"AVALON STUDIOS TIME REEL: 1975 - 2014"
Richard Lander, Avalon Studios Ltd.
Co-Planning, Co-Compile, Co-Editor
2013

In early 2013 I was asked if I would be keen getting back into the editing
workspace and without question said I would definently be keen. Paired
up with my co-worker Bailey Palmer, we set forward on a high concept
timeline/showreel of the material that our workplace, Avalon Studios,
had produced over the almost 40 years it's been around. The reel would
be around 30-60 minutes in length and the majority of the content shown
was what we could source from the TVNZ Archives as well as other
production houses. The studio space manager, Richard Lander,
produced the project and organised the connection side while Bailey and
I focused on how best to edit the material. Bailey was much more
expierenced with the Avid workspace than I was, having not touched
anything like it for several years. This however gave me a focus of both
new learning and relearning some lost skills at the same time.

In the end the material we recieved was probably only around half of
what has actually been made at the studios, but the content we digitized
to work with probably amounted to almost 120 hours of total material.
As we went though capturing this footage, we worked on ideas how to
put the material together. Ideas included types of shows, matching
content material such as actors or producers, before finally deciding on
just doing it decade by decade. We worked on an opening montage
explaining the creation of Avalon and highlighting some upcoming
moments, and also worked on a 6 minute run of titles to be used for our
production credits before diving into the decade by decade montage. We
cut long versions of each decade and then slowly cut each of those
down to a more manageable length, and eventally into a reel approx.
1 hour in length.