Link Love: Norman Hollyn & Our Magical Interwebs Connection

Norman Hollyn and I should meet up sometime in the near future and talk film/social media/geeky cool things. Why? Because through the magic of the interwebs, this Hollywood vet and published author has affected my life in spookily connected ways – all it took was for him to be an expert in his field and some link love for The Lair.

Back in 2007, when I was still using a free wordpress account, I was having one of those days where I felt like blogging but wanted to actually share something useful. The result was “How To Up-Rez A Sequence”, a step-by-step guide on how to uprez a sequence in Avid. It consisted of the actual workflow I used as a self-taught former Assistant Editor on shows for MTV, Bravo and the Discovery Channel. My motives were also partially selfish – I usually carried these notes around in hard copy form and wanted easy access to them no matter where I was (as long as there was internet access). A blog post seemed like a logical choice. I did not expect it to benefit me or impact anyone to the degree that it did.

Since 2007, I have received countless “thank you!” emails from students, professors, industry professionals and aspiring editors. At a certain point, it seemed like there was this surge in emails and I wondered why. Was my link listed someplace where it might be receiving some kind of additional authority? Enter Norman Hollyn. I recently discovered  that he included me in his standing list of Avid Links on his personal website. People have done this before, but the difference is that they were not Norman. What made the difference?

Norman is a traditional/new media expert and a seasoned film, television and music editor (HEATHERS, THE COTTON CLUB, Oliver Stone’s WILD PALMS, etc). He is also an Associate Professor and the Head of the Editing Track in the University of Southern California’s School of Cinematic Arts. He is also CEO of Hollyn Rinsler Consulting, a company specializing in entertainment and media Internet development, with projects for large entertainment companies and municipal school districts.

His, book,  THE FILM EDITING ROOM HANDBOOK, is one of the first editing books I bought when I moved to New York!!!

Even scarier, he was featured on the cover of the EDITORS GUILD MAGAZINE, where he was interviewed about teaching editing at the university level. He has also been interviewed for various other articles, web sites and podcasts. I know this because even though my dues have lapsed, I am a member of IATSE Local 700 and part of the Motion Picture Editors Guild. Being a member means you get free issues of Editors Guild mag. Pretty sweet, right?

So here is Norman going about his business being awesome, possibly stumbles across my humble “how to” guide and decides to share it on his site and possibly with his students.

“How To Up-Rez A Sequence — Daniela Capistrano, a self-taught assistant editor, gives a great tutorial on how to uprez a sequence in Avid.”

I am probably an enormous geek for publicly being so excited about Norman Hollyn linking to my work but I don’t care. After researching his achievements and relying on his book for so long, it is a total thrill to be recognized by a professional for something that I struggled to make work by learning through mistakes, trial by fire job assignments and a lot of late nights.

Seriously, Norman. If you are every in NYC I would like to buy you a cup of coffee. Please don’t think I’m weird for finding you on Twitter. Thanks.