By Antony Teofilo
Good things tend to come in threes: strikeouts, Holy Trinities, Star Wars movies (well, the first time around, anyhow)...and film production partnerships. Usually, you've got your "High-Profile-Hot-Tempered" type Director, your "So-Rich-He's-Above-The-Law" type Executive Producer, and a writer no one really cares about once the script's at final draft. JERSEY GIRL is a multi-faceted exception to pretty much all of these rules.
While Kevin Smith sits in both the Writer's and Director's Chairs, he also has his feet up on the Editor's Footstool alongside collaborator / Producer Scott Mosier. But there's a third guy who fills in that last, overlooked axis in the triangle. His name is Phil Benson, and he knows movie production. He's so good, he even works for George Lucas from time to time (though he's quick to remind me that "not everyone that works at Skywalker Ranch cares only about Star Wars".)
If you aspire to a job in the world of film production (and believe me there is not a more exciting, vital place to do a day's work anywhere on the planet) I highly recommend you take in Part 2 of this interview. Or, if you're curious about the intricacies of what happens in the crucial stages from the camera to the editing room, read Part 1.
If you're undeniably an excellent, well-rounded individual, read it all, and investigate...
Celluloid Nuts and Bolts
Part 1: Specifics of Film Production
Part 2: Cautions On A Life In Film
A Conversation With Jersey Girl Associate Producer Phil Benson
By Antony Teofilo
Photos: Robert "Ratface" Holtzmann
Antony: What are your duties as Associate Producer on Jersey Girl?
Phil Benson: I'm in charge of the post-production of the film, everything that takes place after we shoot, including editing, music, and visual effects. During the shoot, I take care of the AVID [a pricey but amazing computer setup that one may use to edit a movie pretty much anywhere], and all the film, and making sure all our daily screenings go well. If there's a problem with film processing, I'm the guy who deals with the lab.
Antony: Once everything's in the can, what's the first step in the post-production process?
Phil Benson: Typically when a movie wraps, the picture editor gets a few weeks to do their editor's cut, which is the first version of a movie's editing life. Since Kevin and Scott cut this film themselves as we shoot, there is no picture editor. They come in on nights and weekends and they edit. On a typical film, there is a person who is normally cutting during the day while the rest of the crew is shooting. We're about two thirds of the way through the shoot, and they've already assembled an hour of edited footage just during their off time. It's pretty unbelievable that they pull that off, but I think they really enjoy that part of the process.
If there was a picture editor on this movie, we would go from the picture editor to the next stage, which is called "director's cut", which is usually ten weeks of the director editing.
Phil Benson gives his valuable technical advice to Producer Scott Mosier in Mosier's post-production office in Los Angeles.
Antony: Tell me a little about the practical aspects of editing a film. Back in his apartment, Kevin has a massive rack-mounted computer called an AVID. How does the film get from the camera into his computer, so he can edit?
Phil Benson: Basically the way it works is, as we're shooting, we shoot film. That film is developed and transferred to videotape, that videotape is digitized and loaded into the AVID. Kevin and Scott work entirely in the digital domain as they're cutting the movie. Then, at any time anyone wants to look at it on film, the AVID spits out a list of instructions for assembling the film. A crew actually has to go through and pull all the pieces of film, and cut them to match the edit decisions that are made on the AVID. Depending on how big of a movie it is, and how many people are working on the project, this can take a few people a couple of weeks to do. That process is called 'conforming the film' to match the AVID cut. Then we can project it and watch the film.
Antony: Is there any sort of margin of error that makes the AVID cut different than the negative?
Phil Benson: Not at all. What makes the AVID the system that most people use to cut feature films is that there is extremely accurate tracking of every single frame of the original film. So when they make a cut on the AVID, the AVID knows exactly which frame to cut on the film. Kodak pre-exposes a unique number on the edge of every frame of film. You can identify basically every frame of film in the world by this unique fifteen-digit number.
Antony: Who's responsible for the cataloguing of the footage, and for physically putting those tapes into the computer so Kevin and Scott can edit?
Phil Benson: I'm the guy who loads the BetaCam SP tapes the footage comes on into the AVID. The person who establishes the relationship between each frame of film and the video that gets loaded is the guy who actually transfers the film to video. There's a machine that not only converts the film into video, but actually reads the number on the edge, and transfers those numbers to a data file that we receive. Every day, I receive BetaCam tapes of the previous day's shoot, and I also receive a floppy diskette that tells the AVID exactly which scenes and takes are on that tape.
Antony: So unlike we in the indie trenches, you don't have to waste any time physically cataloguing each scene and take and roll, digitizing footage, and physically renaming each file in the computer so you know what it is?
Phil Benson: [Laughs] No. But that explains why the process of high quality transfer from film to tape, or Telecine, is extremely expensive.
Antony: Do you handle any color timing duties?
