FILM WORKERS TO GET TRAINING.

Byline: Greg Hernandez Staff Writer

Nearly $700,000 has been earmarked by a state job training agency and a nonprofit entertainment industry group to retrain below-the-line movie and television workers in danger of being displaced by conversions to digital equipment, it was announced Tuesday.

The money will pay for the retraining of 446 motion picture editors, cinematographers, cartoonists and makeup artists so they will be skilled in the most recent technologies. Below-the-line workers exclude such groups as actors, directors and writers.

``Technology changes rapidly and our members need to be on the cusp of anything new and need to be trained on everything that is out there,'' said Catherine Cusimano, training coordinator for Motion Picture Editors Guild Local 700.

The funds are mostly being provided by the California Employment Training Panel (ETP), which is spending $447,000. The ETP is a state group aimed at retaining high-wage highly skilled workers in California, upgrading workers' skills and helping to create new jobs. The ETP is funded by California businesses, who pay $7 a year per employee into the fund.

The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, a nonprofit industry group that includes MGM, Paramount, Disney, Universal, Sony, Warner Bros. and NBC, will contribute another $220,000 to the retraining program.

The trainees will get 40 to 70 hours of classroom training tailored to their particular field. Movie editors, for example, will be taught to use digital equipment that is proving to be far less expensive than film editing.

The trend toward digital is clear: Two years ago, only three television shows used the 24P digital camera like those used on the most recent ``Star Wars'' movie. This year, there have been 27 shows using the technology.

``There has been a quantum leap,'' said Gavin Koon, executive director of the Encino-based Contract Services Administration Services Trust Fund.

The fund oversees the skills training that had previously been financed by the state's Department of Labor, money that is no longer available during California's current budget crisis. The new funding sources enable the training to continue uninterrupted.

``There have been so many heavy technological changes in the industry in such a short time frame, it's been hard for everyone to keep up, from both the employee and the employer sides,'' Koon said.

In addition to training for editors, cinematographers will be taught to use digital equipment to create special effects while cartoonists will be taught how to use the high-speed software that is helping to pull work from California to India, China and Japan.

Also, makeup artists and hair stylists will be taught new techniques to achieve the precision needed in high-definition television.

``It's getting to the point where everything has to be perfection,'' said Leonard Engelman, business representative for Make-up Artists and Hair Stylists Local 706.