Hollywood
Dream
By Kristine Porter
From the Lehigh Valley to Hollywood, this Northampton Community College alumnus is making his dreams come true as a freelance online film editor.
One of Marc Fisher’s most recent projects was the summer movie “Superman Returns.” In reviewing the movie, Jonah Weiland, executive producer of Comic Book Resources, said , “You will believe a man can fly. Breathtaking. Exhilarating. Truly awesome. You’re left clamoring; clawing at your seats for more and more, thinking, ‘the next movie can’t come quickly enough.’ And believe me, it can’t.”
Marc worked on the “Superman Returns” movie for about five weeks. While at the Warner Brothers Pictures lot, he had an opportunity to interact with the film’s producer and editor.
“The environment you’re working in is fun,” Marc said. “But the downfall is that you're there just long enough to get to know the people and you’re done.”
A movie crew works together for about six to eight months, Marc explained. This is something he looks forward to doing someday. Right now, his jobs are completed within days or weeks.
“A lot of the projects we have are so fast paced,” he said. “You have to know the ins and outs of the (computer) programs, and be able to work around the problems.”
Computers really didn’t interest Marc when he was trying to decide what career to pursue. A good friend recommended the radio and television program at NCC. He decided to give it a try and discovered a passion for radio. By his third semester, he was music director for WNCC. When NCC’s television media lab opened in 1994, Marc’s class was the first to use it. That was the beginning of his love of television.
“NCC was coming out with the latest technology. My friends at four-year colleges were still using reel-to-reel while I was using linear,” Marc says. “And here I’m paying a third of what they were.”
His first job after he graduated was producing training videos for Polymer Dynamics. The lack of creativity needed for this position left him feeling a bit unfulfilled.
“School advocates creativity. It promotes it,” Marc said.
Soon Marc moved on to an advertising agency in King of Prussia called Ritter Inc. There, he could indulge his creativity and use cutting edge technology. Subsequent jobs took him to Baton Rouge, Louisiana; upstate New York and Florida. It was during his time in Florida that a friend and film editor for Dreamworks Animation encouraged him to move to California. Five days after moving his wife and two children to the sunny state, he was hired for his first freelance job. His second job was editing the television show “The O.C.”
Since then, he has worked on television shows such as “Numb3rs,” and “Threshold,” and movies like “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest,” “Hostel,” “You, Me and Dupree,” and “The Children’s March,” which won the Academy Award for best editing in 2004.
“It’s busy, very busy,” he said. “There are days I turn down three jobs.”
Marc’s work consists of turning reels of film into high definition productions, color correcting, titling, putting the color space within the legal limit and completing other post-production editing tasks. It might not sound as glitzy as one would think when thinking about Hollywood, but if the color space is wrong, Marc said, then the program can bleed into other television channels. Who knew?
Looking back on all the projects he’s been involved with, especially in the last couple of years since he has been in California, Marc says his favorite is “The World of American Indian Dance.” In this television production, Marc took the concept, developed a script and shaped the final product with his own vision as the editor. It was not only his first “big break,” but with the guidance of the show’s producer Dan Jones, a Punca Indian, he discovered his career direction.
“It was a huge learning curve for me. I learned a lot from him. He was more like a mentor,” Marc says. “In college, my goal was to work for NBC. I’ve done work for NBC; now I want to go further. I want to get to that point where I am the editor of a huge feature.”