Phil Benson: The AVID process is mostly to make editing decisions. We can do some speculative color correction in the AVID; it's certainly powerful enough to do that. The AVID is there to tell you what's possible. We can't do complicated visual effects in the AVID, but we can do some basic effects, like titling, and basic transitions like wipes and dissolves. Color timing is a whole separate process that is overseen by the Cinematographer. Usually the way schedules work is that while we're working on the sound and score, [Cinematographer] Vilmos [Zsigmond] is working with a color timer and making decisions about adjusting the color balance.
Jersey Girl's top brass hard at work. This photo was taken backstage at Paulsboro High School, during shooting of a key production sequence on which Benson did a great deal of legwork. (From Left: Carol Banker, Phil Benson, Kevin Smith, Scott Mosier, Vilmos Zsigmond).
After they do a pass, they set out what's called an answer print, which is shown to Vilmos and Kevin, who take notes, and have final approval. Then it goes back and the color timers do another answer print. It's not uncommon to do several answer prints until the directors decide that's the final print. Then the sound and score are added to the final print.
Antony: Has your background always been about these sorts of post-production duties?
Phil Benson: I come from the sound aspect. I was the sound supervisor on DOGMA. I worked at Lucasfilm for ten years.
Antony: Why did you leave Lucasfilm?
Phil Benson: I'm on hiatus. Everyone who works as a sound editor or sound mixer there is basically a freelancer, so it's not like you leave. You're just not available for productions. Skywalker Sound has pretty much become Kevin's house band. Sound engineering for DOGMA and JAY AND SILENT BOB STRIKE BACK were done there, and so were several ViewAskew productions. VULGAR, A BETTER PLACE, and THE FLYING CAR have all gone through Skywalker.
Part 2: Lifestyles Of The Hard Working and Anonymous
Antony: People used to want to be rock stars, now they want to be in the movies. Having spent as much time as I have on the set of JERSEY GIRL, it's easy to see why. It's pretty much the most diverse, challenging, exciting type of work there is. But how does it affect your personal life? Do you have a social life outside of the editing bay?
Phil Benson: No. I have no hesitancy in saying that. I'm in a unique position with Scott and Kevin, because I'm not the picture editor, so I have additional responsibilities. It's not uncommon to work seven days a week. For people who aspire to work in film, I would caution them. It can be really fun. It can be great to be constantly surrounded by people who are making creative decisions. That can be wonderful, but it can also completely suck your time up because unfortunately, it's very expensive. Everyone's trying to jam as much as they can into a day. All the rentals are on a daily basis, so the moment you go over on a day, your costs double. This is why we have the twelve, fourteen, sixteen-hour days. It's fun for a couple of months, but it isn't fun for a whole year. I'm one of the few people who are on from the very beginning until the very end. There are people who work in just pre- or post-production. I'm not one. Basically, as far as being involved in every element, it's basically Kevin, Scott, and me from the beginning.
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Phil Benson checks out a rehearsal with Mike Starr (Block), Stephen Root (Greenie), both seated left, and the Jersey Girl herself, Racquel Castro, strolling by the big oven door right on the auditorium stage at Paulsboro High School.
Antony: If it's so grueling for you, where do you pull your stamina from?
Phil Benson: I don't know. In film school, I was the guy who helped other people. You either have a leadership or an enabling personality, and I'm definitely the latter. I get off on helping people.
Antony: What's the worst thing about your profession?
Phil Benson: Mind you, I'd never name names, but working with unreasonable people, unreasonable hours, and no pay. That combination of things has happened to me several times. Being in sound, we're sort of the bastard child of the film process. We happen at the very, very, very end. Usually the money is gone, the schedule is gone, the pressure is on, the studio is finally waking up to realize that their movie needs some changes, and we have to get all of our work done in very short order. Even at Skywalker Ranch, we're always dealing with ridiculous expectations, no time, no money, freaked out people, screaming executives, battling producers and directors, sleepless nights...I don't miss that stuff at all.
JERSEY GIRL is the opposite. This is good people, a good project, the demands on us are good. And I'm getting paid, but that's kind of the least important thing of all.
Antony: By contrast, what has been your best moment?
Phil Benson: I was just talking with Scott [Mosier] about this. On JAY AND SILENT BOB STRIKE BACK, the first time we had to do an audience preview, we got crushed with our time and we had to quickly mix everything together for an audience preview. Then we had some technical problems, and our mix was going late, and we had to be on a plane to San Diego for our first test screening. We ended up mixing all through the night with no sleep, and then Scott and Monica and I went straight from the mixing stage to the airport, went straight to San Diego, got off the plane, and did a run-through. The test screening went fantastically. We hadn't slept for days. I remember thinking at the time that the kind of euphoria that comes from working non-stop for days, and then finally having a great test screening with all the Miramax people there, and Kevin being totally ecstatic, made it all worth it. It was probably one of the best moments of my career.
