Current state of the Video Editing industry

[David Johnson]

Hunter,

I happened to be having a conversation in a different forum that relates to the issues you’re wisely considering early in your career. It’s with another person who has been in the business a long time (Alex Udell) and he suggested we continue in a different thread since our conversation started in an old thread and is also off-topic for the forum it started in, but directly relates to your questions. So, in order to continue our conversation, but also because I think seeing it may help you understand better what your professors mean with “the industry is dead and dying”, I’m going to copy over our last few posts before I reply to you more directly.

By the way, as you’ll see when I do reply directly, I somewhat agree that “the industry is dead and dying”. However, I also believe there will always be room for talented, driven people so I’m not mentioning that I somewhat agree with that sentiment to discourage you … only because I think it’s important to consider all angles when making an important decision.

[David Johnson]

David Johnson
Note that I’ve only copied over the parts of these previous posts that seem most relevant to the topic at hand.

Re: Lightworks
by Alex Udell on Jul 1, 2010 at 9:40:10 am

Sorry for the tangent….

One of the side effects of having no barrier of entry (at least by way of cost) is that suddenly, everyone is an editor. (just like everyone was a desktop publisher). Although it’s not true, the appearance of cheaper tools and presets, gives the impression that the craft is somehow less valuable. Last year’s hot design effect, is this year’s preset or plug-in. The waves and havoc it creates for those that use the craft not for the craft alone, but as a survival mechanism is painful. The reduction cycles are so condensed now. There is no “normal,” no “plateau,” just a slope down. It really does feel like a race to the bottom.

Visually, I feel like I’m doing some of my best work ever now. I’ve matured in knowledge, experience, speed, and creative capacity, yet in terms of compensation, I’m making not much more than I made when I left college almost 20 years ago and have fewer benefits. I’m no slacker either, I’m not waiting for anyone to do anything for me, I get out there and make things happen for myself.

I suppose the saving grace is that the number of outlets for content has also grown exponentially. So I suppose the game is about about quantity now. To try to be as efficient and do as much, as quickly as possible. Oh and as an aside, if you can….making the content good would be a plus.

You want fries with that?

[David Johnson]

off-topic
by David Johnson on Aug 17, 2010 at 8:32:01 pm

Alex,

I just stumbled upon this string long after it occurred, but after reading through it, still felt compelled to tell you two things …

Edit* was the first NLE I really worked on (after brief Avid stints) and I still consider it the best. As someone else mentioned, to this day, it’s sometimes a struggle to get FCP to do things edit* did easily (or Speed Razor for that matter). By the way, for all I know/recall, it may even have been you who gave me and a couple others our introductory crash course on edit* at TV16 in Tampa.

That said, the main thing I wanted to mention is actually how much your “tangent” struck a chord. In my opinion, it really indicates keen observation of the state of our industry, rather than just a tangent. I often think to myself literally everything you said … in almost the exact same terms. From the effects of “making not much more than I made when I left college almost 20 years ago” on “those that use the craft … as a survival mechanism” due to being forced to “do as much, as quickly as possible” while only “as an aside, if you can….making the content good would be a plus” … all the way through to the primary cause being the elimination of all “barrier[s] of entry”. Even the “You want fries with that?” is a phrase I use regularly to amuse myself and retain some semblance of sanity in dealing with the cumulative effects of those issues.

It bothers me that I so often think the way I do about the craft I was once so passionate about, but it’s also refreshing to hear others express similar thoughts. In other words, thanks so much for sharing your “tangent”. Cheers!

[David Johnson]

Re: off-topic
by Alex Udell on Aug 18, 2010 at 9:45:30 am

David…

Nice to know that there are some out there that share my thoughts on the industry. I think in the current climate there are a lot of people who think it….but may not be willing to discuss it openly, at least not right now.

Gosh….I did give a lot of edit* training, and I do live in FL. So it might have been me.

Funny, a couple of years ago, I helped out a legacy client/friend get his edit* system running after a drive failure. Muscle memory being what it is, I mused at how fast I was able to sit down at the box and edit without even having to think about it.

