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Gaining experience in video editing
Posted by John Gutt on December 8, 2014 at 11:25 pmI’m looking to move into the video editing field and want to expand my portfolio and gain more experience. What are the best ways of finding the opportunities to do this?. I don’t mind doing video edit work for free at the moment. Are there any websites for example where you can do video edit work for people?. Any knowledge on this subject would be much appreciated, many thanks.
Grinner Hester replied 1 year, 1 month ago 8 Members · 8 Replies -
8 Replies
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Mark Suszko
December 9, 2014 at 3:15 pmYou don’t say what your present level of skill or experience is, and what hardware and software you have access to. That’s important to know before we can give good advice.
As to not minding working for free, in exchange for experience, I can tell you, many of us here DO mind that, as that practice undermines the rates we charge professionally. Also, it leads to lots of beginners like yourself, being taken advantage of by unscrupulous customers. Everybody works pretty cheap when starting out, but once you get the hang of it, if this is truly to be your living, and not a hobby or charity, you need to charge proper day rates.
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John Cuevas
December 9, 2014 at 7:20 pmThe path I followed was the internship route, got to work plenty for free, but I was working. And eventually, got to learn, use and actually edit real videos. If you are dedicated & persistent enough, convince a local production company to let you in the door. A lot of what you will do will be grunt work, but good production houses will also teach at the same time.
Johnny Cuevas, Editor
Thinkck.com“I have not failed 700 times. I have succeeded in proving that those 700 ways will not work. When I have eliminated the ways that will not work, I will find the way that will work.”
—THOMAS EDISON on inventing the light bulb. -
Mark Suszko
December 9, 2014 at 8:36 pmInternships are a proven method. Volunteering at your local cable access station is another.
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Richard Herd
December 9, 2014 at 11:01 pmEditors are story tellers and we have to choose between takes of actors, so knowing both story and acting is very helpful to craft a narrative. You can probably find scene study courses/groups and writing groups to help hone the story telling ability. Right off the bat, your network of similarly interested and located folks will grow, and that can lead to some editing.
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Neal Petrosky
December 10, 2014 at 9:51 pmI also encourage internships. My company gets 1 or 2 a semester from the local university. It helps these kids get real world experience at a small boutique shop where we do everything from copywriting to filming to animation. It lets them see how clients work, how we manage expectations and our work flow. If they show enough talent and dedication, they get to do a rough cut on a project. But they also do grunt work (file naming and transfer, matching audio to video, composition prep etc…). Attitude at an internship is the most important though. I tell all my interns, whether its about a script we’re writing or an animation etc… to ASK QUESTIONS. I don’t know what you know and don’t know, and I certainly don’t mind explaining why I’m doing something a certain way. And sometimes that makes me think of an easier/better way to do something.
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Stephen Smith
December 18, 2014 at 9:13 pmThe other advantage of an internship is that you will gain valuable contacts that can help you find a job.
Stephen Smith
Check out my Vimeo page
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Grinner Hester
January 4, 2024 at 6:40 pmNever work for free. That is not work. It’s a donation.
Build your reel by taking staff gigs until you are ready to venture out on your own.
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