Award-winning editors Jason Ballantine (ASE) and Matt Villa (ASE) used Avid Media
Composer to cut Baz Luhrmann’s Cannes Film Festival opening night film, The Great
Gatsby, in 3D.
With careers spanning over 20 years, Ballantine and Villa are long-time Media
Composer users and have worked on major projects including, Moulin Rouge,
Australia, Wolf Creek, Happy Feet Two and Daybreakers. Ballantine is currently using
Media Composer on his next project, Mad Max: Fury Road; and Villa is using it to cut
Predestination.
“Every film throws a new set of creative and technical challenges for post-production
that must be overcome,’ says Ballantine. “With so many variations in workflows to
navigate, it’s incredibly reassuring that there is no decision to be made with the
offline cutting system – it’s always Media Composer, that’s a given. The reliability and
functionality of the entire Avid product range is second to none.’
Media Composer empowers the industry’s top professionals to edit movies with 64-bit
performance and provides easy-to-use video editing tools, and streamlined HD, file-
based, and stereo 3D workflows.
“During the “Gatsby’ shoot we had an editing station permanently on location and
during post we had two fully operational cutting rooms running concurrently and in
perfect sync; one in Sydney and one in Los Angeles,’ explains Villa. “We called upon
many tools from the Avid family to deal with the 3D material and they never faltered.
Productions of this scale can be unrestrained and unpredictable, but Avid never fails
in being stable yet flexible enough to get these jobs done.’
“Jason Ballantine and Matt Villa have done outstanding work on The Great Gatsby,’
added W. Sean Ford, vice president of worldwide marketing for Avid. “Their
achievement is a great example of why we are so committed to providing editors with
the technology that lets them push the limits of what is technically possible – from
syncing workflows across many locations, to working with 3D material. The Great
Gatsby is a perfect example of what can result when professionals have the tools
they need to turn their creative visions into reality.’
