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

[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

[OropherZero]

cool post a shame we don't have a creative industry in this country.

[JaddziaDax]

This is a good post to show to people who tell me I should be a professional editor...
Also a lot of the same mentality is what drove me away from acting...

[Castor Troy]

This is a good post to show to people who tell me I should be a professional editor...
Also a lot of the same mentality is what drove me away from acting...

Oh man. If I were to write this post about acting, then it would be 10x as long and 100x as harsh.

I'm glad everyone feels more informed after reading this thread. I hope I didn't destroy several dream in the process.

[Snowcrash]

That was a very very instructive post. Thanks a lot for all theses informations about professional editing.

"Real" music videos are also edited in a similar fashion where music is there just to match the mood rather than sync editing. "Real" music videos are made for selling products with visuals rather than telling stories.

I have a question about that. I recently discoverd this young director Saman Keshavarz who did the awesome video Luv Deluxe. As you can see he's not the editor (Nate Tam).
But don't you think for this kind of work, the music is really important ? I mean the music here is not just decorative. It's the same for the midnight club EP.
And don't you think the editor of this work is quiet free ? I am not sure but this music video is originally made for internet broadcasting. I suppose the author is paid by the musician artists.

Are the "rules" for this kind of music video the same what you said in your post ?

[Castor Troy]

That was a very very instructive post. Thanks a lot for all theses informations about professional editing.

"Real" music videos are also edited in a similar fashion where music is there just to match the mood rather than sync editing. "Real" music videos are made for selling products with visuals rather than telling stories.

I have a question about that. I recently discoverd this young director Saman Keshavarz who did the awesome video Luv Deluxe. As you can see he's not the editor (Nate Tam).
But don't you think for this kind of work, the music is really important ? I mean the music here is not just decorative. It's the same for the midnight club EP.
And don't you think the editor of this work is quiet free ? I am not sure but this music video is originally made for internet broadcasting. I suppose the author is paid by the musician artists.

Are the "rules" for this kind of music video the same what you said in your post ?

That was a pretty awesome video, a lot like an amv in terms of using music to tell a story. So yes, the music is still important.

This video was obviously made by a normal person like you or me and not a studio, so he pretty much did anything he wanted and won SXSW for it.

Eat that Hollywood.