The short answer is...yes! The long one is below. It essentially boils down to what kind of video editing career you want to have. How'd I start? I did two things I highly recommend all editors, no matter their path, do. 1. Don't go to film school. 2. Be an Assistant Video Editor first. The first one will make a lot of people reading this, angry. Not everyone, but a lot. Especially those who have wasted tens of thousands on a degree. Does it help having a degree, yes. I don't deny that. Did I ever lose out on a job because I didn't have a degree? No. Never. In fact, I beat out people with degrees, in a way because I didn't have one. The reason being is, I learned video editing around the age of twenty or twenty-one. I learned enough to be able to start as an Assistant Video Editor. Here I was able to learn from video editors who have been in the industry for ten, twenty, even thirty years! And I was getting paid to do it! After about two or three years as an assistant video editor, I was able to start applying for more video editor roles. This was achieved because while I was an assistant, I was doing my own projects, and projects that independent filmmakers did that all added to my portfolio. So when it came time for me to apply to a studio as a video editor, they saw I had a strong background in assistant editing some amazing shows for Discovery Channel, History Channel, CBC, and more, but that I was building my portfolio as a video editor as well. By the way, that was right around the time your typical video editor in a film school would be graduating. So they might have one or two short films for their portfolio. Meanwhile I had something like five tv series that were lifestyle, fictional, documentary, and docu-drama. And I had a savings account and no student loan. Having been an assistant editor also helped me organize footage a lot better than other video editors, even those with years ahead of me. This ended up contributing to me getting hired for more senior roles and managerial roles, because I didn't just edit well, but I was organized, planned ahead, took the initiative if I saw how things could be more efficient and help multiple departments, the list goes on. Just to be fair, the advantages to going to film school are: sometimes they have programs that make it easier and save money for employers when it comes to hiring you. Others have great networking opportunities with companies. I guess, yeah then there is the camaraderie, but I want to get paid. I want a career. I can make memories outside of work, well...in work as well. I just don't need school is my point. Series Video EditorI generally fall into this category. I edited television series. I've done lifestyle, documentary, docu-drama, and for the past fifteen years, children's animated series. These can pay really, really well and you can have a nice living off of them. And I'm non-union. Currently my salary, depending if I have to commit long term or short term, is between 70k-100k. Once you get into the union ranks...you can upgrade your car. Ever see those YouTube videos about how to be a video editor, what packages you should buy of lower thirds, and transitions, or flying around text? Yeah, that's not for a series or a feature film video editor. In fact most of the stuff recommended on YouTube is only for editors working on social media or...YouTube. So don't fall into that trap. I recently saw a bunch of stupid videos on YouTube about "Which is the best video editing program? The answer might surprise you." You know what the best one is? The one the studio is using! Most studios and companies use either Adobe Premiere Pro, Avid Media Composer, DaVinci Resolve is getting up there, and a ton of commercial studios inexplicably use Final Cut Pro which should be retired. If you aren't experienced in at least two out of this list, you are at a serious disadvantage. Learn them all is the answer. Feature Film Video EditorOften times called a Film Editor and other terms, like lucky S.O.B, these editors often start out in a similar path as I did, and soon become assistant editors for a feature film editor themselves. They'll then most likely be hired at a terrible hourly rate to work on an independent feature film they believe in that hopefully looks good for their reel and is at least ranked a 5/10 on imdb if not higher. If all goes well, then they will continue working with a handful of directors who love what they do, or they will jump from independent director to independent director. If they are jumpers, then they'll move into tv from time-to-time until they find a few directors who really love their work and that's the end of that. Commercial Video Editor / Corporate Video EditorThis is a funny one. You could be working entirely on commercials 24/7, which involves very tight deadlines, limited footage, and your ability to creatively solve problems like...they forgot a key shot and you need to solve it in editing. It could be a corporate video editing job where you work on internal videos, presentations, or educational type projects. For me, I worked at one place that had medical education videos. The work was okay, but the people had no idea what to do with a Video Editor. I was actually a Video Producer because I ran the entire department, which was me. A one person department. The pay was good, but the stress over being the videographer, video editor, script writer, director, and producer...yeah...never again. Client-to-Client Video EditorsThis is the type of video editor I try NOT to be. Mostly because clients don't want to pay more than $20-$25 an hour for video editing, but want $50/hr. worth of quality even though they shot their subjects in front of green screen incorrectly, they have no stock footage of their own, and there is no audio department, online editing department, graphics...it's all you. You'll see those job postings more than anything else. It goes something like this: "JOB - Video Editor that is also great at Graphic Design!" Seems harmless right? Prepare for a nightmare where the client doesn't have a clear picture about what they want, the footage they sent you is crap, and so on. If you want those jobs, go to upwork.com. Now I know I'm slamming this and there are good clients out there, I've met a few. I did some awesome trailers once for a classical music education company. I know...weird, but it was awesome and they were great! In my experience though, those are the exception. So this is the "grind" as far as video editing is concerned and all those YouTube videos that say "buy this graphics pack, buy these sound effects, get these lower thirds," yeah that's primarily for this kind of video editing job as well as wedding videos. Which brings me to... Wedding Video EditorThis could have also been put into the client-to-client video editor category, but it's such a huge industry, I feel it does deserve a category all its own. Basically start with a wide shot with sunlight piercing through trees, as the camera lowers to reveal the church. Then push into the church a bit after a cross dissolve or a fancy light transition. Go into the bride and groom getting ready for their big day. A few funny moments, emotional moments, a groomsman laughs at another, then comes the big moment! You've seen this a million times, but it works. This can also somewhat be consistent work, but it's highly dependent on the season because...well weddings are spring, summer, fall mostly. ConclusionSo those are some of your options. If you know where you want to end up, it's way easier to know how to start. So I hope I helped with that. Remember, put in your own time and effort into learning how to be as good a video editor as possible, using the most common video editing software, and you'll be surprised at what opportunities present themselves. If I knew all my work would lead to me editing a Ron Howard produced series for Nickelodeon...well I wouldn't have believed it if you told me. So you never know.
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Author20 years experience, 300+ episodes of live action and animated series, countless trailers, promos, social media content etc...and I don't even drink coffee...not sure how I'm alive. ArchivesCategories |