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CINE Newsletter - January 2006 IN THIS ISSUE: Welcome to the new CINE Newsletter The worlds of documentaries, corporate media,
and media technologies have changed much since 1957 - the
year CINE was born. As we get ready to start our next half
century, CINE continues evolving, too. This is our first
email newsletter, and we expect to issue them periodically
throughout the year. In it you'll find important information
about our world, and yours. The
Spring 2006 Competition is now accepting entries. The Early
Bird deadline is Tuesday, February 1, so enter now and save
$25.00 The Final Deadline is February 15, 2006. CINE Sponsor Profile: Rob Henninger of Henninger Media Services, Inc.
CINE: How did you first get started in this business? Henninger: I was a theatre major. When I got out of school I got a job with the Washington Theatre Club. My first job was as an assistant manager and prop master, and acting with the repertory company there. I got my Equity card. That was what I had always envisioned all through school, a career in the theatre. And right at the end of that season, I happened to get a job with a film company that was coming through Washington, DC, the David Wolper Company. They were doing a re-creation film about the assassination of President Lincoln, which they did sort of in the style of modern news coverage. I got very intrigued with the whole process of film and filmmaking, particularly from the crew side of things, so I began to pursue that. CINE:Was there a particular aspect that appealed to you? Henninger: When I started editing, it was like time stood still. This is just what I wanted to do. And it was a great fit. I had studied play writing in school and had thought about a career that would go from acting into playwriting. As I got interested in film I discovered that particularly in the documentary area, which is the strength in this market, that a film editor has a role most like a playwright in terms of taking advantage of the development of the story, the storytelling and the pacing and the rising action: the whole structuring of the piece organically with the material. CINE: How did the editing lead you to setting up your own company? Henninger: I was a freelance film editor until about 1983 when I started Henninger. It was then called Henninger Video. I joined up withSteve Wiedemann,who is now our chief technology officer. Between us, I had my film and video background and Steve was a very sharp video engineer. He designed and built our first facility, and I handled all of the editing right from the outset, and it started to grow from there. By 1984 there was really more work than I could do. When I was hiring I decided I would really like to hire editors who were better than me. CINE: Many bosses want to be the top dog and don’t want people better than they are. How did this work out? Henninger: My main focus was that I wanted people who could work with my clients and be absolutely sure that they could do a great job. What I hadn’t realized was that as established professionals they not only worked well with my clients, but they had clients that they had established over the years, so that meant that they would be attracting new business. So the business grew rather quickly, particularly in the mid-80’s. CINE: Teamwork seems very important to you. Henninger: We have a long-standing and very experienced group of editors and mixers who have just terrific experience and solid creative talent. There’s quite a core group that’s been here over 15 years. CINE: What services do you provide for filmmakers, particularly documentary filmmakers? Henninger We’re very proud of having pioneered in the whole area of digital audio, going back to the late 1980’s. We have a great team of very experienced mixers. We have five mixing suites here in Arlington and two in our downtown location, so a total of seven mixing suites. Our lead mixer recently won an Emmy for his work, and there have been multiple awards that show the great contribution that our audio team makes. I would say we have a great audio team, and I couldn’t speak too highly of them. Our other strength is in the color correction area, in its optimization. And here again I think we have one of the best teams in the country. We’ve won many national awards and recognition. On the video side, our ability to get diverse footage working well together is important. The tools and talent that we have at our disposal permit us to team up with producers and understand what they are trying to achieve. I think another strength is in compositing and graphic effects. We also have some wonderful designers and animators who can bring some creative solutions to expressing some more abstract ideas. CINE: You were also an early innovator in the high definition area. Can you talk about this? Henninger: I anticipated that HD would catch on a little quicker than it actually did, so we were heavily invested in it way before the work was there. But now so much of our work is high definition, so it’s all coming