Cardi B's Family, Lance Bass and More Celebs Named as Voice Actors in 'Baby Shark's Big Movie!' →

There are some big names joining the Baby Shark family.

Nickelodeon, Paramount+ and The Pinkfong Company have announced the newest additions to the voice cast for the upcoming animated kids' movie, Baby Shark's Big Movie!

Ashley Tisdale, Aparna Nancherla, Ego Nwodim, Chloe Fineman, ENHYPEN, and Lance Bass will all lend their voices to the first-ever feature-length original animated movie based on the preschool hit.

The movie will follow Baby Shark and his family as they move to Chomp City, the big city of sharks. Not only will Baby Shark be forced to adjust to life without his best friend William nearby, but he'll also encounter an evil pop starfish who plans to steal his gift of song in order to dominate all underwater music. Baby Shark has to embark on a mission to break her spell to restore harmony to the seas.

Tisdale's character is Stariana, the sharp-witted and manipulative rising pop starfish who will do anything to achieve a splash hit. Nancherla plays the charmingly chaotic, bumbling boxfish Gillie, Stariana's assistant.

Here’s what I am currently working on. It’s a really great movie. I can’t wait for you all to see it.

Virtual Roundtable for Post Production →

After working for Conan O’Brien for the last decade, Robert James Ashe is currently editing animatics for Beavis and Butt-Head, which is coming to Paramount+ next year. 

Rob Ashe

Assuming you’ve been working remotely this year. Can you talk about your setup/workflow?
My setup has been evolving since March of 2020. I started with dual laptops, as I was so fearful of rolling blackouts, but they haven’t been that much of a problem where I live.

I currently edit with an iMac Pro and a 24-inch Cintiq Pro. I decided to adopt the Cintiq to help me battle running RSI issues, and I have fallen in love with it, especially for animation editing, as I have to do so much masking, etc. Depending on the show, I’ve been using tools like Jump Desktop, Evercast, Frame.io, Google Drive, OBS, EBS and an iPad for taking notes. I have a 13-inch M1 MacBook Pro as a backup. Once Apple releases the silicon version of the MacBook Pro, I will probably invest in it.

Have you also been in-person? Can you talk about how that experience has been during the pandemic?

I have not worked with anyone in person since March of 2020. For Conan, it was somewhat of an easy transition, as everyone had known each other for over a decade. The different projects that I have been working on since are a little more challenging, as it can get tough to get to know folks over chat. Everyone is so incredibly nice though, which helps tremendously.

What were some of the biggest challenges of editing this past year and a half?
A big part of it has been time management. I have three kids who I now get to see a lot. It can be tough for them to understand that I have work to do. On the flip side, it can also be tough for a client to understand that you’re going to hear my kids when we talk. But everyone is in the same boat, which helps. Just takes some getting used to.

If you had the option to choose, would you work full-time in-studio, full-time at home or hybrid?
I would choose 90% home and go in-person for the more important screenings. If working from home will be the majority of the future (and I think it will), then I’d love to build an ADU (accessory dwelling unit) in the backyard just to have a different space to work, and my wife can have her dining room table back.

Do you have a wish list for makers of editing products or editing-related products? 
I fantasize about this imaginary streaming box that I plug a video output and camera into that works with all the communication apps (FaceTime, Zoom, BlueJeans, Messenger). It has controls like the ATEM Mini so you can control what the client sees and when. It’s tough for clients during a session to know when an edit is ready for viewing.

How have you been collaborating during this time? 
Mostly via Evercast and Frame.io.

What NLE or software worked the best when working remotely? If hybrid, which software needed the least amount of new knowledge? 
I’ve been working in Premiere Pro and Media Composer on different projects. I prefer Premiere remotely because I really love its NDI integration, but each has its pluses and minuses.

Cut/Daily Meets... Conan Editor Rob Ashe →

Welcome to the first in a series of micro interviews with Post-Production professionals from across the industry. I hope you will find them thought-provoking, informative and inspiring!

Today Cut/daily meets editor Rob Ashe who has (among other things!) been the lead editor of Conan for the past 11 years, deftly meeting the demanding schedule of getting funny content on the air four nights a week.

Conan’s Editing Team Cuts DIY Episode While Working From Home →

Throughout this pandemic, we’ve seen creativity and innovation at its best. In order to keep producing regular content, late-night talk show hosts found ways to keep shooting from their homes while their tech teams created new workflows to keep things moving.

Maybe it was audiences’ ability to accept seeing their favorite shows presented in different ways that led to “DIY Conan.”

Post Perspective - How being a special needs dad helps me be a better editor at Conan →

I have been working in late night television for Conan O’Brien for nearly 10 years, currently as the lead editor for Conan on the TBS network. Late night television has an extraordinarily demanding pace. An old colleague of mine used to refer to it as the “speed chess” of editing. It demands that your first instincts when editing are the best ones. The pace also puts extraordinary pressure on your writers and producers. I like to think of editors as the pilots hired to bring the plane in for a landing that may have already lost an engine, so it’s important that you maintain balance and focus.

