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What it's really like to work in Hollywood

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Contributed by: Jennifer Tyre on 4/26/2007

The cacophony of sound effects creates an unnerving atmosphere of being under attack. The "hits, whooshes and swishes," what editors call some of the sound effects used in movie trailers, fly across the building in spite of closed doors.

Jason Moran is a 30-year-old movie trailer editor in Hollywood. As Moran walks through the two-story building he works in near the corner of Hollywood and Vine, he points out the movie posters, framed and lining the hallway walls, all of them films that Aspect Ratio has created movie trailers for. Spiderman, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Miami Vice and Talladega Nights are just a few of the films.

Like many of the other people working in Hollywood, Moran moved to Los Angeles with the hopes of becoming successful in the movie industry. Though he is finally on his way towards a job he really likes, it has been a long, slow and painfully poor road to travel.

"Maybe in another two years I'll be working on big films like those," said Moran.

"Right now I work on home video campaigns. I hope to do theatrical releases one day."

The home video campaigns that he currently works on are the commercials that are seen on cable, announcing the impending release of some movie. Moran has worked on such films as Monster House and Black Christmas. He considers these small potatoes compared to the trailers that are seen before a feature film in the theater; the kind of trailer that people wait in line to see.

"I remember waiting in line to see the trailer for Star Wars," said Moran. "My friends and I didn't even stay to see the movie, we left after the trailer."

After moving to southern California from Chicago he worked as an assistant editor for Cineville, an independent production company based in Santa Monica. His main job was to digitize dailies. Dailies are roughly assembled prints of scenes shot the previous day, which are then transferred to video. It was Moran's responsibility to save these dailies onto a computer and log them in so that the editor would be able to begin editing a feature before it was even done filming.

A graduate of Columbia College in Chicago with a degree in film Moran dreamed of making his own movies. He grew up a fan of science fiction films like Star Wars and has even made some of his own short films that have been accepted to film festivals.

What he would like to ultimately do is to direct and edit music videos. He even has plans to work on one this summer. But Moran is pragmatic when it comes to his future. He views trailer editing as a way to open doors and to gain valuable experience while also make a decent living.

"I have yet to give up my dreams, but I will probably spend more time now pursuing more realistic goals," said Moran.

"Thankfully, I love what I do and find it just as fulfilling," said Moran.

Moran began his career in trailer editing the same way almost everyone else does, at the bottom. He started working at Aspect Ratio as a runner. Runners spend up to 14 hours a day driving around in their cars, delivering videos to the movie studios. He was also responsible for getting food and running errands. When there was down time, he would edit trailers just to prove that he could. It was a stressful and sometimes demeaning time for him.

"Some of the people around here can be such Hollywood clichés," said Moran. "You'd think they were curing cancer the way they act."

Few have it as good as the editors at Aspect Ratio. In the lobby there is a foosball table, in the break room, every snack that one could possibly imagine. Every editor has their own suite with state of the art computers, a sofa and decoration of their own choosing. Moran's walls are adorned with movie posters from the 70s and a Jerry Lewis poster.

"I've met few people who work as hard as Jason does," said Dylan Schwartz, a coworker of Moran's.

"And I don't think I've met anyone who seems to enjoy his work as much as Jason does," said Schwartz.

Sitting on the sofa in Moran's editing suite, one hears the low hum of the computers in the rare moments of silence that punctuate the repetition of scenes he has to edit over and over again. It's work that requires a lot of patience and attention to detail. The technological skills required alone are staggering.

"It's a lot of hard work and it can be stressful," said Moran.

"There's a lot of money riding on the work that we do," said Moran. "But you have to try not to take yourself too seriously."

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