The Education of Dave Allen
By Kat Tatlock

According to Dave Allen, he is the luckiest and possibly the best-educated colorist in New England. "After thirty years of working with filmmakers in Boston, I must have earned at least the equivalent of a Masters degree,” he says, grinning.

As another thirty-year filmmaking veteran, I can certainly back Dave up, although I might just give him a Ph.D., myself. He has, indeed, earned his stripes. From 1981 to 1999, while at Multivision in Needham, MA, Dave worked as the colorist on such esteemed series as Blackside's "Eyes on the Prize II," "I'll Make Me a World," and "The Great Depression."  That's over 21 hours of material, intensely scrutinized throughout the production process by teams of crack scholars for the late, great filmmaker, Henry Hampton.  

“Dave put his heart and soul into every project he did for Blackside,” says Alison Bassett, a former Blackside series producer, currently working at WGBH.  “He made bad, old stock footage look good again, and made different network feeds – like material from the Boston busing conflict – look like one switched program.”

At the time, the technology in Dave’s suite was standard fare – a Sony linear room and a tiny component box with little plastic knobs for controlling red-blue-green, chroma, set-up, and white levels.  Everything was done on the fly. 

“I’d set up an 8-second pre-roll and color correct the clips as the tape was playing down,” says Dave enthusiastically.  “Then, I’d hit the space bar, re-cue the tapes and hit record.”

Over and over again.  By today’s standards, the process was clunky and agonizingly slow.  But Dave never let it get to him and was able to keep the energy in the room flowing and keep the creative aspects at the center.
“Nothing’s more intense than an online,” Dave says.  “My job is to make people feel comfortable and make their film look the best it can.  There’s nothing more satisfying than working with a raw show, then watching the client’s face when it’s finished.”

Dave's work on David Sutherland's ambitious eight-part FRONTLINE series, "The Farmer's Wife," brought him a more current look at the world.  By the time Longbow Production Group showed up with "The Gate of Heavenly Peace" – an epic three-hour film about the uprising at Tienamen Square – Dave was ready to tackle another graduate course, this time in political science, under a merciless deadline.

“The schedule for finishing ‘The Gate of Heavenly Peace’ – an epic three-hour film about the uprising at Tienamen Square –was horrific,” recalls editor Dave Carnochan.  “The process could have failed for any number of reasons, creative or technical.  We had tape formats of every variety and needed to create flawless D1 masters that would be used to make the 35mm 1:1.85 print.  When I left Dave’s suite at the end of the first day I thought for the first time, ‘Oh, my God, we're actually going to get this thing done!’” 

Thirteen years later the technology is different but other things remain the same.  This past spring, Dave Allen Creative did finishing and color in 8-bit uncompressed HD on another project edited by Carnochan, “Our Disappeared,” a 100-minute long documentary produced, directed, and written by Geovision’s Juan Mandelbaum. 

“We were able to do the initial HD assembly on our edit room system, but it was too underpowered to play back at the HD bit-rates,” says Carnochan.  “That's when we expanded Dave's role to include supervising the output to tape, since his drive array easily had the necessary speed.”

Just 15 years ago, 6 gigs of memory fit in two 12 X 12 X 3 metal cases and weighed 30 pounds.  Today, Dave’s drive array is about five times that big but holds 1000 times more material – 6 terabytes or 6000 gigs.  And in 1980, Dave’s first job in video – assistant editor at Century III in Boston – involved lugging two-inch tapes around and threading them onto three quad machines. 

“Nowadays, everything’s non-linear and even tapeless formats abound,” Dave notes.  “Footage comes in from many different cameras, at different frame rates…it’s a whole new world.”

Another pov is offered from the person behind the camera lens, who has very specific concerns about the images delivered, and what will happen to them after they leave his hands. For years, Boyd Estus, Director of Photography at Heliotrope Studios, Ltd. has shot such films as “Louisa May Alcott” (produced by Harriet Reisen and Nancy Porter) and “Woody Guthrie” (produced by Peter Frumkin), both finished by Dave for American Masters.

“HD has so much latitude that you can actually do effects and treatments in post rather than take a lot of time on set,” says Estus.  “On Alcott we went part way on the various looks, so that the editor would know what the intent was, but left it to Dave to go all the way during the post process.”

Four-time Emmy award-winning documentary filmmaker Linda Garmon turned her most recent opus, “The Truth About Cancer” (PBS), over to Dave in January of 2008.  Twenty years after Eyes on the Prize, Garmon echoes Bassett’s sense that color continuity is essential to a film’s success.

"I just finished the only first-person film I'll probably ever make, and I trusted Dave with the post.  I handed him an especially tough assignment – a film made from six different media sources, including two amateur cameras and a top-of-the-line high-def camera.  In the end, Dave's work made it look like a unified film."

Cinematographer D’Arcy Marsh, of Otter Island Films, recently shot 16mm film and Panasonic Varicam to make "Between The Tides,” a series of shorts playing at the Strand Theater in Rockland, Maine.

“The pieces are projected in uncompressed HD 720P.  It’s amazing to see the shots flow seamlessly from dawn through rainstorms, fog, snow, sunshine, underwater.  Dave pulls everything together beautifully.”

The kudos are endless but Dave’s education is far from complete.  On his free days, he’s mastering Final Cut Pro’s COLOR.

“Tools are so much better these days, whether in Final Cut or Avid – masking, secondary color correction, Animatte.  In the future, when I couple COLOR with Tandem’s control panel, it will become as powerful as a full-blown DaVinci!  I’m enjoying the heck out of it,” adds the always-energized editor.

A certain favorite among established New England filmmakers, Dave is also creating a buzz with many new clients, including former DC resident Allison Argo, whose most recent work, ”Crash:  The Tale of Two Species,” aired on Nature (PBS) last winter.

“Having lived with a film for a year or more, I always walk into Dave's suite with a strong vision,” says Argo.  “Dave always makes a colossal effort to understand it fully.  It's a great collaboration.  Beyond the creative, Dave works with my budget, gives me technical support during production, and will bend over backwards to accommodate my last minute schedule crises.”

Producer Peter Frumkin adds, “The bottom line is that Dave cares and it shows in his work.  Plus, he’s a blast to hang out with."

As my co-writer/producer and editor, Julia Dixon Eddy, and I push toward the completion of “Choosing Your Life: An Ovarian Cancer Journey,” the first of two documentary films under the umbrella of The Kasia Project, I constantly think of the artistry that Dave will have to call upon to make the films work.  In addition to over 150 hours of footage shot by a dozen cinematographers (from vastly experienced to novice to non…) in every format and lighting situation imaginable, we have in the mix beat-up old 8-mm home movies, faded still photos, x-rays, CT-scans, newspaper articles, and the painting of a portrait from start to finish.  But never fear. Not only will Dave online and color my films, but he will have had many opportunities to get acquainted with the material, since he is married to my editor.  With this editorial powerhouse, how can I miss?

Kat Tatlock is an award-winning filmmaker, Founding Vice President of WIFVNE, Boston University MFA, and Sundance Institute alum.  While posting “Choosing Your Life” and developing the feature-length version of The Kasia Project, “Outside In,” Kat is also directing the dramatic NPR radiostrip, “11 Central Ave” (www.11centralave.org) for writer/producer Susan Shepherd.