Any who seek mastery of their profession must challenge themselves to perform their best and leave no weak spots in their abilities. This often means diversification of your skill set. Shiman Hu has served as editor on acclaimed and award-winning films such as The Disappointment Tour, Plush Slash Minus +/-, and others but she has also used her skills in the more quick-paced (and eclectic) world of television on a number of productions for Sino TV. This channel focuses on news, entertainment, and infotainment for the Chinese community both here in the US and overseas. Hu was sought out to lend her abilities and expertise to a number of very popular programs on Sino TV. She’ll admit to being overworked and simultaneously thriving in the fast paced world of television production. While film allows for time to contemplate and converse about creative decisions, TV demands a professional like Hu to rely on their instincts for the most part. The diversity of her editing work at Sino TV cultivated a style for this editor and quickly widened the breadth of her experiences.
“Super Commentary” is a Sino TV program which presents the opinions of two hosts on pop culture and seemingly hot topic/events. Rather than hard news, the tone is light-hearted and seeks to present a tone of humor. Airing every Friday at 9PM, hosts Sogo and Linda are welcomed into viewer’s homes as benevolent guests. Unexpectedly, the two hosts are presented with a great deal of high tech visuals. Filmed with green screens, Shiman uses special effects software to introduce the selected footage. After the special effect software has been utilized, the footage is then exported back to the normal editing software and finished. This process is very complex, requiring both substantial skill and time, plus is deceptive in its natural appearance. This is the state of current day work even in a seemingly “off the cuff” program like “Super Commentary.”
Hu also took the editing duties on “Meeting Room” which airs three times per week on Sino TV. Topics discussed are as diverse as Health Care to Traffic rules and guidelines. The program mostly files under the concept of infotainment. Those appearing on this show “borrow” the TV platform to spread knowledge to the audience and take this opportunity to publicize their services, products, and companies. The span of topics covered give ample opportunity for Shiman to test her ability to present such an array of topics. Hu views her close work with those appearing on the show, who obviously want to present their products in the best light, as a way to communicate with them about how they would like the presentation to appear. This results in the chance to work with several “personal producers” each week and fine tune her ability to meet the aspirations of these individuals.
In a perfect pairing of her film and TV skills, Shiman edited the program “Hollywood Movie Spotlight.” Hosted by Sean Liao, a well-known new host for many years in Los Angeles, the program introduces five upcoming films and the film box office to its audience every Friday. As a film editor herself, Hu was particularly sensitive and respectful of her role on this show as it required her to edit trailers of upcoming films. As with films themselves, trailers are expertly edited for rhythm and recreating this due to time limitations of a TV program was something which Shiman was highly aware of. In this scenario, her work in the film industry gave her a keen insight into what the editor of the trailer wanted to communicate as well as how she could maintain that idea. More than any other, this may be the best example of how working in both mediums allowed Hu to help each as well as grow in her personal understanding of them.
As different platforms (Netflix, Amazon, etc.) blur the line between what the public perceives as film and television, this editor sees a clear delineation between them in her vocation. She relates, “Obviously, television pays more attention to the demands of time. Film allows more time to edit; there will be a series of activities such as rough cut screenings up to the final cut. On the television side, time is relatively more pressing. Television has a broadcast time and this time must be strictly adhered to. Relatively speaking, the workload of television is much larger than for a movie. Film allows for a number of professionals to consider different avenues while television largely is based on each professional doing their job and doing it quickly. Beyond this, there is still a style that an editor can create. I’m always caught between the two worlds; TV surrounds us everywhere and even when I’m working in TV I always make time to go to the cinema and check out films. I like to see what editors are doing in with TV or film.” Leon Wang, production manager at Sino TV recognizes this approach in Hu’s work stating, “Shiman is such a hard working professional. I literally don’t think I’ve ever seen her make a mistake. She still finds ways to be creative with her use of after effects. Whatever the project is, Shiman is always searching for a way to make it even better.”