we were, I could zoom back and see the entire stadium or zoom in and
get just one person on the field. From that moment on I was totally
hooked . . . The doughnut and looking through the lens was the thing
that hooked me."
Bass was simultaneously working on two major projects at the time:
NBC's Fiftieth Anniversary Special and an industrial film for Warner
Communications, which gave Okun the opportunity to observe the
editors of each. He begged them to teach him about the process. The
assistant editor on one project abused Okun's offer to work for free by
assigning him to take out the trash, pick up food, drop off and collect his
dry cleaning, and have his car gassed up, washed, and detailed, but
taught him nothing about filmmaking. The other editor, Gary Rocklen,
not only taught Okun about film editing, but allowed him to practice
using the equipment.
"I would get in at 8:30 and make the coffee for everybody in the build-
ing, go out and get the pastries, open up all of the offices, turn on the
lights and get the air conditioning set. Then I would go pick up Saul and
bring him in, and then do gofer work all day long. At 5:30 I'd take Saul
home, and then go back to the office and edit from 6:30 until 3:00 in the
morning. I would sleep on the floor of the editing room until about seven
or eight, then get up and go into the bathroom and scrub myself down
with paper towels. I did that for six weeks. At the end of the six weeks,
Gary [Rocklen] came to me and said they had very bad news: they had
decided to reinstall the segment I was editing. I'd have to take the whole
segment apart and put it back into its original roll so they could work on
it. I begged him to look at the segment. He did, then ran out of the room
and came back with Saul. They looked at it and then ran out of the room
and came back with the producers of the piece and looked at it. Then
everybody left the room. Saul came back in and said, `Well, my boy, we're
going to air your piece.' So the first thing I cut was shown on national
television."
The assistant editor who had treated him poorly was fired and Bass
made Okun his editor. "Saul said, `I'm not going to pay you very much,'
and I still had to do my gofer job, but at night I cut the Warner's piece . . .
Eventually, Saul added slide library to my title. He was paying me $500 a
month. I was editing all night and every weekend, and doing gofer work
all day long." After a year, Bass allowed Okun to hire someone else to do
the gofer work, giving him more time to edit. Okun worked with Bass on
a variety of commercials, television specials, and a 30-minute film over
the next few years, becoming his postproduction supervisor, line pro-
ducer, location manager, and assistant director. Over time, he gained
expertise in effects, working with the optical houses on Bass's footage.
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