From: Meredith Drum (email suppressed)
Date: Fri Oct 31 2008 - 08:36:40 PDT
Hello,
Yes, I am currently producing, shooting, directing and editing short
form non-fiction videos for money and have been doing so for about 4
years -- I started editing about 7 years ago but never got enough
work so I started shooting as well -- beginning with weddings and
recitals -- now I get a range of work -- from making promotional
videos for non-profits and schools to short documentaries for
universities and /or archives to again just shooting recitals and
weddings and editing those of course. It is interesting work but the
problem is that I never get enough of it and am consequently very
poor. I often pick up teaching jobs here and there to help with
money. But as far as production goes, I enjoy wearing all the hats,
yet I agree that quality suffers. Would be better if I could work
with a team -- but even executive types in more commercial situations
have told me that they cannot afford teams anymore and are looking
for one person to do it all and to do it for much less than what one
person in a team of 5-10 people would have made in the past -- and
now this one person, with this reduced salary, has to do all that
work that was once spread across the 5-10 people. Kind of stinks.
Meredith Drum
917-723-5242
http://meredithdrum.com/
On Oct 31, 2008, at 10:20 AM, Robert Kirk Walker wrote:
> 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...
>
>
>
>
> 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
> * FACEBOOK
> http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=860700553
> * BLOG / NEWS:
> http://zeroforconduct.blogspot.com
> * MYSPACE:
> http://myspace.com/flickharrison
>
>
> 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>.
>
__________________________________________________________________
For info on FrameWorks, contact Pip Chodorov at <email suppressed>.