together. We have really, I think, the strongest capability in the marketplace. We do surround mixing and high definition mastering in all formats, HD5 and HD10, HDMSN, HD Pro. We have a strong engineering staff, and that’s not something that works in a desktop or boutique environment, but is critically important for success in the video business. CINE: Can you look into your crystal ball a bit and tell us what you see? Henninger: There are more and more circumstances where our customers are looking for full-service solutions, so that means moving toward managing projects from beginning to delivery and supplying all of the components, which could include production and writing and finishing. So we’re getting more and more into the full service model. CINE: What was the best piece of business advice you got and who gave it to you? Henninger: My principle advisor was my Dad, who is still on our board. He was an experienced manager who was retired. He had an MBA from Stanford. And the best advice he gave was if you’re going to set up your own business, you need a business plan. I think some entrepreneurs avoid the planning, because they think, “How can you know the future and how it’s going to work out?” But we did go through the process and have always gone through fairly rigorous business planning. You don’t know how the future is going to work out, but if you don’t know where you want to go you can’t know how to get there. So don’t skip the step of having a plan. A Letter from Mat Tombers — CINE's President
The blogs don’t let anyone get away with anything. Firedoglake.blogspot.com caught Wal-Mart suggesting biographies of Martin Luther King to people who were interested in PLANET OF THE APES. Ooops…. Political blogs are having an Abramoff heyday these days. Scandal is their reason to be… These developments offer a different way of having news relayed, discussed, analyzed, and assimilated into the consciousness. But these technological changes are having a profound effect not just on news but on entertainment too. The Broadcast Film Critics Association is honoring Andy Serkis, the actor who, in motion capture, portrayed Golum in LORD OF THE RINGS and Kong in KING KONG. Those of us of a certain age should be celebrating the changes that are happening and will continue to happen in the media. This constant adaptation will result in our staving off the baby boomers’ greatest fear – the onslaught of age. For those not of a certain age, the challenge will be to continue to be flexible, and for all of us to create compelling visual content wherever we’re submerged in the digital river. CINE is working to face the challenge of all these changes, recognizing new forms of entertainment, and, with our sponsors, training young filmmakers and helping established artists understand the changing dynamics of the world in which they must sell their projects. It is an exciting time for “television” and an exciting time to be involved with CINE. If you have some time, I encourage you to volunteer with our organization as a means of working with and meeting other filmmakers. Together, we can shape a future…and that’s pretty exciting. John Aquino — CINE Board Member, Author, Media Attorney
Interview by Tom Haederle CL: Why did you decide to write this book? Aquino: The core material for the book came from papers written for Catholic University of America (CUA) law classes taught by Harvey Zuckman and Shira Perlmutter, and I shall always be grateful to them for the opportunity to explore these issues. But the reason I chose the topic was because I had been fascinated by it from when I was a boy watch ing movies on our 10" Philco and seeing Errol Flynn portray General Custer and die at the battle of Little Big Horn, while at the beginning of the film there was a disclaimer saying the characters and events were fictitious. Fact- based films have a self-pro claimed tension between fiction and fact. As I began to study the legal issues, I found that the disclaimer dates from a 1934 British case that the plaintiffs won; the disclaimer became a form of self- defense on the part of Hollywood filmmakers that is still employed, with some variation, today. The more I wrote about the topic and the more calls I received from potential clients who felt their deceased family members had been libeled in a movie, I came to realize the importance of the topic, both legally and culturally, because film is such a pervasive medium. I've seen reports, for instance, that college students actually footnote Oliver Stone's JFK as proof that President Kennedy was assassinated in a conspiracy. CL: What is a Hollywood filmmaker's responsibility to adhere closely to the truth? Aquino: There may be legal issues involving defamation and other torts. In addition, because filmmakers have the potential to affect the future by constructing how we remember the past, they incur significant social and even ethical responsibilities. It's important that we know that in JFK, Oliver Stone was, as he said in an interview, playing with our minds in regard to his treatment of the