Day to day Motion graphics as an editor

[Jon Fidler]

Thanks for all these replys guys for something so unspecific you really have been on the mark with the answers. The design and composition part is not really an issue. Its when it comes to actually designing all the specific elements that I start to feel out of my depth. I cant draw at all never have been, im sure I could handle basic stuff like logos but does it generally ever go past that sort of stuff.

[Adam Taylor]

all excellent replies, so my answer will probably reflect those already given. Oh well…

Its a difficult market in which to specialise these days (especially here in the UK – we have a much smaller pool of work to all dip into than in the States).

Every skill you can develop will ultimately help you get the career you want. Thats what you need to decide – not what traditional definition you want to follow, but what really flips your switches. Learn all you can, then try mould your career to fit your choices (as best you can – very few are fortunate enough to have the perfect job)

The role of Editor seems to have evolved over the past decade.

Twenty years ago, i worked on lowband umatic machines with awful quality images and heavy cumbersome tapes and cameras. All was linear, so if you changed your mind about earlier cuts, then you had to re-edit your entire sequence. Graphics were bought -in at astonishingly high prices, and captions were very basic text overlays. It was still a relatively new field for corporates, and as a result a lot of very cheesy effects got thrown at videos (some things never change!).
Some CEOs could afford the first vhs camcorders, so you had the first wave of “clueless clients who think they are Speilberg”

Twelve years ago, I was sat in a tv news edit suite, cutting anything that was thrown at me, but not having to worry about graphics – we had a dept for that. Colour grading was a matter of checking your video levels on the Beta SP machines.I cut pictures, told the best story i could with the shots the cameraman caught and the words the journalist wanted to use, in as short a time as possible. A great way to hone your edit decisions process…but be prepared for the “proper” facilities house to sneer at you as a lowly news editor. They have little respect from other edit depts.
Now everyone has a camcorder – what do we need an editor for?

Then i moved into Animation – where editing a 10 min show took 3 months, as we only got 12 secs a week per animator. It was shot to the frame, so editing was little more than paste up. The video editors actually spent more time as audio editors. The online was done at a specialist facility, where the editor had no editing to do, just painting out wires, dust busting and colour grading.
Here comes the internet – editors will be old hat soon. News is being cut by the journos now.

As software/hardware gets cheaper, companies expect the talent to do the same, so they tend to employ people who have the abilities to do more roles, and thus save a wage or two.

For me, I have been lucky over the past 20 years that i worked in a variety of places where i could hone lots of different skills.

Now i am a one stop, one-man Commercials post-production facility (video editing, motion graphics, sound design and sound mixing, color grading, final outputs, station submissions, I have directed commercials and recently finished my first fully cgi commercial (which i also modelled and animated in C4d)).

Everyone carries an HD camcorder on their phone…still no-one knows how to use it properly. Now i’m the specialist – my boss acknowledges that and defers to my experience most of the time. Phew – its taken long enough!

You could probably count the number places like mine on one hand – I work for one company (not a tv company but an advertiser, making all their tv commercials (last year i had over 400 clocks on air), and i do all the post – for me its a perfect job (most of the time!!).

Its worth noting that i got here by getting bored at my other jobs. After 5 years doing the same thing, I found my brain wasn’t being challenged. My solution was to learn other skills on an evening. Whilst editing i learned all about sound mixing by reading magazines, trying things out at home, and asking and watching dubbing mixers during sessions.
Then i found my job became more audio oriented, so to keep sane, i found myself learning to composite at night, teaching myself Shake and After Effects.
Now i’m learning Cinema4d.

All these (and many other skills) are now part of my everyday arsenal, and i now find that I doing the work i dreamed of 20 years ago, i just got here a very different route than i would have imagined.

Don’t worry about Motion or AE – they are just tools to achieve an end. They work in similar ways so you can transfer your abilities when required.
You should aim to develop your knowledge and analytical skills regarding all aspects of post-production – they all have an impact on each other, so the more you know, the better prepared you are for whatever job you get. Even if you don’t know the immediate answer, you should have learned enough to be able to find the answer quickly.

sorry for rambling – your seemingly innocent question seems to have sparked a mental enema…it all just came pouring out.

good luck with whatever path your career takes.

adam

Adam Taylor
Video Editor/Audio Mixer/ Compositor/Motion GFX/Barista
Character Options Ltd
Oldham, UK

http://www.sculptedbliss.co.uk

[David Johnson]

Yours is also an excellent reply, Adam, so don’t be sorry for rambling … personally, I find listening to others ramble among the best ways to learn. Thanks for sharing your thoughts.