget, the time it will take to execute the project with buffer time, the length you'll be employed, and finally any specialty equipment costs.  With these in mind you’ll have no problem bidding out professional Post-Production gigs.

For any questions please write Justin Joseph Hall directly at [email protected]

[fourwind-films]

Footage Log Instructions

This spreadsheet template was used for a project that had 300 hours of originally shot footage and a team of interns and Assistants were to log them. So this was used to organize their work and create priorities and keep organized outside of our editing software. We were using Avid. I’m not sure this is always useful, as usually you can see in Avid, but when you can’t keep up with what’s shot and priorities change, it can be useful to have something like this to sort through in a big documentary project.

Footage Log Template

There are 5 Tabs

1 Avid Bin Progress

This tab is to make sure shoot footage is processed and synched.

2 Shoot Day Log

This contains a description of what was shot for each shoot day.

3 Scene List

This is a list of possible scenes that could be cut from the footage

4 Log Process

This is a list of sequences that have been logged

It also shows how much footage has been shot in the project.

6 Transcriptions

This is a list to show the process of Transcriptions and Translations.