Getting that first assistant job

[Alan E. bell]

Where are you located. I may be able to help you.

Alan Edward Bell
Editor

[Andrew Kimery]

I’ll toss in my 2 cents as well.

As others have said building relationships is the only way to get consistent work. You can land the odd job from on-line postings, but word of mouth will get people calling you instead of you having to call them. Take people out to lunch/dinner/drinks (editors or AEs you work with, alumni, friends of friends who work in post, etc.,) and pick their brains. Ask them how they got to where they are and get across your desire, knowledge, and enthusiasm. Also, make sure you stay in contact with people (a simple “Hey, what’s up?” e-mail every few months goes a long way). And, at least in LA, the best way to move up is to move out. By that I mean if you’re working at Company A as a Tape Op and want to move up to AE you’ll have a better chance of moving up by taking an AE position at Company B instead of trying to get promoted at Company A.

Get a job, any job, at a post house that has an online/offline workflow (not all do) and shadow the AEs (even if this means staying late on your own time). Knowing FCP/Avid in terms of editing and knowing them in terms of AEing are two very different things. It’s pretty much the difference between being a race car driver and a race car mechanic.

-A

[Brendan Thompson]

You’ve gotten a lof of good advice but thought I’d add my perspective.

I’m an AE about to start onlining (that’s the promise anyway). I supervise all the loggers and dig’ers and while we have a lot of people knocking on our door VERY few of them show any initiative once they’re in. I see them dig’ing material and checking there email. I’m not impressed and I tell the sup’ as much. They go nowhere and will have a job in a mailroom somewhere soon.

I’m definately seen as the tech guy but it hasn’t hurt me at all. I’ve saved shows that had to be out by fedex and producers remember that kind of thing.

I personally thing that at some point you’re a professional and shouldn’t work for free. Even if it’s $ 8 an hour. You deserve to make something for you skills and if you don’t value your work who will.

Anyways, add that to the pile.

[Mike Nicholas]

[adkimery] “Knowing FCP/Avid in terms of editing and knowing them in terms of AEing are two very different things. It’s pretty much the difference between being a race car driver and a race car mechanic.”

That right there is the main difference in AEs and Editors….AE’s gotta be organized, fast, AND know the machine enough to rip it apart and put it together. Get to know some engineers; when the box goes down, it’s up to the AE and engineer to piece it together. Great analogy adkimery…

“Roto is not a skill, it’s a job.”

[Peter Dewit]

Ok a little more background. The tech stuff I’m pretty wellcovered since right now I work as a tech. If need be a could dissect an Avid down to nothing and put the entire thing back together without any trouble. I’ve found that having tech skills is a plus and a minus. So few people really seem to understand things like deck operations and wiring that’s what they always want me to do. Trouble is I find it to be a tad dull and as far as I’m concerned a dead-end professionally(what am i going to do hook up the same wires in bigger places?).

And alan to answer your question I’m in NYC

[Andrew Kimery]

mikegn,

Thanks. Back when I started shadowing the AE’s at a place I used to work out I very quickly realized that the editing knowledge I had on FCP and Avid was very applicable to AE duties. And when I AE’d my first reality TV show. Wow. Talk about stuff they don’t teach you in school.

Peterd,
You seem to be stuck in the catch-22 of being too good at what you do. This is kinda what I was talking about w/the “move out to move up” comment. When people get used to you doing job X it’s sometimes hard for them to let you do job Y ’cause then they have to find a new person to do job X. When you are talking about jobs do you mean like staff jobs at a post house or short term, freelance gigs (like on a TV show or something)? Getting a digitizing job is how most people get their foot in the doors as AEs. While tapes are rolling you can take that 30min or 60min and follow the AE’s around.

Knowing how to wire equipment up is very useful as an AE. Not only does it help w/trouble shooting, but on more than one occasion I’ve had to pretty much rewire bays if a deck has gone bad or there is only 1 Digi (for example) and we now need it in Bay 3 instead of Bay 6. I was a deck monkey before getting AE gigs and I put that knowledge to use on a regular basis as an AE. Producers will love you when you can get a bay up and running instead of having hours of down time waiting for the rental house to send a tech over to fix it.

Unfortunately I’m in LA and don’t have any NYC contacts so my help is limited to advice here on the Cow.

-A

[Peter Dewit]

Thanks alot for all the good advice guys. I’m going to start compiling a list of post-facilties nearby and I’ll give them a call and start looking for some assistant work.