Thankfully, he took a few minutes from his day of editing and preparing for a big Green Bay Packers Monday Night Football game to answer a few of our questions.
SolidLine Media: What is your position here?
John Courchane: I make coffee, talk about BREAKING BAD with Art Director Mike Petrik, throw things at Motion Graphics Artist Justin Younger, I make more coffee, and between all that I edit together some of the videos here.
SLM: How would you describe what you do every day?
JC: Detailed. Editing is all about the details. A few frames can be the difference between high-end smart videos, and rushed, sloppy work.
SLM: Are you just trying to annoy everybody in the office / Chicagoland area with all of your Wisconsin sports talk, or are you actually from there? If so, where exactly?
JC: Well, yes to both. I grew up in Madison, WI, home to the Wisconsin Badgers. Badger, Brewer, and Packer fandom is fanatical up there. SLM has a lot of really creative, smart people…but only a few people know the difference between a football and a baseball bat.
SLM: How/when did you discover that you enjoyed video editing?
JC: I originally took a class in high school and came out of it thinking, like a lot of people, that I wanted to be a director. I wanted to be the next Roman Polanski (artistically speaking). After my first year of film school, I quickly realized I sucked at directing, but I enjoyed the editing side of things.
SLM: What is it about the editing profession that you do enjoy?
JC: Editing is really problem solving. There’s a cliché in the video industry, “We’ll fix it in post.” Things rarely go as planned, and working with everyone to figure out the best solution to produce the highest quality video is a fun challenge.
SLM: Is there a favorite project that you’ve worked on, something that really came together well on the post-production side?
JC: We recently put out a 12-minute video for a client that required a lot of collaboration with Justin Younger in the graphics department. It was a cool concept involving a mix of graphics and video, and usually “cool concept” is code for “a lot of late nights and pots of coffee.” Seeing the transformation from raw footage to a final product the whole team could be proud of is really what post-production is all about.
SLM: What advice do you have for people who might be thinking about getting into the editing field?
JC: Lots of schools focus more on the “craft” of editing, and that’s great, but a lot of editing is being technically proficient. Managing media is a huge battle, one that I wish I had learned more about in school.
SLM: Are there a few specific editing tips you have for somebody editing in an operation like SolidLine’s?
JC: The importance of communication cannot be overstated. If everyone’s not on the same page, things get skipped, deadlines are missed, and everyone loses. We don’t want to be like The Cubs around here, now do we?
SLM: Siiiiiiigh. MOVING ON. What do you like to do when you’re not working?
JC: I like watching my Wisconsin sports teams and grilling while I do it, usually accompanied by a good Wisconsin beverage. Anytime I can get away to the north woods for some hunting or fishing (see above) is always something I look forward to as well.
SLM: And finally, when do you think the Packers will lose in the playoffs this year? Wild Card Round, Divisional Round, Conference Final, or Super Bowl?
JC: I don’t understand the question.
To find out how John Courchane and the SolidLine Media team can put together your next high definition video production, CONTACT US HERE!
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