I am the father to three amazing kiddos with special needs. My first daughter was born with the amyoplasia form of arthrogryposis multiplex congenita. She is also nonverbal. My youngest daughter was born with amniotic banding syndrome. For her, it means she only has a few fully developed fingers and a prosthesis on one of her legs. We’ve addressed her physical challenges through surgery and she has lots of fun sprinting around with her “robot leg,” which is what we call her prosthesis. We are in the middle of adopting our son and hope to bring him home in the fall. He has similar orthopedic challenges to our second daughter.

I take my jobs as editor and as a father very seriously, but it is also important to note that I am happy. Here are some things that I have learned over the years. I have made mistakes in every one of these rules, but I try every day to be better.

Made in Frame: The Conan O'Brien Show →

On January 11, 2018, Donald J. Trump, the sitting POTUS, called the Caribbean nation of Haiti a “s***hole.” The mainstream news outlets did little more than give airtime to the usual talking heads clapping back, while most of the late night talk show hosts capitalized on the ready-made monologue material.

But at a time when a few humorists are doing some of the most important journalistic work on TV (John Oliver and Bassem Youssef come to mind), Conan O’Brien decided, right then and there, to travel to Haiti in order to set the record straight. It wasn’t an unprecedented move—he’d previously done shows from Mexico, Israel, Armenia, and more.

What was different was the time frame.

The Mighty - How 'Scarman' Helped Me Understand My Daughter's Disability →

Five years ago, my daughter was born with a rare condition called arthrogryposis as well as additional cognitive delays. My wife quickly gravitated towards the internet support community to learn as much as she could, while I was feeling stuck, asking myself the larger questions about my daughter’s path in life. Right after her first birthday, we found ourselves attending a National Support Conference for Arthrogryposis. It was there I met “Scarman.”

Ward “Scarman” Foley was born with arthrogryposis and has spent the last 30 years giving speeches across the nation and abroad. He is also a published author and hospice volunteer. He spoke at that conference and engaged new parents, old parents, teens and adults who had never met another person with the same condition. These were his words:

The Mighty - An Open Letter to Tim Cook, Apple's CEO, From a Parent of a Child With a Disability →

My name is Robert James Ashe. We’ve never had the pleasure of meeting but I’ve been a huge admirer of both, you and Apple, for a very long time. I’ve worked in film and television for the past 20 years using Mac products to plan, design, edit and create works to entertain the viewing public. In my household, you will find Macbook Pros, iPads, iPad Pros, iPhones and a really old mac pro used by myself and my wife. My oldest daughter uses her iPad as her voice. One of the biggest things I’ve always admired about Apple was their commitment to giving people with disabilities access to your equipment. It is because of this fact that I am writing you today to make one small humble request. I am requesting that you add medical terms to the Mac’s spelling dictionary. The word I personally am after is “arthrogryposis.”

The Mighty - Along the Way →

My first daughter was born with the amyoplasia form of arthrogryposis multiplex congenita. She has extremely low muscle tone on all four of her limbs, no bicep movement in her arms, her elbows don’t bend all the way and her knees don’t straighten. She is also nonverbal and currently participates in ABA therapythroughout the week.

My youngest daughter was born with amniotic banding syndrome, for her, it means she only has a few fully developed fingers and she had to have her leg amputated. She’s addressed her physical challenges through surgery and has lots of fun sprinting around with her “robot leg,” which is what we call her prosthesis.

I take my job as a father of a child with disabilities very seriously, but it is also important to note that I am happy. I have two beautiful daughters and an amazing wife.

Here are some things I have learned along the way that I think can help anyone who knows a family like mine:

CHLA - The Unstoppable Fiona Ashe →

Don’t believe what Fiona Ashe may tell you. Her parents did not purchase her at Target, though after hearing that claim enough times, her mother finally agreed to it.

“Two weeks ago in the car,” Angie Ashe says, “she was like, ‘Where did you buy me from?’ I just kind of chuckled. ‘We didn’t buy you from anywhere. Do you mean where were you born?’ ‘No, where did you buy me?’ I couldn’t answer her correctly. I kept saying, ‘You were born in China; we adopted you.’ Finally, I said, ‘You want me to say we bought you from Target?’ She just smiled. ‘Yeah, you bought me from Target.’ OK!”

As charming a story as that would make, the truth is equal to it—and considerably more plausible. It starts with longstanding plans that Angie and her husband, Rob, had made to adopt a child. “That was on the table even before we got married,” Angie says. Their intentions became more focused after their daughter Elliot was born with arthrogryposis, a disease that disrupts joint movement. Elliot’s case is extreme: Born with her arms stuck straight and her legs bent, she has been a patient at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles since infancy, undergoing numerous surgeries and years of physical therapy.