facts. It becomes a matter of what people believe is true. Aquino: The perpetuation of falsehoods about our history should bother us as attorneys, who require witnesses to swear to tell the truth, because, one by one, these widely distributed statements can erode the meaning of truth. CL: What were the crucial issues debated and settled in the Perfect Storm case? Were the plaintiffs harmed in any way by the depiction of the boat's crew in the film? Aquino: The case showed that filmmakers will fight long and hard for their ability to fictionalize at will for entertainment purposes and to protect what they feel are their First Amendment rights. Aquino: They have a point. History would be chilled if family members could govern by threat of litigation what historians write. But there's a line someplace that filmmakers shouldn't cross. And I think that a reassessment of the libel laws in this day of mass media is warranted. As to whether the family members were harmed, I think we tend to undervalue the effects of such portrayals on spouses and children of the deceased. I think that if the family of Captain Billy Tyne had had a cause of action, there would have been recognizable damages from the film's portrayal of Captain Billy Tyne, who recklessly killed himself and his crew for his catch. No one knows what happened because everyone on board died, but the filmmakers made up what happened and presented it as true. In the appeal, the defendants conceded that if Tyne had been alive he might have had a good libel claim. CL: Some critics have attacked George Clooney's recent film about Edward R. Murrow as historically inaccurate. Does this indicate that the legal problems of depicting real people and events in a fictional medium will be an ongoing issue in popular entertainment? Aquino: Absolutely. The Clooney/ Murrow film made decisions about fictionalization or at the very least about the perspective from which the events were depicted. Virtually every fact-based film does. Filmmakers have a responsibility in making these decisions. Legally if they violate an individual's rights, and culturally if they distort history for future generations. Films based on a true story are likely to stay in vogue, and the legal and cultural issues related to them will be ongoing. CINE Golden Eagle Winners Receive International Recognition CINE Golden Eagle Award Winner's Opportunity Attention CINE Golden Eagle winners! CINE and the WorldMediaFestival in Germany's media city Hamburg are international "Partner Festivals". You benefit from a special agreement between CINE and WorldMediaFestival. The deadline for entries February 28, 2006 With a copy of your CINE Golden Eagle certificate you are eligible for a special discount off the normal entry fee for WorldMediaFestival. Further details at http://www.worldmediafestival.org Partner Festivals or contact Mr. Chris Kater at chris@vpw.com Video Placement Worldwide , 216 South Payne Street , Alexandria, VA 22314, phone 703-836-9797 Worldwide broadcast and non-broadcast entries for the following categories are invited: Advertising, Animation, Business TV / Inhouse TV, Children's, Corporate Communications, Corporate TV, Documentaries, Internal Communications, News, Public Relations, Sales Promotions, Short Films, Training, WWWEB plus sub-categories Contact Information
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Rob Henninger has spent more than two decades in the media production business. He started Henninger Media Services, which was then called Henninger Video, in 1983. Henninger is a full-service production facility, and Rob Henninger emphasizes what he calls the core mission of the company: quality, service, innovation, and teamwork. CINE spoke to Henninger about his work, his philosophy, and his life.
For the last ten years or more, technological changes at the gates of television and old media have been threatening existing business models.
The Perfect Storm took
moviegoers by storm upon its release in 2000. Landlubbers
everywhere were riveted by the true tale of a New England
fishing boat crew that took one risk too many in its quest
for a big-dollar haul. The film netted $150 million in
ticket sales. However, real- life family members of the
perished crew were not entertained by the movie's depiction
of their loved ones. At least one brought an ultimately
unsuccessful suit against Warner Bros., claiming "exploitation" of
the story for profit.
Finalists
in the 21st Annual International Documentary Association (IDA)
Distinguished Documentary Achievement Awards competition were
announced in September. Among them is a feature documentary
Freedom from Despair by 24 year old filmmaker Brenda Brkusic.
(Photo left) In addition to the prestigious CINE Golden Eagle
Award, Freedom from Despair has won a myriad of other awards.
It has also been showcased along side films by top industry
professionals and films produced by CNN, the Discovery Channel
and PBS. In addition, Congressman Dennis Kucinich gave a speech
in the U.S. Congress in Washington in honor and recognition
of Brenda and her film.