From: Robert Kirk Walker (email suppressed)
Date: Fri Oct 31 2008 - 07:20:42 PDT
I completely agree with this last comment. My day job is with a major television network and increasingly we have moved away from specialized skills (producer, director, editor, shooter, etc...) to a "Preditor"/"One Man Band" model where you have to be able to do everything competently.
While I personally don't think this is good for our end-product (ie. being a good editor is very different from being a good camera person and both take a long time to master) the economic realities of the industry are such that I don't see us going back the other way anytime soon. The only people I've seen hold onto their specialized turf are the motion graphics / animation folks, and even there they are increasingly being called on to step into the edit booth and/or produce their own creative.
I've never worked in advertising or feature TV/movies so I can't speak to the specifics of those sectors, but I can't imagine they're too far behind where we are at this point. Always getting squeezed to do more with less...
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From: Flick Harrison <email suppressed>
To: email suppressed
Sent: Friday, October 31, 2008 12:41:30 AM
Subject: Re: Editing as a trade
I had a job at an ad agency editing commercials for tv broadcast.
I got hired at a low hourly rate off a craigslist ad. It was ok for me for a while, taking a break from various pursuits to go full-time temporarily.
After a while they stopped calling me. I noticed craigslist ads offering 2/3 of what they paid me for the exact same job!
Every kid out of university these days is expected to be an expert at web video, html, photoshop, flash, etc... those are skills that are often required of office pa's / interns these days.
That being said, the big boys will always want skilled professionals with tons of experience and they'll pay for it.
I.e. if you have a major client with a strict deadline you don't want some kid who'll skip town and / or get high when you need them most. You want someone who can solve glitches / creative crises in no time flat, who will knock themselves out and die before missing your deadline. That's not free, that's not something cheapo inexperienced hack workers can deliver.
Trouble is, that's the top of the field, then there's the bottom... but the middle is probably what's being squeezed out of existence... the people who had technical skills and equipment and contacts and made a nice living off that, but weren't either creative geniuses, insane go-getters pounding the pavement for that next gig, or otherwise entirely dedicated to making it in the game (to the exclusion of all else).
I tend to shoot, produce and edit my own videos for all kinds of folks, and so it's hard to squeeze me out of the editing job when I'm the one hiring me.
* FLICK's WEBSITE:
http://www.flickharrison.com
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http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=860700553
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On 30-Oct-08, at 3:05 PM, Zach Lapidus wrote:
Hello all, my name is Zach Lapidus, I am a student at Ithaca College. In a posting
on Oct. 16th Francisco Torres responded to the thread with the subject
"sustenance" and wrote that "Final Cut killed editing as a trade". I am just about to
graduate and I am interested in becoming a professional editor. With that in mind I
would like to hear any other opinions on the topic of the death of editing. Also, I
am going to be leading a group discussion on editing being a lost trade and would
appreciate any advice anyone would be able to offer that I could use to help steer
the conversation. Thank You. - Zach Lapidus
__________________________________________________________________
For info on FrameWorks, contact Pip Chodorov at <email suppressed>.
__________________________________________________________________
For info on FrameWorks, contact Pip Chodorov at <email suppressed>.
__________________________________________________________________
For info on FrameWorks, contact Pip Chodorov at <email suppressed>.