Hands down….a feature I miss so much is to simply be able to select the source viewer empty and just type a timecode. Edit* would just load the fist clip that matched that timecode into the viewer and park you on the frame. If there was more than one match you could quickly cycle through them all, until you were on the right clip.

Of course this was the tape era…so in productions consisting of multiple tape shoots, good videographers would increment the hour number on the reel, making it easy to identify the right clip.

Things get a little more cumbersome in the file based world we are in. I find we seem to collect a lot of automated metadata….but people seem to have less time to do it in a disciplined setup to make it useful for post….plus the fact that the whole post process from offline to finish is lumped into one blurry continuous cycle now. Maybe ipads and iphones wirelessly connected to our cameras will make this more convenient to set up and track in while in production…..one can only hope, eh?

Well…..waaaaaaayyyyy off topic here so…why don’t we continue this chat in in a fresh thread. 🙂

[David Johnson]

Re: off-topic
by David Johnson on Aug 21, 2010 at 1:24:54 pm

[Alex Udell] “waaaaaaayyyyy off topic here so…why don’t we continue this chat in in a fresh thread”

Agreed. In fact, I hope you don’t mind that I took quite a liberty to accomplish that as well as something else at the same time …

A few young guys starting out in the business have posed questions in the Business & Marketing forum that relate to our “tangents” and they’ve lead to what I think are some interesting ongoing discussions. It seems it would be helpful for them to see a related conversation between two people who’ve been in the business a while so I took the liberty of copying over your last two post so we could continue there and also see what others are thinking on the subject.

I really hope you don’t mind that i didn’t ask first … I’ve been spending way too much time in the forums lately so it seemed combining two related conversations couldn’t hurt.

By the way, I must say that being able to “edit without even having to think about it” is something I miss very much. I know this is slightly different context than you were referring to but, in today’s production world of a zillion formats, codecs, software options, hardware options, etc., etc., I find myself (and see others) so overwhelmed by the mechanics that there’s no time left to focus on the craft … seems to defeat the whole purpose of getting in the business in the first place.

[Mike Cohen]

Hunter
Your professor is, in fact, a professor, not a working editor (or is he/she?).
In other words, does this person actually work in the industry?
And the “industry” is a vague term – there are countless jobs that involve video/multimedia production. Is it the same industry as 20 years ago? No. But such is the case with many industries.
Look at the two most recent threads in this forum and you will find some clues – it is the person looking for a job more than the industry at large that is important. Be prepared to start at the bottom.
Thinking back to college, professors operated in a box – teach the subject – no one ever talked about what happens next.
But we didn’t have the internet – you do – and you are smart enough to recognize that your professor does not have all the answers. We can help with that.
Mike Cohen

[David Johnson]

Hunter,

First, I must say that only after seeing all those posts with my name did I realize that I should’ve thought through more the idea of copying over all those posts and started a new thread instead of taking over yours … my sincere apologies.

In any case, as you’ll probably gather if you decide to look through those posts, a recurring theme of the conversation between Alex and I is that the business we’re in today is very different in many ways from the one we got into … that’s what I wanted you to see.

Part of what I mean by that is, in regards to “how the video editing industry is doing at the moment?”, my opinion is that, although there are always exceptions, overall, it isn’t doing very well at all. You may notice the references to painfully low salaries, etc.

At the same time, considering the U.S. economy’s direction in recent years, some may argue that the “at the moment” is the most important part of your question … in other words, that things will turn around significantly when the rest of the economy does. Although that’s a valid argument, I’m not sure I buy it and here’s why …

If you read through some of those posts and other recent threads, you’ll see various people who’ve been in the business for some time refer to things like the current “ease of entry” and the elimination of “barriers of entry”. What those generally refer to is the main drawback to otherwise very beneficial technology advances. What I mean is, for example, when I first got into the business, professional-level video required a $100k camera and several $100k tape decks … there were no cheap alternatives. Now, anyone can make video with a $2k camera and a $2k computer and there’s nothing stopping anyone from calling anything “professional-level”. Are the results the same when the tools are in the hands of hobbyists and amateurs? Of course not, but the problem is that the people contracting the work often don’t know or care about the differences or consider them worth paying for. All too often, the standard has become “good enough”, rather than good. So, the value of both the work itself and the people who do it has dropped dramatically and, to me, it’s hard to believe that will change.

