So you want to be a "Professional Editor"? Read this first

[ZephyrStar]

This is the same reason I'm not in the game/3d effects/3d animation industry. I would much rather create my own film, and as hard of a road as it is, it's infinitely more rewarding than animating the latest Bratz movie.

[Moonlight Soldier]

Good post Castor
I'd also like to take this opportunity to say that I hate Avid and hope whoever made it DIAF. (I mean ... I loooved using it for broadcast journalism ... yea... ...It was the most frustrating program in the history of everything I've ever used.)

[Ozair]

Finally a real good point of view of an editor. I wasn't expecting it to be so rough I always was planning to keep editing as a side job but seeing that editors barely get enough time for themselves changed my mind. Btw I'm just wondering, you said that Avid and Final Cut Pro are the most common used programs in editing industries. Do you have any idea why do they choose these software's over Premiere and Vegas? (I'm guessing they have more capabilities) and what about After Effects?! (I haven't used either Avid nor Final cut pro so I wouldn't know.)

[Ashyukun]

Excellent post.

I got a modest bit of exposure to what things were like for editors through my ex-wife's work at Sesame Workshop. It was quite cool in some respects- I got to play with their professional Avid rigs to edit together a wedding video we shot for one of the employees. However, it also was my first (and really, only) experience working with a 'director' (my now-ex-wife ) who had their own input and thoughts on how things should go- and it was definitely a MASSIVE change from AMV editing, where at most you have input from a few beta viewers on what does and doesn't work.

The other part that I'd definitely reinforce is the it's very much WHO you know and not WHAT you know/can do in the media industry. That and a combination of 'paying your dues'. It was a massive shock for me seeing how things work with my ex's work vs. my engineering job. An engineer starts out at a decent pay rate- even interns are paid decently. When she started out interning, they got $5 A DAY- it was supposed to cover the subway ride (this was in NYC) and lunch. Unless you get REALLY lucky (and or/are related to/sleeping with someone with a big in...), it's a long hard climb to not having to work a second job (or have a spouse who makes enough to support the both of you... )

Granted, I hardly do any editing now anymore (I DO intend to make some things for next year though), but as cool as it SOUNDS like it would be on the surface I don't think I'd want to do this as anything more than a hobby.

p.s. I'll second that Avid can DIAFF. While it was awesome working on the same rig that they use to edit all of Sesame Street- I REALLY hated that program and spent the whole weekend thinking, "If I'd been at home editing this in Premiere, I would have been done in half a day..."

[Castor Troy]

Excellent post.

I got a modest bit of exposure to what things were like for editors through my ex-wife's work at Sesame Workshop. It was quite cool in some respects- I got to play with their professional Avid rigs to edit together a wedding video we shot for one of the employees. However, it also was my first (and really, only) experience working with a 'director' (my now-ex-wife ) who had their own input and thoughts on how things should go- and it was definitely a MASSIVE change from AMV editing, where at most you have input from a few beta viewers on what does and doesn't work.

The other part that I'd definitely reinforce is the it's very much WHO you know and not WHAT you know/can do in the media industry. That and a combination of 'paying your dues'. It was a massive shock for me seeing how things work with my ex's work vs. my engineering job. An engineer starts out at a decent pay rate- even interns are paid decently. When she started out interning, they got $5 A DAY- it was supposed to cover the subway ride (this was in NYC) and lunch. Unless you get REALLY lucky (and or/are related to/sleeping with someone with a big in...), it's a long hard climb to not having to work a second job (or have a spouse who makes enough to support the both of you... )

Granted, I hardly do any editing now anymore (I DO intend to make some things for next year though), but as cool as it SOUNDS like it would be on the surface I don't think I'd want to do this as anything more than a hobby.

p.s. I'll second that Avid can DIAFF. While it was awesome working on the same rig that they use to edit all of Sesame Street- I REALLY hated that program and spent the whole weekend thinking, "If I'd been at home editing this in Premiere, I would have been done in half a day..."

Good post Castor
I'd also like to take this opportunity to say that I hate Avid and hope whoever made it DIAF. (I mean ... I loooved using it for broadcast journalism ... yea... ...It was the most frustrating program in the history of everything I've ever used.)

With the current trends now, the industry in the next 20-30 years will be moving into Final Cut Pro and the Hollywood editors that use it are laughing at the other Hollywood editors who refuse to conform. Avid was really the first digital editing system and most studios don't want to lose their million dollar investment in avid rigs which is why it's going to stay for a while. But in reality, Final Cut Pro is going to eat it up like the Cookie Monster.

Don't try to make an amv in avid, you'll only be driven to madness.

[Castor Troy]

Finally a real good point of view of an editor. I wasn't expecting it to be so rough I always was planning to keep editing as a side job but seeing that editors barely get enough time for themselves changed my mind. Btw I'm just wondering, you said that Avid and Final Cut Pro are the most common used programs in editing industries. Do you have any idea why do they choose these software's over Premiere and Vegas? (I'm guessing they have more capabilities) and what about After Effects?! (I haven't used either Avid nor Final cut pro so I wouldn't know.)

Avid came out in 1989 and was the first "real" digital video editing program. Premiere came out in the early 90's but lacked many of the important features that Avid had like nested sequence editing, EDL support, proper color correction, etc. Because of this, Avid dominated the market until Final Cut Pro was released in 1999-2000 and by 2003, it literally took away most of Avid's market. It took until 2003's release of Premiere Pro to finally have premiere catch up, but Final Cut Pro was already making strides with independent productions and smaller studios.

I don't know anything about Vegas' history, but I do know it's catching on.

Since Avid dominated the market for so long, most studios refuse to let go of it since they've made investments in their million dollar editing bays. It's time to finally let them go.

[Moonlight Soldier]

Good post Castor
I'd also like to take this opportunity to say that I hate Avid and hope whoever made it DIAF. (I mean ... I loooved using it for broadcast journalism ... yea... ...It was the most frustrating program in the history of everything I've ever used.)

With the current trends now, the industry in the next 20-30 years will be moving into Final Cut Pro and the Hollywood editors that use it are laughing at the other Hollywood editors who refuse to conform. Avid was really the first digital editing system and most studios don't want to lose their million dollar investment in avid rigs which is why it's going to stay for a while. But in reality, Final Cut Pro is going to eat it up like the Cookie Monster.

Don't try to make an amv in avid, you'll only be driven to madness.

Yea, the newsroom I'm in now uses Final Cut. I know many still use Avid, but that's mostly because they can't afford to switch.

Also, I vote this get stickied since this topic comes up often enough.

[TritioAFB]

Excellent post Castor. For a while I used to receive payment for amvs 3 years ago, but I think it's better to be editing in the way you like and not under somense's else conditions

[machina21]

Good stuff Castor. I went to school for animation and some of demo reel stuff was deja' vu yet again. Its no joke how important that is.

[ngsilver]

Was wondering when one of ya'll who have more experience in the professional world then I do would finally get around to posting this. Good jorb. Very truthful. Pretty much my experience in a nutshell. Though I've been generally lucky with my own professional endeavors as a freelance editor in that I've been able to use Premier because that's what I own and work with. But yeah, work is scarce. Deadlines are dreadful. Though it does help me speed up my AMV work when I actually sit down and make an AMV. There is a reason I make a living as a network administrator