Off On A Tangent

The 150-Second Sell, Take 34. [ NY Times Magazine ]

Art Mondrala, a pale, monastic-looking man, is shrouded in the deep gray of his Hollywood office at the Ant Farm, a company that edits trailers for major movie studios. It's an unrealistically sunny day in June, but Mondrala is huddled over his computer, just as he has been since October. He has been working 60-hour weeks cutting the previews for just one movie: ''Signs,'' the new Touchstone film written and directed by M. Night Shyamalan.

There's a monster outside my room, can I have a glass of water?