#48 Observing

I felt good walking into DIC Entertainment’s studio on my second day. It was nice to be a part of something. I was getting to know people, and one of those people was Sandy Fries.

As I walked past the cubicles, I remembered Lori saying, “Sandy will tell you what you do as an assistant story editor.” So far he hadn’t told me much. Instead he’d painted broad strokes about what he did as the story editor. That was okay because I also remembered Lori saying I should keep my “eyes open about what he does.”

I learned he’d earned a B.A. in Journalism, a member of the Phi Beta Kappa honor society, then added an M.S. in Journalism from Columbia. My father would be only too happy to tell him what he could do with those degrees in the real world. But I was impressed.

Sandy had penned a few Diff’rent Strikes and The Smurfs episodes so he had a little street cred. Still, being a story editor was different.

Around noon a writer came in. Sandy said the writer’s springboard was approved and he should start on a treatment. Excited, the writer stood with, “I’m on it!”

Sandy stopped him in his tracks with, “Is there something you forgot to say?” When the writer looked at him quizzically, Sandy intoned, “It’s customary to say ‘Thank you’.”

The writer glanced to me, then to Sandy and uncomfortably said, “Thanks”. Then he went on his way. I wasn’t sure why Sandy needed to hear the writer say thanks, but the interchange had made me uncomfortable too…along with some other things.

#47 Storm Warning

How a business operates directly reflects on the quality of its product. Great animated series are created by talented executives, writers, producers, directors, artists, voiceover artists and administrative staff, all of whom contribute to the final product.

Some people who love an animated series think, “I’ll bet I could produce that.” Really? Tell me, without Googling for the answer, how many 2D cels it takes to create a twenty-two minute episode. What’s the difference between pen and ink and inbetweening?

What’d the difference between ADR and looping and how to you accomplish them in television?

You don’t know? It’s okay. You will. That’s a big part of the fun in my blog!

In addition to the creative process, what you saw on television during the 1980s and 1990s was also the result of what can, at times, be a brutal business. In Swimming with Sharks, a spot-on film about the entertainment industry, Benicio del Toro cautions Frank Whaley, who is replacing del Toro as assistant to take-no-prisoners movie producer Buddy Ackerman, “This is not a business; this is show business. Punching below the belt is not only all right, it’s rewarded.”

While I never believed in ‘punching below the belt’, I did believe in keeping my guard up. I believed you were judged by the quality of your work, the people you associated with, and, if you were working with them, the quality of their work.

So after Sandy Fries completed his ‘instructive’ dissertation about the principles of story editing, I asked, “Where are we at delivery schedule-wise?”

Sandy deflated. He managed to say, “We’re a week behind schedule.”

#46 Treading carefully

I came to L.A. believing in fairness and karma. That said, I knew the entertainment business could be a brutal business, so I felt it was prudent to keep my guard up, which I did the moment Sandy asked, in an even voice, “What do you mean?”

I answered, “I want to help as much as I can so I think it’s a good idea for me to understand the editing process.”

He relaxed a little. But still cautious, he said, “I heard you worked a lot with Jean on your scripts. I’m sure he edited them. You saw his notes, right?”

I nodded, but added, “Seeing his notes and understanding why they were there are two different things.” It was true, but I’d conveniently left out that Jean had explained to me, in detail, why he had made every revision suggestion he made, but I wanted to see where Sandy’s head was at when it came to editing.

I continued, “I revised my scripts according to Jean’s notes. But I haven’t done script editing like you and him, so I’d like to understand why you do what you do.”

With my admission that he was in a superior position to me, even though his title already affirmed that, Sandy relaxed for the first time. He went into a half-hour professorial, by rote dissertation on the general principles of story editing, the importance of ‘house style’, continuity and consistency. It all made sense, but to me he sounded cautiously dispassionate. I felt like he was reading from a textbook about scriptwriting rather than from personal experience.

By the time Sandy finished, it was apparent to me that this was the first time he’d ever been a story editor.