Do I have to Move to Los Angeles?

[Grinner Hester]

head west, young man.

[Mike Cohen]

I guess a legitimate question for you is, where do you live now and is there any work there?
Given the economy, moving without an actual job lead means you will be waiting tables to pay your rent. Have you worked editing broadcast shows in your local market? I think more important than “do I have to move?” is “are there jobs worth moving for?”

Provide some background on your work history and why you are looking for a change. Do you have a reel that would make a producer want to have you cut his or her show?

Mike Cohen

[Tyler Groom]

Well I actually don’t have a reel at all right now. There isn’t much work to be done in my area. I live in the Fresno,CA area. I graduated high school in 2007 and I haven’t done much video work. I don’t really now how to start. I have two Sony PD150 cameras, but I don’t really know what to film or how to go about making an editing reel, or cameraman reel. Let me know if anyone has any advice. Thanks for your help.

[John Davidson]

Find yourself a college and get into a broadcast/communications/media program – doesn’t need to be anything spectacular – most any college will do. At your age nobody is going to hire you do do anything more than schlep tapes or be a runner, so you might as well be getting an education and chasing sorority skirts (which is an education in and of itself!). College isn’t required for this industry, but it gives you access to more expensive equipment to train on. Plus, people you meet there may later be clients.

Now that we have a better understanding of your age and situation, I think these other guys will agree with me. There are alot of broke, unexperienced & uneducated 20 year olds in LA that are desperate for any work they can get. You can get broadcast experience anywhere there’s a radio station, cable company, or some other small media outlet. I started in radio 12 years ago in backwoods Georgia and attended a tiny college there – none of which hurts me. Actually, our best network client this year came from a college friend who is a VP there.

You’re really 10 to 15 years from being experienced enough to cut a show, so you might as well spend that time wisely.

John
Magic Feather Inc.

[Tyler Groom]

Thanks everyone for all of your advice. I apologize if it seems like I am rejecting advice to move because that is not my intention at all. I just have most of my family and a girlfriend here. So I guess a better subject question would have been what can I do to prepare myself for a move to LA in the future,while I am going to school here? Once again thanks for everyones advice and I apologize.

[Bob Bonniol]

Tyler,

It seems from your recent post that you are in the learning phase… I see now that your ultimate END goal is to edit features or television, but you are at the beginning of that curve.

First, know that knowledge is everywhere. But it’s especially here, all over the place, so search and utilize tools like the cow.

You must know that your development needs to be multi-fold. You will need to continue to acquire knowledge of the tools; how to use them; what’s the right technique; where is development taking that stuff; and how does it all work together. At the same time you need to develop knowledge of process. This can be glimpsed in abstract studies (i.e. reading about it), but nothing replaces doing it. I suggest you go find yourself an internship in a local Production company, or post production facility. Perhaps the most valuable thing you might gain from that experience might not be in spending your internship watching the editor, but instead trailing and helping the people around who are producing the gigs, or managing projects. You need to understand what the map of production looks like, how and WHY things happen when they do, who is who… It leads directly to another subject you need to learn and develop: Political aptitude. In this business, even at the lowest possible denominator so much is defined by how we work the system. The system being the people, circumstances, and situations in which we find ourselves having to create. There’s as much political manuevering and tactics at play in the world of production as there is at a congressional party caucaus. You have to know that you HAVE TO KNOW who the players are locally, within the company, that are working around you, that are working where you want to go, and then you have to know their circumstances. Oh god, it’s all just scratching the surface… In any case: Become a student of the human condition. And use what you discover to become wiser in the application of your own actions.

Then: Art. To be a true jedi at all of this you have to be a ceaseless student of it. You have to be an enthusiast of the form you work, and ideally of as many other forms as you can pack in. You need to inform your own technique with context. Context is built from observing form and function all around you, but also in searching it out everywhere… In museums, in film, in the streets, in architecture, in literature, in history. You have to become a story teller. You have to read the Hero With a Thousand Faces…

You MIGHT think about attending more schooling. Many choose to hone their craft and to make the kind of exposures I’m talking about happen by going to grad school. Being in academia brings you into contact with many interesting memes that you will never otherwise run into. It can shape you as an artist. It can also make you part of an inherent network of people who attended, are attending, or will attend that program. The old boy network goes a long way in getting gigs, particularly if you have done your schooling somewhere like USC, UCLA, CalArts, NYU, etc…

FOr some school is not it, and that is OK. But in that case you have to fashion your own life long process for constantly being knowledgeable, clever, witty, wise, compelling, and commanding. This is demanded of all creatives. Then you must apply yourself also to your craft.

So for you: Think about that stuff I said… But make your way up locally first. See if you can successfully infiltrate the food chain in the comfort of familiar territory. View it as a training exercise. If you can carve a niche for yourself in your area, then maybe you can do it for yourself in the big game. Along the way make sure to learn as much as you can about everybody who has intersected your path in a project. Get out there and know what a camera can do. Understand the fundamntals of good lighting. Study audio and it’s unbelievable power to make something that looks good, feel great. Study actors, performers, subjects. Become an expert in the patterns of speech, of the drama of conevrsation.

And for god’s sake if you can’t dance, then figure it out, because you have GOT to have rhythm.

Good luck,

Bob Bonniol

MODE Studios
http://www.modestudios.com
Contributing Editor, Entertainment Design Magazine
Art of the Edit Forum Leader
Live & Stage Event Forum Leader
HD Forum Leader

[Tyler Groom]

Thanks for the very detailed response. Is it possible to just focus on editing, or do I need to be multi-faceted?

[Mike Cohen]

Aside from people who cut features, I would say there are few “editors” who only edit. There are a lot more jobs like what most of us on this forum do than dedicated editing jobs. Thus you need to know how to do a little of everything. Especially nowadays that software and computers are so affordable – it is the skills that pay the bills.

[Bruno Silva]

I live in Westchester, NY. 20 minutes from midtown. I also would like to work on a Television Series. Would you guys still suggest moving to LA? Im working as an Assistant Editor for a small production company that doesnt pay very much.

[Grinner Hester]

still would.