Film editing schools

[Job Ter burg]

One more thought: it doesn’t have to be film school. In my everyday working life, I’ve encountered quite a few filmmakers (directors, producers, cinematographers, etc); some went to film school, others may have studied arts, theatre, economics, while others started out in other careers, like music or photography. All of them fell in love with filmmaking, dedicated them to it, worked hard and learned a lot from their teachers, coworkers and colleagues.

[Mark Miller]

The Cutting edge is a great movie.

-Mark

[Oliver Peters]

In regards to the original question, the first part of the answer is that you should learn the mechanics of both. Depending on where you work, it’s a 50/50 split these days between Avid and FCP.

If you are a legitimate student in any school, you can get Avid MC for a few hundred bucks and you can buy Final Cut Express dirt cheap. FCE will teach you most of what you need to understand about how the software works. Plus Avid gives you a 30-day free trial on MC software.

The rest, learning the rules (and when you can break them) is part of what you get in a film school. Plus it’s all the rest – basics, playing well with others, the role of an editor in the scheme of things, etc.

These won’t get you a job, but they may give you a head start once you get a foot in the door. Another factor is that companies often only accept interships from legitimate school programs. Generally you cannot get an unpaid internship at a company without going through a school, as most US states have laws against that.

– Oliver

Oliver Peters Post Production Services, LLC
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com

[Bob Zelin]

Shane writes –
And not everyone is a Robert Rodriguez…who figured out this stuff on his own with no school. He’s one in a million.

REPLY –
Robert Rodriguez is one of my heros. There is a guy that sold his plasma to help finance his first film. Compare that to a kid whose parents spend $36,000 a year to send him to some loser film school, and now he wants to be “a director” and doesn’t know what time code even is. Robert Rodriguez is the model of what aspiring film makers should be – you KILL YOURSELF for your goals.

I have this type of conversation about death, and illness as well – I look at writer Bob Turner, and ProMax’s Charles McConathy as industry giants – cancer did not deter them from their goal and mission in our industry. People who are willing to work, apply themselves, and have NO EXCUSES for achieving excellence, in spite of all obstacles. As I write this, my wife just put on a You Tube video about Heeah Lee – a 4 fingered Korean pianist, who is spectacular.

SCREW all the loser whiny kids (and old timers) that don’t want to apply themselves. Learn, work your ass off, make practice films, student films, finance your films with your BLOOD, and stop whining (why can’t I find a job – whaaaaaaaaaaaa !). These losers need to be run over with a car.

Bob Zelin

[Terence Curren]

Well, if you are going to drag Rodriguez in…. let’s get a balanced perspective:

https://www.americanmovieworks.com/articles/Robert%20Rodriguez.html

Back to the school question. Correct me if I’m wrong Bob, but didn’t you have some engineering schooling in your past? How come you have no qualms about broaching a new area of technical learning? Could it be because you have some good foundations in the past?

That’s all we are saying about film school. Will it make you a filmmaker? Not necessarily. Could you become one without it? yes. Will it make it easier to become one? Absolutely!

We learn from mistakes. No one has time to make all the mistakes in their lifetime. So learning from other’s mistakes saves us time. This is where film school comes in. Why reinvent the wheel if someone already did it? Why not focus on making better from the point it is at?

Terence Curren
http://www.alphadogs.tv
http://www.digitalservicestation.com
Burbank,Ca

[Grinner Hester]

[Shane Ross] 1. “Where do you get the footage? 2. How do you write a script? 3. How do you tell a story? 4. How do you take what you have written and break that up into shooting days and figure out what crew you need and cast needs to be there? 5. How do you deal with locations?”

1. Ya shoot it.
2. With a pen or in word.
3. Start at the top.
4. By shooting stuff.
5. Go to them.

Hands on experience is how these things are mastered.