I’m sure others will chime in with arguments like it’s not about the tools, but the craft and the skills of the people doing it, which I couldn’t agree more with. The only problem with that argument is that it’s only ever made, understood and accepted by the people who do the work, not the people who pay for it. In other words, it’s increasingly common for client types to have the perspective that they can buy a $500 camera at WalMart and make 100 videos for a fraction of what they use to pay for one … and they do exactly that with increasing frequency as technology improves and the prices of “good enough” technology go down.

Those are the kinds of things your professors mean when they say “the industry is dead and dying”. However, as I said before, I still believe there will always be room for talented, driven people so I’m not mentioning that I somewhat agree with that sentiment to discourage you … only because I think it’s important to consider all angles when making an important decision.

My opinion is that your professor who suggests making your skill set as wide and deep as possible is exactly right … being just a top-notch editor doesn’t cut it anymore (forgive the pun ;~). For example, when I got into the business, it was much more common for producer, director, shooter, editor, mograph designer, grader, etc., etc. to be separate jobs done by different people and that was true at every level of the industry … now, only at the highest ends of the business does that structure still exist and, even there, you rarely find people who don’t wear at least several of those hats.

I hope you find my input helpful and I wish you all the best.

[Hunter Hempen]

Mike,

My professor currently teaches After Effects classes, and has (I think) 20+ years experience in directing, writing, editing,and producing pieces for not only the university, but previously for news stations as well. I can’t say that he ever worked for a major network, but he is still currently active in the university’s Video Services department, pumping out video after video for the various colleges within the campus, doing a good portion of the editing himself.

Obviously the industry has changed, which leads me to mention that the few employees under his wing working for him, seem more or less concerned about meeting deadlines, etc. It seems that this younger generation is much more lax than my professor. In addition, they appear very comfortable with the digital editing chaos which drives him crazy. 🙂

So in turn, I am told by other, perhaps younger (no offense), professors that there IS a “demand” out there…is my generation simply more optimistic, or blind to reality?

[Hunter Hempen]

Thanks Dave,

That efficiently sums up my worries and concerns into one, simple explanation to myself.

Now to find out what to do with my life.

[Alex Udell]

Hunter….

Don’t get down. At the time I started, the role of editor, was one of many in the world of post production.

You had offline editor/online editors.
You had people that worked in graphics.
You had people that specialized in audio.
You had producers/directors as an independent roles.
and more….

The accessibility, and afford-ability of the technology has both allowed and necessitated that many of these roles merge and evolve.

You can do so much more now with so much less. It is truly amazing.
The evolution of digital also changed things a lot. Artistry and craft aside….the cost to maintain a high quality image from acquisition through final master used to have an astronomical price tag attached. Since the equipment cost more, the rates a post house had to charge to finance the equipment were a lot higher. In all there was a lot more money sloshing around in post…and a larger portion of that went to compensate the talent that was running the gear.

Now it’s all done on the computers we run on our desktop, with greater speed, efficiency, and capability than ever before…at resolutions that none of ever imagined working at…now completely common place.

So the there are markets for the dedicated “craft of editing.” My guess is the feature film track. Today however, most of us are really digital content creators….doing lots of the jobs each of which used to pay a lot more….for the same or less than we used to make doing any one of them. Is it fun?..sure….is it creative….absolutely….I’m still very happy every time I get the green light on an ad that I’ve edited….and amazed that I was able to complete in just a few hours what I would have spent at least a day on in the past…

But I’ve watched my salary go up….and I’ve watched it go down….and my output quality is as good as it’s ever been…so that’s the frustrating part for me….

However, I will say that we live in an age where there will be more channels for content than ever before….so in the long run….as long as I can be creative and efficient and boost the quantity of output…maybe that will make up the difference…

Alex